Petition in support of Ahmadi muslims

There is - and has been for many years - a large community of Ahmadi Muslims living in Southfields and West Hill. They have a Mosque in Gressenhall Road in Southfields, which boasts being London's first Mosque having been built in 1926.

The Ahmadiyya are a worldwide community with many members living in Pakistan. They are regularly the subject of persecution and, in an attempt to highlight this, members of their community have established a petition on the 10 Downing Street e-petition website. The terms of the petition are as follows:

"The Government of Pakistan is currently keen on moving towards becoming a truly democratic and secular state. It is keen on promoting religious tolerance and rights of minorities in order to remove religious extremism. Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have faced for decades hatred and persecution in Pakistan.

We call upon the Prime Minister and Foreign Office to actively and urgently engage in mediating an end to the persecution suffered by Ahmadi Muslims in order to save thousands of innocent people including many children and women."

I have added my signature to the e-petition and encourage others to do likewise. At the time of writing this over 1,400 people have signalled their support. You can sign the petition online at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Ahmadi/


More information about the Ahmadiyya community can be found at http://www.alislam.org/

February crime stats

February's crime figures again show good progress; crime down in most categories and in most parts of the constituency.

It's worth comparing the six Putney wards with the London average, because this contrast shows exactly why we are one of the safest parts of the capital:

• Burglaries are lower than the London average in five of six Putney wards
• Criminal damage is lower in four of the six
• Drugs offences are - much - lower in every single Putney ward
• Fraud and forgery offences are - again, much - lower in every single Putney ward
• Robbery is lower in five out of six wards
• Sexual offences are lower in four of the six
• Theft and handling is very much lower in every ward except Thamesfield than the rest of London
• Violent crime is lower in five of the six wards

And the substantial increase in Police and Community Support Officers Putney has recently benefited from should help make Putney, Roehampton and Southfields even safer.

Police in the community

Regular visitors to my website will know of my longstanding support for both the concept and operation locally of police safer neighbourhood teams.

These teams of regular police officers and community support officers provide a visible uniformed presence on our streets and estates that both deter and detect crime. Without doubt they have been a phenomenal success not just here in Putney, Roehampton & Southfields, but right across London. Indeed, they are being rolled out across the country - everyone wants to see bobbies back on the beat and SNTs deliver that.

Sergeant Nigel Mussett leads West Hill's SNT, which has made tremendous inroads into tackling local concerns and crime hotpots in his ward - in particular tackling drugs issues on local estates and addressing a street disorder problem associated with a small number of unruly local pupils at the end of the school day.

Since SNTs have a very obvious and necessary community focus to their activity, it is not surprising that each team (we have six here) tries to engage directly with local residents through public meetings and ward panels. I attend as many of these as I can and recently popped along to a public meeting held by the West Hill team, one of the most successful of the 20 teams in the borough.

Five members of the police SNT were present, including Sgt Mussett, along with myself and a member of the council's housing department who were there as observers. Only four members of the public turned up. Sadly, this is not uncommon. I have attended Southfields ward meetings with as few as six people in attendance. The Roehampton SNT achieves a better turnout, with often as many as 20-25 members of the public present. And when I was a councillor in Tooting, we used to get similar numbers along to our meetings, although as councillors we worked hard to deliver this.

I think the police do a great job tackling crime, but they are still falling short of the mark when it comes to community consultation and engagement. I have some ideas how things could be improved, but I'd be interested to receive your ideas and suggestions as to how the police can get more local people to come along to these meetings. These meetings genuinely do determine the focus of activity for the SNTs, so local residents have every reason to get involved.

Work starts on Southfields tube

I was at Southfields tube station today to mark the start of the long-overdue work on the station that will add a passenger lift and generally transform it into a station fit for the 2012 Olympics.

The work to Southfields is only being undertaken because Wimbledon's All England Club is hosting the Olympic tennis and, of course, Southfields is the nearest station.

While Putney's Conservative MP has tried desperately to claim credit for this work commencing today, only those who worked so hard to persuade the the International Olympic Committee that the games should come to London can actually do so.

Making a real difference

The putneysw15 website is reporting yet another example of Putney's Police Safer Neighbourhood team's effectiveness.

A teenage robber has just been sentenced to three years in jail after being caught by the West Putney Safer Neighbourhood team just moments after accosting and stealing an I-Pod from someone in Larpent Avenue.

The Safer Neighbourhood team, who were patrolling on mountain bikes in the area were able to get to the scene of the crime promptly. From the description given by the victim and the direction the robber fled in, they were able to apprehend him within minutes.

