26 December 2009

H&F's twelve days of Christmas (reprise)

Apologies for updating a hfconwatch blog from 2008 but it's worth a reprise.

On the twelfth day of Christmas H&F Tory council gave to us:

Twelve pounds 40p an hour for home care
Eleven per cent increase in spending on propaganda
Ten hostels closed to homeless people
Nine days of snow without gritting
Eight controversial planning decisions
Seven estates under threat
Six hundred plus stealth taxes
Five scaremongering stories
Four thousand two hundred redundancy notices
Three closed schools and youth clubs
Two extra days of parking fines and charges and
A library in Shepherds Bush (except that was delivered by the previous council)

PS and happy Christmas from the leader: http://lbhfleader.blog.co.uk/

23 December 2009

Many Hands make big horse

Tory MP for Fulham Greg Hands was in the stables area of the International Horse Show at Olympia with Team GB horse "Go for Gold". The youngest rider was Helena Hands, aged 3. Any relation?

On the 11th day of Christmas...

Start the new year as you mean to go on - Conservative Party leader David Cameron is inviting Hammersmith residents to quiz him face to face in January.

David Cameron will be in Hammersmith on the evening of Tuesday 5 January. This is a chance for the public to find out what a Conservative Government would mean for them and their families - and to quiz him about the cuts in services made by Tory H&F council and its plans to demolish local homes and estates.

To register to attend and for more information email office@hammersmithconservatives.com or call 020 7385 1002.

21 December 2009

Where's the grit?

H&F's roads are in gridlock and pedestrians are sliding all over the place this evening.

Tory H&F council has failed again to salt the borough's roads and pavements. Don't they listen to the weather forecast?

20 December 2009

Another Tory stealth tax

Not content with being in the top six councils in the country for parking fees and fines collected, Tory H&F council will charge people for parking in the borough over Christmas.

Parking charges will be in place on the public holidays of 26 and 28 December, just when many residents will have families visiting and others will be shopping locally.

14 December 2009

Openness and transparency

H&F council website has until recently made it easy to find agendas and reports for council meetings.

Now you have to be a genius to find your way through the new labyrinth to discover what you're looking for, particularly scrutiny committee papers.

With council elections on 6 May, the Tories have opted against openness and transparency. After all, they are still to tell us how they will cut services to pay for the latest council tax con. A secret budget might have worked at the last election but not this time round.

Bridge shutdown

Tory H&F council is shutting Hammersmith Bridge for much of the first quarter of 2010. The bridge will be closed every weekend from 23 January to 15 March and for nine consecutive days in the middle of February.

hfconwatch's first prediction for 2010 is traffic chaos in H&F.

12 December 2009

H&F council served 'notice to quit'

H&F Tory council leader Stephen Greenhalgh thought he could serve notice to quit on the residents of West Kensington and Gibbs Green council estates by labelling them a ‘ghetto’ and by planning to demolish their homes.

Now tenants have returned the favour by serving him with formal notice under Section 34A of the Housing Act 1985 proposing the council should dispose of the estates to a resident-controlled association. At the same time they have written to the Secretary of State for Communities, inviting him to make regulations requiring the council to co-operate with their proposal.

Section 34A was introduced by Section 296 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 to give council tenants a defence of last resort against a rogue local authority landlord.

The Tory council said it didn’t want these residents living in the borough and that their neighbourhood was “not decent’”. The feeling is clearly mutual.

By serving this notice the residents intend to take charge of their own homes and estates which they will no doubt manage far more competently and compassionately than their Tory landlords.

LATEST VIDEO shirleymander in H&F: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vut15401E6A

04 December 2009

Shaun Bailey eaten for breakfast

Chris Underwood has posted this blog about Shaun Bailey’s somewhat less than convincing performance on the Politics Show recently about the so-called super sewer:

http://shepherdsbush.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/save-shaun-bailey-from-thames-water/

UPDATE: the excellent Shepherds Bush blog has the latest insight into how Tory H&F council has misled local residents about the 'super sewer': http://shepherdsbush.wordpress.com/

01 December 2009

Planning a disaster

H&F Tory council seems intent on out-doing itself with every new development in the borough.

Not content with having the Goldhawk industrial estate scheme called in by the government for a public inquiry (see previous hfconwatch blogs), the Tories are facing complaints about:
* the plan to let a private French school build in the grounds of Planetree Court sheltered housing in Brook Green
* the release of Westfield from its obligation to fund 100 affordable homes for key workers in Shepherds Bush
* a proposed seven storey block of flats in Glenthorne Road, none of which will be affordable to local residents
* the council's own scheme to evict all the community groups from Palingswick House in King Street and sell it off

And only last week Shaun Bailey, Tory candidate for Hammersmith, gave his wholehearted support to H&F council's plans to demolish thousands of local homes to make way for more commercial development.