Author Archives: hmgupdated

With reference to the council’s planned regeneration of Wealdstone, Cllr Hall, reportedly said: “This (Premier Banqueting) is a very important business, this will be harmful to a lot of people who work for that business. This is their business, their livelihood put on the line here. She said Premier Banqueting, in Canning Road, employs aboutContinue reading “Hall in breach of councillor’s code of conduct?”

While the Harrow West MP (Lab) is worried that the walk-in centres at Alexandra Avenue and the Pinn Medical Centre could be handed to a private company because of the government’s new rules, Mr Thomas has taken no notice of the local concerns about the shaky confidence in and potential conflict of interest at theContinue reading “Ongoing concerns about the potential lack of transparency at Harrow CCG!”

Harrow East Tory MP Bob Blackman voted for the cut as the House of Lords has been unable to stop a planned £30-a-week cut to disability benefits forced through by Government MPs. The cut will see people receiving Employment and Support Allowance go from claiming £103-a-week to £73-a-week, and will affect people who are deemedContinue reading “Blackman voted to take £30 per week off a disabled person”

Nationally, nearly half of social care services inspected by the Care Quality Commission in the past year were found to be failing the frail and vulnerable, in what relatives and experts say is a symptom of the growing financial crisis in the sector. There is also growing evidence of the crisis having an effect onContinue reading “Financial crisis in social care sector”

Full credit goes to the Harrow East Tory party for their part in systematically securing this site for the Hindu secondary school. In 2012, Labour run council decided to make the Whitchurch Consortium its preferred bidder for the tender to take over the lease and to redevelop the Whitchurch Pavilion and Playing Fields, saying thatContinue reading “Intriguing politics of Whitchurch playing fields!”

Citizen Advice’s recent research report on the hidden charges alerts that older people living in care homes risk getting a poor deal for a variety of reasons. They may have physical or mental health conditions which limit their ability to advocate for their own interests. Some care homes give extremely short notice periods for feeContinue reading “Hidden charges in care homes”

Harrow stands on the brink of its biggest regeneration opportunity in decades and needs wider support to deliver the programme in a borough that has diverse population and different but equally important social, cultural and religious aspirations. The following regeneration picture emerges from the information sent to us by the council: Several short and longContinue reading “Regeneration challenges”

Nice to hear that the council has a ‘business-like’ approach (page 32 of the 1,568 pages reports before the cabinet meeting tomorrow)! Surely this means that the ‘going concern’ has well established structure where the chief executive sits between the council Members and the staff as a key adviser to the former and a leaderContinue reading “‘Our approach is now much more business-like’, claims the council”

Our local democracy has its dullest moments when long-worded council reports, not always giving an accurate* picture and costing the residents a fortune, are internally scrutinised in the overview and scrutiny committee meetings, a sort of political arena, generating more paper work. Occasionally the environment becomes somewhat entertaining when the chief officer and leader ofContinue reading “Scrutiny – illusive!”

The government is consulting about proposed changes to the way local authorities in England and Wales invest their members’ pension funds which many say is to block local authorities from making ethical investment decisions relating to the arms trade. The consultation ends on 19 February. These changes would allow central government to block ethical investmentContinue reading “Protect local democracy”