Published: 12 September, 2014
by WILLIAM McLENNAN

THOUSANDS of patients are to lose their doctor when a GP surgery in Paddington closes at the end of this month.

Staff at Milne House Medical Centre have been told by the NHS that they will be shutting their doors on September 30, but patients are yet to be told.

NHS chiefs decided to axe the surgery, which has around 3,000 patients, after a bodged consultation process, that was extended after many patients did not receive letters warning them the surgery was facing closure.

Patient Danna Cohen said the whole process had been characterised by a “lack of commun­ication,” adding: “I had a plan B, but a lot patients don’t even know how to have a plan B. There’s a lot of elderly patients and people who don’t speak English as a first language. I’m thinking of other patients and there might be a lot of patients who can’t handle this at all.”

The surgery has been under threat for months after Central London Community Healthcare trust (CLCH) decided running the surgery no longer fit their “business plan”.

NHS England were left with the decision of continuing to fund the surgery or “dispersing” the patients between neighbouring doctors.

Labour Assembly Member Murad Qureshi, who has been campaigning alongside patients, said: “The most basic thing you can do is inform people.

“The least they could do is inform people they are closing it and these are the places you can now go. Not doing so appears to treat the patients very callously and in a haphazard way. Many of these patients will be elderly and have been living in the area for a very long time.”

The news comes after the closure of nearby W2 Health, which shut because the sole doctor retired, and has led to concerns about a shortage of GPs in the area.

Mr Qureshi said: “I think the coverage is going to be the problem, whether there are enough surgeries locally for people to walk into.”

A spokeswoman for NHS England admitted there had been a delay in sending the letters, but said they would be sent immediately and received this weekend, giving them just two weeks to find a new surgery.

Soho Square General Practice, that was also under threat, is to remain open following a strongly-fought campaign by patients.

View the article here:

–       Forces in Hounslow face a 10% vacancy rate;

–       Vacancies leave Hounslow without 10 sergeants;

–       High vacancy rates leave ‘a gaping hole at the heart of the Met’;

–       Figures show a £13.7m Met underspend on police officer pay, suggesting that that vacancies have been sitting open as part of a cost saving exercise.

New figures obtained by Labour London Assembly Member Joanne McCartney show that in May this year (the latest period available) there were 1,209 vacancies for police sergeants and constables across the capital’s borough forces.

The high vacancy rates come on top of significant cuts in police numbers since the Government came to power, with official figures showing 8 police officers and PCSOs cut from Hounslow’s streets between May 2010 and May 2014, and 4,694 from London’s streets overall. A report last year also found that the Met’s proportion of officers deemed ‘visible’ was the third lowest in England and Wales.

Hounslow is one of 14 London boroughs with vacancy rates of over 6%, with five facing double digit deficits. Harrow is shown to have the highest percentage of vacancies, with 15% of its sergeant and constable posts unfilled. Waltham Forest had the highest overall number, with 72 vacancies from a force of 664.

The figures were revealed after HMIC warned that “forces across England and Wales plan to achieve most of their savings by reducing the number of police officers, PCSOs and police staff… most of the savings [of the MPS] come from reducing the size of the workforce.”

Labour London wide Assembly Member, Murad Qureshi AM, said:

“In his manifesto Boris Johnson pledged to put more officers on the beat. In reality what we have seen is 8 police officers and PCSOs cut from Hounslow’s streets since this Government came to power. Now we learn that on top of that, 10%, of Hounslow’s police officers are missing due to unfilled an vacancy, that’s 55 extra officers who should be on our streets. It is an absolute scandal that police numbers have been allowed to fall this low, these vacancies are leaving a gaping hole at the heart of the local police force.

“Whilst a small churn in the number of officers is to be expected, these are deeply concerning figures. With 10% police officer positions unfilled we need to ask not only what impact that has on policing, but why the Mayor of London Boris Johnson has allowed it to happen in the first place. Either the depth of officer morale is so low they are haemorrhaging officers, or these posts are being kept open to keep costs down. Either way the Mayor should take immediate action to ensure our police force is up to strength and vacancies are filled as quickly as possible.”

