Fare hike makes no economic sense - London Greens

The London Green Party has said that the rail fare hike is the latest evidence that ministers are out of touch with the lives of people struggling to make ends meet.

London Greens pointed out that commuters will have to fork out at least £132 extra for an annual travel card for Zones 1-6. They said that Londoners will be particularly hard hit by the increases, given the money that many spend on commuting.

The government say that many fares will rise by 6.2% in January - almost double the rate of inflation - and some fares could be higher still.

This would see a one-day travelcard for Zones 1-3 rise from £10.60 to £11.26. A single peak ticket from Zone 6 to Zone 1, on Oyster pay-as-you-go, would rise from £6.90 to £7.32.

Noel Lynch, co-ordinator of the London Federation of Green Parties, said:

Once again, Tory and LibDem ministers have shown they are out of touch with the lives of people who are struggling to make ends meet. With unemployment going up and living costs rising, this fare hike makes no economic sense. Londoners will be hit hard as they travel to work.

The relatively smooth running of most of London's public transport during the Olympics shows that efficient railways are a real possibility. But money is going into profits, not invested in decent trains and track. Let's take our railways back into public ownership and run them for people, not profit.

Help save Centerprise from closure

 It is not just Brent where there are demands from the council for commercial rents after valuable social enterprises and community organisations have had peppercorn rents for  years. In Hackney the Centerprise Bookshop and Cafe which was a pioneering centre for black books, community action and education from the 70s onwards is threatened with closure.

From the 60s there were a number of black bookshops across London including  Bogle L'Ourverture, Unity and New Beacon which also published political pamphlets and books. Bogle published Walter Rodney's influential The Groundings with my Brothers in 1969.

The bookshops' political influence and success made them targets for racist and extreme-right groups so it is all the more galling that Centerprise, like Willesden Bookshop, will be closed by a Labour council.

It appears that Labour councils can no longer measure the social and community value of such amenities but instead have succumbed to the values of neo-liberalism and the 'market'.

From The Voice

An ongoing  fight to save one of Britain’s oldest black bookshops and an iconic community centre is to go to court later this year.

Officials at the Centerprise Trust Community and Arts Centre in Dalston, east London warned the centre could close because Hackney Council is to take its trustees to court in October to evict them.
Centerprise’s trustees have called a public meeting for August 29 at 7.30pm and are calling on the black community to help save the centre.

They said the public meeting, to be held at the Kingsland High Street-based Centerprise, would discuss ways of preventing the Council from evicting them and then selling the premises.

In a statement, Centerprise’s representatives said: "The organisation has served the people of Hackney and other Londoners for over 42 years. The Council is taking Centerprise Trustees to court on 15 October 2012 to evict them for no reason at Central London County Court."

Local residents have been up in arms over plans to close the centre, which also runs a restaurant and offers Saturday classes in English, maths and science to local children aged five to 18.

More than 800 people have so far signed an online petition to keep the centre from closing.

A Hackney council spokeswoman told The Voice: "We would much rather that this issue with Centerprise did not end up in court, but the current rent of £10 a week for a double shop-front, two floors and a basement on a busy high street is not a rent level that could continue for any organisation."

The council added: "Over the years the council has offered Centerprise a number of opportunities to apply to be considered for discounted rent under the council’s voluntary and community sector lettings policy. They did not take this up, despite a number of attempts from the council to encourage them to engage with us."

But Centerprise’s Emmanuel Amevor told The Voice last November trustees did not receive a change of rent document the council allegedly sent but were later told the centre had lost the right to protected tenancy.

He added: “We got this building under the Inner City Partnership Fund programme in 1983/84. The building was bought for us after successfully winning a competitive application. Instead of giving us a cheque they bought the building for us.”

Amevor added: “We used to pay what was known as the ‘peppercorn’ rent, which was £10 per week, but I believe this building is ours, so a penny paid to them is a penny too much."

“Now they want to move from peppercorn rent to market rent, which would be £37,000 per year.”

The online petition can be seen at http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savecenterprise

Brent Council MUST do more to fight A&E closure

Ealing Council continues to put Brent in the shade as far as fighting for the health care of its local community goes. Brent Council has passed a resolution opposing the closure of Central Middlesex A&E and leader Muhammed Butt has agreed to speak at the march on September 15th but that's about it.

