Shepherd's Bush opens "ski hotel"?

No, not really. But this local blogger thinks that the new-ish flats on Uxbridge Road wouldn't look out of place in Klosters - and he has a point.

I think they are a nice new design too, but do rather stick out compared to the 19th century architecture around them.

And welcome to a new West London blogger!

"My Hammersmith" reports Roifield Brown is thief & shyster

News just in from content thieves "My Hammersmith". They are fearlessly reporting that their own Boss Roifield Brown, who modestly describes himself as "big (scary) boss man" is in fact, to use their words, a "thief and a shyster".

Well, it's their article isn't it?

10am UPDATE: Well, blow me down. For some inexplicable reason Roifield Brown was in touch within minutes of this story appearing on his own site and has told me he will stop taking my content "immediately".

Shepherd's Bush: Council invites blogreaders on "Tree Walk"

Do you want more trees? You are cordially invited to go on a "Tree Walk" around Shepherd's Bush, courtesy of H&F Council, to look at where new trees could be planted. Regular readers will remember I ranted just a little about the trumpeting on the H&F Conservative Party website of new trees across the borough, but missing from the list of any of this planting frenzy was any postcode beginning with W12. 

It seemed from the comments and responses on Twitter that this was something many of you were not impressed with either. But one of the responses I did get was from Councillor Harry Phibbs, who was last in action on this blog transforming derelict houses in W12 into shiny new ones. He not only responded to me but took it up with Council officials, one of whom has offered anyone interested to go on a walk with him to see exactly what the tree situation is and is likely to be in Shepherd's Bush.

Apparently the Council did have a scheme to investigate sites for new trees which didn't really go anywhere because of lack of interest, in part from residents but also in part from local councillors (shame on them). Cllr Phibbs explains:


"We had our own scheme a couple of years ago of Tree Walks. The purpose was to investigate suitable sites for new street trees. Residents assocs/individual residents sponsored trees (which cost £250 a time) with the first five being matched by the Council". 


"This did produce some new trees in Shepherd's Bush - although no tree walks took place in Wormholt and White City and College Park and Old Oak Wards. I was organising the Tree Walks but was reliant on finding interest from ward councillors or residents associations in each ward".


"Often the problem with new street trees is just as much finding a viable site as the money. There is sometimes money available under Section 106 agreements even when there isn't sponsorship on offer from residents".


So full credit to Councillor Phibbs for responding to the concern and also for making the offer - we can't very well complain if we're not prepared to talk to them about where the trees might go. So who's interested? Answer either in the comments or send your contact details by email to shepherdsbushblog@yahoo.co.uk - I'll receive them and won't send them anywhere else. When I have some names we can look at dates, I guess in February-ish. 

"My Hammersmith" are copy thieves

Roifield Brown (pictured) is a thief and shyster who runs a series of websites, which are part of a family called "myvillage.com"

Basically these websites, with their variants of "myhammersmith", "myshepherdsbush" and so on nick other people's content and parade it on their site as if it is their own. They then hope that people will click on the numerous adverts plastered all over the website and therefore make them money. Even better, they want people to pay for advertising space on their websites too. Here's the latest nicked article which they try to pass off as their own.

Just so you don't think I'm being unreasonable I have been in email contact with Roifield Brown since Christmas time asking him to stop stealing content from this site. He's agreed to do so but has now stopped answering me - and carries on anyway. So this is a last resort.

They also steal content from the Fulham Chronicle who may also wish to take the issue up. If they wish to do so his email is boss@myvillage.co.uk And yes, that really is his email address - he describes himself modestly here on his website as "big (scary) boss man" - more like snivelling (little) crook. Fellow blogger Darryl who runs the excellent 853 Greenwich site recently had to resort to publicly embarassing "big scary boss" Roifield into not nicking his stuff so here's hoping this works for me too. The best bit is that this article will appear on their site too, via their automated content-stealing feed.

And Roifield - if you don't now stop stealing my content - this won't be the last expose and it won't be the last place it appears. That will be all. Ahem.

"unfare" campaign launched by Ken

Labour candidate for Mayor in the 2012 elections Ken Livingstone has been out and about this morning highlighting his opposition to Boris Johnson's hike of tube fares which has hit us all in the pocket. Again.

