Cyclist killer to stand trial

Last year I reported on the death of a cyclist at the hands of a lorry driver which took place near to where I work in south London. I reflected on the near misses that I saw daily in Shepherd's Bush, especially when cyclists seemed to take risks on the approach to the Holland Park roundabout. Lots of you had thoughts about this too.

As the wheels of British justice drag along, interminably slowly, the trial of the cement truck driver who killed cyclist Catriona Patel is getting underway. He has admitted careless driving - he was talking on his mobile phone at the time - but the prosecution want to put him on trial for the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

I still think there is a real danger to cyclists in Shepherd's Bush. Having only been back in the UK a couple of days I've already seen a couple of them dice with death on the Askew and Uxbridge Roads, and this may be part of the reason why cyclists seem to be very unpopular in our part of west London - it might be that it's just too dangerous for them to be on the roads all of the time, hence their riding on pavements. Who knows, but either way I have a sinking feeling we might be just waiting for the next tragedy to happen on our very own roads. It's just over a year to the day that an almost identical accident happenned on the lethal Askew Road/Uxbridge/Old Oak Road Junction.

Mayor Boris Johnson launched the new "Super highway" scheme for cyclists in London recently, which seems to consist of nothing more than blue painting on bits of road. As you'll see from this video launched by the London Cycling Campaign drivers of cars seem not to care very much about what colour the tarmac is.

Bob Crow calls strike for "decent pay increase this year"

Yes, that's right. RMT leader Bob Crow, member of the Communist Party and warned over his football hooliganism just this weekend, has balloted his members again so they can strike in support of what they call a "decent pay increase this year".

Tube workers, who enjoy one of the most secure lines of work in the capital, will be walking out so they can inconvenience those customers lucky enough to still have jobs in support of their demands.

Boris Johnson promised an end to this sort of thing when he became Mayor, but like so many of his promises it has been quietly forgotten. Will the new government be able to do any better?

Heathrow runway scrapped

Whatever you thought of the election result it has begun to pay dividends for the Bush, as the new administration has announced plans to scrap the third runway at Heathrow. I did think about this as I flew in over west London from the Philippines the other day (a 17 hour flight including stop over!) - I was enjoying the view yet creating the noise and pollution, and yet I was flying back into a different country from the one I'd left. Here's a pic!

It's great news that the runway won't be built. There's not a lot of options when you're travelling to and from the far east, for example, but there are tons of flights that leave Heathrow every day that go to, er, Manchester for example. Ridiculous.

So credit to the new Government for administering the last rites to this plan, and to both our Council and Andy Slaughter MP for having opposed it from the outset. Thank goodness they won.

Super Sewer: Planning applications on the way

I've been hearing some rumours from well placed sources that, now the General Election is out of the way,  Thames Water are going to be submitting planning applications for the Thames Tideway Tunnel very shortly. Given that the Mayor of London and the new Conservative-LibDem Government are entirely in favour of the project, these applications are likely to be approved. Quickly.

You may think this is a good thing since it will put a stop to huge amounts of poo being disgorged into our river as happens regularly with our ageing Victorian sewers which, in Hammersmith's case, handle most of the waste matter from large areas of North London. Modern sewers seperate rainwater from sewage - but our ancient system carries both, and after heavy rain they inevitably flood - either into our river, or into people's homes in Hammersmith or both. This was explained very well to local people at a meeting in Hammersmith Town Hall by Thames Water, read the report here.

So it's do or die time now for our Council, who have opposed this development using the full might of their taxpayer funded propaganda machine. They warned first that Furnival Gardens would be destroyed - and I believed them so called on you to support their campaign. Then Thames Water and others got in touch to point out that the Council knew this wasn't the case and had been told so many times. The Council even recruited local cheerleader Raj Bhattia, the longstanding chairman of a residents association, to warn that local people would be made homeless by the project, but were then forced to disown the claim since it, too, was dismissed by the Mayor as bogus.

Some of you may remember our Council's first reaction to the proposed Thames Tunnel, which was to claim that Ravenscourt Park was in imminent danger. This, a source at Thames Water tells me, was publicly ruled out by them "..in order to draw attention to the Council's campaign of misinformation."

So in other words a major national utility company was forced into making a public planning announcement in order to counter what it regarded as a deliberate campaign of misinformation from a publicly elected Council. I think that is extraordinary.

And during the General Election campaign I helped Melanie Abbott, correspondent for the You & Yours programme on Radio4 cover the story which you can listen to here. (29:55 minutes in - all candidates standing to be our MP were interviewed) This followed Thames Water contacting me to rebut Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey point by point in his interview with this blog on the subject of the sewer during the election campaign.

So you can expect a lot of local sound and fury about this in the weeks to come. Fasten your seatbelts.

