16 March 2011

Hammersmith in top ten for child poverty in London. Nearly 11,000 children living in penury.

Four out of every ten children in Hammersmith & Fulham are being raised in deprivation, new figures from End Child Poverty show. That's almost eleven thousand children across the borough.

In College Park & Old Oak, six out of ten children are living in poverty, as are over half of children in Wormholt and White City. More than four in ten children live below the poverty line in Sands End, Shepherd's Bush Green and North End. The same is true for over a third of children who live in Hammersmith Broadway, Fulham Broadway and Askew. See figures for all wards below.

We can expect local children's life chances to be further damaged as H&F Tory council's unnecessarily savage cuts to children's services, including Sure Start early years centres, begin to bite and national benefits are reduced.

Overall, H&F has the tenth highest share of children living in poverty of the 33 London councils, with 36% of children living in families below the poverty line. In its triborough partner Westminster the figure is 41% and in Kensington & Chelsea it is 29%.

David Cameron said in 2007, "We can make British poverty history, and we will make British poverty history". Instead, his government and Tory councils like H&F are making things grimmer for children and families. 

The full report is here and a child poverty map of Britain is here. 

Child poverty in LB Hammersmith & Fulham
By % of children living in  poverty By ward
College Park and Old Oak 58% Addison 28%
Wormholt and White City 53% Askew 35%
Sands End 45% Avonmore and Brook Green 28%
Shepherd's Bush Green 44% College Park and Old Oak 58%
North End 44% Fulham Broadway 36%
Hammersmith Broadway 39% Fulham Reach 31%
Fulham Broadway 36% Hammersmith Broadway 39%
Askew 35% Munster 21%
Fulham Reach 31% North End 44%
Ravenscourt Park 30% Palace Riverside 11%
Town 30% Parsons Green and Walham 17%
Avonmore and Brook Green 28% Ravenscourt Park 30%
Addison 28% Sands End 45%
Munster 21% Shepherd's Bush Green 44%
Parsons Green and Walham 17% Town 30%
Palace Riverside 11% Wormholt and White City 53%


The analysis was undertaken for the End Child Poverty campaign by Donald Hirsch and Jacqueline Beckhelling of the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. Children are classified as being in poverty if they live in families that receive out-of-work benefits or in-work tax credits where they earn less than 60 per cent of median income.

14 March 2011

More thuggish Tory buildings to go up in Hammersmith

Conservative councillors have voted through plans for two dirty great new buildings in Hammersmith Grove, both out of keeping with the local area and very much what locals don’t want. As is par for the course, the plans were poorly researched and weakly justified but the Tories pushed them through anyway.

Opposition leader Steve Cowan's report - see here - makes worrying reading both for what the Tories are doing and how they are going about it.

He comments, "I have long believed that the planning process is stitched up by this Conservative Administration well in advance. They have even put videos out giving strong hints that this was the case but I hadn’t realised what pressure Administration councillors on the committee were under to stick to the agreed plan until I saw how they reacted to even small amendments or suggested deferrals. That doesn’t bode well for the contentious Town Hall, Shepherds Bush Market and Hammersmith Embankment schemes all on the near horizon."

Stop Nisa selling 24-hour booze in the Askew Road


Nisa Local are appealing against the council's decision to refuse them a 24-hour alcohol licence at their shop at 88-90 Askew Road W12. Please help stop them.

A hearing date has been set for 25 May 2011 at West London Magistrates Court and the police are looking for evidence to be used at the hearing and for people who can attend the hearing themselves.

They need up-to-date evidence from those who made a representation against the original application. They also want to hear from other local residents, not just those living in Askew Road, who feel they would be affected if Nisa was operating 24 hours a day, so please tell your neighbours.

The Council refused the license based on representations from the police, the council's Environmental Protection Service and twenty local residents. The police said there was already a problem with street drinkers in the local area causing alarm and distress to local residents and they were concerned these drinkers would buy alcohol throughout the night if Nisa traded 24 hours.

The police now want evidence from people with similar experiences. This should be a statement and perhaps also photos or video footage. A diarised statement which outlines problems on a day-to-day basis would be very helpful.

Any objections should relate to one or more of the following four licensing aims:
·        The prevention of crime and disorder
·        Public safety
·        The prevention of public nuisance
·        The protection of children from harm

Further information about the hearing will be provided nearer the time. The council's legal officer will also be able to help with drafting any statements.

If you want to ask any questions or submit an objection, please contact Adrian Overton at the Town Hall as soon as possible. His details are:

Adrian Overton, Licensing Officer - Safety & Licensing,
LB Hammersmith & Fulham
Environmental Protection - Public Protection and Safety Division
5th floor, Town Hall Extension
King Street
London W6 9JU.

Tel: (020) 8753 3081
Fax: (020) 8753 3922
email: adrian.overton@lbhf.gov.uk

11 March 2011

Sands End Community Centre being stifled as H&F Tories break promise to work with local people

Despite a promise by H&F Tories on 7 February to work with residents on options to keep the Sands End Community Centre open, nether the council nor any of the area's three Conservative ward councillors has contacted the centre. Instead, the duplicitous council is ploughing ahead with shutting down the centre, withdrawing services one by one.

