Reporting back to you from City Hall – November to December 2013
My report from City Hall
No.16: 23rd November to 20th December 2013
Introduction
May I firstly wish you the complements of the season, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This month, we heard the sad news of the death of Nelson Mandela: a true world statesman whose like we will not see again. For my tribute to Madiba, please click here.
We also heard the rather strange keynote speech from Mayor Boris Johnson, praising greed and envy as key economic motivators, and comparing people to cornflakes, with only a few rising to the top of the box. He dismissed the prospects of 16% of people whose IQs were below 85. Andrew Rawnsley wrote a very good analysis of his speech. The fact that he failed to answer any of the IQ questions put to him in a radio interview maybe says more about him, than those he wrote off.
Try out yourself on the IQ questions the Mayor could not answer:
1. How many apples would you have if you took two apples from three apples?
2. A man builds a house with four sides of rectangular construction, each side having a southern exposure. A big bear comes along. What colour is the bear?
3. I went to bed at eight o’clock in the evening and wound up my clock and set the alarm to sound at nine o’clock in the morning. How many hours sleep would I get?
(answers at the end of this report!)
The Mayor’s approach can be contrasted with the newly elected Mayor of New York, Democrat Bill de Blasio, who swept to office with 3 out of 4 New Yorkers voting for him. I proposed the motion at City Hall to congratulate him on his election, comparing Bill de Blasio’s speeches and record with that of Mayor Johnson.
Before I turn to the detail of this month’s report, can I also remind you that I am always interested in your feedback; and alsoyour suggestions for questions you would like me to put to the Mayor at Mayor’s Question Time.
Also, you will see I have a number of local campaigns on the go at any one time: if you have a campaign you think I should be raising at City Hall, please let me know!
Contents
In this report I will cover what I have been doing on:
1 Health
· BBC data tracking
· Camden CCG
· Lord Darzi
· Diabetes
2 Fire Service issues
· the cuts
· fire service pensions
· poor industrial relations
3 Policing
· Camden Police Borough Commander meeting, including
o Public access
o contact points
o appointment cars
· Policing arrangements in Hampstead
· the Stevens review
4 Economy
· Broadband rollout
· the Mayor’s speech on envy and greed
· Barriers to employment for parents
5 Environment
· Waste management
· Thames Water
6 Campaigns
7 Written questions to the Mayor
8 Press releases, letters for publication
9 Problem solving and casework
Please go to the sections you are interested in, as I realise this is quite a lot to cover!
1 Health Committee
Each winter, the NHS faces extra pressures. Hospitals become busier as cold weather, flu and other winter bugs lead to falls, chest infections or heart problems.
Accident and Emergency departments are the front door of our hospitals and this year, the BBC is tracking the data on winter pressures so you can find out how our A&E departments are coping week by week through the BBC website by clicking here.
As you know from my last report, they have not been meeting the target of seeing 95% of patients in four hours so far this year: how are they doing now? You can follow their progress through this BBC website on a range of hospital statistics.
As I mentioned in my last report, I met Camden CCG to discuss their local health strategy. They do not face the same financial pressures as does Barnet CCG, so Camden have been able to invest in new services, though they do anticipate they will face funding cuts in the near future. The sort of services they have been improving include school nursing services, tackling obesity, more mental health support for young adults, research at UCLH into cancer and cardiovascular conditions, and more community treatment. They have developed a new model of care for frail elderly people and the elderly with long term conditions, integrating together the various services needed: this was a very impressive new approach especially as it can be funded without taking money away from the hospitals, whilst easing hospital pressures at the same time.
We also held a formal first hearing with Lord Darzi, the famous consultant from St Mary’s Paddington, who has been asked by the Mayor to chair the London Health Commission, looking at the NHS across the capital. He has issued a call for suggestions from the public, with a very tight deadline, so if you want to put forward any ideas, there is not much time to do so! If you do write to Lord Darzi’s commission, please copy me in to anything you send.
The Health Committee also followed up our previous work with another hearing on the issue of diabetes.
2 Fire Service issues
I challenged London Fire Brigade chiefs at the Assembly plenary meeting on 4th December over the cuts, fire service pensions, and poor industrial relations.
