Category: Ealing and Northfield

Categories
Ealing and Northfield Health, housing and adult social services

Last Ealing Times

The last ever Ealing Times plopped on to my mat this morning. I think that this is a great shame. The Ealing Times has been making hay over the last few weeks with parking stories but I still think it is a matter of regret that we have lost one of our two local papers. I feel that both local papers often get stories factually wrong and they almost always add a dash of hyperbole to jazz them up. They do though play an important role locally in holding local bodies to account.

The front page of today’s Ealing Times highlights how the NHS in Ealing is going to lose £26 million. To be precise the body that spends money on our behalf, the Primary Care Trust, will have £26 million less to build health centres, provide new services, etc. I predicted in January last year that we wouldn’t get any money back that we lent to the Minister of Health and now we find we are being asked to lend more.

Sorry about the lack of blogging this week. The baby has been ill so I have been a fulltime father rather the usual part-time role.

Categories
Parking Services

Ealing Times goes too far

Yesterday the Ealing Times really went over the top with their front page headline: “Ealing Council could be investigated by police for fraud“. Ealing Times is about to be closed down by their owners and will not be published after Christmas so maybe journalist Alex Hayes just doesn’t care anymore.

Ealing Council has always believed its yellow box junctions across T junctions to be legal and that is the legal advice we have had every time we asked the question. Legal matters are not always black and white whatever journalists and opposition councillors like to make out.

When we started losing some PATAS appeals on these junctions we asked ourselves how we should resolve it as PATAS cannot make general judgements – it can only rule on individual cases. We might have decided to go to judicial review. This would have been expensive and we do not think that going to law at this level is what council tax payers want us to spend their money on. We decided to get the opinion of the Department for Transport (DfT). This request was made “without prejudice”. In other words we have always maintained and still maintain that these junctions are legal.

Once the DfT had disagreed with us we felt that as these box junctions were controversial we should remove them. We also felt that we should refund those fined up from when we first heard from the DfT that it disagreed with our own legal advice. We could easily have taken the view that these were always legal so we would not refund anyone. We chose what we thought was a fair and reasonable position.

To illustrate how grey these issues are let me quote from a PATAS case (No. 2080453909). The adjudicator, Anthony Engel, said on 4th September 2008 of a case concerning the South Road/Cambridge Road junction:

I, myself, am inclined to the view that a local authority is entitled to use a Box conforming with Diagram 1043 at a T-junction (ie a full width box junction) – as otherwise, the local authority is unable to prevent traffic stopping on the far side of a T-junction and it seems to be that a local authority ought to have the power to do so.

However, I am not so firm in my view that I am prepared to depart from the decisions made by the Chief Adjudicator (and other Adjudicators).

Accordingly, after some hesitation, I follow the decision referred to and I allow this appeal.

So it seems that Engel agreed with our own legal advice but found against the council in any case. You might say: “So what?”, but Engel didn’t have to make this point as late as this September. He could have kept quiet knowing how controversial this case has already become, but clearly he felt there was justice in our case which should be acknowledged. This case is not black and white and both the Ealing Times and Cllr Mahfouz are simply wrong to suggest that it is.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Ward Walkabout

Yesterday your three Northfield councillors spent a couple of hours doing a walkabout around the ward with various council officers and the police. In particular we wanted to show officers a few of the projects you have raised as being suitable for spending the ward forum’s capital budget of £40K on. It was good also to see that a couple of (too-)long running local projects are coming to fruition. See below.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Ealing Common and Northfield Ward Base

On our walkabout we were accompanied by PCSO Salim Bhunnoo. He has been on the Northfield SNT for two years now. He hopes to start his training as a PC next year. Salim is a fine young man and it was a pleasure to spend some time with him. The team are busy tackling a bit of a robbery spike in the south of the ward and dealing with anti-social behaviour on the North Road/South Road estate. They have been doing a lot of night shifts lately as a result. Much of our crime in Northfield comes up South Ealing Road and the path through South Ealing Cemetery.

The new Ealing Common & Northfield ward base on South Ealing Road, just south of Little Ealing Lane, is due to open very early in the new year. Salim showed us around. It has a reception area and interview room where the public can meet their teams and report issues to them. Apparently they just need to sort out some issues with the water supply and the teams will be in. The ward base is very well positioned for both wards, it is very accessible and it is also in just the right place to deter cross border traffic from the south. This project has been talked about for something like two years – it was held up because the Met didn’t follow the proper procurement procedures. It is good to see it is finally finished – almost!

