Greenhalgh video: cutting taxes in H&F

Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh is upset that he hasn't cut taxes more and plans to bring our borough to the levels of Wandsworth and K&C. In this video which I've just been sent, he spoke at a fringe meeting of the Taxpayers Alliance.

This is one of the many Cllr Greenhalgh spoke at, including the event I covered in Manchester for the blog with Greg Hands MP, covering much the same ground.At that meeting Cllr Greenhalgh made an impassioned plea for what he regarded as more "freedom" for local authorities to be more responsive and accountable to their residents.

Have a watch - bear in mind he is speaking to a Tory audience, so he wasn't using the tone he might do at a public meeting, but it is a useful insight into the psyche of our Council.

Opponents will make the point that all of this cutting has already come at a large cost - to local services such as Sure Start and the voluntary sector. But it is also no bad thing, surely, that the bill to the taxpayer is on a downward curve. And some of the Council's ideas for saving our cash are hard to argue against - sharing a Chief Exec is a very good start indeed. So let's have more savings on waste and less on services to the vulnerable - pie in the sky?

West London Free School "isolates" pupil for haircut

Free-Schooler Toby Young has revealed just how seriously he takes his new vision of tip-top pupils in our borough by condoning their 'isolation' of an 11 year old boy for having a haircut that was "3mm too short". The Standard reports that Kai Frizzle was told that his "Barack Obama" style cut, which is a 1.5 grade round the sides and 2 grade on top, was just short of their definition of what was acceptable.

What followed was his "segregation" from other pupils in an experience that left his mother thinking about taking him out of the school altogether.

Looking at the photo you've got to wonder what the problem is, here. The lad is apparently vice president of the school council and a regular in the rugby team, and happens to have the same sort of haircut as many of his peers. And what is this "isolation" stuff about, anyway?!

Dewhurst Road murder: Update

An update on the murder which took place at Dewhurst Road W14 has just been sent to me by local police - I didn't originally report this as it is officially outside the Bush but it's clearly something a lot of you are interested in, so I hope this helps. I've noticed writing this blog that you get periods when much of the stories relate to crime and then very large gaps between them - at the moment, sadly, its the crime story time. And as my time last week with the Shepherd's Bush Police showed, there are some pretty serious crims in W12 that need catching. Just the time to be cutting Police numbers, then.

Here's the Dewhurst Road update:

Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at approx. 15:55hrs on Friday 21 October to reports of a body at an address in Dewhurst Road, W14.

Officers attended and located the body of a man aged in his late 50s. Next of kin are in the process of establishing the next of kin await formal identification.

A post-mortem examination, which took place on Sunday 23 October at Fulham Mortuary, gave the cause of death as head injury caused by blunt trauma injury.

An incident room has opened at Barnes under DCI Howard Groves (HSCC).

DCI Groves said: "It is believed that the victim was attacked inside his home between 19.00hrs on Thursday 20 October and some time the following morning.

"I'm eager to speak to anyone who was in or near Dewhurst Road during that period. I am particularly keen to speak to anyone who may have seen or heard any suspicious activity around the address. If you're in any doubt, please contact the Incident Room."

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the incident room on 020 8247 7821; Or if you wish to remain anonymous please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

There has been no arrest at this time nor has there been a weapon recovered.

Hammersmith Park: incident rumours

I have been contacted by a large number of you about a possible incident that took place in or around Hammersmith Park, W12, near to the BBC yesterday. A number of you saw a large Police presence with areas taped off and I have different versions from that point onwards about what some of you were told by the police standing around the park. Sadly, each version is pretty nasty.

I have been in contact with the Police press office but they are having, it would seem, some internal communications challenges. I will publish what they send as and when I get it.

In the meantime share what you know with your fellow Bushers in the comments, in the normal way. Keep checking back here for updates.

UPDATE - Here's what the Police have just told me:

"We can confirm that police are investigating an allegation of rape which occurred at approximately 21:00hrs, on Tuesday 25th October in Hammersmith Park, W12.

The allegation was made by a 14 year-old female.

Detectives from the MPS Sapphire Unit based at Fulham Police Station are investigating.

+ 16year old male was arrested in connection with the incident and taken to West London police station - later bailed to return in early January pending further inquiries".

