Fuel poverty looming for average households

During yesterdays Mayors Question Time, l asked the Mayor about fuel poverty.  With household incomes tumbling in real terms, it won’t be the council tax nor the Mayor’s annual fare increases for transport which hit family budgets the most (although, they will no doubt cut a pretty hefty blow) but the energy price hikes of up to 18 per cent which will make the biggest dent.

London Councils estimate that 1 in 4 households live in fuel poverty already. Also, a recent article in the Financial Times warned that if energy bills remain on their current path, the average household will be in “fuel poverty” by 2015.

Based on this, l was keen to ask the Mayor what he was doing about fuel poverty in London? The answer I’m afraid was not very much. He spoke about his Re-New scheme. This is something which he introduced in 2009 when the Mayor set a target of greening 200,000 homes by 2012.  By Spring 2011 this target plummeted to 55,000, which is just 1.7 per cent of London’s 3.3 million homes.  By September 2011 just 10,678 homes were treated.  The pace really needs to be stepped up considerably this autumn if the Mayor has any hope of meeting even his downgraded target.  Unfortunately,  it looks as though Londoners can take cold comfort from the Mayor’s response to me.

At the same time, the big utilitiy companies are under intense political pressure, forcing them to consider radical change in order to restore public trust particularly after Ed Millband’s speech at Labour Party conference pledging to ” break the dominance of the big energy companies”.  Yesterday morning, Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) announced that it had changed its electricity pricing policy by auctioning all its power.  If SSE can do this, why not EDF, which are the biggest supplier in London and who have done very well out of the GLA? (They are not only an olympic sustainabilty partner, they are also getting the first £200 million contract to remove the pylons in and around Stratford).  My suggestion to the Mayor was that he should follow suit and ask EDF to respond to criticism of high bills with a radical shake-up of the way it buys and sells electricity, thus allowing smaller independent companies to enter the market. Will the Mayor listen? Over to him.

Charity London Playing Fields Foundation has launched a register of at-risk fields warning: "Once lost, a playing field isn’t coming back."

At least eight fields around the capital are thought to be in most danger, though the charity says there could be many more and is calling on residents to speak out about facilities near them.

The foundation’s chief executive Alex Welsh said proposed changes to planning laws and cuts to council budgets mean sports fields are in danger of being sold off or falling into disuse because maintenance costs are too high.

He said falling numbers of outdoor pitches meant fewer young people were getting the opportunity to play sport which could have a damaging effect on public health.

Mr Welsh said: "If we want current and future generations to lead more active lives we have to be vigilant.

"Next time you’re queuing up at your local supermarket just think 20 years ago you might have been standing on a cricket square or centre circle.

"Our register is not ideal as it is reactive but in the absence of a continuously updated database of playing fields it’s the best we’ve got." The foundation says the stock of football and cricket pitches in the capital has plummeted in 20 years, meaning youngsters have fewer green spaces to play on than ever before.

It introduced its "at-risk register" because of a lack of information about how many playing fields have been lost in recent years.

So far it says it has helped to save 15 threatened sites, either through advice, a feasibility study or acquiring the ground with the help of funding from the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Communities are being told that the best way to protect playing fields is to use them.

A report in 2006 by the Greater London Authority revealed that hundreds of hectares of open space had been lost in the previous two decades, though since then officials say it has been difficult to quantify how much has been lost.

Murad Qureshi, chairman of the London Assembly’s environment committee, said since the report "there has certainly been a further loss of playing fields in London and many have also been mothballed".

Mr Qureshi said: "This is something we need to keep an eye on.
"The draft National Planning Policy Framework’s lack of protection for sport and recreational buildings is of deep concern and certainly won’t help this trend of the loss of playing fields in London." 

A dilapidated sports ground that has been boarded up for 10 years should be restored as an open space for the community, say campaigners.

The 12-acre Hervey Road Sports Field in Kidbrooke had been used since 1890 for sporting activities until vandalism forced its closure. Greenwich council announced plans to build a special school on the site five years ago but has dropped this proposal.

Residents say the lack of facilities on the field – which was used for football, rugby, athletics, hockey and tennis – is a missed opportunity.

