Now that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England has announced that the numbers of councillors in the City of Westminster should be reduced down to 54 from 60, we now need to redefine the ward boundaries to accommodate this. Or do we? 

It would be far easier to keep the Ward boundaries as present, and reduce the representation of the less densely packed wards down to 2 councillors each from the 3 at the moment. So in effect the lowest six wards by population density should be reduced to two councillors each.

Now that may sound to easy a solution but are not the best solutions in life usually the simplest ones around.  

Crossrail construction continues but when will the service finally be open?

You did not have to go far to hear the rumours of the delays on the Crossrail works in Central London. The cafes and pubs around Paddington Railway Station have been opening talking about it for months where many who work on the Crossrail project have lunch and a drink after work, that the Elizabeth line was not going to be ever completed by the 9th of December 2018.

In the Far East they will be laughing at our woes over Crossrail ( and HS2). As in the time since 2008 when Crossrail got formal government approval, the Chinese have built the most extensive network of High Speed rail in the World, 15,000 km of railway lines. For example the two ring high speed rail service known as Nanlong Railway link in Fujian province is 248 km long and has 99 bridges and 82 tunnels and due to open in the beginning of the 2019. So we clearly must improve our project management and learn from what is being done in the Far East in delivering major transport infrastructure projects in London and the UK.

Quite honestly the way its going it will not be opened before the next Mayoral contest in 2020 and l will not be surprised if its not well into the next term before its complete to hand over.

Indeed at the rate the Brunel Building is going up – increasingly casting a shadow across the whole of Little Venice and spoiling its skyline – it will be finished and let before the first Crossrail train is operational across the whole of London. Who could have for seen that at all?

So if the Crossrail boss has no idea of the revised launch date, it maybe useful for him to spend some time at the cafes and bars of Paddington to find out.

This was published as a letter in the Spring addition of SEBRA News W2

The Brunel Building – could this be occupied before Crossrail is operational?

Cllr Maggie Carman hands her letter of concern over Royal Oak bus proposal to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan

The recent community concern over TfL investigating a move of . Victoria Coach Station to Royal Oak site highlights well how coach matters in London do not really have anyone on top of it all. This while there are critical for cheap long distance travelling in the country.

Cllr Maggie Carman (LAB) of Bayswater Ward said it well at the first public meeting on the issue in St Stephens Church over the threat of a coach station on the Royal Oak site and its impact on Bayswater

“People have been asking me why Transport for London want to move out of Victoria.  Well, my answer is that it is not Transport for London’s decision. TFL has no statutory responsibility for coaches. They are acting to manage a problem that would otherwise lead to coaches clogging up streets all over London.”

Which begs the question then who has the authority over coaches? Well we can only point the finger at the Department which has the least efficient Secretary of State known to British government at present, Chris Graylings MP at the Department of Transport.  So it would be tempting fate by asking him to decide this one. 

Now the Department does not show itself in a good light either in City of Westminster particularly those with a long memory, as it almost got closed Marylebone Railway Station into a coach station in the mid-1980’s. It is hard to believe the terminus station of today was threaten by a rail road conversion into a coach station similar in scale to Victoria Coach Station today. 

Thankfully Marylebone Rail station was not converted into a Coach station

And to this day we still have coach issues around the corner from the Railway station, just off Dorset Square. Along Gloucester Place, NW1 we have issues about the moving of coach stops irritating local residents as Baker Street has been converted into a two way street which has knock on effects to the surrounding neighbourhood on both sides of the Marylebone road. 

Coach stop moved up Gloucester Place and causing problems for residents

So maybe it makes sense to give TfL the powers to regulate coaches in Greater London away from the Department of Transport. There are critical for cheap long distance travelling in the country but given most of the trips will be coming and going through London, let us give someone charge over it all in the capital.  But of course this must be on condition that they should dropped there Royal Oak bus station proposal straight immediately. 

In the meantime, we need some answers from the Mayor. Why did TfL go along with the move out of Victoria which has served everybody well except the Duke of Westminster’s, Grosvenor Estate? Quite honestly the delays on Cross rail make the likelihood of Cross rail 2 and thus having to use the Victorian Coach station as a works site highly unlikely now for at least another Mayoral term. And even if the leases on the site are coming to end, like any business lease l know of these can normally be extended through negotiations.

So let us see some firm action by the Mayor of London, so as Victoria coach station continues its operational in Belgravia for the convenience of the travelling public and residents of Bayswater and Westbourne in the North of the City of Westminster.  

As it appears coaches in London fall between TfL and Department of Transport responsibilities and its a case of a “coach and horses” through London.  

