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Andy's eNews

Posted by Andrew Slaughter, MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, at 13:11, Fri 4 July 2008:

Welcome to my regular eNewsletter. You can read back issues at my website and sign up to receive it direct. http://www.andyslaughter.com

If you want to get in touch with me then please email me on andy@andyslaughter.com

60 AND LOOKING WELL

If you are below pension age the National Health Service is the only type of health care you will have known. Which makes it all the more remarkable that the NHS is so universally popular. Familiarity has certainly not bred contempt.

Of course healthcare has changed dramatically – not least in the past decade – but the reason people like the NHS is that it continues to deliver what it first promised: high quality accessible treatment free at the point of delivery.

We are doubly lucky here because the standards and expertise in the local health service are world class. The new hospital trust, backed by Imperial College, will be a world centre for research and treatment. Both public and private investment are improving facilities at Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals and there are plans for three new health centres on the hospital sites and at White City.

I marked the 60th anniversary with Health Minister and neighbouring MP Ann Keen. It was appropriate that we met to cut the birthday cake at Charing Cross. (link: http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=d6a392db-8d42-6054-7933-eaebccfb705c) In the early 1990s Ann was a nurse there and I a local councillor in Fulham when the Tory Government tried to close the hospital and we campaigned to keep it open.

It is a salutory reminder as to who devised and has sustained the NHS since 1948. Although the Tories know they cannot abolish it, they have always deprived it of resources when in power, and will do so again.

Before the last election they ran a scare story that Charing Cross would close – for which they have never apologised – now they are similarly claiming that ‘polyclinics’ (the new health centres) will destroy GP services. Ask yourself why the Tories oppose longer opening hours, more modern equipment, better access and new surgeries. Because they have never signed up to the concept of universal healthcare – that’s why waiting lists have gone from 2 years in 1996 to a maximum of 18 weeks now.

Lord Darzi (still a practising surgeon in our hospital trust) is responsible for the Next Stage Review of the health service – Labour’s plans for the next ten years (Details here http://www.labour.org.uk/darzi_review or the full publication on the Department of Health website here http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_085825). In the meantime I would like to know your view on our local health service so take time to fill in my online survey:

http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/5cf8ce1f-39f2-06a4-19f9-c8e4df574748

A STRONG COMMUNITY

June and July are always busy months and at this time of year I attend scores of AGMs, fetes, openings and events. It reminds me what an active community we have in Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith. This week saw the annual meetings of Brackenbury Residents and Stamford Brook Residents’ Associations – two of the most organised and influential in the borough.

Last week I spoke at the H&F Refugee Forum (here http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=f02661bf-67de-87f4-11f9-23e4d32b8619) and before that the Hammersmith Bengali Association (here http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=22852201-8f34-7d74-e164-50f2adbd5694). Last Saturday the Egyptian charge d’affaires came to White City to open the new Zizinia restaurant and community centre at 95 Bloemfontein Road, White City. This is the work of Mostafa Ragab, the chair of the Egyptians’ UK Association, and his partners. They have transformed the insalubrious General Smuts pub into a delightful restaurant, bar, garden and meeting place, which is used as a prayer hall for the growing Muslim community on Fridays. I am not used to giving restaurant reviews in the eNews but the food provided for the opening – for 300 guests – was outstanding.

I missed the wonderful Artists at Home this year, a great pity as it showcases an extraordinary range of local talent in the artists’ own studios. You can still find this on their website www.artistsathome.net.

Sally Coates is the new head at Burlington Danes Academy, and comes with a proven record as a high achieving head teacher. I spent the morning with her recently to hear her plans for the school. Burlington Danes has probably been the most underachieving secondary school in the borough for the past few years, but it is now recovering strongly and – with £20 million of government investment and a new sixth form opening next year – is once more becoming a school of choice.

Burlington Danes is already separated off from other schools, as an Academy, but most secondary schools in the borough are now looking to leave the control of the local council, so appalled are they with the standard of management and the plans to close them, merge them or shackle them to unsuitable partners. This was the decision of William Morris Sixth Form where I am a governor, which is likely to become a trust school.

But everyone in education locally was cheered up by the news that William Atkinson, head of Phoenix High for 12 years, is now Sir William. My only surprise is that it took so long to recognise one of the great head teachers of our time.

Last week I attended the Pavee Ceilidh a conference forming part of the first Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, held at the Irish Centre in Hammersmith Broadway. The Irish Ambassador, David Cooney, and Julie Morgan MP, who chairs the Parliamentary Group on Gypsies and Travellers came for the first day (here http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=e1999f4e-ba48-d424-5544-bd2a8980e0ce). I spoke on the second day on current housing and planning policy for Travellers. This Government is the first to try and solve the issue of underprovision of official sites – and with it the problem of illegal encampment. Now the Tories look as though they will abandon this policy – an extraordinarily short-sighted and counter-productive move.

