Hotel developers outsmart Council with revised application

How the pavilion used to look

The developers who are at present knocking down the old Mecca site on the Green in order to turn it into a hotel have outsmarted even our Council, famed for it's dealings with developers. Having already knocked down the historic building they have just submitted a revised document which aims to increase the number of rooms from the originally agreed 242 to 322.

The Pavilion building now gone, and with our Council thus in a very weak negotiating position, developers Marvel Green Limited seem set to get their way. And the locals are not happy about it. Mainly because they think that an increase in room numbers will mean that the character of the hotel itself will be fundamentally different. 

Having been pitched as a 4 star hotel the extra numbers they believe mean it is more likely to be a 2-3 star operation, favoured by backpackers and budget travellers. Useful that there is a Walkabout next door then.

The residents are organising themselves to object, the deadline for which is October 30th, with one of them arguing that this is: 

"clearly a down-grade to a 2-3 star budget operation that Developers are trying to sneak under the wire... in essence they are dividing twin rooms into buget units adding 8 extra rooms on the 1st floor, 12 on the 2nd, 11 on the 3rd, 12 on the 4th, 12 on the 5th and 10 on the 6th floors with one extra on the top floor.  

The plans detail 66 extra rooms but obviously planning consent is being sought for 80 extra rooms so that the owners can off-load quickly and easily with planning consent for more rooms already in place if they cannot generate the expected profits! 

If this planning consent is granted it cannot be revoked! a Budget Hotel/Backpackers Hostel on our door step is I believe worth fighting against".

At the heart of all of this is the character of the Bush - often seen as a poor relation to Holland Park next door the chance of the regeneration of the area had been seen by many as a chance to give the area a lift. The much delayed works on the Green are part of that picture too, and to give the Council credit it is signed up to that goal as well.

But on this occasion it seems that the developers have managed to outsmart our Council, and the residents are left fighting a rearguard action to save what they thought they were originally promised.

H&F asks Abu Hamza wife to "downsize"

Our Council has asked the wife of Abu Hamza, recently extradited to the United States to face trial for terrorism offences, to consider downsizing the Council owned home she currently occupies in Shepherd’s Bush.

I know the house very well. It is situated very close to a former Cabinet Ministers and another senior political figure who also lives nearby. I always thought that the prospect of members of the highest level of the British Government living cheek by jowl with someone committed to destroying the British state was ironic, but there you go.

Considering, by their own admission, our Council has absolutely no power to enforce any of this you have to regard their public announcement of this move to the press as a classic PR stunt of which Hammersmith & Fulham is so fond. But on this occasion we might forgive our publicity hungry councillors, given the circumstances.

Save our Hospitals: March & Rally Report

Strange bedfellows took to the metaphoric sheets this afternoon as a march in opposition to hospital cutbacks wound its way through the borough from the Bush to Hammersmith and on to Fulham. Socialist Worker newspaper sellers mingled with members of both the Labour and Conservative Parties at the start of the march on Rockley Road W12, while most of the people belonged to none of the above but just didn’t want to see the end of their local hospital.

There was almost as much noise coming back at the horn and whistle blowing campaigners from the passing motorists, who sounded their horns and frequently gave the thumbs up when they saw the Save our Hospitals banner.

During the march, supported by our Council and which was covered by the BBC, ITV and LBC radio, there was much good natured banter but a determination that, after the relentless propaganda carried in the local press in favour of these cutbacks from managers of the NHS in NW London, this was their time to be heard. It was also heartwarming to see banners hoisted aloft bearing the names “Brent” and “Ealing”, a sure sign that these people were not about to repeat the cynical divide and rule tactics adopted by Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in particular.

And that unity, which I was first so impressed by when the two campaigns – community and council – came together one night in Hammersmith Town Hall, also found its expression in the succession of speeches that greeted the crowd upon their arrival at the Lillie Road playing fields just south of the threatened Charing Cross Hospital.

Murad Qureshi AM

Assembly Member Murad Qureshi, who comes from Westminster, was there to extend his friendship and support as was Ealing MP Virendra Sharma. And there were some comical moments too, as the Tory Councillor Peter Graham was followed by a speaker from an organisation called the Revolutionary Middle East Workers Solidarity Council, or some form of those words put together. There she stood, Yasser Arafat style black and white Keffiyeh draped across her revolutionary chest, as Mr Graham looked on, blinking. He later confirmed my suspicion that this had been a first for him. And I suspect it might have been for our radical Comrade, too.

As a flavour of some of the speeches, here's a bit of what Labour Leader of the Opposition Stephen Cowan, had to say:

There were, without doubt, several thousand people in that field and many more who took part in the march itself. To get that many people, most of whom had probably last been on a march decades ago and on a Saturday afternoon, is no mean feat. And it’s no mean measure of the strength of the opposition to these plans.

If Cameron and co really want a fight on their hands by allowing NHS bosses to ride roughshod over local people and close, as Andy Slaughter MP pointed out in his speech, the very same A&E Departments he promised he’d keep open during the election then he’ll have a fight on his hands.

I suspect the NHS bosses in question may wish to reflect on that. Long. And. Hard.

