"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote in
:

Peter Campbell Smith wrote:

Where I lived as a small child was well outside what people
generally recognised as London. It is now well inside what people
generally recognise as London. Even the county has been absorbed
into London.

Probably the most accurate definition today would be any built up
area within the M25.

Cue howls of protest from the likes of Epsom and Watford...

Maybe. There is a campaign in Epsom to get Epsom Station included in
Zone 6 - as Epsom Downs and Tattenham Corner already are - and
amongst the older
generation there is a certain envy of the benefits of Freedom Passes.
If inclusion in London were the solution, I think there would be
significant support.

However there could also be fierce opposition. I don't have the
council tax rates for Epsom & Ewell and neighbouring boroughs to hand
but ISTR past discussion on this group suggesting that further down
the road those settlements that stayed in (what is now) Tandridge,
Surrey pay more tax than neighbours absorbed into Croydon, London.

It would of course increase the Con/Lab ratio in London, which might
displease those of the Boris-free party.

That's not a given by any means. Epsom and Ewell is a very unusual
case in local government as it's dominated by a Residents' Association
who've been running things since at least the 1930s. Local government
voting patterns bear limited relation to national ones and whilst some
of the RA may be ideologically small-c conservatives there's no love
lost whatsoever between them and the local Conservatives. The RA also
hold nearly all the Epsom & Ewell seats on Surrey County Council. If
the borough were added and the RA were to contest the GLA elections,
as their Havering counterparts do, it would not bring many
Conservative votes to the cause.

Well ... at the last parliamentary election the Tories got 56%, the Lib
Dems 26% and Labour 12%. I don't think that will give much succour to
Ken's successor. Granted the RA might get a few seats in the GLA.

Council tax in E&E is higher than in neighbouring Sutton*, yet Sutton
has far superior schools, bus services and social services (some of
which are of course county functions in Surrey but not in London).
Granted, Kingston is more expensive.

Peter

* band D for the current year: E&E £1520, Sutton £1447, Kingston £1683
(including police, county, GLA etc).

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