Promoting diversity

Fighting to ensure equalities are not further eroded by the financial crisis

WHAT WE'VE DONE

• Called for basic measures like ‘name blind’ recruitment to help address lack of diversity in senior Council appointments - voted down by Labour.
• Our proposal to update Merton’s out of date Equality & Community Cohesion Strategy was rejected by Labour, who also regularly fail to provide the Annual Report on progress they are required to submit.
• Won a review on how to make the councillor role more accessible - despite Conservative opposition.
• Succeeded in campaign to make Motspur Park station step-free from next year.
• Successfully challenged the Council’s changes to parking policy by demonstrating how they failed to follow their own equalities procedure.

WHAT WE'LL DO

• Give greater priority to the Equality & Community Cohesion Strategy.
• Introduce name blind recruitment for Council jobs.
• Ensure former home of leading suffragette and Grade 2 listed building, Dorset Hall, is saved to celebrate and promote women’s rights and equality.
• Create a forum of local groups, charities and businesses to help them to develop joint projects to bring our community closer together.
• Make Merton more accessible for mobility impaired residents via improved planning rules and funding criteria.
• Reverse a Labour decision refusing to commission plans to make all our stations step-free, to ensure we are better prepared the next time bid funding opportunities arise.