The high court has dismissed a legal challenge by five Tory-led councils against the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ).
Out of 32 London boroughs, Harrow was one of the four Conservative held London councils – Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon – that along with Surrey County Council had gone for a judicial review challenging the London mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion programme.
To help clear up London’s air, the ULEZ is expanding from 29 August 2023 across all London boroughs, including Harrow.
Most petrol vehicles under 16 years old or diesel vehicles under 6 years old meet the emissions standards, and those which do not, have to pay a daily charge £12.50 if driven inside the zone.
The high court challenge, paid by the taxpayers’ money, was apparently instigated by the Harrow Councillor Susan Hall who at the time led the GLA Conservatives group and is in the habit of calling Mayor Khan “a disgrace”.
Later, she stepped down from the post to become the Tory candidate for the London Mayor election next year.
The honourable thing the Tory councillors in the Tory-led London boroughs and their MPs could do is to apologise to the residents for wasting the ratepayer’s money for political gain!
Cllr Hall is known for creating chaos for political gains.
Under Cllr Hall portfolio for environment, residents rejected the unwise change in the frequency of collecting the Brown and Waste Bins by the new Harrow Conservative administration in 2006, to the point that a Conservative seat in the Harrow Weald ward was badly lost in the August 2006 by-election that was held due to the death of the Tory councillor.
During her opposition leadership that started in 2010, Tories lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – two Tory councillors defected and 2 by-elections were lost in 2013.
The Conservatives lost the Harrow council twice, apparently because of the accumulated backlash of the waste collection arrangements and heavy-handed implementation of the CPZ (controlled parking zone), both being under Cllr Hall portfolio.
Regarding the Cllr Hall mention ‘I became the Leader of the Council in Harrow’, she was not elected by the residents. Many say that her very short-lived administration (late 2013 to May 2014 when Tory group lost the council) was a fluke.
[In mid-2013, the breakaway Independent Labour Group, encouraged and supported by the Tory group, snatched the council administration from Labour because of what was described as the personal grudge within the Labour group.
A few months later, Cllr Hall grabbed the council administration with the support of the well-groomed Independent Labour Group who voted in the Tory group through a highly controversial process which created the political mess in Harrow (i.e. a hung council where both the Labour and Tory groups had 25 councillors each, and Tory minority administration was put in place because of the 8 ILG councillors)]

Labour leader Starmer on Sunday confirmed he would retain the two-child limit, imposed by the Tories in 2013, despite growing calls from poverty campaigners for the cap to be abandoned.
The limit bars parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
The policy was introduced in an attempt to cut the welfare bill as well as to ‘encourage’ parents to work or to get better paid jobs. Yet, Department for Work and Pensions figures for 2022 show that the majority of families affected by the two-child limit for benefits are in work.
Affected low-income families are left at least £3,000 out of pocket. Larger families, and minority ethnic households, are disproportionately affected.
In 2022 some 359,000 families were affected by the 2-child policy. In Harrow, it is a significant problem, as confirmed by Department for Work and Pensions statistics which show Harrow in the top five of London boroughs most affected.
Children are badly hit as 36% of children in the borough lived in households with an income of less than 60% of the UK median after housing costs have been subtracted in 2020/21, and approximately, 6,100 children aged 0-5 years live in the 30% most deprived areas in Harrow.
“What this means is that lots of children in Harrow are going hungry. That their parents are stressed. That both parents and children are more likely to become unwell” points out concerned Pamela Fitzpatrick (photo), a previous socialist Harrow councillor and parliamentary candidate.
“We have three MPs representing the people in Harrow – two Tories, one Labour. All appear to be committed to ensuring the 2-child cap continues. It is perhaps hard for MPs to empathise with the level of poverty in their constituents as they have very large salaries, good pensions, many have additional income from rental properties and of course they have subsidised dining in Parliament” said Ms Fitzpatrick.
“We are constantly told there is no money. This of course is ridiculous. We remain one of the wealthiest economies in the world. Governments have vast sums to spend. The question is what they choose to spend the money on” she asks.

