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.

The news has just broken that NHS London are threatening to close the Accident & Emergency department, and the Maternity Unit at Kingston Hospital.

Not only would that be a complete disaster for residents in Kingston, but it could well lead to a withering of other departments in the hospital. In fact, the whole future of the hospital is in the balance.

Our two local MPs, Edward Davey and Susan Kramer, have just started the campaign to try to stop this happening.

Please sign the petition on www.savekingstonhospital.org.uk. The website also has more information about the threat.

You can also join the Facebook group - which seems to have attracted over 400 members in just a few hours.

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.

Something rather unexpected has happened, and as a result Kingston may be a key player in changing Government regulations.

The story is this: Every year the businesses in the Borough pay a total of £79 million in Business Rates. The money is collected by the Council, so you would imagine that Kingston residents and businesses would reap the benefit.

But no, a whopping £49 million is taken from Kingston and redistributed to other boroughs.

Whilst I do understand the need to support economically deprived areas in the country, this really is out of all proportion. After all, the businesses in Kingston attract up to 500,000 visitors each week - and that puts considerable strain on the 160,000 residents who have to pay for the local services that visitors use or the problems they create (street cleaning, for example).

Worse than that, the thriving economy in Kingston is often used by Government to justify withholding other grants, and, in particular, to keep our annual grant at a minimal level. Although Kingston spends far less per head than other boroughs, its council tax is high because the Government gives us so little.

For many years the Liberal Democrats have been arguing that Kingston should be allowed to keep a higher proportion of Business Rates, so the money can be used to pay for local services.

And at last that may be about to happen.

A couple of years ago some backbenchers introduced the boringly-named Sustainable Communities Bill in Parliament, and to everyone's surprise it got Government backing and became law.

The Act empowers local authorities to claw powers away from central Government. I was very keen that Kingston should grasp this opportunity, so became closely involved in the next stage.

Last year, we went through an intense process of gathering ideas from all corners of the community. 37 proposals were eventually whittled down by the panel of residents to three. They were:

• To overturn the Greenwich judgement - this is the ruling that means that schools like our two grammar schools are not allowed to restrict their intake to borough residents
• To keep a proportion of Business Rates collected - the money would be "ring-fenced for investment in programmes that contribute to local economic, environmental and social sustainability in Kingston"
• To give powers to Councils to license pet shops - this arose from concerns about puppy farming

We're delighted that, thanks to lobbying by MPs and others, the third issue has been taken up by Parliament. You can read more about our local campaign on puppy farming here.

Back to the main story.

The three proposals were sent off to the Local Government Association, who had the task of sifting through proposals from 120 councils. It seems a number of other councils shared our views on Business Rates.

At Full Council on Tuesday I asked the Leader of the Council for an update. He was able to announce that our Business Rate proposal had been shortlisted by the Local Government Association and was being discussed with Ministers.

The end ... no, of course it isn't. We still have to keep the pressure up to ensure that the change is made.

I will report back on progress.

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.

Just what I wanted to write about....

It seems that the sewer has collapsed today under Leatherhead Road opposite St Catherines Close, leaving an unsafe void. There are traffic lights around the emergency worksite, which explains the long queues on the Leatherhead and Hook Roads this afternoon - I got caught in them earlier.

Apparently the work will take two weeks, so we all need to find alternative routes. There are signs up saying the road will actually be closed tonight and tomorrow night.

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.

The long saga of the unlawful car sales from Clayton Road Nursery seems to be coming to an end.

Last March the Council issued an enforcement notice against the owner, requiring him to stop the car sales, remove the cladding from the polytunnels and remove all the scaffolding stored on the site within a month. The bungalow can only remain in place to support either a nursery or a livery stable.

Just at the end of the period for compliance the owner appealed against this enforcement. The whole issue then transferred from the Council to the Planning Inspector. Against advice, the owner asked the Inspector for a formal hearing, which added further delay into the system. A date was set for the hearing in November, but the Inspector postponed that having been told by the owner that he had a hospital appointment.

Finally, the hearing was held on 5th January, and the Inspector has given his decision very quickly. He agrees with the enforcement notice, but has given the owner 3 months (instead of the 1 month that the Council wanted) to remove the cars and other unlawful uses.

You can read the Inspector's ruling by clicking the title of this post (or here) and downloading the attachment.

Update

Apologies that the pdf download was not working. That has now been corrected.

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.

I've contributed to an e-book on blogging, which has just been published by LibDem Voice today.

You can read it below or click the download link.