Putney gets safer - again

The April crime figures for Putney's six council wards are out and show another decline in crime compared to April 2007.



The only ward to buck the trend substantially was Thamesfield - I'm particularly concerned about the amount of burglaries taking place in this ward and it's disheartening that the Council - especially given that the Tory Council Leader Edward Lister represents this area - isn't doing a lot more to help the police cut crime.

One of the things that would help tremendously here would be town centre patrollers: when the Labour Government funded two trials of such patrollers in Clapham Junction and Tooting town centres, street crime - by far the biggest problem in Putney town centre - fell by a third.

Town centre patrollers wouldn't directly cut the burglary figures, but what they would do is free the Thamesfield Safer Neighbourhood Police up to focus on the rest of Thamesfield ward away from Putney High Street, and that can only be helpful.

Regretably, when the Government street patroller funding stopped, the Tory Council chose to sack the wardens rather than find the money itself to continue the excellent service. And before the Tories scream "Council Tax rises" just think how much this Council spends producing Brightside, and how it finds the money to run off (and pay to be delivered) fancy leaflets whenever it wants to attack the government - campaigning on the rates, big time. Cutting back on propaganda would go a long way to funding town centre patrollers in Putney.

As usual in these reports, here's the comparison table for March 2008:

Shalden shame

Vandals have been smashing up Shalden House in Tunworth Crescent, on the Alton Estate. I never quite understand why a tiny minority enjoys kicking in windows, or urinating in lifts or stairwells - not least their own - but sadly Shalden is the latest victim and the peaceful, self-respecting majority now have to put up with this:



This was one of the problems raised last week at the Roehampton Safer Neighbourhoods Police meeting and I've already taken the issue up with the Council's Housing Director, because this temporary repair isn't good enough: it's dangerous, it's unsightly, it's making the communal areas incredibly dark and residents deserve better. Here are some more other examples of the criminal damage done to Shalden House - you can click to enlarge them:





I know Roehampton's local Police team are working at finding those responsible for this vandalism; and I'll keep pushing the council to make sure that the damage is repaired as soon as possible - because no-one should have to put up with this for any longer than necessary.

New entry in worst Putney pothole competition

Residents of The Platt, just across the road from my campaign HQ in Felsham Road, have a very strong entry into my Putney potholes competition. This is the state the Council has allowed Gay Street, on the estate, to fall into:



Here are a couple of close-ups of what can no longer be called a road - more like a gravel track (you can click to enlarge):



The state of Gay Street - and a lot of the roads on Putney's council estates - leave much to be desired, though of course as my earlier post, here shows, The Council aren't discriminating: they're neglecting all roads equally as dreadfully.

Do you know of a pothole worse than this one? Let me know - email stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk or sms it to 07533 384 895 and we'll add it to our gallery. Sooner or later, even Wandsworth Conservatives will be shamed into taking action on their neglect of our roads.

Policeman gets it right on stab deaths

With news of the latest stab death: that of Rob Knox, killed in Sidcup protecting his brother, resonating and the murder of lewisham teenager Jimmy Mizen - not victim of knife-crime per se but still dead at the hands of someone who believed it to be acceptable to lash out with a sharp, improvised weapon, I want to flag up some comments made at the start of the month by Detective Superintendent Matthew Horne.

Superintendent Horne is the Police officer who brought the murderers of stab victims Kodjo Yenga and Paul Erhahon to justice at the High Court a few days ago.

Det Supt. Horne made one of the most impressive - and to my mind spot on - statements outside the High Court about stab deaths; my only regret is that I can't reprint the full text of it, because I haven't been able to find a full transcript. However, here's an extract.

"Kodjo was killed with one stab wound and so was Paul. We have heard today that five children in each case have been convicted of the killing of both of these boys, totalling a minimum term of imprisonment of 100 years.

"If you go out on the streets with your friends and you know your friends are carrying a knife and you arm yourself as well then the courts are going to find you guilty as if you had inflicted that fatal blow."

Put another way: carry a knife and you'll end up either in prison or dead.

