Dramatic license...

Just before Christmas, the Conservatives sent out an absurdly over-the-top letter to residents of Kenilworth Court and surrounding areas scaremongering about an application to extend the time the small Eatmore Express shop at 9 Lower Richmond Road (just opposite Putney Bridge) can sell alcohol at weekends only.

The Conservatives all-but told residents that if this extension was approved the world would pretty much end: there would be hordes of drunken yobs rolling around in Lower Richmond Road and for some reason they failed to explain, it would all be the fault of the Labour Government. This despite licensing applications being a matter the Conservative-run council decides.

A stunning total of eight people were prompted to write in and object as a result of the Conservatives' scaremongering. And then the Licensing sub-committee - all Tory councillors - went ahead and granted the license extension without any amendment whatsoever! Read the decision here, if you like.

What a surreal episode, and what an extraordinary way to behave.

"Economic" crime? December crime stats

I often go on about the high level of crime in Thamesfield ward, which is almost entirely due to the amount of crime that occurs in and off of Putney High Street.

Let me try to put how much more crime there is in Thamesfield compared to the rest of Putney into context. There are more theft and handling offences alone in Thamesfield than the entire amount of reported crime in East Putney, West Hill or West Putney wards.

That's why my campaign for town centre patrollers in the High Street are so important: when they were tested out in Clapham Junction and Tooting about four years ago they cut street crime by one third. And they'll allow the Thamesfield Safer Neighbourhood teams to give more attention to the residential parts of their patch. It's why I'm also campaigning against the £472 million the Conservatives want to cut from the Metropolitan Police, which cannot but mean reductions in front-line police locally.

So-called economic crimes like theft, or burglary - ie property crimes, are likely to rise during an economic slowdown. Politicians always struggle to talk sensibly about such crimes for fear that talking about the reasons why a tiny minority become more likely to thieve and steal in such a climate equals condoning or understanding such behaviour. Of course there is never justification to take someone else's property -period.

Fortunately there isn't that much sign of property crime increasing in Putney - yet. Burglary is somewhat down in five wards and slightly up in one. Thefts did pick up noticeably in December in four wards, dropped in two. Drug offences were down across the board and sex offences down in five out of six wards. There also seems to be a delay in reporting any crimes during the Christmas period in the figures - maybe these will feed through to the January figures due out next month.

Roehampton Lane right-turn ban: 61% say "no"

In another spectacular misjudgement of public opinion, the Conservative plans to ban right turns from Roehampton Lane into Medfield Street have been rejected by a thumping 61.1% NO vote.

To recap, the Conservative plans - drawn up way back in early 2006 by Putney Tory MP Justine Greening and our former Tory London Assembly member - wanted to ban cars turning into Medfield Street, supposedly to ease traffic rat-running through Roehampton and the Dover House estate.

As pretty much everyone except the Tories realised, just banning cars turning into these roads but NOT Roehampton High Street and Rodway Road would simply push all the rat-run traffic into these residential roads and not solve the problem in the Dover House at all.

Now, three years on, a hugely costly consultation later and having disillusioned thousands of local people with their do-nothing approach to the area's traffic problems, the Conservatives have graciously agreed to abide by the 61% no vote and consign their crazy plan to the dustbin.

Even a majority of Medfield Street residents opposed the Tory plan! In the Quadrant area that includes Rodway Road, and in Roehampton High Street the no vote was 85% and 86% respectively. Quite right too.

A more modest plan to ban right-turns into Ponsonby Road, where Roehampton Church School and Holy Trinity is, received a narrow yes vote of 54% and this will proceed, subject to review after six months.

You can read the report on the consultation here.

Buzz Lightyear...no, Buzz Greening!

Today's Wandsworth Guardian reports that Putney's Tory MP has discovered that Putney has been beset by power shortages - some three months after they started!

I know some MPs get a little absorbed in the Westminster bubble and lose touch with their constituency but even I didn't realise that it takes three months for local news to reach them there. Maybe she should reconsider her decision to close down her constituency office in Putney soon after she got elected - something I pledge I will never do.

On this basis, it'll probably be round about March when she discovers that I've already raised the catalogue of power outages with EDF Energy and had a really positive response from them over two weeks ago, back on 13 January, as I reported here and my original letter to the National Grid, back in November here, and on the putneysw15 website here.

But if 90% of success is showing up, I'm just happy that Justine Greening's standing up for the other 10%.

Arctic Survey

In less than a month's time, a really important expedition to the Arctic will begin, to survey the ice there to try to work out how long we have before it melts away entirely.

This is possibly the most important survey on climate change ever and not just for the information it will produce, but because of the credibility it will finally give to climate change models.

No one but those on the extreme fringes now denies climate change. But on the other extreme, the somewhat hysterical warnings by the Green movement and even some scientists who should know better have lacked credibility and alienated people. That's because, for all the academic research they've produced, it's all been based on models, and models require subjective hypotheses to produce results. Those hypotheses are well-intentioned but unreliable because we have very little information upon what will be the critical driver of extreme climate change: the melting of polar ice.