You can sign a petition opposing his fare hike here, but bewarned - the real purpose of the petition is not to change the policy, anyone can see that's not going to happen, it's so that the campaign team can email you propaganda between now and the election relentlessly!

And I seem to remember fare rises happening under Ken too, if I'm not mistaken - not to mention the Western Extension of the C-Charge which he is pledged to re-introduce if elected.

1300 UPDATE: Well there must be an election in the offing, one of Ken's supporters, Alice Perry, who describes herself as a "Labour Activist" from Islington on Twitter has commented below. She describes how she would be "happy" to receive Ken's propaganda - which is presumably because she'd be the one sending it out. I guess we can expect more of the same as we get closer to the 2012 election..

Over-50s in Shepherd's Bush urged to have more fun

Members of Hammersmith & Fulham Circle, a community membership organisation for the over 50’s, have made New Year’s resolutions to enjoy life and do more, not less, in 2011. They’re encouraging everybody to make resolutions that they’ll want to keep!


Lucile joined the campaign with her New Year’s resolution to “miss the ten o’clock news some nights, and live it up a little in 2011.” Another Circle member, Saffina, says that her kind of resolution is to “be more social and meet new people.” Members like Ron “want to enjoy life by getting out and about and helping other people to do the same.”

According to research, around 75% of New Year’s resolutions are ditched by Valentine’s Day, and these are usually the same old ones that we all make and never keep. Given most of the news these days is about cold winter weather and spending cuts, it is perhaps no wonder people are looking to do more of what makes them happy.

Other residents are invited to join Circle members by contributing their resolutions online via Hammersmith & Fulham Circle’s website, by calling their free phone number on 0800 112 3448 or via twitter using #circle2011

Hammersmith & Fulham Circle is a membership organisation that connects people over the age of 50 who want to share interests and make the most of what’s on locally.

Members can also get help with small jobs like DIY, gardening or technology through their reliable Neighbourhood Helpers - local people who want to share their talents and skills.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council is seed funding the Circle over its first three years, so full credit to them for taking a punt on this.

As a social enterprise, Hammersmith & Fulham Circle will re-invest any profits into the community it serves, and from everything I've heard about this project it sounds like an excellent initiative so expect to hear more from me about it. I know quite a large proportion of readers may well be interested in joining H&F Circle, so do let me know how it goes.

Tube fare hike: screaming Tube workers & upbeat Mayor

It's the annual "slap in the face day" for Londoners today as we confront yet another record busting tube hike - a monthly 1-2 zone travelcard has leapt by the best part of a tenner which is what most Bushers have to buy.

So I thought two videos were apt - first of all a wee reminder of the Union goons who frequently walk out demanding more money or as, with the ASLEF strike on Boxing Day last year triple time and more holidays. This guy decided to scream at a pensioner getting on a train and quip that he'd like to see him "under a train".



And now Boris in his New Years' message - full of hype as usual but not even a mention of how he's decided to fleece us all again. And this from the Mayor who pledged he'd put a stop to strikes - of which there have never been as many as under his watch.



Happy New Year!

0930 UPDATE: Upon getting out of the Tube at Stockwell where I work I was struck by the "good news" screen which usually says "good service" against all the lines even if they are anything but. This morning the Jubilee, Northern and Picaddilly lines all had "severe delays" written next to them and I just heard that Bank station has closed access to the Northern Line. Double Happy New Year!!

H&F Council axe Sure Start centres for children

Our Council's cuts have reached children's services and now appear to go even further than David Cameron himself has said is necessary, reports the Daily Mirror today.

Our MP Andy Slaughter has leapt on the revelation that 60% of these centres, which were established by the last Government to support the early years development of children to boost educational achievement and are officially supported by the Conservatives, to say that H&F Council is the extreme end of what he calls "the true face of Cameron’s Britain".

Before the General Election David Cameron and other senior Tories were regular visitors to our Council, which is widely regarded as a flagship Conservative borough. Cameron described his "pride" in H&F at an event here almost a year to the day ago. It's the same reason why the now Secretary of State for Local Government Eric Pickles recently gave a speech in Hammersmith Town Hall saying that our own Council represented the "future of local government" across the UK.