1215 UPDATE: A reader has written in to point out that the Mayor Boris Johnson actually met H&F Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh on this issue recently. This excerpt is from the Mayor's latest activity report to the GLA:

Meeting with Leader of London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

On 26 March I met with Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, the Leader of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. We discussed the White City and Earls Court Opportunity Areas, High Speed 2, LDF progress and the Thames Tideway.

The report does not indicate what they agreed, if anything, and what next steps might be taken. Put bluntly the Mayor supports the sewer, Cllr Greenhalgh doesn't - so one of them has got to give way.

BBC London cover fight against council

The fight to save the Goldhawk Industrial Estate from the Council's property developers is being aired as a news item on the BBC London news at 1830 this evening. Here's what the BBC are saying at the moment.

Here's more on the battle at the moment. Enjoy the programme...

First test for new Council on planning

The official inquiry into this planning decision on the Goldhawk Road will begin in 10 days time. You may recall that this was one of those decisions forced through by Hammersmith & Fulham Council against the express wishes of local residents. In this case it aslo led to the loss of over 200 jobs with the departure of Innocent Drinks, one of the local businesses who were threatened by the development of the area.

Council Leader Stephen Greenhlagh, however, did not count on the resourcefulness of the Brackenbury Residents Association led by the indomitable Rosemary Pettit. This band of residents have fought the Council to the extent that central government stepped in to call the decision in to an official inquiry, much to the ill-disguised anger of the Council, who at the time put out a press release questioning the "national interest" involved in the issue.

Since then the Residents Association have been fundraising like mad, and doing it in a way that only they could to pay for their barristers at the inquiry. Thousands of jars of marmalade have been made, cakes have been sold and even free concerts have been staged. And they also got political, producing posters like the one above, which in my view played a large role in confounding the expectation that Tory candidate Shaun Bailey would win the Hammersmith seat. Instead Andy Slaughter MP was re-elected.

The Council has no need to fundraise, they will pay their barristers with our money. But what they could do is act on what Stephen Greenhalgh pledged, just days ago, to listen to residents and adopt a new approach to these planning issues. This would surely mean the Council withdrawing this planning decision immediately and starting again. Will they do this? Well if they don't here's what will happen:

The inquiry starts at 10am on Wednesday, 25 May at the Town Hall. The Inspector, Olivia Spencer BA (Hons) BSc (Hons) DipArch RI, will announce when evidence will be heard. The residents expect the developer to go first, then the Council and then local people; independent witnesses will also speak. The inquiry is expected to last until 2 June, excluding Monday. The inquiry is open to all - so do come along and see how it works.
Inquiry procedures

The inquiry will start with opening statements from the developer, the Council and then the residents. Evidence will be called. Witnesses will read their statements (if short) or they may be taken as read. Counsel for the witness will draw out points; witnesses may be cross-examined by other barristers. Counsel for the witness is allowed to ask further questions. At the end of the inquiry the inspector will visit the estate and the surrounding area. The Inspector will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State within a few weeks.

18th APRIL UPDATE - The Fulham Chronicle is now reporting this story here

Shepherd's Bush stabbing: 15 year old attacked

Police are appealing for witnesses and information following a stabbing in Shepherds Bush.

At approximately 20:30 - 21:30hrs on Saturday 8th May along the White City Estate, on White City Lane behind the Territorial Army barracks the victim, a 15-year-old boy, was riding as a passenger on a moped when he was stabbed in the back. At the time a group of youths were riding around on mopeds.

Police are keen to speak to a male described as a mixed race, Somalia/Asian, who is described as tall but chubby wearing khaki green tracksuit bottoms.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Detective Constable Ana Ambros based in the CID office at Hammersmith Police Station on 0208 246 2505 or if you wish to remain anonymous call crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Flying home to the Bush

I've timed this to go live so that when you're reading it I shall be around about 38,000 feet high hurtling through thin air in a metal tube propelled by four rockets, two on each side. Taking off from here in Hong Kong where I've had a stop over for a couple of days I shall go over China, central asia, Russia and then eastern Europe before adding to a bit of noise over west London prior to landing at Heathrow.

Volcanic ash permitting, of course!

I've been away for the best part of 3 weeks and tried to cover things as best I could from here. The time difference of 7 hours actually helped during election night, at the same time as everyone at home was bleary eyed in the early hours I was enjoying a leisurely morning  - but watching events last night had me up at 3am instead!

Anything major happen while I was away?

Japanese Garden Party at Hammersmith Park

Get yerself down to Hammersmith Park on May 23rd for what promises to be an excellent day out for local families. Judging by last years' event, which I attended and wrote about here, it will have plenty of space for kids to run around in, a music stage with some really good traditional Japanese music acts and a wide range of food.

The park itself has undergone a lot of renovation since last year, but from what I've seen it remains one of our really under-used local open spaces. For those of you who haven't been before it's a bit like the Tardis - looks small on the outside but then is quite large on the inside!

Here are some pics from last year to whet your appetite - see you there!