Residents First

Law should be toughened on squatters

Cllr Harry Phibbs writes

I am pleased that squatters have now been evicted from the Askham Road Family Centre allowing building work to proceed on it becoming a specialist school for autistic children. However I share the frustration of residents that the legal process took so long.

This government brought in a long overdue reform to make squatting a criminal offence in England and Wales (it has been one in Scotland since 1865). Yet the reform has not been implemented in full. For no very clear reason it only applies to residential buildings. This means that squatting remains merely a civil offence when other buildings are targeted. Police and property owners still don’t have the law on their side when it comes to squatters in non-residential buildings. If this changed, removing squatters would be a far more rapid and straightforward process.

There is no justification for squatting - least of all when the victims are vulnerable children. The government should be commended for tightening the law. Now it should complete the job and make squatting a criminal offence for all types of property.
 

Vote for Jamie McKittrick in the Wormholt and White City Ward byelection

Jamie McKittrick has been selected as the Conservative candidate for the Wormholt and White City by-election on 7th February.

Jamie has been part of the local community since he started at school in the borough over 20 years ago. He studied economics at LSE and lives with his fiancée Liz.

A keen supporter of the Council’s drive for high-quality education for all local children, he plays an active role as Vice-Chair of Governors at his local school, Normand Croft.

Jamie also represented tenants at the Residential Property Tribunal while studying his second qualification in law. This experience confirmed the importance to him of increasing opportunity, particularly through the expansion of low-cost home ownership.

He has already campaigned hard in support of the borough’s A&E departments, and sees other ward priorities as keeping up the fight on crime and anti-social behaviour, getting Wormholt Park to green-flag standard, further improving street cleanliness, and supporting local businesses and traders.

Commenting on his selection, Jamie said:

“I am delighted to be the Conservative Candidate for Wormholt and White City Ward.

“This Council is cutting tax for ordinary residents, reducing debt and improving services. Council Tax is now down 17% under H&F Conservatives, saving the average family over £650. The contrast with
Labour's record couldn’t be more stark.

“Wormholt is on the up. I want to make sure that hard-working residents keep getting the improvements they deserve.”

Conservatives offer good news for Wormholt and White City Ward

On February 7th there will be a byelection in the Wormholt and White City Ward. This is a deprived area and Labour take it for granted - as shown by their decision to put up a candidate who lives in Parsons Green.

But since the Conservatives gained control of Hammersmith and Fulham Council in 2006 there has been some real progress in Wormholt and White City Ward.

1. Fighting crime. There are now Neighbourhood Watch schemes established in Aldbourne Road, Collingbourne Road, Hemlock Road, Sundew Avenue, The Curve, Willow Vale and Wormholt Road. (To find out your street coordinator, or start a new scheme in your street, contact your SNT: Wormholt.WhiteCity.SNT@met.police.uk 020 8246 2708.) Crime in the ward is down nearly 10% on 2006.

2. Better schools. There is more choice for parents and higher standards. Ark Conway in Hemlock Road was among the first free schools in the country to open. The Phoenix School has taken the opportunity to become an academy - so it has more independence and more funding goes direct to the school rather  than on bureaucracy.

3. Better parking. 20 parking spaces created in parking zone V, around Queen’s Park Rangers’ home ground, Loftus Road, and surrounding White City. Also the Smart visitor permit for cheaper parking for residents’ visitors has been made available while parking is also being helped with Car Club bays.

4. The White City Collaborative Care Centre, in Bloemfontein Road, will open its doors to residents next year. The development of the new health centre was delayed by the Labour Government because it also includes flats that will offer shared ownership and discounted home ownership opportunities to local residents.

5.Spear Courses. With funding from the Council this charity provides highly effective six weeks courses to help get the young unemployed into work. It now has a centre in Shepherd's Bush.

White City care centre building work begins

Building work on a new state-of-the-art health and social care centre for White City has begun.

The first brick was laid on the borough’s new one-stop-shop for health, social care and children’s services today by officials from the local council, NHS, Fulcrum Infrastructure Management Limited
and Galliford Tri partnerships who are building the new facilities.

The White City Collaborative Care Centre, in Bloemfontein Road, will open its doors to residents, in an area with some of the worst health problems in Hammersmith & Fulham, from 2014.

Costing £13.6million the cutting edge new facilities will provide a wide range of health and social care services and have capacity to register 10,000 GP patients initially - growing to 25,000 if required.

More parking bays for Shepherds Bush

More parking spaces and new car club bays are set to be created in Shepherds Bush following a parking consultation.

Around 20 new spaces are set to be created by Hammersmith & Fulham Council (H&F Council) in controlled parking zone V, around Queen’s Park Rangers’ home ground, Loftus Road, and surrounding White City.

There is also more good news for residents as H&F Council will be introducing the Smart visitor permit for cheaper parking for residents’ visitors, and more bays for car club vehicles. There will be no change to parking restrictions, as the vast majority of respondents voted against any alterations.

The decision comes on the back of the consultation in November 2011, where 81 per cent of respondents said they did not want parking controls to be extended on weekdays. The current controls run from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, with motorists being able to park for up to eight hours using pay and display.

Over 88 per cent of respondents said they wanted to keep the current controls on Sundays the same while 78 per cent did not want to see changes to the Saturday restrictions either. In response to the question ‘would you like shorter maximum stay for pay and display parking to be introduced?’, 84 per cent said no.

Deputy leader Cllr Nick Botterill said:

“We had a very high response rate to our consultation with the overwhelming majority of people opting not to change the current controlled parking hours. There was a real enthusiasm for the visitor permit and for car club bays.