I also spoke at a conference organised by the South Acton Residents’ Action Group on behalf Communities and Local Government Department. SARAG are in the forefront of developing tenant management locally.

Willesden Junction is the site of a quite remarkable factory run by the Royal London Society for the Blind. Most of the 40 staff are blind but carry out complex and precise industrial processes such as making automotive parts and beer kegs. Some of the workers are constituents but others come from Kent and Sussex every day, because they want to work and support their families. Sadly, my visit there last month (here http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=4035d549-4521-aeb4-9535-077330c6b29b) followed the announcement that the factory would close. This would be a tragedy after over a hundred years here or on nearby sites. I am working with the union, management and hopefully government initially to buy more time for the factory in which a rescue plan can be put together.

In addition to my regular MP surgeries, I do drop-ins for people with more general concerns about their neighbourhood. This week I was in my own backyard in Askew Ward. I saw about 30 people over about two and a half hours, ably assisted by local Labour councillors, Gill Dickinson, Lisa Homan and Rory Vaughan, and Wendell Park Community Group Secretary John Grigg. If you would like me to do one of these in your neighbourhood, please ask.

Some of the Askew issues were not unexpected – the terrible 266 bus, the decline of the Askew Road, the cost of parking. But I also heard strong objection to the garden waste service – both the charges and reliability – street cleaning and anti-social behaviour, including quite serious criminal offences.

Finally, there seems to be movement as last on some of the Shepherds Bush station issues. I and Shepherds Bush Place residents met with Westfield to discuss the intolerable situation the station works are causing them. The London Development Agency invited me and local traders to their offices to discuss how they could help struggling businesses. And I have finally received my answer to Freedom of Information Act inquiries about the closure, which I will put on my website shortly. These are all still works in progress and I will report more next week.

WHITE CITY WHITEWASH

Last Friday I and some of the Shepherds Bush councillors were called in for a briefing by the council’s PR department – itself a cause for suspicion as Labour representatives are usually excluded from any important information coming out of the town hall. We were told that £50,000 of taxpayers’ money will be used this August to ask people living in White City and Shepherds Bush what they like or don’t like about the area. Why this sudden interest? After about an hour of questioning it became clear.

The council is intending to re-consult next spring on its development strategy for the borough, only a year after going through the whole process once. We all know what this is about. A Tory Mayor of London means the brakes are off speculators and developers and requirements to provide affordable housing are off the table. Hence the decision to fly Tory councillors and officers to Cannes – again at our expense – to meet developers and ‘unlock contentious development sites’ (more here http://thecowanreport.blogspot.com/2008/06/h-councils-south-of-france-jaunt-to.html).

But next spring is too late for the White City developers who have assembled the site north of Westfield’s shopping centre and land on either side of Wood Lane and the A40 – including TV Centre. They want to put their planning application in by then. So my constituents are to be consulted this August – when many will be on holiday. They will not be told what the proposals are and their answers will be immediately out of date because life in the area will change dramatically two months later when Westfield opens.

But of course no notice will be taken of what residents think – the Tories have decided whose side they are on. ‘Putting Residents First’ has been replaced with the ‘Borough of Opportunity’ – and it knocks for the real estate developers of the Cote d’ Azur.

PLEASE GO

The air has been thick lately with Tories resigning because they are not racist. First there was the Parliamentary candidate who called Italians ‘greasy wops’ then the adviser to Boris Johnson who suggested black British families should ‘go if they don’t like it here'. I find it depressing that people in positions of responsibility feel able to express such sentiments – but at least they understood that they could not continue in their jobs and keep the confidence of their communities.

Not so Councillor Ivimy, the Hammersmith Tory responsible for 18,000 council homes and policies that include community cohesion and integration. Her comments that ‘foreign born residents’ in particular from India ‘throw stuff out of the window’ have gone round the world. If you don’t believe me read http://thecowanreport.blogspot.com or http://hfconwatch.blogspot.com for a round up of what the local, national and international media have said. I wrote her an open letter asking her to resign which was published in the Chronicle (here http://www.labouronline.org/wibs/166818/news?PageId=853b1e19-0555-9004-f526-ae9d687fc12b), but while I am sure she will ignore me she should listen to what ethnic minorities communities are saying locally.

At many of the events I have attended in the past two weeks people have told me how shocked they were to hear such offensive and ignorant language here in Hammersmith. The Tories have tried to brush this off or cowardly remained silent, but this is like an open wound in our community which will only heal when Ivimy departs.

Andy