Climate finance to help developing world adapt from climate change has become the key issue before COP26 at Glasgow of trust between the developed and developing world in the lead up to the Conference. $100 billion was promised to the developed world by the developing world in their commitments to the Paris Agreement and progress on this front has been slow as the OCED graph below well illustrates. We have yet to reach the target set for 2020, when at most 79 per cent of the target has been reached.         

Further under the chairmanship of Bangladesh, the Climate Vulnerable Forum – a group of 48 climate vulnerable countries & thus one of the biggest voting blocks conference of the parties – members are being encouraged not to pay international development loans and their interest, as a means of protest against $100 billion climate finance not being in place yet from the developed world. In this respect please see the letter below, from the PM Sheikh Hasina. This while it is known it is likely $300 billion will be needed by 2030 for the developing world to adapt to climate change.  So watch out for what the CVF does at COP26 in response to this outstanding issue from Paris 2015. 

Flooding of the basement at the family house along Warwick Avenue

The IPCC Report releases this week confirms that heavy rainfall will be more frequent and intense. So London’s flooding is sure to worsen, as further development means flood plains being covered by concrete. One way of responding is saving our front gardens at least from the work of the Environment Committee at the London Assembly. 

A major shaft was dig on the corner of Formosa St and Shirland Rd,W9 to take flood waters away to under the canal to a storage facility at Westbourne Garden, yet it was still not able to cope with the down pour we had this week. 

After all we have been paying for these facilities via increased water bills, as the works at the time even had to be approved by the regulator at the time.  And the map clearing shows the properties that should be affected by this improvement yet many properties along Warwick Avenue, Formosa St had been flooded in the basement areas again last Monday. In fact my parental house was flooded even worse than ever before. 

More generally we need to ask ourselves how often we can now expect such flash rain falls as well as whether the infrastructure can handle these occurrences whether by changes in the climate and the urban environment. As we can see from events in Belgium and Germany, floods caused by heavy rains have left more than 30 deaths ( up to a 1,000 missing) and destroyed many buildings as well.

My mothers passport showing clearing the dates of our fateful trip

We left to settle down before the Dec 1970 General Elections in East Pakistan and had to come running back to the UK during the Bangladesh liberation War for our own security.

My family were living a very prosperous life in London during the sixties with a house in the surburbs and a restaurant business in the West End, before my parents felt the urge to “go back home” in 1970, home being Sylhet, East Pakistan. My father had by then been in the UK since the mid-1950’s and it was clear his heart and mind were still in Bengal. As a small child, the thing l remember best about this departure was filling the huge trunks with all our worldly possessions before being sent off by ship to a destination on the other side of the world. 

As soon as we set foot there, we entered into the turmoil of the Pakistani General Election of 1970. As a result of national disasters in East Pakistan the election was moved to December and the lack of response by the public authorities meant this was a key issue. During the election campaign l can well remember learning the first political slogan l learnt  “Joi Bangla – amar Desh, tomar Desh” as the Awami League had a stomping victory in the East, giving them a mandate to run the whole of Pakistan, in an election considered by all to have been free and fair. 

Amidst the stand off between the military authorities and political parties, on the 7th of March, the family were in Dhaka for a wedding, when word broke out that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was going to be making a speech that day at the Dhaka Race Course. On immediately hearing this my parents like many others duly left us at the wedding to go and hear the momentous speech that was about to be made. I felt very sorry for the bride at the wedding as the guest all left except for us kids. Ever since whenever l’ve been at a wedding, l have always wondered what else l may be missing! 

On the fateful night of the 25th of March, we heard the first of our relatives had been killed in Chittagong – Lt Col M R Choudhury – and this brought immediate panic in the extended family. He left his wife and children in Sylhet after the Eid festivities, clearly aware something was going to happen when he went back.  We were immediately moved to the villages by foot and were put up by relatives there as we all fled the town and cities, in response to the Pakistan Army “Operation Searchlight” crackdown on Bengali nationalists. Other relatives made their way to India and tea plantations, as it was only 60 miles away. With no cars and rickshaws available we moved by foot, on journeys which seemed to take days to get away from Pakistani military persence in the cities and towns. 

We later had another family member brutally killed in Chittagong in the second week of April, Shafi Ahmed Choudhury who had been the Chief Planning Officer of East Pakistan Railway, for giving logistic support to the Bengali resistance. The next few months were the most dangerous months for our immediate and extended family when we lived on a diet of rice and jackfruit something l grew to hate as an adult because of its smell! 