Sorry for the delay on updating this one - I am actually on holiday at the moment! But many thanks to those of you who alerted me to it - I think it actually pushed the Police into issuing something sooner than might otherwise have been the case - and the good thing about that is that it takes away some of the other rumours that were circulating about what had taken place.

Sculpted H&F

A new online database of H&F sculptures has been produced to assist residents in exploring their own backyard, and discovering some previously unknown corners of it. I love this sort of thing - we're living in one of the most historic cities in the world, that has influenced just about every corner of everywhere else, and we hardly even explore it ourselves. 

I've always made a note to check out Fulham a bit more but still haven't. Maybe this new database will make the difference - check it out, and credit to the Council, along with Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group and English Heritage, for taking the initiative.

Shepherd's Bush Market: Pennard & Goldhawk residents lodge objections

Read the objections lodged by local residents to the proposed seven floor luxury flat complex that our Council wants property developers Orion to build on top of our Market. Many of these objections, including the likely increase of anti social behaviour, the build up of traffic and parking plus the impact on the Market itself, were made verbally at this meeting.

At that meeting Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh made a promise to block the project if traders operating out of the historic terrace on Goldhawk Road didn't want to be knocked down to make way for a third entrance. He has quietly forgotten that promise, it seems, and the developers are pressing on with what I understand to be much behind-the-scenes encouragement.

Reading this document, which I publish in full below, you can see both the anger and sense of helplessness on the part of residents and traders alike. But money talks, and it talks very loudly indeed.

S-Bush Mket Objection - Oct 2011

My day with the Police - raiding a Crystal Meth lab

Running towards drugs raid flat

“Gas! Gas! Gas!” came the shouts as we turned and ran headlong back down the stairwell, with words like “death bag” and “poison fumes” having been implanted in our minds by the specialist Police drugs unit that had accompanied us on a raid of a suspected drugs laboratory, making Crystal Meth on a quiet Shepherd’s Bush housing estate near the BBC.

Round the back of the housing block was a plastic see through bag containing what must have been thousands of pounds of pure white coloured crystals, hurled from the third floor of the block of flats. The individuals inside, one man and two women, had been alerted to the raid by the full scale CCTV system they had rigged up which transmitted pictures of anyone coming near the front door to a screen inside their laboratory-front room.

Outside drugs flat waiting for entry

High, caught in the anti-pigeon netting on the flats, was another which hadn’t made it all the way down. I couldn’t stop looking at the innocuous looking plastic bag on the ground in front of me – it was odd coming face-face with a substance that has the power to kill someone within months of taking up the super-addictive habit, destroying them from within. “If you’re arresting someone on that” said a Constable, “it’s like they’ve got super-human powers”. “You mean they think they have” said I, “no, no – they really do – it fires them up into something unbelievable, writhing around like their life depends on it”. But then another told me that if you look at mug shots taken during the course of an addict’s regular interaction with the police, you can trace the physical signs of wasting on their faces.

CCTV used to spot Police

Such was a day in the life of the Shepherd’s Bush Safer Neighbourhood Team, who I last saw on one Saturday night on patrol around the Bush and I was privileged to be joining again for another window into their world of protecting our streets. Today’s action was a series of raids focussed on dealing with a drugs problem that has long blighted W12. After the occupants of the drug factory flat were led away to be questioned the officers searching the place brought out some of the assorted weaponry that the pre-briefing intelligence had told us might be there – it included a samurai sword and a heavy wooden axe with two jagged blades that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a medieval battlefield. Our officers were armed with nothing more than a fire extinguisher, a baton – and their own nous.

Weapons from drugs flat

We had come to this scene after having executed two other warrants, both for drug related offences, on the White City estate and on a road near to QPR what was clearly, judging by the neighbours’ reactions, a well-known suspected drugs house. The local neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, neighbours who lived around the property – and even the passing postman for goodness sakes congratulated the officers on taking action. They had all had to suffer anti-social behaviour at the hands of the occupants of this flat. In both cases the doors were expertly undone by a specialist police team with kit that is very clever but also very heavy, followed with no warning by a charge from a column of riot-gear clad police officers shouting “Police! Get down!” as they sought to use surprise and controlled force to follow what one officer described to me as a doctrine of ‘dominate and dictate’ the situation. After each dramatic entry it was if a Jekyll & Hyde transformation had taken place, with the officers immediately reverting to quiet and polite tones with those they were questioning, and arresting – in the face of some pretty provocative anti-Police vitriol from the unimpressed occupants of the properties.

