No Business Like Snow Business

Yet again the Labour Government and the Tory Council have let the good citizens of Westminster down. Last night, we were promised plenty of good quality snow, and when I look out the window this morning what do I see? Virtually no snow at all, and what snow there is, is dirty and slushy. It’s just not good enough and is deeply disappointing for all local people.
Elsewhere in London (often may I say in places with LibDem councils) there is plenty of good snow, highly suitable for parks and open spaces where people can make snowmen and toboggan ride contentedly. Yet round here the thin scattering is totally useless for this kind of pursuit. Many people are horrified that they’ve had to go into work after all because local transport has been hardly affected!
I must say I think a LibDem government would have done much better. With Nick “Santa Claus” Clegg and Vince “Mince Pie” Cable running the show, we’d be laughing all the way to winter wonderland. But for now we’ll just have to dream that Father Christmas brings us a hung parliament.

Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Heathrow Express – a national embarrassment.

Where are all the trains?! Morning rush hour...

I admit it, I use the Heathrow Express at least twice a month, because I have to travel for work. (I promise to cut my flights by at least 10% next year.) I always leave enough time so that if one gets cancelled I’ll still be in time taking the next one. That works for me most of the time. But about once a year it all goes pear-shaped, like it did this morning.

The train left late and took a whole 46 minutes to get there – quite a delay when the journey time’s supposed to be 15 minutes. A lot of people missed their flights, me included. But the worst thing was the lack of information. No-one knew what was going on, least of all the driver.  Eventually we passed a broken-down train at Hayes. Apparently it had been burning earlier. Foreign tourists looked at each other bemused. Locals were just embarrassed. How can one train breakdown paralyse the whole system? How are we going to cope with the Olympics?

Twisted Christmas.

This was another embarrassment, at the Barbican last night. It sounded good on paper – Richard Hawley and a lot of other musical talent doing a Christmas concert with an edge. Some of the women singers were amazing (Josephine Foster, Polly Scattergood and the spectacular Eliza Carthy), but the event as a whole was a shambles – Jeremy Hardy struggling to compere, some awful male comics and a distracting and irrelevant cartoon show on a massive screen at the back. Barbican, if you ever repeat this (surely a doubt given the lukewarm audience response) , please ditch the “comedy” and the dodgy back projection.

Now I should be at a Christmas party in Cork but thanks to Heathrow Express/Network Rail/Jack Frost I’m sat at my desk writing this tosh…

Marlborough Hill Campus is Westminster Council speak for…

…the Quintin Kynaston School redevelopment, NW8.

Recently I went to a local ward forum, which was the best attended I’d ever been to – the reason? Local people are very unhappy about the development of the school, known locally as QK. Or more precisely, they’re unhappy about the lack of consultation on the proposed development. Or even more precisely, they’re unhappy that there have been consultations, but they feel no-one’s taken any notice of what they’ve been saying at these consultations.

I think this is a common problem with “cuddly Conservatism” – there are ward forums and consultations but nothing much changes or happens as a result of them. The spending of the local ward budget was a case in point – our Tory councillors asked us all for ideas which they took no notice of and then they spent the money as they wanted to – security doors for City West housing. The security doors were needed but shouldn’t it have been City West who were forking up, not council tax payers across the whole ward? (Funnily enough, in other wards they have done what local residents wanted them to do – facilities for youth and senior citizens, more security lighting, benches… )

So back to QK. I think our councillors and Tory PPC were a little shocked by the furore at the last Ward Forum and yet another consultation was hastily organised, and this time SOME of the residents’ concerns do seem to have been addressed, eg the main after-hours entrance being on Finchley Road. However, vague terms such as health facilities being “focused on” serving students won’t quell all the fears.

It seems to me that a local amenity which can genuinely serve the wider local community should not be scorned. But residents are rightly concerned that a lawless atmosphere after school spilling-out time would extend late into the evening. I have heard from a source close to the school that they’re currently without a police officer (as I believe the Academy in Harrow Road is) and the school and the council must address this for the sake of all in the area.

If we can deal with these issues, and improve the desperately in-need educational facilities in the process, the new development could actually be a beacon for the whole area which brings vibrancy, community and security from morning until night.

More doing, less blogging

My grandmother used to say if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. She was usually right. I think I’ll stop talking about what other people are doing or not doing and get on with doing stuff myself – like preparing for yet another Westminster Council by-election…