EastSheenMatters

Given that there has been criticism, implied or specific, of the conduct of Richmond Council Elected Councillors and Officers on EastSheenMatters, it seems opportune to revisit the standards which apply to everyone holding public office.

Interestingly the Government launched a newly named Ethics and Integrity Commission in October 2025, which effectively restated the Nolan Principles (established in 1995) and more recently known as the Seven Principles of Public Life. Local discussion suggests they have been forgotten, perhaps in an international wave of false facts and misreporting! Presumably someone in government thought there needed to be a reminder.

1. The Seven Principles of Public Life

The Seven Principles of Public Life (also known as the Nolan Principles) apply to anyone who works as a public office-holder. This includes all those who are elected or appointed to public office, nationally and locally, and all people appointed to work in the Civil Service, local government, the police, courts and probation services, non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), and in the health, education, social and care services. All public office-holders are both servants of the public and stewards of public resources. The principles also apply to all those in other sectors delivering public services.

1.1 Selflessness

Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

1.2 Integrity

Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

1.3 Objectivity

Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

1.4 Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

1.5 Openness

Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

1.6 Honesty

Holders of public office should be truthful.

1.7 Leadership

Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Various aspects of conduct of the local authority give rise to doubt whether the principles of objectivity and openness have been adhered to in relation to

i) the Stag Brewery development, in particular the failure to investigate the false letters posted in support of the planning applications; SEE

ii) the termination of the Pensford Field lease, where secret meetings were held; SEE

iii) the Livingstone Academy and the decision of the Council Leader, the Chair of the Education Committee and the local MP, all of whom signed a (still undisclosed) letter to the Department for Education which was contrary to the evidence. SEE

https://childlawobserver10.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4757&action=edit

You might think that having posted a notice on the Council website that a letter had been written to the Department for Education asking for reconsideration of them being ‘minded’ to decide not to continue funding Livingstone Academy at the Stag Brewery, Councillors and Officers would be prepared for questions.

But nothing was said at the recent Council meeting. And when a question was asked at the Education Committee meeting on Thursday about why the letter had been written to the DfE given that it was reported that there was ‘a loss of 355 pupils across the Estate’, Officers and the Committee Chair, Cllr Cambridge, seemed ill-prepared.

Two Officers both said they had no answer, but they were happy to come back with it outside of the meeting. Cllr. Cambridge said that she noted the question and ‘we will get the relevant person to give a written answer’.

The exchange on the Council website is worth watching for the attempted prevarication! See: Agenda for Education and Children’s Services Committee on Thursday, 29 January 2026, 7.00 pm – London Borough of Richmond upon Thames See discussion at 40.35 to 40.55.

Cllr Cambridge was eventually driven to admit: ‘[It] is a joint letter that has gone out from Sarah Olney the MP, Gareth Roberts as the leader of the council and myself in response to the email letter which said that they [the DfE] are mindful [sic] not to allow the funding.

One remarkable feature is that Sarah Olney has become involved, when she has made no public statement about the Stag Brewery development in over two years. On what information did she base her decision to sign the letter to the DfE?

Recent education reports have confirmed that pupil numbers have continued to fall and there is no evidence that this trend is likely to reverse in the foreseeable future.  This further reinforces the view that a new secondary school is not required.  

The largest drop in secondary pupils on the Richmond side of the borough – 19 – is forecast at Richmond Park Academy (RPA), the school closest to the STAG site.  During the Inquiry, RPA confirmed it would be delighted to expand, by at least 1 additional class of 30 pupils.  It has not done so because there was not sufficient demand for places.  In 2026, RPA received congratulations from Bridget Phillipson, Education Minister, on the excellent outcomes for disadvantaged pupils at the end of the 24/25 academic year, placing it among one of the very best schools nationally.  So it is clear that the loss of pupils was not in any way related to performance. 

A report to the Education Committee on Thursday acknowledged that ‘as lower primary school numbers move through to secondary school, there will be less pressure on secondary school places and more vacancies in year 7’. So it is clear that the statement issued on 23 January 2026: “that the Department for Education’s decision [sic] to axe the Livingstone Academy West London risks worsening pressure on secondary school places in the east of the borough” is simply untrue. It is equally clear that the decision to write the letter was one taken solely by the Leader of the Council, the Chair of the Education Committee and our local MP. And it was done without discussion or advice from Officers and contrary to recent thinking emanating from Achieving for Children.

We have to ask again what games the Council Leadership are playing. Is it simply engaged in denial or self-justification? Or a determination to pass political blame onto central Government? Or the acquisition of central Government money? Or a nice-looking riverside school as a monument to this Council’s autocratic rule?

