i’m not a number – I’m another statistic

Apologies for my tardiness in updating my blog recently.  I’m in the rather perverse position of having had my busiest month ever at work and then being rewarded with the news that I’m likely to be made redundant at the end of the year. 

I work in the construction industry and redundancy is an occupational hazard.  When times are good everyone wants to build something – from speculative developments to home extensions. But when times are tough, building schemes can be turned off overnight.

My role is with an industry organisation and while we’re exceptionally busy, our funders have seen their income collapse thanks in part to Gordon Brown’s mismanagement of the economy.  As a consequence, they are looking at all their outgoings and I, and a large number of my colleagues, will become additional statistics in Labour’s book of economic horror.

The good news is that I will have more time to spend on the campaign to win Ealing North for the Conservatives at the next general election – and more time to post on the blog!  Every cloud as they say!

Remembrance Sunday

I attended the Greenford remembrance service this year with my family.  The Greenford service is organised by the Greenford Branch of the British Legion and is more intimate than the Ealing service, which I’ve attended in the past.  This is partly because the crowd are literally much closer to the service but also there is a bigger attendance. 

Afterwards, we went to the Legion for a welcome cuppa (or something stronger if required).  I met up with Cyril Brown who is featured on the central pages of this month’s Around Ealing.  Cyril was on the submarines during World War II and following the publication of this article he was approached by a journalist to expand on his story.  He was happy to talk about and promote the Greenford British Legion but not about himself. As he said, the “Submarines were the quiet service  – we learnt how to keep quiet and I’m staying quiet ”.

With the steady toll of brave young soldiers dying in Afghanistan, Remembrance Sunday clearly still has relevance.

Shame of the Lisbon Treaty

Rather than being a day of celebration for Europe, EU politicians should be hanging their heads in shame.  The submission by the Czech President following the ruling by his constitutional court means the Treaty has been ratified by all countries and can now become operational.  So what was a trade agreement, became the EEC and eventually the EU, will now have a president and a foreign secretary.  And all this without many of the residents of the “sovereign” states having a vote.  The Irish actually got two votes but we poor old Brits (despite categorical promises from the three main parties at the last election) have not had a referendum.  This is not democracy and is not a strong foundation to build their Euroopean dream on.

David Cameron who has consistently called for a referendum has dropped his pledge to have one now - disappointing but it seems sensible to me.  There is no Treaty to have a referendum on anymore so to go through the exercise would be pointless.  However, he has made some interesting commitments.  The following is an extract from an e-mail he sent out today:

First, if we win the next election, we will prohibit, by law, the transfer of further power to the EU without a referendum. Never again should it be possible for a British government to transfer power to the EU without the British people’s consent.

Second, we will introduce a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament.

And third, we want to negotiate three specific guarantees with our European partners over powers that we believe should reside with Britain, not the EU. We will negotiate the return of Britain’s opt-out from social and employment legislation in those areas which have proved most damaging to our economy and public services. We also want a complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. And we would negotiate for a return of powers in criminal justice to prevent EU judges gaining steadily greater control over our criminal justice system.

Already there are siren voices out there that say this will not be possible to deliver but I disagree.  We need a Government with a healthy dose of Euroscepticsm and I think that’s what David Cameron offers.  He’s set up a new political grouping in the European Parliament as promised – many said he wouldn’t or couldn’t. 

No doubt there will be Conservative voters who will flirt with UKIP over this.  But that really plays in to Labour’s hands – a vote for UKIP is a vote for 4 more years of Gordon Brown, more betrayals and more powers lost to the EU.  If that’s what you want then go ahead but if not you need to vote Conservative.

Nothing British about the BNP

We’re in the run up to Remembrance Sunday and no doubt the BNP will try and associate themselves further with the sacrifices of our troops – millions of whom died deafeating nazis like Griffin. 

I know that some people have been put off contributing to the Royal British Legion’s poppy campaign because a BNP supporter made a contribution which was promoted on a BNP website.  The Royal British Legion have made it clear that they don’t want Griffin to politicise the poppy appeal and have even run newspaper adverts to this effect.

With the sacrifices being made in Afghanistan at the moment I think it’s important to have a successful poppy appeal this year.  So  I urge you instead of finding a bit of loose change to pop in the tin to get your poppy – why not make it a silent collection and pop in some folding currency

Parking in the Draytons

We did some door knocking in the Draytons area of West Ealing tonight to get a better idea of the strength of feeling on implementing a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in the area.  We’ve been lobbied quite hard by e-mail and at our ward forum meetings for a CPZ but what is the view of the residents overall?

At our last ward forum we agreed to carry out a consultation in the next financial year.  Hopefully the Council will put it in their consultation programme, but if not, we will fund it from our delegated ward forum budget.  There are a number of pressures on parking including commuter parking from West Ealing station, residents of the flats at the Sinclair House site, Waitrose staff and sorting off staff.  But another major pressure is the fact that the residents have too many cars – the terrace houses have  effectively one parking space in front of them, yet many households own two or even three cars. A CPZ cannot resolve that problem unless you introduce a punitive charge on a household applying for more than one permit.

So what was the overall view of residents?  Frankly it was mixed with quite strong opinions both ways.  However, even in roads like Drayton Avenue, which is one of the hardest roads to park in, there is still a significant minority against a CPZ.  If this was replicated in a vote my gut feeling is that residents would reject the CPZ at the moment.

The consultation to take place next year will be interesting.

Equitable Life fiasco drags on

I attended a meeting of the Equitable Members Action Group (EMAG ) yesterday at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing.  Some of you will be aware of the outrageous way that Equitable Life policy holders have been treated over the last ten years.  I won’t go into the ins and outs of all the stages (you can find all this on the EMAG website) but suffice to say that the Parliamentary Ombudsman, in her report  “A decade of Regulatory Failure”, found that for the 10 years before Equiatble officially went bust, the company was already effectively bust. The financial authorities knew all this and allowed the company to keep trading – indeed during this period Equitable Life’s customer base increased five fold and its assets six fold.

