The local implications of the London Election Results

Despite Ken Livingstone losing the Mayoral race the result was good for Labour at this point in the national political cycle and reflected our strong results in the Council elections in the rest of the country on the same day.  In South West London, a naturally Tory seat as we are twinned with Richmond and Kingston, we did fantastically well with Lisa Homan.  We had a 12.7% swing to Labour on the constituency seat,  normally coming third. Lisa had a 20,000 lead over the Lib Dems, and increased the Labour vote on the party list by 10.2%. 

Labour’s representation on the 25 seat Assembly increased by 4 to 12 (2 constituency seats and 2 list seats – including Onkar Sahota next door in Ealing & Hillingdon).  Frustratingly the Tories only dropped 2 seats  to 9 so they still have enough to wave the Mayor’s budget and other plans through, although they did lose two of their key figures, Brian Coleman and Richard Barnes.  Well behind were the other parties, the Greens pushing  the Lib Dems into fourth place, and they both end up with two seats each on the Assembly.  One of the real high spots was that the BNP no longer have a seat on the London Assembly, and UKIP also failed to get one too.

So we have another four years of Boris – acting as little more than an arm of the Tory-led Government.  Superficially he seems to distance himself from Cameron and the national party, but he has done little for London and promises little more: since he became Mayor four years ago pollution levels have risen, injuries and deaths to pedestrians and cyclists have grown, fares have gone up, crime levels rising and the housing crisis has risen to epidemic proportions.  Boris has done nothing and promises nothing to challenge central Government on its role in London’s specific and chronic needs: not only housing, but the widening gap between rich and poor, growing youth disaffection and alienation, crime levels, transport infrastructure and funding and so on. 

Livingstone came to this election with a record of standing up for London and delivering radical change: from effective equalities policies and Fares Fair in the 80s; to the congestion charge, the Olympics, improved public transport and safer neighbourhood teams when elected as London’s first Mayor.  He promised more this time – the return of the Education Maintenance Allowance so young people could afford to stay in education, fares cuts, more policing and affordable housing etc.  Sadly these won’t be delivered as the electorate voted for the media darling rather than the man of substance.  London, outer and inner, will be worse off as a result.

Fit for Work Test for Claimants

Hounslow has been found to have a high number of people previously assessed as being on incapacity benefit who have had their claims reassessed as being ineleigible.  It is absolutely right that people who are fit for work should be seeking work and not claiming benefits which they have claimed fraudulently.  However I really do worry about the way the system is punishing people who clearly have such profound health problems that they are unable to hold down work of any kind.  The statistics published this week do not take account of the numbers who have succesfully appealed the original decision, when qualified medical people have understood why they are unable to work.  Also the current system does not take account of the, sadly, many people who have a variety of mental helath problems and for whom work is just too much to cope with, either all the time, or on "bad days".  I would like to see a review of the incapacity system that is firm but fiar, something that the Coalition Government has no interest in.   There are lots of people writing on this, but I started with Disability Rights UK http://tinyurl.com/ck6aflz

