Tell us what concerns you : Hillingdon Labour Party Survey

We want to hear what concerns you so our

Labour Councillors and candidates can

 campaign on the issues which most

concern you.

Fares?

The economy?

 



Libraries?

Housing?

HS2?

Let us know the issues which most concern you by clicking here and taking a few moments to complete our online survey.


Fuel bills?

Local shopping centres?

Litter?

Pollution?

  


Parking?

 

 

 




Next Branch Meeting - Tuesday 8 October

Our next branch meeting is arranged for 8.00pm Tuesday 8 October

As well as an update on the current local and national on Party issues we will be reviewing the frequency of future meetings to fit in with the CLP campaigning activity in advance of the May 2014 Council and European elections.

All Labour Party Members living in the Manor and South Ruislip wards are invited to attend.

For details of the venue email the Branch Secretary: sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

AUTUMN 2013 SURVEY

All residents are invited to let us know which issues most concern them through our Autumn 2013 survey

Next Branch meeting: Thursday 11 July

Out next branch meeting is arranged for 8.00pm Thursday 11 July.

As well as updates on Party activity throughout the Constituency there will be a chance for discussion on local issues directly impacting in the Branch area such as:

• Planning application for Arla Dairy Site, South Ruislip

• Stop HS2 campaign - environmental impact and compensation

Uxbridge Gazette

The closing date for responses to the HS2 environmental statement is 11 July, so don't wait for the next meeting to act. For more information try www.hillingdon-against-hs2.com or to obtain a response post card email the Branch Secretary (see below) or info@hillingdon-against-hs2.com

• RAF Northolt - increases in commercial flights

All Labour Party members living in the South Ruislip and Manor wards are invited to attend.

For details of the venue email the Branch Secretary: sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

Save Our Hospitals - protest march 27 April 2013

 

Dr Onkar Sahota, local GP and  Ealing and Hillingdon’s London Assembly member, is leading the fight to stop the closure of NHS hospital services in North West London and invites everyone to  join the biggest public demonstration through the streets of Ealing in living memory being held on Saturday 27 April 2013.

 

To join the march to Save Our Hospitals meet at Southall Park at 11.30am or Acton Park at 12.30pm. Attend the rally at Ealing Common from 2pm.

Why we are campaigning

 

 

On 19 February the London NHS approved an unprecedented programme of hospital closures.

North West London NHS plans to close four out of nine accident and emergency departments in NW London and other important services, like maternity units at four NW London Hospitals, Ealing, Central Middlesex, Hammersmith and Charing Cross. This will affect the healthcare of 2 million people in the region.

If these closures go ahead there will be no Accident and Emergency (A&E) facilities in the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith or Brent which together have a population the size of the city of Leeds. All emergencies will be diverted to neighbouring hospitals, such as Hillingdon and Northwick Park, which are already at capacity and exceed waiting time targets for A&Es.

1000 hospital beds will be lost and the NHS will sell hospital land to property developers to raise money.

88% of GPs in Ealing refused to support the closure plans. Save Our Hospitals campaigners believe the closures will lead to loss of lives.

The decision is in the hands of the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, who has said it will be subject to an independent review after Ealing Council refused to accept the decision because it is bad for residents of the Borough and the region.

It is now vital that the people of Ealing, and the other boroughs of NW London, demonstrate their strength of opposition to this plan to prevent the government from following it through.

Opposition to the closures has received local cross party support :

“These plans will be devastating both for Ealing and across North West London. With the growing population in the region we desperately need the accident and emergency units, and other health services such as maternity and paediatrics, that are provided by Ealing, Central Middlesex, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. I am concerned that financial considerations are driving the proposed changes rather than people’s health needs and services will be stretched to beyond breaking point. I want as many people as possible to get involved in the Save Our Hospitals campaign so that health chiefs realise just how unpopular their proposals are.

