Attendance figures for the council year 2011-12 show once again that I have a 100% record in attending every meeting that I was scheduled to be at.

In all, I attended 33 meetings which is four more meetings in 2011-12 than the previous year.  One reason for this increase in the number of meetings is that this year has seen a few extra specially arranged council meetings in August following the riots, and again in May to debate the refuse and recycling problems after the change in council contractor from May Gurney to Enterprise. 

Furthermore, last year I was on a crime & community safety scrutiny panel which met five times, but this panel has been disbanded and I am now on a health scrutiny panel which meets more frequently.  Last year, though, I did also attend four extra meetings as a substitute for another Lib Dem councillor when they were unavailable which I have not been required to do this year.

In addition to all the council meetings, I have also attended a number of various other meetings across the year with Martin Smith, the Chief Executive of Ealing Council, and other senior council officers. I have also met with Ealing Police Borough Commander Andy Rowell and, unlike my Labour or Conservative colleagues, I have not missed a meeting of the Elthorne Safer Neighbourhood Team Police panel this year. I have also made a point of going to as many meetings of other local organisations that have an interest in Elthorne ward as time will allow over the year including Boston Manor Residents’ association, Olde Hanwell residents’ association, Hanwell Community Forum, West Ealing Neighbours and West Ealing Businesses.

Here is a copy of my council attendance record in 2011-12

For your information, here is my record of council attendance by meeting in 2010-11

Here is my report from the May meeting of the Elthorne Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) Police panel. First of all, the team has had a number of recent changes with PC Mark Ogunwe leaving the team to be replaced by PC Marek Kleiber. Two of the PCSOs Jay Thompson and James Postlethwaite have also left the team after successfully passing their exams to become PCs.  PCSO Steven O’ Reilly has now joined the team but the team is now down to Sgt Fazal, two PCs (John and Kleiber) and two PCSO (O’Reilly and Fleming).

As of March 23rd, the Met Police have closed Hanwell Police station. Hanwell Police station has not had a front counter for residents to report crime to for many years, but until recently it had housed the Safer Transport Team and Serious Youth Violence Unit so there was still a visible police presence in Hanwell with officers coming in and out of the building while it was being used. However, the Met Police feel that the building is no longer fit for purpose and that they need to reduce costs so they have closed the building and these teams have been relocated to Greenford and Southall. Inspector Susan Hayward, who is in charge of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams across Ealing has said that they will monitor anti-social behaviour and crime levels to ensure there is no increase in crime as a result of the closure, but there is obviously some concern in the community about the lack of police presence in Hanwell town centre as a result of the closure, especially as the Elthorne SNT are based outside the ward at Sainsburys in West Ealing.

Here are some of the latest crime statistics for the ward:-

In total there have been 14 incidents of violent crime in the ward since January including 4 cases of Grievous Bodily Harm, a sexual assault and an allegation of rape.

The team have also been dealing with the anti social behaviour eminating from a cafe in West Ealing as well as problems being caused by a group of street drinkers around the ward. The team have had some success with tackling drugs in the ward in Glastonbury Court on the Green Man Lane estate where CCTV has now been installed. The team have successfully uncovered a small cannabis factory (9 plants) on the estate.

The new ward priorities agreed at the meeting were tackling street drinkers, violent crime and motor vehicle crime.

The February meeting of Ealing Council saw the adoption of the council’s budget strategy and the setting of Council Tax for 2012/13. There are a number of items in the new budget which the Lib Dem council group have welcomed including investment in expanding local schools to meet the increase in demand for school places, and new street lighting in crime hot spots. Furthermore, thanks to a decision by the Icelandic Supreme Court, Ealing Council now expects to recover funds invested in the failed Icelandic bank Glitner that they intend to spend on the refurbishment of Hanwell and Perivale Libraries which the Lib Dems called for last year.

There is also good news for residents in terms of a freeze in Ealing Council’s share of council tax with a 1% reduction in the precept set by the London Mayor. For a resident in Band D, that represents a £3.10 saving compared with 2011/12. The Lib Dem group on the London Assembly welcomed the decision by the Mayor to reduce council tax at a time when many families are struggling with wage freezes, as well as higher fuel costs  and transport fares. However, they felt that he did not go far enough in cutting wasteful spending on PR or the use of consultants and so proposed an alternative budget which would have resulted in a 4.2% reduction or £13.11 for a Band D taxpayer.

As they did last year, the Ealing Lib Dem council group also proposed their own budget proposals, including 10% cuts to councillors’ allowances, a 10% drop in staff salaries over £100,000, and 5% reductions to staff salaries between £75,000 and £100,000. Ealing has a number of well paid members of staff who have largely been affected by the cuts, while many more junior members of staff have lost their jobs, and we felt that councillors and senior management at the council could afford to make a small sacrifice to keep services going for the most vulnerable in our society. Moreover, the Lib Dems suggested removing the 10% council tax discount for second homes, and cancelling a few of the council’s major projects such as the £4.75 million plan to build a car park in Southall and £6.5 million spending on two new council hubs in Greenford and Southall. In return the Lib Dems would have used that money to reinstate planned social services cuts to supporting people in sheltered housing, and reversing the planned reduction in the respite care for people with learning disabilities provided at the Short Breaks centre in Green Lane, Hanwell.  The Lib Dem proposals would also have meant the end to the council’s plans to charge £40 for garden waste collection, which we believe is likely to result in reduced recycling rates, increases in flytipping or residents driving to recycling centres like Greenford to avoid paying the new fee.

The Ealing Liberal Democrat council group believes that our budget proposals twinned with the plans put forward by our Lib Dem colleagues on the London Assembly would have reduced council tax by an extra £10, helped many of the borough’s most vulnerable residents, kept garden waste recycling free and reduced the council’s long-term debt by over £11 million. However, unfortunately both the ruling Labour group and the Conservative group voted to reject the alternative Lib Dem budget.  The budget which was passed means that a band D tax payer will now pay council tax of £1366.65 made up of £1059.93 going towards Ealing Council and £306.72 to the London Mayor’s precept.