INVESTING IN OUR BOROUGH – JOBS, HOMES AND REGENERATION

On Thursday we discussed with a group of Councillors and Hounslow residents our plans for the future of Hounslow town centre – described in the Hounslow Town Centre Master Plan.  It identifies the key development sites, their likely uses, and the distinct character of each area of the town centre, and describes how the town centre could become a more attractive place to visit and to live in.  We are working on Brentford’s stalled developments.   We have a housing crisis,  that is why we aim to deliver 2500 affordable homes in the borough between 2010 and 2014.   We are moving office staff from several buildings across the borough into the Civic Centre, and we want those sites redeveloped for a useful purpose.  We plan to redevelop Heston Swimming Pool into a modern facility.  Our community plan sets our aspiration to bring an international university, and a major sports and/or cultural venue to the borough and we also want to support the growth of the “green” business sector.   This is just some of the work taking place to bring jobs, homes and regeneration to Hounslow borough and to protect and enhance our open spaces and community facilities.   All this has taken place since we took over the Leadership of Hounslow in May 2010
To do all this needs partners; developers, housing associations, architects, planners those with funds to invest and those with inspirational ideas and experience.  Those people don’t come knocking at our door, there are many other boroughs with development sites and regeneration aspirations competing for their attention.  We have to go and meet them and actively promote our “usp” and that is what we have been doing in the last year, in the press and at events. Through this work we have met people who would not otherwise have considered opportunities in Hounslow.
As part of this programme I attended the international property conference (MIPIM) last week, a decision that has generated a story in this week’s Hounslow Chronicle.  MIPIM brings together 19,000 property professionals from around the world, there is no UK equivalent, so it is an unrivalled opportunity to meet in 3 days more people than one can see in a year.   With our Master plan and list of sites, we shared the West London stand with other boroughs, Housing Associations and local businesses.  In 3 intense days we spoke to over 50 people, and I spoke to an audience of a similar number in the London pavilion which generated further contacts.   Many of the people we would not have met otherwise, and many of whom will be coming to see us in the weeks to discuss in more detail the opportunities available.  This work is not about instant results, but with clear plans and objectives, does result in real change. Clearly Tory-led Wandsworth and Birmingham Councils believe that, their leaders were at MIPIM, as were representatives of Enfield, Ealing and Newham.

Our business partners clearly thought it was money well spent:  Frank Wingate, Chief Executive of West London Business, said: "We're very pleased that some of our West London boroughs are attending the MIPIM property fair. This is Europe's major event for property development and regeneration and anyone serious about encouraging inward investment and economic growth can't afford to miss the business opportunities to gain contacts and promote our attractions that are offered there. West London has a great deal to offer, but we must be active in face of international competition."

Four years ago we criticised Hounslow Tories, then in power with the Independents, for attending this conference because to us it was daft to spend £10,000 (double our spend last week), when they appeared to have no appetite for the regeneration of the borough, or to bring jobs and homes here.   Back at the Civic Centre they cut the economic Development staff to less than 2 full-timers, stalled on the town centre work, pulled the previous Heston Pool redevelopment plan that was ready to go, and had no plan for better use for our Council office buildings dotted around the borough.   Now, we have clear aspirations for Hounslow Town Centre and the borough as a whole , but it won’t be delivered if we sit in the Civic Centre waiting for people to come to us.

NB Costs of attending mIPIM:
Attendance  in 2012 cost £5,580. Around £4000 of this was spent on the promotional material and conference entrance.  I travelled by train for £145 return and my hotel cost Eu120 per night, the cheapest available for what is the 2nd busiest week in Cannes.  The other costs were those of the Council officer who also attended.

Brentford Market and Free Gigs - Fri 9th & Sat 10th March

The market will be held on 9th and 10th March.
Friday March 9th:
12noon to 8pm The Market
Variety of market stalls including Cultivate London, Royal Horseguardsman, Green Trading Company, food and drink, art and crafts, jewellery
The Dome, Market Place
LCM Live presents
An evening of music featuring students from London College of Music
4pm           Jogo Jazz Quartet
Funky tunes from this fantastic LCM Jazz ensemble
5pm           Remedy
Fantastic music from this talented covers band
6pm           Jogo Jazz Quartet
This exciting ensemble returns to the stage with the fabulous singer, Vilija Leitanaite
7pm           Remedy
Something for everyone - from Rock and Roll to Pop!
Saturday 10 March
Market Place
12noon to 9pm        The Market
Variety of market stalls including food and drink, art and crafts, jewellery
The Dome, Market Place
Helen Martin Productions introduces:
2.30 The Brentford Belles - exuberant gospel style choir

3.15 Acoustic Revs Bluegrass and country covers and original music

4pm King Ralph West London punk-folk collective who play original material and anything else they fancy.

