On the way home from work yesterday afternoon I popped into the Airedale Road Big Lunch. I took the picture above from local resident, Russell Davis’s, flickr account, more pictures here. The Airedale Road residents had the advantage of having their own resident band living in their street, Storey. It was all very chilled and the bit of rain wasn’t bothering anyone. Good job Airedalians.
On Friday our local paper proved yet again how sloppy it can be. The Gazette came up with the following page 3 headline of in their Ealing & Acton edition:
An end in sight to parking fiasco in West Ealing
The full article, by James Gates, is here. The “fiasco” he refers to is the scheduled introduction of the Ealing Dean CPZ last June. We routinely review these CPZs after they are introduced. The mistake the council has made up until now is to use some loose wording about when it will review these in the consultation documents we send out. The Ealing Dean consultation document is here. It says:
We review any new parking controls within their first year.
This really is a bit ambitious. I think we should probably be offering to this review within a maximum two years and only if the funds are available. You wouldn’t even ask the question until the thing had been in for six months. We then have to make sure there is some budget in place to do the consultation and sign off the money. It is going to be in the next financial year after the scheme is put in and it is easy to see how a scheme put in towards the end of a financial year would get reviewed in the next but one year. The residents around the Ealing Dean CPZ, which is only a short and pleasant walk across Walpole Park from the town centre, have been plagued by “displacement parking”. I fully sympathise with their plight but we will be reviewing this CPZ this summer which only a year and the odd month after the CPZ came into force. The Ealing Dean CPZ came into being on 17th June and enforcement did not start for two weeks after that on July 2nd to give people the chance to get used to the new set up. As we are still only in July this does not seem wildly out of order to me.
The problem with the Gazette story is that it mixes up the Ealing Dean story with a ruling by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) on another scheme a good 2 or 3 miles away in Southall. Apparently the LGO has asked Ealing to give an anonymous citizen in Southall £1,000 in compensation for his injury and inconvenience. You can see the full report here. It refers to the consultation around the Southall Area 5 CPZ. The document is here and has the same wording around reconsultation as the Ealing Dean document.
Although these cases are similar they are quite distinct and it is just sloppy that the Gazette has failed to explain them properly. No doubt they will argue there is a limit to how much they can explain in 12 column inches. It seems that the council’s six page consultation documents are not long enough to cover every possible nuance of public information we need to impart. Maybe it would be useful if these documents were 12 pages long – I doubt it. I think it is reasonable for the council to argue that the public debate triggered by such a consultation should be sufficient to bring out some of this detail. The Southall CPZ was implemented on 1st July 2008 so it seems a bit previous for the LGO to be issuing a report on 7th July telling the council it is wildly out of order. Fractionally late maybe. We signed off a cabinet paper giving these consultations the go ahead on 7th April, which was as early in the year that could have done this, see here.
CPZs are horrible issues for local councillors. They are not really at all political, at least not with a large P. If politics is emotion then they are political with a small p. Councillors cannot win. There will always be a large body of losers whatever decision is made. They make great copy for a lazy and inaccurate local paper though. Whoop! Whoop!
I don’t often write about council meetings as they tend to be of little interest to many people. Last night’s was fairly straightforward though. The Labour group had a total paddy and threw their toys out of the pram. They took exception to the way the new Mayor, Barbara Yerolemou, wanted to run the meeting. Apart from her ceremonial duties the main job of the Mayor is to act as chairman at council meetings. As such the Mayor has pretty much absolute power to decide what is talked about and when but obviously the party whips discuss the business with the Mayor and they work it out together. It all seems to have broken down last night.
If you look at the agenda for last night you will see that there was the main debate chosen by the Labour opposition on the £50 rebate we are giving residents in December followed by two Labour motions, one on flats recycling and one on the consultation around the Acton regeneration project. We discussed the first two and then the Labour group marched off at 9pm before we could discuss their third piece of business.
Today they issued a press release saying:
Biased Tory Mayor Must Go
Labour has demanded that Ealing’s Conservative Mayor Cllr Barbara Yerolemou should be sacked after a furious row erupted at last night’s Council meeting provoking a dramatic protest by Labour councillors. A motion calling for her to be sacked will be discussed at the next Council meeting.
“Cllr Yerolemou has a deserved reputation as a strident class warrior and she has certainly lived up to it. She was a very bad choice as Mayor and should go. At her first meeting she allowed her Conservative colleagues to filibuster all night and deny councillors the opportunity to debate any opposition motions, this time she attempted to gag opposition members and stop debate on opposition motions so that the Conservatives could debate their own motion slapping themselves on the back. Her behaviour was extremely partisan”, said Ealing’s Labour Leader Cllr Julian Bell.