I also agree, incidentally, with Jimmy Mizen's father who said that the answer to this spate of stab deaths isn't yet more legislation: because we already have the sentences needed to punish those who maim and murder - we just need the Courts to pay due seriousness to those who are caught carrying a knife or, worse, using one.

We can't get knives off the street - unlike guns they're everyday utensils we all have in our homes. So the real challenge for us: Government, Police, Society and - yes - parents, is to make sure young people know that carrying knives isn't sensible, isn't smart, doesn't make you safer and only causes a world of misery to you, your family and that of your potential victim.

2012 Olympics: "9.75 out of 10"

9.75 out of 10 - that's the mark independent International Olympic Committee inspectors have just given London's progress on the 2012 Games.

You may find London being awarded this gold medal praise - the best Olympic prepartions ever, apparently - a remarkable fact given the unremittingly negative, misleading, undermining and, frankly, unpatriotic coverage of the London Games by the mass media - and today our press and broadcasters have a lot to explain given the disjuncture between their reporting and the reality as found by the independent IOC inspectors.

To those media outlets who will only report the London Olympics if they've found some negative innuendo, briefing or rumour about them I say this: either shut up or start reporting our Olympics preparations accurately, honestly, and with a little pride in the fantastic celebration of sport our capital city will deliver on time and on budget in 2012.

Yet more Safer Neighbourhood team success

The Putney SW15 website is carrying yet another report of success for Putney's Safer Neighbourhoods Police team: this time the West Putney officers smashing a drug den in Cortis Road.

I may sound like a cracked record flagging up the success story that is our Safer Neighbourhoods team - but at worst I'm guilty of trying to rebalance each and every attack on this significant, substantive service by the Conservatives. The Tories celebrate any tabloid story that belittles our SNTs and they never cease to rubbish them as not real Police because they believe it helps them politically.

I passionately believe in Safer Neighbourhood teams: I think they'll come to be regarded as this Labour Government's most significant creation.

No, they're not "full" Police. But I don't want them to be: they fulfil a different role and have a different emphasis. We once again have "Bobbies on the Beat" simply because of SNTs - not just uniformed patrollers pounding our pavements, but officers who take the time to get to know the community, build links and use their local knowledge to deliver the results we're hearing about week-in, week-out.

Some say: why couldn't they do that if they become full Police? My answer is that full Police will simply get swept up with and subsumed into the same duties that existing full Police fulfill today. Keeping the two distinct actually guarantees that we will keep our Bobbies on the Beat. And what a record of success they're delivering.

Fair parking for Brewhouse Lane

Residents of the Putney Wharf development just behind Putney Bridge became the latest to contact me about unfair council parking restrictions in their area.

Just as residents of the Whitelands Park and SW15H developments - mainly, but not exclusively key workers - have fallen between two stools because they have either not been allocated or cannot afford to buy an exhorbitantly priced off-street parking space and, simultaneously, the Conservative council is refusing to even allow them to apply for an on-street residents' parking permit.

The motivation behind the policy of tackling parking stress is sound, but it is only fairly applied if residents are treated equally; by which I mean that all residents must either be given an affordable off-street parking space or, if the intent is to promote car-free living, no off-street spaces should be provided for anyone.

However, in respect of Putney Wharf we have won a small victory. I have persuaded the council to remove the permit-holder only restrictions in Brewhouse Lane - the road just behind Putney Cinema that runs down to the Thames. Because the only residents in the vicinity of Brewhouse Lane are, in fact, residents of Putney Wharf there is a strong case for the few bays in this road to be shared-use, rather than permit-holder only.

This will enable residents who do not have off-street parking spaces in the Putney Wharf development and their guests to park closer to their homes.

As a consequence of my campaigning on this and other parking problems created by the council's short-sighted, dogmatic parking scheme - behind the SW15H development in East Putney and Whitelands Park behind West Hill - Councillors have admitted that they got this wrong and are reviewing its parking policies.

I hope that residents of any future developments in Putney will therefore be spared the frustration and inconvenience that some - too many - have been subjected to.

By-elections

Congratulations to the Conservatives, who on Thursday did something they achieve once every 30-odd years, and that is win a by-election seat off Labour.