Violent crime makes up 25.8% of all crimes reported in Harrow, and increased when compared year-over-year in the period of May 2022 – April 2023 (Plumplot).
The most common crimes in Harrow are violence and sexual offences, with 5,149 offences during 2022, 5% higher than 2021’s figure of 4,886 offences and a difference of 1.05 from 2021’s crime rate of 19 (CrimeRate).
Greenhill South is the most dangerous neighbourhood in Harrow, followed by Greenhill North in second place (CrimeRate).
What the Harrow Times has reported in the past six months also suggests that the hotspot for the violence and sexual offences like Wealdstone has moved on to the areas surrounding the Harrow Town Centre.
This June, an aggravated burglary on Kenton Road left a 46-year-old man with stab injuries.
A few days back, the police were called to St Anns Road when a fight involving a group of males was reported – two males were arrested after the town centre brawl left one person with facial and head injuries.
A few months earlier, a man was rushed to hospital after a stabbing at the back of St George’s shopping centre in Greenhill Way.
In another incident that month, in nearby North Harrow, a man, aged in his late 50s, was murdered in a fight outside a residential address.
Last November, two teenagers were arrested following a triple stabbing close to Harrow-on-the-Hill station and bus station.
The Harrow Town Centre is in the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) zone that is thinly implemented.
Odd that all this is happening in the council that is supposed to focus on ‘putting residents first; a clean and safe borough’!
Also, the council administration when in opposition was quite concerned about the crime rate in Harrow and criticised the then administration for being “dismissive” and not doing enough to tackle the crime.

In a regulatory notice published on 20 April 2023, the Regulator of Social Housing concluded that the London Borough of Harrow has breached the Home Standard and, as a result, there was the potential for serious detriment to tenants.
Mushroom growth of ‘tall buildings’ in the central Harrow were supposed to address but have failed to ease the housing crisis as even the ‘affordable’ housing is unaffordable.
Feed up with the reckless planning decisions, Harrow residents say enough is enough, as confirmed by the actions like hundreds have signed a petition in an attempt to stop ten new tower blocks in Harrow dubbed ‘Tesco towers’.
London housing association Notting Hill Genesis is all set to submit a planning application to build more than 500 homes and a new Tesco store at the site of Tesco, Station Road in Harrow. The newly developed tall building Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) could help the planning application since it allows tall buildings in the vicinity of the tall buildings (negative implications for areas like central Harrow but positive for Hatch End, Pinner or Stanmore).
Director of Harrow Law Centre, a former Harrow councillor and chair of the Harrow planning committee, Pamela Fitzpatrick, called housing “one of the biggest problems” in the borough and suggested, whilst there’s enough housing, it’s “largely unaffordable”.
Ms Fitzpatrick added: “Housing associations no longer do what they were set up to do – provide low-cost, secure rented properties – so many people can’t even afford to live in housing association homes. The proposed Tesco site development appears to simply add to the problems and will do little to alleviate the housing crisis.”
Besides, although such a development along with other developments in the area pose big challenge for local infrastructure, no apparent forward plan to cope with the pressures of these developments.
Feet away from the Tesco is Safari cinema redevelopment: apartments rising up to 11 storeys.
Harrow Council has closed the Civic Centre, Station Road Harrow, dispersing its services to various locations – the site has released the land for creation of a new community of 1,000 or more homes.
Harrow Council is looking at developing the existing council car park at the end of Greenhill Way near the junction with Station Road with the potential to have a mini town hall, leisure, residential and commercial uses.

Michael Lockwood, 64, is accused of six counts of indecent assault and three counts of rape against a girl under 16.
The offences allegedly took place between October 1985 and March 1986, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Lockwood, appointed by a Tory administration in 2007, was Harrow council chief executive until the end of 2013, when the position was eliminated by a short-term Tory administration under Cllr Hall, and again from 2015 after it was reinstituted by the Labour administration. But the relationships between Hall and Lockwood remained tense.
After the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, he led recovery work and liaised with survivors and victims’ families.
He left the Harrow council when he was appointed director general of the newly formed Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in 2018. Lockwood also chaired the IOPC Board, the majority of which is made up of Non-Executive Directors.
Under his watch, the IOPC handled the most serious complaints against police in England and Wales.
He left the IOPC last December after it emerged he was being investigated over a ‘historical allegation’.
More on Lockwood: https://harrowmonitoringgroup.uk/2022/12/04/harrow-council-ex-chief-in-national-headlines/