In each case the momentary drama was followed by a long lull, as fingertip searches (another specialist task) and in one case dog handing experts (yet another specialist task) were brought in to deal with a none-too-happy suspected pit bull terrier. Half an hour later as the officers shivered in the cold outside a thick-set canine was brought out on an equally thick leash.

Prior to each of these raids we received an intelligence briefing which gave something of the backgrounds of the suspects, all of whom had recorded involvement in a variety of violent offences, some of which were on the very serious end of the spectrum. These were people who were potentially dangerous and certainly difficult. As if to illustrate this the house with the dog also turned up a stun-gun – which is a handheld device that is pressed against the victim before discharging a potentially lethal electric charge. Nice. It put the bag of cannabis they also found into perspective, and was taken off to be analysed as evidence.

A bag of Crystal Meth - thrown from the window above

And those fingertip searches? I asked the officer doing them whether he worried about coming into contact with needles – these were drug raids after all. He shrugged his shoulders – you need to do it, he said.

These are the things that the Safer Neighbourhood Team do on our streets with no fanfare but with every day exposure to risk that the rest of us would run a mile from. And yet these are also the people that are facing the brunt of some of the cuts we’ve all been hearing about. The Government, and to some extent our Council, talk about there being no “front line” cuts. And to some extent the figures back them up – the Shepherd’s Bush team has gone from 5 sergeants, 15 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and 10 Constables to 2 Sergeants, 6 PCSOs and 18 Constables. So in a sense that is a good news story – but what about that reduction from 5 Sergeants to 2?

Arrest being made

In the course of each of these raids, and during my time with the team on one Saturday night, it was abundantly clear to me that the Sergeant is basically the play-maker of the show. The three raids on that morning took approximately 16 hours of painstaking planning – can you imagine doing the risk assessment for an unarmed raid on a home-made laboratory manufacturing one of the most dangerous drugs known to man, the occupants of which are armed with swords/axes with every incentive to use them? The gases that are released during the process of making crystal meth are fatal to such an extent that if you breathe them in, we were told, there is nothing that can be done for you. The “death bag” we heard about in the briefing referred to holdalls that the drug-makers use to store their chemistry sets – they are caked in lethal resin which releases deadly fumes – so if you open the bag and breathe the chances are you will not live for much longer.

En route to raid on White City Estate

So the Sergeant is absolute lynchpin, responsible for what seems like everything – and we’ve just increased their workload by a factor of three. Consider that when you’re next feeling up against it at work.

And hang on a minute, what is the fabled “front-line” anyway? It sounds straightforward but one of the reasons politicians use it a lot is surely because it is meaningless. What about the specialist door breakers, are they “front line”? Probably not, but the raids wouldn’t have happened without them and there would still be those drugs on our street. And the dog handlers, are they “front line”? Again, no – but if you’d seen that angry canine bristling with aggression and muscle you’d have understood that the raid wouldn’t have happened without them either, the dogs are frequently used as weapons against the Police.

On our way to a raid near QPR

And just in case you were thinking I was eulogising the Sergeants over everyone else two incidents on the way back from the drugs laboratory really underlined why beat neighbourhood policing, run and implemented by officers and PCSOs who know the area intimately, really transforms our neighbourhoods. In one case, as we were driving back, we came across two men who had stopped a car on Ellerslie Road and were peeing through someone’s garden fence while holding cans of beer. They were stopped, dealt with using almost excessive politeness in the face of some fairly non-polite language and had their beer tipped away. Not happy customers.

White City drugs raid

And then the incident that for me underlined at once both the trivial and potentially serious that these guys face without any warning every day – in the afternoon, as we were inspecting some off licenses on Uxbridge Road for illicit alcohol (the subject of a separate article later), a young lad was seen walking down the road with the essential must-have box of fried chicken and chips. Being a confident lad he was illustrating his manhood by dramatically flicking chips on to the pavement as he walked along. Two PCSOs approached this Lord of the Manor and, again using politeness which can’t come easy when you’re dealing with an individual I would describe using words that can’t be found on a family blog like this, asked him to please stop doing that. Before they could ask him to pick his chips up, he started getting aggressive and mouthy, so they stopped and searched him. And what did they find in his back pocket? A Stanley knife. Bear in mind that these PCSOs are armed only with a stab vest. And a hat.