Sgt Eric Ostrowski of West Putney Safer Neighbourhoods Team said: "This arrest within minutes of the offence and subsequent conviction has come about due to the courage of the victim in reporting this matter to police, the hard work of the Safer Neighbourhoods officers who were on patrol that day and the dedication of the Robbery Squad officers at Wandsworth.

"Due to this a violent individual has been removed from the streets of Putney for the foreseeable future. I hope this shows the public that we will continue to work with the local community in making our streets safer."

As usual, what is conspicuous by its absence from this story is any praise or support for our Safer Neighbourhood Police from Putney's Conservative MP, or any of its councillors. The Conservatives tried at every turn to stop former London Mayor Ken Livingstone introducing safer neighbourhood police teams - we now have forty of them - and voted against funding them once they lost that battle.

Ever since, the Conservatives have taken every turn to criticise, undermine and ridicule as ineffective our safer neighbourhood teams. That's despite a stream of success stories like this, and the consistent fall in crime Putney has benefited from since Labour introduced them.

January crime stats: Roehampton joins the sub-100 club

For the first time since I've been reporting Putney's crime figures, the number of recorded offences in Roehampton ward fell below 100 crimes per 1,000 residents in January.

This is a remarkable achievement by Roehampton's Safer Neighbourhood team, and I congratulate them. In May 2007; the first month I reported Putney's stats, Roehampton crime rate was 127.5 - last month it was 97.7: that's a drop of 25% in just over a year and a half.

January's figures also show that there was no "Christmas spike" in crime, as there was over the December/January period in 2008. Crime fell in four of our six wards, and in most categories of crime. There is also no sign of a surge in so-called "economic crime" linked to the recession, yet, although drugs offences rose in Putney, Wandsworth and London as a whole.

"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.

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.

Parking permits up 27%

The day after Tory Leader David Cameron lectured us about the evils of tax increases, Wandsworth Conservatives unveil a 27% increase in the cost of residents parking permits.

The price of a permit will now be £95 - a cost that has increased 44% since the council elections two years ago.

Curiously, the Conservatives mentioned nothing about their plans to hike up the cost of parking permits in their election manifesto for those elections - just as they forgot to tell us about their plans to close Wandsworth Museum or West Hill Library.

This is the reality of Wandsworth: Council Tax may be low but only because the Tories claw back the money through stealth taxes like this.

Inflation busting parking permit hikes are just one example; council tenants pay among the highest rents in London; pensioners needing home helps pay among the highest charges in London; charges for collecting bulky rubbish are among the highest in London; the amounts raised through library fines among the highest in London (and slammed by the Taxpayers' Alliance, no less); leisure centre charges among the highest in London; even the cost of dying - burial charges - are among the highest in London.

The irony of this 27% parking permit hike is that at the last council elections Labour in Wandsworth under my leadership pledged to make parking permits for the first car in every household free - which we'd have paid for by increasing the costs for second and subsequent parking permits in multi-car households. Of course, the Conservatives won those elections - so they'll say you get what you voted for.

It goes to show the real difference your vote makes locally.

Crime: how does Putney compare with the rest of the borough?

The October crime figures, just released, again show good progress by the Police in cutting crime. East Putney and West Hill wards all saw declines in every single category of crime; in West Putney all categories bar one were down. Overall, crime fell in five of our six council wards, with only a small rise in Southfields.



With crime figures, context is everything - it's why, alongside the ward by ward figures, I also provide the borough and London averages - so you can see how Putney is doing compared to larger areas. But this month, I thought you might be interested in seeing how Putney's six council wards compare to their fourteen counterparts elsewhere in the borough.

In the table below I'm just showing the "total" number of crimes per 1,000 - the figure that's in the shaded grey box in the table above. And, instead of ordering them alphabetically, I've ranked them in terms of that total crime rate - with the lowest crime areas at the top, and the highest at the bottom.

Three of the safest four council wards anywhere in the borough are in Putney - and four of the top ten. But Putney's Thamesfield ward is the most crime-ridden ward in the borough by far. Putney probably has the largest shopping centre in the borough, so it is to be expected that the sort of town centre crime that affects Thamesfield will be higher than other town centres. But I don't think the gap should be quite so stark.

Putney BNP members outed

The entire national membership list of the fascist, racist British National Party has been posted on the web.

I managed to get a look before the website was taken down, and found that the BNP has a grand total of eleven members in Putney - not exactly a mass membership party!

