Category: Ealing and Northfield

Back in August I reported that the new library in Northfield looks great. Apparently the redevelopment has encouraged more people to actually use the library too so great result for the library service, see stats below:

Back in August an employee of a local business raised the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Airedale Road and South Ealing Road with various councillors including me. I asked the transport planning people to look into it and they have just reported back after a site visit on 11th October. The picture above shows how obscured the pedestrain crossing can be as you drive north up South Ealing Road. This picture is a worst possible case as there is a van parked in front of the crossing. That said there is nothing to stop vans parking there.

One recommendation the transport people are likely to make is that the two parking bays in front of the crossing should be removed and the zig-zags extended. Although people won’t like losing the parking the crossing is well placed I think and well used so it best be safe. The photo makes it look like an open and shut case to me.

The greengrocer’s awning is another potential hazard but it is on their own property so it is hard to see what we could do about this.

Let me know what you think.

In response to a number of complaints from residents and on the advice of our Safer Neighbourhood sergeant the whole of Northfield ward is going to become a Controlled Drinking Zone. This is an enabling power which means that the police have the power to remove drink from people and ask them to disperse if they are causing a nuisance. They will have the discretion not to bug families, couples or even groups of young people who are quietly enjoying themselves and not bothering anyone else.

Recently there have been reports of problem drinking in many of our open space, including Bramley Road Open Space, Blondin Park and Lammas Park. In addition there have been reports of problems with people buying take-aways and then hanging out in places like Derwent Passage (the steps next to the Spinning Wheel).

A report will be submitted to Regulatory Committee for consideration when it sits on 28th January 2008. It would then come in to force around one month later following the fulfilment of statutory publicity.

I missed this interview with Ealing council leader Jason Stacey earlier in the month on the internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. I like 18 Doughty Street but find it hard to catch much of their output as I don’t find it particularly congenial to watch lots of footage on my PC (it would make great talk radio though).

Jason interviews very well coming over very much as himself. If you want to know who is leading Ealing council spend half an hour watching this – you will get an authentic picture Jason himself and a good insight into what the Conservative administration are trying to do.

Councillor Millican and I were out on the streets on Saturday morning doing some canvassing. Not so much the who will you vote for stuff (which isn’t really necessary right now!) more just checking that residents are happy and trying to spot any issues sooner rather than later. On the whole people we talked on Woodstock Avenue seemed pretty happy with local services except for residents being bothered with noisy groups of kids on the corner with Midhurst Road where there is a convenience store. We told people we would raise it with the Safer Neighbourhood Team. Often people tell us that they have not noticed this change to policing in their area but we only had to walk around the corner to Claygate Road to bump into one of the PCSOs from this team on her bike. We mentioned the noisy kids issue – they are already talking to these kids.

If some residents haven’t noticed the extra police on the streets they sure have noticed that the streets are cleaner. It is all very well the council issuing press releases telling us that independent statistics, blah, blah, blah but when people give you the feedback directly it is very satisfying. Again on the Ealing Today Forum people agree that the council is delivering on this priority. Things should improve again as from 19th November as the next phase of improvement of Ealing’s street cleansing and rubbish and recycling collection gets underway, further information here.

Nine of the councillors spent the morning at Greenford High School today. As part of Local Democracy Week we were taking part in an event billed as political speed-dating. I am happy to report that there was nothing improper. Each councillor spent 3 minutes being interviewed by 2 or 3 sixth formers and then we moved on to the next group.

It was bracing and fun to meet 20 or so sixth formers from Greenford and Southall. They had a range of questions but a number of issues kept coming up: immigration was one and the effect it had on their ability to get part-time jobs, personal safety and in particular knife crime and facilities for young people.

