The Government has cut the budget of our Council by 6.56%. This might not seem much but for a multi million pound local authority that represents a huge wadge of spending, and would seem to go further and faster than some of the cuts our Council has already made to services. It is also significantly more than any of the 4 local authorities that surround us.
Speaking to the BBC however Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh said "We have to recognise and make the case that we can get by on less money. I think with less money you become more creative about how you tackle things."
Some authorities across the UK are having their core funding reduced to make even bigger savings of up to 9.9% and this has predictably led to howls of pain. In our own local neighbourhood the cuts seem to be a mixture of closing services for vulnerable people and selling off buildings.
In our neighbourhood Kensington & Chelsea have had their budget cut by 5.26%, Ealing by 4.87%, Brent by 5.85% and Hounslow by 4.69%. So in fact Hammersmith & Fulham has had the largest cuts imposed on any local authority in our part of the Capital, and this on top of the axe already having fallen on numerous local services.
The cuts were revelaed yesterday in a parliamentary statement by Secretary of State Eric Pickles as he unveiled the Government's new Localism Bill which, also awkwardly for our Council revelaed new powers "for local people to overrule planning decisions, decide where new homes should go and protect green spaces" Expect therefore the King Street decision to be fast-tracked as it shows every sign of being before those Big Society powers are handed to local people.
There's a chill wind blowing through the borough. But perhaps not for everyone.
1430 UPDATE: The Fulham Chronicle has caught up with this story here, focussing on councillors reactions in Westminster, as opposed to H&F!
I have seen confidential Council information that confirms the Askham Family Centre will house the West London Free School (led by Toby Young, pictured) for a peppercorn rent until the Palingswick Centre in Hammersmith is ready to house the school on a permanent basis.
Regular readers know I've reported rumours in the last few weeks, as the Council has remained tight lipped about the whole affair. I did send a note last week to the press office who are usually quick to respond asking for the facts but reply came there none. They really should have because it left me with no other option but to talk to other sources and without revealing them I can say that the information I have seen leaves no doubt about the Council's plans.
The Askham Centre is, according to the Council's thinking, under-utilised and the services for families who need very sensitive support, such as supervised contact for children in care, will be re-provided elsewhere in the borough. Both Askham and Palingswick are currently being valued to confirm what sort of rent the Council can levy on the West London Free School but I understand it's likely that, not wishing this process to hold the School back, they are likely to occupy the Askham site for a peppercorn rent.
So there you are. I really don't understand why the Council has been trying to keep this one under wraps but now that it isn't anymore they really should consider making their intentions public, especially the likely impact on existing schools in Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith and also the fate of the voluntary sector services currently based in Palingswick House.
I've no doubt I won't feature on any christmas card lists from the Town Hall as a result of revealing this - but the continued secrecy was leading to rumours and uncertainty among teachers and parents alike. I hope that bringing this out into the open goes some way to ending that.
1030 UPDATE: From not returning messages the Council's press office seems to have swung into action like a gazelle this morning, issuing the following statement to me:
"We are having ongoing discussions with the West London Free School about potential sites and we are keen to support them in developing their application for government approval. We haven't yet agreed any specific site but we will happily share any news as soon as we have it."
You will note that this does not address either the relocation of the Family Centre nor the fact that both sites are being actively valued and prepared for the School to move in, both of which I know are happening from the Council's own internal information. So credit to them that they've responded at least to this article but now that both of those facts are in the public domain they may wish to issue a slightly fuller statement to residents quite soon...
1300 UPDATE: understand this story is being written up in other local newsrooms ... wonder if they'll credit the blog this time ...
Fancy it? I've been picking up some "chatter" on Twitter about a Bush drink up for followers of the #W12 and #bushW12 hashtags. Twitterman @stewbirch is leading the charge but some of you may not be followers of his or even of the hashtags so you may not know about it.
I think it would be a great idea to bring the online Bush to a real place in real time and what better excuse than the fact that we'll all be off work soon ... so feel free to suggest venues and times .. but to kick things off how's about this coming thursday? I usually go for thursdays since most people have other things to do on fridays but it's also late in the week so people feel up for a night out!
I want to make clear I'm not organising this though - in fact I don't think it needs much organising. If people can make the time and venue, just show up! I'm going to suggest the Goldhawk Pub but what do you think?
3-1 loss at home, and the unbeaten record gone. Not a good night at the office and all in front of the BBC cameras, the match beamed nationwide. All the more galling since QPR's football has been fantastic until this point.
All eyes on the next couple of games now to see how the Shepherd's Bush team bounce back, leading to Swansea on Boxing Day. I'll be there - and already looking forward to it!