But you'd be surprised where some of them live - mainly in more affluent parts of the constituency like the Southfields Grid, a street off Lower Richmond Road, the Lytton Grove area and leafy West Putney.

These are usually regarded as affluent, Conservative-voting areas, somewhat removed from the stereotyped BNP member as working class, living on a council estate and poor. But wherever they live, BNP members are just pathetic, usually poorly educated people who can't handle the modern world and who are too cowardly to do anything other than blame "outsiders" for that.

How to treat 85 year old war veterans, by Wandsworth Council

Last week I wrote to the Housing Department about an 85 year old war veteran in West Hill with serious health problems whose bedroom keeps getting flooded because of leaks from the flat of the council tenant above him. His bedspread is now a tarpaulin, his carpet squelches with the water it has absorbed and his insurance premiums have soared because he keeps having to claim to repair the damage he had no hand in causing. I know this because I visited and saw for myself on Saturday.

My constituent had repeatedly asked the council to sort out the leaks but no action had been taken. I was happy to step in to see if I could help him out. Yesterday I got a reply from the Housing Department. Here's what they wrote:

"Mr X is a leaseholder. Therefore, regardless of his age, health or military experience he is responsible for carrying out any works within his property...I do not feel that the fact that I was unable to agree to Mr X's suggestion means that I, or anyone else in this team, have been inconsiderate or uncaring and I do not feel that an apology is necessary. The responsibility to repair the damage lies with him."

Well, that may be the sort of reply Putney's Conservative MP, or the three Conservative Councillors for West Hill might find acceptable, but I don't.

Wandsworth Council is renowned for seeking to claim back all costs to its property caused by others - and rightly so. Now the boot is on the other foot and suddenly repeated damage to a war veteran's home caused from a property they own is "nothing to do with us gov".

I've got news for them: it is and I'm not going to stop until they honour their responsibilities and show a little bit more respect to someone who served their country and never asked for any help from anyone, until now. Look at the way the Tories respond: contemptibly.

Conserving Putney

As regular readers will know, I think the character of Putney, Roehampton and Southfields is under real threat from greedy developers who've been given the green light to put forward the most appalling plans for overdevelopment by the lack of leadership of local Conservatives.

One of the main weapons we have against overdevelopment is our conservation areas. These provide extra protection (or, as developers would claim, restriction) over those parts of our area most steeped in history or of special character.

The Council has begun the process of reviewing these areas, of which Putney has several. First up in our area are three conservation areas, each of which has a special public meeting coming up to which you are welcome to attend and give your views:

• Landford Road along with Lower Common: Thursday 04 December, Dryburgh Hall
• Putney Heath: Friday 05 December, Elliott School, Pullman Gardens
• Victoria Drive: Tuesday 09 December, St Paul's Community Hall, Inner Park Road

By clicking on each area title above you can download the conservation area profiles and find out how to have your say. Aside from anything else, they offer some really interesting insights into local history and how Putney was transformed, in a very short of space, from a rural outpost of London to a bustling town.

You can also read some of the other profiles for elsewhere in the borough here.

Local dentists

Click on image if you need a larger version.

June's local crime figures

There's not much to write about in this month's crime figures - it's fallen very slightly in three Putney council wards and risen very slightly in three. Without further ado, here are the tables:



And May's comparison:

Putney - safer than other parts of London?

Every month when I publish the ward-by-ward crime statistics I usually focus on the change over the previous month.

This month it's worth looking at how crime in Putney compares with London as a whole.

Every single ward in Putney has a lower record of drug offending, fraud or forgery, robbery and other notifiable offences than the Met Police average.

Every single ward in Putney bar one has a better record on burglary and theft & handling (Thamesfield being the exception); criminal damage and violence against the person (Roehampton); and robbery (Southfields) than the London-wide figures. Roehampton has a stastically insignificant higher rate of sexual offences, which are a very small percentage of the total anyway I'm pleased to say.

Putney also compares favourably to our borough as a whole - though the pattern is very slightly different. The overall Wandsworth figure for crimes per 1,000 of the population is 99.6; the overall Putney figure is 89.9.

So what these crime figures show, month-in, month-out is that Wandsworth is safer than other parts of London, and that Putney is safer than other parts of Wandsworth. Don't let the Tories tell you different.

Here are the year to May 2008 figures:



And the April 2008 figures for comparison:

It's working!

Kingsmere Road...................................... Hotham Road

The other day I spotted that one of the potholes I'd flagged up on this website - in Kingsmere Road in West Hill - had finally been patched by the Council. Success Number One.