I especially raised the closures of Belsize and Clerkenwell fire stations, with Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, who despite accepting the cuts were financially driven, and that many parts of London would see a worse attendance time, and that those in high rise blocks might have to wait 15 minutes or more for the necessary attendance from the Fire Brigade, still maintained that London would be safer after the cuts under the new fire plan forced through by Mayor Boris Johnson, against the wishes of the majority of the Fire Authority members (see video at 1 hr 8 minutes)
I also raised the current dispute over fire service pensions, questioning why it was fair for senior officers to have more generous pensions arrangements than firefighters on the stations. Fitness standards for 60 year old front line firefighters, forced to work to that age under the Conservative led Government’s pension cuts will have a lower fitness standard than younger firefighters. Some firefighters face pension losses of up to 40% (video at 19 minutes)
I also questioned the poor industrial relations in the fire brigade, quoting as an example the order from the Commissioner, that firefighters should not wear their fire tunics on demonstrations, as they have done for decades in the past, arguing that the might be damaged by the weather- fire tunics designed to withstand the rigours of fire fighting and rescue operations- the consequence being that petrol was poured on the flames of the dispute and even more firefighters wore them at the national pensions protest than would otherwise have been the case. (video at 1hr 43 minutes)
I was rather surprised to see the Conservative candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn put out a leaflet before the station has even closed or the outcome of the judicial review been decided, arguing whether the station should be turned into a free school. He says he opposes his own Mayor’s plan to close Belsize on the one hand, yet on the other can’t seem to wait for it to go.
The date set for closure of Belsize and Clerkenwell Fire Stations is January 9th.
3 Policing
I met Camden Police Borough Commander BJ Harrington on 6/12/13.
He considers that the local policing model (LPM) is working 80% well, and public confidence/ user satisfaction are 2% up. He acknowledges the objections to the LPM but he cannot do anything about them. The biggest crime challenges currently are non-residential burglary and theft of motor vehicles. The Camden sanctioned detection rate is 20.4% just below the Met. average of 21.9%.
Public access to police stations is now Kentish Town “24/7” and Holborn, 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday.
There are 5 “contact points” and the opening times are fixed, 3 one hour slots per week. They are West Hampstead Police Station, and the SNT bases at West End Lane, Greenham Road, Highgate Road and Camden Road. They are looking for a better location than West End Lane. Four places were suggested: Royal Free Hospital, Premier Inn, Starbucks and the Old Town Hall.
The issue with the Old Town Hall, is that it is sublet to a charity who require £10 per session, and it has to be a “no cost” option, according to instructions from the senior officer in charge of the initial roll out. However, after this was exposed in the Ham and High, money is no longer an issue: he has been told he is now allowed to spend £30 per week, and he expects a decision before Christmas. I raised this with the Mayor at this week’s MQT.
However, the contact points are not very busy, either in Camden (nor as I understand it in Barnet). In my view they are poorly publicised and the concept was set up on the basis that it was doomed to fail, and I suspect that before too long we will see the Met. abandon the concept.
In Camden the police now deploy from just 3 bases, Holborn, Kentish Town and West Hampstead. The Borough Commander has no freedom to change this model and he sees no need to change.
The non emergency appointment cars are working to appointments organised on an Outlook diary. 90% are met within 30 minutes either side of the allotted time, which is an appointment within 48 hours of the request, either at the home of the person requesting a visit, or at another location at their option if they do not want a police officer in uniform to call. They have 3 cars, operating on early and late turns, with 8 appointments per car per shift, making a total of 48 appointments available per day.
Stop and search has seen a reduction in the number of negative drug searches. 19% of stops produce a positive outcome. It is an effective tactic for drugs and weapons.
Policing arrangements in Hampstead have been very controversial lately, and I raised with the Mayor at MQT the Hampstead Police Station closure and the “Old Town Hall” contact point issue, referred to above.
As usual, I have also asked a wide range of written MQs on policing issues.
Finally on policing, I should write a few words about the Stevens review. Commissioned by the Labour Party, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens has just published his Independent Police Commission Review – the most comprehensive analysis of policing for half a century – and it makes a series of recommendations on the future of policing in England and Wales, including a renewed focus on neighbourhood policing. You can read the report here.
This was an unusual position for the Opposition to be in, to have commissioned something so substantial without the power of Government.
We fundamentally believe that policing should be rooted in local communities so Labour endorses the Commission’s emphasis on neighbourhood policing and the wider social justice purpose of policing. We agree too with the importance of local accountability, building stronger partnerships and greater democratic accountability at a more local level. Policing – like all public services – is most effective if it reflects the views and voices of those it needs to serve.
Perhaps the most timely recommendations are around standards and professionalism. As we have seen most recently in the response to ‘Plebgate’, the system is opaque, the body in charge of pursuing misconduct isn’t strong enough, the remedies aren’t clear and too often in serious cases the police still end up investigating themselves. The whole system takes far too long. So Labour welcome the Commission’s substantial proposed reforms including much stronger measures to deal swiftly with problems, and to ensure police officers found guilty of serious misconduct can be struck off – just as professionals are in other fields. We welcome the proposed much stronger powers of investigation and inspection with continual mechanisms for improvement.
We also welcome the recognition that there should be limits on private contracts in the interests of public confidence. We do not believe that private companies should be patrolling public streets.
4 Economy
Broadband rollout is becoming an issue in both boroughs, as I have had complaints from residents who find that BT will not include them in their rollout programme. If this affects you, or anyone you know in the Assembly constituency, I would very much like to hear from you about it.
