Author: Phil

Socialist Workers Party messing up South Ealing Road

Post author By Phil
Post date 28th Jun 2007
4 Comments on Socialist Workers Party messing up South Ealing Road

This afternoon I saw two students fly-posting in broad daylight on South Ealing Road, just south of the Tube station. They were pretty green. Maybe they aren’t big enough to go at night on their own yet. I asked them to go and do it somewhere else. Being smart arses they reckoned that using parcel tape to stick them up was not flyposting. I ripped two down and asked them to move along. They carried on and I called our ever-ready envirocrime prevention officer, Ricky Wright. He was in Northfield Avenue with two of the Walpole Safer Neighbourhood Team.

Meanwhile I followed our two daytime fly-posters up South Ealing Road ripping down another six of their posters as I went. Outside TVU I engaged them in conversation to keep them there whilst Ricky & co caught up. The two students, Simon Byrne and John Cooper, both go to some college in Lambeth. They were perfectly earnest and pleasant but did not seem to mind making a mess of our neighbourhood.

The police took their posters and tape off them and verified their identities. Ricky will be writing to give them Fixed Penalty Notices of £80.00 under Section 43 Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 for flyposting.

Bizarely you can buy tickets for the SWP’s “Festival of Resistance” online but they still want to use fly-posting to promote their event. The cynical lefties that sent these idiots out had printed the words “Not to be flyposted” at the bottom of the posters to give themselves plausible deniability. I hope the SWP pay their fines for them. People like Tony Benn, Billy Bragg, Mark Thomas and Tom Stoppard obviously don’t care if the event they are attending uses naive young people to mess up the streets. These are the same idiots that shout into loudhailers in the West End and around Parliament to make their tiny number of supporters seem bigger than they really are.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Mayor complaining again

Today the Mayor is complaining about Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard again. This is becoming a bit of a theme with Livingstone.

On Monday under the title “Ken’s Freedom to manipulate” Gilligan said:

Warning to all London pensioners: if a man with a nasal south London accent, a nasty temper and a bad record of dodgy press releases turns up at your door claiming your free bus pass is “under attack”, call police at once.

Officers believe this man, who calls himself the Mayor of London, has been preying on the elderly for months, manufacturing a totally fraudulent “threat” to the Freedom Pass in a desperate attempt to get OAPs to hand over their votes.

Having failed to get any serious London media outlet to touch the “story”, largely because it has been flatly denied (five times) by the people who run the Freedom Pass and is untrue, Mr Livingstone has now snared innocent actors in his cynical schemes. Figures trusted by the elderly, such as Richard Wilson, TV’s Victor Meldrew, have been persuaded to endorse a message that the pass may be snatched away.

DI Gilligan of the Derry Street CID offers this advice: when dealing with our beloved Mayor, on any matter, simply repeat out loud Victor Meldrew’s most famous catchphrase: “I don’t believe it!”

Another theme for the Mayor is the Freedom Pass. Although this is entirely paid for by the London Boroughs the Mayor has issued 9 press releases on this subject this year, 6 of which named me. He issued this press release today. Read it for yourself. As so often the Mayor is just lying.

Ignore the first paragraph.

The second paragraph talks of “a succession of attacks”. In fact there has only been one attack, see third and fourth paragraphs. London Councils is lobbying to remove the Mayor as the final arbiter in commercial discussions between London councils who fund the £213 million a year Freedom Pass and their supplier TfL. In fact there has been a succession of attempts by the Mayor to paint himself as the saviour of the Freedom Pass when in fact he makes no contribution to it beyond ensuring that TfL can charge local authorities too much. Apparently the Mayor thinks he can be an honest arbiter when it is his own body, TfL, that is one party to the negotiation.

In the fifth paragraph I am mentioned again. It seems a bit disproportionate to use one blog posting from a minor councillor in Ealing as a plank of 6 mayoral press releases.

In the sixth paragraph he talks about his celebrity supporters. Did he tell Michael Parkinson, Richard Wilson, Harold Pinter, Claire Rayner and co that their Freedom Passes cost their local authorities £205 per annum each and that they need to make sure that they actually use them? I don’t suppose he did.

In the last two paragraphs the Mayor just gets rude.

The Mayor is a liar and a bully. He is lying about London councils’ intent, which is just to be allowed to negotiate with their supplier. Councils pay for Freedom Passes. They just want to get value for money from TfL. Last year Ealing’s Freedom Pass bill went up 9.4% (see page 23 of the Budget Book). No wonder councils want a level playing field when they negotiate with TfL. As Gilligan says he is just trying to scare Freedom Pass users. In his fight with councils the Mayor is quite happy to frighten pensioners, hence he is a bully.