The result will make Crewe & Nantwich one of those great (for politicos) by-elections such as Fulham, Dudley West, Orpington, Glasgow Govan, Newbury and Darlington.

By-elections have very little long term impact; they are very accurate snapshots of public opinion and excellent means to give the government of the day a slap. That this is the first by-election Labour has lost to the official Opposition since we were elected shows what a dismal state the Conservatives have been in for such a long time.

But some matter more than others. I think Crewe & Nantwich, convincing a Tory win though it was, has a lot of parallels with a by-election that happened a few miles south of Crewe in 1990.

Mid Staffordshire was a very safe Conservative seat, centred on the lovely cathedral town of Lichfield. In 1987, the Tories had won the seat by over 10,000 votes with Labour just edging second place from the then Liberal Alliance. But in the Autumn of 1989 the sitting MP, John Heddle, committed suicide.

In the by-election that followed, Labour's Sylvia Heal swept to victory: her swing of 21% and majority of over 9,000 was far bigger than that which the Conservatives managed in Crewe on Thursday. The image above is from the Daily Mirror the day after the by-election: a mirror image, if you'll pardon the pun, of the newspaper headlines yesterday and today.

Sylvia Heal is an MP today, but she doesn't represent Mid Staffordshire (or its successor seat: Lichfield). She was defeated in the 1992 General Election when John Major's government was re-elected. She didn't get back into parliament until 1997 for the nearby but very different constituency of Halesowen & Rowley Regis.

Just as at the time of the Mid Staffordshire by-election we have two years until a General Election. A lot can happen in that time, not least voters making a very different decision to the one they make in the mid term of a parliament.

Burma: enough's enough

I've been outspoken in my criticism of the Burmese junta that has abused, maligned, imprisoned and attacked its own people for far too long.

The evidence exposed on Wednesday by the BBC that the military regime is actively stopping aid reaching those suffering from the ravages of the hurricane almost two weeks after the tragedy struck is despicable.

On Tuesday I was elected Vice President of Putney United Nations Association (UNA). The UN has a clause within its Charter that allows it to intervene when a regime fails to protect its own people. If that clause was written to apply anywhere and at any time it is in Burma, now.

The UN Security Council is set up so that any one of the permanent members: the UK, US, Russia, China and France has a veto on action, and at least one of these five has an interest in (or alliance with) pretty much all of the non-permanent members.

The permanent member associated with Burma is China and we could normally expect strong opposition from them to any UN active intervention in this country. There are two reasons why China may not intervene in this case.

The first is that they're preoccupied with the response (and doing far more, far better) to their own earthquake disaster. The second is that the worldwide outrage that will be provoked by the actions of the Burmese Junta will - I hope - make it almost impossible for the Chinese government to block international action, especially as it would be doing so just weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

What does intervention mean? Well, at the very least, it is now time to commence humanitarian aid drops. We may need to go further, depending on how the junta reacts to UN intervention. But the only point of action now is humanitarian relief. And let's be clear: the UN struggled to deliver anything substantive when the junta attacked its people and jailed its monks last Autumn. Its argument then, that greater intervention was beyone its mandate, does not and should not apply today given the humanitarian crisis that is engulfing the people of Burma.

The world, through the UN, must act Burma. Now.

Post@St Mary's?

The news that Revd. Giles Fraser and St Mary's Church are in discussions to see whether they can take on some of Post Office functions when the two local branches close is a glimmer of hope and I wish Dr Fraser well in his negotiations.

It's important that the council doesn't use this offer to avoid serious consideration of whether it could integrate its services with the post office - for example at the Parking Shop in Lower Richmond Road. However, in terms of location and accessibility I can think of few better locations than St Mary's Church.

Crime down across the board in Roehampton

On Tuesday I attended a public meeting organised by Roehampton's Safer Neighbourhood Police Team (SNT). These are regular meetings organised by these Labour-funded Police teams to explain local policing issues and address residents' concerns.