5.00 The Grifters local indie/rock band

6.00 The Secret - Twickenham band playing vocal harmony-led soul, rock country and folk doing amix of their own original material and obscure/not so obscure covers!

7pm Alicia and the Band - Funky bluesy covers

8pm  Brentford County Massive –Dark country psychobilly and punk. Johnny Cash meets Radiohead and Magazine

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Hounslow's 2012/13 Budget Passed - Zero Council Tax Increase, and a growth fund for Improvements

Tonight's Council meeting ended with the passing of Hounslow's 2012/13 budget.

•  - Council Tax Freeze for the 6th succesive year
• -  a £2m growth fund to deliver our pledges, and improve efficiencies

The Government has cut £62m from our overall budget over four years, and they will impose more in future years as they intend to continue to make the public sector pay for their failed deficit reduction policies.  Despite the challenge we  set a budget that achieves the required savings and allows for growth. There will be no closure of children’s centres or other services..The £16m savings for the next financial year are all efficiency savings -  such as on assets, contracts, shared services, transport and staff restructuring.

We have also created an element of growth:
-headroom to support growth in jobs and support for those needing  good quality work opportunities.  With 3 staff Hounslow must have the smallest Economic Development team, with no capacity to attract investment in borough and little scope to support to the vibrant but often fragile small business community
- better support to those 100s of families being tipped into real poverty as a result of this Governments tax and benefits policies. We are beginning to see the impact of some of these, and the Universal Credit will further exacerbate it.  Better advice and support, fair and affordable loans, good quality training.
- Investing in improvements to childrens and older people's services to better serve the most vulnerable in Hounslowl
- an Improvement fund that can be drawn on to invest in IT, training, re-organising and changing systems and processes to provide better run services, at lower cost to residents and the tax-payer.

All this on top of the achievements of the last year:

• no closure of children’s centres
• Transforming and modernising our processes
• Recruited 10 additional police officers and over 100 special constables,
• schools results continue to improve and remain above national average
• 330 Reception places 60 year 1 last September and another 90 next September.
• 1000 affordable homes completed or under construction, and 50 empty homes
• Grimebusters hotline
• Improvements to Hounslow Town Centre and the Masterplan agreed,
• Vacated 10 buildings to ensure better use of fewer buildings.
• Supporting those in Debt by funding the CSB to provided new and extended services,
• Innovation Grants for the voluntary sector
• A dedicated Olympics officer to ensure the borough makes the most of the Games coming to London

The Tory opposition had, for the first time brought along an alternative budget. They proposed a cut of £23.99 for a band D tax payer, around 50p a week.  They criticised us for tokenism when we did the same when in opposition.   Their budget deleted Labour's growth options, and made the mistake of suggesting a one-off VAT refund could be used for recurrent spending.  Sadly their lack of financial literacy was exposed at this point - you cannot fund recurrent costs from a one-off source.   In the end they supported half of the recommendations in the budget paper, and voted against the other half.

Leader Jagdish Sharma said  “We can look forward to a year of investment and progress - a year when our staff  earn the London Living Wage as a minimum,, when we’ll see the Hounslow town centre masterplan start to become a reality, when we will open our new Sandbanks resource centre with new residential and day places for older people, and we will build further on the good progress we have made on our pledges.”

Hammersmith Flyover Closure - how long for?, why? so what?

The closure of Hammersmith Flyover has brought logjam to the roads in Chiswick and Brentford since Christmas   despite the partial re-opening on Friday (13 Jan) to small vehicles.  Large lorries and coaches are jamming up Chiswick High Road, and 9 bus routes are affected.  All vehicles driving within or through west London have had to factor in longer journey times.  The A4 is the major road route between Heathrow/the Thames Valley corridor and Central London, so the impact on the economy, not to mention the impression it gives to overseas visitors, is insurmountable.