You may know that Greenford High School has been completely rebuilt with £40 million of central government cash and this is the school’s first term in its new premises. One perceptive young man questioned whether the money had been well spent. Certainly the site looked great but Colm Costello for one could not understand why the refectory and the auditorium we were using were built on quite such a grand scale. It feels like the architect was happy to spread buildings around the playing fields – so much for obesity then. The sixth formers were very ambivalent about the new building and were sorry to see their old 1939 building being bulldozed. A frequent complaint was how long it took to navigate around the new campus and many felt that it was a bit ambitious for the 11 year-olds. I asked one group in particular if they thought that the institution itself had been strengthened by this investment. The answer was no.

Back to the event. Those taking part scored the councillors under five categories such as listening skills, would you vote for them, etc. The top three were:

1 – Councillor Bassam Mahfouz
2 – Councillor Colm Costello
3 – Councillor Shabaz Ahmed

Well done to Bassam, the winner for the second year in a row, and well done to Colm too for keeping the Tory end up. Thankfully the rest of us did not have our scores read out. I guess I have to accept that telling sixth formers what they want to hear may not be my strong suit.

Last night we had some rare excitement at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC). OSC is the committee that chases the rest of the council around with the proverbial bucket, cleaning up. Most of our work is not glamorous and excites little public interest.

The main item last night was a call-in. This is where a member of the council (ie a councillor) calls-in a decision made by a council committee to ask that it is reconsidered. This is a mechanism that allows council decisions to be reconsidered in the cold light of day.

Last night’s call-in related to a re-organisation of the ranger service, see Cabinet papers here and here. The council wants to re-organise Parks, Countryside and Events Service (PCE). Yes, this will reduce the headcount. Both council officers and the administration believe that this efficiency saving can be made without compromising services. They reckon that the having two bigger bases for this service will lead to a more effective and sustainable service. They want to consolidate on the two most modern buildings in Acton and Southall and give up dilapidated and not-fit-for-purpose buildings at Brent Lodge and Horseden Hill. The plan says the same number of rangers will be deployed differently.

The call-in was made by the tiny LibDem group of three. The meeting attracted some 20 or so people from Hanwell including LibDem activist Nigel Bakhai. The main speaker on behalf of the Lawns and Hanwell Village Green residents’ associations was Carolyn Brown

A number of times speakers and questioners alluded to the fact that the current ranger team of 20 was not at full strength – there are currently 16 working with one on long-term sick leave. Much was made of the fact that the service had gone slow on recruiting vacancies in the current financial year. The cash to fill them had been used this year to fight other fires in the service such as storm damage to trees. The portfolio holder, Nigel Sumner, made a commitment that these posts would be recruited next year.

I talked briefly and asked that the audience considered the council’s role and responsibilities in the round. The council is not talking about reducing service levels it is talking about an internal re-organisation which it thinks will be more efficient. The council needs to push all the time to be more efficient if it is to meet all of its commitments. Legal responsibilities to care for the elderly and young people for instance get more and more onerous every year as the number of elderly and special needs increase. The council got elected to clean up the borough so we are entitled to prioritise this area for additional spending as we have. At the same time the public has a limited appetite for increases in council taxes. The only way to square the circle is to do more for less – a discipline that applies equally in the private sector.

Although Labour councillor Bassam Mahfouz would not normally be considered a natural ally of the ruling Conservative group he noted in the debate that he sensed weaknesses in the current PCE structure that led to services deficiencies in his area. He welcomed the consolidation into two bases, although, to be fair, he called for guarantees that the ranger service would return to its full strength of 20 and that the redundant sites would be properly used in future.

At the end of the debate it was agreed that the re-organisation should proceed without it being referred back to cabinet for further consideration. Councillor Mahfouz abstained rather than vote against the majority group members which shows that these things can be decided on their merits.

The public is entitled to watch service levels like hawks and demand that they get satisfaction. There is no way though that the council is required to keep the same people sitting in a building year after year just so residents around one park can feel they are getting a good service.

For other comments see stories in the Ealing Times here, here and here and Peter Wright on the Ealing Today Forum.