I was delighted - as were the members of the public present - to learn that crime in Roehampton has fallen significantly across the board in the past year. The extent of the fall in crime is particularly impressive, and Sergeant "Rocky" Salmon and his team deserve our praise.

Burglaries are DOWN 12%
Personal robberies are DOWN a whopping 41%
Theft from vehicle is also DOWN 41%
Theft of vehicles is DOWN 15%
Common assaults are DOWN 10%
Wounding offences are DOWN 14%

Overall, crime in Roehampton is DOWN by 19% compared to this time last year.

Sergeant Salmon attributed these successes to intelligence-led policing, whereby police action is often the result of tip offs and information provided by local people. Our SNTs - derided and maligned by local Tories as "not proper" coppers - are making us safer and more secure in our homes and community.

If you wish to report a crime or offer information to the Roehampton SNT call them confidentially on 020 8247 7861 or email them at roehampton.snt@met.police.uk

Make Veterans' Day a Bank Holiday

The idea to make Veterans' Day - which is held at the end of June - a national Bank Holiday is one I back wholeheartedly.

The idea is one of a number proposed by Labour MP Quentin Davies, who has a long history of interest in and support for our armed services. There has been some debate recently - but still not what I would regard as a proper national debate - about the respect, or lack therof we afford our servicemen and women.

There is also a reticence - which I understand - not to be as brashly cheerleading in our support of our armed forces, as some other countries are: simply put it's not the way we do things. I'm not suggesting that we need to wear our patriotism on our sleeves to quite the same extent just to prove that we support our troops - but equally, there has been some unacceptable prejudice against soldiers in uniform and it's time to say this is wrong and that we're proud of the job they do. Soldiers should be proud to wear their uniform wherever, whenever - and be made welcome when they do.

So I think devoting a new public bank holiday to the sacrifice and dedication our soldiers give - and to spend some time reflecting on that contribution as a result - is perfectly fitting.

For information Veterans' Day this year, which obviously isn't a Bank Holiday, falls on Friday 27th June, as you can see from the logo above. But let's hope that come 2009 it will be.

The Politics of God

...That's the title of a lecture being given by Revd. Giles Fraser on Friday 6th June at St Mary's Church, Putney Bridge (click on the image for a larger version of the invitation).

The lecture's being organised by Wandsworth Labour Parties and while the audience will consist of mostly Labour Party members locally, we're extending an invitation to anyone in the community interested in hearing about the relationship between religion and politics, and contributing to the debate.

As I wrote a few days ago, last week I attended a lecture by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac O'Connor, on a related theme.

Given that today and tomorrow MPs are debating very substantial ethical issues regarding the Embryology Bill this will be a timely debate on a very topical issue.

If you'd like to come you'd be very welcome, but please let us know as we need to plan for numbers. Please email us to do so.

Lennox Estate blog

Well, there are blogs on the most surprising things, aren't there? I've just come across a blog extolling the virtues of the Lennox Estate off Priory Lane, which you can read here.

And why not? After all, as the blog notes, many people - particularly Roehampton's Conservative councillors - won't go near the estate simply because of pre-conceived notions of what a council estate is like.

The Lennox blog hasn't been updated for a while, but you can find out a bit about why the estate; and blocks within it; are named as they are.

Mystery shoppers?

Tory Council Leader Edward Lister has been bragging about some retail survey he claims proves that Putney High Street is the oasis among town centres.

Curiously, he's provided very few details of the survey, and there's nothing about it on the council's website, which is usually the first to trumpet good news for the Conservative administration.

If anyone knows more about this mystery survey could they let me know because I'd like to read it. As you know, I've been championing the High Street for the past three years: I launched Labour's Save Putney High Street campaign coincidentally at the same time as the Putney Society raised their concerns about it. If I think there's a problem; if the Putney Society thinks there's a problem and if the huge number of respondents to my campaign think there's a problem ,why doesn't the council?

Precious little has changed since we started pointing out the embarassment that is Putney High Street - the local councillors and Tory MP for Putney are in denial that there's any problem with it at all, and Cllr Lister's spin on this mystery report is just the latest evidence of it.