Susan Proudfoot, a leading member of the Save Hervey Road Sports Field group, said: "We still don’t know the council’s intentions for the field… At the moment the grass is cut and it is tidy but it has not got a single facility on it and no markings.

"Playing fields are really important, not just for people being active but also from a community point of view.

"We feels ours is a community landmark, but once it can be restored again it will be even stronger."

The site is on the London Playing Fields Foundation’s "at risk register". A council spokesman said the field would be released for "different uses" once a decision is taken about where Willow Dene special school is to be built.

He added: "As an Olympic host borough Greenwich is fully committed to ensuring an expansion in facilities for physical activity."

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In January the coalition set out proposals to “pass control of the Royal Parks from the DCMS to the Greater London Authority” and committed the Government to “legislate when the opportunity arises”.

These plans were subsequently watered down with the parks set to “remain in Crown ownership, under the overall responsibility of the Culture Secretary” and City Hall merely gaining “a voice in the parks’ management.”

The London Assembly’s Environment Committee will meet next Wednesday (12th October) to discuss the Royal Parks Agency’s work and question Sir Edward Lister, Boris Johnson’s Chief of Staff, on the Mayor’s new role and vision for The Royal Parks.

Committee Chair Murad Qureshi said: “Millions of Londoners and visitors enjoy our royal parks every year.  Not only do they provide facilities for play, sport, catering and entertainment, but they are home to many species of plants and animals. 

“We are keen to explore the future plans for the royal parks, as it is important that generations to come will also be able to enjoy all they have to offer.”

The committee is asking Londoners to share their views on whether the parks currently meet the needs of local people.

Anyone wishing to contact the committee can email at environmentcommittee@london.gov.uk, phone 020 7983 4510; or write to London Assembly Environment Committee, PP10, FREEPOST LON15799, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London, SE1 2BR.

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Local residents should not be asked to bear the brunt of the crossrail project

The Crossrail Paddington Community liaison Panel heard from contractors “BFK” last Wednesday night ( Western Lorry Routes presentation ) on how it intends to bring the tunnel segments for Crossrail into the Western Portal by a major number of lorry movements through neighbouring residential areas. That’s some 70 vehicles a day ( there and back ) for 18 months. This is contrary to the original understanding that it would all come in and out of the site by rail. This, when we already have issues about heavy lorries passing along Great Western Road and the Council has been asked to investigate issues raised by the tarmac cement site behind and on the side of the Westbourne Park garage.

I have heard complaints that very large bulk carriers from the tarmac cement site behind the Westbourne Park bus garage in Great Western Road used to have their raw materials delivered by rail; this has now stopped and been replaced by truck deliveries.  I am understanding of the fact that the contrators have a job to do, however, inflicting this sort of large articulated traffic 6 days a week until 10.00pm in a residential area is asking too much of residents to endure.

Also, in order to pass down Elgin Avenue and Chippenham Road to reach Harrow Road, they are crossing the canal bridge in Great Western Road which has a 7.5 ton prohibition on it. The outgoing cement trucks seem to have ignored this restriction for years, but this is now becoming even more frequent, so much so that there is evidence of damage to the road surface and corners.

 As planning does not cover this sort of activity, Crossrail will seek approval of the lorry routes under Schedule 7 of the Crossrail Act. This will include a request for exemption from a right turn ban at the Prince of Wales junction for segment deliveries.  But as my sister Cllr Papya Qureshi has commented, if granted, this exemption will ride roughshod over what is in fact a vital restriction on vehicle movements into her Westbourne Ward and others like Harrow Road & Bayswater. If large & heavy vehicles are made exempt, why not much smaller cars owned by local residents?

So look out for the Schedule 7 application to the City of Westminster to trigger alarm of lorry movements in the residential streets of Paddington during the Crossrail works.

Crossrail have earmarked the Big Table for demolition

Recently a friend told me about a local business and landmark threatened by Crossrail in the neighbourhood l grew up in. “The Big Table” which is on the Great Western Road, immediately to the left of Westbourne Park tube station and almost under the Westway. I have in the past purchased one of their beds and mattresses, and they are one of the very few big purchases l’ve made which I can say were made in London. This is an extreme rarity in this day. Apart from the benefits is has given to the local economy, it is also a local landmark with some history. It was built by the Temperance Society as a tea room, to get local rail men off the gin from the Great Western Rail company! 