Why is the Arctic so important? Four reasons. First of all, because it is the largest mass of ice on the planet - and ice acts as a mirror, bouncing solar rays back into space rather than heating the planet. As this mass gets smaller, less will be bounced back. And that will speed up climate change.

Second, because the floating ice represents millions of tonnes of water that, when melted, will raise sea-levels catastrophically. That will have a critical impact on islands like ours, as well as millions of people in low-lying countries like Bangladesh and throughout the Pacific.

Third, the Arctic acts as a tidal pump for the world's seas: warm water from the mid Atlantic pushes north, hits the colder and saline-heavy Arctic water and is pushed below it where it too cools. This phenomenon is why Britain benefits from warmer weather than our geographic position merits - we are on the same line of latitude as Montreal and Moscow, yet never get the same severity of weather. That's due to the Gulf Stream, and the Gulf Stream is channelled towards us by this pump mechanism. In short, no Arctic will probably mean the gulf stream channelling far further south, and instead of warming, Britain will freeze.

And fourth, the Arctic is the catalyst for the massive acceleration in global warming. I've already mentioned that without the ice, less solar rays will be bounced back into space. That will increase global warming. In turn, there are huge frozen reserves of greenhouse gasses trapped in frozen peat around the northern rim of the world: throughtout Siberia and Alaska in particular. When these thaw, amounts of these gasses that will dwarf any carbon reductions we can make in our own ways of life, will escape.

So let's be clear: there is a genuine urgency to climate change. What people like me want from climate change experts is not model-driven hypothesis, but fact-based honesty. And that's why this expedition is so important.

So good luck to Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley who'll be braving the sub-zero temperatures (including actually having to swim in the Arctic Ocean carrying equipment-laden sleds), alien environments and the occasional Polar Bear, to obtain the most comprehensive data ever compiled on the depth of Arctic ice and how the Arctic Ocean is being affected by climate change.

You can find out more about the survey and keep track of the expedition's progress at http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/ (I recommend watching the short video on the site). It sets off in 21 days.

Slaughter resigns on Heathrow

A few days ago I posted the comments of Andrew Slaughter, the MP for the northern part of next-door Hammersmith & Fulham, setting out his opposition to Heathrow.

Andy has now resigned his government position so that he can advocate for his position against the expansion of Heathrow, which he was unable to do from within Government.

Clearly his position is different to Justine Greening's who is choosing to hang onto her Opposition frontbench job and is presumably content with the Conservatives' muddled and contradictory policy on aviation.

This is the letter Andy is sending to his constituents explaining his decision:

Dear Resident,

I am writing personally to explain why I have resigned from the Government over the decision to allow the 3rd runway to be built at Heathrow.As a lifelong resident and elected representative here for almost 25 years, I feel this issue is so important that I need the freedom to continue campaigning against Heathrow expansion.

As Labour MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherds Bush, I continue to support the Government as it works to lead Britain out of recession. This year will, I believe, see the biggest investment ever in schools, hospitals and public transport.But my first duty as an MP is to you. I have fought many local campaigns in recent years: to keep post offices and our job centre open; against the licensing of sex clubs; and to stop cuts in vital council services.
Heathrow is a bigger issue, but not a new one. I have battled airport expansion for 20 years. Heathrow's owners promised there would be no expansion after Terminal 5. Now they want a 3rd runway and 6th terminal. Like many local people, I say enough is enough.

Ministers are insisting that stringent noise and pollution limits are met before the new runway can be used, and that use of existing runways will not grow. But Heathrow will seek a way to break these promises once again.
Thousands of us could be affected by all-day aircraft noise, not to mention the impact on the wider environment. Opposition from residents and green groups means that we can stop a 3rd runway being built. I assure you that my fight against it will go on.

I hope you agree that I have made the right decision.

Yours faithfully

Andy Slaughter MP

For more visit http://www.andyslaughter.com/

How high is high enough?

In my earlier post I promised to post some photos I've taken from the block next door to Tileman House, No.125 Upper Richmond Road. These were taken from the 8th floor a few months back. Although at the resolution I'm using to fit them in here you can't see it, take my word for it that you can see the City of London, the Wembley arch, the Post Office Tower and much more from the top of this building.

And just as importantly, you can see 125 Upper Richmond Road - and most of the other blocks along this stretch of Upper Richmond Road - from Putney Bridge. These are highly visible buildings, made more so because Upper Richmond Road is slightly elevated up Putney Hill. In short, the views from and to these buildings is incredibly important. Before too long, we could see at least three high rise overdevelopments in this stretch, to mix in with the sixties office blocks that add so little to the environment.

That's not the Putney I know - and it's not the Putney I want. How about you?

Tileman House planning news

The Council has at last got round to producing a Planning News leaflet on the Tileman House application for Upper Richmond Road near the corner with Putney Hill. You can download it here.

