Month: Dec 2006

Categories
Ealing envirocrime

Council sorts out corner of Ridley and Fulmer

In another example of the council being more pro-active and sorting Northfield’s environment out the council’s contractors moved onto the site at the corner of Fulmer Way and Ridley Avenue last Thursday.

The exercise was led by the Envirocrime protection team. You can see me chatting with David Stokes, one of the team leaders, below. As an ex-park ranger he finds it hard not to be hands on so the opportunity to tear into some undergrowth with a power tool was more than he could bear.

David Stokes at Ridley Fulmer<br=all>

The site had been used as a dumping ground so first of all a lorry load of sofas and the such-like had to be cleared away. Someone had dumped some old asbestos roofing – this is typically pretty safe but it still needs to be handled properly so a specialist Asbestos Consultants, was sent out to do this. If you’ve ever seen anyone safely dispose of an asbestos fence, then you know how much work is involved. The broken down fence was removed along with some of the larger shrubs. We left some of the budlea for the butterflies next summer. A new fence was then put up around the site to make it look smarter and to keep fly-tippers and drinkers out.

Ricky Wright, who is the Northfield Envirocrime Protection Officer, led the exercise. He reports to David. Ricky traced the owners of the land, wrote to them and served a notice under Section 80 of the Environmental Protection Act notice (this relates to abatement of nuisance). The notice was not complied with so he arranged for the council’s contractors to carry out the works in default. The council will now seek to collect its costs from the owners. Ultimately they will simply put a charge on the property so that costs are recovered when the owner gets around to selling it.

This kind of action takes meticulous work from officers and unfortunately it takes some time to jump through the legal hoops. You can see the almost finished result below. I talked to both of the immediately adjacent neighbours who were thrilled to see the work being done. Well done to all.

Ridley Fulmer Corner almost finished

Categories
Communications disease Health, housing and adult social services

NHS logo bill doubles

In another example of warped priorities in Labour’s management of the NHS the Daily Mail is reporting this morning that NHS spending on policing its logo has doubled in the last four years. The information comes from a written answer to shadow health minister, Andrew Lansley.

In 2001-02 this spending was £179,807 but by last year it had risen to £333,996.

In fact they even have a whole website devoted to it.

Categories
Health, housing and adult social services

Ealing Times hatchet job

The Ealing Times has done a piece on me today. You would probably call it a hatchet job.

It is an entirely respectable argument to point out that Labour are using the language of reducing health inequalities to direct NHS resources at their own voters. The traditional approach to the allocation of NHS resources has been clinical need. Any combat medic or A&E doctor has to practise “triage”. The logic of tackling health inequality does take you in the other direction.

The language I used was easy misinterpret but Benedict Moore Bridger of the ET is really taking the Mickey. When you try to highlight how New Labour are singing the song of health inequalities while at the same time reducing health spending in Ealing you might think that the local paper would spot the real issue not just have a go at someone’s turn of phrase.

Categories
Health, housing and adult social services

Labour councillor draws attention to NHS mismanagement

TownhallThe only excitement at last night’s full council meeting was Labour Councillor Greenhead quoting my blog.

She quoted from a paragraph that I had written in my report of the last Health, Housing and Adult Social Services Panel.

Greenhead complains about my robust turn of phrase but refuses to acknowledge that the Labour government has made massive cuts to preventative health services right here in Ealing in spite of the best efforts of our own PCT. This year Ealing PCT was planning to spend £5 million on new preventative health measures. Over the summer, as a result of the current financial crisis in the NHS, Ealing PCT’s entire budget was top sliced by 3% and instead of having £5 million to spend on new services they were looking at taking £6 million out of their current spending plans.

Now that Greenhead has highlighted my “insensitive and inappropriate comments” I would be interested to hear her views on local NHS cuts which are actually destroying services designed to help Ealing people make better choices and improve their own health.