I'd like to read the report in full to see what it really says. If local shops are doing a brisk trade then that's great for Putney - but it doesn't negate the greasy, grimy pavements, the uneven, cracked paving; the rubbish; the clutter; the congestion; the pollution and the poor planning that led Putney to be branded a clone high street not so long ago in a national survey.

Tell me what you think about Putney High Street: spare two minutes to fill in my Save Putney High Street survey here.

10p tax: democracy works

This week, the Government responded to pressure from Labour's grassroots and backbenches and produced a substantial and generous package to correct the problems created for some of the least affluent in society by the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

The package will be worth £120 per person to all basic rate tax payers - so as well as those who lost out from the 10p abolition, it will also benefit others who are feeling the pinch as fuel and food prices rise as a result of glocal economic pressures.

Significantly, the Chancellor has done this by raising the personal tax allowance: the amount of income on which we don't have to pay any tax, which is the fairest way to help the poorest. It is also welcome news that this measure will be backdated to April which means this help will go even further.

I received a bit of media attention for my criticism of the impact of the abolition of the 10p tax rate. As I wrote in my original post, I was particularly concerned about the impact on pensioners in Putney.

So I'm delighted by this announcement because, simply put, democracy works. As I wrote originally, when you have made a mistake it is a virtue, not a vice to admit to it.

For those of you who saw the exchanges in parliament, just contrast the considered, generous remarks of Labour MP Frank Field - the leader of those of us who were most concerned about the 10p tax problem, who worked constructively with Ministers to deliver this package and the braying, squeeling, Punch-and-Judy yah-boo reply from the Shadow Chancellor, still as out of his depth as ever.

I'm in politics because I want to get things done - and Putney pensioners and those on low incomes - as well as middle income earners, will now see the results of that approach.

Transport Police now patrolling Putney

The British Transport Police have just set up a new team specialising in patrolling stations in South West London, including Putney.

The team of nine officers, based at station 9 in Clapham Junction will be focussed particularly on cutting down assaults, but will be taking on any policing concerns on the rail network in south west London, including drug dealing and knife crime.

The team was only launched this week, and they've already arrested what appears to be a gang member carrying a six-inch long kitchen knife who assaulted a police officer.

The stations covered by the team include Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Richmond, Staines, Twickenham, Earlsfield, Mortlake, Norbiton, Putney, Strawberry Hill, Wandsworth Town, Kingston, Feltham, Hampton Wick, Raynes Park, New Malden, Teddington, St Margarets, North Sheen, Barnes, Whitton and Ashford.

Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth

A few nights ago I went to Westminster Cathedral to listen to a lecture by the head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. It was the last in a series of lectures under the umbrella of Faith and Life in Britain. A link to this series of lectures can be found here.

I found the Archbishop's lecture warm, insightful and encouraging, and it has stimulated some debate amongst the commentariat, in particular in respect of his call for improved dialogue between believers and non-believers to establish the shared values that sustain Britain's plural society. I was particularly prompted to give thought to his reference to a "spiritual homelessness" and what that means in today's society.

But the aspect of his lecture that struck the deepest chord with me was his reference to a poem he heard recited on the wireless by Churchill during the dark days of World War Two. The Archbishop quoted the third verse of the poem, by Arthur Clough and entitled Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth:

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

The Cardinal said Christians today may feel that our faith and our witness are not making headway and that they are like 'the tired waves, vainly breaking'. But it also struck me as an appropriate source of solace and encouragement to everyone who may feel that their efforts on behalf of a cause important to them appear to be making little or no headway.

St George's NHS Trust gets patients' votes

If you caught BBC London News tonight, you'll have seen a feature about London's worst performing hospitals. Rather than using some obscure performance indicators, this latest survey actually asked people "overall, how do you rate the standard of care you received".

For a hospital trust that tends to get slammed pretty regularly by the media, patients take a surprisingly different view about St George's. In this survey, the St George's NHS Trust came 7th best, out of 25.