My initial reaction when I opened the file is that we're on course to have exactly the same issues here as residents are having with the Clapham Junction towers consultation (and Danebury Avenue), namely the questionable veracity of the artists' impressions of the impact of the plan.



Take this one: you'd never take from this impression that Tileman House is almost TWICE the height of the brown building this side of it - the Heathbridge Clinic building - 125 Upper Richmond Road. Later on I'll post some photos that I've taken from the top of 125 Upper Richmond Road just so you can see how high this building is - Tileman will be almost doubly high.

The elevations also employ considerable artistic license: the one below is supposedly the "rear" elevation - ie the view as it towers over St John's Avenue. Curiously, all the blocks in St John's Avenue have vanished, to be replaced by lovely trees.



The plans for Tileman House are clearly of a superior design and fit less badly into their surroundings than the Putney Place towers, further up Upper Richmond Road did. They are also an improvement on the current Tileman House. But the fact that they are better does not mean they are the best they can be - and design alone is not the biggest problem here.

That would be the height, followed by the loss of office space, followed by the housing. And I'll write more about each of these in subsequent posts.

Stand up to hatred: Holocaust Memorial Day

The picture to the right is not of a cattle shed on some farm: it's of one of the barracks prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camps were crated in until they met their fate. Prisoners typically were crammed in four to a bed, with up to a thousand in each shed.

Holocaust Memorial Day is held on 27 January because it marks the day towards the end of the Second World War that this concentration camp was liberated.

The Nazi Holocaust is of course the most shocking and largest in size in modern history; but today is also about far more than commemorating an event that happened 60 years ago: We also remember the victims of far more recent tragedies in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur - all of which have occurred in my lifetime: one since 2000.

The Holocaust Memorial Day website contains a huge amount of information and background resource to today's events - please find time to visit it:

http://www.hmd.org.uk/

Child Trust Fund investments

Like all investments, my colleague John Mann, the MP for Bassetlaw, has been highlighting the drop in value of Child Trust Funds since the global banking crisis began.

I've been campaigning since 2007 to encourage local families to claim their children's trust funds - around three quarters do. On top of the lump sum the Government invests for all babies born since 2002, relatives and friends can add up to £1,200 a year to the accounts.

For me, Child Trust Funds are among the government's most significant achievements and, used wisely, could provide a major help to anyone going to university, starting in work, buying a first car or putting down a deposit on a flat - even reinvesting for a rainy day.

But as investment portfolios have lost value so to have the CTF investments - by as much as 32%. John Mann is calling for all investments to the funds made before the child is ten (which as the scheme is only seven years' old means all investments to date) to be guaranteed. The problem is not so much about whether the funds - which can't be touched until the age of 18 - will recover their value, but more that the losses and instability are giving pause for thought to those who might otherwise have invested.

So much of the current global financial crisis is down to confidence - or the lack thereof. Banks won't lend to each other because of this lack of confidence, and that's driven those with less cashflow to the wall; in turn starving businesses of much needed financing and sparking a chain reaction. John Mann's principal concern is restoring confidence to the Child Trust Fund idea - because this is one of the most significant ways a family can invest in their future.

After the recession

Yesterday, I published the transcript of President Obama's first weekly address to the American public. Today, I thought I reproduce the text of a speech by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, which he gave to a Jobs Summit a few days ago.

I thought it was worth reading because in the global economic crisis almost all the media coverage - understandably - is on the immediate turbulence that occurs on a day-to-day basis; and very little is on rebuilding our economy in the medium term. Lord Mandelson's speech shows how our Labour Government is both tackling the current crisis and planning for the long term.

WHERE ARE THE JOBS GOING TO COME FROM?

As Business Secretary, my job is to help deliver real help for viable businesses to get them through the recession. We are doing that and further support measures will be set out later this week. But the government's job is also to look to the longer term. What we do today must also lay the foundations for future economic strength.

So, the first question for a long term take on the UK labour market has to be - what kind of British economy is going to emerge from the current downturn?

It's of course impossible to say with precision. But we know a few things.

We know, for example, that the UK is almost certainly going to emerge from this downturn with a consolidated financial services sector. The British consumer is going to be minding their money a little more carefully, so retail will probably grow more slowly than the rest of the economy. After a decade of badly needed investment that has strengthened many parts of the public sector, public sector job creation will not grow at anything like the same rate.

So this raises a big question. Where are the jobs going to come from?

Continue reading this post >

Act or do nothing - in President Obama's words

Yesterday President Obama gave his first weekly video address to America - you can watch it here. I thought I reproduce the text of that address, because the subject was the one that affects the UK as much as the US: the global economic crisis.

President Obama makes exactly the same case to his country as Labour is making here. The only difference is that while President Obama enjoys cross-party support for his recovery, the Conservatives choose to play politics and worse - peddle the absolutely absurd idea that doing nothing is what this country needs. Here's the President's Address:

We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future.

