Transport for (non-disabled) London

TfL have long lied about the reconstruction of Shepherd's Bush Station. I, like many other Bushers, had to endure months of walking to White City in the freezing cold as they knocked down the old station in order to build the new one that was part of the deal with Westfield. As we were trudging towards the station one of the things that we were promised was a station fit - and acessible - for all.

As I know from personal experience however, TfL are rarely to be trusted. And sure enough before the new station was opened it was revealed that TfL had "discovered" a major engineering reason why a lift could not be installed without huge expense. I am not an engineer but it strikes me that completely levelling a station and building it from new does leave quite a lot of scope for the installation of a lift.

Hammersmith And Fulham Action on Disability, HAFAD, have been making a noise about this today. Well done to them, and shame on both TfL for being the toe rags that they are and on the council for not forcing either Westfield or TfL to spend what was necessary to ensure that those of us who happen either to be disabled now or who will be in the future can actually use this new station.

Sewage in our river

As you know if you were in the Bush it rained hard this week, and as Thames Water told us at this meeting, this generally means that raw sewage from as far afield as Camden and Brent flows through North London, into our part of west London and then into the river. That's when we're lucky. When we're not lucky it also flows into houses in Hammersmith. This is because the Victorian sewers just can't manage the sheer volume of rain plus toilet flushes.

As I type this Thames Water and other authorities are currently trying to deal with a large flow of poo that flowed into the river following the rain on wednesday this week and is currently merrily sitting in the river right next to our Borough. The authorities are trying to use peroxide and other chemicals to disperse it but its still there at the moment.

This rather makes the case for the new sewer that Thames Water wants to build, the Mayor of London has told them to build but that our council has demanded be stopped. I just wonder how our council are going to find a face saving way of climbing down on this one, as they catch the whiff of something smelly from the windows of Hammersmith Town Hall.

This is a current status update from the Environment Agency: (it wouldn't win first prize in a plain English competition but you'll get the drift. As it were)

This event is  possibly  a combination of Mogden Storm Tanks and CSOs and that is why the sag is quite wide.  Rainfall over West London forced Mogden to go to river on Tuesday afternoon, and the storm sewage was dosed with peroxide as it coincided with low water.  The central London CSOs also went to river.  Both discharged again Wednesday evening as a result of the heavy rainfall, but not at low water.  

Estuary temperatures are falling (16 degrees), and that might be why the sag is developing slowly.  I had hoped that things would pick up over the course of today given the sunshine, but that has not been the case. The sag is now now below 25% saturation, falling slowly.
Further rain is forecast for Friday afternoon to Saturday evening which might be interesting depending on the state of tide.

FW flows are not fantastic - until the evening of the 7th around 10 cumecs - the rain briefly raised it to >20 but this has now returned to 10.

EU to sue UK over sewage floods into Thames

As I got completely soaked walking up Uxbridge Road today I wondered about whether or not this was going to mean yet more sewage pouring into people's homes in Hammersmith, the key driver for what looks like the inevitable tideway tunnel (or "super sewer" as our esteemed council call it)

Now it would seem the EU are going to sue the UK government over the amount of poo being poured into Old Father Thames - and make the new 'super sewer' in our Borough even more likely. You've got to wonder when our council are going to admit defeat on this one. Even the Mayor has ordered them to fall into line! Furnival Gardens in W6 appears doomed.

This from Reuters news agency:

EU COMMISSION TO SUE U.K. OVER SEWER FLOODS Britain faces court action by the European Union environment watchdog after sewers repeatedly flooded into the river Thames during rainstorms, two EU officials said on Tuesday. The European Commission will also take the British government to the European Court of Justice over sewage spills in Whitburn, northeast England. The case could create pressure for increased investment by Thames Water, part-owned by Australia's Macquarie, and Northumbrian Water Group. "This is partly about health, due to the bacteria and viruses in the waste water. But it's also about the environment due to the high levels of nitrogen and phosphates," said one official. Britain is not properly applying Europe's waste water directive, the Commission is expected to argue when it launches the case on Thursday. Combined sewers, which carry both human waste and rainwater, have been put under pressure in northern Europe during a string of rainy summers, particularly in Britain. Britain is not alone. France, Belgium, Ireland and Spain have similar sewage systems and problems during heavy storms, one EU official said.