On Saturday, the Hotham Road potholes had also been patched - though large chunks of this street need a proper resurfacing, not just a slapdash patching. But success Number Two, none-the-less.

These happen to be two of the earliest potholes I flagged up on this website and while the Tory Councillors will of course deny any relationship between our naming and shaming exercise and them finally getting their act together, I leave you to determine the reality.

Far too many roads remain in a disgraceful state, so if the Council thinks filling-in one or two potholes is going to make us back off and leave them alone, they've got another thing coming. Putney Heath and Victoria Drive in particular remain in a completely unacceptable condition so if I have to publish five, ten, twenty or one hundred potholes a week before they get the point, so be it.

One of the reasons it's important to have a Labour MP is because your Conservative representatives (every single one of Putney's councillors, and your MP, are Conservatives) simply will not stand up for their local patch. I will - and as you see, I get results.

Saturday in West Hill

I spent a large chunk of Saturday in West Hill ward - this panoramic photo (or rather two bolted together photos!) was taken from the top of Bisley House on Wimbledon Parkside - you can click on it for a larger, more detailed version.

The orange blocks on the left are Oakman House and Greenfield House in Tilford Gardens - the smaller blocks in Limpsfield Avenue are to their right, and behind them both St Paul's Church. Further back are some of the blocks on the Ackroydon estate; and behind them the William Willison Estate and Sudbury, Albon, Edwyn and Knowles Houses from the Arndale estate in Southfields. Further back still you may be able to spot Battersea Power Station, the London Eye and the City of London.

On the other side of the picture, in the foreground is the currently empty Jenny Lind Pub, and the parade of shops in Inner Park Road; with Chobham Gardens and Glen Albyn Road behind them. Further back you may be able to make out the lake in Wimbledon Park - the Putney constituency boundary with Wimbledon goes straight across the lake - and right in the background you may even be able to make out the Crystal Palace transmitters.

One of the things that's great about our constituency is the amount of green there is, even in relatively densely populated areas like West Hill, which I think this photo emphasises. And on the other side of Bisley House, of course, is Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath and Richmond Park, so even more greenery there!

Putney's grand designs

This is the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability on West Hill. Because it's set back from the road a little and hidden behind landscaping and a car park it's not the easiest building to see, but for my money it's Putney's grandest design.

Putney is blessed by having a range of very impressive buildings, as well as some less impressive ones!

But what about you? Which Putney building means something special to you?

You can find out more about the work of the Royal Hospital here.

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:

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.

"Where do I vote?"

It's been a few weeks since the Council sent out pollcards telling us where our polling station is in the elections this coming Thursday.

We're sending out our own cards letting thousands of Labour supporters in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, know where to vote on Thursday. But if you want to check where you vote, you can do so on my website by clicking here.

There's a list of polling stations down the side, or you can check using the map - by clicking on the links you'll get a list of streets that vote at each station and a satellite image of the location on it.

Most polling stations are where they've always been, but a couple have changed since the last elections in 2006:

• The Putney Vale estate now votes at Stag House in Stroud Crescent, following the Tory council's closure of Newlands Hall;


• Residents of the Alton East estate are back voting at Roehampton Parish Hall (now called Cornerstone), on the corner of Alton Road and Roehampton Lane.

Safer Neighbourhoods successes

We heard it again on the BBC's Mayoral Debate on Tuesday: the Conservative slander that Safer Neighbourhoods Police teams (SNTs) aren't "real police".

Of course the Tories don't want to admit that SNTs have a value and purpose: they fought against their introduction tooth and nail and they've refused to give any reassurance they won't sack Putney's forty SNT offices. In fact, London Assembly Conservative Leader Brian Barnes is on record as saying the Metropolitan Police budget is too large!

Well, the Putney SW15 website is now reporting two more examples of the practical difference SNTs make in our communities - in West Hill by busting a cannabis factory worth £20,000, and in Roehampton breaking up two more drugs dens. And this on the back of the breakthrough a few weeks ago by the West Putney SNT in tackling the dangerous dogs menace there, which I wrote about at the time.

Enough's enough: it's time for the Conservatives to stop running down our Police. Regardless of their title and responsibilities, our Safer Neighbourhoods teams are living up to their name: making our neighbourhoods safer and contributing to the low crime rate I report month-in, month-out.

I have attended a number of public meetings that Putney's SNTs have held to publicise their work and get feedback on local crime concerns. I have never seen Justine Greening at any of these meetings so haven't been able to challenge her to stop this sniping against our police. I hope she, and Putney's Conservative councillors, will pause for thought the next time they run down the hard work of our SNTs.

