After a couple of setbacks the Central library is due to open 29th July. See council’s press release issued yesterday. The library was originally expected to open in January, but structural problems and a fire meant it had to be put back. I’ll be knocking on the door with my library card in my hand on 29th.
Andrew Gimson, the Telegraph’s parliamentary sketch writer, has added another chapter to his biography of Boris Johnson which covers his race for the London mayoralty. Read it here. It is a riveting read. He describes Boris’ Prince Hal moment thus:
Boris himself understood that to win, he had to grit his teeth and make concessions. He broke decisively with the self-destructive style of politics he had learnt from his father Stanley, in which absolutely everything has to be treated as a joke.
It is not that Boris became serious – in my view he has always been seriously gifted, energetic and ambitious – but that he began to evince an unexpected steadiness. Gone were the gaffes on which the press feasted. In their place was a grasp of policy the equal of Ken’s, allied to a far greater determination to do something about questions, such as knife crime, on which Ken had nothing new to say.
This was all pretty obvious back in March when the press turnout for Boris’ housing policy launch at RIBA on St Pat’s day was a bit thin. As I said then:
The press have learnt by now that they won’t get many jokes, that Boris will stay relentlessly on-message and that they can get the whole speech and all of the referenced and footnoted research straight off Boris’ website. They have learnt they don’t need to turn up because Boris will stick to the script.
Whilst the new mayor is busily transforming London and making some cash for himself on the side (see below), maybe the old mayor, with more time on his hands, will support the RMT union’s Garden Party for Cuba today.
Be careful though with all that free booze around you never know when things are going to kick off.
Telegraph columnist Boris Johnson, AKA London Mayor, is back writing a regular column in the Telegraph. Today’s offering explains why he sometimes leaves his cycle helmet behind.
This morning I popped into Perceval House to get a parking permit.
This time it was for real, not just a jolly mystery shopping exercise.
I arrived at 9:20am, I was seen at 9:35am and left the building with a shiny new parking permit at 9:43am.
When I arrived there was a queue of 6 people for permits. There were four Parking Services stations open and I was told that the fifth would be filled later that morning by a lady who works the middle-of-the-day busy period around her children’s school hours – a very sensible bit of flexible working I reckon.
On the negative side the main door hasn’t been working since my first trip, the glass of the front door is all messed up with bits of old sticky tape and there is a lot of litter around the steps. I can feel an e-mail coming on.
I would be very interested to hear your Ealing council customer service stories – good or bad.
Mayor Johnson chaired his first Olympic Board meeting today and announced cuts to the GLA programme for the Beijing Olympics. See Standard story here. He aims to save £1.2 million out of the £4.6 million budget for the so-called London House at the Beijing Olympics. Most of this £4.6 million is of little value to Londoners but you need to be careful not to just destroy ventures like this for the sake of it. If much of the money is already committed it is destructive to just chop it. It looks like a practical decision to cut the cost of the London House without just scrapping it outright.
No doubt Gordon Ramsay’s 18 cooks, note not Ramsay himself, will be disappointed not to be going to Beijing. I guess cooking in Beijing in August would be a pretty hot and sticky business so maybe not such a loss.
It is hard to work out where to draw the line. The TfL magic bus to Beijing which was cancelled last month was going to cost £450,000. It was cancelled but £150,000 had already been spent and was thus wasted. The trip would have looked somewhat inappropriate in the face of the Chinese earthquake. The £300K saving looks worthwhile and sensible. On balance another good decision. But, if £350,000 had been committed you might have kept it and perhaps changed the route to avoid earthquake areas.
The best way to save money is not to make these grandiose commitments in the first place. It is easy to make gestures when you are spending other people’s money. Much better that this money is spent closer to home on events that real Londoners can enjoy. Even better if some or all of it is left in our own pockets for our own pleasure.
Today Localis, which is essentially the local government bit of Policy Exchange, published a pamphlet titled “The Million Vote Mandate: The Challenges facing Boris Johnson”.
