many people here actually live in the
borough of Kingston that’s pretty good
okay can we put your hands up again if
you live in the boro kingston and you’re
not a student here yes pretty good well
see thing interesting about use it you
pay tax to me and we pay a lot of tax in
Kingston an awful lot of tax and I often
wonder why is that people want to come
and live in the boro because obviously
we do we do charge of our attacks and
housing is very very expensive in
Kingston I wonder why is that people
want to move here so I’m going to give
it a bit of a story about what I think
some of that is and why kinks are such a
great place and we’re going to move on
and talk about what’s going on in London
and how that affects us and what we’re
going to do about it as well there’s
nothing that’s a really interesting
aspect of it so London’s are enormously
historic i think i should say this that
is the most important place in london of
course I’m supposed to say that as a
lead of the council but I certainly
believe it very much if you go back
1,200 years we’d have been underwater
here put down a quite a lot of water
actually because at that time the only
bits of Kingston that were above water
worth what were the Royal Enclosure
which is what you see now today’s the
marketplace in the market house and the
church of all saints which sits in the
middle and it was surrounded by this
water it was in very very important
place in London because it was the only
other river crossing bridge across the
river other than London Bridge which is
obviously much further up river so it
incredibly important very historic in
about 8 28 the King’s came together here
with the archbishop see a note and
struck a deal basically the deal was how
do we divide up the country how do what
do we do and what do you do is the
bishops and the church and what does the
monarchy do over here and it’s divided
up this this you know such a way that
the history of that has stuck with us
even to today so the reason that you get
bishops that sits in the House of Lords
at the moment is because of that deal
that was done in Kingston in 925 all of
those kings came together well most of
them actually been killed off by
one king but they came together a crown
one king alone the first King of England
crown here in Kingston in about nine to
eight they’re very very historic is when
they first anointed a king which you
seen still see today in the crowning of
Kings in Westminster Abbey and in fact
all the kings of England work round here
until William the Conqueror came along
and rather unfortunately decided that
Kingston was kind of not at his place
and when I thought to Westminster and
built Westminster Abbey and from then on
in their crown kings in that town so
this is why Kingston is such a historic
place it’s at a rich history it didn’t
stop there it obviously had a massively
important role in the aircraft industry
it was certainly active in even during
the First World War in creating planes
and Second World War looks very well
known for the Jump Jet the harrier jump
jet which is built here up until i think
it was the late 80s Early 90s when the
factory closed here massive history
their huge role in surbiton around
hearing cholera first clean water coming
out of there from the works that you now
see down there and used much by the
University so massive history there’s
existed in Kingston it’s part of the
reason why it is such a great place is
also unique Kingston because has so many
things within its boundary there’s no
other borrower in London that actually
has within it everything it’s got this
University the crown court all of the
acts excellent schools of college a
river the best shopping outside the west
end it is the biggest retail place
outside the West End knocks socks off
Croydon and the rest of them it’s
fantastic here down the south of the bar
you’ve got rolling hills I mean I am go
down there sometimes to have meetings
with and meet residents down there I’m
discussing ditch clearing you know which
is not really something I expect the
London borough leaders have discussed
with every resident is clearing out
bitches but it is an enormously diverse
place I often said you could stick a
wall around Kingston and it would
probably survived quite happily without
ever having to talk to anybody else ever
again I put a ring on a funny little hat
and I call myself Pope
but anyway it is a brilliant place to
live but the thing about kingston is as
you probably realize from what I’ve said
to you is that it’s changed is
constantly constantly changed change the
way that people live here the history of
it has changed the place it is it shapes
fit in the way that it does and actually
Kingston is going through another
massively dramatic change which is not
always noticed but it’s part of this
huge context of the change that’s
happening in London 18 months ago when
Boris was still the mayor he held a
celebration in City Hall at the top of
City Hall overlooking a tower bridge he
bought together whole bunch of the
borough leaders and others who are
important across London he considered to
be important across London to celebrate
the fact that London had reached 8.6
million people living here one of the
largest cities in the world certainly
one of the largest in Europe but
actually we’d reached it again because
that fact we previously been that size
eight point six million back prior to
the Second World War that 1939 and after
the war we fled London we all started to
move out of London move away we felt the
countryside was a better place to be and
it was a changing environment now to a
ver a variety of reasons one is that
obviously we’ve got more people moving
here from over abroad it also got an
aging population buts that’s continuing
to live in the boro so you know many
many people who retire don’t now set up
here and disappear off down to Dorset
and live in that lovely sort of thatched
box in the middle of a field because
when you’re ninety five living in a fast
box in the middle of the field is
necessarily the best place to live out
in years so we’re seeing a massive trend
