Residents First

Labour’s £50m blackhole – the missing millions that could bankrupt H&F

Cllr Andrew Johnson, Cabinet Member for Housing, on this evening's budget setting council meeting

Tonight the Conservative administration will present its 2012/13 budget for approval at a meeting of Full Council. The budget is historic for many reasons, not least for the fact that once again the administration is proposing to cut council tax by -3.75%. This, combined with the announcement by the Mayor of London that he is cutting the GLA precept, will bring some relief to our hard pressed residents and local taxpayers. Relief that, in these times of austerity and rising prices, this Conservative council is doing all it can to reduce the tax burden locally, whilst at the same time protecting frontline services and driving up standards.

However, tonight’s meeting looks set to be historic for another reason. Namely that this looks likely to be the 6th budget meeting in a row where the opposition will fail to table an alternative budget to the one proposed by the administration. Now, I could be wrong, I could be surprised, but I doubt it. You see the omens are not looking promising. The fact that they didn’t bother to attend the Cabinet meeting where the budget was discussed, or failed to table amendments during the scrutiny committee stage, doesn’t bode well.

So what would Labour do were, heaven forbid, they to be running the Town Hall. Well having  analysed   what they have said, at last year’s budget council meeting and subsequently, the additional spending commitments made, and cuts they would reverse, we would be facing the prospect of a £50m blackhole in the Council’s budget. A figure that could bankrupt H&F.

A pretty strong statement you might say, so let’s look at the facts.

They want to reverse the 2011/12 savings - £26.7 million

They want to cancel Tri-Borough - £3.1million

They won’t support the proposed 2012/13 savings

They would stop paying down the debt - £1.8 million in interest per year

They would reverse fee increases and scrap new charges (or so they
say) - £8 million

They would spend millions more on policing - £13 million

Total cost £ 52.6 million

But what about Labour’s savings you may say, for they say they have some. Well yes, they do all £2.85 million of them. But that still leaves nearly £50 million to find.

So, what is the Labour solution to their funding gap? I’m sure you can guess. It’s the tried and failed formula of increasing debt. They’ve admitted it, they’re addicted to it.

“Hammersmith’s debt is more affordable than ever due to low interest rates.” Cllr Andrew Jones (Labour) Budget Council 23rd February 2011

Labour, you just can’t trust them when it comes to spending (wasting) your money.

West Kensington and Gibbs Green consultation deadline is March 12th

Residents have until March 12, 2012 to have their say on whether West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates should be included in wider plans for the area.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is consulting on a potential land sale agreement with developer EC Properties which has proposals to build 7,500 new homes across the redevelopment area.

The council and residents must weigh up the benefits regeneration could bring - including new homes, new community facilities and job opportunities for people living on the estates, against the disruption that major development inevitably causes.

The extended consultation period will allow residents time to respond to more information that has been requested by some residents about the potential Conditional Land Sale Agreement (CLSA).

H&F Council has this week reaffirmed how the proposed CLSA includes important conditions that seek to protect residents' interests, including:

Happy holidays with more for less

Sixty more spaces on courses, events and workshops over the holidays will be available to young people living in Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) after the borough’s council struck a new deal.

It also means that, from April, H&F Council will provide 115 more hours of activities for 11-18 year-olds through dance classes, art projects, drama schemes and sports sessions, even though it will cost £3,000 less than the previous year.

The 2,000 places, at a cost of £189,000, will be available at classes, clubs and schemes over 50 days in the 11 weeks of school holidays between April and next March (2013).

New contracts have been signed by four local providers –  Let Me Play, a company based in H&F, will run sport, fitness and well-being sessions; The Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith will provide music and performing arts classes while neighbouring borough Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been awarded the art and fashion contract.

Tri-borough councils join forces to speed up care proceedings in national pilot

The three tri-borough London councils of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea are set to shine the spotlight on children’s care proceedings in a groundbreaking national pilot to speed up the family court process.

The new Care Proceedings Pilot will be launched on 1 April and is a national first, acting as a litmus test for what could be rolled out across the country.

The pilot involves a new ‘pact’ between the three local authorities and judges within the family court system to speed up proceedings. In particular, this pact will try to achieve the target set out in the recent Family Justice Review for children to have their need for a permanent plan resolved by the court within six months.

Time for Boat Race

The 158th Boat Race will be taking place on Saturday April 7, 2012 and you can watch the action from two of the best vantage points on the route, Bishop’s Park in Fulham and Furnivall Gardens in Hammersmith.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council will be hosting two family friendly Boat Race in the Park events, where revellers can catch all the action on giant screens for free, accompanied by beer tents and food.

The Bishops Park event will also feature live music, children's rides and sporting activities to keep guests entertained until the big event.

