Sharma’s Gurkha Hypocrisy

Ealing Southall MP, Virendra Sharma, displayed staggering hypocrisy last night when he supported the Government’s attempt to deny settlement rights to former Gurkha soldiers.  In a major embarrassment for Gordon Brown, the Government was defeated as MPs backed the campaign fronted by Joanna Lumley to give all Gurkhas equal rights of residence in Britain.
This is [...]

Outstanding Schools Recognised

Today I joined the Mayor of Ealing, Cllr Ian Green, who hosted a reception for representatives from all the schools in the borough that have been inspected by Ofsted in the last year and were recognised as being outstanding.  It’s the second year we’ve organised this event and although it’s quite low profile and reasonably informal, [...]

Ealing Council pledges Homes for Heroes

I’m pleased to report that at last week’s Council meeting we agreed to give priority to in housing allocations to injured ex-servicemen and women.  Given the sacrifice our soldiers have made this is a small measure we can take so show our support and gratitude.  A paper will be brought to the May Cabinet which [...]

May Day Recycling Collection Dates

A quick reminder that bin collection dates will be put back a day for most of us due to the bank holiday weekend.  Revised collection dates are shown below.
Usual collection day     Revised day
Monday, 4 May                     Tuesday, 5 May
Tuesday, 5 May                    Wednesday, 6 May
Wednesday, 6 May              Thursday, 7 May
Thursday, 7 May                  Friday, 8 May
Friday, 8 May                        [...]

Save Ealing Stroke Unit

I’m backing the campaign to save the stroke unit at Ealing Hospital.  Under the Government’s plans, Ealing stroke patients will have to travel to Northwick Park or Charing Cross Hospital, with possible transfer either to Hillingdon or West Middlesex Hospitals. This is despite the fact that  Ealing Hospital’s Stroke Unit is performing in the upper [...]

Whitehall blundering costs Ealing schools £700,000

Blundering by a Government quango has left Ealing schools, which have a sixth form, with a massive funding shortfall.  After telling schools how much funding they would receive next year for teaching 16-18 year olds, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) suddenly changed its mind. It failed to predict the number of students accurately. It [...]

Electric Car Fantasy

 I see that that motorists will be offered subsidies of up to £5,000 to encourage them to buy electric or plug-in hybrid cars under plans announced by the Government. It is part of the Government’s £250m plan to promote low carbon transport over the next five years. But ministers do not expect the cars to [...]

Crime down in Ealing

 
The latest crime figures for Ealing are encouraging, showing a 3.8% reduction on the total number of crimes compared to the previous year (performing better than London as a whole where the average reduction was 2.2%). Across London there has been a fall in gun and knife crime, which is one of the areas the [...]

Bad news day

Now we understand why Gordon Brown has been delaying the apology over the Downing Street smear e-mails, or am I just a cynic.
Today is what Peter Mandelson and his fellow kings of spin would call a bad news day.  The Director of Public Prosecutions has just announced that Damian Green will [...]

Pitshanger Streets for People meeting

A quick heads up so that you can put the date in your diary. As I announced at the last Cleveland Ward Forum, we’re having a public meeting to discuss the Pitshanger Lane Streets for People scheme. The scheme’s consultants will be present, together with detailed drawings.
The meeting will be between 7:30 and 9:30 pm on 28th [...]