Michael Fallon

SEVEN SEVENOAKS FACTS

1) There are too few grammar school places
Each year dozens of pupils from the Sevenoaks area fail to get the grammar school of their choice.  Many have to travel long distances each day to their second or third choice school, even as far way as Maidstone, Gravesend or Sittingbourne.  But in September 2009 311 pupils from outside Kent got places in Kent schools.  Yet the government refuses to allow Kent County Council to provide more grammar school places or to change the law to give Kent pupils preference over those whose parents choose to live in non-selective areas.

2) Our council grant is one of the lowest in England
Sevenoaks District Council has had one of the lowest increases in government grant over the last eleven years.  Government grant has only increased from £60 per head in 1997-98 to £64 per head in 2008-09, an increase of less than seven per cent.   The average shire district grant has gone up from £65 to £98 per head over the same period, an increase of 51 per cent.  Because Sevenoaks Council gets so much less than other districts, council services have been squeezed and council tax has had to go up.

3) Too many are unemployed
In February 2010 there were 1,164 registered unemployed in the Sevenoaks constituency.  This is an increase of 132 over February 2009.  330 of the 1,164 are under 25, an increase of 20 since January and an increase of 40 since February 2009.

4) Violent crime has increased
Offences of violence against the person in the Sevenoaks District have increased from 504 in 1999-2000 to 723 in 2008-09 – an increase of 43 per cent over the last ten years.

5)  Yet more houses are forced on the south-east
The Government wants 32,000 more houses to be built each year in the south-east until 2026.  This is thousands more than recommended by the South-East Regional Assembly and will increase pressure on the council to allow building in the Green Belt.  Over the last twelve years, there have been over 2,800 new homes allowed in the Sevenoaks District; often these were originally refused by the Council but subsequently allowed on appeal to the Secretary of State.

6) Travellers get special rights
Sevenoaks District Council has been overruled by Labour Ministers on 16 different traveller sites involving a total of 34 pitches.   The Council has taken enforcement action on 19 unauthorised sites involving 41 pitches, and is currently taking enforcement action on 8 further sites, involving 14 pitches. The government’s 2006 planning guidance gives travellers special rights which councils cannot ignore.

7) There’s too much NHS bureaucracy
Over the last ten years there have been three different primary care Trusts covering Sevenoaks and two covering Swanley. The community and mental health services Trusts have been re-organised three times.  Kent Ambulance Trust was merged first with Surrey, then into a regional Trust; Kent Strategic Health Authority has disappeared into the South East Coast Regional Authority.    There are too many over-paid managers and directors. Back in 2005 the Kent and Medway Strategic Health Authority advertised for a “Director of Future Workforce” salaried at £90,000 a year.