I walked alongside a river today 8 metres underground. The river Fleet, which began to be bricked over in the 1760s and was completely covered by 1840 hasn't been seen since. It's a strong river, quite capable of knocking you off your feet and rages underneath the centre of our city while people above are oblivious to the cavernous tunnels through which it courses below.
And those tunnels are themselves beautifully crafted, the finest of Victorian brickwork and engineering that remains in good working order to this day. As you walk through these huge tunnels, linked to one another by a warren of narrow tunnels and iron ladders bolted to the walls, it's tempting to just imagine what it must have been like for the men who came down here and built them entirely by hand. In the days after the Great Stink of the 1850s Joseph Bazalgette's scheme transformed London and the way it works - a shoreline disappeared to become the Victoria Embankment and a subterrenean city came into being.
But there are clouds on the horizon. As I marvelled at all of this through the gloom Rob, the Thames Water Flusherman who was our guide for the morning, pointed to four 2-ton solid iron storm doors (pictured below). The top pair of doors were at least 2 metres above the water which was at low tide. He explained how a storm surge occurs with such ferocity and speed following a rain downpour a few miles upstream in North London that within minutes all four of those great hulking doors are themselves resting atop a surge of water that has picked up such momentum as it hurtles under London's streets from Hampstead downwards that it flings those doors open and keeps them there as it flows into the Thames.
And while that's a story of nature's power it's also a story of man-made change. Climate change. As you'll see from the video above in his two decades working in this other-London Rob has seen the number of those storm surges grow in force and regularity. And it's why back in our neck of the woods we have the flooding problem that we do.
For while Bazalgette's sewers were more than sufficient for a Victorian population and can just about cope with even our own - they struggle to cope with the number and nature of rainstorms we now experience. And they are set to continue. That's a big problem down below, but it's even worse for those waking up to the foul smell of sewage seeping into their homes.
Which is why we need the Thames Tideway Tunnel. One of the biggest sewer systems ever conceived it will be a fitting successor to stand on Bazalgette's pioneering shoulders in sheer size and capacity, but also the only thing capable of handling the sewage problem we have now. The human cost is one thing, but amounts of sewage like that going into the Thames on a regular basis also has a devastating environmental impact .. as the many rowers in West London will tell you.
So today was a day of breathtaking sights, and thankfully not too much smells. It was a morning of wonder at how hollow the world beneath our feet in London really is, there are entire networks of passages and great vast chambers underneath the busiest roads in the country holding not just the sewage we flush down the loo but even tidal rivers long hidden from view. But it was also, for me at least, a visit which was inspiring by the company of the men who took us down there to look around. These are the real heroes who keep all of this working and have done ever since they were built. They spend days and nights clearing up the rubbish we flush down the toilet but should be putting in the bin, and seem to cope with such a demanding job by a brand of humour that is very funny - but not for a family blog such as this.
And just think of the human stories that have gone on that end up down there too. Just as we were about to go down below one of the flushermen showed me a Victorian era ring, which looked very much like an engagement ring, that he'd found earlier that night. He found things like this in the timeless tunnels most nights he said.. How did the ring find its way down there? We can only imagine - but next time you're contemplating washing fat or cotton buds down the sink - think of the men underground who'll have to clear it up. And think again. See all the photos here.
Toby Young's search for somewhere to house his West London Free School appears to have taken a new turn, with the Askham Family Centre on Askham Road in Shepherd's Bush now being fingered as the likely venue by Opposition Leader Cllr Stephen Cowan and a Labour attack blog called H&FConWatch. They allege that the centre will be handed over and no rent charged to the school. This marks a change from the widely held view, reported by the BBC, that the Paddenswick Centre in Hammersmith was about to be made available.
I have to say I don't know what their sources are for this story and the attack blog was running it a couple of days ago, but I didn't report it because attack blogs are just that - they attack. I get lots of rumours sent to me quite regularly but generally only report those I can stand up, or at least seem very strong. For the leader of the Labour Party in Hammersmith & Fulham now to be saying so publicly would indicate there is more to this than just rumour, so perhaps the Council themselves would like to confirm whether or not the family services based at this centre, thus far shielded from the cuts, are now to be asked to leave to make way for this School?
Siting the West London Free School here, and just down the road from the Phoenix High School, headed by Sir William Atkinson (left) who has won award after award for having turned Phoenix around from a failing school just years ago, would you have to think have quite a detrimental effect on them as parents from the catchment area fight desperately to get into the new shiny academy rather than Phoenix down the road. Imagine how you'd feel as a kid walking to the "lower" school past the shiny new one every day.