St George's Hospital was part of the ward I represented on Wandsworth Council for eight years and I know how fondly it is regarded by local people in Tooting and beyond. The St George's NHS Trust actually includes more than just St George's itself - it also includes Bolingbroke Hospital in Battersea and the Wolfson Rehabilitation Centre in Wimbledon, but the vast majority of patients treated in this Trust use St George's.

One of the things that was clear in the BBC report was that the way the experts - including the hospitals themselves - and patients measure the standard of care provided are worryingly different. I'm pleased that patients are, generally, happy with the care they received at St George's though of course the message is that there is still a lot more that can be improved.

Bar charts

We all know how the Liberal Democrats love a bar chart: well here's one that shows the result in Southfields in this month's Mayoral elections.

Unlike Lib Dem bar-charts, this result doesn't need any spin or small print: it shows beyond any doubt which party is the ONLY challenger to the Tories in Southfields.

Councillor John Farebrother

I am delighted that my friend and former council colleague Councillor John Farebrother is to be Wandsworth's Mayor for the coming year.

John is respected in equal measure by both Labour and Conservative councillors alike, and is the true embodiment of the "local councillor", representing the area he has lived in (Furzedown) nearly all of his life.

The appointment by a Conservative-led council of a Labour Mayor is a departure from convention so I want to commend Wandsworth's Conservative councillors. I also want to thank former Labour Councillor Del Hosain, who served as Deputy Mayor to a Conservative councillor in 2005/6 and whose exemplary record helped pave the way for John.

John, a retired civil servant, will have no difficulty matching the Wandsworth tradition of hardworking Mayors and I look forward to seeing him at various functions over the course of his Mayoral year.

Laurie Green

Putney crusader Laurie Green, who has died - aged 84 - after a short battle with cancer, was a colourful and passionate advocate of any cause he championed.

Until just recently, Laurie lived in Hotham Road in the heart of Putney - you could not miss his house because it was the one with posters, press cuttings and stickers plastered across the windows. And when they weren't in his windows, they were being posted to local representatives and fellow campaigners.

Laurie, who was a Communist usually left without a Communist candidate to vote for in Putney, helped found and maintain the Putney & Roehampton Organisation of Pensioners (PROP) alongside Labour Party stalwart Dora Holmes and others.

Above all others the cause he championed was better rights for pensioners - our last exchange of correspondence was over the number of pensioners living in poverty despite the million who have been lifted out of it in the past decade by Labour. Of course, Laurie was right that more needs to be done, and my push for the government to go further on both fuel poverty and the cost of food was, in part, influenced by Laurie's effective lobbying.

Laurie didn't just confine his letter-writing to elected representatives: he was a frequent correspondent to the local and national press, the Wandsworth Borough News regularly carrying his views on wrongs he was seeking to right.

Laurie recently moved from Hotham Road to The Pines nursing home in West Hill, though his stay there was to be short. He passed following treatment at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital which in many ways is fitting for this was the hospital that Laurie often mentioned as caring so wonderfully for his wife, Jean.

His family provided a quote in the recent edition of the Wandsworth Guardian that sums Laurie's values up perfectly:

"The meaning of life is not a fact to be discussed, but a choice that you make about the way you live your life."

My judgement is flawed

Well, when it comes to football, it is.

My agent is an ardent Fulham fan. as you might imagine he's a particualrly happy fella just now, as Fulham avoided the drop with a last day win at Portsmouth. A month ago I told him Fulham were finished and dead certs for relegation when they only managed a draw at the season's whipping boys, Derby. I was wrong, and am happy to admit it. Just goes to show that you should never write anyone off however dire things might seem for them!

Putney going to pot (holes)

Working my way around the constituency, I have to comment on the quite appalling state of many of the roads in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

I'm reminded of the Beatles' song "A Day In The Life":

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small they had to count them all: now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

If the Beatles had been around today, they could have substituted "Putney, Wandsworth" for "Blackburn, Lancashire" though I suspect the town hall has no idea how many holes there are in our streets.

There was even a letter in the Wandsworth Guardian from someone from Tooting about this problem last week. It made the - perfectly reasonable - point that low council tax is no excuse for leaving our streets in the state they're in: maintaining our highways is a fundamental duty of any council and our Conservative one is failing in it.

