Every year the one of the most eagerly awaited cabinet papers is that laying out the annual road resurfacing programme. Labour has halved this budget, this year it will spend £3.5 million, or about £10 per head of population. You can see the papers here, here and here.

Shockingly the Labour councillor in charge of this budget, Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, has awarded 27% of the entire Borough budget, some £938K, to his own ward of Northolt West End. In contrast Northfield, the ward I represent, will get one footpath done for £65K. Mahfouz’s ward is one of 23 so you might expect it to get about 4% of the budget on average.

It looks like Labour is seriously favouring its own areas with this budget. Last year the five ward of Southall (22% of wards) got 52% of the budget. This year Northolt with 2 wards (9% of wards) got 51% of the budget. The wards that have been starved of new roads and pavements are the eight wards held by the opposition (central Ealing plus Southfields). Last year these wards only got 13% of the budget in spite of being just over one thirds of all wards. This year their share collapsed further to 7% – this is one fifth of the share they might expect if the spending was evenly distributed.

The use by the BBC News website of this piece of video as their lead story right now proves one of two things. Either its staff are naive and easy to manipulate or they know that this was a stunt by revolutionary socialist activists and are quite happy to collude with them. If revolutionary socialist June Hautot had been a little more subtle and not barracked Lansley quite so relentlessly it wouldn’t have been quite so obvious that this was a set up. More from Guido Fawkes here.

Watching the video Lansley comes across well, coolly trying to make his case in front of cameras whilst trying to deal with a deranged woman. The more the case is made directly the more unreasonable the detractors will appear. No-one is privatising the NHS. Does June Hautot suggest that we nationalise factories, power stations, mines and steelworks so that NHS surgeons’ scalpels can be produced entirely in the public sector? The health sector in the UK is now 10% of GDP. One tenth of ALL economic activity. There is always going to be a mix of providers and we really need to get the most efficient mix and not be doctrinaire about who provides what.

If Cameron has decided to go ahead with the NHS reforms then the Tories need to get out from the foxholes and start communicating.

Council finances are complex and opaque but you can probably get 90% of everything you want to know about them by studying this document (or more properly set of documents). Take a look at the papers here, here and here. They are hard work but will reward your effort.

The main headline is that Labour are freezing council tax for the second year running but bitching that central government is only funding the freeze for one year. This is good news for residents.

With this budget the council has pretty much finished the job of taking £85 million of savings. Although Labour are calling this number a government cut the actual cut is only some £50 odd million. Labour is taking an additional £30 million for its own purposes and running budget surpluses which it is putting into capital projects such as the notorious Southall car park – more on that later.

At OSC there was lots of doom and gloom from Ian O’Donnell, the council’s executive director of Corporate Resources. As the council’s chief financial officer it is his job to be risk averse and to see the downside of things. One bit of good news that, unaccountably, the council officers and Labour councillors did not highlight is that whilst the council is having to shell out £300 million for school building, driven mainly by rising birth rates, some £200 million of this is being provided by central government in spite of Labour’s flimflam about the cancellation of its outrageously wasteful BSF scheme.

A great new innovation in this year’s budget is a complete review of all of the council’s fees and charges, see Appendix 12 here. This idea goes back to a meeting I had with Ian O’Donnell in July 2009. I suggested that there was no overall management of the council’s fees and charges on an annual basis. This appendix is a welcome attempt to pull that altogether.

Scrolling through appendix 12 the thing that catches my eye is CPZ charges, at the top of page 27. Going up again in April. People in the short hour zones will wonder why their charges is going up by 12.5% whilst the all day zones are only going up by 3%. Is there an unstated convergence policy? I am sure you will come up with some more observations.

At the last council meeting on 31st January I asked the portfolio holder, Cllr Hitesh Tailor, for an update. His written answer (question 15) is here:

I would like to record my thanks to the Housing Commission Members who gave up their time to take part in the Commission. This was a good initiative on the part of the Administration to reflect on the changes in housing and the impact they would have upon Ealing.

The final meeting of Ealing’s Housing Commission was held on 19 January 2012. This meeting reviewed the draft report of the commission and discussed the key recommendations. A final draft of the report, reflecting the agreed recommendations of the commission, is currently being prepared and is expected to be complete before the end of February. Once the report is complete the commission’s recommendations and an action plan for implementation will be presented to Scrutiny for comment prior to going to Cabinet.

However, a number of actions that the commission has supported are already underway:
• The Council is reviewing its allocations policy so that those who are in employment or volunteer can get higher priority, so that we reward people who contribute to Ealing.
• A council led regeneration option is being explored for Copley Close
• The Council has consulted on its tenancy and rents strategy, which has been informed by the Housing Commission

The Housing Commission will cost £25K in total and we are on target to meet this budget. This includes the cost of:
o Secretariat for the Commission including minute taking, background papers, preparation of presentations
o Specifically commissioned research papers to support the work of the Commission
o No expenses are being paid to commissioners
o Writing of final report

The Housing Commission was set up to look at the key issues in Housing Policy at the moment. The Coalition government is embarking on some of the most radical changes to housing policy in recent history. At the same time it has cut capital funding for housing and regeneration by 75%. Therefore, the Council has decided to review its options so that it can continue to meet the needs of Ealing Residents.

His answer is typically defensive and gives little clue as to when the public will have sight of the commission’s final report (for which we have paid £25K). The last time I asked the schedule was year end.