The full paragraph was:

Ruth Barnes gave a presentation on health inequalities and pointed out that health inequalities are Ealing PCT’s number 1 priority. That is fine but it is a bit obvious that those that make all the right choices all their lives, whether it is in education or health, will have better outcomes than those that make crap choices all their lives. The presentation kept referring to the good outcomes in places like Hangar Hill where homes cost about £2 million. If you live in one of these you have probably been making cute decisions all your life and you will probably have a long life. If you follow the inequality logic to its natural conclusion you end up pushing all of your health resources at people who are basket cases. It does seem though that the PCT is responding to this priority in the right way with behaviour changing initiatives – unfortunately these are just the services that they are having to freeze or cut due to Labour’s mismanagement of the health service.

No amount of huffing and puffing from Labour councillors is going to hide Labour’s mismanagement of the health service.

Categories
Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Mayor wants Waste for London

The Mayor today reconfirmed, in answers to Angie Bray AM, that he would seek amendments to the bill currently going through Parliament to allow him to take over London’s waste disposal and create a pan-London waste disposal authority.

This of course would be a disaster for London. The Mayor sees the ultra-wasteful and expensive Transport for London as a model. The LFEPA model, with its strong representation from London Boroughs, is one that the Mayor will not countenance.

The cost of waste disposal to council tax payers is already set to spiral out of control due to the Labour government’s land fill tax and the EU land fill directive. We can guarantee that allowing Livingstone loose on this subject with our chequebooks will be excruciating.

Categories
Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Funny freeze

The Mayor today announced a 29p a week increase in council tax today. Being a serial dissembler (liar to you and me) he opens his press release with some irrelevant waffle about the Olympics tax not changing and then slips in that the precept will go up 5.2% next year. Most people express rises in percentages so that they are comprehensible. Not the London Liar who uses the “29p a week” construction to confuse you.

Just to recap in 1999/2000, the year before the Mayor came into being, I was charged £129.07 for the Met and £45.95 for the London Fire Brigade. Next year the bill will be £506.03. So the Mayor’s charge has gone up 2.89 times in eight years. Does this mean 2.89 times more police? No.

For press coverage follow link.

Categories
Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Ealing Times = London Mayor

It looks like the Ealing Times comes at some issues from the same direction as our beloved Mayor. They reported yesterday that Roger Evans, Tory transport spokesman on the London Assembly, is in hot water for an unguarded comment on his blog about free bus passes for young people on London Buses.

Evans said:

Given the cost of this concession, the levels of antisocial behaviour and the lack of control over the issuing and checking of passes, I will be recommending abolition – if asked.

The Ealing Times article fails to mention the cost of the scheme. These concessions have cost £55 million a year which is an awful lot of money that is not targeted at the poorest in society. The Mayor loves to trumpet these give aways without honestly talking about their costs. The costs have to be winkled out in questions because the Mayor only ever talks about benefits, not costs.

In addition to the cost many people feel intimidated by freeloading youngsters on the buses and the Police are finding that young criminals are using the bus system to do more crime as a result of these free passes. At the very least there should be a 9pm curfew for them. We pay twice if we let young people on our buses for free and then they scratch every window on the top floor with graffiti.

Only yesterday I had to restrain myself from leaping out of my car to remonstrate with a youngster who threw a bottle out of the top floor window of a double decker. The Mayor’s taxi bill is so large I can well believe that he rarely has to deal with foul mouthed youngsters on buses as I had to in Greenford recently.

I don’t suppose the Ealing Times has made the connection with their own story the previous week.

On September 17 this year, a 22-year-old man from Hayes was punched and kicked to the floor by a 30-strong gang on the 207 bus in Ealing, at 5.30am. His nose was broken, he suffered a deep cut to his eyelid which required nine stitches and he needed a further eye operation. The victim was off work for three weeks and on prescription pain medication for a month.

All the members of the MDP gang who attacked the man were eligible for free bus passes.

London Buses are subsidised to the tune of £100 millions. Again the Mayor keeps talking about buses but refuses to honestly address the subsidy we all pay. There is no way you can read TfL’s Statement of Accounts and work out what the bus subsidy is.

This year the Mayor increased his charge on us by 13.3%. For me this means that the Mayor’s charge is £481.02 this year. In 1999/2000, the year before the Mayor came into being, I was charged £129.07 for the Met and £45.95 for the London Fire Brigade. So the Mayor’s charge has gone up 2.75 times in seven years. Can you afford this Mayor?