In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

That is why I have proposed an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to immediately jumpstart job creation as well as long-term economic growth. I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month.

It?s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there?s so much work to be done. That?s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It?s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Continue reading this post >

Wandsworth NHS leads country on accessible GPs

Earlier this month the Government announced that 69% of GP practices in England and Wales now offer "out of hours" services to their patients. But in Wandsworth, that percentage is 75%: 36 of our 48 GPs provide extended opening hours, making it easier for you to see the Doctor after work or at the weekend.

This is great news and even more calls into question the Conservatives' extraordinary position of opposing this service along with polyclinics. Putney's Conservative MP is desperately trying to hide the fact that her opposition to improved GP services is completely at odds with the clearly expressed wishes of the public in the NHS survey. Meanwhile, with Labour NHS services keep getting better.

A sign of the importance local people place on continually improving services was seen on Thursday evening when the Putney Society held an update meeting on local plans for a West Wandsworth polyclinic (serving Putney & Roehampton), at which local GPs ands NHS managers briefed residents on the polyclinic plans and what they would mean locally.

Over 60 members of the public turned up at St Mary's Church to listen, and I took the chance of being there for most of the presentations before being having to leave to speak at another local meeting nearby.

Miss Greening is on the wrong side of this issue. People very strongly want the sort of change Labour is delivering, and while of course there is concern about changing the way health provision is delivered, better quality, quicker and more comprehensive general medical services will, I believe, trump those apprehensions.

Goldsmith gambles as Tories ridicule £5 savings

Last week's Mail on Sunday reported that Conservative candidate for next-door Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, has won "around £150,000" in bets he made on Barack Obama wining the US Presidency.

The website Political Betting questioned the fact that the odds Mr Goldsmith - son of Sir James Goldsmith who famously stood for Putney in 1997 and who left him a £500 million inheritance - reportedly received in order to net such large winnings are ones which "mere mortals" aren't able to get from bookies - and that's an issue in itself.

However, in the same week as the Tories' mocked the £5 a week the cut in VAT has put in the pockets of average families and pensioners, to me it's another sign of how the Tories just don't appreciate the importance of money to ordinary people. They also obviously failed to notice the one sector of the economy that actually expanded in the last quarter was retail - both due to the big discounts but also because of Labour's VAT cut.

They have said that the recession should just "run it's course" without any government help because no matter how bad it gets, they're not affected in the same way ordinary families are. They mock £5 a week being put into people's pockets, because to them £5 is a worthless sum. And they can regularly fritter thousands away on gambling whilst at the same time lecturing us all on financial responsibility.

The BBC is wrong on Gaza appeal

I watched Newsnight on Friday when Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer at the BBC attempted to justify the broadcaster's decision not to broadcast an appeal on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) for humanitarian aid to Gaza. She didn't do so well.

This is not about the rights or wrongs of Israel's invasion of Gaza or the rocket attacks on Israel that provoked it. That intervention is thankfully now over and innocent civilians need help.

The DEC is not some fly-by-night partisan organisation: it's the international body that co-ordinated help after the Pakistan and Iranian earthquakes, the Burma hurricane, and the Thailand tsunami. In several - if not all - of these natural disasters, the BBC has broadcast appeals by the DEC.

Of course the situation in Gaza is not a natural disaster - nor was Darfur, yet they broadcast DEC appeals for help with that crisis.

This is not about taking sides - it would take an exceptionally blinkered person to misinterpret a broadcast for aid on behalf of Gaza's civilians as BBC partiality on behalf of Hamas.

The Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, has urged the BBC to rethink this mistake. He is right to do so. Our Labour Government has already agreed to £30 million in additional aid going to Gaza since the crisis began after Christmas. If that aid can be doubled, trebled or quadrupled by an appeal on the BBC then isn't that exactly the sort of public service we should expect of a public service broadcaster?

UPDATE: BBC Director General Mark Thompson sets out his reasons for rejecting the DEC request here. This is the strongest defence of the BBC position I've seen, but I personally would still have taken the opposite decision.

Should you wish to make a donation to the DEC appeal, please use the following link: http://www.dec.org.uk/item/200

British Armed Forces Day: 27 June

I was delighted that the government last week announced the first-ever British Armed Forces Day, which will take place on Saturday 27 June 2009.

This will be an opportunity for the entire nation to celebrate the vital contribution our servicemen and women make to our country; to say thank you, and to reflect on their sacrifices for our country over the years.

For the past three years 27 June has marked Veteran's Day, but the government felt that serving, as well as retired servicemen and women should be celebrated.

The historic Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham in Kent has been chosen to host the main Armed Forces Day celebrations, but there will be other events up and down the land - including, hopefully, at the Territorial Army base in Merton Road and the Royal British Legion in Upper Richmond Road.

I would like the government to go further and make Armed Forces Day a Bank Holiday - something I will work hard for as Putney's MP and which I first wrote about last June.