It's for that reason when they make decisions like this it gets national attention, so expect more.

But in the meantime for those of us that are parents in this area these are worrying times. The Council will officially vote on these cuts on January 10th at a meeting, but having been at these meetings for the blog quite a few times now, I can assure you that this is a formality.

The Mirror says that the Sure Start cuts were "buried in a document sneaked out on the council’s website over Christmas".In addition our only children’s home is also being shut and sold off for luxury flats and libraries also face closure as part of a package that will take £7.5million out of services for young people. This is what one 11 year old boy had to say about it last year.

Not a happy new year if you're a happy new parent it would seem.

3rd January UPDATE - The Conservatives have hit back at this version of events on their website, calling the Mirror "predictably dishonest" and issuing the following riposte:

It [the Mirror] claims that most of the borough's 15 Centres will be "axed" - in fact the plan is for them to continue but not for them all to be directly run by the Council.

The report [being followed by the Council] says:


At present H&F has a network of 15 children’s centres, providing a wide range of support from universal provision through to targeted support for the most vulnerable families (tier 4). Although these are clearly popular with families, and seem likely to have some preventive impact, we have much less clear evidence about the degree of impact this has – including on the ultimate number of children falling into child protection.


Although early studies showed no clear evidence of impact on early school results, overall Sure Start seems to have had a positive impact especially on parenting and social behaviour for 3 year olds.


The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project (EPPE) examines the effect of preschool education for three and four year olds on children’s development at key ages. EPPE found that involvement in high quality early years education from age two onwards can lead to better educational and social outcomes for all children. It is also the case that Children’s Centres fill a gap in universal provision for 0-5 year olds who will not be in school, or who have not taken up any other early years provision through schools or private sector.

They provide the opportunity for a layer of preventive intervention, as opposed to reactive targeted intervention. They have become integral to the delivery of a wide range of services – midwifery, parenting programmes, obesity services, etc. we have begun to link them with primary care through health visiting and GPs.
We are looking at options to restructure this provision in line with the likely levels of efficiency and grant reductions expected, whilst targeting the remaining provision more closely on vulnerable families, so as to reduce the impact as much as possible. In doing so we will take account of need in each part of the borough, as well as reasonable travelling distance to access


support, aiming to retain full borough coverage. This is in line with the Coalition commitment to refocus Sure Start “on its original purpose of improving the life chances of disadvantaged children.”


However, it is not likely under this scenario that LBHF could continue to directly fund more than 6 Children’s centre teams. In any case we would no longer seek to directly run centres but would contract out provision either to schools or private sector providers. Several centres are already attached to or run by schools and we expect that many would in any case wish to continue making some provision for children (eg after school clubs) at these centres. Depending on the terms of any grant funding, we will seek to maintain a full wider network of outlets, on a ‘hub and spoke’ model. We aim to maintain some provision at most centres, through small amounts of pumppriming funding. A separate briefing paper to Cabinet will expand on these proposals.


The nature of the service provided at the remaining centres will need to be better targeted on vulnerable families. Support to the most vulnerable will be subsumed into the new locality teams. A public consultation on these proposals is planned to commence in January. The loss of more significant grant levels would require a more drastic level of reduction in provision. The remaining children’s centres could provide a drop-in hotdesking base of operations for locality teams, and be the main provider of eg parenting sessions for the client group.


In the election Labour claimed that the Conservatives would abolish Sure Start. This claim has now been shown to be a lie. But the Conservatives did not say that Sure Start would be left unchanged. The manifesto said:


We will take Sure Start back to its original purpose of early intervention, increase its focus on the neediest families, and better involve organisations with a track record in supporting families.
This is the approach that is being followed.

2010: A look back on a year in Shepherd's Bush

It's been a year that decided the next four here in Shepherd's Bush, with the early months dominated by what I christened the Battle of the Bush, as Andy Slaughter and Shaun Bailey, his Conservative challenger, fought out what was at times a tough campaign but one that did in the end give credit to both of them as they resisted the temptation to get into the nastiness that I thought was on the cards. The Council chamber stayed dominated by Tories in the local elections on the same day and we have already seen some of the sweeping changes to the face of the Bush that they intend to bring about - not all of them bad, but some of them certainly contentious.