I missed the last council meeting because I had a work commitment so can’t comment on the filibustering charge but last night’s little show was just silly. You can only imagine that the Labour group wrote their press release without actually checking what happened at the meeting. Council debates usually end at 9.30pm unless we agree to raise the “guillotine”. Last night we debated the Acton regeneration motion with the LibDems and then broke up at 9.30pm without discussing the Tory motion which Labour alleges that the Mayor was trying to make time for. To suggest that the system is treating you unfairly when the council spends most of the evening debating your chosen issues is plain silly.
Councillor Elizabeth Brookes is a bit of a walk out queen. This is the fourth time I have seen her storm out of meetings this year because she did not get her way. She twice stormed out of Gunnersbury Park regeneration board meeting this year complaining that she was needed to see a PowerPoint presentation in advance. She stormed out of the May Cabinet meeting in Acton where we talking about Acton regeneration and she led the walk out yesterday. In May the Cabinet specifically met in Acton to give Acton people the chance to hear what was said. Brookes, a South Acton councillor, obviously does not like real debate on her own patch. Last night she led a walk out at 9pm just as we were about to discuss Acton regeneration, or at least the consultation on it, again. Brookes really doesn’t like debate – mainly because she loses it seems.
If you click on the Customer Services Category link on the right hand menu you will see that I regularly check the performance of our Customer Services organisation. You might call it mystery shopping.
Today I was shopping in earnest as I needed a new parking permit and some more CPZ vouchers. We had our car totalled in a hit and run whilst it was parked outside the house last month. It was written off as a result. I needed a new permit rather than a renewal.
I walked in the 4:36pm. There were only 8 people waiting in the whole facility and I was only the second person waiting for a permit. I was seen in 2 minutes. Having checked my paperwork, given me permit and vouchers and taken payment I was out in another 8 minutes. Total time in Customer Services 10 minutes.
Great service from a very nice lady. Thank you.
The council is currently consulting on the idea of putting a skate park into Elthorne Park. There is a little history to this. Last year we ran a Youth Provision Specialist Scrutiny Panel, see final report here. This was in turn a follow up to the annual Youth Conference we have held since 2007. As part of this work we asked 18,000 young people how they would spend £1 million to improve youth provision. Some of the answers that came back were improve parks and provide a skate park. It seemed natural to combine these.
The council believes that a high quality skate park in a park setting would be an asset to the borough and would be well used and popular with young people. The next question is where to put it. A number of locations have been considered. We got down to three: Ealing Central Sports Ground in Perivale, Elthorne Park, Hanwell and Northala Fields, Northolt. All three have their appeal but Elthorne Park stands out due to the distance away from neighbouring homes, proximity to the sports centre at Elthorne Park High School where there is a manned reception, an easy link to CCTV, toilets, etc. The site can easily be viewed from the road – a big plus from a security point of view.
We have NOT decided to go ahead with this project. We feel that this is a realistic and worthwhile project and we are putting it to the public in this consultation. We have sent out a special version of the consultation to 2,500 local residents. These are the important people here. We also put a piece in the July issue of Around Ealing to steer people to the more general version for other borough residents on the website here.
For Hanwell people, especially people living near to Elthorne Park, we have a classic NIMBY issue. Most people would like to see more facilities for young people but would perhaps prefer to see someone else hosting them. We do think this is a good location and one where young people can have a great facility without bugging the neighbours (too much).
I was disappointed to see a picture of six lonely looking protestors on page 4 of the Ealing and Acton Gazette yesterday. Carolyn Brown, who styles herself chair of Hanwell Community Forum, was pictured along with five other people, and two dogs, under the headline “We don’t want a skate park”. She might have waited for the consultation results before she ran off to the paper. Having been a portfolio holder for over a year I have never received a letter or an e-mail from this woman but she seems to be in the paper every few minutes. She has certainly done a better job of getting her photo in the paper than I have. I am always a bit suspicious that Hanwell Community Forum is not much more than a platform for Ms Carolyn Brown, certainly I can’t find any notices of meetings, minutes, etc online. She says:
If consultation shows that there is a genuine demand in Ealing for a skate park then we (I) would support that. But Ealing is a very big place, so we (I) are (am) wondering why they would have to put a skate-boarding facility in the middle of Elthorne Park. This is a site which is regularly used by people of all ages, and the trees and grass are vital to the area. This would create noise and disturbance.