The Northfield Safer Neighbourhood Team is a great asset to our community. If you have information that could help this team do their job or you have ongoing nuisance type problems call them on 07879 888989. Their role is to proactively tackle relatively low-level nuisance crime perpetrated by local people, such as graffiti, car crime, burglary, street robbery, etc. Hence they won’t necessarily answer the phone immediately having been up all night trying to catch a burglar they are after. If there is something live happening then call 999.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Maytrees Rest Garden

Another long running saga is the reinstatement of Maytrees Rest Garden opposite South Ealing Tube Station. My rather poor picture shows the site very busy with contractors. It is a matter of some personal embarrassment that this project is so far behind. The site was used for access during the rebuilding of Grange Primary School and was handed back to the council over a year ago. There have been various problems with this project not least with getting the funds out of the education department as promised but it has taken way too long. Finally, The Tree Center stepped in with some timely garden donations. I am sorry. It was one of the first things I chased officers on after I was given responsibility for parks in May. My latest update from officers on Maytrees is as follows:

The street lighting replacement works are complete and realigned with footpath. The paving works are underway and should be completed shortly with final wearing courses on completion of brickwork and railing works. Also underway is the rejuvenation of the grass areas and horticultural works. All of the above will be complete subject to weather by Christmas and final planting works early January 09. I intend to arrange a hand over during the middle of January.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Gurcharan Singh becomes Ealing Southall PPC

Today it was announced that Gurcharan Singh will be the Conservative PPC for Ealing Southall. See Ealing Times story here and a piece on ConservativeHome here.

The local Conservatives issued the following press release today:

SELECTION OF GURCHARAN SINGH GIVES EALING SOUTHALL RESIDENTS A REAL CHOICE: STACEY

Leader of Ealing Council, Cllr Jason Stacey this week welcomed the selection of Cllr Gurcharan Singh as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Ealing Southall. He said residents now had the opportunity to elect an MP who would stand up for residents instead of taking them for granted. He said:

“It is excellent news that we have as strong a candidate as Gurcharan Singh standing for the Conservative Party in Ealing Southall. For decades Labour have taken Ealing Southall for granted, assuming they would win no matter how ineffective their MP. With a local councillor and campaigner as experienced and dedicated as Gurcharan standing for the Conservative Party, residents will be able to vote for a dynamic MP who will stand up for Southall. The contrast with the ‘do-nothing’ approach of Labour’s sitting MP will be more stark than ever.”

Chairman of the Ealing Southall Conservative Association, Cllr Manjit Singh also welcomed the selection of Cllr Singh as PPC. He said:

“The people of Ealing Southall are fed up with Labour and want an MP who can make a difference. After the next election we will have a new Conservative Government led by David Cameron and a new Conservative MP for Ealing Southall in Gurcharan Singh. I look forward to taking our message to the voters and getting rid of this tired Labour Government and the local MP who is more interested in collecting his allowance than in serving residents.”

Cllr Gurcharan Singh said:

“I am humbled to have been selected as the Conservative Party PPC. My dedication to Ealing Southall is total, I will do everything I can to serve the residents of the constituency up to and beyond the next election. On behalf of the Conservative Party, I look forward to delivering real hope and change for the people of Ealing Southall who deserve so much better than what they have seen under Labour.”

Categories
Ealing and Northfield Public sector waste

Councillors’ allowances

No doubt there will be lots of comment on today’s piece in the Evening Standard looking at councillors’ allowances. The table above is reproduced from the Evening Standard. I hope they will consider that fair use!

The article talks about Freedom of Information requests but you can pull the same stuff off the council’s website here so I think they are exaggerating a bit. I would be surprised if any councils don’t publish this stuff as a matter of course.