Andy Sutch, who sadly passed away on 16 January 2026,  was a prominent member of the local community in East Sheen and influential across the London Borough of Richmond and beyond. 

Locally Andy was a Governor of Tower House School and the driving force in the recent development of its new assembly hall. He was the long-standing Chair of the Friends of Palewell Common, demonstrating his concerns for the ecological aspects of the green spaces. 

Andy worked for Sport England for over 20 years, with responsibility for the South East and London Regions, where he was Regional Director for London. He led on the establishment of Cultural Partners for London with London Arts and other pan London cultural bodies. In 2003 he joined Business in Sport and Leisure, which included a secondment to the 2012 Olympic Games Bid Team until 2005. He was a member of the Mayor of London’s Sports Board, Chairman of the London Council for Sport and Recreation and Chair of the Sports Council in Richmond.

Andy was an Honorary Fellow of St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He was an advocate for sport at the University and played a key role in developments in this area on campus in the 90s and 00s. He was an advisor in the successful bid for National Lottery funding that enabled the building of the University Track and refurbishment of sports facilities.

Andy saw the importance of sport and recreation for children with special needs. As Chair of the Panathlon Foundation between 2013 and 2023 he oversaw the charity’s growth in those ten years, from benefiting a few thousand competitors in London and the South-East to becoming the leading national charity delivering sporting opportunities for 50,000+ children with SEND in every county in England. 

Andy will be sorely missed. Our condolences go to Hilary and their family.

ruils is a user-led charity supporting disabled children and adults and people with long term health and mental health conditions to live independently, be part of their community and to live life to the full.

They provide advice, information, advocacy, befriending and activities to their clients and families.

Let’s make sure there is a good response to this survey by publicising it and helping disabled people to complete the survey, where necessary.

Reports are coming in from Malaysia that the Bank of England (BOE) is looking to restart the sale of the freehold of the Qualifying and Community Sports Centre in Roehampton. It is currently leased to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), where it hosts the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament, and operates a sports centre from August to April.

BoE has hired property agent Knight Frank to help. The premises were bought by the BOE in the early 1900s to provide staff with leisure facilities. BoE had put the facilities up for sale in 2019 but in 2021 agreed a 10 year lease with the AELTC, with an option for a further five years.  

The move comes at a time when BoE when it is looking to reduce operating costs.

The local concern expressed previously by EastSheenMatters (since 2023 passim) has to be that the grounds will ultimately become a hotel complex or a housing estate, with a large green area closed to the local community. Perhaps the limitations AELTC currently place on the use of the premises is softening us up for that eventuality. But given the problems AELTC is having with its planned expansion in SW19, that may be some way off.

Mr Henry Thomas White was the first stationmaster at Mortlake when it opened on 22 July 1846.  He figured prominently in the place for nearly 40 years and was universally liked not only by the inhabitants but by visitors and others with whom he came into contact. He was the same to all, civil, polite and obliging.

On reading that you will no doubt have thought about the similar traits of the present incumbent, Daniel Opoku, who started work at the Station on 7 June 1998. Having heard of his predecessor’s longevity, Daniel plans to beat his record. He is pictured holding the Olympic Flame, which he carried in London.

The following biographical notes about Mr Henry White are taken from “Rambles of Old Waxam (The Cobbler)”. The book is written in the first person by John Eustace Anderson in 1898, under the guise of an old man who has lived all his life in Mortlake. The publisher notes that it had a print run of 500 copies. Several pages are devoted to Mr Henry White.

His hair was quite white and he wore whiskers and latterly a short beard. His father was gardener to the Marquis of Ailesbury of Sheen House (1816-1830) and lived in a small house in the garden opposite the Hare and Hounds. He had three sons Thomas, Henry Thomas and Robert. His son Henry was taught by the old Squire, Parish Clerk and schoolmaster who kept a large private school on the south side of the (Mortlake) High Street teaching about 40 boys. At one time Henry was in the Yeomanry with old Colonel Ommanney, he of the Funding Committee for Christ Church, East Sheen.

When the railway was made, he applied for the stationmaster’s berth and got it in 1846. Only about six years after his appointment, he was presented with a testimonial in the form of a purse containing £35. The subscription list was headed by HRH the Duchess of Gloucester then residing at the White Lodge Richmond Park. The inscription read: “This purse containing £35 subscribed by residents in the vicinity of Mortlake and other passengers by the Richmond Railway was presented to Mr White on 25 December 1852 as a testimonial for his uniform attention and civility in discharge of his duties as stationmaster at the Mortlake Station.”