"We had not reviewed parking in the area since it became a controlled zone in January 1997 and this shows we are listening to residents, by giving the majority of people who responded what they want."

More than 8,140 consultation leaflets were delivered to residents and businesses in zone V and there was an overall response rate of 11.4 per cent, which is above average for a parking consultation.

Many residents and businesses who replied to the questionnaire – 182 of them – said they would consider joining a car club if a dedicated bay was introduced in their area, while 28 people who responded are already members of a car club.

Research from TfL shows that, last year, 13 per cent of car club members sold a car immediately before joining a car club and six per cent sold one after joining. That works out around 1,680 cars being removed from the road last year.

The changes are expected to be made by the end of March with funding for the new parking spaces coming from Section 106 money as part of a planning agreement with Westfield, while TfL is funding the car club bays.

For more information on the Smart visitor permit and car clubs, visit www.lbhf.gov.uk/parking.

Ark Conway free school opens

Cllr Helen Binmore writes:

I was delighted to attend the Ark Conway Primary Academy this week with Lucy Heller, managing director of Ark Schools, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of the Council, and Lord Hill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools, for the new Free School's opening day. This is the third new school to open in the borough in just nine days with Hammersmith Academy opening last Wednesday, followed by the WLFS last Friday.

The old Wormholt library has been carefully restored and renovated with its new owners paying tribute to the building's heritage by incorporating the original marble floor design in the new school's logo, as well as creating plans to locate the school library in the same area as the original library.

Damian McBeath, the impressive new Headteacher has spent a lot of time working with the local community, parents and the new children to ensure a smooth start and yesterday 30 smartly uniformed happy little four-year-olds began an exciting new journey which will be characterised by high expectations and which offers the opportunity of a specialism in maths and music.

This Primary Free School opening comes at a time of great success for primary education in the borough. Earlier this year Hammersmith & Fulham was ranked first in the country for the percentage of primary school pupils who make the expected levels of progress in English and was ranked second in the country for maths. This in itself is a great achievement but it has been achieved in the context of a borough average of 30.8% of pupils on Free School Meals compared to 14.6% nationally.

Demand for primary school places continues to grow as more local parents are choosing local schools for their children's education. We plan to continue to meet local demand by expanding successful and popular schools and by providing an environment which facilitates the setting up of new Free Schools where there is strong local parental demand and a solid educational offer which will give pupils the best start in life.

Over 75% of primary schools in the borough are currently rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding but our aim is for all primary  schools to achieve a good rating as a minimum to be on par with all our nursery, special and secondary schools which are all rated to be good and outstanding by Ofsted.

Thousands of new homes and jobs for White City

Local people are being placed at the heart of plans to create thousands of new homes and jobs in White City.

There is a "once in a generation" opportunity to make White City one of London's leading destinations to live and work by delivering many new homes including many affordable homes.

Development is expected on a large area of land to the east of Wood Lane north of the Westfield shopping centre. Planning applications are expected from land owners including Westfield, the BBC and Imperial College in the coming years.

New adventure for community cafe

A new community café in Shepherds Bush run by local people launched last week.

The White City Adventure Café, based at the White City Adventure Playground in Canada Way, was officially opened by H&F Mayor, Cllr Adronie Alford, on Monday January 31.

Adults with learning difficulties will train and work at the café, which is now open every day, 10am-2pm, and there is also a weekly fruit and vegetables stall.

The scheme, jointly organised by Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre, Hammersmith & Fulham Adult Learning and Skills Service and the Phoenix Canberra Schools Federation, hopes to equip people with skills they can then use in education or in the workplace.

Ark Conway Primary School says: Academic achievement, no excuses

September will see the opening of the Ark Conway Primary School in Shepherd's Bush. It is a free school opening on the site of the old Wormholt Library in Hemlock Road. This beautiful historic building is being restored for this purpose.

It's Prospectus explains its culture as follows:

Academic achievement – no excuses

We want every child at Conway Primary to fulfil his or her potential. We will do everything possible to ensure that every pupil achieves year level expectations, every year. We won’t accept
excuses and we won’t make any either.

Personal responsibility – mutual respect

We want to create a happy, respectful and orderly school. We take responsibility for nurturing and developing the personal qualities of every pupil and we will teach pupils to be responsible for their actions and aware of their effect on others.

Behaviour

We will emphasise the importance of good behaviour. Our values, meal times, manners and behaviour expectations are important parts of our education programme. Good behaviour is praised and unacceptable behaviour dealt with immediately.

Partnership with parents

We believe that children whose parents are involved and interested in their learning do well. We will involve Conway Primary parents in their children’s learning and encourage them to be active members of the school community. We are happy for you to visit classes or come to our regular open assemblies. Parents and teachers will each sign a home-school agreement, demonstrating our shared commitment to putting in the effort to ensure that every child succeeds. We will keep families in touch through face to face meetings, newsletters, reports and our website.

Friends Group for Wormholt Park

Users of Wormholt Park in Shepherds Bush have set up their very own ‘Friends Of’ group.

‘Friends of’ organisations are springing up all over the country and enable local residents to sustain and enhance their park as a place of natural beauty and public pleasure in partnership with local authorities.

The Friends of Wormholt Park will be working closely with the council to develop exciting improvements plans, with work due to start before the end of the year.

Working with the council, the group intend to install more litter bins, mend benches, fix child sized benches in the playground areas, and plant more roses.

In the long term, the group hope to improve the playground and sports facilities and address litter problems.