Hundreds gather in Bush for march

Hundreds of people crowded the south of the Bush this morning as they set off fro a march that would take them to Hammersmith and then on to Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham in a protest against the cuts to the hospital services for the borough.

BBC London interveiws Andy Slaughter MP

BBC London, ITV London and other broadcasters joined the crowd and, thus far, everything has passed off well.

All welcome

The noise of the march, which has been joined by protestors from neighboring boroughs in a show of unity that Chelsea & Westminster could learn from, is deafening. Horns and whistles are being joined by car horns and even buses, sounding their support for the campaign.

More to follow

March for hospitals: this Saturday

Bushers will join those from Hammersmith, Fulham and the surrounding boroughs in a mass demonstration of support for our local hospitals this coming Saturday - and you're invited.

I've already reported on the details of what's at stake and why, so let me leave the rest to the Chair of this community campaign, Carlo Nero:

SATURDAY 6th OCTOBER
...sees the climax of our campaign when we MARCH from Shepherds Bush to Lillie Road - the route symbolises the link between Hammersmith and Charing X hospitals, and the people who use them.

We need a huge turnout to build on the success of the March in Ealing a few weeks ago and our own Public Meeting last week.

We know many people from the Ealing and the Brent campaigns will be joining our march to support us and emphasize the London-wide opposition to these closures - let's make sure that this march is the biggest yet!

This is the last show of public feeling before the consultation closes on Monday 8th October when the joint campaigns will be handing their petitions - with over 50,000 signatures - to NW London NHS bosses.

The Programme of events is:

11am onwards:
Assemble ROCKLEY ROAD W12
(just south of Shepherds Bush Green - map)

12 Noon:
March moves off along South side of Shepherds Bush Green
Click HERE for Map of Route

1pm (approx)
in Lillie Road Recreational Ground:

RALLY

Speakers will include:

• Carlo Nero, Chair of Save our Hospitals Campaign
• Paul Kenny, General Secretary of GMB
• Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith
• A surprise celebrity (who we can't name yet!)

plus speakers from Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals' staff, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

There will be a band to lead the march and entertain us at the Rally

WE STILL NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO MAKE THE MARCH A SUCCESS:

PUBLICITY

It is vital that we publicise our MARCH, right up until the event itself. We will be all around Hammersmith and Fulham on Thursday and Friday leafleting the Rockley Road and Lillie Road areas, as well as holding a stall at Charing Cross on Thursday 12noon - 2pm. PLEASE help with leafleting on Thursday or Friday: check the website for more details or email campaign@saveourhospitals.net to find out how to volunteer.

MAKE SURE all your family, friends and neighbours know about the march! Pass on this email NOW to everyone you can - you would be surprised how many people STILL DON'T KNOW about these plans to shut A&Es!

STEWARDS
We still need stewards to help direct the march. It will not be an onerous task - you will just need to arrive a little earlier for a safety briefing and wear a yellow jacket which we will provide. But we DO NEED more volunteers: we have promised the police that we will be a well-organised and orderly march. We need lots of stewards to ensure everything runs smoothly. If you're coming anyway, why not volunteer by emailing campaign@saveourhospitals.net

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday,

Carlo

Carlo Nero, Chair, Save H&F Hospitals

The unity of these campaigners is in stark contrast to the deeply cynical and frankly contemptible tactics adopted by Chelsea & Westminster hospital, as they lobby for the closure of our hospitals in order to save their own skins. We don't need to play the game NHS NW London bosses want us to play, divide and rule, we need to come together instead - and I hope many of you do. 

H&F Council house ban for £40k+

Radical housing moves afoot in Hammersmith & Fulham again as our Council seek to recapture the trailblazing years of departed leader Stephen Greenhalgh with an announcement yesterday that all those earning upwards of £40,200 a year will be denied access to any form of social housing in the borough from 2013.

In fact everyone, irrespective of their income, will be subject to short term leases instead of the home for life they thought they once had, according to this piece in the Telegraph yesterday. Five year tenancies instead will be the norm, with only 2 years for those aged 18-25, with the exception for the "most vulnerable", whatever that means.

Speaking to the Torygraph Andrew Johnson, the council’s cabinet member for housing said: 

“We are leading the way in ushering in a new era for social housing in this country.
We are saying that the current system, whereby anyone can apply for a council home irrespective of housing need, has failed.
We believe that the notion of a tenancy for life is outdated and that it’s wrong to expect to inherit a welfare benefit in the form of a subsidised house irrespective of housing need.
Instead, we want to give honest, hard-working, local residents on low to middle incomes, who make a positive contribution to their local communities, the opportunity to access social housing.
The old, antiquated system has created disadvantaged communities by producing concentrations of people on benefits with disproportionately high levels of unemployment and sometimes social breakdown.  

All of which is eerily reminiscent of the dearly departed Leader's argument that social housing "warehoused poverty" and created "ghettoes", leading to plans that appeared to suggest the poor of the borough were set to be shipped up north, as with other boroughs in the Capital.

