Author: Phil

This week the Ealing & Acton Gazette published a letter from an Ann Pavett. In it she essentially challenges Councillor Mark Reen that he will face the wrath of voters for having the temerity to speak in favour of the Dickens Yard scheme. She says:

Councillor Mark Reen should indeed be feeling uncomfortable that his views are not in accord with a great many residents on the issue of the Dicken’s Yard Development.

I believe in democracy and as far as I am concerned we elect people to office and award them money to broadly represent our wishes.

If it becomes apparent that they are not representing our wishes we vote them out of office.

She is quite right to point out that councillors are accountable to their electorates. Pavett herself fails to point out that she has a role in Save Ealing’s Centre (SEC).

SEC are a group of unaccountable activists who refuse to identify themselves on their website and refuse to publish minutes of their meeting or even publish notices of meetings or invite public participation. It seems the council organises public participation and unaccountable SEC throws rocks from the sides. Until SEC identify themselves it is too easy to write them off as a small group of people with big houses in the centre of Ealing who represent a very narrow interest.

This morning Ealing Times has caught up with an issue that was raised at the council meeting last Tuesday. Ian Gibb, who is the portfolio holder for children’s services, pointed out that at the last Youth Provision Specialist Scrutiny Panel, see minutes here, no Labour members managed to turn up. There are meant to be three sitting Labour members. It is hard for councillors to do everything they should. But for all three to no-show and fail to get subs is a bit crap.

In their defence Labour whip Brian Reeves says:

There was a meeting in Southall which our councillors were told started at 5.30pm about the regeneration there. However, when they turned up they were told it would not be starting until 7pm, and there was not enough time in between to make the substitutions for the youth panel.

It’s unfair to say we do not care about the youth in Ealing, as we have our deputy leader Ranjit Dheer on the committee, and Patricia Walker has done a lot of work on this already. If you look at our spending record compared with that of the Conservative council you will see that actually we care a lot more than them.

Reeves is bullshitting. The Southall regeneration meeting he referred to happened as published. If Cllr Dheer can’t decipher an agenda that is his problem. It is also pretty incredible that Cllrs Gallagher (South Acton) and Walker (North Greenford) had any interest in a Southall regeneration meeting. It is stranger still that Walker, shadow cabinet member for children’s services, prioritised a Southall regeneration meeting over a meeting that is so clearly at the centre of her portfolio.

Beyond the Reeves bullshit the really telling line is this one: “If you look at our spending record compared with that of the Conservative council you will see that actually we care a lot more than them.” This is factually wrong but more importantly the focus on inputs rather than outputs is key to the failure of the Blair/Brown project and the failure of Labour in Ealing. You can’t drive outcomes if you don’t turn up.

I was given a preview of the new library yesterday and it looks great. The place was full of library staff filling shelves and getting ready for next Tuesday’s opening. A lot of thought has gone into the new library and it has been transformed into a much brighter and more usable facility. The study facilities are wonderful and I am sure that they will be well used.

There is an RFI tag based system for managing the library books. This means users just scan their books and walk out. If they walk out without scanning an alarm goes off. This will eliminate queues and allow the staff to concentrate on helping people rather than stamping books in and out.

Compared to the old library it is an uplifting place to be. I know the staff have worked hard to turn this project around after earlier technical problems delayed it. Having refurbished a building myself I know how hard it is. The result looks like the effort and £2 million bill were well worth it. See it for yourself from 9am on Tuesday 29th July.

Last night’s full council meeting was typically rumbustuous. See agenda and list of motions here. After some argy-bargy about box junctions, more on that later, the main business of the evening was Council Tax. The following Tory motion was debated for the largest part of the evening, the Labour group withdrawing their motion:

This Council notes that in the twelve years to 2006 Council Tax in Ealing rose by 178.5%, a rate of increase greater than 31 of the 32 other London Councils. Council resolves to continue this administration’s policy of easing the financial burden on residents by keeping any Council Tax increases to below the rate of inflation.

Amazingly, after a tortuous defence of their past records both the Labour group and the Lib-Dems voted in favour of this motion. Some of the Labour councillors were looking a little green around the gills and only kind of half put their hands up. Councillor Liz Brookes looked particularly sheepish and Councillor Patricia Walker kept her hand firmly down. It just shows how quickly the zeitgeist has turned that this open-ended commitment to keep Council Tax below inflation indefinitely has been supported by both of the tax raising parties. Only a few months ago it is clear that the tax raising parties would have voted against. Now it is a no-brainer.