The Bristow Blog

H&F Conservatives nominated for an award

The leader of Hammersmith & Fulham council - Stephen Greenhalgh - has been nominated for an award by the popular Conservative activist website ConservativeHome.  He has been nominated in the "local hero" category designed for hard-working local councillors, activists or social entrepreneurs who are devoted to the community around them.  Reasons for his citation are for reducing taxes and improving services.

Moreover, Hammersmith parliamentary candidate Shaun Bailey has also been nominated for an award in the "One to Watch" category.  This category is for the organisation or individual that may not have reached the top of their field yet, but are well on their way to getting there.  Shaun has been nominated for being a new kind of Conservative candidate with real understanding of poor communities.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2007/12/your-chance-to.html#more

Both nominations are richly deserved - get voting by clicking here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=mlZ7qhCXsDM3oQcCZtoK7A_3d_3d

Harriet Harman is right on prostitution

Harriet Harman - Deputy Leader of the Labour Party - wants to see the law changed so it is illegal to pay for sex.  I thought this was already illegal - shows you what I know!

Apparently running a brothel, street prostitution, and curb crawling is illegal - but not prostitution itself. 

The political arguements I have heard on this subject until now have all been to do with relaxing the law and following a more continental liberal approach.  As a Conservative it would not be surprising to readers to learn that I always rejected this.  Liberals point to Amsterdam but quite frankly I do not want anywhere in the UK to turn out like parts of that city with seedy red light districts and drugs freely available.  Soho is already looking rather like this as it is.

The image of women freely selling themselves as part of the 'oldest profession of the world' is shattered by the reality of prostitution on London's streets.  Girls trafficked from across the world and forced to work in brothels, and others suffering from drug and alcohol addiction.  It will be the vulnerable, the poor, and the forgotten decents who will have to put up with misery of prostitution on their doorsteps. 

However, here is a Labour Minister sounding tough on the subject - and bravo to her.  Previous Labour comments on this topic have firmly been routed in the liberal nonsense camp - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4619098.stm.  It now seems that common sense is prevailing and a tough line will be taken http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7153358.stm.

It is right that newspaper ads which blatently advertise prostitution should be tackled and that ads in phone boxes should become a thing of the past.  It is not nice using public phoneboxes and to see cards advertising all sorts of services!  More and more of these are becoming common in Hammersmith & Fulham.  It is good that our safer neighbourhood teams and council officers have a zero tolerance approach to this.

It can be tempting to be a tribal politician.  It is rare you will find me praising Harriet Harman.  She has been in the media for all the wrong sleazy reasons recently.  But on this she is correct.  It is not right that in 21st century Britain women are exploited through the sex trade.

Ice Skating on Shepherds Bush Green

An ice rink is being opened on Shepherds Bush Green today and will stay until Saturday.

The rink will be open between 10.00am and 5.00pm today, Friday and Saturday.  There will also be a funfair featuring a carousel, ferris wheel and tea cup ride, along with refreshment stalls and food carts offering roasted chestnuts, candy floss and toffee apples.  The consumption of alcohol will not be permitted.

The 144 square metres of rink will allow up to 50 people on the ice at any one time. It will be open to everyone over the age of four, although children under 12 years old will need to be supervised by an adult.

I’m sure the ice rink will appeal to lots of local residents and is a great way to make use of Shepherds Bush Green in the run up to Christmas.

The cost for a half hour on the ice is just £3, which includes skate hire – you can not bring your own skates.  The event is jointly sponsored by H&F Council, Westfield Shopping Centre and West 12 Shopping Centre.

Shepherds Bush tube to close for 8 months!

The Shepherds Bush central line station is to close for eight months from 2nd February 2008 as the station is demolished and rebuilt.  This is going to be a major headache for many local residents.  Transport for London (TFL) have said that the closure is necessary in order to create improvements in time for the new Westfield development opening in late 2008.

Commuters now face a trip to the White City or Holland Park stops (or an alternative tube journey).  Notice for this has been lacking.  Local traders are also concerned.  This station is used by 12 million people annually.