Edwin Saunders

I often do a short news item at the start of each month summarising the amount of "traffic" (i.e. visits) this website receives. As you'll know if you've read these posts, last month we had just over 2,500 unique visitors, which usually means between 130 and 250 visitors a day.

Well, on Saturday 6th April, something strange happened: in that one day alone we had 1,275 visits - almost nine times our usual traffic. And here's what people were looking for: information on Sir Edwin Saunders, who lived on Wimbledon Parkside and who was Dentist to Queen Victoria.

I wrote about Sir Edwin in my post about English Heritage Blue Plaques and he also features in my Putney Quiz, which is the reason why those search results directed visitors to my website. But if anyone can reveal the sudden reason there was such interest in him on Saturday 6th April do let me know!

UPDATE: I've just been told that this was a quiz question in The Times, so that's that mystery solved!

Out and about in Putney

The main reason I've been posting a little less frequently in recent days is because of the London election campaigning my team and I are up to.

We've been out all over the constituency, and I've just today finished adding all the places we've been too in the past month to my constituency map page.

We've been talking to you about your concerns and priorities for London in the next four years and the clear choice between the experience, tested leadership and delivered improvements to the capital over the last eight years with Ken Livingstone; and the bluster, blunder, lack of substance, lack of vision, and lack of any credibly-costed plans of his Tory opponent.

So far this campaign we've been to the Longstaff Estate, Galveston Road, Lebanon Road, Sutherland Grove, Skeena Hill, Combemartin Road, Girdwood Road, Whitefield Close, Arcadian Place, Wimbledon Park Road, Albert Drive, Hayward Gardens, Pullman Gardens, Beaumont Road, Whitlock Drive, Kersfield Road, Lytton Grove, Littlecombe Close, Arlesey Close, Chepstow Close, Whitnell Way, Gay Street, Crown Court, Waterman Street, Kingsmere Close, Felsham Road, Glenthorpe, Hanover House, William Gardens, Minstead Gardens, Aubyn Square, Toland Square and Vanneck Square - apologies if we've visited you but aren't listed above.

We've a lot more campaign stops all around Putney, Roehampton and Southfields before polling day on Thursday 01 May so look out for us!

Tudor Lodge Clinic: responding to patient need

There was a really good report in the Evening Standard yesterday about how the Tudor Lodge Clinic in Victoria Drive is responding to their patients' needs by staying open beyond office hours.

The practice, which serves 6,000 patients in the West Hill area, opens between 8am and 6pm, as well as Saturday mornings. It is soon to extend weekday hours to 7.30pm. As the Clinic Manager Prath Thurairatnam commented: "We open later because it's about patients, not money".

This comment, for me, sums up why the Doctors' Union is pushing an argument they just can't win in opposing the government's plans to be more responsive to patients' needs.

GPs have received a huge pay increase and had the burden of required out-of-hours service lifted from them over the past few years - they deserve it and it was long overdue. But as someone in the area I was talking to the other day said: "illness doesn't keep office hours, and neither should doctors."

For any of us who leave for work before 8am and who don't get home til after 6pm, traditional opening hours simply aren't any use. It's no longer acceptable for doctors to essentially demand of us that we either take half a day of leave to get to see them, or just let our illness or ailment go untreated.

That's why I commend Prath and his team at Tudor Lodge for the excellent service they provide - and I suspect it's one reason why their patient satisfaction score is as high as 98%.

You can read the Evening Standard article here.

Will Wimbledon be ready in time?

Many Putney residents don't realise that the constituency extends right down to the very edge of the All England Tennis Club. The winding streets like Victoria Drive, Princes Way and Queensmere Road certainly feel a long way from the Putney riverside - both literally and in terms of the local concerns residents raise with me.

The home of Wimbledon tennis is even more prominent on the horizon at the moment because the site is currently overrun with cranes as the Club races to fit a retractable roof on Centre Court in time for the championships in late June - you can just make it out in this photo taken from Winterfold Close.

Given the clockwork efficiency that, rain allowing, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships are renowned for, I'm sure they'll complete the work on time, but for the moment, they make an impressive image with only seventeen weeks or so before Wimbledon 2008 commences.

Whitelands Park parking fiasco

Yet more parking absurdity from Wandsworth Council: when they granted planning permission for the huge Whitelands Park development in West Hill, the Council allowed developers Crest Nicholson to build over 100 homes without a single parking space for the residents.

