Hey Mr Boris

Superb video by some silver surfers - and with some very serious messages. Happy Friday!

Assault pic appeal

This man wanders around tube stations belting women at random. Do you know him? On Friday 20th September he hit a woman at Hammersmith Station, after having done the same at Bond Street.

PC Gemma Ryan, the investigating officer, said: "The assaults were random and unprovoked, leaving both women understandably very upset.

We don't tolerate violence anywhere on the London Underground network and i'd urge anyone who recognises the man pictured, or has any information that could help our investigation, to please contact us".

Westway smash

Nasty looking aftermath yesterday of a van which appears to have been involved in a collision with at least one other vehicle judging by the amount of car bits swept under it.

The van had apparently careered off the road before hitting the verge by the side of the flats. Hope nobody was seriously hurt.

Air Malta: Monty Python aviation

Dawn breaks over Malta Airport

"...we have a good deeeel for you Meester" said the check in counter man as I turned up for my 0720 flight back to London. Never a good sign, that. It turned out the 0720 had been routinely overbooked and I was being offered 200 Euro to wait another hour and get the 0845 to Gatwick instead of Heathrow. I agreed, and was duly dispatched to the VIP lounge, told to wait there until an Air Malta rep came to see me.

Nobody did, and when the 0720 was called I thought I'd better wander down to the gate to check. The staff there were mystified, there had been no overbooking they said, and put me on the plane. Had I done what I'd been told I would have missed the flight.

Phew. I thought, sat on the plane. Which sat. And sat. And sat. It then went on a slow meandering drive around the lanes on the outside of the runway before coming to a halt. The captain came on board to tell us that a "communications fault" needed to be looked at. We wouldn't be long. An hour of shuffling hi-vis vests later, we were disembarked back to the terminal, now almost 2 hours delayed.

There followed scenes of total chaos. An elderly man inquired about a connecting flight. After establishing that it was not an Air Malta flight he was told it was not their problem. Another man became irritated that he could not retrieve his luggage to choose another airline. They called the police. After a bored looking Maltese policeman had established there was really nothing to sort out he shrugged his shoulders. Much like Air Malta appeared to be doing to its passengers.

Then, several hours later, a frisson of electric excitement ran through the remaining passengers – we were re-boarding! Clinging to hope we dutifully reboarded the plane. On came the captain to say that all was fine. And then. Well. Nothing. Out of the side of the plane we could see our luggage being offloaded again, so the crew were asked what was going on. “we will tell you soon”. “could you tell us now, please?” “No.”

Passenger ground crew

Eventually, nearing our fifth hour of delay we were disembarked again to perform “security” checks, by identifying our bags. Air Malta took safety and security very seriously they said. So it was reassuring to see they had a foolproof method that went as follows:

“That’s my bag.” “OK thanks”. “Do you want to see ID or my ticket to check against the tag?” “No.”

Back on the plane there was more laughter than anger at this point, but by the power of Twitter which I had been venting my spleen on I came into contact with the passengers at Heathrow waiting for our inbound flight. “Is that by any chance coming to Heathrow?” one of them asked me. When I said yes he explained that they had been told we were already in the air and well on the way to London. My photos proved otherwise. It seemed AirMalta’s truth issues were getting worse.

I arrived, eventually, over 6 hours late and thought myself hard done by. But I then started to follow the experiences of the people I’d spoken to who had been waiting for the flight out of London. They too were embarked, only to sit on the tarmac for an hour (clearly a tried and tested tactic to buy time by Air Malta) and then disembarked. After several more hours they were told the flight was cancelled and they’d be going to a hotel.

c/o @womboy - Air Malta passengers in underground car park

Only they weren’t, at least not for several more hours of waiting during which Air Malta staff abandoned their posts and the crowd found themselves waiting in an underground carpark. This included parents with babies and young children at the start of what they’d hoped would be a holiday to remember. They certainly got that.

Air Malta – best avoided, unless you want the Monty Python approach to aviation.

Private Eye on Shelter

click on image to read

Our Council's former Chief Executive, who was recently appointed Chair of the housing charity Shelter, has been making waves recently. The charity's own staff are deeply unhappy at his appointment on the grounds that he presided over policies in our borough that are directly at odds with Shelter's. The hamfisted attempt to fend off the criticisms, first with "no comment" and then with platitudes has done nothing to repair the damage.

Now Private Eye weighs in with its own analysis which asks, on the basis both of the appointment and of the subsequent floundering, whether the charity actually knew the background of the person it has just appointed as its own chair.

These sort of questions are now going to hang over any public campaigns run by the charity that go against the draconian housing policies pursued by H&F Council. And there will be few that don't.

Crack & heroin dealer nabbed in W6

Crack

Earlier this week a man was apprehended by a Safer Neighbourhood Team with a "stop and search". Their suspicions proved to be well founded as 51 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin were found, along with what the police describe as "a large amount of money". The arrest was carried out on the Queen Caroline estate in Hammersmith.

This is a really important result. While there will be another dealer along soon enough to replace them it does nevertheless disrupt the dealers networks and may lead to more arrests. Long term simply arresting people alone is clearly futile but its a vital part of protecting communities.

Here's an example of what can develop among our communities in Shepherd's Bush if the police are not on top of it. Scary stuff.

