Success is sweet!

Kingston's Magistrates' Courts. Surbiton's Filter Beds. Both saved.

These have both been long and hard campaigns. Success is sweet!

The work to save Kingston's courts began over 2 years ago.

Petitions, letters, meetings, a question to the Prime Minister, discussions with Ministers at the Lord Chancellor's Department. Work by the Kingston upon Thames Society. Help from judges, solicitors, the police, the council and many local people. An amazing community effort.

It means we've secured local justice. It means we've saved huge amounts of police time. It means the council doesn't lose rent, saving council taxpayers. It means 800 years of Kingston having its own magistrates' courts won't be ended. A huge "thank you" to everyone involved.

As for the filter beds, it shows what a small band of local community activists can do.

With the help of the council, the Residents' Planning Alliance has taken on the battalions and bank accounts of Thames Water and their developers and won.

It's actually been great fun working with people deeply committed to Surbiton and to saving a unique piece of our local environment and our heritage.

The filter beds' campaign has ranged over seven years - and so many meetings, I've lost count. No-one yet knows what will eventually happen to the land, but we can be sure we won't see the destruction of this wildlife sanctuary on the banks of the Thames.