This was why when I last met these people back in June, quietly confronting danger and risk on our behalf, from sword wielding major drug producers to some cocky teenager with a knife, I said this:

“I find this starving of resources for people that are willing to do a job for our streets, dealing with utmost humanity to a terminally ill alcoholic on the Green one minute and then a lippy violent drunk the next, not to mention the paperwork and the potential for knives and other dangers, an absolute scandal. More on that to come, I intend to take it up with the Council”.

I did take it up, and in fairness the Council should rightly be praised for having responded. That Saturday night in June I was shocked to find they had to rely on a battered old van with no blue lights and a sliding door that had to be closed gently – in case it fell off its hinges.

Samurai sword taken from drugs raid flat

When I turned up for the morning intelligence briefing this week I saw the old van still, but also two shiny new looking vans as well, all three of which we used on the raids. It meant that we could get the requisite number of police officers and specialists to the three sites on time and together. And when I got out of the van, the door had been fixed. So credit where it is due, particularly to Greg Smith who leads for the Council on policing.

But on cutting Police Sergeants – next time you hear a politician either in H&F, or the Mayor or the Home Secretary herself talk about the “front line” being protected, remember that there is no such thing. The world of policing just isn’t that simple, and for every Sergeant or so-called “non frontline” specialist gone there are crimes and criminals that go undetected.

It's often said that difficult situations bring out the best and worst in people, and nowhere is it more true than with this team. They face the worst but do it with a sense of humour that I saw more of this time than last – some truly naughty jokes lightened the mood while an obvious preparedness to put in hours of (often unpaid) work because they genuinely care about the area they are serving is actually quite humbling. So the thought of that good nature being taken advantage of somehow is not a good one and I plan on making that case to the Council again – but in the meantime do say hello next time you see them, they might just need the sight of a friendly smile more than you think.

28.06.12 UPDATE - I learned during more time with the same team today that the man arrested at this flat received a sentence of 3.5 years. Which means he will be out in 12 months or so. What was instructive was my reaction "only 3 years"?! contrasted with that of the Police, who had been quite pleased.

Oxjam - it's here. It's next Saturday.

Halloween in the Bush this year will be accompanied by DJ’s including Radio 1Xtra CJ Beatz, T4's Georgie Okell, Nigel Thomas (Death2Disco/The Foxes), Lifestyle Recordings, Danny Rouco, Kone-R and musicians Saint Saviour (ex Groove Armada), KAYA, B U I L_D I N G S, Bebe Black, Venkman, Elephant 12, IVienna, Les Bonbons, LiA, Instill, Gaolers Daughter, Avius, Goodluck Jonathan, Some Velvet Morning, Matt Whip & the Waits, The LyeBurns, Thousand Photos Of You, Ros Coe Tanner, Rodney Culture, Daina Ashmore, Lumière Chieh, Ashleigh Lowes, Emma Ballantine, The London Electric, Dirt Urchins, Pocket Satellite, Hugh Neal, Animal Circus, Uncle Pedro, Mercia, The Jonbarr Hinge, Noiseframe, Seventh Will and more will be performing at The Defectors Weld, Walkabout, Raving Buddha, Vesbar, The Green Room and The Goldhawk as part of the UK’s biggest music festival – Oxjam. Coming to Shepherd’s Bush for the first time on Saturday 29th October, raising money for Oxfam’s work in fighting poverty and suffering around the world.

You can all the latest from their website here and for regular updates like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @OxjamShepBush

The Takeover forms part of Oxjam’s month of music, which runs through the whole of October. Oxjam is a festival with a difference: thousands of fundraising music events are put on by ordinary people – from an intimate acoustic gig in a book shop to an epic night in a top London venue – making it the biggest line-up of any music festival in the UK. Last year, more people attended an Oxjam event than went to Glastonbury.

Oxjam Shepherd’s Bush Takeover is aiming to raise £10,000 this October.

Buy tickets from www.oxjamshepbush.org.uk

Standard Ticket - £10.00, Group Ticket (5 or more people) - £8.00 each

Door times: 2pm - late / Age limit: 18 and over

Georgina Marcantonio, who is marketing/organising the event, said:

“We’re really excited to be playing our part in making Oxjam Shepherd’s Bush Takeover part of a month-long musical celebration right across the country. Even more importantly, this event is all about showing that the best in local music can have a global impact too, so everyone who comes along and buys a ticket can rest assured that as well as having a great time, they’ll be helping to change lives around the world too.”