You can find out more about Armed Forces Day at http://www.armedforcesday.org.uk/

Councils can start building affordable homes again

Our Labour Government is lifting restrictions on councils being able to build new affordable homes.

This is a real challenge for Wandsworth Council, which has made an awful lot about the 200 "hidden homes" it has built in the last five or so years and now has the chance to show us how committed it really is to building affordable homes.

On the one hand we do have the 200 hidden homes - an excellent initiative but always limited in how many homes they can build because they're units built on existing estates where bin-sheds and garages once were.

On the other, they've sold off over 16,000 council homes, something that has caused massive homelessness and housing shortages and has destroyed estates as stable communities have become buy-to-let, high-turnover ghettos.

Now, instead of just having to search around for the odd space where a home could be fitted, useful amounts of affordable homes could be built in Putney.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said this when launching the new scheme:

"We are determined to help keep house building going in the current climate, as the long term need for more homes is not going to disappear. These new freedoms will encourage councils to play a bigger role in driving forward the delivery of new affordable homes for families in housing need."

This is a good first step. But we need to cut away a lot more of the red tape that stops councils building affordable homes for rent.

Evening Standard exposes Tory high rise lie

Below I reproduce the main article in last night's Evening Standard. The first two lines should be incredibly alarming for Putney:

"One of Boris Johnson's most popular election pledges was to oppose the building of towers in unsuitable locations...it also proved to be the pledge he was to break most quickly and more often than any other."

The Standard is absolutely right on both counts. I know many local people voted Tory in last year's Mayoral election because they believed he would protect our area from high rise threats. Would you like to bet any money at all that Boris Johnson will call in and halt the gross overdevelopment on the Ram Brewery site in central Wandsworth, with its huge tower development, approved by Tory councillors just before Christmas? Of course he won't.

Yesterday I showed how the Tories were breaking their promise not to cut police - today the Evening Standard is showing how they lied about protecting Putney and other parts of London from overdevelopment.

Tories tell Met to make £472milllion savings

For all the - untrue - Tory rhetoric of falling police numbers, you'd think they had a policy of massively increasing the number of bobbies on the beat, wouldn't you?

Of course, the reality is utterly different to the Tory spin. London Mayor Boris Johnson has told the Metropolitan Police Authority to make an astonishing £472 million in cuts.

It gets worse.

In the same breath as they claim that this massive cut will not reduce police numbers, they announce their intention to recruit 900 unpaid special constables in order to pick up the slack created by "redeploying" 550 existing Police Officers to other duties which have been vacated by retirees.

Doesn't that sound like a cut to you?

It really is back to the future with the Conservatives. In 1993, Wandsworth had 693 Police Officers. By the time the damage Michael Howard and the Tories had wrought had fed through, we were down to 568. That's a Tory cut in local Police numbers of 125!

By the end of November last year, Labour had increased Police numbers to 592 plus 96 Safer Neighbourhood Community Support Officers - a total of 688. Don't take my word for it: the Metropolitan Police Authority records the figures here.

Of course the Tories can't cut £472 million without sacking Police. Of course that means fewer police in Putney. And of course that means they lied to you when seeking election last year.

Tories to close Newlands Hall

In the Autumn of 2007, the Conservative Council announced plans to close Newlands Hall - the community hall in the middle of the Putney Vale estate in Roehampton.

The Tories claimed that the hall was too dilapidated for them to - as they see it - waste money on refurbishment (despite being responsible for allowing it to fall into such shameful disrepair).

Over 100 residents of the estate signed a petition of mine opposing the closure and this duly was discussed by councillors on 15 November 2007 - the link is here (scroll down to item 19).



As you can see from the minutes of the meeting openly available on the council website, as a result of the petition the Tories promised to consult residents again before determining the fate of Newlands Hall.

A few days ago, Putney Vale residents found out by chance that Newlands Hall was being closed on 31 January. No consultation has taken place with the estate. And the reason they're closing the Hall? They've apparently given it to a group that they're kicking out of Heathmere School on the Alton Estate.

This is outrageous dishonesty by Wandsworth Conservatives. They have a track record of neglecting Putney Vale - cancelling work, ignoring problems like traffic travelling to and from Hall School, anti social behaviour and flytipping, axing funding for the Youth Club in Stag House and now they've blatantly broken another promise to the estate.

Shame on them.

My archive of this saga can be read here.

November crime stats

Crime fell again in all six Putney areas in November 2008 (remember there's a two month lag between the month they happened and the reporting of them).

As this graph shows, with the exception of December 2007, when crime spiked in the run-up to Christmas, all wards are now safer than they were in May 2007 when I first started reporting these figures. There have been marked falls in crime in Roehampton and Southfields during this period - during which Roehampton has become substantially safer than the London average.



As we saw at the end of last year, it's probably wise to forecast a notable jump in crime in the December figures - but what we also saw was a January fall larger than the December "blip" - so that's also something to watch out for.