However, only 85% of London as a whole, (91% outer London, 76% inner London) will be covered. In Barnet 93% will be able to be connected, in Camden just 70%. The figures are marginally better by approximately 6% across the Capital if other providers are included, but this still leaves many people in London in general and in the two boroughs in particular left out, because BT consider that to extend the roll out is not economic for them to do. In the outer boroughs like Barnet, it is mainly a “sparcity of demand ” issue, in the inner boroughs like Camden, it is mainly due to the more complex technical demands of siting the equipment in already service crowded areas.
To reach coverage in to the high 90s% across London , would need a subsidy in the region of £100 million. Whilst rural areas and smaller towns are being subsidised by the Government and local councils up to £530 million, the European Commission does not allow subsidy for rollout in urban city areas as it is seen as breaking the present “state aid for private companies” rules.
From next year, there will be some help available to SMEs through vouchers drawn on the £25m urban broadband fund, to help get faster connections through the existing network, but this will not cover new infrastructure, like installing fibre optic cabling, which is the main problem.
I believe the Government and the Mayor should be doing far more to lobby the European Commission to permit the necessary subsidy to allow full roll out; and should be finding the necessary funds to enable this to happen, as it is vital to the future economic and social development of the Capital, in my view.
I mentioned in my introduction the Mayor’s appalling speech about envy and greed being key economic motivators, that inequality was a fact of life to which people were born, and that those with low IQs should be written off. They were “cornflakes who fell to the bottom of the box.” I challenged the Mayor on his views in the Economy Committee session and atMQT.
We have also just published our report on the barriers to employment for parents finding work, covering issues such as childcare, which you can see here.
5 Environment
Our Environment Committee session this month concentrated on issues to do with waste. I particularly raised waste recycling for flats, the issue of landfill at Bury Farm (also see campaigns) the future of Pinkham Way; and the disposal of food waste.
In my previous report, I told you about our questioning of Thames Water and their plan to raise bills way above inflation. That was stopped by OFWAT, using our evidence. There were some follow up points though, you might be interested in.
Thames Water plan to introduce a social tariff in April 2014, and by April 2020 expect there to be 37,000 customer properties benefiting from it. In 2019/20, the total cross-subsidy they expect to need to raise to fund the social tariff will be £7.5m, of which around £0.5m relates to administration costs. This will add £1.79 to our average household water and waste water bills in 2019/20.
One problem we identified was the impact on everyone else’s bills of those bills that were not paid because the occupier has moved. They estimate that up to 40% of their account details could be out of date as a result of change of occupancy. This number is particularly high in London because of the transient population and high proportion of rented properties.
If they were given the powers to recoup bad debt from landlords ( as for Council Tax for example), Thames Water estimate they would secure enough revenue to reduce the average bill by around £4. However, the Conservative led Coalition Government will not give them the right to do so.
6 Campaigns
Details of my various ongoing campaigns are on my website, but here are a few if you wish to review progress:
HS2
Bury Farm: opposing the plan to turn a 500 year old farm in the Green Belt into a golf course
Pavilion Way fields: opposing Barnet Council’s plan to sell off playing fields for housing development and a free school
Finchley Memorial Hospital: the need for a bus link form TfL
Mill Hill East tube station: services and overcrowding issues
Moreton Close: opposing the Barnet Council plan to demolish a sheltered housing block and disperse the residents against their wishes.
Cost of Living: a survey throughout the GLA constituency on cost of living issues
7 Written questions to the Mayor
I tabled a full range of written questions
8 Press releases, letters for publication
Falloden Way/Market Place result at last!
Andrew & Sarah accuse Boris of using “smoke and mirrors” to disguise fare rises
Dismore barbecues fire chiefs over cuts, pensions and poor industrial relations
Thoughts and Memories of Mandela: a personal tribute
Offord lets down Hendon public on fuel poverty vote
Dismore challenges Mayor over Hampstead Policing
Dismore reveals Broadband rollout shortcomings in Barnet and Camden
Dismore publishes official figures on impact of fire Cuts on Camden as last ditch court case fails
Joint Letter for Publication from Andrew Dismore and Tulip Siddiq on Belsize Fire Station
Letter for Publication: Mayor’s visit to Hendon
9 Problem solving and casework
Adam Langleben my City Hall assistant, managing incoming correspondence, casework and my diary: adam.langleben@london.gov.uk.
Finally the answers to the Mayor’s IQ quiz:
Q1: 2 apples
Q2: a white bear
Q3: 1 hour
If you scored 1 or more, you are more qualified IQ wise than Boris Johnson to become Mayor of London!
Happy Christmas and best regards
Andrew Dismore AM
London Assembly Member for Barnet & Camden
andrew@andrewdismore.org.uk
Twitter: Andrew_Dismore
