Tories don't care that they don't care

Pick on someone your own size might be an appropriate appeal to the leader of Hammersmith & Fulham council. As the true scale of the council cuts is revealed, it's the elderly, disabled and mentally ill who are being hit hardest.

In addition to cutting spending on home care by over half a million pounds through privatisation, the Tories are planning to restrict who gets home help services to save £1.25 million. This means that hundreds of vulnerable people will not get a service. Together with the privatisation of home helps, fewer people will now get a worse service. And delays in the privatisation will not even generate the 'savings' originally predicted.

The Tories are also 'reconfiguring' mental health day services by closing the Tamworth centre which was only opened ten years ago. The site in Farm Lane is worth a fortune and the local nimbies will love to get rid of the service! The Tories also talk about savings of £250,000 by 'introducing service user contributions' - what they really mean is charging! Only 12 of the 65 people using the Tamworth centre will be offered services in Shepherds Bush (very convenient for users in Fulham!). What can be predicted is that this cost saving will in the long run have higher costs for both social services and the NHS.

Finally, meals on wheels are to go up 35p in price from April. But the true increase is 55p, as there has just been a first stage increase of 20p. A 24% rise in total!

These cuts will have a devastating effect on people using these social services. And they will cost all local residents more in the longer term, picking up the pieces of this neglect.

The Tories don't care that they don't care. They will just go out and buy what they need for their families, and never mind other local people.

Now you see it, now you don't

Someone at Hammersmith & Fulham Council is clearly worried. The picture on the home page of the council website has been changed following widespread concerns that local Tories have used the same photo on the front of their latest leaflet (see previous blog re picture of unappealing fat man).

Why it's thought that simply cutting out the anti-GLA placard from the council website photo will make things OK is bizarre.

It doesn't answer the charge of misuse of council resources for party political purposes by the Conservatives. The Tories have used this council PR stunt for their own ends but are now caught red-handed such is their arrogance.

And it doesn't stop there. Rookie Cllr Paul Bristow who fancies himself as the Tory parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith has got his hands on the same council placards and is pictured holding them inside the town hall on his new blog. Not very clever Paul. Wonder what the district auditor will think of that?

Tory junk mail recycles council propaganda

You may have been unlucky enough to get a leaflet recently from Hammersmith & Fulham Conservatives. Of course you might have binned it immediately because it looks like a dodgy leaflet from a bank offering a rather shabby financial product with a picture of an unappealing fat man.

But for anyone who has seen Hammersmith & Fulham Council's website and other PR material, the photo on the front of the Tories' new leaflet has a familiar look to it. That's because the Tories have used council publicity for their own political purposes. This disgraceful and illegal use of council taxpayers' funds should be investigated now.

What the leaflet fails to mention is:

* the cuts being made by the council over the next three years amount to £14 million, £26 million and £34 million in successive years between 2007-8 and 2009-10
* the cuts will hit some of the most vulnerable people locally: the elderly and disabled, children and young people who rely on council services from home helps to libraries

It also fails to mention how cutting street cleaning by almost £1 million this year will deal with litter, graffiti and flytipping.

Amazingly, the leaflet repeats the Tories' ambition to cut council tax to Wandsworth levels but fails to say how they will do it. Cutting the council tax by less than 9% by 2010 is hardly going to deliver that election pledge - while Hammersmith & Fulham residents will have seen long valued services go to the wall.

Tories fail budget scrutiny in Hammersmith & Fulham

After much fanfare by Hammersmith & Fulham Tories of a 3% cut in council tax, the reality is beginning to sink in.

Despite raiding the council's reserves and getting more cash from central government than expected, the Tories are promising to cut their share of the council tax by less than 9% by 2010 - which will hardly help them meet their election promise of Wandsworth council tax levels.

The cost of the council tax cut is being borne by all local residents but particularly the most vulnerable. In total the Tories' first budget features £14.5 million cuts in 2007-8, £26 million cuts in 2008-9, and £34 million cuts in 2009-10 - so worse is to come.

Cuts in local services already announced include:

* over £900,000 cut in spending on cleaning local streets which will mean more litter, flytipping and graffiti
* privatising many council services including the home help service for elderly and disabled people and cutting the numbers getting home helps
* hiking charges for meals on wheels and reducing the service
* higher fees and charges for most council services
* cutting support for local theatres and arts and for libraries

The Tories have failed their first test. This budget hurts local people and offers a pathetic cut in council tax which no one will notice when they get their bills with the GLA share included. Only the wealthy who don't use local services stand to benefit.

January sales: 3% off ain't much of a bargain

Watch out. Mr Blobby is waving a placard. Not to save the whale. But to announce the council's plans to cut council tax by 3%.

Hammersmith & Fulham residents are not exactly going crazy with excitement. Having been promised cuts in council tax to Wandsworth levels at the local elections last May, they are now underwhelmed by the offer of a mere 3% cut. Even the previous Labour council was planning a real cut in council tax in the coming years!

But on top of a pathetic 3%, the Tories are axeing public services to pay for their derisory cut. If you're elderly or disabled and need home helps or meals on wheels, then watch out. If you need decent schools or childcare in Hammersmith & Fulham, then watch out. And if you want more police, then make sure local businesses cough up the money.