However January started with the repercussions of battle of a different nature with a series of stabbings on Uxbridge Road, thought to have been a result of gangs in the Somali community, and made worse by the dire and sensationalist reporting of the local media that made the Bush seem more like a war zone than anything else.


And as a harbinger of the cuts to come this case of a pregnant woman who'd been beaten by her partner was forced to sleep on a park bench after officials at our Council told her to go away. The Council was found guilty of maladministration by the Local Government Ombudsman.


And the Pavilion on Shepherd's Bush Green was given planning permission to become a new hotel, thus promising to scrub up one of the most dilapidated corners of W12.


February started out badly for locals with Thames Water buggering up the seven stars junction at the bottom of Askew Road with waterworks prompting huge traffic jams


And on the theme of Thames Water, and our Council's expensive propaganda canmpaign against the Thames Tideway Tunnel, or "super sewer stink crater" as they used our money to call it in editions of "H&F News" the Council as forced to withdraw its bizarre claim that residents were going to be made homeless by the building of the new sewer.


Residents of Ashchurch Grove started a campaign against our Council's plan to hand over their area to developers to build what they called a "Mediterranean village" - or high density housing scheme as most of us would call it. Their campaign targeted the General Election and promised to make the Conservativezs pay for "not listening". Shaun Bailey, the Tory candidate, would pay the price in May. 


In March the Fulham Chronicle launched a high visibility campaign against "H&F News" as a propaganda paper that was undermining the local media. Despite much activity the campaign failed. But H&F News was consigned to the bin later in the year by the new Tory Government anyway. 


In April we were shocked by the murder of 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden from Shepherd's Bush who was stabbed to death in Victoria Tube station. 


Each of the candidates vying for our votes to be the Bushs' next MP held their final debate in Hammersmith which I filmed, you can watch it here.


And in May Andy Slaughter won our vote to be our Member of Parliament defeating Tory Shaun Bailey, who in large part paid the price for our Council having alienated much of their core vote on planning issues. The Conservatives were returned to power in Hammersmith Town Hall.


And developers launched plans to turn Shepherd's Bush into the "creative quarter of the UK" with exciting new plans for Wood Lane.


June saw yet another shooting on the Goldhawk Road following the murder of Jaabe Roberts on Askew Road. A horrid month for the area and one which sticks in the mind, for me at least. 


July saw more sad news with the death of local musician Chris Dagley who was killed on his scooter coming home from a gig on the Westway. 


The Hammersmith and Shitty line lived up to its local name by being shut for three weeks, much to the delight of local commuters. 


August saw a frankly embarrassing visit by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to Shepherd's Bush Village Hall to trumpet the new Government's plans. Nobody had told him our own Council had just announced they wanted to evict the local groups that are based there and sell it off. Mr Clegg, filmed by the BBC and pursued by one of their journalists, beat a rather undignified retreat. You can watch it here. 


The month also saw local Police crack down on bike thieves by planting some as bait and then snaring the would be thieves - bike crime plummeted as a result. 


September saw our Council desperately try to save "H&F News" with a cunning ruse but was then slapped down by the Government. The last edition will be sometime early in 2011. And then, no more. 


And it also saw your very own blogger being kettled by the Police when I went to see QPR play Millwall - while the thugs from Bermondsey were allowed free run of Uxbridge Road those of us who live here were kept in Police encircled makeshift prisons. 


October saw Shepherd's Bush's status as the area with the most dug up roads in London confirmed again by having Uxbridge Road assume the status of a building site while our own Council announced a merger with neighbouring Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster authorities. 


November saw the Bush plunged into the deep freeze with ice becoming a local hazard while the fight to save Shepherd's Bush Market and a historic row of Victorian shops heated up. 


And December saw this blog blow the lid of secrecy off the Council's plans to house the controversial West London Free School in Shepherd's Bush while the onset of ice turned into an outright blizzard. 


But the real highlight of that month of course was meeting some of you at the Tweet Up at the Goldhawk. Thanks to those who were able to come, and thanks to all of you for reading. 


They were just some highlights of what was quite a year in the Bush - 2011 shows every sign of being another up and down ride.