One distinguishing characteristic was that he always wore a tall white hat summer and winter. When the company made all their stationmasters wear caps with gold braided peaks ‘how sheepish poor Mr White looked when he gave up his white hat. A number of the parishioners condoled with him on the loss he had sustained and declared the company had made him look like a schoolboy by giving him a cap like that’.

He literally lived on the platform, morning noon and night, never absent from his post. Only once can I recall to mind his taking a holiday. No one ever saw him walking more than half a mile from the station and the only Sunday I can recollect his going to Mortlake Church and leaving his duties to do so was the Sunday after he had buried his father.

His house joined the platform and had a very pretty garden in front with rose trees and a beautiful grape bearing vine growing in the front of the house. He also had a vegetable garden. His father used to live with him and many a time on a fine day have I seen the old man taking a constitutional on the platform of the station as he was walking up and down with his stick.

In March 1880, he suffered the severe loss in the death of his wife Mary Ann White who died age 82. He did not survive her many years. In winter time he used to suffer severely with the fog and cold weather but worked up to the last. On hearing of his death, I could fancy I saw him as in his active days when standing on the platform as a train was coming in and you used to hear his cry of ‘look up there, stand back’.

He lies buried in the cemetery, still within sound of the passing trains. If you go and look on the tombstone erected to his memory, you will find these words. “This stone has been placed to the memory of Mr Henry White the first railway station master at Mortlake by some of the parishioners as a public recognition of the faithful and obliging manner in which he discharged his duties for 38 years.”

His son Harry White who lived with his aunt in Sheen Lane was appointed booking office clerk to issue tickets. At one time Henry had to do this himself. His son held the post for about 30 years.

The Council Meeting on 27 January 2026 listed a number of public questions about the handling of the Pensford Field scandal. The Minutes should make interesting reading!

Ms Sarah Atkins has given notice to ask the Leader of the Council:

“The Council recently disclosed in January 2026 on the order of the Information
Commissioner (in response to a Freedom of Information request made in late 2024)
a paper that went to the Service Chairs’ Meeting on 19 July 2024 about the change in
use of Pensford Field. It proposed as a first step, before terminating the then existing
lease, that the Leader and officers meet with the Pensford Field Trust to express the
Council’s support for Dose of Nature and to test if there is scope to reach a
compromise. This did not happen. Can the Leader explain why?”

Mr Baker has given notice to ask the Leader of the Council:

“What oversight arrangements or accountability mechanisms exist to ensure the
Monitoring Officer makes decisions that are compliant with the Council Constitution?”

Mr Robert Gingell has given notice to ask the Leader of the Council:

“On 1 October 2024, you gave assurances in this chamber that “when the Lease is
transferred to Dose of Nature for Pensford Field that the fields will be accessible to
those residents, local community schools, nurseries and organisations who use or
benefit from the field now.” ……”People will notice no real change…….their enjoyment
of the field will continue as they have done before.” Why has council you lead
broken that promise, by restricting access to local residents to weekdays during
office hours and enabling Dose of Nature to start charging nurseries for access to the
field and toilets?”

Mr Gary Evans has given notice to ask the Leader of the Council:

“What is the formal process set out when the Information & Transparency Manager at
LBRUT receives a request to conduct a Freedom of Information Act internal review?”

Mr Richard Ferriday has given notice to ask the Leader of the Council:

“The Information Commissioner has decided in three separate decisions that the
public interest is not served by withholding information about the termination of the
lease of Pensford Field and has ordered the Council to disclose documents. In two
of the three cases, the Council was also found to be late providing responses to the
initial requests for information. In the light of these adverse decisions, does the
Leader consider that the Council should have been more transparent and responsive
about its decision making on this issue?”

Sir James Munby, former President of the Family Division of the High Court, died on 1 January 2026. He was widely regarded as one of the best Family Judges since the inception of the Division in 1971 and for a range of reasons; his humanity, his erudition and his sheer devotion to his work involving children and families. I worked with him on many occasions in court (uniquely for a solicitor appearing before him in the Court of Appeal) and when writing and teaching child law. He was always most generous with his time and expertise. He was a man of real principle who spoke his mind.

One of his most famous quotes was in a case in 2004 and more than 20 years later the simple concept he articulated bears repetition.

” We cannot afford to proceed on the blinkered assumption that there have been no miscarriages of justice in the family justice system. This is something that has to be addressed with honesty and candour if the family justice system is not to suffer further loss of public confidence. Open and public debate in the media is essential.”

Substitute local government for family justice and move on to 2026.

Richard White