These allowances are a big expense for any council and I personally am a bit conflicted about them. I have done a lot of volunteering in my time and I would still be a councillor if there were no allowances. I know there are some people who couldn’t be a councillor if there was not some kind of allowance. They were introduced I understand because there were problems with expenses. The allowances are taxable and councillors claim no expenses as a rule. Every time they drive anywhere on council business, park, use an envelope, put a stamp on it the cash comes out of this taxable allowance. It doesn’t use it all up but by the time you have paid tax and expenses you don’t have much cash to show for it. I don’t want to sound like an old sexist (I am sure this is equally true for women councillors) but it would be much harder to justify the amount of time I spend on council and residents’ business to my wife if I didn’t have an allowance.

From this table it does look like the three Labour mayors of Newham, Lewisham and Hackney look after themselves very well. Our leader, Jason Stacey, is a bargain. He gave up a very good job to become a full time leader. You only have to look at some of the timestamps on his e-mails to know what kind of hours he works. On top of the long hours he is actually a real star. £40K really is a steal.

Categories
Parking Services

Yellow boxes at T-junctions

Today I issued the following statement on yellow box junctions:

On behalf of the Council I would like to say sorry and offer our unreserved apologies.

We will be refunding everyone ticketed at the affected yellow box junctions since 20 June.

The decision was made after an email sent by the Department for Transport on 20 June, was brought to my attention today.

At the beginning of November we immediately suspended the junctions following advice from the Department for Transport. I believed that this was the first time the Council had been given this advice or the decision to stop enforcing them would have taken in June.

I am furious that this email was never brought to my attention and I have ordered an immediate investigation on how this could have happened.

The Council is putting in place arrangements to refund the money.

The six box junctions affected are double width yellow boxes at T-Junctions:

– South Road junction St Joseph’s Drive, Southall

– South Road junction Cambridge Road, Southall

– South Road junction Hamilton Road, Southall

– High Street junction Avenue Road, Southall

– Uxbridge Road junction Lower Boston Road, Hanwell

– The Broadway junction The Mall, Ealing

The local papers have taken up the story here and here.

I will not be commenting further until I have seen the results of the investigation that I initiated today.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Help one of our parks

Boris Johnson launched his ‘Help a London Park’ scheme today. Londoners will be able to vote to decide which ones will get a £400,000 cash boost. London councils have nominated almost 100 green spaces in their areas that could do with a facelift and 47 have now been shortlisted. Two Ealing parks made the short list: Brent River Park and Southall Manor House Grounds.

I am in a quandary as to how to vote myself and it would probably be unwise of me to come down on one side or the other. I have visited both sites and like many of our open spaces they would both benefit from some help. You may think that the vote is a bit of a gimmick on the part of the Mayor but I think we can also agree that if we are apathetic there are other boroughs that will get the cash for their parks so, as Al Capone said: “Vote early and vote often”. Follow one of the links above to vote.

Categories
Ealing and Northfield

Booby Bell

The leader of the Labour opposition group on the council, Cllr Julian Bell, is a prize booby. He likes to make a show of himself at least three times a week. One of his finer moments this week were his quotes in the Ealing Times:

I would say to the council no more excuses, we need to get this sorted out.

They have said they are using a new computer system and new reporting measures as excuses to why they have been slow in the past, but it’s time to stop.

As you can see from the example of St Albans, the best performing authority, if there is a real will to turn things round you can do it.

He was responding to a typically statistically challenged article written by the Ealing Times’s Alex Hayes. Hayes had noticed figures released on Monday in response to a question by Tory MP Andrew Selous. These showed showed it took Ealing on average 45 days for a new housing benefit claim to be processed, the fifth slowest in the UK. League tables are always attractive to journalists as the can easily be spun if you only have half the facts, or not even half in Hayes’ case.

This performance was indeed not as we would like. But, we might consider a few of those facts (most of which are publicly available):

Bell is comparing us with St Albans who are twice as good as the 2nd best authority in the country. They are what a statistician would call an outlier.

In a previous written answer Kitty Usher, the relevant minister, stated that the average council’s processing time was 27 days in 2007/8. So although Ealing performed badly it was only 18 days short of the average across the country last year.

This was last year’s data. Bell doesn’t know, because he didn’t ask, that the council is achieving something like 34 days this year.

In 2006/7 the council only achieved something like 70 days. That was our inheritance from the previous Labour administration.

Since then the new administration has invested in this service, recruiting new people to tackle Labour’s backlog.

Not only were the old Labour administration bad at doing the things that all people value like cleaning the streets but they couldn’t even look after the weakest is society effectively. Bell really should try harder.