Here are November's figures - a reminder that green figures show a decline or the same level of crime as the preceding month; red shows an increase.

Second jobs? Not for Police, just Tory MPs

The Conservatives last week announced that they thought Police officers should be banned from taking second jobs to supplement their income.

Tory MP David Ruffley was quoted as saying: "...the prime responsibility of an officer of the law is to have all their focus and attention on serving. It is hard to see what circumstances would justify having more than one job."

It's great when MPs take such strong, clear, principled stances. I believe exactly the same principle should be applied to MPs who should have more than enough to occupy them in representing their constituents.

Unfortunately, Mr Ruffley isn't someone who practices what he preaches. Here's his declaration from the Register of MPs' interests:

• Adviser on economic affairs to Lotus Asset Management (£15,001-£20,000)
• Adviser to Dentons Pension Management Ltd, giving general strategic business advice. (£25,001-£30,000)
• Adviser to Partnership Group Holdings Limited, giving strategic business advice (£25,001-£30,000)

So on top of his £70,000 MP's salary, Mr Ruffley has not one, not two, but THREE other jobs which combined more than double his income. And here he is telling Police officers on starting salaries of just over £20,000 a year that they can't do as he does (for much lower remuneration).

Conservatives. Hypocrites is too mild a term for them.

Help?

Wandsworth & Merton Law Centre is looking for somewhere to hold their free drop-in legal sessions.

Originally based at Putney Citizens Advice Bureau (before the Tory council closed it a few years ago), the Law Centre then moved to Wandsworth County Court in East Putney, but they have just been told that they can no longer use it either.

The Centre is looking for a venue to use once a week that has, ideally, three interview rooms and a reception area, and needs to be rent-free. The sessions were held on Tuesday evenings From 7pm to 8.30pm but I suspect the Law Centre will accept a change of day if they can be accommodated some other night.

This is a really important local service provided by volunteers. In the current economic climate I suspect their services will be even more in demand. So if you can help, or you know of a venue locally that can get in touch. Email Debbie Phelan at debbie@swllc.org.uk.

More on Heathrow

Andrew Slaughter, Labour MP for the northern part of next-door Hammersmith & Fulham (and former Leader of the council there which was one of the founders of the anti-Heathrow organisation that is now the 3M Group) , has written this about the Heathrow decision, which builds upon my comments of Thursday.

When the announcement on Heathrow expansion came on Thursday, after many delays, there were some surprises. Mixed mode - the doubling of traffic and noise on existing runways - has been dropped.

This is good news for millions of Londoners - including those in the southern half of Hammersmith & Fulham, not only because runway alternation will continue granting half a day of peace but because mixed mode could have been introduced almost immediately.

The binding undertakings on noise and pollution and the promised new high-speed rail links are also more than we were expecting even a week ago.

But while I don't doubt the sincerity of Ed Miliband and Hilary Benn, who secured the guarantees that additional flights would not be allowed unless environmental targets were met, I do doubt the honesty of BAA to keep to those promises over the coming decades.

But - and it is an enornmous BUT - all the safeguards and mitigation in the world can't disguise the fact the BAA is intending to build effectively a new airport in the most densely populated area of the country (The capacity of the third runway alone will make it the third biggest 'airport' after Heathrow and Gatwick).

Hundreds of thousands of people living across London will experience sustained aircraft noise for the first time and the pressure on overloaded tube lines and motorways will not be sustainable.

Personally, I believe that the logic of Runway 3 is so faulted that it will never be built and I intend to continue to campaign against it. There are legal challenges underway and the planning process is far from clear. In the current economic climate it looks like a white elephant and the coalition against it is expressed in the 130 MPs from all parties who have condemned it.

Curiously, only 30 Tory MPs have signalled their opposition (compared with 50 Labour), supporting a story in the Financial Times today that many shadow cabinet members are secretly in favour.

Heathrow expansion threatens our quality of life in west London and the wider environmental interest of Britain and the world. It demands the broadest coalition to oppose it.

Heathrow

Along with many local residents, I was dismayed and disappointed by the decision to press ahead with a third runway at Heathrow. Like my Labour predecessor Tony Colman, I've been consistent in the importance I place on protecting Putney from aircraft noise.

Almost a year ago I set out my opposition to Heathrow's expansion and my support for a sensible aviation strategy that will protect London's economy. My views have not changed one bit.

I believe Parliament must get to vote on this issue. The argument the Transport Secretary gave for not proceeding with one - that Parliament does not get involved in "quasi judicial planning matters" does not wash. This is not a planning matter until a planning application is submitted - until then it is a matter of national transport policy, and a £9billion one at that. MPs should surely get a say on how to spend £9billion of public money.