See this shocking report by Steve Cowan, leader of the opposition on Hammersmith council.

As always, the Hammersmith Tories say one thing and do another.

News from Andy Slaughter, Hammersmith's hardworking Labour MP

Andy Slaughter MP has just sent out his latest newsletter -  a good, if worrying, read.

Not a Healthy Outlook

Last November the local NHS wrote to me to say they were predicting cuts of £1bn from the North West  London budget over the next three years. Coming six months after the election promise that Cameron would “cut the deficit not the NHS”, this sounded incredible - particularly as cuts of that order are the funding equivalent of closing one of our local hospitals.

 In fact when I saw the head of Imperial College Hospital Trust last week he assured me that they were committed to keeping all three hospitals –Hammersmith,  St Mary's and Charing Cross - open, but were at a loss as to how they could find cuts of 8-10% which they were predicting. 

So this week I went to see the Primary Care Trust who provide the funding for the NHS locally and they could not offer me much comfort. The PCT itself is being wound up in 2013 and what funding is left  will pass to local GPs. They did tell me that they intend at last to build the White City Health centre by that time, although they also confirmed the closure of the Milson Road Health Centre. 

There are serious issues to be addressed in the local health service: inpatient cancer care is moving from Hammersmith to Charing Cross, there are likely to be doctors and nurses made redundant and the decision to make the most fundamental changes in the way the NHS is run is going to be a massive distraction. It seems to only have the aim of allowing the private sector to take over large parts of our NHS.

But none of these issues were highlighted in the front-page polemic on H&F news this week. Instead it identified the move of Oncology services from Charing Cross to St Mary’s. I’m reluctant to see any services moved out of Charing Cross despite assurances for its future and the expansion of some areas of work. But why is this one issue of concern to the leader of the council Stephen Greenhalgh rather than all the other cuts and privatisations that his government is making. Perhaps we should ask the emeritus professor of vascular surgery at Charing Cross, Professor Roger Greenhalgh. 


Air Passenger Duty

On Wednesday I joined with  MPs including Diane Abbott and Fiona Mactaggart in lobbying Treasury Minister Justine Greening for reform of the Air Passenger Duty (APD).

The tax, which was introduced by the previous Government, was designed as an environmental measure and places an additional levy on air passengers.

Many constituents especially those with family in the Caribbean have voice their complaints against the duty, because the charges are determined by distance to capital cities rather than actual distance flown. This means for example it's a lot cheaper to fly to Hawaii or Los Angeles than it is to fly to the Caribbean, despite their being thousands of miles further away.

Before the election I found rare common ground with the Tories on their pledge to replace APD, with a per plane tax and a new banding system however now they are in power it looks as if their pre-election promises have come to nothing.

Given that the Government will not lose any revenue by charging for actual distance travelled and by charging by plane could make things cheaper for low cost passengers on fuller aircraft I can't see what is stopping them and we pressed the minister strongly to include these changes in the budget.


Welfare Reform Bill 

On Wednesday I spoke in the debate in Parliament on the second reading of the Welfare reform Bill – the biggest shake up of the welfare state since its inception. I have received a large number of emails from my constituents who are worried about the proposed changes especially to Disability Living Allowance and wanted the chance to put some of those concerns to secretary of state Iain Duncan Smith.

Unfortunately Duncan Smith appeared to be unable to answer any of the questions put to him by me or other MPs invariably answering the questions with 'I'll get back to you" or words to that effect.

People with autism, visual impairments, deafness, cancer sufferers all look set to lose out from a £1bn cut to disability benefits, and I have written on each of their behalf to the Government for clarification, but it is outrageous that in their zeal to do away with the welfare state they have put the savings in the budget without working out the detail of their proposals.

You can read my interventions here and here and see the Secretary of State’s response here.


The Future of Youth Justice

There was consensus between the parties when we discussed the future of young people in custody on Tuesday, although this did not extend to how the system should be funded. Replying to the debate from the opposition frontbench I welcomed the approach from MPs of all parties who understood the need for an intelligent approach to stopping youth offending and re-offending but pointed out that that very day the Youth Justice Board had announced it was cutting its funding by 29%. You can read my speech here. 

The day before a key note speech from Sadiq Khan, the Shadow Lord Chancellor (i.e my boss) made much the same point about the Government's proposals on sentencing as a whole. How are they going to replace prison with effective rehabilitation when they are cutting the Ministry of Justice by a higher amount than almost any other department? You can read his speech here. 

 
Roundup

I took part in a live radio debate on local Hammersmith station ONFM.

I was on the judging panel of Cash 4 Clubs a SportsAid  initiative handing out over £50,000 in small grants to sporting organisations around the country that promote both mainstream and niche sports, with much of the funding comes from local firm BetFair.

I was the speaker at dinner to mark the 85th anniversary of the Hammersmith Rotary Club held at the Polish Centre in King Street. The dinner was attended by over 100 Rotarians from all over London, including Stephen Pound MP and former MEP Michael Elliot.