Last year I exposed how the Council has banned residents of the SW15H development behind East Putney station from being eligible for residents parking permits, even though the developer of SW15H has refused to give them any off-street parking space either - effectively leaving them in limbo.

This parking saga is about to rear up and bite the council where it hurts, though. That's because in a fortnight a new parking system comes into force on Whitelands whereby only those who have designated spaces will be able to park, pushing everyone without them, and their visitors - potentially 200 extra cars - onto Sutherland Grove and surrounding streets. This in turn will create huge parking problems for residents and their visitors here.

And if residents then demand a controlled parking zone, will the council again try to ban Whitelands residents without off-street parking spaces of their own from being eligible for parking permits? I bet they will.

The Conservative Council stands accused on several fronts. Why did they allow Crest Nicholson to build over 100 homes with no off-street parking? Where residents of these new developments are banned by developers from using the off site carparking, why does the council persist in their policy of banning residents from being able to apply for residents' parking permits? Why have they not obliged Crest Nicholson to honour all the terms of their planning permission? And why do they regard key workers as second class citizens? A large number of West Hill residents - and I - are demanding answers.

Inner Park Road

After our campaign session in Horne Way, we went off to do some work in Inner Park Road, in the Wimbledon Parkside part of the constituency.

This was a photo we took just as the sun was setting from the top of one of the blocks in Chobham Gardens, which is part of the Argyle estate at the south end of Inner Park Road.



You can see the green spire of St Paul's church to the top of the picture on the right, the blocks of Tilford Gardens and Limpsfield Avenue in the middle, the curved form of Roundacre below it and, at the foot of the picture, some of the grand houses at the southern end of Inner Park Road, opposite Chobham Gardens.

English Heritage Blue Plaques

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for the Wandsworth Borough News about the local dignitaries who are remembered through English Heritage blue plaques in our borough.

I really enjoy investigating local history - in part it comes from living here for 37 years, but my degree was also in history. Anyway, here's the article, which I hope you find interesting.

What links the borough of Wandsworth to a former Prime Minister, a music hall artist, the dentist to Queen Victoria and an artic explorer? The answer is that all of them (David Lloyd George, Sir Harry Lauder, Sir Edwin Saunders and Edward Wilson) lived or worked in the borough, and have an English Heritage blue plaque outside the house in which they lived.

There are twenty-two English heritage blue plaques located within the borough of Wandsworth, out of a total of 456 throughout London.

2005 marked the centenary of the erection of the first blue plaque in Wandsworth, which was located at Holly Lodge, Wimbledon Park Road, in memory of author and novelist George Eliot, who lived in sin at the property with her lover, G H Lewes.

This selection of a figure of literary note seems apposite given that literary figures make up the largest group of recipients within the borough. These include the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy (who lived at Trinity Road), Victorian adventure story writer G A Henty (Lavender Gardens) and poet Gerald Manley Hopkins (Manresa House, Roehampton).

Three plaques are dedicated to famous figures from the British music hall era the comedian Gus Elen (Thurleigh Avenue), and Harry Tate and Sir Harry Lauder (both of Longley Road). During its heyday the music hall was the most popular form of entertainment for ordinary people, and its stars were the popstars of their day. Harry Tates funeral at the cemetery in Blackshaw Road, Tooting, was attended by over a thousand mourners.

Only two politicians have been commemorated former Prime Minister David Lloyd George (Routh Road) and Battersea MP, and the first working class man to enter the British Cabinet, John Burns (Clapham Common North Side). Burns was elected as an independent MP in 1892 and served Battersea in Parliament until 1918.

Others who have been commemorated include the former President of Czechoslovakia, Dr Edwards Benes (Gwendolen Avenue), John Walter, founder of The Times newsapaper (Clapham Common North Side) and anti-slavery campaigner, William Wilberforce (Broomwood Road). The most recent plaque to be erected in the borough was in 2000 in honour of the celebrated sculptor Charles Jagger, who lived and died in Albert Bridge Road.

The blue plaque scheme is a national programme run by English Heritage. To be eligible for a plaque, nominees must be worthy of national recognition, recognisable to the well-informed passer-by, and have been dead for twenty years or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier.

