eNews #31

Andy Slaughter's eNews #31

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Gridlock

More evidence of the second-class service reserved for Shepherds Bush came on Monday, when we woke up to gridlock on the green and all the main roads around. The council – with almost no notice or signs up has closed Wood Lane northbound with predictable consequences. After sitting in traffic on Uxbrige Road for half an hour I abandoned the car and took these photos .

Not even the BBC was informed of the closure, which is extraordinary considering it makes up most of the traffic on Wood Lane and is the largest employer in the area. Management emailed staff on Monday telling them that the closure had come as a complete surprise and that all employees should add 40 minutes to their normal journey times in and out of TV centre if coming by road.

It became clear when they closed the central line station four years earlier than they admitted would be necessary that Westfield were driving all the activity in the area – this means there is no limit to the indignities residents must suffer in the run up to November. My beef is less with Westfield – who have a openly commercial agenda but with public bodies like TfL and the council whom we pay to provide services for us.

Let me know what you think here
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Station Latest
Wood Lane is one more miserable item to add to the agenda when I meet TfL today for my latest attempt to mediate between them and angry residents, traders and travellers. Full details of the meeting will be on the website next week (here) and will include information on the plans for Shepherds Bush Place and the area immediately around the station, as well as changes to bus routes and the usual progress of works.
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0/10
The Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme has granted £120 million to improve the borough’s eight secondary schools. The council has managed to find a way of not just squandering this but actually making the situation worse for the four community schools in the south of the borough. Not surprisingly, heads, governors and parents are up in arms and a new parents’ organisation is bidding to take over the three worst affected schools (read more here)
The consultation on the council’s proposals closed last Monday, and on Tuesday they wrote to me to tell me about it! However, I had already responded as a governor of Willliam Morris – one of the blighted schools (more here). I handed a copy of my response and some of the recent press coverage to the Schools Minister in the voting lobby this week, so when the council puts its proposals to government later this month they will not be misled.
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Acton Mosque
On a happier note, the splendid new Mosque on Acton High Street was formally opened on Sunday. It is the culmination of 30 years’ work by the local Muslim community, and was celebrated by government ministers, representatives of all religions and of Ealing council which, under the previous Labour administration, permitted the construction. The Mosque is important to the whole community as I wrote in my Ealing Times column. I hope better provision can now be made for the Muslim community in Shepherds Bush which has far outgrown the its Uxbridge Road home.
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Heathrow
I couldn’t attend the anti-Third Runway march last Saturday, but sent a message of support

'I am clear that the argument for expansion of Heathrow has not been proved on its own merits. When you take into account the disruption of million of people's lives, loss of homes, damage to the environment and unacceptable pressure on the transport system in West London, the case against is overwhelming. In particular, the Third Runway would bring the misery of living next door to a major airport to hundreds of thousands of people currently relatively unaffected, and including many of my constituents. I do not believe any other European capital would think of airport expansion on this scale within the city boundaries - why should London be singled out for this treatment?'

I feel the argument is slowly being won and more and more MPs of all parties are on board (if that’s the right way to put it).
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Home Care Charges
After two years of weasel words, the Tories are set this week to break their manifesto pledge and introduce charging for elderly and disabled people who need help at home. The charges of £12.40 an hour are simply unaffordable as their own consultation showed (full details on my website). Many who responded pointed out that this year’s cut in council tax is worth £26 to the average tax payer – which someone needing home care will pay in only two hours.
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Edward Woods Estate
I spoke at the AGM of Edward Woods Tenants and Residents’ Association last week. For those who think I sometimes give the council a hard time – here’s a reason why. In questions from residents I discovered.

- The Decent Homes project - £200 million of government money to improve council homes in the borough – is over year behind schedule.
- The plan to use wind turbines to provide green energy to the estate has been put on hold because the council failed to notify the civil aviation authority which now considers they are a threat to aircraft
- The £150,000 of revenue the estate got from giant advertising hoarding on its land has been grabbed by the council
- Residents complain that the 24/7 police teams on Shepherds Bush green which are suppose to visit them hardly ever do
- No one from the estate has been consulted on the plans for Shepherds Bush Green
- The charges for the community hall are so steep (£40 per hour) that no one from the community can afford to use it

This is the way the council treats people paying rent, service charge and council tax. Putting Residents First?
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