ENDS

Notes

• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.
• Police vacancy figures across London boroughs (as of 31 May 2014) were supplied in response to a question to the Mayor from Joanne McCartney AM. The combination of borough vacancies and neighbourhood policing team vacancies totalled 1,209.
• A breakdown of police vacancies by borough is available here.
• Actual police officer strength across London boroughs (as of May 2014) were published on London Datastore (figures are accessible via the raw data link, and then by clicking on Police Officers and Staff Numbers, by Borough/Business Unit).
• The MPS has the third lowest proportion of officers that are deemed ‘visible’ in England and Wales 2013-14, at 52%. (Value for Money Profiles, HMIC, November 2013, p 43).
• HMIC warned that “… most of the savings [of the MPS] come from reducing the size of the workforce.” In its report Responding to Austerity – Metropolitan Police Service (p 16).
• The June 2014 MOPAC monitoring report stated that there was a £13.7m underspend on police officer pay in 2013/14 (MOPAC Monthly Report to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee – June 2014, Appendix One, p 6).

Theresa May famously claimed her own Tory Party was the nasty party when she was Party chairperson and she has clearly shown that tendency with herself over the Talha Ahsan extradition.

When she had the discretion as Secretary of State for the Home Affairs, she put Talha Ahsan in with Abu Hamza when she extradited them to the US and boasted this to the Party faithful in their 2012 Party Conference. Furthermore, she decided not to extradite Gary McKinnon another person who the US wanted extradited but she rejected it on health grounds as he has Aspergers syndrome. Talha Ahsan has a similar condition yet she felt not able to wave the extradition request from the US on the same grounds. You can only guess what made her do that!

So shame on Theresa May for being so nasty.

Thats why l was happy to speak against her in front of the Home Office last weekend and welcome back the swift return of Talha to London. He was cleared by a US judge more than a month ago now and should have been back to spend Eid with his family, yet incredible the authorities in the US still detain him.

Welcome back to London Talha soon.

Is the Mayor sticking two fingers up to Londoners, as he goes part-time?

Last week Boris Johnson finally confirmed politics’ worst kept secret, admitting he intends to stand at the General Election next May.

Despite previously describing being Mayor of London as the “greatest job in the world” Boris has had a change of heart, admitting over the weekend he simply became Mayor to “show what he could do” and “gain some administrative experience”.

With his sights now set on Downing St, Londoners could be forgiven for feeling distinctly short-changed by the part time Mayor’s decision.

It’s not only a snub to the Londoners who elected him but a question of honesty after promising to serve his full term and insisting that the job of mayor “cannot be combined with any other political capacity”.

Whilst Boris’ interests move on, it is Londoners who will pay the price. For the next two years their Mayor will be utterly distracted – first fighting an election campaign, then as an MP if he’s successful. All this at a time when Londoners – who are suffering a severe housing crisis, cuts to police and fire services, and some of the worst air quality in Europe –need and deserve strong leadership.

Boris’ admission that he saw the Mayoralty as nothing more than a stepping stone, to help build his public profile, is reflected by his record at City Hall. He has overseen 4,500 less police officers on our streets, closed 10 fire stations – jeopardising the safety of Londoners, has been responsible for a 43.7 per cent increase in bus fares and a 33.2 per cent increase in Tube fares; and presided over a severe housing crisis in the capital. Londoners deserve better than a part-time Mayor who is more concerned with his own political ambitions than leading their city.

 In the event of getting elected back into the Commons in May 2015, we have two scenarios. If the Conservatives become the opposition, this will almost immediately trigger a leadership contest which undoubted Boris Johnson would throw his hat into the ring and become his dominant focus and concern when he is meant to be seeing out his final year as Mayor.

Alternatively, were the Conservatives get re-elected, Boris would no doubt seeks a seat in Cabinet again taking him away from what should be his day job.

Neither scenario serves the best interests of Londoners who will ultimately be the ones who suffer. Whilst Boris pursues his political ambitions, London will be left effectively mayorless. Sadly it now seems that is a sacrifice Boris Johnson is willing to make.