Ealing Council has been actively leading their local campaign and delivered leaflets and posters to every household i the brough. They are distributing 25,000 leaflets in the top 9 community languages and advertising on bus shelters and buses. A further household leaflet distribution will be made to advertise the planned March.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has also been proactive as can be seen in the extract from their website below:

Join the 'Save Hammersmith' campaign

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is urging people to join it in campaigning to save Hammersmith hospital's A&E department.
The council says:

• Closing the A&E at Hammersmith could leave large numbers of residents dangerously far away from emergency care.
• No evidence has been provided that moving services to St Marys, in Paddington, would improve outcomes for residents.
• With thousands of news homes and jobs coming to the borough, we need more local capacity, not less.

Save our hospitals - public meeting

- Do you agree with the NHS plans to downgrade local hospitals?
- Are you worried about having to travel out of borough to receive urgent medical care?
- This is your chance to question NHS bosses and have your say!  
Hammersmith Town Hall
Tuesday, September 18
7:00pm

» Download a summary of the NHS hospitals proposals (pdf 109KB)
» Download a map of proposed NHS hospital closures (pdf 527KB)
» Message from Cllr Marcus Ginn, cabinet member for community care

Lend you voice to our campaign:

Take part in the NHS consultation - closes October 8, 2012
Have your say

Read your stories

Sign our petitions:

Sign our petition

Share your stories

Like us on Facebook

Volunteer to collect signatures:

Contact us for a campaign pack by emailing us at savehammersmith@lbhf.gov.uk.

Download petitions:

» Download a Save Hammersmith hospital poster (pdf 16KB)
» Download a postcard to send to your doctor (pdf 54KB)
» Download a printable petition to pass to your neighbours  (pdf 81KB)

Send us your stories:

We want the NHS to understand what their plans mean to our lives by publishing your stories. Have our hospitals saved yur life or helped a loved-one? Email us your story and a picture: savehammersmith@lbhf.gov.uk.

Read and comment:

» Waiting times to soar under 'half baked' A&E closure plan
» Charing Cross health services to ‘fit in a gym’
» Expert to dissect NHS hospital downgrade plan
» Closing stroke centre 'will put lives at risk'
» No show for botched NHS road show
» Doctors 'sceptical' on A&E closures
» H&F residents speak out on hospital cuts
» Battle to save local hospital services begins
» Save Charing Cross hospital
» Councillors quiz health bosses over accident and emergency closure plans
» Mass A&E closure threat across west London
» Charing Cross downgrade a reality - vascular surgery moves to St Mary's
» Warning over brain surgery plans - brain surgeons move to St Mary's
» Support Charing Cross - major trauma centre - Charing Cross loses out to St Mary's

This is a chance for Brent Council to try and recover some of its credibility by showing that it is capable of standing up and mounting a strong campaign in partnership with the local community.  The e-petition urging it to do just that is HERE

 The petition reads:

We, the undersigned, petition Brent Council to do all in its power to prevent the closure of the Accident and Emergency Department at Central Middlesex Hospital. This will include making the case against the closure and seeking support for this position on all appropriate bodies on which the council is represented.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

> North West London NHS is consulting on proposals in 'Shaping A Healthier Future' which would mean that Central Middlesex Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department, already closed overnight, will close for good. This is likely to be the first step in the complete down-grading of the hospital and its potential closure in the long term.

> The hospital serves some of the most deprived wards of South Brent which have poor transport links with Northwick Park Hospital, the likely alternative A & E.

> The area is the location of major roads including the North Circular and the Harrow Road; railway lines including the Euston-Birmingham main line, Overground, Bakerloo, Chiltern, Metropolitan and Jubilee lines, a major industrial area in Park Royal; as well as waste management and other potentially pollution causing processing plants in the Neasden area. The area also includes the major venues at Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena.

> All of the above are potential locations for major incidents necessitating ready access to an Accident and Emergency facility.

> Ealing Council has already committed itself to actively fighting the proposals and Brent Council should do the same.

Greens: Bring railways back into public ownership

This week saw another price hike in rail fares. With the UK already having the highest rail fares in Europe, The Green Party calls for the British railway system to be come back into public ownership.  It has been approximated that “£1.2 billion of public money is lost each year as a direct result of privatisation and fragmentation”

The Green Party has condemned the rail fare rise of an average of 6.2% announced yesterday.