As it has been five [now seven - ed.] years since the last plaque was erected in the borough, readers may wish to suggest other candidates suitable for nomination. There is surely a wealth of suitable nominees in this great borough of ours. Here is a full list of the 22 blue plaques in Wandsworth, with the Putney ones highlighted in colour:

• BATEMAN, H.M. (1887-1970),Cartoonist, lived here 1910-1914. 40 Nightingale Lane, Clapham South, SW12 Wandsworth 1997
• BENES, Dr Edward (1884-1948),President of Czechoslovakia, lived here. 26 Gwendolen Avenue, Putney, SW15 Wandsworth 1978
• BURNS, John (1858-1943),Statesman, lived here. 110 North Side, Clapham Common, SW4 Wandsworth 1950
• DOUGLAS, Norman (1868-1952),Writer, lived here. 63 Albany Mansions, Albert Bridge Road, SW11 Wandsworth 1980
• ELEN, Gus (1862-1940), Music Hall Comedian, lived here. 3 Thurleigh Avenue, Balham, SW12 Wandsworth 1979
• ELIOT, George Mary Ann Cross (1819-1880), Novelist, lived here. Holly Lodge, 31 Wimbledon Park Road, SW18 Wandsworth 1905
• HARDY, Thomas (1840-1928),Poet and Novelist, lived here 1878-1881. Plaque replaced by new one on same building in 1962. 172 Trinity Road, Tooting, SW17 Wandsworth 1940
• HENTY, G.A. (George Alfred) (1832-1902), Author, lived here. 33 Lavender Gardens, SW11 Wandsworth 1953
• HOPKINS, Gerard Manley (1844-1889),Poet, lived and studied in Manresa House. Gatepost at Manresa House, Holybourne Avenue, Roehampton, SW15 Wandsworth 1979
• JAGGER, Charles Sargeant (1885-1934),Sculptor, lived and died here. 67 Albert Bridge Road, Battersea, SW11 Wandsworth 2000
• KNEE, Fred (1868-1914),London Labour Party Pioneer and Housing Reformer, lived here. 24 Sugden Road, SW11 Wandsworth 1986
• LAUDER, Sir Harry (1870-1950),Music Hall Artist, lived here 1903-1911. 46 Longley Road, Tooting, SW17 Wandsworth 1969
• LLOYD GEORGE, David, Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (1863-1945),Prime Minister, lived here Replacement for GLC plaque erected in 1967 3 Routh Road, Wandsworth Common, SW18 Wandsworth 1992
• O'CASEY, Sean (1880-1964),Playwright, lived here at flat No. 49 49 Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive, Battesea Park, SW11 Wandsworth 1993
• SAUNDERS, Sir Edwin (1814-1901),Dentist to Queen Victoria, lived and died here. Fairlawns, 89 Wimbledon Parkside, SW19 (Plaque on gate pier) Wandsworth 1997
• SPURGEON, Charles Haddon (1834-1892),Preacher, lived here. 99 Nightingale Lane, SW12 Wandsworth 1971
• SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles (1837-1909), Poet and his friend, Theodore WATTS-DUNTON (1832-1914), Poet, Novelist, Critic, lived and died here. 11 Putney Hill, SW15 Wandsworth 1926
• TATE, Harry (Ronald MacDonald Hutchison) (1872-1940),Musical Hall Comedian, lived here. 72 Longley Road, SW17 Wandsworth 1984
• THOMAS, Edward (1878-1917),Essayist and Poet, lived here. 61 Shelgate Road, SW11 Wandsworth 1949
• WALTER, John (1739-1812),Founder of 'The Times', lived here. 113 Clapham Common North Side, SW4 Wandsworth 1977
• WILBERFORCE, William (1759-1833).On the site behind this house stood until 1904 Broomwood House - formerly Broomfield - where William Wilberforce resided during the campaign against slavery which he successfully conducted in Parliament. 111 Broomwood Road, SW11 Wandsworth 1906
• WILSON, Edward Adrian (1872-1912),Antarctic Explorer and Naturalist, lived here. Battersea Vicarage, 42 Vicarage Crescent, SW11 Wandsworth 1935

Our Safer Neighbourhood Teams

Putney now has forty Police Safer Neighbourhood Officers - members of teams that didn't exist just four years ago, and which we wouldn't have if the Conservatives had their way - they opposed all funding of them.