As we had UK passports, we were sent back to the UK during the end of Bangladesh liberation War for our own security. And l can remember well hearing on the Radio, George Harrison’s Bangla Desh song! He had just held the first ever relief concert in New York’s Maddison Square Gardens to raise monies for the millions of Bengali refugees going into India in response to his friend Ravi Shankar cry for help. So l really could not get away from it all even when l was back in the UK! 

There was of course turmoil on the streets of London as well as we were put up by our uncle near Westbourne Park tube station, not far from the Mangrove. The issue on the streets of this part of West London was the police repeatedly raiding the Mangrove, on grounds of drug possession, despite a lack of evidence. An issue that was going to dominate the nature of the relationship between Black Londoners and the Met for decades to come. 

So you can see 1971 was a very fateful year for my family. And whilst the family does make annual journeys back to Bangladesh, we don’t ever now bring up the topic of attempting to settle there again. After the first experience it is not surprising really!

Myself and my younger brother & sister in Dhaka 1971

The Boundary Commission 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies in London, may have given the London Region two more seats but it has well and truly curved up the Westminster North parliamentary seat by breaking it up into three by adding the relevant wards into adjoining seats of the North Central and North West London sub-region.  

They propose putting Church Street, Little Venice, Maida Vale, Regents Park and Abbey Rd wards into the new parliamentary seat of St John’s Wood & Camden Town While Westbourne, Harrow Rd, Queens Park Wards  into a new parliamentary seat called Kensington & Westbourne. And finally they propose putting Bayswater & Lancaster Gate Wards into the new constituency of Westminster & Chelsea East. Leaving nothing that remotely looks like the present Westminster North parliamentary seat. 

On first observation, some of the proposed carve up gives us some intriguing bedfellows. The Paddington Wards certainly have many things in common with Kensington North on the other side of the Westway but l am not sure the residents of Church St Ward in Marylebone have much in common with the good of Hampstead! While Marylebone and old Camden Town clearly on different sides of Regents Park have had a connection over the years particularly based on the catchment of old schools.  

Consultation is currently open until Monday 2nd August 2021 on these boundaries. I for one will make representations on the matter, if only on the names of the seats being proposed as l always felt the name Westminster North does not help its case to survive as a political entity. As it is not clear whether it is North of Oxford St or North of the Marylebone Rd! It is of course really Paddington & Marylebone and should have been called that in the first instance. As a result l will suggest the new Kensington & Westbourne seat be called Kensington & Paddington instead – who knows Westbourne as such but they will certainly know Paddington! While St John’s Wood and Camden Town should really be called Marylebone and Camden Town. With these name changes you will at least get the old neighbourhoods of Paddington & Marylebone back on the political map. 

More importantly the numbers are based on those registered to vote while l think it would be better in the long run to have them based on Census figures. And since we had one only this past March, these would have the latest figures for population size and given most of it was done on-line the figures should be available a lot sooner than with previous Censuses for the decade.

Even with these proposed changes though in the parliamentary seats, they will of course be a fight in the wards of Westminster North for next year’s Local Elections 2022. So bring on Spring 2022 for the locals. 

St John’s Wood & Camden Town new proposed parliamentary seat

Kensington & Westbourne new Parliamentary seat

A copy of this blog was published in Westminster Extra edition for the 2nd of July 2021

One of the major vehicle issues in Central London neighbourhoods like Marylebone is the parking of diplomat cars and many of them not paying the congestion charge after the US embassy decided not to pay it. The amount due in total is substantial to the tune of £129 million at the end of the 2020 calendar year. This could for example pay for all the concessionary fares we have for Londoners annually! 

One thing is for sure that if residents of London did not pay their congestion charge for their car, TfL would certainly pursue them to end of the world! So whilst l was still an AM this winter l asked what is the latest on TfL pursuing legal action against embassies not paying their outstanding congestion charge 

Now proceedings in the International Court of Justice or another international tribunal can only be brought by Her Majesty’s Government, not by Transport for London (TfL).