 This has been published in this week’s edition of  the West End Extra.

myself speaking at the last major demo in London during the Gaza assault

As a child l can well remember being bombed by Pakistan Air Force during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The bombardment of the Gaza strip by Israel, reminded me of those events in my life after over 40 years but at least l was able to flee across the border to India with my family. Sadly the Palestinians do not have this option as the Egyptian army have kept the Rafah crossing firmly closed whilst the Israel’s have complete control by air, sea and land access into the Gaza strip, effectively making it an open prison. (I trust the Egyptian people will hold their leaders to account someday on this betrayal). So it is easy to relate to what’s being happening as a Bengali to events in Gaza strip over the pounding it has received over the past month, with more than 1800 civilian killed and thousands injured including many children over the month of Ramadan.

In Rafah this last weekend, we saw one of the worst acceleration of the killings based on half truths peddled by the Israel government media service. We were told that one of their soldiers had been taken captive by Hamas and they will take all measures possible to retrieve him including the wide spread destruction of Rafah. After two days of bombing in Rafah killing over 150 Palestinians the Israel Defence Force (IDF) than admitted that he was probably killed in action, which is what Hamas have said all along. The additional killings in Rafah included bombing UN school sites, one of the last refuges for many Palestinians, even after the UN had informed that there was nothing untoward at the schools. So it was not surprising to hear of the Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, moral outrage at the attacks, calling them “murderous acts and an war crime” But the reality from the outset of this military action by Israel, was that an attack on Gaza was really about breaking up the unity between the Palestinians and their two political entities amongst them, Fatah & Hamas across both the West Bank and Gaza strip which l saw first hand in a trip to the West Bank a month before the appalling action by Israel. The brutal killing of the three Israel’s in Hebron under suspicious circumstances was just the pretext for the launch for the assault.

More recently a British aid worker called Kadir Islam from Rochdale representing Muslim Aid was killed in Rafah giving aid of medical supplies to a hospital when he was struck down by missile. I too have been to Rafah with medical supplies and ambulances, going over land via Egypt after the last war in Gaza. I can well understand his motives but he done it under fire during the war when my party and myself were more cautious.

As a citizen of the UK, l also have to acknowledge how complicit the British state has been from the outset of the plight of the Palestinian. During the original British mandate in the 1940’s, it was governing the lands when the “nakba” occurred with land being stolen from Palestinians and they ethnic cleansing from their own lands. More recently l have seen first hand how British colonial laws like administrative detention are being used in the West Bank to detain political prisons and young boys and the shameful supplying of military arms and equipment to the IDF. Such arm sales must stop immediately, as the British public are shell shocked to see daily images of the death and destruction in the Gaza on TV for the past month. Once they realise we are supplying them to the tune of £ 8 billion worth of sales, the coalition government will have to bee seen to be doing something about it. The historical responsibility has to be taken on board and maybe we can start doing that by accepting Palestine as a member of the Commonwealth, given it was a part of the British empire. Whilst this will not change things on the ground, it would be diplomatic victory similar to recognition by the UN. It should aid and assist the Palestinian pursuit of war crimes through the International Criminal Courts (ICC).

I remember well my first political slogan that l learnt from the laps of my grandparents, Joy Bangla. We were very fortunate to at least see the land of Bengalis; Bangladesh actually emerged from a 9 month battle. I hope in my life time to hear Joy Palestine as well but it will a lot harder task in hand and has ready been running for over 70 years. I know many Bangladesh’s will be working towards that goal. So Joy Bangla, Joy Palestine.

The blog piece has been published in Dhaka Tribune & Weekly Desh

Block of flats let empty for a while by an off-shore company in Central London

I have been walking past the empty block above called Elliot House  on Crawford St, W1 for a while and only noticed at the beginning of the year that it was completely empty. Its a block of 22 flats that use to be owned by the Met for accommodating their staff in Central London.

After asking around l established its owned by an off-shore company registered as Elliot House (Guernsey) limited and only last year obtained permission planning. Since then its been lying empty for well over a year now. I suspect that many other developments like this exist in Central London.