I'd like town hall bosses to visit Victoria Drive or Putney Heath - to single out just two of Putney's potholed streets - and see exactly how bad things have got. But the problem affects every part of the constituency: Danebury Avenue and Harbridge Avenue in Roehampton, Holroyd Road in West Putney and Kingsmere Road in West Hill - these are just a selection of roads from across Putney (click on each for the full size photo).

If you've got a pothole in your street, take a photo of it and send it to me: email stuart.king@putneylabour.org.uk or text 07533 384 895. I'll keep logging further examples of the council's neglect of our streets as I'm out and about around the constituency.

Together we may be able to shame the Conservatives into taking proper care of Putney's potholed roads.

Post Offices to close: council should now step in

Despite informing us that they would not be making a decision on their closure programme until the middle of June, eight weeks after the end of their consultation process, the Post Office yesterday rushed out its decision after barely four weeks' reflection.

It is extremely disappointing that neither of the Putney branches our community has fought so hard to save have been given a reprieve by Post Office Ltd, and so the existing branch in Upper Richmond Road (which is so unsatisfactory as it is) will become our only branch between Putney Hill and and the Thames.

There remains one last chance to save at least one of our two valuable and valued local Post Offices, and that is for the council to now step in and seriously investigate taking over the operation of these branches. The council has been vocal in its campaign - but now it needs to do more than just complain: it needs to act.

As Essex County Council and Cambridge City Council have shown by taking over branches in their areas and combining services they provide with postal facilities, this is a practical and demonstrably achievable outcome. There is, for example, a council parking shop in Lower Richmond Road about 100 metres from the post office. There is surely no reason why the services the parking shop offers, along with the ability to pay council tax and rent and all the other transactions we have with the council cannot be merged to keep this busy and popular local branch open.

I am - again - dismayed at the thoroughly unprofessional way the Post Office has sprung its decision upon us. It shows a distinct lack of courtesy to the hundreds and hundreds of us who took the trouble to give them our views who had to learn of this via yesterday's Evening Standard or BBC London News. The rush to get a decision out in half the time they said they would take suggests the most cursory lip-service was given to our representations. The entire consultation process has been governed by a complete lack of transparency.

By announcing the reprieve of a couple of branches close to us - one in Fulham and one in Wimbledon, the Post Office will no doubt claim that it has listened and responded. I disagree.

You can download the Post Office decision booklet which gives a cursory paragraph or two to each of its closure decisions. I'll write more about what I think of their arguments in a subsequent post.

The Burma Cyclone

So, barely two years after the tsunami that devastated Thailand and the Indian coast in particular, Asia is again struggling to recover from another natural disaster; this time Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

As if the cyclone is not challenging enough to respond to, Burma has one of the most stifling, bureaucratic, secretive and oppressive political regimes anywhere in the world.

Twice last year I wrote about this regime and criticised the rapidly-moving news agenda that too quickly lost interest in the supression of the democracy protests there.

The military junta is doing all it can to give the impression that it is more concerned that the cyclone has re-focussed international attention on their country rather than the horrific loss of life of their citizenry.

There can be no other reason why their Government is dragging its feet on letting aid agencies into the country, why it continues to prevent the media from adequately reporting the tragedy and persists in forging ahead with ludicrous plans to hold a so-called constitutional "referendum" this weekend.

The world must assist the devastated people of Burma: we cannot play politics with international aid.

But Burma's two main exports - paddy fields and offshore natural gas fields - have been absolutely devastated by the Cyclone and in the long term the international community would be absolutely within its rights to explain in categorical terms to the military junta that reconstruction aid and assistance must be coupled with political reform.

And that means the release and reinstatement of Aung Sun Su Kyi, the nation's democratic, elected leader.

Time to reclassify Cannabis

I very much welcome the Home Secretary's decision to reclassify Cannabis as a more harmful drug.

Since Cannabis was "downgraded" in classification in January 2004 even the most liberal newspaper on the market - The Independent - which led the campaign to decriminalise this drug, has changed its position.