 Cllr Julian Bell – leader of the Labour Group and Ealing Council

“We have joined with all the political parties in Ealing to save the hospitals that people in the area use, namely Ealing, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Central Middlesex Hospitals. Under plans published in the Shaping a Healthier Future consultation, these hospitals will be downgraded to ‘local hospitals’, stripping them of nine of the eleven major types of service currently provided on-site. If these plans go through it will have a huge effect on all those who currently use the hospitals, especially those with chronic conditions who have to make their own way to hospital for treatment regularly.

 Cllr David Millican – leader of the Conservative Group Ealing

 

“My party are against the possible closures or downgrading of Ealing Hospital and the other hospitals which serve residents in the borough. If our local hospital loses the A & E, Maternity and Children’s wards, patients and visitors will have further to travel. People should make sure they fill in the petition. 

 Cllr Gary Malcolm – leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Ealing

Next Branch meeting: 8.00pm Tuesday 7 May 2013

The next branch members' meeting will be held at 8.00pm Tuesday 7 May.

For more information email the Branch Secretary : sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

Fire cuts in London and consultati​on - Hillingdon meeting this Tuesday

A public meeting on the Mayor's propsals to get rid of 12 fire stations, 18 fire engines and 520 fire fighters across the capital, will be held in Hillingdon at 7pm, Tuesday 2 April,  at Middlesex Suite, Hillingdon Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1UW

The Labour London Assembly Members of the London  Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) voted against Mayor Johnson’s proposals.

Despite the Fire Authority voting against the cuts, as they will risk the lives and properties of Londoners, Mayor Boris Johnson issued a directive to overrule this vote and proceed to consultation on his plans. This consultation is running from 4 March until 28 May.

The Mayor tried to stop the Fire Authority consulting the public through public meetings for each Borough, but the Authority are going ahead with meetings despite his wishes and twenty-four public meetings are being held in different London boroughs.

The implications of the Mayor’s proposals are very serious – it will take longer for a fire engine to reach 4.7 million Londoners when they need one. Every second counts in a fire as a domestic fire can quadruple in intensity every 2 minutes.

London’s fire chief has said the cuts are driven by financial considerations but we think the safety and security of Londoners should come first. Boris Johnson wants to cut the council tax by the equivalent of just 1p per day for a property in Band D. Labour’s GLA members think most Londoners would prefer him to put the penny towards the fire brigade instead.

For more information on how the cuts will affect you click here.

To have you say on the consultation click here.

Next Constituency Meeting 8.00pm Wednesday 27 March

The guest spreaker at the next Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP  meeting is Christian Wolmar, a well respected transport journalist and contender for the 2016 Labour London Mayoral candidate.

 

 

 

 

Room 9, Christ Church, Redford Way, Uxbridge UB8 1SZ

 

on

 

 Wednesday 27th March 2013, 8pm - 10pm

For more details click here

All Labour Party members and supporters welcome

Why Labour opposes the Bedroom Tax

On 6 March Liam Byrne launched Labour's campaign against the Bedroom Tax, visiting some of those effected in Hull.

See this video to understand why the Labour Party is opposing the Bedroom Tax.

"This  policy is unfair and will cost more than it saves"

Tell David Cameron to stop the Bedroom Tax at http://bit.ly/XKNd4E

Tories Plough Ahead On Green Belt Land

In a press release issued today the Hillingdon Labour Group has accused the Tory led Hillingdon Council of unnecessarily building on valuable Green Belt land when suitable brownfield sites in the Council's ownership are available.

 "After the Central & South Planning meeting on 5th March 2013 no one should be in any doubt that the Labour Group in Hillingdon believe that every child in Hillingdon deserves a decent school place and that where we differ from the Conservative administration is that we consider our parks, open spaces and common land to be priceless, whereas they consider them to be worthless.