 Why did this happen? Could TfL have helped the Council to reduce the impact on Chiswick, Brentford and beyond? And why SHOULD the closure of one road have such a devastating impact?

TfL’s  David MacNeill TfL said at yesterday’s public meeting (14 Jan) that they were caught by surprise.  They had been monitoring it since the summer, but the tensioning cables that hold the bridge together started “pinging” at an unprecedented rate in December, meaning the cables would not be strong enough to cope with the pressure particularly of heavy vehicles trundling over the bridge.  Reassuringly it’s probably not about to collapse, according to this technical explanation of the structure. 

TfL hope to replace the cables and have the flyover fully open within 4 months – which is cutting it fine for the Olympics.  David reckoned it could then have another 20 years life.  Boris and the Hammersmith Tories suggest it's then replaced with a cu-and-cover tunnel, eastbound entrance - Chiswick!?

In Chiswick, thanks to the prompt action of Hounslow’s Labour Council, we have:

·         Converted the  current 7am-7pm (and other part-time) bus lanes to 24 hour 7 day operation to maintain bus operating speeds and provide protection for cyclists.
·         Extended of current Monday-Saturday waiting restrictions to Monday-Sunday, and extended the evening restrictions by an hour, to 8pm

This has cost the borough in the region of £4000 plus an inordinate amount of officer time, some of it struggling to get facts and dialogue with TfL. The Council has not yet been provided with compensation for these costs.  Yet we are mandated by TfL, through the strategy Local Implementation Plan to maintain bus operating speeds on key corridors. 

We are very concerned that TfL’s response to the flyover closure has focussed more on protecting their Red Routes than considering the impact on local roads – there are no signs to draw vehicles away from Chiswick High Road -even when the Chiswick section of the A4 sometimes is flowing more freely than CHR.  Furthermore, in encouraging people to use public transport, TfL fail to promote their own tube and Overground services in their media releases but suggest as alternative travel options as First Great Western trains!

This “crisis” caused by the closure of one key part of London’s complex road network shows how vulnerable London’s road system is to complete overload, and how wrong Boris’ pro-car policy is.  West London’s traffic was mad before 23^rd December – gridlock on many roads at busy times.  The system is operating significantly over- capacity, closure of one element brings chaos, impacting on our lives and our economy.  Every past experience shows that the more you do to accommodate rising road use, the more road congestion you get.  Only a long-term vision centred around affordable public transport will achieve the much-needed modal shift.  Whilst Crossrail will change London’s transport landscape, it’s not enough.  We need to massively increase investment in rail, light rail etc.  I seem to remember being told that 5% of journeys shifting off the roads make a massive improvement to vehicle flows on a congested road system.  5% - that’s a minority of those car drivers whose  journey  probably could be taken by train tube or bus.  As HS2 and Crossrail show, the economic situation doesn’t stop the UK investing in major transport infrastructure, so let’s do more to improve the situation in West London –next on my list of big projects would be AirTrack, from Waterloo to Heathrow.  And if Boris really wants to help the motorist, he’d pledge to invest in better public transport to create space for those who cannot or won’t get out of their cars.

Alan Keen MP

It's been a sad week for all of us who knew Alan, the news of his passing came almost without warning.  It seems not so long ago that Jagdish and I met him at Portcullis House, and again at BA Engineering.  At those meetings he was full of energy but we now know that his remission was just a short respite. 

Alan and I were first elected onto Hounslow Council together in 1986, but he served just the one term and went on to Parliament in 1992, where he was one of our 2 Labour MPs (with Ann) ever since.    
Alan was down-to-earth and great fun with a mischievous sense of humour.   As a politician he was Labour to his core, without being a tribalist.  He understood there were seldom two easy sides to an issue and this sometimes got him into trouble!  He always wanted the best for his constituency and for the borough, and he cared deeply about the needs of the people he represented.  

Ann, David and all the family, our thoughts are with you.

 - I will really miss your "Aya"