What is needed is a cohesive approach to transport in Shepherds Bush - the congestion around the Common is unbearable at times, the C Charge extension has makes this worse, and the mainline station at Shepherds Bush remains unopened while bueaurcrats fuss over the platform length.

The council has called for a Transport Summit in the New Year to try and get things moving again.  We have called on TFL to attend the meeting with local residents and business to try and get a a solution to many of our transport problems.  It is infuriating that the new main line station just stands idle.  It is clear that we are at the bottom (as West London always is) of TFL, the Mayor and the Government's list of priorities.

Of course the attitude of the local Labour Party is not helping.  They are blaming the council for opposing transport schemes in West London in the past.  We opposed Labour schemes - the C Charge extension and the tragic Uxbridge Road Tram.  To me, this is a record to be proud of.  It is now time for an end to the party politics of the past and to move forward together to create solutions for Shepherds Bush.

I want a Referendum

Yesterday Gordon Brown signed the EU Reform Treaty - the new name for imfamous EU Constitution.

In practical terms it:

• - Creates new European Council President
• - New foreign policy supremo to increase EU profile
• - A common EU defence policy
• - Commissioners reduced from 27 to 18
• - Removes the UK veto in around 50 policy areas
• - Voting weights between member states redistributed at Britain's expense

Only 10 of the 250 proposals in the old document have been altered.  All of the more far reaching proposals of 2005 are still there.  He has done this whilst breaking his promise of giving the British people a say in a referendum.  Gordon Brown calls this a fuss over nothing. 

Ireland are having a referendum - if it is good enough for them then it should be good enough for us.  Sign up to this website and demand a referendum.

http://www.iwantareferendum.com/?gclid=CMzghej2p5ACFQdTEgodxVGi9A

24/7 Policing is working

Despite what Andrew Slaughter MP and the Lib Dems say, the extra police officers in Shepherds Bush and Fulham are working.  Crime in both areas has dramatically dropped since Hammersmith & Fulham council launched a multi-million pound round-the-clock policing in April - this is shown by the latest police figures.

Fulham

• Burlgary from homes have more than halved
• Snatch offences have dropped by 56%
• Car thefts have fallen 48%
• Common assault is down 15%
• Shoplifting down 17%
• 6 new neighbourhood watches have been created

Shepherds Bush

• Robberies have declined by 46%
• Snatch offences have dropped by 40%
• The number of street drinkers has dropped by 75%
• Officers have shut 4 crack houses
• 56 drug busts have taken place in the last 6 months

Fulham and Shephards Bush are the only two places in the UK where this type of round-the-clock policing takes place.  Cutting crime in Hammersmith & Fulham is our number one priority.

This is why it is so disappointing that only the Conservatives are supporting this pilot.  Andrew Slaughter the Labour MP has declared his opposition to the scheme at a public meeting at the BBC and now the Lib Dems have come out against it.   See:

http://thebristowblog.typepad.com/the_bristow_blog/2007/09/slaughter-again.html

http://www.hammersmithtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=concrime083.htm

The Liberal Democrat Dem MP Susan Kramer has complained that criminals have been pushed south of the river into her Richmond Park constituency, while Lib-Dem mayoral candidate and ex-police officer Brian Paddick objects that wealthy areas should not be able to outspend poorer ones on policing.

This is of course rubbish.  How wealthy do the Lib Dems think Shepherds Bush is?  Local Conservatives will never apologise for putting more police on the streets.

Making our estates safer places to live

As well as cutting waste and taxes, and improving services - a Conservative council must deal with crime and anti-social behaviour.  We said crime was our number one priority and we meant it.

We must make our housing estates safer places to live.  Too many decent people and families are intimidated by anti social behaviour, petty crime and gangs.  A zero tolerance clampdown on yobbery and thuggery on our estates has been ordered by the council.  Thirty of the borough's most troublesome neighbours have been placed on an eviction hit-list.