It's important to recognise that there are many different types of Cannabis - it's not a single homogenous drug. Nor are its effects uniform on its takers.

But it is not a harmless drug: it can cause depression, exacerbate schizophrenic tendencies and cause exactly the same long-term damage that smoking cigarettes does: lung cancer, bronchitis and other respiratory harm - in fact cannabis contains MORE tar than cigarettes. In addition, heavy cannabis use results in nerve damage and impairs learning.

Some strains of the drug, notably one known as skunk, are far more powerful and have the same addictive qualities as many more "hard" drugs like heroin. So let no-one tell you that cannabis is harmless or that we should tolerate our kids smoking it in order to discourage them from experimenting with harder drugs.

I believe there is a strong case for cannabis to be made available as a therapeutic drug under doctors' prescription to assist those suffering major pain. And of course we need to put in place even better support for cannabis, and other drug, addicts. But those are both issues removed from whether this should be something the police in reality ignore or which they intervene to deter.

I believe the original decision to reclassify cannabis from class B to C was wrong; I'm delighted that decision is to be reversed and hope it will form part of a wider package of measures to tackle drug misuse and addiction in our society.

London

With Thursday's London results finally counted [why did it take so long?], I congratulate Boris Johnson on his election as Mayor of London and Richard Tracey on his success in being elected to represent Putney at City Hall.

I particularly want to pay tribute to Ken Livingstone's eight years' service as Mayor. As Boris Johnson acknowledged in his victory speech, Ken has devoted his life to London and, agree or disagree, as London's first Mayor has developed the position into one of substance, influence and international significance. There is no doubt that our mayoral system is here to stay and that has a lot to do with the success Ken has made of the job. in 2000 when he was first elected many considered London's competition to be Frankfurt or Paris. Today it is with New York.

I'm pleased that Mayor Johnson has announced his top priorities are building further on Ken's public transport and policing improvements. But the campaign is over: now is the time for delivery. And no-one, whether you voted for him or not, can know what Boris intends to do, because beneath the soundbites, he was silent on substance. Four key questions will soon have to be answered:

• How will Boris cut council tax while, at the same time, increase spending on buses and policing?
  
• Will Boris really stand up to the Tory council locally and veto the high-rise monstrosities being planned for East Putney?
  
• How committed is he to retaining Putney's 40 Safer Neighbourhood Police officers?
  
• With his promise to scrap all affordable housing targets - and a Tory council locally champing at the bit to build zero affordable homes - how will he help Putney families face the housing crisis?

Since Thursday, much has - rightly - been made of the thoroughly dreadful result Labour was handed. But the result locally was actually pretty decent: the swing against us: just 1.3% was the lowest in any Conservative-won London Assembly seat. And this after thousands and thousands of luxury penthouses have been stacked up by the Conservative council across our borough.

In fact, Labour's Leonie Cooper (an excellent candidate who fought a terrific campaign) received more votes this year in losing than the Tories got four years ago when they won. Of course we lost and that's ultimately what matters but it does show that a hard-fought campaign, maintaining a presence locally and getting our vote out can have an impact, even in Labour's worst-ever year. That will continue to be our focus here in Putney over the next two years.

Visitors double in a month

Over 5,000 different individuals visited this website in April - that's almost double the 2,597 of you who checked it out in March, which in itself was a record breaking month.

And I have two national newspapers to thank for this big advance: the Sunday Times, for running their quiz which included a question on Sir Edwin Saunders - which drove over 1,200 visitors to my post on English Heritage Blue Plaques in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields; and the national coverage of my views on the impact on the poorest of the abolition of the 10p tax rate, which boosted daily visits to over 300 a couple of times the following week.

The 5,060 visitors viewed 21,282 pages, generating 72,366 hits. As well as the two posts mentioned above, popular pages included those that provided details about the London elections that took place yesterday and the archives of stories on a ward-by-ward basis: if you just want to read posts of specific relevance to your immediate area, you can do so by clicking:

• Here for East Putney
• Here for Roehampton
• Here for Southfields
• Here for Thamesfield
• Here for West Hill and
• Here for West Putney