Monthly Archives: Apr 2006

Mobile phones on the Tube

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Give live interview to LBC on London Underground’s move towards introducing the technology that will allow mobile phones on the tube.

I remember arguing with Tim O’Toole (MD London Underground for Transport for London) when I was still on the London Assembly – and we then came out against them as he could not reassure me about the risks involved following the Madrid bomb – which was set off by a mobile phone. And I had a sneaky suspicion that the risk might be being minimised befause of the very attractive revenue stream that accompanies mobile phones.

However, time has passed. I am more reassured than I was – and on balance the benefits of being contactable during an emergency or even if scared outweigh the fears. Also – as we now know – the Madrid bomb was set off by the timing device – and so didn’t need a signal anyway.

On a personal note however, those bloody ringtones. Now – there really will be no hiding place.

LABOUR HUSHES UP TECH REFRESH DISASTER

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Labour-led Haringey Council refuse to answer a Freedom of Information Act request for details of departure of key management figures, say Lib Dems

Labour-led Haringey Council continues to restrict access to information surrounding the departure of key management figures in the aftermath of the huge £10.6 million Tech Refresh project overspend.

Councillor Wayne Hoban, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Council Group, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking the Council to ‘Provide full details of the terms under which the previous Tech Refresh Project Manager had left the project and the employ of Haringey, to include any financial payments which may have been made in connection with his departure.’ The request was refused, raising suspicions that the matter had been swept under the carpet.

At a meeting to discuss the Audit Commission’s report into the Tech Refresh fiasco, it was confirmed that neither the previous Council Chief Executive nor the previous Tech Refresh Project Manager had been interviewed by the Audit Commission during its investigation into the huge IT overspend.

Cllr Hoban states: “I find it unbelievable that the Audit Commission should not seek to interview such key people during the course of its investigation into this huge council overspend. They both played an absolutely central role in respects of key decisions made which led to huge IT project overspend and they both left the council’s employ following revelations of the huge overspend without reasonable explanation.It is clearly an unacceptable and unsatisfactory situation.”

Cllr Hoban comments: “Not a single person has been held responsible for this fiasco. £10.6 million pounds has been wasted, and local taxpayers will want to know who is to be held accountable.

“This Labour run council has clearly chosen to adopt exactly the same strategy it followed after Lord Laming’s damning inquiry into the Climbie tragedy, where no senior manager of Executive member was held responsible or was disciplined despite evidence of huge management failures. Haringey residents deserve better. This Labour-run council is unwilling or unable to accept responsibility for its failures. Residents have an opportunity to vote for a more transparent and accountable council by voting Liberal Democrat on May 4th.”

ELECTION BATTLE HOTTING UP

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With just over two weeks to go until Haringey’s historic local election on 4th May, Lib Dems say that their strong message ofworking with the police to tackle crime, putting the environment first and listening to local residents is proving popular with local residents.

With a discredited Labour council in power for 35 years, and national newspapers tipping the Lib Dems as potential winners on 4th May, the party says it can take power from Labour as it has done in many other urban areas, such as Islington, Liverpool and Newcastle.

The Lib Dems have been campaigning on the key issues in their positive plan for the borough:

Environment: introduce a recycling scheme for businesses and give residents larger green boxes

Council Tax: Bring Council Tax down towards the London average by tackling Labour waste, such as the £11 million squandered on the ‘Tech Refresh’ Project

Crime: Get the borough’s CCTV working and keep local police stations open

Listening to residents: hand more power to neighbourhood assemblies and create a special forum for Highgate

Education: End the annual school places crisis with a proper ten year plan and full consultation with local parents

Health: Put health services first, not profit when deciding how to use the Hornsey Central Hospital site.

Lib Dem Leader Cllr Neil Williams, which is seeking re-election in Highgate comments:

“Local people are responding well to our manifesto and our ideas for Haringey.We have a great team that is putting forward a positive agenda for the borough. As in the General Election here, Labour is once again floundering, and they are paying the price for years of waste and infighting.With the Tories off the political map, there is a very real chance we will be able to put our positive agenda into action after 4th May.”

