Speech to the Croydon Business forum

12.12.05pm GMT Tue 7th Feb 2006

I know it is a current trend amongst Liberal Democrats to reveal something unexpected about their private lives. I was going to bring my wife along. But instead I'd like to reveal to you my secret lover.

<laughter>

No, seriously. My wife was going to come along. But unfortunately our daughter is off school and so she's looking after her.

But the one personal thing I can reveal to you is that you are seeing me in all my naked glory because this very morning, I shaved my beard off. Taking advice from my Lib Dem colleagues, who thought a bearded politician is less likely to be elected, I decided it to get rid of it. Now you may think that this is taking my political commitments a little too far. But when you're a Lib Dem in Croydon, every little helps!

<laughter>

Now I may be about to disappoint some of you by not talking about my personal life. But it may be useful at this time to remind ourselves that the Lib Dems do have public policies as well as private lives. So I propose to talk about the Lib Dem's public policies for Croydon.

As regards business in Croydon, we propose to establish:

· Regular Enterprise Information evenings to introduce local businesses to the support services available from the council and its partners.

· A Business Support Unit to answer initial business queries.

· A free Business Surgery for small businesses, giving impartial advice.

· For more in depth advice, a chargeable Business Focus consultancy service to provide advice on start-up and growth.

Now all these services are currently available in the neighbouring Lib—Dem run borough of Sutton.

I'd like to talk now about central Croydon.

I am personally delighted that the magnificent Fairfield Halls now appears safe from the council's bizarre idea of demolishing or moving it. The building, in its style and sound, is reminiscent of the Festival Hall. It is potentially a great building and, with its surrounding area, could form a genuinely exciting and vibrant cultural area - equivalent to the South Bank.

We are concerned as to why the Labour group thought this was ever a good idea in the first place. And another area of concern is the area next to East Croydon station. It now appears, after years on insisting that an Arena was essential, that Croydon doesn't need one after all. The Lib Dems would carry out a genuine public consultation on what is to be done with this site, rather than what appears to have been a top-down approach to planning.

When I first moved to Croydon 15 years ago, it was pretty quiet in the evenings. People went to the West End for a night out. Now it seems to have gone to the other extreme. Some areas - South Croydon, with its plethora of restaurants and pubs - is a nice mix. But far too much of central Croydon has been turned into a no-go area for the over-30s or families. There needs to be a better social mix in terms of the forms of entertainment and the target age groups.

We propose a fixed limit on the number of licences for public houses and clubs in central Croydon. No new ones unless an existing establishment closes.

We also need to provide alternatives to drinking. So we would support the re-opening of the library and David Lean cinema on Sundays, and the extension of library opening hours into the evenings. This already happens with Sutton library.

Transport is a major issue across the borough. We support the extension of Tramlink to Coulsdon and Crystal Palace. But we also want park-and-ride facilities to be put in place. We will also look into the feasibility of providing free short-term parking at certain times, to encourage more shopping.

But this has to be balanced with out long-standing commitment to protecting the environment.

When it comes to housing, we will encourage more sustainable developments such as the Beddington Zero Energy Development.

We will expand the door-to-door recycling to include plastics and cardboard. We as a council will work towards the goal becoming a zero-waste borough. Business can play its part in this. There is millions of pounds to be saved in landfill costs and fines, so we will help to balance the books as well as protect the environment.

We will also seek to prosecute fly-tippers and discourage litter-dropping. There is a shortage of street bins and would seek to increase the provision of these, and to incorporate recycling facilities into them, designs of which do exist.

And I cannot make this speech without mentioning the Crosfield Sheltered Workshop service, just down the road. A small business, employing just under 100 people, most of them disabled, and all of whom are now faced with redundancy thanks to the Labour group's decision to pull the financial plug.

There seems to have been - a bit like the Fairfield Halls fiasco - a sustained period of neglect, followed by the apparently self-fulfilling decision that it is no longer viable to re-develop or to re-invest. The council has been forced to change their minds on Fairfield and, despite their decision to close Crosfield, I hope it is not too late to have this decision reversed.

At a time when the national Government is seeking to get disabled people in employment and when only 2% of the council's 10,000 workforce is disabled, they are about to reduce that figure to nearer 1%.

If we hold enough seats after the May elections, we will reverse this decision.

But it not just up to the council to play their part. I would urge all of you, as local employers to consider the value of a mixed-ability workforce, not just in terms of physically disabled people, but also people suffering from mental illness. Most of these people are capable of and eager to work and can be accommodated, often with only a little adjustment on the part of the business. They will also be a loyal workforce.

Some people used to say that the Lib Dems can say anything because they're never going to exercise power and try and implement their proposals. Not any more. And not for a long time. Indeed, we're helping to run a country - in a coalition government in Scotland. Unlike the Tories, we run urban areas in England, cities like Liverpool and Newcastle.

And you may be thinking - and I'm sure you are as business people, you are - how can our proposals for Croydon be afforded? Well, we would be looking to make savings, such as on the glossy newsletter that the council puts out each month. We would replace that with an on-line version. And it would help if we could collect all the Council Tax due to us. Croydon has let millions of pounds in uncollected Council Tax slip through its fingers.

We are the only party with a coherent, costed and fairer alternative to the Council Tax but, in the meantime, it does still need to be collected and we would take steps to see that it is.

In this Year of the Dog, it is a time for the underdog. We Lib Dems are quite happy to viewed as such because it is often when people underestimate us that we are at our most effective. Remember, we could be holding the balance of power in May, so many of these policies could be put into effect. I urge everyone not to waste their vote on either of the Tory parties, but to vote for the genuine, enlightened and costed alternative that is the Liberal Democrats.

<applause>

<Host> Thank for that interesting speech, Simon. Are there any questions you'd like to ask Simon?

<Question> You say you've costed all this. But where would the money come from?

<Answer> I've mentioned how we would seek to collect the millions of unpaid Council Tax. And, if we can increase recycling substantially, there is millions, literally millions, of pounds to be saved in landfill costs. And not just for the council, but for businesses too. So it now makes economic as well as environmental sense to protect the environment. And there are other sources for income - not just Council Tax.

<Question> You mentioned the glossy newsletter - that's not going to save much.

<Answer> No, but there's other things you can put on-line. For instance, the London Borough of Barnet has an interactive, digitised map of the borough on-line. It provides information not only for residents, but also enables council staff to punch in information about graffiti and vandalism instantaneously. So there's massive savings to be made in terms of sending people to the right sites and getting a prompt service.

<Question> Not everyone's got access to a computer, what about them?

<Answer> There's free access to computers available in the libraries. And over 50% of UK homes now have access to the internet. And I can guarantee that figure will be a lot higher in a relatively affluent borough like Croydon. So it's definitely the way to go.

<Host> That seems to be all. Thank you again for your speech and for answering those questions.

<applause>

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