I met the leaders of the Albanian community in London and embassy officials in Parliament.

I spoke at a meeting sponsored by CAB and the all party group on legal aid opposing the cuts in debt advice.

I had my photograph taken with Sir Steve Redgrave to promote Fair Trade Fortnight.

I chaired a meeting at Shepherds Bush Police Station for residents who are increasingly suffering the effects of anti-social behaviour from Westfield shopping centre two years after it opened.

I met representatives of Prosper Palestine, a new organisation campaigning against the importation of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and to allow the export of Palestinian goods.


Andy 

09 March 2011

As property prices fall, Hammersmith Tories show economic illiteracy by persisting in selling off local assets


We recently ran a blog in which Labour councillor Professor Andrew Jones exploded the Tory myths about Hammersmith's debt burden. He explained in some detail why, like the Tory-led government, Hammersmith Conservatives are being at best economically illiterate and at worst downright dishonest in using debt as a smokescreen to do what they want to do ideologically – cut down the state.

This resulted in a highly personal and poorly informed attack on Prof Jones by Tory councillor Andrew Johnson, who is press spokesperson for the Conservative councillors’ group. Mr Johnson took particular exception to Prof Jones’s assertion that the council was selling assets at the bottom of the market. He claimed, “Most respected commentators agree that residential prices within Hammersmith & Fulham are nearly back to the levels seen during the height of the Labour property boom, with commercial returns not far behind.”

Yet according to official figures from the Land Registry, the current price trend is downwards, with the average sale price of properties in W12 falling by 13 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The number of transactions is also down by 17.1 per cent. This graph (from zoopla.co.uk) tells the same story.

 
There is no economic rationale for the Hammersmith Tories to cut services and sell community buildings in order to pay off borrowing at this reckless pace. They are making a straight ideological choice and they should come clean about it.

08 March 2011

“Transparent” Tory council's £350,000 anonymous payments. One person gets £90k but who? Hammersmith held to account

H&F Tory council's list of payments to suppliers between January and March 2010 makes intriguing reading (see here).

The council claims this is "a radical revolution in local government transparency" and says "The company names of suppliers and amounts are published in full."

Well, yes and no. It turns out that nearly £350,000 worth of payments are itemised simply as PAYMENT TO INDIVIDUAL. One unnamed person received over £90,000. See full list below (71 payments).

Tory leader Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh has said, "These simple changes will shine a spotlight on every item of council expenditure" and "We want the public to hold us to account".

We presume there's a perfectly straightforward reason for this lack of transparency. Perhaps a  Tory councillor could tell us.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council 
Net total payments to general trade suppliers >£500 
from 01/01/2010 to 31/03/2010
Sums itemised only as PAYMENT TO INDIVIDUAL
£90,121 £7,931 £4,244 £2,569 £1,658 £1,170 £868
£16,947 £7,890 £4,152 £2,509 £1,531 £1,161 £850
£12,075 £6,952 £4,144 £2,470 £1,520 £1,140 £850
£10,414 £6,943 £3,969 £2,306 £1,500 £1,135 £850
£10,294 £6,943 £3,702 £2,235 £1,456 £1,135 £825
£9,942 £6,107 £3,554 £2,153 £1,425 £1,015 £738
£9,681 £5,762 £3,373 £2,145 £1,378 £1,000 £710
£9,150 £5,408 £3,188 £2,088 £1,356 £893 £681
£8,541 £4,795 £2,966 £1,937 £1,222 £893 £638
£8,182 £4,725 £2,667 £1,714 £1,176 £889 £602
£8,094



£339,755

04 March 2011

News from Hammersmith's man on the House of Commons benches

Our hard-working MP Andy Slaughter has just sent out his latest newsletter. As always, it makes lively reading. Click on the links below.

Richest borough K&C cuts services to neediest rather than touch £148m reserves

The Evening Standard has revealed that Tory Kensington & Chelsea, Britain's richest borough, has refused to use its unexpectedly high £148 million cash reserves to save services for elderly and mentally ill Londoners and children, preferring to cut by £23m instead. See full story here.

Reserves are rainy day money to be used to protect people when times are toughest, as now. By not using them, is K&C ruthlessly preparing the ground for its "triborough" partnership with fellow Tory slashers Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster councils? Is a rush to the bottom what this cosy arrangement is really all about?
.

01 March 2011

Fears for local democracy if H&F, Westminster, K&C share services and top management

The radical "triborough" plan for Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea councils to share services and senior management challenges local authority boundaries and raises serious issues of democratic accountability.

A report from the New Local Government Network says that such plans bring "questions about the nature of local authority boundaries to the fore". The think tank also reveals concerns about keeping councillors answerable to local people, stating, "We are keen to preserve existing democratic structures".

This echoes the fears of the three boroughs' opposition leaders. In a joint letter, they say that while Labour is in favour of genuine efficiencies and rooting out waste, the Conservatives "have not explained how local residents will keep their ability to hold their own council to account on important matters of local concern" nor "how any newly elected administration would be able to secede from any part of this if political control changes at the local elections in 2014."

If they believe in local democracy, the triborough Tories need to address these questions without delay.