LIB DEM CANDIDATES CALL FOR BETTER SAFETY IN BOUNDS GREEN

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With crime a key concern in the local elections, Lib Dem candidates in Bounds Green are calling for action over the safety of Imperial Passage, a walkway connecting Bounds Green to Alexandra Palace station. Local Lib Dem candidate John Oakes has already raised the issue with the local police neighbourhood team leader, who has promised to step up foot patrols on the Passage and discuss with Haringey Council how safety can be improved.

Lib Dem candidates Ali Demirci and John Oakes have met local MP Lynne Featherstone on site to discuss safety, after residents raised the problem of poor lighting during the party’s canvassing in the area. They have also written to local residents asking them what other safety measures could be put in place.

Lib Dem candidate John Oakes (Bounds Green) comments:

“I am pleased that the police have agreed to step up patrols in Imperial Passage, but we also need to look at other measures, such as better lighting. It was good to have local MP Lynne Featherstone visit the site with us, and we will continue to press for more to be done to improve safety.”

GOVERNMENT DELAYS ANSWERING URGENT QUESTION ON SCHOOL FUNDING SHORTFALL

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Local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone is urging that a meeting cancelled by the Government on the funding for improving Fortismere’s school buildings should go ahead without delay. A meeting has now been scheduled for May 10 th, and follows dismay expressed by the MP that an original meeting, between Fortismere Governors, Lynne Featherstone MP and the Government scheduled for 25 April had been cancelled on the explicit instructions of the Cabinet Office.

Ms Featherstone says that the Cabinet Office, on learning of the details of this meeting, specifically instructed officials to cancel the meeting because of the ‘purdah’ period during the local elections. However the meeting is parliamentary business which should not have to wait because of Government sensitivities over Haringey’s political future.

The meetings is even more urgent now that following meetings between Fortsimere and the Council, Haringey wants the Governors to sign up to an agreement which, outside of the very welcome, but not nearly enough £2m extra funding from the Building Schools for the Future Fund, asks that Fortismere agrees to sell some of its assets to provide capital funding to fill in the funding gap created by the Council’s low allocation to the school from the BSF fund.

Lynne Featherstone said:

“I am hugely concerned that Fortismere may be forced to sell off some of its land – so that it can afford to rebuild or replace its 6th form block and other sub-standard buildings. The offer of £2million extra from the BSF fund is welcome – but it still leaves Fortismere at a substantial financial disadvantage if the buildings are to be replaced. Selling off green space should not be the price that Fortismere has to pay to provide decent school buildings.

“The Building for the Future funding is supposed to address the failing condition of school buildings. And whilst the criteria used to allocate the BSF funding quite rightly prioritises deprivation, I am hopeful that at the rescheduled meeting with the Government and governors ofFortismere and myself now re-arranged for May 10 – we will be able to convince the Government to agree to this vital extra funding.”

Note:

Purdah is the term given when civil servants and local government officers and not allowed to be seen supporting any political party. In local government it is called approximately a month before elections and means that local government officials are not allowed make announcement that could be interpreted as supporting one political party.

Blair – help or hindrance?

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Saturday / Sunday / Monday – a blur and a whirl of canvassing and stuffing envelopes.

I am going out each time with a different ward – good to be helping each team in turn (and to visit all the different parts of my constituency) – but it’s also a good way to get an overall feel of how it’s going.

Labour supporters clearly very demoralised – and Blair’s election visit to Haringey doesn’t seem to have helped. After all, the disillusioned Labour voters who swung to vote for me last year want to see Blair gone – so reminding people that a vote for Labour is a vote for Blair isn’t really a vote winner for them!

Joyce Vincent

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A woman was found dead in a flat in Wood Green. She had died more than two years earlier. The television was still on. Her shopping was at her side. Apart from the Brit media on this – interestingly – the Australian and Italian media are very het up about it. I had a word with an Italian TV station and asked them why this had become such a huge story in Italy. It’s because it is unimaginable in Italy that you wouldn’t a) know your neighbour and b) not be inquisitive about a flat that had no comings or goings. The Italian nation is agog at our apparent lack of community mindedness.

And where was everybody? It’s tragic that there were no friends or family there. There should have been a number of authorities involved in Joyce Vincent’s life. Someone should have been asking why the part of her rent not paid by housing benefit wasn’t paid. Where were social services? How did this poor lady fall through the safety net? This case shows the need for a human checking process.