It also reveals this Council's determination not to lose the status as 'trailblazer', which is why Cllr Johnson proudly describes them as "leading the way". Ironically, as it turns out, since the label "Cameron's favourite council" was actually bestowed upon them several years ago by Opposition Labour Leader Stephen Cowan, and was meant as an insult - but it stuck, and turned into something the Council itself felt very proud about!

So on the one hand this smacks of a radical Tory Council trying to do something about the pleb question, usefully just in time for Tory party conference, but is it as simple as that? If the aim is actually to move people out of social housing and up on to the property ladder or onto better quality privately rented housing, is that really such a bad thing? I suspect this policy might end up getting buried in howls of criticism before people stop and think about the possible positives.

On the other hand that's going to be very cold comfort if you're told your tenancy isn't being renewed and you have to get out - especially if that means your kids have to change school at a crucial point, for example. And it builds in a perverse incentive - why would you take that better job which would take you over the £40,200 threshold of combined annual income if you knew it would mean you lost your home?

What seems to be lacking from this policy is any element of choice on the part of the tenants. That doesn't seem to be terribly important to their landlords at the moment, but it could hold the key to making policies like these actually empower people to move on and up instead of clobbering them with uncertainty and stress.

Slowing down the blog

Wow. It's been a week between blogposts on here, which I think is the longest gap I've ever had since the site started one morning in November 2008. I started the blog after coming across a homeless man who'd lain on the ground outside the then Shepherd's Bush library for most of the night, as people just walked past him.

By the time I tried to wake him, on instructions from the 999 operator I'd called, he'd started to show signs of hypothermia and the paramedics who arrived packed him straight off to hospital. There was something about that which made me take up this site, and it's been a unique experience ever since - one which has taken me on the streets with the police, down into underground sewers and to numerous shouty angry meetings at Hammersmith Town Hall. I've met some inspirational people quietly doing amazing things and seen both the best and the worst of our borough.

This isn't building up to announcing a stop to the blog, but it is a recognition that things are going to slow down from now on. As some of you on Twitter might have noticed I've started another one dealing with the day job that I do and that takes time, as does the day job itself. Put a part time masters degree into the mix and then the various stuff that life throws up and this site is going to have to take a back seat more regularly from now on.

But there are some big stories still round these ere parts and I plan to keep following them. This Saturday's march to save our hospitals, the battle over the West Ken redevelopment, the future of the Goldhawk Road and our market among them. And, sadly, serious crime looks like it isn't going away any time soon.

So for those of you that send me news, keep sending it and I'll report on it. For those of you organising events, such as the forthcoming Oxjam, do the same. And for those of you who keep coming back you're still more than welcome. But I did just want to own up to being a bit slower from now on.

Thusha: A story to shame us all

I work in Stockwell, South London. It's an area I spend most of my daylight hours in and I know it quite well having been there for over four years. It's also an area that has problems that make the challenges we have in Shepherd's Bush seem like small fry.

The last shooting we had down there involved two men on a motorbike spraying another man with a submachine gun from a passing motorbike, and you regularly see police swoop on groups of local youths who dont have much to do apart from hang around.

It's the sort of place where you kind of get used to seeing some fairly depressing stuff.

But in March last year an incident took place at one of our local shops which plumbed new depths. This was the shooting of a 5 year old little girl who was playing inside, the shop being owned by one of her family. One gang was attacking another, again with guns, and this time they just opened up inside the shop and Thusha was shot through the back, leaving her paralysed.

But this little girl was not about to accept doctors' views that she would never walk again, and BBC London today released a film which shows her taking steps with the aid of a frame. She's started back at school and tells the BBC correspondent Guy Smith that she likes maths, because she finds it easy. She wants to be a doctor.

But most of this film, inspirational though it is, also reveals something that it doesnt really go into. For sure the family are being basically let down by their Council who have not transformed their housing. But I imagine after this publicity that might rocket swiftly up Redbridge Council's priority list.

But what is really shameful, surely, is what gets passsing reference in the BBC film - that Thusha's family are only really getting the support they need because of people's fundraising efforts, such as the policemen and women who investigated the shooting, who themselves have done a sponsored mountain climb. Why on earth should this girls' family have to rely on public charity? Shouldn't they receive everything they need for the rest of her life? Wouldnt that be the mark of a civilised society?

So I asked Guy Smith this evening, who tells me that if Thusha had been a victim of a road traffic accident she would have been entitled to millions because of the involvement of insurance companies. But victims of crime are only ever entitled to a maximum of £500,000. Which is hardly a great deal when you are only 5 years old and face a lifetime of adjustments and care.

Are we really saying as a country that this is acceptable? 

You can donate to the Thusha appeal here.

Hospitals public meeting: Watch the vid

The bods at H&F Council's press office have put together a short film of highlights from the public meeting held last tuesday at the Town Hall over NHS North West London's plan to shut down the hospitals of this borough to save money. This is a plan actively supported by Chelsea & Westminster and Middlesex hospitals in neighbouring Kensington & Chelsea and the "consultation" has all the hallmarks of a government fix.

As may be evident from the tone and rather arrogant assertions from those defending the plans. Watch it and weep! And then get ready for the march on October 6th - details here