At the last council meeting I was asked by a Labour councillor whether or not I agreed with Councillor David Yarrow’s (Conservative, Uxbridge North) reference at the last meeting to 'poor councillors in the south of the borough having a lack of vision'.
Here is a précis of my response.
Councillor Yarrow said at the last council meeting that one word separated the Conservative administration from the Labour opposition in Hillingdon and that word was ‘vision’.
He said: “We have a vision and it works – Labour don’t want one. They don’t know where they want schools. There are problems in the north. Where is the vision? Let’s see their vision."
The Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘vision’ in a number of ways: the ability to think or plan the future with imagination or wisdom. So was Mr Yarrow suggesting that the Conservative group possess these qualities and the Labour group do not, and do I agree with his assessment?
Well, let us look at the facts. In the case of libraries, yes, I do believe that the Conservative group had a very laudable vision to rebuild and refurbish every one of our 17 libraries across the borough – north, middle and south, and to open them longer – which is exactly what was achieved. I do not recall in my 14 years as leader of the council seeing any vision to compare with this from the Labour group. Indeed I do not recall any vision at all as regards libraries.
With sports and leisure facilities, the Conservative group had a vision of investing £50million in new sports and leisure facilities in the north, middle and south of the borough. A new athletics stadium, new fitness centres and new swimming pools, including the first 50metre pool to be built in London for over 40 years. We had that vision and we delivered that vision.
In this particular case, the Labour group, whilst having no comparable vision themselves, opposed our vision to deliver these state-of-the-art facilities; they got that badly wrong.
Putting Residents First continues to be a vision of this administration, from innovations such as the Hillingdon First card to communication such as Hillingdon People – both opposed by Labour – to free burglar alarms, free swimming, free allotments and brown badges for the over 65s.
Again I cannot recall anything similar from the Labour group.
The vision that every child of primary school age will have a place at a local school is a Hillingdon Conservative vision, and there is demonstrable proof and no doubt at all in my mind that the Labour Group simply lacked both the vision and the ability to deliver anything like a £150m programme.
We had a vision to have the best parks and open spaces in London, and we exceeded our own expectations and achieved the best parks and open space in the whole of the United Kingdom (including Scotland).
We now have 28 green flag parks and open spaces in the north, middle and south of the borough. I do not recall any similar vision from the Labour Group.
I can recall that the first vision that I had as a new leader of the council in July 2000 was to create sound financial management. This became group policy and remains part of our vision to this day.
Council tax frozen year on year, record levels of investment in facilities at the same time as building record levels of financial reserves. A clear vision with clear, continuous delivery, including our business transformation programme which is consistently criticised by the Labour group who are, quite frankly, a very long way behind us in this area.
So it is quite clear that the Conservative administration have vision in so many areas and have delivered and continue to deliver their vision.
I do not believe that Mr Yarrow was at all ambiguous in his statement – he is a Yorkshireman and they are not prone to ambiguity. He quite clearly states that we have vision and did not as the question indicates ‘suggest’ that Labour did not. He was quite clear that he could not see a comparable Labour vision, and for the absolute avoidance of doubt, neither can I. So I do agree with Mr Yarrow’s statement.
I am content with the situation that Labour remain a party with no overall borough vision. It is important for all Hillingdon residents, north, middle and south, that a Conservative administration is looking after their interests.