Both events take place from 12noon to 6pm, with the race itself starting at 2.15pm.

Bishop’s Park has the added advantage of being at the start of the race and Furnivall Gardens takes in the middle of the course where the race starts to heat up as the crews make their move under Hammersmith Bridge.

Parks set for £2 million boost

Eleven of the borough’s most popular parks are set to be improved next year at a total cost of £2million.

Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council has announced exciting plans to revitalise parks the length and breath of the borough as part of its commitment to providing top quality, beautiful parks and open spaces.

Over £1million will be spent on Wormholt Park in Shepherds Bush subject to funding confirmation. The park will be fully refurbished and residents will be consulted later in the year.

The council will also be spending £300,000 sprucing up Eel Brook Common in Fulham. As well as carrying out general improvements, paths will be enhanced and new bins and benches will be installed.

The council also intends to spend £74,000 redeveloping the play area at Brook Green, Hammersmith, subject to funding confirmation. £177,000 has already been spent on improving the play area at South Park in Fulham.

Cllr Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents’ services, said:

Territorial Army given freedom of the borough

Soldiers from Hammersmith & Fulham’s own Territorial Army Regiment, the Royal Yeomanry, will march through Hammersmith Town Centre next month to celebrate being awarded the freedom of the borough.

The accolade is the highest honour Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council can bestow on any person or group, and is traditionally the way a town acknowledges the contribution of the armed forces based in their locality. The freedom, which dates back hundreds of years, is given by the Mayor and allows the military unit to march through the borough’s streets with colours flying and bayonets fixed.

The parade on Sunday, March 11, at 3pm, includes 150 marching soldiers, the Royal Yeomanry regimental band, standard bearers, tanks and mounted soldiers on horseback.

Hypocrisy from H&F’s part-time Labour Opposition but where’s the housing scandal?

Cllr Andrew Johnson, the Cabinet Member for Housing, writes:

There’s been a rather strange whiff in the air blowing through the Borough recently. No it’s not the slightly iffy Thames Water consultation over the super sewer, but something far more potent. It’s the stench of hypocrisy emanating from our esteemed part-time Leader of the Opposition, Cllr Steve Cowan.

Steve, fresh from a recent series of no shows at important cabinet meetings, seems to think that he has uncovered a major scandal within the Housing and Regeneration Department; namely the sale of a number dilapidated and empty council housing properties across the Borough.

Properties which, when they become void, are generally found in need of significant work to bring them back up to a habitable standard. Naturally, this costs money and in many cases is simply not a viable prospect. So we do what any landlord with a portfolio of properties would do. We manage our assets effectively to ensure that our limited resources are used to best effect and we do not end up spending significant sums of money which could be better used elsewhere. So in housing this means we’re disposing of a number of expensive void properties and using the money raised from the sale to reinvest in our housing stock and to help fund the building of new council homes.

Neighbourhood Watch praised in battle to make borough safer

The more information we get from residents – the more we can disrupt and catch criminals.

This was the message that the Police Borough Commander delivered to 80 of the borough’s Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators who packed into the Lyric Theatre last Tuesday.

Chief Superintendent Lucy D’Orsi praised community spirited residents and Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) co-ordinators in particular saying:

“Neighbourhood Watch helps us make the borough safer as they help prevent crime by getting sensible advice out to the community and they also help by passing us intelligence on the ground. Residents can be our eyes and ears and my plea is that no bit of intelligence is too small to tell us about.”

The panel – which included the Borough Commander as well as Ch Insp Nigel Crane, who is in charge of the borough’s Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNT) and Cllr Greg Smith, the council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Leisure and Residents’ Services – fielded questions on a range of topics from alcohol related disorder and burglaries to the handovers when SNT staff are promoted or moved out of a particular ward.

Preferred purchaser selected for Fulham Town Hall

Fulham Town Hall is set to be transformed into a ‘quintessentially British’ lifestyle emporium after Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council agreed to sell the building to an American retail and leisure group.

The council can no longer afford to run and maintain two town halls in both Hammersmith and Fulham and has vowed to find a new owner for the Grade II listed Victorian Fulham Town Hall who will breathe fresh life into the building and conserve it for future generations.

After a comprehensive selection process, H&F Council has agreed to sell the building to Dory Ventures.

Dory Ventures features Maclaren as its leading UK brand, recognised for its range of quality children’s products. Dory proposes a ‘quintessentially British’ lifestyle emporium that will support the flagship Maclaren showroom. This will be accompanied by high quality, boutique shops that will showcase the smaller retailer, and will also feature Dory’s Laser Performance (sailing dinghies) and Albert Thurston brands, plus a restaurant. The upper floors will be extended and converted to provide 15 new residential units.