Having had a look around the premises today, it’s one of the few places l know in London where the retail section and manufacturing are under one roof and it employs up to 10 people. The building itself is very light and airy with a distict grandeur about it so you can well imagine what it must have looked like when it was still being used as tearooms. In the evenings when it has its lights on, it offers many a feeling of security when walking under the Westway to get over to Harrow Road and North Kensington. 

So why would Cross rail went to knock it down? It is to make room for a sub-station, we are told. Having had a good look around, l cannot see why both can’t be accommodated on the same site, with the sub-station going in the backyard along the rail line itself. Better still why not further down the line nearer to the point at which the Cross rail tunnel actually begins? 

The building has clearly survived other major works around it, for example when the Westway was literally built over it in the late 1960’s, so l simply cannot see why this historic local landmark and business has to be demolished, at a cost of local jobs and heritage.

Click here to sign an online petition and save the Big Table from demolition.

Labour Conference 2011 Tribune Rally

Liverpool was sunny, its people friendly and their black cabs were much cheaper then London. Now I’m back from the Party Conference, its useful to review what l got up to other then enjoy Liverpool.

Well l made sure l was on the conference floor when Ken spoke on this battle with Boris, the present incumbent of the London Mayoralty.  He made some telling comments; for example, he questioned the moral difference between Boris’s Bullingdon vandalism as a student and the criminality of the rioters? Ken also reminded us of his own reaction to the July 7th bombings when he was Mayor in 2005. At the time he was in Singapore for the Olympic vote, but when he heard about the what was unfolding in London, he just wanted to get back home. In contrast when the riots first kicked off in London, Boris Johnson refused to return immediately, almost having to be dragged back as he tried to convince us from Vancouver that all was well with London.

When Ken was introduced to the floor by Tessa Jowell, she made a very good point; that is, that we must ensure that the contest next May will not just be a contest about celebrity. It must be a campaign about who will be the most effective leader, the most effective Mayor of London during these most difficult of times. She reminded us that competence not celebrity will get young people back to work; competence not celebrity that will build new homes and keep tubes fares down. So we were told in no uncertain terms, the choice before Londoners is one of celebrity versus competency. The Olympics will also provide a huge platform for the new incumbant Mayor on which to stage London to the world.  We should not underestimate the importance of 2012 and the implications this has for the incoming Mayor next May. Ken demonstrated great leadership qualities which cut it on the world stage when it came to representing London for the 2012 bid and (sadly) after 7/7.  He has a proven track record which will be enhanced on the Olympic platform next year.   This is just another reason why he should be Mayor next year.

At conference, I was pleased to be able to contribute to some fringe meetings. The first was the Labour Transport Group meeting ” What Future Airports?” on Monday lunchtime. What ever our position on the future of expansion of airport capacity in the United Kingdom developed during the Party consultation on aviation, we need to revise our national party position on the expansion of Heathrow.  This needs to be in line with our Mayoral candidate’s position of no expansion at Heathrow at least and no back door expansion through operational freedom trials either. This would be in line with government policy, but in truth, it is where we are with the public, particularly around the West London suburbs. I let the shadow aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick know in no uncertain terms that this element of aviation policy had to be resolved by the time of the Mayoral contest next May.  Before leaving Liverpool, l was also asked to speak at the Tribune Rally on Tuesday evening. This was mainly as a result of being a regular contributor to Tribune magazine on City Hall affairs and therefore happily took up the offer.  Now its not often in life you get 10 minutes of time to speak to an audience about literally anything you think needs saying. So l took the opportunity willingly and chose to speak about the dangerous state of the world economy, and what needs doing like regulating the banks by splitting their retail arms from the casino side of their operations; putting the Tobin tax in place on the volume of transactions in the City of London and down with rating agencies and all they represent. I also spoke about foreign policy and on this front l am glad and proud to see that the Labour Party would recognise Palestine at the UN, if in power right now.  As we’ve balls-up our Middle East policies on a number of fronts, it’s refreshing to have got this one right at last. Finally, I didn’t miss the opportunity to give a plug about the importance of the GLA elections next year to the party.