Ealing and Northfield

Loaded question

The answers to written questions tabled at the last council meeting last Tuesday have just been published.

At council meetings only 7 questions are taken orally by the cabinet. If there are any further questions then members, ie councillors, are allowed to ask as many written questions as they like. These questions are often used, quite rightly, by opposition councillors to probe the administration and to pursue issues on behalf of their wards. With a by-election looming in Cleveland the LibDems are using questions to try to find issues to raise. In fact of ten written questions tabled all were asked by the tiny 3-man LibDem group.

This time round they haven’t found any smoking guns. Not surprising really as their leader, Harvey Rose, has pretty much been reduced to acknowledging that the Tory run council is doing a good job at the last couple of council meetings.

But, with this question to Will Brooks, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Services, Councillor Ball is in danger of attempting to misuse public resources to sustain the LibDem election campaign:

When will the street lighting be replaced in the following Ealing roads: High View, Rosemount, Rutland Gardens, Kingsley Avenue, Cavendish Avenue and Royle Crescent?

All becomes clear in Will Brooks’ answer:

Rutland Road is currently included as part of the Year 3 lamp column replacement programme that commences in September 2007 and will be completed by August 2008. Unfortunately at this stage I cannot be more precise with the exact date when the lamp columns will be replaced on this road.

The rest of the roads listed currently contain heritage lighting. Following representations from a number of residents the Council is currently looking as to whether this heritage lighting can be retained or replaced with new heritage style lighting. A final decision will be made in due course.

Whatever the outcome, the renewal of these lamp columns will take place between August 2008 and September 2009.

Finally, I note all the roads listed are in Cleveland Ward. Considering there are no Liberal Democrat Councillors in this ward, I am puzzled why Councillor Ball would target these roads and not some in similar ones own ward of Ealing Common. I am sure Councillor Ball would not use Council officer’s time and money for political purposes!

Verdict: Must try harder.

Ealing and Northfield

Ealing Area Committee

The councillors and residents’ association representatives who attended tonight’s Ealing Area Committee had to endure another three hour meeting.

The item that caused the most debate was the Ealing Dean CPZ. Unfortunately I had to sit this item out due to a “prejudicial interest”. In other words I live in the roads being discussed so under the councillors’ code of conduct I could not even be in the room whilst the matter was discussed. I spent 40 minutes sitting on the naughty step. I found out afterwards that I now live in a CPZ.

The funniest part of the evening was when various representatives of the public raised issues. Paul Mathieu representing residents of Marlborough Road and Richmond Road near St Mary’s Church asked that their roads have their CPZ rules changed to accommodate the fact that TVU now has an extensive summer and Saturday programme. Two items later Chris Veasey asked that Church Gardens be made a separate CPZ from the roads where Paul Mathieu lived because some lazy people in the same CPZ have a habit of driving down to the end of Church Gardens to get as near as possible to South Ealing tube, sometimes abandoning their cars for weeks at a time. Veasey pointed out that he was disappointed that Mathieu had already left the meeting as he was a prime offender.

Under the same item Ealing Fields Residents Association complained about the advertising hoardings that have sprung up at the Windmill Lane/Northfield Avenue Junction to block the sightlines of the expensive new pedestrian crossing. They are miserable that they have not been consulted about this change. So are their councillors. Apparently the planners just forgot. Council officers are now trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube.

The idea of having a skating ring on Haven Green next Christmas got a step nearer to reality. Subject to ensuring that residents are consulted and happy the portfolio holder will be able to take this proposal forward.

Ealing and Northfield

Fruzza not reading cleaning stats

Post author By Phil
Post date 25th Jun 2007
No Comments on Fruzza not reading cleaning stats

The LibDem candidate for Cleveland appears on the Ealing Times website this morning.

He says:

Living in the area, I know that many residents are disappointed that the Conservatives have not made the improvements they promised since they gained control of Ealing Council more than a year ago.

Obviously he has not been reading the cleaner streets stats that Jason Stacey sent round to all councillors on Tuesday and which appeared in this Friday’s Gazette. Cleveland ward had 73% grade A streets in November 2006. This went up to 86% in May 2007. With council tax held down to a 1.9% rise and 50 new PCSOs on the way it is hard to see how Fruzza can maintain this line.

Verdict: Must try harder.

