Tenants aim to buy homes to prevent demolition

This week, council tenants and lease holders from the West Ken and Gibbs Green estates served notice to quit the Tory Council landlord, who is aiming to demolish their homes despite the opposition of a least 80% of residents.

Andy Slaughter MP has handed copies of the notice to the Secretary of State, John Denham, to request him to make regulations to allow the transfer of land to take place. Residents believe that this is the only way to prevent a consortium of big business interests, including the Council, intent on destroying their homes to build office blocks and expensive accommodation.

Andy said, "The Tory council said it didn't want these residents living in the borough and that their neighbourhood was 'not decent'. 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."

Matt Turmaine, a member of the local Labour Action Team, added: "The residents of these estates, and most people in the wider area, don't want this demolition. It will create one of the biggest construction sites in the UK, and this Tory Council has a poor record making big projects work for local areas.

"This action by residents is a positive development, and we will do everything we can to support it."

More H&F Stealth Tax Shame

Usually, you want to hear that your Council is in the top ten of something... but not always. The Daily Telegraph has exposed Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives for having some of the worst parking stealth taxes in the country.

In 2007, H&F Conservatives helped get parking fines raised by 50%. They then added an extra £500,000 cash target for wardens to generate through new parking fines. Now, as the Telegraph points out, Hammersmith and Fulham is amongst the “10 councils who have raked in the most in fines per head of population” in the UK.

Labour campaigns for 24/7 police cover in North End

According to figures from the Metropolitan Police, crime in North End rose almost 3% in the last year. That is why North End Labour candidates have joined H&F’s Labour Councillors in a commitment to deliver the investment needed to provide North End with 24/7 Police Task Squads.

During the last two years, the Tory-run H&F Council have only provided £750k per year in police funding out of a total £189m budget - which is far less than they spend on their advertising, PR and propaganda programme. This low funding means that 14 out of 16 wards in H&F, including North End, do not have 24/7 police cover.

Cllr. Lisa Homan (Lab), the Shadow Cabinet Member for Crime & Anti-Social Behaviour underlined what would happen if the public elect Labour to form the next Administration after the local elections in 2010, saying "Hammersmith and Fulham was the leading crime fighting borough in London under Labour. Now, under the Conservatives it is languishing behind Lambeth, Waltham Forest and even Richmond. The Conservatives actually spend more of the Council's budget on advertising, PR and propaganda than they do on policing. That can't be right and it doesn't reflect the public's priorities. We will change that, if elected to form the new Administration next year and commit to providing the necessary investment to ensure all sixteen wards in the borough gain extra 24/7 Police Task Squad cover".

Tory Council Pressing Ahead with Demolition Plans

This June, the Tory-run H&F Council published its future strategy for the Borough. It stated that a number of council estates, including West Ken and Gibbs Green, are not decent neighbourhoods.

Instead of working to improve these neighbourhoods, as Labour did in Cheeseman’s Terrace when it was in power, the Tory Council proposes that:

1. Your homes in Gibbs Green and West Ken will be knocked down.

2. Residents will be forced to move, whether council or housing association tenants, freeholders or leaseholders. As the Tories are not building any new social housing, this means residents—many of whom have lived in H&F all their lives—will be forced to leave the borough and be relocated elsewhere.

3. The areas will be developed as luxury private flats and – in West Ken – a conference centre.

Reacting to these plans, Labour MP Andy Slaughter said “I am disgusted that your landlord, who is also your local authority, should hold this community in such contempt as to brand the neighbourhood not decent. And I am horrified that their solution is to demolish your homes and to destroy the existing community.”

Labour’s council candidates, together with Andy, believe that residents should decide the future of your community. It is clear that some areas of the West Ken need improvements, but these should be designed to help the residents of the estates, not to enrich property developers and drive hard working people out of the borough. The best way to stop Tory councillors knocking down your homes is to vote them out of office next May.

Tory Stealth Taxes Fuel Fly-Tipping

Figures from the Environment Agency reveal that H&F has seen a significant increase in the amount of rubbish fly-tipped on the boroughs streets last year and that this has cost us all an extra and unplanned £1.3million to clear up.

There has been an increases in dog-fouling, littering and fly-tipping. Fly-tipping incidents alone have increased from under 6,000 per year in 2005/06, when Labour was in power, to over 9,000 2007/08 after the Tories took control. These increases are driven by Tory policies such as:

• cutting the street cleaning and refuse collection budget by £1m
• cutting the number of street wardens who were to meant to seek out and stop the people from dumping litter or allowing their dogs to foul our streets
• cancelling the garden waste removal service
• a new £15 stealth taxes for removing unwanted bulky household items

The increased fly-tipping has led to an unplanned £1.3m cleaning cost. Max Schmid, Labour candidate in North End, commented, “short-sighted Tory cuts are leading to worse services for North End residents and larger overall costs to residents. The barrage of new Council stealth taxes and increases in rubbish on our streets are two consequences of a misleading obsession with creating notional decreases in Council Taxes.”