There have already been several fantastic fundraising events in the lead up to this event, including a pub quiz at The Defectors Weld, a fabulous stall at the Bush Festival – complete with human fruit machine – that raised awareness and cash! a very successful singles night ‘Love & War’ at The Goldhawk, a dance workshop at Westfield, a Frock Swap and a cupcake master class at the Defectors Weld!

So as you rush to get your tickets just remember one thing - this is being put on by volunteers - so say thank-you when you see them!

Sharing Chief Exec saves taxpayer "pot full" of cash

H&F Town Hall

Derek Myers, chief executive of Kensington & Chelsea, yesterday took up his post as new supremo reigning over not just K&C by H&F as well, with another office in Hammersmith Town Hall. This has been long in coming but has been seen, as with so many other things that our Council do, as a pioneering move that other councils are being urged by central Government to follow.

The move has been attacked by Labour as being a first step towards effective merger of the authorities with real questions about democratic accountability. When, they ask, were the people of either borough asked if they wanted their services delivered by a super authority, and where will this move towards merger end? With a single group of elected councillors? 

Labour Opposition Leader Stephen Cowan said this in June:

"I asked officials why these two boroughs were chosen to be H&F’s partners. It’s because the Conservative “politicians get on well with each other and have a lot in common” came the reply. That’s not the greatest of reasons. I can see the logic of sharing some services with Kensington and Chelsea Council – indeed; the last Labour administration did precisely that but not Westminster – especially given its difficult circumstances".

"So maybe there is some truth in the allegation that the overall objective for this merger is an attempt to gerrymander a more comprehensive political union between the three Conservative run councils and do away with current borough boundaries before the voters have a chance to kick any of them out at the next elections"?

You can see why Labour are particularly fearful of the second issue - K&C is a true blue Tory fiefdom while H&F is a marginal that changes hands. A merger would mean that the authority would be Tory dominated, basically, for ever. But I think that prospect is frankly a million miles away and certainly not in the offing before the next round of local elections which Labour stand a reasonable chance of doing well in.

What might be more worrying are his warnings of stealth taxes and other charges for residents rising to the highest of the three - which would in our case mean forking out more to bring us in line with what people in the other two boroughs pay.

What I find really interesting though about this is that, almost like Belgium which has now survived without a Government for several years without the sky falling in, it demonstrates that actually there are potentially lots of civil servants out there that are surplus to requirements, many of whom are very highly paid indeed. In fact Geoff Alltimes, the Chief Exec of H&F who stood down this week, was one of the highest paid in the UK. Already K&C/H&F, along with Westminster Council who keep their Chief Exec but share some services, have announced savings of approaching £1 million by cutting back on Directors of Services - that is really good stuff. 

Speaking to the Financial Times new Supermo Myers said:

"It's certainly the most radical re-alignment of management functions that local government has ever seen. It's a pretty bold experiment. The model has been proven elsewhere but in a smaller context. We genuinely think it is going to work and it will save a pot full of money."

So credit to our Council for recognising this - if they can make it work without a dilution of services, which have already been cut back substantially, they will rightly win plaudits for being the first to do this.

Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of H&F, recently commented:

“Residents expect us to strain every sinew to deliver better services with fewer resources. One of the ways we can protect the front line is to strip out unnecessary and duplicated management overheads. This report shows how, by sharing the top jobs, it is possible to reduce the bill for senior managers by millions of pounds.”

Keep straining the sinews!

Oxjam Shepherd's Bush acts announced

The full list is out for Saturday 29th October - six months of hard slog for the Oxjam team which has seen dating events, stalls at community events across the Bush and lots more besides will culminate in an eruption of musical experiences taking place at six venues across W12.

Upmarket Defector's Weld, posh Vesbar, exclusive The Green Room, loud and dirty Raving Buddha and the refined Goldhawk Pub will even be joined by local residents favourite The Walkabout in staging gigs galore of some pretty impressive acts.

So now's the time to get yer tickets which are flying off the shelves at £10 a pop - you can buy them here. All proceeds go to Oxfams work in some of the most difficult and challenging places in the world, which I have seen for myself in the day job - I can personally vouch for the good work they do.

So get yourselves along and have a great time. Maybe see some of you there.