News from January 2012

Friday, 27 Jan 2012

Protest Demonstration to Save Lake Farm Country Park.

I have discovered that the Council has been considering its plans to build on Lake Farm in secret. The Council has secretly commissioned and received a feasibility study on building on Lake Farm and has kept the report of the feasibility study secret. The Councillors also decided that this issue would only be considered in the secret part of its Cabinet meeting this week (Thursday) giving no opportunity for local residents to have sight of the reports to councillors, to comment on the proposal or to attend the meeting and even listen to the debate. Councillors sitting in secret to carve up local community assets isn’t democracy it is a dictatorship. Over 150 local residents attended a public meeting I convened earlier this month to protest at the Council’s proposals to build on our country park but we have heard nothing from the Council. There has been no public consultation and no discussion with local schools or the community on alternative sites for a school to avoid destroying our local green belt land. As a community we are not going to be ridden over roughshod in this way. We pay our rates that fund these councillors and we demand that decisions are in public, the feasibility study and non commercial reports are published and that local residents have their say.
Local residents are holding a protest demonstration on Botwell Common on Saturday 25th February meeting at 11am at the Skylark Statue on the Common, Botwell Lane. Come and join us in this fight to save our country park.

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Worries About the Effect of Local Police Cuts

Local MP John McDonnell has Expressed his Worries about Police Cuts in London.

The latest Home Office figures published this week have revealed that police numbers have dropped by over 8000 nationally with 1,710 officers being cut in London.I am now really worried at what the Government is doing to our police force. The cuts to the Metropolitan Police are deeply concerning given that serious crime is rising in our area. In the London area, robbery and theft from a person are up 14.8%, rape up 8% and residential burglary up 8.4%. We are also faced with local Police Officers being called away to police the Olympics and the Royal Jubilee celebrations in central London. I fear for our community as result of these cuts. The Government needs to think again. 

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Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012

Local Elections for Youth Parliament

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Every year young people between the ages of 11 and 18 in Hillingdon have the chance to vote for their local representatives to the national Youth Parliament. The Youth Parliament speaks up for young people in this country and advises the Government about the concerns of young people and what issues and policies young people want the Government to address. I met Soila Apparicio, who is standing this year to be one of the three local representatives to the Youth Parliament. Soila is a student at Ruislip High School and her family lives in Hayes. She is brimming with ideas on what issues need to be tackled to improve the lives of young people in our area and clearly is committed to working hard for young people in our area if she is elected. You can tell that from this short interview with her that I filmed. Voting is between 6th and 10th February. People have three votes. Voting is online and voting slips can be obtained from your school or youth centre or by contacting the council. There are two candidates from Hewens College in Hayes and I will try and catch up with them too.

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Monday, 16 Jan 2012

Nestles Closure in Hayes is a Devastating Blow to Local Economy

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Nestles has announced today that it will be closing its Hayes’ factory by the end of 2014 with the loss of 230 jobs in our area. This is a devastating blow to our local economy and our community. I am deeply shocked at this decision by the company and so upset for the workers that are losing their jobs and the consequences for their families. Nestle has been part of our local history, providing skilled jobs to local people. It will be sorely missed. I will be meeting with the company and the trade union to secure the best redundancy compensation possible and assistance in securing alternative employment, including retraining, for the workers at risk. We must also not lose this valuable site for employment and I will be doing all I can to attract new employers to this site.

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Tuesday, 10 Jan 2012

Government Announcement on High Speed Rail Today

The Government has announced its decision today to go ahead with the construction of a high speed line from London to Birmingham, with the prospect of it being extended eventually to the north of England and Scotland. As a result of all the local campaigning the Government has amended its plans to put the track travelling through the north of the borough into tunnels. There is still no announcement of any route for a Heathrow spur. This is left to Phase 2 of the process when proposals will be brought forward on the options for extending the line from Birmingham to the north and any direct connection to Heathrow. It is clear that the Government is willing to minimise damage to communities in urban areas by the use of tunneling. The plans to tunnel in the north of the borough is a victory for local campaigners but failing to consult on the whole route just increases the uncertainty about the possible Heathrow link and the project overall. This is no way to plan a railway or any major infrastructure project. Further inforamtion is available on the Department of Tranmsport website http://www.dft.gov.uk/highspeedrail  

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Monday, 09 Jan 2012

Debate on Controlling Directors’ Pay and Bonuses

Seven years go I was the first MP to raise in Parliament the need to control bankers’ bonuses. For the Early Day Motion I put forward in the Commons on this issue I gained the support of only about 30 MPs. I raised the issue every year after that with roughly the same levels of support. No leadership of any of the major political parties supported me. In July last year in the debate on last year’s Finance Bill I tabled an amendment calling upon the Government to make the vote of shareholders on the pay of their company’s executive and directors’ pay legally binding. Once again the leaderships of the main political parties did not support the measure. This week all the major parties, including the Prime Minister are calling for action on this. Funny old world! This is a film and text of my speech in the Finance Bill debate last year.  Slide the scale to 05.29.53 for the start of my speech.

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Public Meeting to Save Lake Farm Country Park

Public Meeting to Discuss the Threat to Lake farm and Botwell Common
Botwell Social Centre Hall, Botwell Lane, Hayes (in between Botwell School and Church)
18th January at 8pm
The Council is planning to build a new primary school on Botwell Common and Lake Farm Country Park. This will destroy one of the last areas of green belt, open space in our area and set a precedent for the erosion of all the green belt in the south of the borough.The Council has argued that it needs a new primary school and yet has refused to consider properly alternative sites. Many believe that the Council is driven by financial motives and not by local educational needs. Many suspect that if it builds a school on our green belt park, it will be able to sell off other sites in the south of the borough to use these resources in the north of the borough. Yet again our community will suffer by this asset stripping of our area.There is also a fear that once a primary school is built, taking up nearly half of the existing park, the council will inevitably come back at a later date to build a secondary school on the remainder of the park.The Council is trying to rush through this attack on our green belt park. Already drilling has taken place on Botwell Common as part of the tests for construction on the site. We now need to mobilise urgently a large scale community campaign to prevent the Council destroying our local green belt open spaces.This meeting will discuss how we can work together to organise a local campaign to halt this disastrous proposal. Please come along and please tell everyone you know to join us in this campaign.

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Nursery Under Threat at Hayes Campus of Uxbridge College

Local parents approached me before Christmas with the shock news that the Board of Governors at Uxbridge College was proposing to close the nursery at the Hayes Campus of the college in Coldharbour Lane, Hayes. This is dreadful news. Many parents are anxious about the future for their children. I am also extremely concerned at the potential loss of this facility to the area. If we want parents to continue to study and to work we need more childcare places not less. Uxbridge College has played a fantastic role in our area in developing the really successful Hayes Campus and has put so much back into our community. I am hoping therefore that the college will think again. I have written to the college authorities asking them to reconsider their proposal to close the nursery. The college is undertaking a consultation at the moment. If, like me, you feel the nursery should be kept open, please do let the College know.

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Wednesday, 04 Jan 2012

Housing Crisis is Hurting In Hayes and Harlington

From what I am seeing in my advice surgeries and people contacting my office in Hayes, the housing crisis is really hurting local families as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. The housing charity Shelter sent me the following information, which does reflect what is happening locally.

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