Apologies

I'm really sorry for the break in service - madly busy through December, and no internet connection since early last week - partly a problem at home, then travelling to somewhere without internet, mobile, or even a TV. Anyway, back on-line, and my new years resolution on keepin Blog updated is drafted.

I hope, dear reader, you and your Mum had a good Christmas at her new place. We had a good Christmas, fairly low-key which was just as well as I have the cold lurgy and am not feeling that energetic. Hope to get that out of the way before things crank up again. More later . . . .

Watermans - excellent film

"The Man who Stares at Goats" on now, a real good laugh and hunky men too (if you like that sort of thing) - to be precise Euan McGregor, George Clooney and Kevin Spacey etc - and some cute goats.

Tory Budget - What a Farce

We had our second night of scrutinising the "detail" of the Tory budget proposals tonight, looking at the Environment department, and Children's services. Except there was not a lot of detail, no explanation of the likely impact of the various proposals, and absolutely no sense of priority as to where savings could or should be made. The overall proposals are in the papers to the "November Council Meeting, pages 19-27"

Let me get this straight, I have been responsible for producing savings budgets in Hounslow, of greater and lesser severity, for many years until 2006. I am quite clear that savings can be made without impact on users/residents, or that there can be a different service that produces better outcomes for people at less cost - for example frail elderly people can usually be better cared for in their own home with addtional care services, than they can in impersonal and expensive residential care. But to make these decisions you need to have open debate about the impacts on people.

Tonight I repeatedly asked to know what discussion and information the Executive had on the relative pressures and opportunities of the different services, and I was met with a wall of silence. When I listed the known pressures on Children's Services from: a 30% increase in school age over 5 years, increased referrals of neglected and abused children since Baby Peter, and further increases in profoundly disabled children living through to adulthood, Cllr McGregor (Executive Lead for Finance) first denied these pressures existed (they've been reported to the Executive on several occasions), then waffled about "imperfect market situations". Meanwhile the 2 Executive Lead Members for Children just sat on their hands - had I touched a nerve? - they certainly didn't stand up and challenge me.

And the specifics:
- ending of subsidy of Community Use of School buildings - "Not a statutory service and not relevant to Childrens services"
- ending of School uniform Grants to the poorest families - "not a statutory service, tough"
- cutting almost £900,000 from Childrens services, play, youth, Looked After children (ie in care) and School improvement - "We're going to lose the grants anyway, so we might as well make the cut now"

On the Environment Budget the proposal is to increase charges (mainly parking) by 5% - but we pointed out that is not the same as increasing income by 5%. They looked as though they hadn't thought of that, or that they had heard of elasticity of demand.

What a way to run a Council . . . . .

Phoning Hounslow [2]

The phone was answered after 30 minutes exactly. So, should you ever need to phone Hounslow's EMERGENCY out-of-hours number (020 8583 2222) make sure you are not having an emergency, that you have enough credit and enough battery on your phone, and preferably some sandwiches, a blanket and a flask of coffee.

Brentford Parking [2]

Well the Area Committee decided on Thursday to re-consult Hamilton, Clifden and Lateward Roads on the details of the scheme, and whether or not they still wanted to be included in a CPZ. Our apologies to all those who turned up on Thursday - we had no idea that an Area Monitoring Committee had been added on at the beginning and that they wouldn't get on to the item for over an hour.

If you are in one of the roads affected we need to know what you think should be in the detail of the next consultation: the spaces, the hours of operation etc etc. Do you live in Brook Road South or New Road? Should you be given another opportunity to be included in the CPZ rather than suffer from the knock-on parking?

Contact me here, or via the Council email - ruth.cadbury@hounslow.gov.uk

Problems Phoning Hounslow Council [2]

I've been sitting with my phone on Loudspeaker waiting for Hounslow's EMERGENCY phone line to answer for 15 minutes, and have been No 1 in the queue since I first dialed. I'm trying to get hold of Hounslow Home's out-of-hours duty officer to see why the repairs team still hasn't turned up as promised at a flooded flat. It wouldn't be an out-of-hours emergency if HH had found the source of the water when first called out on Monday.