The Government have tried to avoid paying out any compensation and tried to reject the Ombudsman’s report but EMAG managed successfully to get the High Court to quash the  rejection. There was a debate in the House of Commons last week (Hansard transcript here) but Labour trooped out its MPs and defeated the attempt to get the Government to accept the Ombudsman’s recommendations.  It was mentioned at the EMAG meeting that Steve Pound the Ealing North MP had not been supportive of EMAG members. He has failed to sign an Early Day Motion on Equitable (EDM 1423) despite 342 MPs adding their names. He uses the fact he is the PPS (bag carrier) to Stephen Timms  as an excuse as to why he can’t get involved.  However, it didn’t stop him voting against the motion last week.

It would be excellent news if a new Conservative Government can find a way to sort thios mess out properly and quickly.  As the motion said last week – over  30,000 people have died waiting for a just resolution to this saga.

Lift plans for Greenford station axed

Bad news about Greenford station. In a letter to Ealing Council last week, Richard Parry, Managing Director of London Underground, said TfL would have to defer indefinitely the project to install lifts in Greenford Station for financial reasons, despite having already started the building work.

I know that TfL have a real funding shortage at the moment, but the work has already started and it’s going to take money to undo it. 

Leader of Ealing Council, Councillor Jason Stacey, is on the warpath. He fumed,

This is an utterly ridiculous and disgusting decision and one that I will be challenging. It beggars belief that TfL will still have to spend money on reversing the substantial work that has already been carried out at Greenford station. I believe the duration of these works will take approximately nine months. In these tough times, would it not make more sense to finish the work rather than write off months of wasted work and taxpayers’ money. This is not the way to operate in a recession and quite frankly I’m appalled with their reckless attitude. Commuters who use Greenford Station have been campaigning for more than 20 years for lifts to be installed and there has been no consultation with the council or local residents about this decision. I am calling on TfL to make public the figures surrounding the works at Greenford underground station so we can all see just how much public money will have been wasted should this decision stand.

It looks like the campaign to get a lift at Greenford will have to rumble on.

Tetra Paks to hit green boxes

Ealing’s Conservative Council has announced the latest extension to the kerbside recycling collection scheme – Tetra Paks can be included in the green box from 7th December.  Currently there are facilities to drop off these drink and food cartons at Ealing Town Hall and a few other sites, but this will make it much more convenient.

The Council estimate that this step could divert up to 400 toones of rubbish from landfill each year and will enable us to make further progress in improving our recycling rates.  Back in 2006 we inherited a miserable recycling rate of only 19% .  After just over three years we have:

• extended the food recycling scheme across the borough
• included cardboard in the green box
• set up plastic collections
• made garden waste recycling free
• extended recycling collections to flats

This has increased our recycling rate to an impressive 37.5% – the residents of Ealing really did vote blue and went green.

Hobbayne Public Meeting goes smoothly

I spent one evening last week at a public meeting to discuss the possible expansion of Hobbayne Primary School.  The need for places in the Ealing and Hanwell area is still growing so we’ve been talking to a number of schools about expansion. 

The current round of public meetings have had a much different atmosphere compared to the early meetings I attended at North Ealing and Little Ealing. These meetings were quite hostile with worried parents often refuting the need for additional places or demanding that other schools should be considered for expansion.  Parents in the latest round of consultations seem to accept the need for places and are aware that many schools have already been asked to expand.  There are still concerns from residents about the disruption and how the expansion will impact on their children’s education, but the meetings are much less controversial.

Catchment area for Hobbayne Primary (in green)

At the Hobbayne meeting the main concern seemed to be from Framfield Road residents – particularly over issues surrounding traffic, parking and noise from the construction works. 

One issue that I think we will need to address is that of catchment areas – the residents on the north side of Framfield are outside catchment despite it being only a few yards from the entrance to the school.  Changing catchment areas is really opening the proverbial can of worms, but this is one anomaly that needs resolving.

Mrs Gibb the Vigilante

My bike was nicked on Thursday night. Admittedly I hadn’t locked it, but it was on my porch, right next to the front door of our corner house overlooked on two sides.  The front room curtains weren’t even drawn but that didn’t stop some little oik waltzing up my garden path and taking my bike!

It isn’t even a very good bike – it was pretty cheap when we bought it some 20 years ago. A few months ago  it was parked outside Ealing Town Hall next to Cllr Colm Costello’s bike – when we came out, Colm’s had been stolen but my poor old clapped out machine was still there.

It may be past its prime, not looking as good as it once did and be a bit worn out (aren’t we all) – but I liked it and I was pretty hacked off – but at least it gave me an excuse to buy a new one after all these years.

The next day my wife and son were having a cup of coffee at Munson’s when three lads cycled by. 

“That’s dad’s bike” said Samuel. Louise didn’t have her mobile with her, so they set off to follow this gang wondering what to do.  In the end she opted for direct action, stormed up to the three lads and demanded that they return the bike to her as it was her husband’s which had been stolen the night before.  Now Mrs Gibb can be quite scary when she gets going, so it’s no surprise that they meekly handed back the bike.  Apparently, one of the lads had told the other two that his mum had given him it as a present last night – I think it more likely he’d helped himself, especially since Louise recognised him as having loitered around our street earlier in the evening.

Anyway he’s hardly the brightest button in the box to nick  a bike and then ride around on it in the same area – not while Mrs Gibb is on the prowl anyway! 

And my excuse to treat myself to a new bike is gone.