LCC Blue plaque in Marylebone

As a veteran of putting two blue plaques up in my neighbourhood – one for the second home of Lords and the other for Joe Strummer – it took a lot more time and energy than l anticipated. In both instances they were sponsored by local entities interested in retaining the local history of Marylebone particularly in the less wealth off parts of the old borough.  

So it is this experience this informs my contribution to the recent debate on getting more blue plaques put up for women. I am not sure that English Heritage is best placed to respond to putting up many more blue plaques for women given its neglect in the first place for not putting them up and l am not sure it has the resources to respond as well. 

Now we do have another alternative for making up for this huge gap in the contribution of women in the social history of London being identified on the streets of London. What is apparent certainly in Central London neighbourhoods like Marylebone and Paddington is that it is was not only English Heritage that put these unique blue plaques up. Indeed many where put up by the old Greater London Council (GLC) and London County Council (LCC) as well. In that light l can not see why the GLA through its own cultural programmes could not do the same, as the previous Greater London bodies had done. Indeed l suspect this could be very popular and the GLA more likely to be responsive to the demands of Londoners to have more blue plaques put up for women than others in the field. 

So in short, is it not time for a GLA blue plaque? After all the GLC and LCC had they own blue plaques. With only 132 for women of 944 English Heritage blue plaques in London according to London Assembly figures, this may well be the only way to catch up.  

While Bangladeshis around the world were spending time to commemorate Language Martyrs Day on the 21st of February, we saw the UK consumed with whether Shamima Begum should be permitted back into the UK or not. It is a day we pay homage to those who fought for the Bengali language in 1952 and onwards to be the state language for East Pakistan and since liberation of Bangladesh ( land of Bengali’s) has become a national holiday there and internationally recognised by UNESCO as International Mother Tongue Day. 

So it is a pity Shamima Begum freely admits this does not know Bengali and that she has not visited Bangladesh. As she would have appreciated through such exchanges how the formation of Bangladesh 🇧🇩 in its war of liberation in 1971 was a rejection of the colonial “two nations” theory at 1947. That is the rejection of a religious state let alone a caliphate. She would have certainly had relatives like her grand parents who would have around in those momentous times leading up to the liberation.   

Jihadists should also appreciate that when coming back in itself is an admission that the war to end all wars and the last days has not and not going to happen. Such an public admission should be one of many conditions of coming back into UK.

The two protests outside Mayfair auction houses in the past week are throwing light on what Housing Associations (HAs) are doing to their housing stock in Central London when becoming empty, selling them off and reducing the amount of social housing available for our desperately needy communities.

Normally all the focus on the loss of social housing is on the impact of RTB’s on our Council housing stock but we should not forget what HAs have been up too as well on this front. According to the latest figures from Charted Institute of Housing (CIH) some 47,000 properties have been sold by HAs between 2012-2018 with Notting Hill Housing Group and Peabody Housing Trust dumping over 500 social rented homes each in that period via auctions. CIH anticipate that HA’s will shed another 71,000 social rented homes in the near future.

These demo’s will no doubt become regular occurrence till the HAs stop this unjustified practise.

Please find link to my first column for Chatham House. 

https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/too-big-win-stability

Thankfully the first General Election in Pakistan held in December 1970 was considered fair and conducted well, gave us the democratic mandate for the liberation of Bangladesh. If it had not been, l can only imagine how much longer the liberation of Bangladesh would have been. 

The screeching at Paddington enough to drive people on the platform away from the trains

From screeching along the platform and rattling residents living above and around tube lines with noise and vibrations, you can not get away from tube noise nuisance in Central London.

So l was glad to see that our local paper – Westminster Extra along with it sister papers – Camden New Journal & Islington Tribune – have taken up the issue of screeching tube noise on the platforms of the tube for both passengers and those working on the Tube on the Northern line as it reports tube noise levels just like being at a rock gig along the platforms of Camden tube stations like Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town & Euston. Where perks of 109.5 decibels have been recorded. And daily commutes of around 30-45 minutes are sufficient to cause long-lasting and irreversible hearing loss.

But let us also not forget the screeching at Paddington Bakerloo Tube station. The Bakerloo line North of Paddington has been falling to pieces for a while and it starts with the screeching of the Bakerloo line trains going through Paddington. The piercing sound is enough to drive people on the platform away from the trains and not entering the carriages of the tube! It would be great if similar recordings of the noise can be made by experts like Dr Sollini and report back how it measures against the other lines already recorded. The Bakerloo line desperately needs an upgrade but let us at least get the  basics right while managing the line with issues like reducing the screeching. Do remember it was only a few years ago when the line had the worst seating on the tube!!!! And it was only repaired by TfL when it was highlighted to them by the general public on twitter.