To its credit the FT recently did an analysis of all companies registered outside the UK that owned properties in England & Wales from data held with the Land Registry. Not surprising it found the major concentration of it all was in particular parts of London like the City of Westminster, followed by Kensington & Chelsea and then Camden. So it does make me wonder if its got anything to do with council tax levels for empty properties?

We all know that London has become a global hotspot for offshore property ownership and in this instance are probably many others it is causing off-shore empties like Elliot House to lie empty indefinitely while clearly being fine for occupation. So watch out for more off-shore empties like Elliott House in Central London, adding to our housing crisis.

Have you been to any demo’s recently in Parliament Square like those against austerity and attacks in Gaza? Well if you have you maybe interested in some of the restrictions placed under the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act 2011 by some lobbying from Parliament’s most famous neighbour, Westminster Abbey.

It has all been put in place over noise nuisance in the vicinity of Parliament but actually its been the Abbey that has lobbied about this issue. Clearly it does not want prays at the Abbey disturbed by public demonstrations etc. As a result you need to have permission from the City of Westminster at a cost of £176 to use a loud hailer after filling in application for amplifed noise equipment authorisation. If it goes up to the sub-licensing sub-committee then you liable for £1,830.33! And be sure to make sure the applicable is made 21 days before intended use. So this what you have to do now to use your democratic right to protest in Central London!

Essentially,Westminster Abbey has got its way on public demos by saying to the world no noise please we are the Abbey. As it lobbied the hardest to have these restrictions placed on Parliament Square. So if you find you have to hold protests in a silence or the sound levels are low, then you know who to point the finger at when you are next in Parliament Square.

So for all those involved in organising demo’s in Central London, this may become a useful reference or first port of call for Noise Nuiscance in the vicinity of Parliament  Best of luck with the bureaucracy.

Footnote:

Finally the coloured map above shows who controls what bits of the Parliament Square and adjacent land and properties under the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act 2011 for enforcement of noise nuisance in the vicinity of Parliament.

Yellow – GLA responsible authority

Pink –    City of Westminster Council responsible authority

Green – Royal Parks

Grey – Secretary of State

It’s an often repeated mantra that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. So it came as a something of surprise that, during what is usually the quiet summer season in politics, London Mayor Boris Johnson has twice popped up making interventions in the debate on the capital’s energy market.

Over the weekend the Sunday Times ran typically bullish comments from the Mayor, with Boris making a “veiled attack on David Cameron’s energy policy, warning that the lights in London could be dimmed or go out because of a failure to invest in Britain’s energy infrastructure”. Then on Wednesday Boris launched his £1.3tn vision for London in 2050, which – predicting a 20 per cent increase in overall energy demand in the city by 2050 – made a number of significant pronouncements, including suggesting reforms to the regulatory system the roll out of a detailed Energy Infrastructure Plan to ascertain London’s future energy needs.

While it is obviously welcome that the Mayor is lobbying central government for greater action on energy capacity, and taking steps to plan ahead for future decades, I was left with an abiding feeling – that this is all a bit rich coming from Boris. So while the Mayor criticises his peers down the river at Westminster, let’s quickly look at the Mayor’s own record against some of the key targets he is trying to meet.

At the core of the Mayor’s Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy is the 60 per cent target reduction in carbon emissions (from 1990 levels) by 2025. This is a clear goal that applies across key sectors spanning London’s economy, energy supply, transport and buildings, with particular emphasis on programmes like home and workplace retrofitting. Yet the recent assessment of London’s carbon emissions by the London Assembly’s Environment Committee, which I chair, found that the Mayor is missing his own milestones and “could do better” on CO2 cuts. Emissions data for 2011 showed a reduction of 11 per cent compared to 1990, missing the overall milestone for that year of 13.5 per cent.