 Petitioners, Ward Councillors and John McDonnell MP highlighted different aspects of why the Green Belt site of Lake Farm Country Park and Botwell Common should be protected from development.  There were strong arguments put forward that demonstrated that the additional school places required could be provided without the need to build a new school on this site, if the political will was there to do so.

 Objectors mentioned the proposals for a new 4 form of entry primary school at the nearby Guru Nanak Academy and a proposed new 2 form of entry primary school at Hewens College, but the committee did not take these into consideration.

Other suggestions that were offered up for consideration, and also turned down, were to allow Rosedale Primary school to expand and also to make use of the old Hayes swimming pool site that the Council is selling off to a property developer. 

So the decision to plough ahead with proposals to build on this piece of common land in the Green Belt comes down to a political decision made by the administration, based on the fact that they own the site, so the land will cost them nothing.

After the meeting Cllr Peter Curling, Leader of the Labour Group, said

 “As the meeting went on it became very clear that the additional primary school places equating to 3 forms of entry could be accommodated without the need to pour concrete over Lake Farm Country Park.

 We, in the Labour Group, fully sign up to ensuring that every child has a decent school place and tonight it was demonstrated that this could be achieved without the need to destroy Lake Farm, so the proposal to build a school there is clearly driven by a political decision, rather than educational need.

What we are seeing is a Tory administration cashing in on the sale of Brownfield sites and then building on Green Belt land within their ownership.  This is more to do with money than children's education, and it shows that the Tories consider open Green Belt land to be worthless, whereas we consider it to be priceless.”

More than half of children living in poverty in Hillingdon do not receive free school meals

A new analysis undertaken by the Children's  Society reveals a stark picture for children living in poverty across England. Their figures indicate that in the London Borough of Hillingdon  more than five in 10 children in poverty are not getting a free school meal. In some other areas more than two-thirds of children in poverty missing out on free school meals.

 The Children's Society, through their Fair and Square campaign, are calling on the government to make free school meals available to all children in poverty and urge all people to contact their MP to support this call.

 Nearly half of teachers surveyed in 57 constituencies said they often saw children going hungry in school.

For some children, a free school lunch may be the only proper meal they are getting.

 Matthew Reed, the Children Society's Chief Executive, said: ‘It is shocking that huge numbers of children in poverty across the country are missing out on a free school meal. Every child in poverty should be entitled to this vital support.

'We know from the families we work with up and down the country that parents are struggling to make ends meet. Right now, the government is reconsidering which children will be entitled to get free school meals. We urge the government to take this opportunity to make sure all children in poverty can get a free school meal.'

 

Across the country every day, more than half of the 2.2 million school children living in poverty in England miss out on a free school meal. Of these, 700,000 are not even entitled to one – often because their parents work, regardless of how little they earn.

In collaboration with 38 Degrees, they have already gathered more than 90,000 signatures in support of the campaign. With the introduction of changes to the benefit system under Universal Credit, the government has an important opportunity to make this happen.

Next branch meeting 8.00pm Tuesday 5 March

The next Branch members meeting is at 8.00pm on Tuesday 5 March.

This meeting will also be our AGM.

For more information on the location and agenda email the  Branch Secretary

"David Cameron tells porkies about Britain’s national debt"

Anyone might assume this headline was taken from a left of centre Labour Party supporting source. What is remarkable is that it is taken from the respected, right of centre Spectator.

The article accuses Cameron of being "so astonishingly dishonest" in last Wednesday's Conservative Party Political Broadcast and robustly refutes the claim made by Cameron in the broadcast that "...we are making progress. We're paying down Britain's debts".

The article attributed to the Spectator's Editor, Frazer Nelson, goes on:

“David Cameron’s policy is to increase Britain’s debt by 60 per cent, more than any European country. To increase it more over five years than Labour did over 13 years.  Just yesterday, we learned the national debt had hit £1,111 billion and it’s heading to £1,400 billion.