Out of 32 London boroughs, Harrow is one of the four Conservative held London councils – Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon – that along with Surrey County Council has gone for a judicial review challenging the London mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion programme across all London boroughs.
The revolt was apparently instigated by the Harrow Councillor Susan Hall, who at the time led the GLA Conservatives group and is in the habit of calling Mayor Khan “a disgrace”.
Later, she stepped down from the post and is now seeking Tory nomination for the London Mayor election next year.
Many big cities have ULEZ, including Birmingham and Glasgow, to clear up the city’s air. Most petrol vehicles under 16 years old or diesel vehicles under 6 years old already meet the emissions standards.
In London, almost half of London households don’t have a car at all, and of those who have, including the Conservatives, their vehicles have met its standards. Therefore, ULEZ outcry is limited.
The Tory selection criteria for selecting the mayoral candidate is primarily to evaluate which candidate is more suitable to defeat the sitting London mayor.
The ULEZ opposition campaign is unlikely to be the deciding factor in the selection because even if the Labour voters resent the ULEZ expansion, they are less likely to swing behind the Tory candidate, as confirmed by the outcome of some recent by-elections.
In Hounslow, Enfield and Barking & Dagenham by-election campaigns the Tories have gone hard on the ULEZ but the hostility to Khan’s plan did not pay off.
But what the selectors could be focussing more is Cllr Hall’s past performance in a power/ decision-making position, like in Harrow:
Under Cllr Hall portfolio for environment, residents rejected the unwise change in the frequency of collecting the Brown and Waste Bins by the new Harrow Conservative administration in 2006, to the point that a Conservative seat in the Harrow Weald ward was badly lost in the August 2006 by-election that was held due to the death of the Tory councillor.
During her opposition leadership that started in 2010, Tories lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – two Tory councillors defected and 2 by-elections were lost in 2013.
The Conservatives lost the Harrow council twice because of the accumulated backlash of the waste collection arrangements and heavy-handed implementation of the CPZ (controlled parking zone), both being under Cllr Hall portfolio.
Regarding the Cllr Hall mention ‘I became the Leader of the Council in Harrow’, she was not elected by the residents. Many say that her very short-lived administration (late 2013 to May 2014 when Tory group lost the council) was a fluke.
[In mid-2013, the breakaway Independent Labour Group, encouraged and supported by the Tory group, snatched the council administration from Labour because of what was described as the personal grudge within the Labour group.
A few months later, Cllr Hall grabbed the council administration with the support of the well-groomed Independent Labour Group who voted in the Tory group through a highly controversial process which created the political mess in Harrow (i.e. a hung council where both the Labour and Tory groups had 25 councillors each, and Tory minority administration was put in place because of the 8 ILG councillors)]
The LGC reported on 21 January 2014, after deleting the chief executive post, Cllr Hall told her council that she is confident her experience of running a hairdressing business will enable her to manage without a chief executive.
Such was the quality of her administration and financial management that the Harrow council’s budget meeting on 27 February 2014 initially rejected her budget being a very irresponsible budget because it had no measurable commitment for a smooth financial transition to the next year when the council had to have £25m savings.
Further in 2014, there were serious concerns about Cllr Hall’s conflict of interest because of her intrinsic opposition to the Harrow’s regeneration plans for Wealdstone where Cllr Hall has the shop. The regeneration could have some unfavourable parking implications for the locality.
Many would question whether running a city such as London is compatible with running a local small business?

Writing in the ConservativeHome, Harrow councillor Susan Hall outlines ‘Why I am running to be the Mayor of London’.
Susan Hall, a member of the London Assembly who describes herself as a ‘girl’, has launched her campaign to be the Conservative Party candidate for London mayor, joining a long list of Tory candidates.
Previously, Cllr Hall has failed selection as a parliamentary candidate for Harrow West and, later, as a Brent and Harrow GLA candidate.
Her short manifesto focuses more on attacking the sitting London mayor Sadiq Khan (not an easy name to digest) than outlining any credible plan how to build on the London potential and improve the diverse Londoners quality of life.
On the other hand, a candidate like the chair of the London Assembly Andrew Boff has highlighted his contributions in making London autism-friendly, tackling childhood obesity, and London’s north-south transport divide. Also, considering that London being the British financial hub could deploy better technology, veteran Andrew Boff is right to point out that “A high-tech friendly London makes for a more prosperous Britain’.
Cllr Hall has referred to her position and work at the Harrow council, which really have been matters of concern about her ability, professionalism and effectiveness.
Under Cllr Hall portfolio for environment, residents rejected the unwise change in the frequency of collecting the Brown and Waste Bins by the new Conservative administration in 2006, more so because the portfolio holder recklessly moved the timetable for change from September 2006 to July 2006 to ‘further increase the council’s recycling performance’ but the recycling rate stated was found misleading.
The waste bin collection arrangements became so unpopular that a Conservative seat in the Harrow Weald ward was badly lost in the August 2006 by-election that was held due to the death of the Tory councillor.
In June 2009 the MailOnline also reported that Town hall chiefs were accused of pedalling ‘spurious propaganda’ after claiming that wheelie bins boosted recycling rates.
Eventually and because of the accumulated backlash of the waste collection arrangements and heavy-handed implementation of the CPZ (controlled parking zone) by Cllr Hall, Tories lost the council in 2010.
Cllr Hall bad luck continued after she acquired the Conservative group leadership in 2010 as during her opposition leadership, Tories lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – two Tory councillors defected and 2 by-elections were lost in 2013.
Regarding the Cllr Hall mention ‘I became the Leader of the Council in Harrow’, she was not elected by the residents. Many say that her very short-lived administration (late 2013 to May 2014 when Tory group lost the council) was a fluke.
[In mid-2013, the breakaway Independent Labour Group, encouraged and supported by the Tory group, snatched the council administration from Labour because of what was described as the personal grudge within the Labour group.
Few months later, Cllr Hall grabbed the council administration with the support of the well-groomed Independent Labour Group who voted in the Tory group through a highly controversial process which created the political mess in Harrow (i.e. a hung council where both the Labour and Tory groups had 25 councillors each, and Tory minority administration was put in place because of the 8 ILG councillors)]
The LGC* reported on 21 January 2014, after deleting the chief executive post, she told her council that she is confident her experience of running a hairdressing business will enable her to manage without a chief executive.
Such was the quality of her administration and financial management that the Harrow council’s budget meeting on 27 February 2014 initially rejected her budget being a very irresponsible budget because it had no measurable commitment for a smooth financial transition to the next year when the council had to have £25m savings.
Further in 2014, there were serious concerns about Cllr Hall’s conflict of interest because of her intrinsic opposition to the Harrow’s regeneration plans for Wealdstone where Cllr Hall has the shop.
The regeneration could have some unfavourable parking implications for the locality.
Many would question whether running a city such as London is compatible with running a local  small business?
*LGC