Local residents on Wormholt Road and elsewhere may also have some issues with the parking it's likely to generate - after all many of the children will be coming from all over London!
The Big Society could spell the end for our Council's planning regime.
Our Council has form on planning. Having forced through numerous schemes with developers against the manifest wishes of the majority of residents who live in the pockets of our borough most keenly lusted after by luxury flat building developers, the Conservatives who run H&F Council have managed to alienate entire communities, including those who would have otherwise returned a Tory MP at the last general election.
But now, it seems, their regime of planning tyranny is about to come to an end courtesy of the Conservative government. It's not the first time the Conservatives in Government have had to act to rein in the more militant occupants of the Town Hall, just weeks ago our Council was forced to agree to stop spending hundreds of thousands of our tax pounds producing "H&F News", the propaganda paper referred to by even their Conservative parliamentary colleagues as a "Town Hall Pravda". This while they cut other frontline services to children like this 11 year old boy. Priorities, eh.
In fact the same Secretary of State who forced an end to Pravda has set out his stall to change the law so that Councils like ours no longer have the power to force through developments like the Goldhawk Road Industrial Estate. In what has been described as "radical new planning reforms" the Department for Communities and Local Government announced yesterday that their new Localism Bill will ensure:
"Neighbourhood groups shape where they live: Communities will be able to come together to decide what their area should look like, where new shops,offices or homes should go and what green spaces should be protected."
"For far too long local people have had too little say over a planning system that has imposed bureaucratic decisions by distant officials in Whitehall and the town hall. We need to change things so there is more people-planning and less politician-planning, so there is more direct democracy and less bureaucracy in the system. These reforms will become the building blocks of the Big Society."
Communities will themselves be able to come up with "neighbourhood plans" under the scheme, reflecting what local people want rather than Council officials and developers. A Government spokesperson explains the detail:
"Parish councils and new neighbourhood forums of local people - rather than town hall officials - will lead the way in shaping their community. If local people then vote in favour of new 'Neighbourhood Plans' in local referendums, councils will have to adopt them".
Sound familiar? As if they were written just for us? This is seriously good stuff from the Government and they deserve huge credit for introducing this bill. Mr Pickles has spent a lot of time in Hammersmith & Fulham recently and our Council has been keen to promote this in a positive light, which is fair enough. But it would seem Mr Pickles has also been seeing what is really going on in these 'ere neck of the woods and is putting some of it right.
And it does rather explain why this Council seems to be in such a rush to push through developments like King Street these days...for they know these days are numbered.
The BBC are reporting on our Council's apparent determination to force through the redevelopment of King Street against the express wishes of the people who live there. At the last residents meeting no fewer than 400 people heard Council Leader Cllr Greenhalgh promise to "listen" to what was being said about the plans and that he was "hurt" that they felt he wasn't.
The next day he submitted the plans unchanged to developers. This evening's meeting of residents is likely to be no laughing matter for the Council again, and somehow I doubt so many councillors are planning to attend.
The "Love Police Academy", a group of what seem to be anti capitalist protestors gathered outside the Sky stad at Westfield on Saturday, around 15 in number, and proceded to shout slogans about everything from student tuition fees to the woes of capitalism down from the first floor balcony onto parents and children in a play area below. Funny that anti-capitalism bit because as you'll see from the pics they were all greedily slurping Starbucks beverages, complete in branded cups, bought from the shop just behind Sky.
I have to say had I known the whole affair was going to be as insignificant I wouldnt have broken into a saturday to look at it but what did strike me as interesting was the reaction of the security staff. In their video calling for people to take part in the protest the group openly said that their aim was to attract the attention of security staff and even police officers. They failed. The security, clearly learning from their impromptu appearance on the BBC as a result of getting heavy with the librarians some weeks before, stood back and let them do whatever they wanted.
The result was a group of people looking increasingly daft as their hoped-for confrontation failed to materialise and they started to run out of slogans.
But then, just as they were looking quite bored, the police did eventually intervene and threatened to arrest them if they didn't leave. They left. Watch the sorry episode below.
By contrast, later that afternoon I came across a real-life protest with people bringing TopShop in Oxford Street to a halt and being surrounded by police. Their beef with owner Sir Philip Green is that he is a tax-dodger and yet is curently advising this government on economic issues. Now that's a genuine cause for protest. Just as I was leaving people started crossing police lines and joining the singing students, who unlike their Starbucks drinking wannabes in the warmth of Westfield, were sitting on a pavement on a cold rainy street.