Ealing and Northfield

Political summer

I have just got back from a weekend in Paris with my wife to find Gordon Brown being acclaimed as the new leader of the Labour party with Harriet Harman as deputy leader. The Labour Party will be very different over the next few months and in the short term the Tories are going to be slightly on the back foot as shown by this weekend’s poll which showed the Tories behind Labour for the first time in months.

There will be some real polls in the next few weeks in our part of West London. Cllr Brian Castle’s funeral took place on Friday and there will be a by-election on 19th July, less than four weeks away. Ealing Southall’s MP, Piara Khabra died last Tuesday and campaigning will start in that election as soon as his funeral is over on Wednesday – although there have been rumours of Labour doing telephone canvassing for some weeks now.

In Cleveland Labour should be nowhere, see last year’s results. The Lib-Dem’s candidate Francesco Fruzza (see Lib-Dem press release) got within 100 votes of the worst performing Tory then. Francesco has a long-standing interest in local politics, he turned up to the Ealing North Conservative primary which selected Ian Gibb as the Conservative’s candidate and lost Cleveland in 2006 and 2002. I would expect that the new Conservative administration’s effective and focussed concentration on voter’s issues, such as the environment, community safety and council tax, will be translated into votes for the Tory candidate.

Ealing Southall will be altogether more interesting. The 2005 results are here. Although Labour dominated with 23,000 votes there were big votes too for the Lib-Dems with 11,500 votes with the Conservatives with 10,000. I fail to see why Southall’s Asian community should always be natural Labour voters and in any case Southall, and more importantly the constituency which includes a large part of west Ealing, is changing fast. None of the three major parties have selected candidates for this seat yet. Although this looks like a safe Labour seat and the Lib-Dems try to present themselves as the second party I suspect that there will be significant change in Ealing Southall over the next couple of months.

Public sector waste

Greenwich council’s Dome hospitality box

Post author By Phil
Post date 24th Jun 2007
No Comments on Greenwich council’s Dome hospitality box

When I started this blog I thought that I would come across more stories like this one from Friday’s Daily Mail. I am not a big fan of the Mail but sometimes their waste stories are worth repeating.

When council bosses in Greenwich announced £24 million of budget cuts, local taxpayers thought it would be case of belt-tightening all round.

So it might surprise them to learn that £95,000 of their cash has been spent on a luxury box at the Millennium Dome.

Councillors and staff will have one year’s exclusive use of the 15-seat glassfronted suite at the controversial building in South-East London.

From the comfort of sofas, they will be able to watch concerts by Justin Timberlake, The Rolling Stones, Elton John and Prince.

The lease starts on Saturday – just in time for Sunday’s Bon Jovi concert, which is the first at the arena renamed as the O2.

A council report said the corporate box – one of 96 at the venue – would be used for business meetings and to celebrate the achievements of staff and community groups. But Blair Gibbs, campaign manager of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Pensioners and hardworking families in Greenwich are paying for these corporate perks through their high council taxes and they are right to be disgusted.

‘This sort of self-indulgent and unnecessary spending really does border on corruption. The council officials who think they can use our council taxes to buy themselves VIP perks like this should be named and shamed.’

Spencer Dury, Tory opposition leader on Greenwich Council, said the decision showed a ‘very confused set of priorities’.

‘Can you imagine we are making something like £20 million of cuts and we are now spending £95,000 on a corporate box?’ he said.

‘I can’t see that this is a legitimate use of tax payers’ money.’

Last November the Labour-controlled council started a four-year programme of ‘efficiency savings’. Homes for the elderly were among the facilities threatened with closure in the £24million cull.

A Greenwich council spokesman said it already spent money on corporate hospitality and that some of this cash would be diverted to pay for the box.

He said officials planned to sell back unused seats to recoup some of the cost.

‘The arrangement is for one year and will be reviewed by councillors after nine months before a decision is taken on whether to renew the lease,’ he added.

Communications disease

Smoking ban comms costs being hidden by NHS

Post author By Phil
Post date 21st Jun 2007
1 Comment on Smoking ban comms costs being hidden by NHS

I am looking forward to the smoking ban on 1st July no end. What I am not enjoying so much is the government comms fest that is accompanying it. Their own comms manager, Ron Finlay, described this at a recent conference as “a blizzard of publicity” and it touches on brands of rolling papers and tabacco. Does it have to be a blizzard? Can’t it just be a sensible amount of publicity? It is going to be the law after all and the English are notable for their law abiding nature.