Ramji Chauhan, a Conservative councillor in Harrow for thirteen years, was sworn in as the Harrow borough mayor on 18 May.
Cllr Chauhan works in the fine pharmaceutical industry and was elected as a councillor for Harrow Weald ward in the Harrow East constituency in 2010.
He has been described as a freemason and from East African who values inclusiveness.
“It is an honour to be sworn in as the new Mayor and first citizen of Harrow. My theme this year is Unity and Diversity – I hope to continue to unite everyone together, celebrate our differences and embrace cultural diversity” he said.
Such a commitment to diversity is particularly welcoming in the face of the divisiveness imported by some Conservatives in Harrow East for political gain.
He is the second Conservative mayor from a diversity (Asian), first being Cllr Lurline Champagnie (Black) in 2004/5 when still there were some inside/ outside the civic centre who wondered ‘why these people are here’!
There have been twelve Labour mayors in Harrow from the Asian background.
Cllr Chauhan’s mayors chosen charities are RITA (Reminiscence/Rehabilitation & Interactive Therapy Activities)  – a dementia appeal at Northwick Park Hospital – and Centrepoint (provides accommodation and support to homeless people aged 16–25).
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks to everyone for their continued support for my Mayoral year” said the Harrow mayor.

Leader of the Harrow council, councillor Paul Osborn, who does not politically benefit from the Tory campaign against the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone, including to Harrow, comes under fire for being a part of the Facebook group where members celebrated the destruction of cameras policing the ULEZ.
For example, a comment read: “When politicians do not act on the wishes of the public, the public can and do turn against their rulers. In the UK we have been tolerant for too long.”
Transport for London has reported 96 allegations of criminal damage to ULEZ cameras.
Gareth Thomas, Labour MP for Harrow West, said: “The leader of Harrow council is… facilitating a platform through which criminality is being celebrated.
“For a public servant to give succour to those who commit or endorse vandalism is not only deeply irresponsible but outright dangerous.”
Cllr Osborn might be the administrator of the Facebook group, he is not the sort of person nor would have the time to monitor the group or moderate the comments on a day-to-day basis, condone violence and enjoy the hatful comments.
Campaign against the extension of ULEZ by the Tory held London councils was cleverly worked out and launched when Harrow councillor Susan Hall led the London Assembly Tory group.
Since then, she has stepped down as the leader of the group and is now hopeful for the Tory party candidacy for the London mayor election next year, hoping to gain from the resentment to the extension of the ULEZ so created.
Looks Cllr Osborn has been put under pressure to support the campaign because of the internal dynamics of the Tory group on the council – Cllr Osborn who had fought against Cllr Hall in the group leadership elections, is known to be less confrontational.
Harrow councillor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman, who strongly supports her ward colleague Cllr Hall for the nomination of Tory candidate for the London mayoralty, is a moderator in the group ‘Harrow say no to Ulez expansion’, and has updated the group rules. The offending posts have now been deleted.