Here are the details of our six local ward teams along with any details of forthcoming events they're holding:

East Putney Team

Acting Sgt Matt Snowden
PC Sandrine Tanghe
PC Russ Percy
PCSO Simoni Simoni
PCSO Alison Brownlow
PCSO Douglas Cameron
PCSO Kelly Collins
PCSO Claire Fairman
PCSO Paul Henry

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, London SW15 2PD
Phone:020 8721 2433
Mobile: 07920 233925
Email the East Putney team

Upcoming East Putney team meetings and events:

• 28/11/2007 - 19:30 - 21:30 - Community Event - Cadets, Lytton Grove
• 09/12/2007 - 11:30 - 13:30 - Street Briefing - West Hill Road
• 17/01/2008 - 19:00 - 20:30 - Public Meeting - Putney High School
• 28/01/2008 - 18:00 - 19:00 - Community Event - Brownies, Wandsworth Police Station
• 31/01/2008 - 19:00 - 20:30 - Public Meeting - London Mosque

Roehampton Team

Sgt Peter Salmon
PC Andrew Voong
PC Amanda Kennedy
PCSO Lisa Burke
PCSO Noel Perkins
PCSO Nicky Edwardes
PCSO Fuad Osman
PCSO Marco Serrano

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone: 020 8649 3551
Mobile: 07843 065885
Email the Roehampton team


Southfields Team

Sgt David Mepham
PC Darren Hunt
PCSO Liam McLaughlin
PCSO Jacek Zebracki
PCSO Alexandra Claridge
Write to them at: 146 Wandsworth High Street, LondonSW18 4JJ
Phone:020 8721 2429
Mobile: 07920 233931
Email the Southfields team


Thamesfield Team

Sgt Roger Chapple
PC Bosede Odelusi
PC Stuart Paton
PCSO Gerald Baffoe-Bonnie
PCSO Sophie Wood
PCSO Julie Kirk

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230 - 232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone:020 8721 2434
Mobile: 07920 233924
Email the Thamesfield team


West Hill Team

Sgt Nigel Mussett
PC Glen Cheal
PC Mark Toulson
PCSO Daniel Taylor
PCSO Lisa Tyler
PCSO Laura Smith
PCSO Kirsteen McPhee
PCSO Andrew Morgan

Write to them at: 146 Wandsworth High Street, LondonSW18 4JJ
Phone: 020 8721 243
Mobile: 007920 233930
Email the West Hill team

Upcoming West Hill team meetings and events:

• 01/12/2007 - 12:00 - 14:00 - Drop-in Surgery - 26 Montfort Place SW19
• 05/01/2008 - 12:00 - 14:00 - Drop-in Surgery - 26 Montfort Place SW19

West Putney Team

Sgt Eric Ostrowski
PC Stuart Baggaley
PCSO Sharon Ellis
PCSO Michael Yates

Write to them at: Jubilee House, 230-232 Putney Bridge Road, LondonSW15 2PD
Phone: 020 8721 2760
Mobile: 07747 757590
Email the West Putney team

Whitelands Park

On Saturday I had a look round the new Whitelands Park housing development off Sutherland Grove in West Hill. This used to be the University of Roehampton Whitelands College site before it moved a couple of years ago when the University consolidated in Roehampton itself.

This was one of the very last sizeable sites that the Council could have approved for affordable housing, but as usual instead of putting local housing need first it allowed over 400 top-end homes ranging from semi-detached houses to penthouse flats way beyond the means of most Putney residents.

It consists of three distinct parts: Whitelands Crescent, which is a cul de sac of nice semi-detached houses plus three residential blocks; in the middle of the site is the Sir George Gilbert Scott building - part of the old university which has been converted into flats and a private library for residents (and which also has the oddest flat numbering system I've come across); and in the north is Scott Avenue, which in the main comprises more residential blocks of different sizes, plus a smaller terrace of houses and some other "leftover" conversions from the University.

Despite this attempt by the Conservatives to polarise Putney even further what we've ended up with in Whitelands is a rather interesting mix; the only thing it lacks is affordable rented homes - which of course are the one housing tenure we need most of all.

Community lunch clubs

Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting with members of the St Paul's Community Centre luncheon club for the elderly in Inner Park Road, West Hill.

After lunch I was invited to address the 25 or so members present, setting out how I would lead the constituency and how I believe the issues we face can be tackled. I got grilled on a range of questions: the European treaty, tax, fair trade, race and education among them.

I also visited residents of Wickham House, the sheltered accommodation in Kersfield Drive off Putney Hill - the picture is of me and resident Theresa Thompson. And to commence the day I popped into the coffee club on the Lennox estate where again I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss local and topical issues of the day with long term Putney residents.

I very much enjoy getting out and about in the constituency, meeting genuine local people and at attending local events: the bread and butter of what a good MP should be up to. If you're involved in a local group: be it a residents' association, a school, a faith group, amenity society or something else, please get in touch - I'd love to hear from you. You can email me or give me a ring on 020 8788 8961.