The usual suspects: council tax, crime and education

---

Conservatives start electoral campaign

The Leader of the Opposition and Conservative Group Leader on Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, delivered the first ever “State of the Borough” address last Wednesday, 14 September 2005.

The address, which took place in the Council Chamber at Fulham Town Hall, was offered as an experiment to provide a bird's eye view of the issues facing Hammersmith & Fulham and to begin to outline the Conservative vision for the Borough.

Councillor Greenhalgh was also joined by colleagues who form the Opposition Leadership - Nicholas Botterill (Deputy Leader) and Frances Stainton (Chief Whip) - and the meeting was chaired by Hammersmith & Fulham MP, Greg Hands.

The Full Text of Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh’s address:

Some of you may be asking why are we having this meeting at all?

We are less than 8 months away from the Hammersmith & Fulham Council elections which take place on the 4th May 2006. Hammersmith & Fulham has been a Labour controlled borough for the last 20 years.

Now H&F Conservatives stand on the threshold of taking control of the Council.

We require only a 1.3% swing to win these elections. In fact the General Election and the most recent Council by-election in Ravenscourt Park ward saw swings of 7%.

So a change of administration is on the cards.

What are some of the borough-wide challenges that we face in Hammersmith & Fulham?

Council Tax levels

Council tax has already soared and will continue to shoot up further. We pay the third highest average Council Tax in inner London - higher than Hackney, Islington and even Lambeth. Our Council Tax bills are already more than £500 higher than Wandsworth, which is less than 1/2 our level. And things will get worse with Council Tax revaluation where H&F is the second most likely local authority in the country for houses to go up a band.

Make no mistake Council Tax is set to reach unprecedented levels.

We are paying high levels of taxes and what are we getting in return?

Are the streets any cleaner than neighbouring boroughs?

Many of the streets and parks in our borough are filthy. Despite the 40th iteration of the “Smarter Borough” initiative, often our streets are covered in litter - much worse than Wandsworth, K&C and even Ealing.

A recent independent MORI poll published in June 2005 ranked H&F the 6th worst borough in England in terms of litter, rubbish and quality of life. Over the last two years spending on street cleaning is up 35 per cent, yet quality is down 20 per cent and fly-tipping is 30 per cent worse, according to the independent Audit Commission.

Graffiti in H&F is removed within 24 hours only if it is racist. Compare this to K&C where all graffiti is cleaned within 4 hours.

Is crime being tackled effectively?

Crime is up, while police numbers are down. 8 out of 9 muggers never get caught and 12 out of 13 burglaries are never cleared up. Crime is up and violent crime, in particular, over the last year and police numbers are down 6% since 1997.

Are we happy with the state of our estates?

At long last massive investment is being made by the ALMO in the fabric of our estates. But we need to hold the ALMO board to account and ensure that the money is not wasted.

This is not done by filling the ALMO board full of party political stooges and “yes” men.

Still LBHF has one of the highest spends on administration and one of the lowest on repairs & maintenance. And the current housing allocations policy means that local people - especially key workers - have very little chance of being housed or re-housed.

Are the standards of our secondary maintained schools something to be proud of?

H&F has a few very good secondary schools and many that are poor. Some of the best schools in Britain are in H&F. These are all VA church schools such as Oratory (RC boys), Lady Margaret (CE girls), Sacred Heart (RC girls) where the Council’s LEA has precious little involvement. There are no good LEA schools for non churchgoers. Currently ¼ of all H&F’s secondary maintained schools are officially failing. Admittedly the recent GCSE results show that there has been an overall rise in the number of children obtaining five or more GCSE grades A* to C - and a substantial improvement in some schools (notably the Phoenix High). However, fewer than one in three children in 3 of the schools obtained this basic "pass" level in five GCSEs. The Labour administration still appear to have no idea whatsoever about how to close the gap between these three poor schools and the rest. It is not surprising that only 40% of kids aged 12-16 from Hammersmith & Fulham go to the borough secondary maintained schools. Parents are voting with their feet.

Is the National Health Service thriving locally?

Charing Cross Hospital remains the largest acute hospital in west London. 85% of A&E attendances and emergency admissions of Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust take place on the Charing Cross site. Many important specialized services are located on the site. There appear to be moves to close the Charing Cross hospital by stealth. Currently a strategic review by North West Thames Strategic Health Authority is considering moving all the specialised services to the inaccessible Hammersmith Hospital site.

This amounts to closure by stealth.

And added to all this we have the westward extension of C-Charge zone.

H&F will suffer more than any other borough most from the Congestion Charge extension. We will take all the extra traffic congestion, get none of the 90% discount that K&C residents and will have to pay £8 for the pleasure of making half the car journeys that we currently make.

 

September 18, 2005