Our collective lobbying has won a concession in the fact that mixed mode at Heathrow - that is, flights being able to take off and land on the same runways simultaneously - has been abandoned and runway alternation, which gives us hours of peace, will remain. That is good news and certainly not an inconsequential victory: mixed mode would have significantly increased noise over Putney, and its defeat means that Putney will continue to receive the same respite it gets now from flights in the afternoon. The ending of the Cranford Agreement may also see some minor improvements to noise levels.

Some of the anti-Heathrow campaigners are describing today as just the end of the beginning in the fight against a third runway and sixth terminal. I share that view. Putney is united against this expansion. And I continue to stand with Putney.

Power cuts

I've just received the following reply from EDF Energy to my recent letter about the power cuts that have affected Putney over the past few months. It's really good to learn that as a result of the problems I raised, EDF are now taking action to strengthen the power cable network in Putney, which should reduce the likelihood of outages in future.

Dear Stuart

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the electricity supply in the SW15 area. I was sorry to learn of the power cuts that may have affected both domestic and commercial properties and for any inconvenience this caused.

On receipt of your email I contacted the Lead Field Engineer (LFE) for your area and he has provided me with the following which I hope will be useful.

SW15 is fed from our Carslake Main Substation and in recent months we had four faults on our high voltage underground cable network:

• 17 September 16:56hrs - 256 customers restored in under 3 minutes by remote control
• 10 November 17:54hrs - 1578 customers affected with final restoration at 21:14hrs. This fault affected a shopping centre
• 27 November 06:55hrs - 817 customers affected with final restoration at 10:56hrs. This fault affected Upper Richmond Road including the railway station
• 1 December 19:19hrs - 213 customers affected with final restoration at 20:15hrs

We strive to give all our customers a safe and secure supply of electricity. However, despite our best efforts, interruptions to supply can occur for a variety of reasons. Some of these are not within our control and for this reason we cannot guarantee a continuous supply.

However, I wish to assure you as soon as we become aware of a problem on our network every effort is made to restore supplies quickly so the resulting impact is kept to a minimum.

I can confirm that the above faults are unrelated and we are not aware of any inherent problems with the network in your area but we will continue this area closely and should further problems arise we take the necessary action to resolve them. At the time of writing we have not had any faults on our high voltage network so far this year.

However, in order to reinforce the network which we believe to be vulnerable we are going to replace and upgrade a considerable amount of underground cable. The first 100metre section has now been commissioned and will be in the area of Carslake Road, Westleigh Road and Genoa Avenue.

The above relates to our high voltage network but as mentioned in my message yesterday there may have been more faults, such as the one you mention on 6 January 2009, that we will only be able to look at via specific postcodes.

I appreciate the links you provided but due to company security I only have access to sites regarded as business critical. Therefore I would once again ask for specific postcodes if possible, coupled with dates of the failures relating to that postcode.

Should you have residents who would like to know about specific faults particular top their properties please as them to either email our Customer Relations team at customer.relations@edfenergy.com or write to Customer Relations, EDF Energy Networks, Fore Hamlet, Ipswich, IP3 8AA.

They can also call a free phone number 0800 028 4587.

I hope the information I have provided is useful to you. However, you have my details below and if you require any further assistance please let me know.

Regards,

Mark

Mark Methven
Senior Customer Relations Officer

First parking permits up, now swimming charges

One of the things about having Conservatives in power locally is that we can judge what the Tories say they intend to do nationally by how they act locally.

So when, the day after Tory leader David Cameron claims he's against high taxes, Wandsworth Tories announce they're increasing the cost of parking permits by 27%, you get a good idea of the gap between Conservative rhetoric and reality.

Another example, announced just last week is the Tories' intention to hike up admission charges to swimming pools, gyms and other fitness centres across Putney and the borough from February. This again presents us with a stark difference of approach between the Conservatives and Labour.

The Labour Government announced last year that we would make swimming free from this year for pensioners and children - and free for all by the Olympics in 2012. The Conservatives want to price ordinary people out of our pools and are more interested in another nice little earner than encouraging people to stay fit and healthy.

Ironically, at the same meeting that the Tories rammed through the swimming charge increases, they also tabled a report to make sure that Wandsworth participates in the Government's free swimming programme. That they can't see a contradiction between their approach and Labour's free swimming shows how out of touch the Tories are.

Today's Lord Jenkins plaque unveiling

Me and some of the Putney Labour Party members who knew Lord Jenkins




Bruce Kent, the former CND Chairman, speaks before the unveiling of the plaque.




The plaque, which can be seen on the entrance to Kenilworth Court beside the 22 bus stop.

Plaque for Lord Jenkins

This weekend some long-standing Putney Labour Party members and I will be joining members of the Putney Society to unveil a commemorative plaque for Lord Jenkins of Putney at Kenilworth Court, where he lived for a long part of his life.

Hugh Jenkins was Labour MP for Putney between 1964 and 1979; he was the first-ever Labour MP for the constituency, defeating Conservative Sir Hugh Linstead. His wife Marie also served as a local councillor in Southfields. In parliament, during which time he was returned five times as MP for Putney, he rose to become Arts Minister.