By no stretch of the English language can this be described as “paying down Britain’s debts.” What Cameron said is not an exaggeration. It’s a straight falsehood, and one that demeans his office. He has previously used different language, saying that he is “dealing with the debt”. The below graph says it all:

The day after the broadcast Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves MP said:
"This suggests that the Conservative Party may be attempting to deliberately mislead the public about these statistics and the Government’s record"

Maybe what is equally worrying as the blatant falsehoods is that the national news channels and newspapers have made so little comment on this palpable untruth and they have in effect colluded with peddling this Tory led Government's propaganda.

There is little doubt since the 2010 election the Tory led Government have been effective in promoting the belief that the deficit was caused by an overspending Labour Government. This has been repeated so often that it rarely gets challenged by the media anymore. At this point Tory spokespeople omit to mention that as late as 2008 George Osborne was actually advocating sticking to Labour spending pledges.

When it comes to facts, with the one exception of the 1974-79 Labour Government, it is the Tory Goverments' record which makes Labour Government the low cost  option.




Government expenditure as percentage of GDP

The credibility of this Tory led  Government is rapidly dissolving before us.

The slogan "You can't  trust the Tories with the NHS" can now be supplemented with "You can't trust the Tories with the facts". 

Tories demonising poor as cover for dismantling welfare state

Councillor Peter Curling, Leader of the Hillingdon Labour Group, has hit out at Tory tactics to demonise low paid workers reliant on benefits as cover to dismantle the welfare state.

"The Conservative led coalition government continues to attack and dismantle the welfare state, something that my grandparent’s generation worked so hard to provide for us.  That generation suffered two world wars and really fought through hard times in the hope that their efforts would provide a better standard of living and better lives for future generations.

In order to dismantle and remove everything that was achieved by my grandparent’s generation the Conservative tactic seems to be to demonise benefit claimants as skivers and then trying to turn public opinion against them and effectively make the poor poorer whilst coaxing them to blame one another.

When George Osborne announced a real terms cut in the cash value of welfare benefits, and made reference to the workshy in bed with the curtains closed, he failed to mention that only 2% of the welfare bill goes to the unemployed. 

In Hillingdon there are over 6000 people in low paid jobs and claiming benefit, despite what a millionaire like George Osborne might think, these people are by no means workshy skivers in bed with the curtains closed.

It is also interesting to note that 83% of new housing benefit claimants are in work as are three quarters of all those who claim tax credit.

Meanwhile at the other end of the scale we see that people earning over £150,000 a year are getting a 5% tax reduction.  This really does prove that we are not and never have been all in this together.

Even locally the Conservatives are boasting that they are freezing council tax again this year, but the localisation of council tax benefit and the local Tory scheme means that the lowest paid and the unwaged will see around a 20% rise in their council tax.  So once again those that can least afford it have to pay more.

We are seeing more and more demand on charity run food banks with people in real need and struggling to put food on the table, and at the same time highly paid bankers, speculators and executives are still raking in their obscene bonuses.

We must not let the current government hoodwink us by pitching us against each other whilst they rip apart our welfare state that people like my grandparents fought so hard to provide.

Ed Miliband sets out plans to protect private rented housing tenants

As previously described in these pages there exists an unequal relationship between private landlords and their tenants which distorts the housing market and leaves too many tenants at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords and their agents.

Ed Miliband
Leader of the Labour Party

In a speech on Saturday, Ed Miliband outlined plans to rebalance the relationship between private landlords and their tenants.

“ Britain is in danger of having two nations divided between those who own their one homes and those who rent.  If we are going to build One Nation, people who rent their homes should have rights and protections as well.

That’s about rooting out the rogue landlords.  Stopping families being ripped off by letting agents.  And giving new security to families who rent.

So we will introduce a national register of landlords, to give greater powers for local authorities to root out and strike off rogue landlords.  We will end the confusing, inconsistent fees and charges in the private rented sector.  And we will seek to give greater security to families who rent and remove the barriers that stand in the way of longer term tenancies