The Crossrail bit was done by me. They seem to have garbled the end bit somewhat. There are no sub-editors in think tank land.
The interim report of the Mayor’s Forensic Audit Panel, looking into both the LDA and GLA, was published today. It didn’t sound like there will be many new revelations. The most quotable quote from the short document was:
Further work is required to validate the position but it does appear that the London Development Agency has been historically an organisation where success was measured by money [paid] out rather than objectively observed results.
They could be talking about most of the state there.
The Sunday Times covered this story and used the headline “Boris uncovers Ken’s ‘wasted millions’” so you have to figure they were given a stronger briefing by Wheatcroft or someone else.
The most interesting bit is probably the last paragraph:
The GLA makes grants, as does the LDA, sometimes to the same projects. There are many other grant-giving bodies in London. We are looking at the scope for rationalisation.
They seem to be missing the point that the LDA is meant to be doing economic regeneration. Livingstone abused it and turned it into to his piggy bank. It got dipped into to fund any old social project he thought worthy. The LDA needs to refocus on core economic regeneration.
After Cllr Bell’s contribution to last night’s cabinet meeting, reported below, the Ealing Tory group on the council have issued the following press relase:
LABOUR LEADER WHO VOTED FOR 48% COUNCIL TAX RISES NOW CALLS FOR SERVICE CUTS
Ealing’s Labour Group Leader, Cllr Julian Bell, stunned Cabinet last night when he called on the Council to find millions of pounds of service cuts in preparation for next year’s budget.
The remarks made by Cllr Bell are extraordinary given his record on Council Tax. During the last term of the previous Labour administration, Cllr Bell voted for Council Tax increases amounting to 48% over four years. By contrast, he has voted against the two below inflation Council Tax increases of 1.9% by the current Conservative administration. As recently as March this year, Labour was calling on the Conservative administration to increase spending and taxation in Ealing by £3.6M.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Jason Stacey said: “The last Labour administration increased Council Tax in Ealing by more than every other Council in London apart from Croydon. Cllr Bell has fought us at every turn in our efforts to offer relief to Council Tax payers, so it is quite breathtaking that he suddenly now wants us to cut services.
“This administration has made it clear that we understand people’s financial difficulties in the current economic climate, and will continue to deliver value for money with below inflation Council tax increases. However, we are committed to maintaining support for the vulnerable and will not make the kind of cuts that will put key Council services at risk.
“I challenge Cllr Bell to say exactly where he would like to see cuts and how he would protect the elderly and other vulnerable people from his axe. We look forward to seeing the outcome of his work.”
Apparently the Labour party is trying on for size the idea that it should appear to be in favour of cutting taxes. This time last week Denis McShane had a piece in the Telegraph and asked: “Can the Left be tax-cutters? Why not? “.
This evening the new leader of Labour in Ealing, Cllr Julian Bell, gave the notion a road test here. I attended my first cabinet meeting as a cabinet member tonight. The most important report we discussed was the one setting out the council’s budget strategy and process. In this report the cabinet were asked to agree to the following recommendation:
Agree that a cash efficiency target of 4.9% of net departmental budgets be set as part of the 2009/10 budget strategy and 3% across the following two years in line with government efficiency target for local authorities.
This is a demanding target and one that we will have to work very hard to meet. Apparently this was not good enough for Councillor Bell who asked that we seek to identify further savings with a view to perhaps proposing a council tax freeze or even cutting the council tax.
As you no doubt know the new Conservative administration has delivered a below inflation 1.9% council tax rise two year’s running in Ealing.
Heaven rejoices, we are told, over a sinner that repenteth but I fear that Cllr Bell’s new found tax cutting zeal is not that credible. He is one of the Labour councillors who voted through the 25.9% increase in council tax in 2003. Just to remind you in 1997/8 the Ealing Band D council tax was £585. By 2006/7, only 9 years later, it had risen to £1,309. That is a 124% rise.
Incidentally the cabinet agreed all of the recommendations of the Parking Services Specialist Scrutiny Panel.
Phil Taylor 