Categories
Ealing and Northfield Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Good news on council tax

Writing in his weekly column today Ealing Council Leader, Jason Stacey, promises “to keep any increases as low as possible”.

One of the biggest risks to the council tax is the continuing greed and wastefulness of the London Mayor. As Jason says:

Whilst we will be showing restraint, we must remember that £288 of the council tax is totally out of the council’s control. This is the part that is determined by Ken Livingstone and the GLA. Last year Ken raised his part of the council tax by 13.5%, and he has more than doubled it since he became Mayor.

We will be doing everything we can to reduce the burden of any council tax increases for residents. I only hope Mayor Livingstone will show similar restraint!

Every time the Mayor tells you of some minor new freebie he is giving away just remember that in the seven years since the old regime started to be reformed to get ready for the London Mayor the precept has gone up 2.75 times.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Gazette now online

Ealing Gazette

The Ealing Gazette has joined the 21st century and gone on line. Well done! See link right.

I am not sure what their policy is with respect to keeping the online version up to-date. Today’s stories are not up on it yet.

They report that Andrew Slaughter is cutting and running from Ealing and going back to Hammersmith. He obviously does not fancy his chances of winning against Angie Bray in the new seat of Ealing Central and Acton. He won’t have much fun in the new Fulham and Chelsea seat where he will be up against the very successful Greg Hands.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield Policing

Northfield SNT Focus Meeting

SNT banner from Met site.jpgLast night we had the 3rd Safer Neighbourhood Team focus meeting. Sgt Elam was there along with his PC, Stuart Hedley. There were 6 reps from residents and traders associations plus Ricky Wright, our envirocrime enforcement officer and Cllr Millican and myself.

The team of four promised by the Mayor by the end of April (see his press release) finally materialised at the end of November. Only 7 months late. Such are pre-election promises.

The good news is that a third PCSO is due to start today and another PC in January to bring us up to the full SNT team strength of 6 (1 sergeant, 2 PCs and 3 PCSOs).

The accommodation issue is not yet settled. The latest plan is a shared shop unit on South Ealing Road with the Ealing Common team. Sounds good to me.

We spent most of our time examining the three priorities set by the focus meeting.

Drugs

At the last meeting we set reducing the levels of drug activity as the first priority. Although there are 3 potential hot spots in the area the team have only found one person in possession since they started operating in April. They make about 30 stops per week so after stopping almost 1,000 people they have found 1 person. The police officers thought that the problem may be more one of perception than reality.

Vehicle crime

Motor vehicle crime is the biggest single category of crime in the ward. In Q2 there were 61 incidents, it went down to 35 in Q3 and back up to 48 in Q4. There is quite a mix with everything from key scratching to satnav thefts. There is a particular problem with one individual slashing car tyres. It is perhaps more prevalent in the south of the ward where it neighbours Brentford. Most victims are residents. The Police are actively educating owners to try to reduce the incidence of this crime. The team have not nabbed any villains for car crime.

Graffiti

Since the team started eight young offenders have been caught. Most have been let off with a caution as this is the first time they have come to the attention of the Police. One individual should be getting an ASBO on Thursday. There was general agreement that the new graffiti service combined with an effective envirocrime protection officer, Ricky, and this effective police work was having a marked effect on graffiti in the area.

CCTV

Linda Massey, from Boston Manor Residents Association, has been championing a new style of cheap CCTV system and has been working with the shops in Boston Manor Parade. This was of great interest to the Northfield Traders rep where they are having a problem with vandals scratching glass.

Burglaries

There was a big growth in burglaries in the last quarter to 24. More worrying there were 14 incidents in the last two weeks. Sneak thieves talking their way into the homes of the elderly are included in this category. Luckily there has been no violence but everyone is warned to check the id of callers. Apparently there is a pair of women going around claiming to be from Age Concern. If you are vulnerable trust no-one.

Priorities

We had a conversation about resetting priorities. The number one priority should be burglary, followed by motor vehicle crime, followed by more general criminal damage including graffiti.

The next meeting is provisionally scheduled for 7.30pm at room upstairs at the Harvester on Boston Manor Road on 13th February.

Call Sgt Elam on 07879 888989 if you have any local crime issues or if you would like to attend the next focus meeting.