Daily Mail claims Wembley Stadium is being 'hemmed in' by Quintain developments

I don't often quote the Daily Mail but a recent comment by columnist Charles Sale LINK may ring bells with Wembley residents regarding concerns over over-development of the site by Quintain. As a Green I support a mainly public transport venue but it is clear not everyone is happy with current arrangements.

One of the biggest financial blunders in the history of the FA would have been apparent to fans at Wembley on Monday night as the huge car park nearest the stadium is no longer in use.

This is because work has started on the latest building development by all-too-close neighbours Quintain to construct 500 new homes on the site.

Apart from the inconvenience of parking now being further away — which the VIPs will not like — the project is taking place on land that could have been FA property if more vision had been shown two decades ago.

In 1999 the FA only had the funds — courtesy of a £120million Lottery grant from Sport England — to buy land for the stadium but none of the surrounds now being exploited by Quintain. For less than the £35m it cost Liverpool to buy Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal, however, the FA could have bought the whole 85-acre site and staged the London 2012 Olympics there.

Instead, one of the world’s great stadiums is hemmed in on all sides by Quintain projects.

ASDA consumer 'riot' staged for press and TV?

There is a widespread belief in Wembley that 'Black Friday's' mini consumer riot at Wembley Park  ASDA on Friday was not all it seems.

Forewarned by the store, press and TV were all assembled in advance and wanted a good story of consumer greed. Eye witnesses say they  urged people on to fight for the TVs and other goods to ensure they got shocking footage and photographs for the likes of the Daily Mail LINK

The usual people then had a field day on the Daily Mail website denouncing the 'greed' and 'animal behaviour' of local people.  One Wembley local told me he felt 'ashamed' when he saw the way his community was being portrayed on the news.


The word on the street is that many of the large TVs were returned the next day with customers saying that they were 'rubbish'. Clearly it was a potentially dangerous situation and there are reports that some people sustained bumps and bruises.

In contrast, when the sale continued on Saturday with no press or TV present, everything was quite orderly.

Unconfirmed reports say that ASDA head office were not happy with the coverage.  

Meanwhile in the US workers at ASDA's parent company, Walmart, staged the third of what have become annual Black Friday strikes against low wages, poor benefits and union busting LINK

Study confirms poorest hit hardest by A&E closures

An Equality Impacts report commissioned by NHS managers into the closure of four West London Accident and Emergency facilities LINK has confirmed the fears of many campaigners. The report by consultants Mott MacDonald into the closures of A&Es at Ealing, Charing Cross. Hammersmith and Central Middlesex and the reconfiguration programme under the Shaping a Healthier Future proposals concluded:

• 33% of 'blue light' ambulances across the area will take longer to reach hospital
• Among those picking up patients from poorer areas, 41% will take longer
• The four A&Es proposed for closure are all in deprived parts of London
• Elderly, poorer and disabled people who need non-urgent care will be 'disproportionately' affected
• Seven in ten people travelling by bus or tube will have journey times of 30 minutes or more
• Travel times are a key concern and warnings need to be raised about the prospect of longer and more complext journey times
• Closure could affect 'continuity of care' particularly for children
• Well-developed services at Ealing hospital to help Southall's large South Asian population, which suffers high levels of poor health, would also be lost.

The report's authors believe no ambulances will take more than an extra 10 minutes to reach an A&E  after the closures but of course that could be an extremely crucial 10 minutes.

Dr Onkar Sahota, chair of the London Assembly health committee,told the Daily Mail LINK  that he thought their calculations were wrong:  'There is clear evidence that when travel times are increased, mortality rates go up'.

Mysteries, mavericks and mistresses

The Kilburn Times LINK reports that Carol Shaw, Lib Dem councillor for Brondesbury Park  has defected back to the Conservatives. Shaw hit the national headlines last year when she revealed that she had been mistress of Bob Blackman when they were both Tory councillors.  Apparently the affair began when they were stuffing envelopes together. She subsequently stuffed him in the Sunday Mirror  LINK enraged at his comments on the sanctity of marriage.

Whatever party label she has worn Shaw has always been a maverick and can get on quite a roll denouncing all political parties. She has a good reputation as a case worker and was one of the more responsive councillors to the Save Willesden Green and Save The Queensbury campaigns.

As I reported in a previous blog relationships are pretty tense amongst some of the Lib Dems in the south of the borough and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see another defection, but this time to Labour, by a councillor not intending to stand in 2014. Shaw had said this would be her last term as a councillor but perhaps she will revise that now she has defected. Certainly the present Conservative leadership in Brent could do with a shot of adrenalin - or something more potent!