Tube noise and vibrations has also been an issue for long suffering residents living above and around stations on tube lines something l first brought up at City Hall with the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson when the night tube proposal was first being investigated operationally. He famously said that he would not let the service begin if it is “….rattling residents tea cups at three o’clock in the morning” If the responses to media coverage, blogs l have written and day-to-day conversations in neighbourhoods like Marylebone are anything to go by, the number of cases has increased substantial across much of Inner London. As long suffering Londoners come out and tell their stories. It ranges from very loud announcements on the platforms to noises from the tracks in deep tube tunnels as it appears the speed and frequency of trains going through tunnels has gone up causing them sleepless nights and mental fatigue. So the first thing we could have from Transport for London (TfL) is a full acknowledgement of where the problems are with the latest update of all the complaints that have been received in the public domain.  Furthermore a study of the levels of noise across all the tube lines with some academic rigour to see if any patterns are emerging that can tell us what type of strategy is required to bring the levels of noise and vibration disturbance down. Something that was last done by the London South Bank, University Acoustic Group.

Thankfully the London Assembly has taken up the issues with affected residents being given the floor at Committee meetings to air their complaints at City Hall recently just before the Christmas break. This while the Mayor has a statutory responsibility for ambient noise in Greater London is hopefully covered within his all encompassing environmental strategy, as undoubtedly noise is the main environmental concern of Londoners when we remember this includes aircraft noise as well around London airports.

And finally, surely a public body like Transport for London should acknowledge its has a statutory responsibility for such public nuisance caused by the noise of the tubes it operates over WHO recommended levels. Causing its residential neighbours, employers and passenger much nuisance. It should not have to take a test case in the High Courts for them to accept their responsibilities to their London neighbours, passengers and staff before full mitigation works are undertaken to deal with such headaches for many Londoners going about their daily life.    

Finally this blog has kindly been published in the Westminster Extra (1st Feb 2019 edition)

Sarawak Assembly delegation in London ask innocently what the hell is happening in the House of Commons?

With the continuing Brexit mess unfolding in the House of Commons, can people around the world see our parliament as the Mother of Parliaments ever again? 

Since the beginning of the year, the UK government has been held in contempt of parliament. It has also seen the biggest government lose on a piece of legislation. As the Prime Ministers Brexit deal, otherwise known as the Withdrawal Agreement was rejected by a whopping 230 votes.

So let us face it, the Mother of Parliaments looks a real mess over the Brexit issue. At the heart of it is the conflict between the sovereignty of the people vs sovereignty of the parliament. It does not help that we have an unwritten British constitution as it confers total sovereignty on parliament as the epitome of a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy. So it seats very uncomfortably with the notion of asking voters to make policy choices like it is done regularly in Switzerland. That is a representative democracy where we elect members to represent us on a host of issues not necessarily on a singular one like Brexit. 

Now the process and manner of our democracy may not matter to us much as we make it up as we go along but it does leave many visitors of our democracy in the Commons perplexed on how we actually go about undertaking it.  Indeed one member of Sarawak Assembly delegation who watched one of the Brexit sessions at the Commons from the public gallery said while we were entertaining them at the Chinese restaurant  “May you live in interesting times”. The well known Chinese proverb or curse seen very appropriate indeed. All l could say was that you have certainly come to our shores in very interesting times. 

So as and when this episode is eventually finished, the adoption of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy and its practises by many countries around the world will be all the more unlikely. As many will look back over this period as a clear example of how not to run a democracy at all. 

In the FT Weekend (15/16th December ) column by Sunder Katwala he argued “English Football & Society have to dig deeper to root out racism” but we should not also forget older forms of racism on like anti-semitic chanting in our terraces of some grounds in the UK.

I was quite astonished to hear such anti-semitic chanting in a game l went to watch at Stamford Bridge ( Chelsea vs Blackburn ) from the Matthew Harding Stand as part of a delegation organised by Show Racism the Red Card in 2009 which prompted me to write to the club to do something about it.

So l am glad to see almost 10 years after the events Chelsea FC have since the beginning of 2018 started dealing with the issue with bans on fans found to have committed such chants. Though it still appears the club still has the problem at their away games both home and aboard. The last away game in Europe illustrated this well and could well land them a UEFA crowd ban at home and then we had the away game in Selhurst Park where an ex-Spurs player was abused. 

So lets not forget anti-semitic chanting as well.