When will Hammersmith Council publish its promised Sure Start consultation?

Last week, H&F Tory councillor Helen Binmore pooh-poohed well-founded concerns that the council was cutting services at nine of its 15 Sure Start early years centres. Indeed, under fire from families, teachers and Labour councillors at a council cabinet meeting on 10 January, she promised that a consultation would be launched "in, er, a week". When challenged by her colleague Mark Loveday to say how long the consultation would run, she said "Er, no longer than, er, one month".

A follow-up council press release said, "The council will also launch a public consultation on the detailed changes at each of the centres." So we can expect both an overall consultation and lots of centre-specific ones. Very good.

Except that now, er, over a week has gone by and at the time of posting there's no sign of any Sure Start consultation on the H&F council website.

The idea that Cllr Binmore just promised a consultation to get herself through a difficult meeting is clearly wrong and we're sure she'll keep her word. If anyone wants to ask her when this might be, she can be reached at helen.binmore@lbhf.gov.uk