If I'd been a tenant, with a phone running out of battery or credit, and having no other line to use to try other methods, I'd be at my wits end. The family really don't want to spend another night in horrible bed-and-breakfast at the other end of the borough and neither should they.

Problems phoning Hounslow Council?

Is the new system deliberately designed to send us all mad - or is that just an unintended consequence of finding new ways to make money from residents? I think this is a good illustration of just how mad the "efficiency savings" have got at our Civic Centre.

Please do let me know your experience of phoning the council.

Matt Harmer's newsletter

Matt published his December bulletin yesterday. An exhaustive (exhausting) run-down of what we'ver been up to over the last month - www.mattharmer.com if you're one of the few people not already on his mailing list.

Pensioners' Evening

A night off with the OH tonight, to see Bill Wyman's Rythm Kings at the Cadogan Hall. The band read like a Rock n Roll hall of fame, and were fab despite their ages - BW's older than my mother. Looking at the audience I suspect most of them had been roadies and/or groupies for the Stones in the 60s And they didn't get up and boogie till the last number - perhaps they were worried about their hips, or felt cowed by the hall - like a big methodist chapel with twiddly bits. Apart from that, a fab night with great numbers played by the best in the business.

Brentford Parking Scheme - next stage decision on Thursday

Following consultation in September the majority of residents in Hamilton, Clifden and Lateward Roads said they wanted to have a controlled parking zone (CPZ). In New Road views were evenly split. A decision about what to do next will go to the Isleworth and Brentford Area Committee next Thursday (3rd December at the Free Church, Boston Manor Road, almost opposite the Butts). You can see the full report here- on pages 57-68.

You'll see that officers are only recommending going ahead at this stage with Hamilton and Clifden Roads and Westbury Place (off Hamilton Road), and they plan to work up the details of the for further consultation. We would question their recommendation of not including Lateward Road, given almost 2:1 support there for being included in a CPZ, and would welcome your views.

Matt Harmer and I are unable to participate in the decision on Thursday (as we both live in the area consulted) but we are hoping to speak at the beginning of the item, and relay the views of local residents, so please do contact us via our Council emails: ruth.cadbury@hounslow.gov.uk; matt.harmer@hounslow.gov.uk.

You can also contact other members of the committee, and it is helpful if you can also include the committee clerk - Roger Cave, and the traffic engineer Satnam Sahota, into your correspondence.

Tories Reveal Cuts Proposals

At Hounslow's Council Meeting on Tuesday night night the Tories revealed the £8m cuts they want to make to the Council budget for the next financial year. These include direct attacks on front-line services to the most vulnerable families. Specific cuts we said should be ruled out now even before scrutiny were:

• The ending of school uniform grants to families on very low incomes
• The ending of the subsidy for community use of school premises,
• Cuts to council funding on children’s centres, play and youth activity
• Reducing social care funding for disabled or vulnerable children.

All the “savings” proposals will go to Scrutiny meetings over the next few weeks, and we will be looking at each to assess the impact to residents. The Tories have said the proposals will go out to public consultation, but we saw no programme for this at the Council meeting.

Tuesday's cuts proposals are in addition to the ending of £1/2m subsidy for the Hounslow Language Service which we opposed last March. This has had to be delayed as the Executive had not consulted on it before proposing it. We are demanding to know where the £1.5m redundancy cost for the teachers who will lose their jobs will come from.

All this emphasises the contempt the Tories have for vulnerable children and their families, as the really pernicious front-line cuts are in the Children’s services budget. What’s more we believe that direct service-level cuts shouldn’t be necessary if the Tories had not messed up their Performance Improvement Programme. A classic example was making a third of all admin staff redundant without properly assessing the impact on front-line staff - many of whom struggle with work-load and low morale.

The Independent Community Group who have been in coalition with the Tories since May 2006, distanced themselves from the Torie's budget. March's Council meeting will be interesting.

Christmas Lights Switch-On

Watermans hosted the third annual switch-on of Brentford's Christmas Lights this evening, and it was great to see so many people. The Green Dragon School choir were in fine voice, and at least one person told me she was moved to tears with the old favourite carols.

The event is not only a "launch" for Christmas, but also a celebration of what a community can do together, but the Christmas Lights lighting up the High Street each year would not be possible without the amazing work of Julia Qulliam.