Outside parliament, Hugh was a committed peace campaigner and after he was defeated in Putney in 1979 he became chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Jenkins of Putney, in 1981. Before becoming MP for Putney, Hugh was Deputy General Secretary of Equity and after his service he served on the Board of the Royal National Theatre.

Hugh did a huge amount for Putney and was a great supporter of the local Labour Party until his death almost exactly five years ago. He even wrote a book profiling the work of grassroots Labour Party members in Putney: Rank and File: Portrait of a Constituency Labour Party. Many of those who are referred to in the book will be attending the plaque unveiling on Saturday.

You can read more about Hugh Jenkins' life in The Guardian obituary here.

Putney Society NHS meeting

The Putney Society is hosting a meeting open to all on local health service provision on Thursday 22 January from 7.30pm at St Mary's Church, Putney Bridge.

Our NHS has improved massively over the last decade or so: a brand new Queen Mary's Hospital, waiting times cut hugely, more doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives employed. More change is on the way with work underway on replacing Putney Hospital and changes to GP services which will lead to much more convenient surgery hours and one-stop healthcare. You can find out more about all the plans, question the experts and have your say on 22 January.

Speakers:

- Dr Sian Job, Chair of Wandsworth Local Medical Committee
- Dr Peter Ilves, Senior Partner at Danebury Surgery, Roehampton
- Nicola Theron, SW Health Partnerships [Putney Hospital site]

The Tories' first-ever online shadow cabinet meeting...

Grown-up opposition

I follow American politics quite closely. Over in the States, political leaders are grappling with exactly the same economic issues we in Britain face: how to respond positively and effectively to the downturn.

I thought I'd share excerpts of a review from the independent US government publication Congress Daily with you, just to highlight how, over there, the opposition Republicans (the sister party to the Conservatives) are working with the government; whereas over here, the Tories just want to play politics, pretend this is a problem unique to and caused by Britain, and do nothing about the massive threat it represents. Here's the release:

President-elect Obama and Democratic leaders Monday pledged to work with Republicans to pass an economic stimulus package as soon as possible that could provide as much as $1.3 trillion over two years.

"We all recognize that the country is in a financial difficulty that we have never seen - maybe in the history of the country," Senate Majority [Democrat] Leader Reid said after the meeting. "And what we did at the meeting with President-elect Obama just a few minutes ago is to say that we would jointogether and try to move some economic recovery relief for the American people as quickly as possible."

"We have not received, of course, the exact package from the president-elect and his folks, but he has indicated that there are at least 20 economists he has talked with and all but one of those believe it should be from $800 [billion] to $1.2 or [$1.3] trillion," Reid said.

Obama said at a photo opportunity with [House of Representatives Speaker] Pelosi that "The reason we're here today is because the people's business can't wait. We've got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us; we're expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week."

At a briefing after the Democratic leaders spoke, Senate Minority [Republican] Leader McConnell and House Minority Leader Boehner, who also attended the meeting, said that they believe Obama's bipartisan gestures to be sincere.

"I think [Obama] would like to have a large bipartisan vote in favor of this package," McConnell said. " I think this bill is going to start out and hopefully end as an example of very significant bipartisan cooperation."

Wouldn't it be nice for the opposition on this side of the pond to behave so maturely, responsibly and constructively, instead of isolating themselves by arguing for the same do-nothing economic approach that did so much damage in the two Tory recessions of the 1980s and 1990s?

Tory fare hikes hit Putney

Yesterday was the first day in which many local commuters will have experienced the Tories' inflation-busting bus and tube fare hikes.

Bus fares increased on 01 January to £1 (assuming you have an Oystercard): an 11% increase - that's three times the rate of inflation, while a single tube journey now costs £2.20 - a 10% rise (again on Oystercard figures).

The Conservatives won votes last May because they promised - as the Tories always promise - to make the cost of living cheaper for us all. The fare rise comes only a few days after local Conservatives announced another huge increase in one of their notorious stealth taxes: residential parking permits - up 27% - which even Boris Johnson hasn't been able to match.

The Conservatives announced yesterday that transport was an area they wanted to cut spending on. So: fare hikes, parking permit hikes and service cuts - a New Year triple-whammy, courtesy of local Conservatives.

Cold Weather Payments

With weather this week set to fall several degrees below zero, Labour Government Cold Weather Payments have been triggered.

Labour increased the Cold Weather Payment last year from £8.50 to £25 a week. You should be eligible for a Cold Weather Payment for each week of this cold spell if you receive Pension Credits or if you are getting Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and have a child under five. There are other possible eligibility criteria, which you can check here.

Cold Weather Payments are triggered when the average temperature where you live is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days during the period from 1 November to 31 March.

You should recieve your CWP automatically but if you haven't received it or want to check whether you're eligible, contact either the Pension Service or Jobcentre Plus on 0800 055 6688.