In the past the council has struggled to consistently convict nuisance neighbours if there were no witnesses willing to give evidence.  But now, undercover professional witnesses will be employed to target known offenders and collect evidence to use in court.  The council has also directed H&F Homes, who manage the council’s housing stock, to bring in probationary tenancies so that nuisance families can be put on a final warning before being evicted if necessary.

The plan is to enhance the monitoring, maintenance and recording functions of the CCTV system – as well as expanding it through new fixed and mobile CCTV solutions.

We are upping the ante on a range of criminality from dangerous dogs and vandalism to people who physically and verbally assault their neighbours.  The message is clear – if you are not playing by the rules of civilised society – you’re out. We will not hesitate to go through the courts to get criminal convictions or evictions.

More estate wardens are also planned in a bid to boost the number of patrols and improve response times, hand in hand with a remodelling of the concierge service in some blocks of flats, to bring it into line with 21st Century demands.

We are reclaiming our estates with this tough series of measures. Residents have a right to peace of mind at home and by identifying the ringleaders of the troublemakers and pursuing them relentlessly we will make this a reality.

District Line improvements shelved

I despair of the district line.  I do not have a car and rely on this line to get me to work, to central London and beyond.  It is fair to suggest that at times I have a tendancy to deal with things at last minute or not really think about commitments until they are upon me - as a result I spend many moments waiting for a platform to come free at Earls Court looking anxiously at my watch. 

Work is urgently needed to make the district line more reliable.  However, millions of pounds worth of improvements to the line are to be shelved.  This will be greeted with despair by residents in Fulham Reach and beyond.

Livingstone's Transport for London (TFL) is taking over the tube maintenance company Metronet and are looking at ways to save money.  As a result improvements have been prioritised for the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines leaving other projects without funding. 

Suprise, suprise.  West Londoners lose out again.  We put up with disasterous schemes like the C charge extension, and millions wasted on the Uxbridge Tram, but our crucial transport infrastructure is ignored.      

Labour councillors ask for higher pay and more perks

When I first got involved in local politics in Hammersmith & Fulham, the local Conservatives were opposing the creation of the nine highest paid councillors in the country in the then Labour controlled Hammersmith & Fulham.  The phrase "snouts in the trough" was banded about as Labour awarded themselves more and more money.

Labour have learnt nothing from that experience.  A major report, commissioned by the Government, overseen by Labour supporters and to be handed to Local Government Minister Hazel Blears on today, is to recommend massive increases in payments to councillors. 

Plans include a dismantling of rules introduced in the 1980s to protect local taxpayers from ‘loony left’ councils and ‘jobs for the boys’ corruption:

• Higher salaries for all councillors is demanded – including parish councillors.
• Golden goodbyes - cash handouts will be given to those “who lose office through the action of the electorate”.
• State funding for local political parties, tied to meeting state diversity and equality targets. Term limits will also push out popular councillors because they are too ‘old’.
• Pensions for all councillors, whilst ordinary pensioners struggle to pay their bills.
• Propaganda on the rates – via a new ‘Communications Allowance’ for councillors.
• State benefits and dole - letting councillors keep their town hall salaries and still claim benefits.
• Jobs for the boys - weakening controls on council officers who are also councillors. 
• Abolishing by-elections, because local democracy is too inconvenient for the electorally-challenged Labour Party.
• Requirements to turn up to meetings to vote will be scrapped, but councillors will still be paid in full.

The most shocking of these in my mind are the proposals to abolish by-elections (depriving the electorate of representation and making a ruling on council peformance), letting existing councillors put forward propaganda through a 'communications allowance', and removing the requirement that councillors should turn up and do their job.  How have sensible people come up with such rubbish?  These proposals are absolutely outrageous and fly in the face of democracy and accountablilty.  This is all taxpayers money.  No wonder council tax is increasing at such rates (except in Hammersmith & Fulham).

The cynic in me is thinking that these proposals have come about due to Labour's own financial problems.  Under rules passed by the Labour Party in 2006, all Labour councillors must now make direct debit payments from councillor pay packets to Labour Party funds; the higher the salary, the more money for Labour.

The full report can be found - http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/583990

Standard backs Hammersmith & Fulham tax cut