My guess is that this is costing £30 million. At this stage I can only guess because the Department of Health, which is leading this campaign, has so far refused to respond to my three requests for the information. Today I wrote to their Tobacco Programme Manager, Nick Adkin, in the hope that he will fess up.

I made the first request on 17th May, then again on 5th June and 18th June. I have not heard a word back.

At least these people are artless. Although they don’t like to brag about how much raw cash they are spending they can’t help blowing their own trumpet and using their little website to brag about how much wonderful advertising they are doing, follow the link. All sounds great but the Department of Health reckoned that 93% people had got the message back in April, follow the link. Having got a huge comms budget I guess it would be too much to hope that they would perhaps give it back and spend it on something more directly useful, like a few hip replacements say, rather than just tell people what they already know.

Could it be that the Department of Health is keen to be promoting itself just as Gordon Brown comes to power?

Ealing and Northfield

Stacey gets the hump

Jason Stacey pretty much called Councillors Greenhead and Mahfouz liars at last night’s council meeting and has referred the matter to the Council’s Head of Legal Services. Here is the full story from Ealing Conservatives press release:

STEVE POUND LEAFLET IS REFERRED TO LEGAL SERVICES FOR DAMAGING LIES AGAINST COUNCIL

A Labour party leaflet circulated in Hobbayne ward under the banner of Steve Pound MP has been referred to the Council’s Head of Legal Services for telling lies which may do damage to Ealing Council’s reputation. The leaflet which was printed and promoted by Labour councillor, Bassam Mahfouz, claims that a local police officer “announced the likely imminent demolition of much loved Hanwell Community Centre” at a recent public meeting.

The reality is that there is no possibility of demolition of the Community Centre and neither the Council nor the policeman quoted have ever suggested there was. Sgt Dave Williams of Hobbayne Safer Neighbourhood team yesterday emailed Council Leader, Jason Stacey, saying: “Any references that are being made to the Hanwell Community Centre being demolished within a year are to my knowledge incorrect and if I gave that impression at the Hanwell Area Committee meeting then I apologise…”

The leaflet is particularly ironic in that just three years ago the previous Labour Council tried to sell the Community Centre. As the Benham Road and Hale Walk Residents Association said in an e-mail to Cllr Stacey earlier this week: “With regard to the Hanwell Community Centre, this is extremely upsetting that the MP Steve Pound, Phil Greenhead and her past associate no longer a councillor, find it in their interest to say they support the centre when they gave no support… It is useful to remember that the centre was in an auction for sale three years ago and was pulled out with public opposition.”

Leader of the Council, Cllr Jason Stacey said the leaflet crossed the line in what as acceptable in party leaflets and questions the probity of officers of the Council:

“All parties put out leaflets which try to spin the truth and put their best possible case forward, but this one crosses the line by telling outright lies. Steve Pound and Bassam Mahfouz have put their names to an outrageous sheet of slurs that unfairly embroils a police officer for political gain. The allegations are very serious but they are completely false. The undertone questions not only politicians but also the probity of the relevant officers of this Council. I am therefore referring the leaflet to the Head of Legal Services to ask her to investigate potential impact upon the image and reputation of the Council as a whole.”

MPs usually like to keep their reputations in good order. By being associated with Greenhead and Mahfouz’s lying leaflet Pound is in danger of squandering his.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Damian Hockney agrees

Damian Hockney reckons that I have got it right with my posting about the Fire Authority. Today he writes:

Phil
On the subject of LFEPA, we picked up your comment and you are of course 100% correct. Indeed, I made almost the same coment to the Standard in its first edition today. And the issue of the ‘Londoner’ is a key to understanding where control does (or does not) lie in the authority.

But of course after the “reforms” in the Review of Powers Bill, the Mayor will find it a lot easier to have complete control (“powers of direction” and two extra appointees laughably called independents). I think that both Darren Johnson and Peter Hulme-Cross will refuse to accept the current situation (and their places on the Authority) until this is resolved and until the parties are allowed to nominate who they see fit. But of course the Mayor has just asked the parties to think again (not actually blocked the nominations)…which I guess might allow him to climb down this evening – but in spite of our own legal advice which says that the Mayor is acting outside his authority, there do exist avenues for him to behave like this and while one law says he can’t do something, another set of rules and precedents in the Act appear to say “well it ain’t that simple”.

That 99 Act was a mess…to be made much worse by this Bill going through.
Anyway, thought your comment was spot on.
Damian

Damian Hockney, Leader, One London Party, London Assembly, City Hall, London SE1 2AA