Going underground @ Hammersmith Pump Station

Last Friday at the invitation of Thames Water, I went underground to see the how Bazalgette sewer system copes with overflows at its Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) in Hammersmith onto the Thames.  It was certainly a sight to go down to the chamber some 70 metres long and 8 metres high and imagine what it must be like when it is completely filled up with rain and having to pump out 24 tonnes of muck a second.

All the CSOs along the Thames collectively pump out 39 cubic metres of untreated sewage into the Thames but the sewers can’t cope any more as London’s population has more than doubled since the famous brick sewers were built after the “great stink” in 1860.  Ourr water consumption has also greatly increased, so the present infrastructure has been overwhelmed by our growing city.

The Thames Water solution to this predicament is the Thames Tunnel supported by the Mayor and DEFRA. It’s a giant new sewer some 75 metres under the Thames, 13 miles long and wider then a tube tunnel. It will cope with any storm surges, storing and transfering the waste east where it will be treated.

In November we will have the second stage of the public consultation on the preferred route and works sites, the latter issue having raised some contraversy in some neighbourhoods in London. Let’s hope all the work sites have been moved from green sites like Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea to brown sites nearby, causing a lot less bother to local residents during the works phase.

Other issues raised include the cost of the tunnel.  The total project costs are some £3.6 million which will be paid from an additional £50 per household charge. This has not stopped some like Hammersmith & Fulham council objecting and suggesting a shorter tunnel option referred to as the Jacobs Babtie solution, which would be a better fix financially. But this proposal would still leave 19 of the 34 unchecked and not leave enough capacity in the existing sewers to be able to transfer the flows captured by a shorter tunnel to sewage treatment works in East London in any reasonable time scale. The result would be sewage sitting in the shorter tunnel for longer periods, creating the very odour problem for local resident they wanted to avoid.  This is particularly so for the residents of Hammersmith & Fulham, where the shorter tunnel would still run along their boundary with the Thames.  Whilst full, the tunnel would not be able to cope with flows generated by storms.

So all in all, barring any major revolts in the second stage of public consultation of the preferred route and in particular the location of the works sites, this looks like a welcome and long overdue addition to London’s sewage infrastructure.

The Palestinian initiative this week  is likely to result in a vote in the UN General Assembly which would have the effect of upgrading their status to that of a “non member observer state” taking it beyond its current old observer status and a position which has in the past been shared by countries like Japan, Switzerland and Bangladesh.  A nine out of fifteen member Security Council vote will ensure the application is sent to the General Assembly to be ratified, provided two thirds of the 193 countries agree.  However, a “no” vote from any one of the Permanent Member of the Council which includes the USA will mean that the application fails vetoing the Palestinian’s ultimate aim of becoming the UN’s 194th member state.  The Palestinian application is obviously a move vehemently opposed by the Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and predictably endorsed by the US who has already announced their intention to veto the application irrespective of its wording.

Therefore, given the already loaded dice against the Palestinian application with the incessant dark shadow of the US’s vote, it should fall upon Britain, another of the Permanent Members to support the Palestinian initiative, thereby sending out a clear message that it is time to move on and make peace.  Britain has a moral duty to support the move given its role in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1920.  The process towards recognition of an independent Palestine is also an important and symbolic step towards the establishment of a dual state which ironically, is strongly supported by the USA.  It is also a gesture which would in the words of former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, be the “best way” to restart peace negotiations which are currently sunk within a quick sand of dogmatism and short-sightedness.  Furthermore, the World Bank, the UN, the EU and the IMF have all endorsed the Palestinians as “ready for security”.

What about a vote from Israel?  Well they have all to gain and much to lose if they stand in the way of the application.  Not only have they entered a phase of diplomatic isolation with the recent expulsion of its ambassador in Turkey, it must surely recognise the value in enhancing lucrative trading opportunities with a neighbour that has a growing economy.  There is also the insatiable international appetite for a Palestinian statehood which Israel can ignore but entirely at the expense of its own security and international standing.

