January 2010

This is a personal story that is both sad and celebratory.

In December 2006, I was invited to the annual Marie Curie service in memory of cancer victims. I wrote about it then and said;

"I was particularly keen to attend this, as we had lost a family member to cancer just over a year ago and she had died in a Marie Curie Hospice. I was able to read a poem in memory of her."

What I didn't say was that the poem was by Christopher Reid, in memory of his wife, Lucinda Gane.

On Tuesday, Christopher won the Costa Book of the Year Award, with his collection titled "A Scattering", which contains the poem I read.

You can see him accepting the award here and read some extracts. The whole book tracks his responses from the moment they learnt Lucinda had terminal cancer, through to some months after her death.

In 2006 the book had not yet been published, but he had sent copies of the second section, which is about her death, to family and friends. It made me cry. But I asked his permission to read the poem in public, in memory of her. I didn't find it easy.

Christopher is Ian's cousin, and we meet up from time to time. In fact, every summer the Reids have a big family party and about 40 of us meet up - it's a wonderful tradition that goes back to Ian's childhood. Christopher and Lucinda were always there - Lucinda delighting my sons with her stories about Grange Hill, in which she played a rather drippy teacher.

In fact, in one of his earliest poetry collections there is a poem about these gatherings, and I quoted it here.

He has published a dozen or so collections, but is also well known in poetry circles as the former Poetry Editor at Faber and Faber, where he nurtured some of the best known modern poets.

The whole family is immensely proud of him, even though, as he says, this was a book he wished he hadn't needed to write.

Don't be put off by the morbid subject matter - the poems are very readable, funny and witty at times, and manage to capture those fleeting thoughts that we don't quite put into words.

Over 300 people have signed the petition in under 24 hours! (Later - that's 600 now)

And 700 people have joined the Facebook group. (Later - that's 800 now)

This is clearly a very important issue for local people.

Many local people will be very pleased to hear that the Neighbourhood Committee gave planning permission to the Fircroft Trust to build a carehome on the site of the White Hart.

We (ie the Committee) were all sorry to lose a pub, especially one with such a long history as this one. Sadly the police had closed it down a few years ago, and no-one has expressed an interest in reviving it as a pub or restaurant.

The earliest record of the White Hart is dated 1752, when the local ratepayers met there to elect the 'Constables and Headboroughs' for Hook. I found this information in 'The Story of Hook in Kingston' by Marion C Bone, although she does say that she was unable to discover how long the inn had been there before that date.

We did say that we did not want to lose the name or the history, so suggested that Fircroft might find some way of recognising it, perhaps by naming a communal room 'The White Hart'.

The plans themselves were widely liked. The development will have decent gardens and common areas - unlike some applications we have turned down recently. Some of the residents will live in a small care-home facility, others will live in supported independent homes on the site.

No, not grim humour, but a local event organised by some friends to raise funds for disaster relief in Haiti.

It's this Saturday at The Rubicon bar at 97, Maple Road, Surbiton. You pay a £10 donation to get in and will be treated to cupcakes and a drink, then you can stay to enjoy the great atmosphere there.

You can also read the details on Facebook.

The next meeting of the South of the Borough Neighbourhood is on Wednesday 20th Jan at 7.30pm at the Hook Centre. As usual, you are all welcome to attend, and to join in the discussion (for most items).

On the agenda, the planning application that is likely to attract the most interest is the one for the White Hart site, where the Fircroft Trust wants to build a supported housing scheme. You can see the plans here. The committee will be determining this application on the night, so the quasi-legal rules about participation apply.

We are also hearing five planning consultations on additional accommodation for local schools - Tolworth Girls, Castle Hill, Lovelace, Southborough, plus the Moor Lane Centre for children with disabilities. As these have to go to Development Control Committee for decision we can have open discussions on them at Neighbourhood.

You may also be interested in some of the other items on the agenda: the Clayton Road traffic review, Library fines and charges, and the response to the petition about pavements in Gilders Road.

Finally, there is a major report on the funding allocated to Kingston from Transport for London for road improvements and related schemes. In South of the Borough this means that we can go ahead with new crossings in the Hook Road (north of Ace of Spades), and with pedestrian and cycling improvements to Bridge Road/Moor Lane. The Tolworth Broadway scheme will get ongoing funding as it develops.

When the temperature dips below freezing for more than a week, millions of pensioners become eligible for cold weather payments of £25 per week. KT9 residents have qualified for one week so far this winter.

Anyone who already receives pension credit is entitled to the cold weather payment, and it will arrive automatically.

The problem is that many people entitled to pension credit don't apply for it, so they miss out on the cold weather payments as well as the very useful pension credit cash. In fact, some research by the Department for Works and Pensions suggests that up to £1.7 million pensioners miss out on money they are entitled to.

The Government has set up a complicated system which inevitably means that some of the most vulnerable people won't know about it or won't have the persistence to complete an application for pension credit.

If you think you, or someone you know, might benefit then the pension credit scheme is explained in the Directgov website. They also provide a pension credit calculator so you can work out of you are eligible.

If you are, then you have to apply, either by phoning 0800 99 1234, or by completing a form that you can download.

The form is 23 pages long - yes, 23 pages.

And it has another 21 pages of notes about how to fill in the form.

As you might expect, you have to declare your life away - every scrap of income or savings has to be listed. No wonder so many people don't apply, even if, by some miracle, they have heard of it.

The Liberal Democrats have done an analysis of the figures, which show that up to 3,425 eligible pensioners in Kingston are not claiming pension credit, so won't be getting the cold weather payment either.

This is a scandal. It could be corrected by turning benefits on their head. If the state pension was raised to the current level of state pension + pension credit, then no-one would miss out. The excess could then be clawed back from the better off through taxation.

In the meantime, do spread the information about pension credit, especially to any pensioners you know.

Many of us now shred confidential documents at home in order to protect ourselves from identity theft. But why can't we put the shredded paper in the recycling box?

That was a question asked at the last Neighbourhood Committee.

It seems that shredding breaks down the fibres in the paper in a way that means it cannot be used in the manufacture of new paper. So paper mills that accept normal paper for recycling refuse to take shredded paper.

If you have rabbits or other small pets then the paper can be used as bedding. Not helpful if you don't.

I put all our shredded paper in the compost bin. It layers up beautifully with the garden waste. I know it can't be put into the food waste bucket, because that goes through a different process from garden compost bins.

One other suggestion is to reduce the amount of shredded paper by only shredding the parts of documents that really are confidential and putting the rest into the recycling bins. I've stopped shredding documents simply because they have my name and address on them - after all, both are readily available on the Internet. But I do shred anything with bank or other personal details on them.

Apparently the refuse collectors managed to get to most of the homes in the area that were due for collection yesterday, but the conditions defeated them in the end. The Council has issued this statement:

"We are sorry that all collections were not completed as scheduled yesterday due to the weather conditions. Please leave your waste out and it will be collected as soon as is possible. That may be later today, or later in the week. The collection could be as late as Sunday. If your garden waste collection was missed it will not be collected again until the next scheduled collection day.

If you have any queries please call the Customer Care number 8547 5929."