Taking off shortly

I'll be departing these fair shores again for a few days this week for work, which means the blog will take a back seat for a little while. Apologies in advance...but in the meantime keep the stories coming to shepherdsbushblog@yahoo.co.uk

Crime in the Bush: Miranda Hart

Comedienne Miranda Hart, who lives in W6, was a victim of a house break in last Friday night as a result of which she lost her laptop. She has made a number of emotional appeals for its return, including the one on Twitter above, having clearly lost a lot of material which I imagine she had not backed up anywhere else.

A police spokesman said:

“Police were called to an address in Shepherd’s Bush to reports of a burglary on Friday 11 October at 11pm. A number of items were stolen.Officers from Hammersmith and Fulham are investigating. There have been no arrests.”

You have to assume there won't be any either, hence Ms hart's own offer of a reward for the return of the computer.

Shelter slammed over H&F record

 

Housing charity Shelter have been slammed by Andy Slaughter MP for appointing the former Chief Executive of our Council to chair its Board of Trustees. Derek Myers, who had a controversial record on housing issues, is alleged by our MP to have the 'worst housing record' in the UK. Mr Slaughter, in a letter to Shelter's Chief Executive Campbell Robb, says:

"During Derek Myers’ tenure as Chief Exec of Hammersmith & Fulham Council, the Council introduced some of the most punitive housing policies in England. Over 9,000 households were kicked off the Council’s housing waiting list, and the Council has placed many homeless families in unsanitary, poor-quality temporary accommodation, most of which is outside the Borough"

He goes on:

"For those in Hammersmith & Fulham who find themselves homeless, the situation is equally bleak. If you are one of the lucky few whom the Council agrees to help, you can expect to be placed in poor quality temporary accommodation many miles away from the Borough. Some of my constituents have been forced to take their children out of school, or have been forced to give up paid employment, after being placed in temporary accommodation on the other side of London.

Even those who are placed in temporary accommodation in the Borough may find themselves placed in uninhabitable flats, which are unsafe and infested with vermin. This was the fate of a blind constituent who has been forced to endure sleepless nights while being eaten alive by bedbugs. Despite her case being featured on the BBC news, the Council is yet to deal with the infestation and disrepair to her flat.

Finally, the Council, rather than commit itself to build more affordable and more social housing, has increased the rate at which it sells off its stock of housing, all the while giving priority to developers who plan to build luxury housing, which is totally out of reach to the vast majority of local residents. Whole estates are being demolished, blocks of council flats stand empty awaiting private development and developers are typically asked for 5% or 10% affordable homes against a target of 40%."

This goes to the heart of what Shelter claims it is all about. It is a charity who until recently forked out for giant advertising hoardings across Westminster tube with a mock up picture of children crawling across the green benches, to drive home its message to honourable members going home to their well sized (and frequently expenses-funded) houses that other people had rather less space.

So you might imagine that Shelter would respond with an impassioned defence of their new Chair. Er, no, not really. Here's what Jon Kenworthy, the Vice Char of Shelter told Mr Slaughter in his reply:

"I have spoken to Derek about the points that you have raised in your letter and I and the board remain convinced that Derek's experience, knowledge and commitment make him an ideal candidate for Chair of the Trustee Board".

Not the sound of an organisation entirely sure of its ground. Perhaps because their own staff also appear to be deeply concerned. Here's what the staff reps sent to the 'nominations and governance committee', responsible for the appointment of Mr Myers in the last few days:

"Our members are concerned that some of the recent appointments to the Board do not reflect this approach and that some Trustees have been appointed whose background does not appear to be consistent with Shelter’s core mission or values.

We do of course appreciate that the Board rightly seeks to appoint members who have previous experience in housing. We note that the new chair of the Board, Derek Myers, has previously worked as CEO of LB Hammersmith and Fulham. We appreciate that this is a non-political role. However, our concerns are that the policies pursued by this authority are in conflict with our aims and could be potentially damaging to our policy stance. In particular:

• The borough takes a particularly hard line on tenure. In short, rather than lifetime tenancies, Hammersmith and Fulham advocates that the ‘vast majority’ of social tenants be granted fixed term agreements which can be terminated after five years, and that 18-25 year olds be granted two year fixed terms (p7 and p8, Tenancy Strategy). We note that Shelter has made recommendations to local authorities in terms of tenure and would be interested to hear the Board’s thoughts on these policies.
• In terms of allocating social housing, LBHF states in its allocations scheme (p28) that only those with annual income of below £40,200 will ordinarily be considered for the waiting list. We note that Shelter’s research shows that LBHF is the fifth most unaffordable borough in the UK (Inside Housing, 9.1.13) and that the median income necessary to pay an affordable (i.e. 80% market rent) is £53,766 (Inside Housing, 9.8.13). We note that affordable rents are only available to those in social housing and that tenants on far less than the necessary income will be prevented from accessing social housing in this way. They will presumably also be unable to access private rented housing at 100% market rent. We are aware that part of Shelter’s current focus is on the affordability of accommodation and would be interested to hear the Board’s views. 
• In terms of policies on homelessness, LBHF has argued for the legal requirement for housing authorities to have a homelessness strategy to be removed: this was something Shelter strongly campaigned for and regarded as a significant gain in the Homelessness Act 2002. The Borough has also indicated its intention to discharge its housing duty to homelessness applicants in the private sector wherever possible, including making out-of-Borough placements. 
• In terms of the charity sector more generally, we note that Palingswick House, previously home to 20 voluntary sector organisations, was closed by the local authority and sold to the creators of a free school in order to reduce debt at a time when the council was cutting council tax each year."

They seem to know our neck of the woods quite well!