And guess what, Conservative councillors are yet again attacking the Mayor of London as they try to disguise their own failures. Rather than spending council tax on party political propaganda, they should get their own house in order.

Or perhaps it's all part of a secret campaign to elect Greg Hands as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. But if 3% is all they can manage while wrecking local services and doing hundreds of local people out of jobs, Greg and his gang will soon get their come uppance.

One too many drinks in Hammersmith & Fulham

Festive drinkers have been confused in Hammersmith & Fulham this year.

On the one hand the Conservative council was saying Festive drinkers sold short. Dozens of licensed premises in West London are serving festive drinkers short measures of alcohol, according to the council.

And on the other, it was proclaiming Street drinkers left high and dry by booze ban. A blanket ban on anti-social street boozers has busted more than 120 drunken vagrants in the first month of the innovative new scheme.

Which is all rather confusing for local residents. What does the council really think about alcohol consumption? Are glasses half full or half empty in Hammersmith & Fulham?

Whatever you do, don't go into the Salutation pub opposite the town hall to ask one of the Cabinet members for an answer. Particularly later on in the evening.

Scrooge arrives early in Hammersmith & Fulham

Tis the season of goodwill - unless you live in Hammersmith & Fulham. The Tory council has just put up the cost of dying by increasing charges for being buried locally.

Now everyone's waiting to see where the axe will fall to pay for cuts in council tax. Council staff are leaving in droves to avoid the chop while others are 'celebrating' Christmas with redundancy notices.

Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh is already tucking into the mince pies, avoiding the flak by taking an early Christmas holiday. No doubt he'll return even blobbier in time for photos on Christmas Day with pensioners.

Not that they will want to celebrate the council's cuts to home helps and meals on wheels. The question everyone is asking is where will the axe fall next?

One small consolation is that local police are being asked to work 24/7 to tackle crime in parts of the borough. But guess what, only if local businesses will pay for it!

Scrooge has definitely arrived early in Hammersmith & Fulham.

Autumn leaves Tories slipping up

Walk the streets of Hammersmith & Fulham in late November and you're in danger of slipping and sliding on all the leaves. Either that or coming to a complete standstill because of the mounds of autumn debris everywhere.

Is it the wrong kind of leaf or the wrong kind of weather? Or are the Tories cutting back on street cleaning before privatisation in the hope that we won't notice once it's another service lost forever.

Of course the Tories might respond when the council starts getting sued for all the accidents as residents put the wrong foot first. All the expensive new logos mean nothing if the streets are a filthy and dangerous mess.

Just imagine Cllr super-size-me Greenhalgh taking a tumble down King Street. It would mean several more weeks of road repairs and hold-ups. A disaster for all the 4x4s edging their way around the congestion zone.

A suitable subject for another extraordinary council meeting perhaps?

Tories spin into chaos

Strangely, the latest edition of hfnews, Hammersmith & Fulham council's newspaper for residents, has no mention of plans to close a secondary school, privatise the home help service, or any of the other cuts already announced by the Conservatives. And that's before they even unveil their budget plans for 2007-8!

Meanwhile the front page of hfnews highlights local NHS financial problems without a single acknowledgement of the council's own cuts. The leader of the council gets all high and mighty about local hospital services while savaging council services.

Talk about re-writing history. Tory councillors are obviously aspiring spin doctors and hfnews is their Pravda.

Take the photo of residents celebrating the Allied Carpets appeal victory in hfnews. Local MP Andrew Slaughter has been cut out of the picture even though he led the campaign against the development when he was council leader and since as MP.

Private Eye readers may also appreciate the lookalike photo in hfnews - council leader Stephen Greenhalgh is a deadringer (OK, slightly heavier version) of BNP chief Nick Griffin. And their policies seem remarkably similar.

PS the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle reports today that the council will be calling an extraordinary council meeting on 29 November on the council's 'gambling policy'. That probably means they have plans to open casinos in the borough. Watch this space.

Tories don't like it up them

When the going gets tough, the Tories get going. That's what seems to be happening in Hammersmith & Fulham. Clearly the Conservatives don't like it up them. Little did they realise a few weeks ago what a stink their massive cuts would create across the borough.

Having upset families with children and older people by announcing plans to close a secondary school and privatise the home help service, the Tories obviously weren't prepared for the response. So when parents and children attended a cabinet meeting to ask questions about the proposals, not only did the leader refuse to answer them but he stormed out closing a public meeting.

The council leader, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, may be a big boy. But he clearly can't cope with public opposition to his plans. Mr Blobby is getting very wobbly.

And he gets arch right winger Cllr Harry Phibbs to write stalinist letters to the local papers, inbetween his day job writing diary stories for the Evening Standard. Cllr Fibber is telling bigger whoppers every week. Meanwhile Greg Hands MP has gone strangely quiet - even he doesn't like it when his friends upset local people and they want Greg to sort it out.

The Tories will do anything to try and distract attention from the devastation caused by their cuts. This week pompous Cllr Greg Smith attacks the Law Centre for holding a debate on liberty and security. What irony!

This would all be very funny if it wasn't true. Fortunately the Tories in Hammersmith & Fulham are showing what would happen if the Conservatives ever got into national government. That's one lesson we can thank Mr Blobby for.