 

H&F council cuts in The Guardian

From today's Guardian newspaper, read more here

Debbie Domb should be happy. Her local council is the self-styled "borough of opportunity", where council tax is being slashed, more bobbies are on the beat, three public parks boast Green Flag environmental awards, and a £2m library has just opened at negligible cost to the taxpayer, thanks to private sector partnership.

The Conservative-run council's promise of "putting residents first" has sent public approval ratings soaring. In a poll of 1,260 people last year, 64% said they were satisfied with the council – 10% more than in 2007 – and it holds a maximum four-star rating from the Audit Commission.

This Tory flagship local authority has won praise from the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, for grasping that most elusive of political holy grails – low council tax combined with improving services. And Whitehall Tories are eager to emulate the success of their town hall counterparts in west London who, according to Osborne, have been "rooting out waste and cutting costs or improving services through innovative new policies".

Yet innovation and improving services appear thin on the ground to Domb, a resident of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

Shaun Bailey attacks Goldhawk Block decision

The conservative candidate for our constituency at the next general election, Shaun Bailey, has said he is "disappointed to hear about the decision of the council to grant approval to the Goldhawk Road Industrial Estate development". This decision by our council, run by his own party, would have a negative effect on local businesses he says. They of course, including Innocent Drinks who employ over 100 local people, will now have to move out to make way for the council's property developers.

'Disappointed' is quite a mild word but it probably reflects how far Mr Bailey can go in criticising his own local party. I'm not sure it will really be strong enough for the voters of Brackenbury, who the tories really need in their quest to win the new Hammersmith constituency which includes the Bush.

The relevance of this to the Bush is that this is a pretty good example to my mind of the Council making far reaching changes to our environment that affect people's lives, not really listening too much to local people if that planning meeting was anything to go by, and not even being held to account very strongly by someone who aspires to represent the area in parliament. Residents living close to Westfield might even think I am talking about them. Redevelopment of Shepherd's Bush Green anyone?

I am not trying to tell anyone how to vote - I would just say that Shaun Bailey has now demonstrated how timid he would be in sticking up for local people against their local authority if he was elected our new MP. Our current MP Andy Slaughter must be delighted.

Conservative Party conference 2009

As you read this I shall be driving up the M1 to the last of the three main party conferences in the UK, and I can't wait for them to be over!

I did meet our MP Andy Slaughter at last week's Labour conference and may see Shaun Bailey his Tory challenger for our constituency this week. Full report on those discussions to follow.

In the meantime have a good week and send some sun my way - the next couple of posts will be from a hotel room in rainy Manchester!

Meet the sentencers: West London Magistrates Court

I just received this invite via the Brackenbury Residents Association mailing list, so thanks to them for that. I'm going to go along and hope to find out a bit more about how this sentencing system works. I've reported on some of the more serious crimes that have scarred the Bush and surrounding areas before like here.

But the thing that often leaves me speechless are the sometimes pathetic sentences that are handed down, that seem almost to reward the criminal. I'm not a member of the hang 'em flog 'em brigade, and I'm not advocating some draconian new code, but I am interested in knowing more about how our local gang members, for example, get dealt with. Feel free to reply to the advert, the text of which I've pasted below, too.

Thursday 26^th November 2009 from 18:00 until 20:30

An evening at

181 Talgarth Road, Hammersmith

W6 8DN

An opportunity to learn about the sentencing process and to exchange viewpoints with the sentencers

Free Fish & Chip Supper!

Tour of the Courthouse!

RSVP Lisa Trinder

T: 020 8700 9320

E: lisa.trinder@hmcourts-service.gsi.gov.uk

Propaganda signs are back!

A new crop of North Korea-style propaganda banners seem to have sprouted up all along King Street in Hammersmith recently.

I spotted this one earlier this week which I think was quite new.

Our esteemed council has a fondness for this sort of thing, so now they've started rolling out a new campaign in Hammersmith its only  amatter of time before we see them in the Bush.

Surely this has nothing to do with the Tory Party conference being just round the corner? I think you have a right to know. You paid for them after all..

Readership keeps growing

This blog got 3,782 readers over the course of this month, up from 3,660 in August. Thanks for continuing to read and contribute, either your ideas as comments or as many of you do privately with ideas for local stories. This is why I think its important to keep the blog going.

I can't be everywhere at once and my travel committments make this even less likely, so in the words of some cliched Hollywood Z-lister .. "this achievement is for all of you"!