Apparently Ms Vincent was a victim of domestic violence and, who knows, maybe she didn’t want people to know where she was and had discouraged contact from her family. She also lived in an area with quite high population turnover.

Nevertheless this is a reminder to all of us all that we should look out for our neighbours – but, as the interviews with her neighbours show, this is much easier said then done. At what point do you start worrying if you don’t see your neighbour? What do you do when you have started worrying? And so on.

Meanwhile, the answer to my Parliamentary Question on the ethnic breakdown of those people who have been arrested but not charged or cautioned – i.e. were innocent – has come back showing that 24% are from ethnic minorities. The black and Asian population of the UK as a whole is less than 8%. (The figures are based on the make-up of the DNA samples in the national DNA database as these arrests are the basic source of DNA in the database).

So what on earth is going on? My guess (although I will obviously await for the outcome of the investigation into these figures that I am calling for) is that disproportionality is alive and well; that is, where there is discretion in the use of police powers, they are disproportionately used against those from ethnic minorities.

What these figures demonstrate quite clearly to me is that disproportionate numbers of black and ethnic minority members are being wrongly arrested. They are innocent. This is wrong. This is discrimination. Whilst a lot of work has gone on to improve training for police in stop and search etc – it is clearly not working.

And Charles Clarke is adding more and more discretionary powers to the police to administer summary justice – let alone the carrying of ID cards in due course. All of which will make these problems even worse.

RESIDENTS IN PANIC OVER £5,000 FINE THREATS

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Residents in Hillfield Park, Muswell Hill, have complained to Haringey Council following receipt of an official council letter that threatened them with a £5,000 fine unless they provided information regarding the ownership of their land.

Apparently around 1,500 such letters were sent out to Haringey residents demanding personal information on the ownership of their land within 14 days, or risk “summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £5000”.

A cover letter, which was not originally sent to Hillfield Park residents, explained simply that ‘The Council is required under legislation to prepare a Public Rights of Way Definitive Map”, but no further detail was given as to which right of way was in question, angering residents.

Councillor Gail Engert, Liberal Democrat councillor for Muswell Hill, comments:

“This is just another example of the Council not thinking about its residents. Many who received this letter would have felt very threatened; not to mention the rude tone the Council has used. It would have been very easy to have explained the reasoning behind the demands, and Haringey Council should have done this.”

The challenges for improving skills within the capital's workforce

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The high value-added nature of London’s economy makes a skilled workforce critical, not only to individual prosperity but also to the economic success of the UK as a whole. It is impressive that the region’s economic output per person is the highest in the country and produces 18% of UK wealth with only 13.5% of the country’s workers.

However, greater overall productivity and competitiveness rely on London’s businesses being able to draw from a workforce equipped with good basic skills in numeracy, literacy and IT. For this to happen, and for London to continue to be a premier world city and be recognised as one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world, there are several challenges we must face up to.

We have more people qualified to degree level than in any other UK region, but there are also far too few opportunities for those with poor skills or low skills. We have the highest rates of business start ups and overseas investment compared to other regions, but we also have the highest regional unemployment rate and the highest failure rate of new companies. London is one of the most expensive environments to live, work and do business in, but it is also one of the few locations in the world you can earn over £1 million working for someone else.

So how can we respond and step up to these challenges? The Liberal Democrats believe that to deliver world-class skills, world-class facilities are needed. It is essential that London’s current and future workforce are both invested in. The Liberal Democrats champion closing the funding gap between London’s schools and colleges, starting by providing equal funding for equivalent courses, wherever they are taught.Investing in the modern, high-quality college facilities needed to deliver high-quality skills training in London would help create the climate for improving the skills of London’s workforce.

There is much more that employers could do – for compared with other English regions, London has a relatively low proportion who actually provide training to their employees.

Furthermore, the approach taken must actually lead to people being able to gain employment. Issues such as racial, sexual and disability-based discrimination within recruitment and employment and other barriers to work – for example, the cost of child-care – need to be addressed. Improving the skill-set of the workforce will only benefit London if it applied to all of London.

London’s businesses and economy will never be able to thrive simply by trying to out-bid other countries in cutting costs and turning the capital into one large sweatshop.

But with the right outlook and the right skills, we can match and exceed those other areas based on high productivity and high value-added work. It makes both moral and economic sense to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate and make the most of their own skills and interests.