Labour took £55K out of the scrutiny budget and reduced the number of panels from 9 to 5 (44%), see here. These are cross party meetings with published minutes and the opportunity for the public to attend and participate. With the Housing Commission they have blown £25K of public funds for a series of private meetings between Labour politicians which has produced no report so far.

Update: At Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night we were promised that the final report would come to scrutiny on 12th April. At last we will get to see what we get for our £25K from this private Labour party talk-fest.

The Livingstone campaign is using February to make unfunded claims about policing that look as silly as their unfunded claims about public transport last month. They seem to think that their calling Boris Johnson a thief is going to work for them. Lovely people. The only way we will have more police under Livingstone is if he massively puts up the precept.

Police numbers went up, they went down, they are going up again, they will end up about 1,000 higher than when Boris started with an extra £90 million from central government that ensures that they stay at the 32,000 mark well into the future.

Meanwhile you wonder what this policeman is doing walking down the street with a bunch of Labour politicians. Is he there as a prop? In which case what is going on? Is he a proper cop or an actor? If he is a proper cop why on earth is he using public funds to support the Livingstone campaign? At least Julian Bell’s camel overcoat gets another outing.

Notably Livingstone came to Ealing unannounced. He knows he is too unpopular to advertise in advance.

Case 1: Single person in zone 2, living in a Band-D house, travelling daily to central London by public transport
2004: £989               2008: £1200.36       2012: £1398.04

Case 2: Couple in zone 3, living in a Band-D house, both commuting to central London by public transport.
2004: £2145.33        2008: £2581.82       2012:  £3042.72

Case 3: Couple in zone 5, living in a Band-D house, one commuting to central London by train, one travelling daily in the local area by bus.
2004: £2025.33          2008: £2485.82         2012: £3050.72

Case 4: Couple in zone 6, living in a Band-D house, one commuting to central London by train, one a tradesman with his own van, paying the congestion charge 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, using autopay if available.
2004: £2973.33        2008: £4013.82          2012: £4602.72

If Julian Bell, as Labour group leader, signs off press releases that are lies at some point you have to conclude that Bell is a liar too. The latest press release from Ealing Labour tries to stitch together the odd line here and there from Conservative councillors to paint a picture of disarray. Julian Bell has personally signed off a press statement on Ealing hospital that says:

Cllr Phil Taylor has welcomed the closure. He said on his blog that of Ealing A&E:

“I would rather have a longer journey to a trauma centre.”

Of course I have not welcomed the closure of Ealing hospital. What I said was:

We have relatively few traumas in this country (thank heavens) but if I was a trauma victim I would rather have a slightly longer journey to a trauma centre than be killed by A&E at a district general hospital.

To suggest that this means I am advocating the closure of Ealing hospital is quite simply a lie that Labour’s leader has to take responsibility for. He signed off the press release so he is happy to tolerate lying. Indeed, that makes him a liar.

You can read the full piece here. My paragraph is at the end of a comment I made in response to another comment attached to a long posting. Decide for yourself. If Bell stops lying I will stop calling him a liar.

Listening to Labour luvvie, actor Richard Wilson, doing the narration on tonight’s Channel 4 “documentary” Confessions from the Underground immediately set my alarm bells ringing. Many people on Twitter instantly spotted that this was effectively an hour long advert for RMT’s Bob Crow.

It didn’t take much digging around on Google to get to the bottom of it.

Narrator Richard Wilson is a committed Labour activist, see his Wikipedia entry. He is reputed to have narrated their audio manifesto for the last election and got involved in Ken Livingstone’s scaremongering around the Freedom Pass in the run up to the previous mayoral election.

The Executive Producer Peter Dale is an Associate Fellow (whatever that means) at the left-leaning thinktank IPPR. He founded TV production company Rare Day which made the film.

Producer Katherine Haywood also writes for socialist magazine Red Pepper.

Dale’s company is such a congenial environment for Labour people that ex-Labour cabinet minister James Purnell took a job here when he left Parliament in 2010.

The dishonest and polemical nature of this film makes it clear that it is not a conventional documentary. The background of those involved confirms that this is propaganda. No more. No less. Consider this show part of Labour’s London election campaign.

Although Anand might argue that she is not required to attend these meetings her attendance is pathetic. Of 13 meetings that have happened since she was appointed as the portfolio holder she has only managed to attend four times and speak only twice. If Anand was harder working and more capable she would be using these meetings as a platform to speak for health improvement in the Borough and to convey the council’s approach to health improvement.

Members of the committee tell me that she only ever talks about Ealing Hospital and simply makes a statement without taking part in debate. I remember that when Anand was a member of this committee years ago she used to turn up late and leave early. Apparently she hasn’t got any better lately. When she does turn up she just says her piece and clears off.

Like her colleagues Cllrs Tailor and Walker you don’t get the impression that Cllr Anand is earning her £25,448.

Cllr Hitesh Tailor, the councillor that Labour has put in charge of housing in the borough, is complaining about his local MP. Tailor is also employed as a housing officer by Islington so you might imagine he would be across housing issues. Tailor is a Labour councillor for East Acton ward. The local Conservative MP is Angie Bray who represents the Ealing Central and Acton constituency.

Is Tailor saying he is the wrong person to raise Housing issues with in Ealing? Tailor draws allowances of £25,488 from the council. He could get on with the job and stop complaining.

If I was advising a resident of Acton who had a housing issue I would tell them that one of the Acton councillors is in charge of housing and if the system isn’t working for you, approach him. Of course, if Labour’s housing boss is telling us he is useless I had better modify my advice.