of people retiring in London into town
centres and not retiring out and that’s
hugely increased of the population we
stopped the population decline in about
70 s 80s early 80s and it then started
to climb up again now that 8.6 million
is anticipated to reach about 11 million
by 2050 and that is a huge huge increase
I don’t know how many of you catch a
train in London in the morning but we
are moving closer to those lovely indian
trains where you just hang on I hope you
get there and then another train doesn’t
come the other way or cow cross the path
in front of you because that would be
disastrous you had to go into a halt but
it is getting like that and we’ve got to
think about the context of that and how
we deal with that in this borough so
what is it me of the Kingston well the
predictions are pretty pretty pretty mad
really I mean we will love Kingston
people want to move here and we can’t
stop them moving here because beginnings
own own will and I mean it’s owned by
private individuals and private
companies but actually I our projections
are that by well it was by 2050 we’d see
a thirty-four percent increase in
population three months ago they revise
those figures because actually there
won’t go fast enough we’ve been to move
expanding eleven percent in population
in 10 years in Kingston eleven percent
so they’re now saying instead of 20 50 x
20 39 would have expanded by thirty four
percent and that will push our
population from about a hundred and
seventy eight thousand is now in the
borough to well over 210,000 215,000
that will mean that instead of this sort
of 57,000 homes that are currently here
we’re probably going to be closer to 75
thousand homes that we need to find
space for to accommodate people now that
is a dramatic change from where we are
now and it’s one that’s quite painful in
many ways and we’ve got to make sure
that in all that change we bring the
right infrastructure in where you know
bringing in more train so we can get in
in the morning we’re sorting out the
roads that does mean putting in an awful
lot more cycle lanes so I’m sure divide
the room in some ways but it will it
means a lawful lot more that because I
said to one of the deputy mayor’s
recently this is not about modal shift
from one thing to the other from trains
to casters bicycles this is about I need
every mode doing everything it possibly
can if we’re going to move that number
of people
all about the town in a sensible way so
it’s a big big shift and a big change
that we’re going to be encompass over
the next few years about when if that
was two years ago now we put out a
survey for all residents in the bar it
went to every household is quite a thick
serve a big census as you know if you
realize but whenever anybody doesn’t
mean marketing so this shut out paper
food people’s doors and expect a
response it’s usually very very small I
mean 1% typically two percent if you’re
really lucky three percent it is really
controversial what you’re suggesting we
had about a nine nine and a half ten
percent response rate button from
residents and one of the striking things
about that was that we asked very much
about this whole growth agenda and a
whole how do we do with housing and all
those sorts of issues and everybody
everybody about eighty-seven percent of
people who responded said that they
wanted us to build more homes they did
need more housing of course there’s one
thing that what goes wrong with that and
I’m the same as everybody else of course
I’m going to say I want more housing of
course i’m going to say want more homes
for our kids and brothers but i don’t
want it next to me and there’s the
contradiction that we all have to face
in the boro over the next few years and
one of the discussions I think we all
have to have and I’m really happy to
have with any of you in this room is how
do we engage people around those sorts
of difficult issues how do we consult
people about things because typically
when councils consult what they’re doing
is saying to you we’re going to do this
to you guys do you like it there’s no
choice it’s often seen in these things
because it’s all too late in that choice
and people don’t necessarily spawned
directly work very well to that to that
decision making so we’ve got to find a
new way of working with the people that
live here to build a kingston that’s fit
for the future that they will live in
and the future that their kids hopefully
will live in and others as well and it’s
trying to understand and I’m pick how we
make those consultations work in the
future
what do we do and I’ll give you a
classic example as I it’s happened to me
a couple of weeks ago the council so
there’s this whole range of things that
were supposed to be looking at closing
down over the next few years because of
the austerity which is still biting
really hard but somebody came as a
proposal these centers we had they said
this 15 these centers we’re gonna close
two centers I said great okay that’s
fine i mean if that’s really what we
have to do then let’s go out and consult
so they said well yeah but do you know
we know which to it is so we can’t
really go out and consult with two
because that’s not really a decision is
it because we’re just asking them
whether they like the idea we were close
to so i said well what’s the solution
they said to me we’ll come we just add a
third i said well what’s the third floor
they said well that’s just to give a
choice i said but are you closing the
third no will you ever close the third
no so where’s the choice and that’s kind
of the issues that we have to face how
do we work with you how do we sit with
you and create the future with you how
do we engage with people that live here
in a meaningful way that means that we
can all work together to create the
answers we need and that actually if
we’re ever to build in a way that
maintains the history of the borough
that makes it a great place to live that
makes it a place that all of you decided
you want to come and stay if we can get
back right then we can build a better
place and even those kings and those
bishops divide it up back in the 9th century thank you very much