Christmas Adjournment

Elliot Colburn Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con)]

Let me begin by associating myself with the words of the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, particularly about cladding and getting London out of tier 3 as soon as we can.

Madam Deputy Speaker, 2020 was not quite the year we envisaged, particularly for me as a first-time Member of this House. It is important that we remember that behind all the statistics we have heard, at many Christmas dinner tables this year a loved one—a family member or a friend—will not be sitting in their chair because they have been taken from us too soon by this terrible virus. Of course, our collective national effort this year has been about tackling coronavirus. Out of the 10,000 bits of casework that have come through my mailbox this past year, the overwhelming majority have been related to the pandemic in some way. I hope that this Christmas we will remember those we lost too soon, and I also want to pay tribute to our frontline workers—those in the NHS but also those in all the other essential services who kept going throughout the pandemic—for everything they have done for us this year.

As well as tackling coronavirus and the issues related to it, I have not been deterred from standing up on the issues that the residents of Carshalton and Wallington elected me to raise a year ago. One of those is jobs and the local economy. Even before the pandemic, residents were raising with me concerns about how long shops would stay empty on our local high streets. That was not just in our main shopping centres, such as Carshalton High Street and Woodcote Road in Wallington, but on our small shopping broadways that are so often forgotten, such as Hackbridge, the Rose Hill roundabout, the Circle, Beddington, Carshalton Beeches, the Mount in Clockhouse, Wallington Green and others. I have spoken in this place many times about support for businesses, and the support that the Government have put in place during the pandemic has been unprecedented. It is incredibly welcome. I want our local economy not just to survive but to thrive once the pandemic has passed, so in 2021 I intend to work with the local businesses to push for the improvement funding that is needed and to use tools such as business improvement districts, so that businesses can get together and show what they can do to help them bounce back after the pandemic.

Transport is another major concern for residents, and was before the pandemic. Obviously, passenger numbers on our public transport networks are incredibly low. I think you may have even been in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, during my Adjournment debate back in June. You may have heard me speak about the fact that despite being in a London borough, Carshalton and Wallington is incredibly poorly connected compared with the rest of London. During that debate, I drew attention to the need for additional investment in public transport infrastructure. Our excellent candidate for the London Assembly, Neil Garratt, has shone a light on some of the astonishing figures on public transport in Carshalton and Wallington, not least of which is the fact that Sutton consistently comes last for investment from City Hall compared with all other London Boroughs. Projects such as the Tramlink extension and the Go Sutton bus, which have been fought for for so long, now have a very bleak future indeed.

We have had some good news. This year we commenced the National Rail consultation on the Croydon bottleneck scheme, which, if it goes ahead, will unlock additional rail capacity in suburban London, including to Carshalton, Wallington, Hackbridge and Carshalton Beeches stations. On top of that, Transport for London is running consultations on improvements to the local bus network.In 2021, I will continue to work with our London Assembly team to push for those improvements.

I will also work with local councillors to hold the council to account over failures in its road closure schemes, which are causing chaos on local roads. One concern is about the impact that these road closures schemes have on the local environment, as air pollution builds up when traffic starts backing up on main roads. That is not a new worry; protecting our green spaces and cleaning up air pollution has long been a concern, not just during the pandemic, as more and more people are using their cars.

The Beddington incinerator is the best example I can give. The incinerator can be seen from many points across my constituency, and I have raised it in the House many times this year. It is partly because of the incinerator that I want to see more air quality monitoring stations put in place across the constituency, especially near the site, so that residents can access independently gathered, real-time data about the air that they are breathing. We have heard a willingness to install one near the site, so I hope that the council and the operating company will deliver on that promise.

Linked to that, I want to continue to stand up for our fabulous local green spaces. Indeed, Sutton is one of the greenest boroughs in London. Whether it be fighting the council’s previous proposals to build on Wellfield open space, build a school at Sheen Way or put a Traveller site at Roundshaw playing fields, I will continue to protect our green spaces and fight to enhance them—for example, by delivering the promised Beddington Farmlands projects and protecting parks from overdevelopment, so that our residents can enjoy the open space and our children can be sure that they are breathing cleaner air.

One of the best things that we can give our children is a good or outstanding local school to go to. Carshalton and Wallington is lucky to be home to some of the best schools in the country. Indeed, some of our grammar schools, such as Wallington County Grammar School, Wilson’s School and Wallington High School for Girls often appear at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the league tables. I benefited from an excellent education at Carshalton Boys Sports College, and I want every local child to have that same opportunity, but we simply do not have enough secondary school places in Sutton to cope with the demand. I hope that the Planning Inspectorate will decide next year to approve planning permission for a new secondary school at Rosehill, which the council is currently trying to block, so that we can build the schools that our children need and give every local child a good or outstanding local school place.

Another area that has been a concern throughout the pandemic and before it is crime and antisocial behaviour. Carshalton and Wallington is statistically one of the safest parts of London, but the pandemic has shone a light on an increasing number of incidents, especially of catalytic converter theft, pet theft, vehicle-related crime, antisocial behaviour and, tragically, domestic violence. The increase in police officers in London is incredibly welcome, and I am glad that Sutton will benefit from that uplift. Working closely with the local police, I hope that we can find the people behind these organised crimes and encourage a greater police presence in some of our worst-affected areas, such as the St Helier estate and Roundshaw.

Finally, the biggest issue, not just during the pandemic but for many years, has been our amazing local hospital, St Helier. As a former NHS worker who was born at St Helier, and as the hospital saved my fiancé’s life last year, I make no apology for making St Helier the No. 1 thing that I will be fighting for. Even before I was elected. I was making the case with my hon. Friends the Members for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully), for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) and for Reigate (Crispin Blunt) that St Helier needed investment and that we needed a third local hospital to complement Epsom and St Helier Hospitals.

Our local hospital has been there for us during the pandemic. I am therefore delighted that the Government have listened to the calls and backed the NHS with a £500 million investment in Epsom and St Helier Hospitals. That half a billion pound package will not just upgrade Epsom and St Helier to become modern, 21st-century healthcare facilities but build a third, purpose-built, state-of-the-art new hospital to provide acute services, saving services that were previously going to be lost to outside the borough, such as A&E and maternity. I want to put on record my thanks to Daniel Elkeles and all the staff at Epsom and St Helier for helping to bring that about and for their amazing contribution to tackling the pandemic in an incredibly difficult year.

Despite the pandemic, Carshalton and Wallington has achieved a lot this year, but there is still a lot more work to do. We all hope for a better 2021. As well as supporting the community through the pandemic, I want to continue standing up for Carshalton and Wallington’s interests here in this place, to support our thriving local economy, improve our transport links, protect our parks and clean up our air, provide a good or outstanding school place for every child, keep our area safe and deliver that £500 million investment into St Helier.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to finish by wishing you, Mr Speaker, all the House staff, my own team—Tommy, Lewis, Richard, Daisy and Catherine—and everyone in Carshalton and Wallington a very merry Christmas and a happy 2021.