People having fun usually is a bit noisy. Sorry. I do think this is a good site and I accept we are asking a lot of the neighbours. You have until 17th July to take part in the consultation. Being both a local (next door) councillor and the person in charge of parks I am particularly interested in your opinion. I think this is a great project and I hope that Hanwell backs it.
Ealing Council will be running a Parks as Community Assets Specialist Scrutiny Panel this year. For more information follow this link.
The first meeting will be held tonight in at 7pm Committee Room 3 at the Town Hall. Anyone is allowed to attend these scrutiny meetings and the public are given regular opportunities to speak. They usually attract lots of interested parties who want to make sure that the scrutiny panels hear their views.
This panel is chaired by my predecessor Nigel Sumner who is not only an expert on parks, but more importantly, an enthusiast.
Please go and take part.
Local activist Ann Pavett asked me about the details of our “Services Day” last night at our ward forum (of which more later).
This is a chance to meet senior councillors and find out more about the way the council operates. The event kicks off at Central Library on Saturday at 10am. Follow this link for more information. There is also a press release here. I repeat the programme below:
10am: Services Day opens
Visit our information stalls, hosted by services including Youth & Connexions, Scrutiny, waste and recycling and many more.10.30am: Q&A session – How does the Council manage its parking services?
Have you ever wondered why parking zones are created, what happens to parking fines and how Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) are implemented?Noon: Break – All stalls will remain open.
1.15pm: Message from the Leader of the Council Councillor Jason Stacey
1.30pm: Q&A session – How does the Council spend your money?
An opportunity to find out more about how the council is funded, how the budget is set and spending prioritised.3pm: Services Day concludes
I am responsible for parking but my colleague David Millican who covers transport in his portfolio and leads on CPZ implementation will be standing in for me as I have a previous engagement – sorry. As well as hearing from council leader Jason Stacey, who is always an engaging speaker, you can have the chance to quiz our finance lead David Scott – a very sharp cookie.
As part of a £6 million recession busting package every household in Ealing will be getting £50 cashback later this year. See the story in tonight’s Evening Standard here. It is nice to see ex-Ealing Times reporter Benedict Moore-Bridger keeping in touch with his old stomping ground.
Jason Stacey, council leader, says:
We know how hard the recession has hit local people which is why I am proposing the country’s biggest ever council cash back scheme to help them during the credit crunch.
Ealing Council has built up strong reserves to see us through these difficult economic times. But, it is also important to remember that this money belongs to local people so it is only right that we give back some money during the recession.
The cash back scheme will be accompanied by a campaign to encourage residents to shop locally so that this £6million plus cash injection should also benefit our retailers.
I have just been checking out Ealing Southall MP, Virendra Sharma’s expenses. You can see them here.
He is relatively OK in as much as he has not claimed any Additional Costs Allowance, the so-called second homes allowance. He does though have some questions to answer I think. He has made claims under the Incidental Expenses Provision, ie office costs, and the Communications Allowance, otherwise known as the incumbents protection scheme.
He was elected on 19th July 2007. Before the end of the year he had worked out that he was “entitled” to claim £250 a month for petty cash without supplying any receipts. Yippee! He claimed £1,500 for his first six months on 11th December and after that he claimed for £500 on 23rd February and £250 in 31st March. I guess this time next year we will find he kept claiming £250 per month until he got caught. Some one should of read more on the review of Quickbooks Self-Employed, never hurts to learn more .
Local blogger Appealing of Ealing comments on my posting on Ealing Labour’s performance in the European elections thus:
“Labour’s vote share went from 32.0% in 2004 to 25.7% in 2009, a drop of 6.3%”
Which is almost exactly the percentage won by Jan Jananayagam, the pro-Tamil candidate. Isn’t it really the case that she has split the Labour vote at a time when when feelings are running high in the Tamil community. What do you think the outcome would have been had Jananayagam not been on the ballot paper?
I don’t know if Appealling of Ealing is a Labour activist but I suspect that many South Asian people across the borough of Ealing are fairly fed up with having their votes taken for granted by Labour types. Why do they imagine that the many hard working, entrepreneurial, professional, middle class South Asians are going to slavishly vote Labour for all time? It is easy for Labour to write off the five ex-Labour councillors in Southall wards who defected to the Tories in July 2007 as traitors. But I think they may have sensed that not only is UK politics on the turn but that Southall’s South Asian community is not going to simply carry on being Labour’s cannon fodder for ever and a day.
Phil Taylor 