This is not surprising when you consider that targets have been missed in key programmes like home energy efficiency and decentralised energy. On home energy efficiency, Boris is aiming retrofit 1.2m homes, but figures show that he had only retrofitted 100,000 by 2012 (against a target of double that). Similarly, Boris has set himself an end goal of 25 per cent of energy use in London’s buildings coming from decentralised sources by 2025, but expects to miss his 2015 target on this count. The Mayor’s record on workplace retrofitting was only marginally better, while the only bright spot on the horizon was better in buildings and transport, with energy efficiency of new buildings ahead of target and traffic being reduced by 11 per cent since 2000. Even here though, greater numbers of low-emission vehicles would have helped, and neither the 100,000 electric vehicles nor the 25,000 promised plug in-points have materialised.

Admittedly, the national picture hasn’t helped – with Green Deal take up proving paltry and an environment conducive to low carbon provision not being delivered either. But while the Mayor can express his concerns about black-outs to the Prime Minister, he clearly could have done more to make sure that alternative sources of energy in London had come to fruition. The old adage states that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and I find it a bit rich for Boris to take pot shots at the Prime Minister on energy policy when he is missing his own crucial targets in this area.

This has been published in Business Green today on their website.

Water Freight along the Grand Union for HS2 works along Old Oak Common?

With the HS2 Hybrid Bill being given the nod at the first reading in the House of Commons, we do need to have a look at how to limit its impact during construction particularly at key junctions like Old Oak Common in London W12 where we would see a considerable amount of construction and by implication lorry movements to build materials into the site while taking soils out of it.

One way to limit such adverse impact in the local environment for residents like Wells Rd, is utilising the canal that passes through the middle of the site for the movement of materials and soils. Yes we are talking about water freight as shown in the above photograph with  loaded barges (120 tonnes) running between Old Oak Common and an entrance off the M25 like at Bulls Bridge near Hayes. This would save Londoners having the misfortune of numerous lorries going into Central London and the adverse impact that will have on air pollution and noise.

The Freight group of the London Water Commission member submitted a Regents Network HS2 Petition, which helps keep the idea above water for consideration on the HS2 works being proposed in Old Oak Common. Lets hope its not forgotten about as an option and when compared with lorries, HS2 don’t forget its clear advantages for not just local residents but Londoners in West London.

Because of the purdah before the local elections in May 2014, it was not publicised that Councils like City of Westminster had petitioned the HS2 Hybrid Bill Environment statement after a resolution was passed in the last full council of the previous term.

The council wants to ensure that adverse impacts from the scheme in Westminster & Central London are minimal in two critical aspects the route alignment and  in Queens Park ward and the Salusbury Road ventilation shaft.

On the first matter, the Council doesn’t consider the route proposed through Westminster within Queen’s Park Ward is the best route. It passes through a predominantly residential area, with a number of listed buildings and Conservation Area which are known to have history of structural problems and the experience of noise, vibration and subsidence problems could lead to blight. So the City Council proposes the route should be realigned slightly to the North so that it passes under the existing West Coast Main Line. In this respect, please refer to the diagram above.

As for the ventilation shaft, the City Council is concerned with the visual intrusion and the impact during the construction and any associated impacts on the surrounding residential area. And does not think it adequately proposes alternative locations for the shaft. This can be visually seen in the diagram below.

More importantly is some ways its very concerned about the transportation effects in the City resulting from the Euston Terminus. Firstly the suitability of the provision of the necessary integration of services to get passengers to and from Euston including the Underground, bus and taxi passengers, For example the Environment Statement recognises 17 per cent increase in passengers boarding the tubes at Euston and focuses on additional journey time but doesn’t not look at the adverse impact to passengers of overcrowding. Clearly this is a push for Crossrail 2.

Secondly it is also concerned about road closures associated with the construction and operation of the proposed Euston terminus would result in diversion of traffic, leading to the increase traffic flows and pedestrian severance on some roads in Westminster. It is considered a significant adverse effect on air quality along for example the Edgware Rd ( A5) as material are excavated with no mitigating measures proposed.

Thus the Council welcomes the provision of HS2 station at Old Oak Common given the interchange and redevelopment opportunities this will provide with the Great Western Main Line, Crossrail 1, Heathrow Airport, the North London & West London line to lessen the impact on Central London, particularly at Paddington. Clearly the City of Westminster accepts that Old Oak Common provided more and better interchange options to passengers than Euston. Now that’s saying something!