Alan Francis, Green Party Transport Speaker, said:

We need to make rail travel more affordable, not less. Many people have had their wages frozen for several years. These fare rises will hit them hard. This fares increase makes rail travel even more unaffordable each year and pushes people back into cars on our already congested roads. Instead of an RPI+3% formula we should have a RPI-X% formula so that fares are reduced in real terms each year.

Rail privatisation and fragmentation has been bad for the railways and for passengers and has significantly increased costs. These higher costs, as much as £1bn per year, are paid by both passengers and taxpayers. We favour the railways being brought back into the public sector and more integration. This would reduce costs and so allow lower fares. Consequently we believe that as each TOC franchise ends it should be retained in the public sector, initially operated by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways. There would be no cost to the taxpayer.

Early start to see Paralympic Torch in Brent

Follow his lead

Brent Council's Lead Member for London 2012, Councillor James Powney has urged residents to get up early in the morning to see the Paralympic Torch go through Brent.

He said : "The borough really came together for the Olympic Torch Relay and I hope that despite the early start the community will make the same effort to line the streets on Wednesday 29 August."

The Torch will arrive in Brent at Honey Pot Lane in Kingsbury at 5.10am and leave at Carlton Vale, South Kilburn at 8.18am.  It will call in at Willesden Sports Centre and the Swaminarayan Mandir on its journey.

To view the route and timings follow this LINK

After the Paralympic Flame leaves the borough there will be a free Paralympic Sports Open Day at Willesden Sports Centre from 10am-3pm for young people (with or without a disability) aged 8-16.

Graham isn't a doctor but he is right about health cuts

Brent Labour Party members and local activists got a shock today when it appeared that Graham Durham had become a GP (GP throws his weight behind battle to save hospital's A&E - Doctor calls on colleagues to speak out over closure plans -Brent and Kilburn Timesp2  August 16th).  The article was illustrated with a picture of 'Dr Graham Durham'.

In fact Durham had sent a letter out on behalf of Brent NHS Patients' Campaign about health cuts and the closure of Central Middlesex Accident and Emergency.  It was interpreted by the BKT as having been written by a doctor. You can see how it happened and it may end up in one of those little guides about the pitfalls of English grammar.

As a local doctor dedicated to serving Brent patients we are asking you to join us in helping us to prevent serious damage to local patients

The dedicated 'local doctor' refers to the recipient of the letter and not the sender. Graham does not often refer to himself with a 'Royal we' and you will be relieved to know is not in the habit of impersonating doctors!

Health campaigners will be out again in Harlesden on Saturday afternoon between 2 and 5pm collecting signatures for a petition asking  local MPs to make a stand agains the threat to Central Middlesex and other North West London hospitals and the privatisation of the NHS.

Bids open for Eurostar tickets sale to support community library

In honour of the rather fabulous Preston Community Library nestled in the doorway of our old one, Preston Library Campaign  have 4 single Eurostar tickets up for auction (That's either 2 x returns or 4 x one way if you fancy staying where you are!)

Bids start at £200  – e-mail bids to:

bunce.linsell@virgin.net or  text to 07905 846483

Let your friends know and let the bidding begin!

NB: 1 week will be needed to transfer the tickets to the winner's name. The campaign will  contact the winner for further details.

In addition to Paris, Brussels, Lille Eurostar now have a special service in the summer. It is a direct train to Avignon on Saturdays, leaving St Pancras at 7.17am the return leaving Avignon at 16.27.  The last direct train from Avignon is on the 8th September.

Council leader agrees to meet with Keep Willesden Green

In an e-mail received today, Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, has agreed to meet with Keep Willesden Green to discuss the 'on-going process'.

He stated: 

As you will be aware, following concerns raised by residents, Galliford Try are going through another consultation process before resubmitting their proposals. This consultation process will be lengthy and thorough, and comes on top of the statutory consultation process they will undertake at a later stage. The fact that they are consulting again and will be resubmitting their plans, because of residents’ concerns, demonstrates that we are thoroughly committed to open and transparent decision making, and in particular are focused on ensuring that communities get a full say on what happens in their local communities