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by admin on 26 April, 2013
On Friday 19th May, Kingston Council hosted the annual conference for the Kingston Strategic Partnership. Partners including health, police, fire, national Government departments, education and voluntary sector came along to share ideas and thoughts. The aim of the partnership is to make Kingston the best place possible for living, working and visiting. By working together, the partnership seeks to prioritise the plan, learn about other services and issues, make best use of budgets and recognise that all partners play an important role in our borough residents lives.
Presentations by Kingston Citizens Advice Bureau and Kingston Council set out the implications of all the recent welfare changes. Some, like the bedroom tax, have hit the headlines, so it is about separating fact from myth. Others are less well known, like the localism of the Social Fund. It is also about the impact locally to Kingston residents and how the Council & agencies are trying to minimise the effects. Sometimes it’s about making sure partners can recognise when there is a potential issue and signpost to who can help, or the sharing of information to improve an individual’s outcomes.
With so many changes to the way health is delivered, with the Clinical Commissioning Group, the Health and Wellbeing Board, NHS England Commissioning and Public Health returning the Local Authority control. A brief but through presentation was given by a local GP. It is important that other public sector bodies and voluntary organisations understand the new structures, and the roles and responsibilities of each. This joined up information sharing means that residents get a better service.
The final presentation was by the Council on the work that has been undertaken for the improvements to Kingston Town Centre. Kingston is currently a top 3 shopping destination in London and top 20 across the country. Providing the right planning and conditions for developers has several advantages, it helps provide further housing needs in mixed use developments, continues to provide employment opportunities locally and brings finances for public realm improvements.
Between these presentations, through small breakout groups, the partners had the opportunity to look at the mechanisms used by the whole partnership. What can be done to improve communications and working relationships? How can the joint working further improve the service to residents? Who else should we be including in our partnerships?
Finally, but possibly most importantly, it gave the opportunity to look at what has been achieved from this partnership working. The list is long, but highlights included the Green Pledge to promote sustainability, greater links between adult social care and health with projects like ‘Kingston at Home’, One Norbiton project on shared budgeting, cross promotion on voluntary sector projects like the credit union, new and growing business groups (like our own Surbiton Business Community which works with the Council to promote the local economy) and reducing the number of homeless people (and reduce the use of temporary accommodation for them).
It is a busy morning, but that partners continue to come and engage each year, shows that it is valuable.
2 Comments
Correction, 19th April maybe?
Now I’m commenting, I thought I’d have a bit of a rant.
With the advent of the 2 westfields, I’m a bit sceptical about Kingston being a op 3 shopping destination in London, and certainly very doubtful about its long term ability to retain its ranking.
The key problem facing Kingston’s future as a commercial centre is the poor transport links it has.
They’re poor compared to the rest of Greater London, and very poor compared to the other Metropolitan centres of London.
Kingston’s historic hinterland extends far into Surrey, and public transport links from this area are also very poor.
The proposed Crossrail 2 does little to address this deficiency. Only one new path is created, that from Tooting to Kingston.
Wimbledon emerges as the real winner from CR2, and imo it’s almost certain that there’ll be an attempt to create a new mega shopping centre close to what will be a new Wimbledon CR2 super hub, with fantastic reach via fast links to SW London and well beyond.
Any likely Westfield Wimbledon type developemnt will have a massive impact on Kingston, and will probably be approved on the back of financing CR2.
Kingston needs to fight harder to come up with a CR2 alternative that delivers more paths to Kingston, especially to its Surrey hinterland.
North South intra borough paths, (eg trams or dedicated busways) also need to be created.
What about pushing for a CR2 route that goes from Wimbledon, North Kingston, Kingston, Surbiton, Tolworth Park and Ride, adn furtehr afield? That delivers a much needed new North South path, and addresses North Kingston’s poor transport links.
Or, what about this well thought out alternative to CR2, Crossrail SSW, with a new associated Mole Valley link to Horsham.
Crossrail SSW:
http://ukrail.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/crossrail-ssw.html
Mole Valley link:
http://ukrail.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/mole-valley-link.html
According to the author, it could deliver more pople from the Dorking/Leatherhead Surrey hinterland to Kingston (via Surbiton).
Onward connections from Surbiton to Kingston would have to be top notch though, eg by creating an embryonic tram system from Hampton Court (via the existing branch line) to Kingston via Surbiton.
CR2 only delivers higher capacity to existing routes. That will not improve Kingston’s commercial status. Even then, CR2’s capacity is not provided to the destinations needed. The Swanlink scheme is better than CR2 in delivering peak time capacity to where Kingson borough commuters actually commute to:
Swanlink: http://ukrail.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/swanlink
Imo, Kingston has suffered because it hasn’t been pushy/ambitious enough. We blandly accept our total lack of TfL hard infrastructure. We should be much more militant, highlighting how we haven’t got a single metre of new tube/rail/tram line, our low PTAL scores after 50 years in Greater London.
For most of that time, we’ve been massive net contributors to the Greater London coffers, but have got no transport infrastructure out of it. Yes, our Surrey/Gtr London boundary status puts us in a difficult funding position, but we shouldn’t let that stop us catching up with the rest of London.
With a dinosaur Tory MLA who doesn’t appear to have any real enthusiasm for public transport, it’s up to the council to push very hard for this.
Surrey CC are currently runnning a public transport future infrastructure consultation. Have Kingston been in touch to address improving links?
A London Assembly committee is due to debate CR2 in the next month.
Are Kingston Council ready to fight for more when the CR2 consultaion gets under way?
Hi, indeed it was 19th April that we met!
I think the top 3 status is the latest data we have, but as with all statistics I guess it depends which measurement you use. The main point is that we are near the top and want to ensure we work with developers to remain there. Part of this is the ‘offering’ and in Kingston needs to ensure we offer quality retail space to attract big names. A debate to be had, maybe, about if we lack in Kingston the small independents and their role in attracting people. But this is something Surbiton is getting better at doing, especially with the great community events like the Food Festival. The other, as you say, is getting to Kingston easily and there is always a fine balance between providing for the car and public transport routes.
You raise some very good points, which we will take them up with other lead Councillors and officers.