So the use of the UN is a smart tactical move by the Palestinians and probably a game changer. The case made by them for recognition as a state is strong. This week, at the United Nations, the British Government should be willing to support the recognition of Palestinian statehood as part of continuing steps to achieve a comprehensive two state solution.

But there also remains a heavy responsibility on the UK government and other members of the international community this week to work to ensure that any change in the level of Palestinian recognition is then followed by meaningful negotiations between the parties. 

New figures published by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) show that Westminster has lost 112 full time warranted officers since March 2010. Accross London there are now 1,130 fewer borough based police officers than there were a year ago.

Local London Assembly member Murad said the figures exposed as "hypocrisy" Boris Johnson’s call for a halt to police cuts.

Following the riots last month the London Mayor said the case for reducing police officer numbers had always been "frail". "I think that this is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers", he said.

But the figures from the MPA show that, under the Mayor’s own plans, police officer numbers were falling long before the London riots.

In March last year there were 1,631 full time warranted officers in Westminster. This number has fallen to 1,519 as of July 2011. Boris Johnson’s police authority published plans earlier this year to cut 1,800 officers by 2013/14.

Local Labour Assembly member Murad said

Ends

Notes

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Boris Johnson’s second budget in February 2010 proposed cutting 455 police officers in London, saying "over the three years to 2012-13, the number of Police Officers is forecast to decrease by 455" (see

: "The Mayor’s cuts to police in Westminster undermine the fight against crime and should be reversed. He should think again about his own cuts – not just try to blame others. I think the hypocrisy of a Mayor who proposed two years ago to cut 455 police officers now saying he’s against these cuts is clear for all to see."http://legacy.london.gov.uk/gla/budget/docs/1011bud-draft-all.pdf and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/03/boris-cuts-police-london)

In November 2009, following the previous Mayor of London’s last budget, police numbers reached a peak of 33,404. Under Boris Johnson’s police budgets, the number has now fallen by over 1,000 to 32,131

The MPA/MPS 2011-2014 Policing Plan states that by 2014 numbers will have fallen to 31,460.

On Friday 12 August, Boris Johnson told the BBC, "The case was always pretty frail and it’s been substantially weakened. This is not the time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

Borough police officer numbers

*source MPA

For more information please contact Alison Marcroft on 0207 983 4363

http://www.mpa.gov.uk/statistics/police-numbers/http://www.mpa.gov.uk/downloads/committees/mpa/110331-06-appendix04.pdf

The House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee are examining proposals on the “Individual Electoral Registration and Electoral Administration”.  These proposals make reference to independent academic research showing that the Government’s plans are likely to reduce the number of citizens on the electoral register by about 10 per cent.  This is not an insignificant number considering the scale of voter apathy which already exists and the need to enhance the democratic process and governments’ mandate to rule through greater voter participation.

This impact was found inIreland as the result of changes to the system of registration to vote brought about by the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002.  If these results were mirrored inLondon on the same scale, then in my home borough alone, 15,000 City of Westminster residents could be wiped off the electoral register by these new Conservative and Liberal Democrat proposals.

The proposals require voters to register individually from 2014 and to provide personal information about their date of birth or National Insurance number before registering to vote. Currently the 150,000 voters registered in the City of Westminsterare simply required to register on a household basis by giving their name and address to their local authority. The current system of registration is not only simple, it is also a legal requirement which assigns to it a level of importance much higher then something which households may otherwise treat as just another bit of paperwork which they could do without.  The Government’s new proposals would make electoral registration voluntary thus removing the “urgency” to register.

So while all the focus is on the redrawing of the constituency boundaries which ultimately impacts upon MPs, it is the proposals relating to voter registration which have a direct affect on the electorate and arguably much more integral to the democratic process.  In other words the boundaries are being redrawn with the stated aim to increase the average size of constituencies, these measures  will bring the average size of parliamentary seat down by anything up to 10 per cent.  Clearly acting against the stated purpose of the parliamentary boundary changes.