The Mayor responded to my written question by telling me his Deputy Mayor for Transport wrote to the Secretary of State for Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Affairs asking him to pursue this matter but has yet to receive a reply. The Commissioner has also previously written to the Secretary of State for Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Affairs on TfL’s behalf but has not yet received a formal response either. In the meantime, Foreign,Commonwealth & Development Affairs officials write to diplomatic missions and international organisations with large Congestion Charge debts annually, to encourage payment.

The US embassy has racked up by far the biggest bill for the congestion charge, at £13.3 million due last December 2020, due largely to their refusal to pay it.  And as there is a new President in the USA, will we ask him to pay what is owed?

With President Joe Biden, maybe we can make some headway on the issue. Sure enough he is due to be in the UK next month for G7 Conference in Cornwall via London, an ideal opportunity to raise this issue again. Clearly if the US pays up so will all the other diplomats who owe Londoners these monies. 

Reserved empty parking spaces for diplomats in Marylebone where locals may have parked

After looking at last week’s “carve up” of Committee positions at the London Assembly more closely, the one that causes most alarm for me is what happen to the Fire,Resilience & Emergency Planning. It is the Committee that has been scrutinizing #Grenfell and the #Claddingscandal for Londoners under Andrew Dismore’s able chairmanship not only at the London level but nationally as well. We can not expect this from the Committee now under complete Tory control, given it would have to be critical of a Tory run local council and also how a Tory government has handled the cladding scandal nationally from a London perspective.  

So l don’t want to see any crocodile tears from the LibDems or Greens at City Hall over Grenfell & the Cladding scandal for handing this Committee and critical role on London issue over on a plate to the Tories.

Converted new petrol station along Edgware Rd for electrical charging instead.

In the whole of Greater London we have 531 petrol stations in 2020 when we had 551 in 2017 a breakdown of which by borough can be found below. Now l am sure we had many more of them certainly in Central London before 2017 as many petrol stations sites were converted into residential and other uses since but it appears we don’t have figures going further back then that at all!  Nonetheless there does appear to be a dramatic change happening, which would probably reflects on less car usage and a switch to electrical cars certainly in Central London at least! 

That appears to be the case with one of my local petrol station sites which was converted to a electrical charging points station instead during the construction of the site to the credit of Aldi supermarkets with some assistance from locals, businesses and the cab trade. .Its a very useful way of redirecting the infrastructure we have already in London to a greener future. So let the numbers of petrol stations go down and some even adopted for electrical charging of vehicles. 

Breakdown of petrol stations amongst London Councils

M&M Buildings where leaseholders face bills of up to £40,000 for cladding works to make their homes safe.

As the scaffolding goes up on the cladded blocks in the City of Westminster for those caught in the cladding scandal, their face a plain choice in the forthcoming London Elections.

Now the cladding blocks where scaffolding has been put up in the borough of Westminster including the following below; 

• Montgomery House, 135 Harrow Road, W2 1H 
• Marshall Building, 3 Hermitage Street, W2 1P 
• Munkenbeck Building, 5 Hermitage Street, W2 1P 
• Balmoral Apartments, 2 Praed Street, W2 1J 
• Cornwall House, 7 Allsop Place, NW1 5B 
• 60-62 St. Martins Lane, WC2N 4LN 
• Westminster Green, 8 Dean Ryle Street, SW1P 4DA 
• Eagle Wharf, 138 Grosvenor Road, SW1V 3J 
• 5 Praed Street, W2 1NJ 

After last week in the Palace of Westminster and the Commons in particular, it should be clear to residents that the Tory government has done next to nothing to help. They expect you to foot the bill to fix a problem that wasn’t your fault, leaving you facing unaffordable leaseholder charges. 

In this respect their is no choice between Cllr Rita Begum, the Labour Party candidate for West Central and the present incumbent Tory AM. He has remained silent and instead of standing up for you, he was looked the other way. Cllr Rita Begum supports all unsafe cladding should be replaced by 2022; insists that leaseholders shouldn’t have to pay for the repairs and that their homes should receive government support to replace the cladding and finally end the exorbitant charges for waking watches.

I of course also have echoed the same views in supporting a London Assembly motion supporting the 10 steps promoted by the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, including robust targets and urgent government action to address the remediation of buildings found to be dangerous and the Mayors call for levy on private developers to fund the costs of cladding away from the leaseholders.

So Westminster cladding scandal victims quite honestly have just one response this coming Thursday the 6th of May, and thats voting LABOUR,LABOUR & LABOUR to make their message to government loud and clear.