“Our workforce is diverse, talented and adaptable and our local businesses are wonderful. With this support and their own skills I have every faith in them to be able to rebuild and flourish” said Cllr Keith Ferry, business, property and leisure portfolio holder as Harrow Council launched its Draft Economic Strategy which aims to respond to the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and support the recovery.
Cllr Graham Henson, Harrow Council leader added: “We have also worked hard to secure millions of pounds in external funds to deliver a range of employment, business support and infrastructure programmes.”
All this sounds well but how the strategies outlined in the plans help the small street businesses predominantly run by the cultural diversity like Afghani, Pakistani and Turkish communities?
(for example, Station Road Harrow and High Street Wealdstone are kept alive by these businesses, though not acknowledged)
The following core of the Draft Economic Strategy is of little relevance to these street businesses, considering the nature of their business.
The strategy says that in the immediate term the Council has secured over £16m in external funds to deliver a range of employment, business support and infrastructure programmes, and these include:
– An expansion of the Council’s job brokerage scheme and the launch of a vacancy bulletin supporting those who became unemployed to work with sectors, such as social care.
– Transferral of apprenticeship levy funding to SMEs to create new apprenticeships in care, health, construction, and digital sectors.
– Expansion of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and employability provision to deliver outreach services.
– Promotion of our Jobs, Employment and Training Programme as well as the Work and Health Programme
It looks that the council still has a long way to go in developing meaningful and inclusive ethos, policies and community support across the council, which are needed as the ‘community cohesion’ cannot be achieved in vacuum.

Wealdstone ward, 75% BAME population, is one of the most deprived wards in Harrow – with overcrowding, unemployment, crime and the fear of crime being major concerns – many say it is now a ‘no-go area’ in the evenings – most didn’t even know about the Harrow council’s ‘re-generation’ plans.
Parking was another key concern identified during the filming.
Under these difficult conditions and with little support, high street small businesses (mostly Afghani, Pakistani, Turkish) are significantly contributing towards the local and borough economy. (watch video here)
But their contributions are hardly acknowledged by the Harrow council.
Harrow council’s Economic Strategy 2021-2030 says ‘Harrow is one of the most culturally diverse local authorities in the UK, with  around  60%  of  residents  from  Black,  Asian,  and  Multi-Ethnic backgrounds’ and that ‘Harrow High streets contain more than 1,200 businesses’ – but no expressed credit to businesses by these communities which meaningly contribute towards the Harrow economy. Therefore, no surprise that the strategy has no obvious or specific strategies to support and nurture these small but important businesses.
Such omissions are usually seen in the light of the dynamics of institutional racism but in this case, they look more like because of a council that has fails to practise inclusion despite layers of the cultural diversity at the civic centre which simply recycle the council’s dominant ideological and work ethos, resulting in no change in the prevailing status quo!

Affinity Water campaign Save Our Streams, staged in Harrow now, is the UK’s biggest ever water saving initiative, focused on saving incredibly rare chalk streams, and the habitats they provide for local wildlife.
The water we drink comes from the local environment, flowing through nearby rivers and streams.
“We’re not the kind of people to just go with the flow, and we’ve been working hard to reduce water wastage and help protect our unique local environment” the Affinity Water said.
“Not only do we have a responsibility to serve our 3.5mn customers, we also want to make sure we do this sustainably to protect our unique local environment and all the wildlife we share it with” they added.
They have made water saving easy with lots of free water saving devices (Buffaloo Cistern Bag, Eco Shower Head and 4-minute Shower Timer) and bespoke expert advice.

Very concerning to read that it took an hour and a half for a paramedic to arrive to attend a five-year-old who suffered a broken collarbone after she was hit by a falling fire door at the Stag Lane Primary School.
Yet another example of under resourced NHS work!
The incident reportedly happened at around 2.30pm on Monday (June 28), but despite an ambulance being called immediately, it took an hour and a half for a paramedic to arrive.
The published photo of the fallen door shows broken hinges. Harrow Council is investigation how and why the door came to fall off.
Good schools have regular health and safety in-house inspections, usually carried out by a team of a designated school governor, member of the teaching staff and site manager. Inspection records should be formally kept.
As reported, the London Ambulance Service has confirmed it received its first call to the school at 2.31pm on Monday, and received another call at 2.51pm. Paramedics eventually arrived at the school at 4.03pm. The girl was treated and taken to hospital. 
Apparently the ambulance service was very busy on 28 June – they said they received more than 6,500 calls into their 999-control rooms, compared with a usual ‘busy’ day of about 5,500 calls.

While the Labour Party is struggling and face atrocious decline in vote share under its unpopular ‘new leadership’, the Peace and Justice Project, led by Jeremy Corbyn and actively supported by the socialists, including from Harrow, has  grown, taking   on   new   projects, developing new ideas, and building new coalitions of campaigners, despite the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on organising and activism.
“From opposing Boris Johnson’s protest ban, to standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine, to working with food banks in Liverpool and London clothes banks Nottingham, to hosting ten thousand people at a global conference led by refugees; we’ve taken on the powerful and organised for a better world” reports the recently published Biannual Report of the project.
The  Peace  and  Justice  Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn, is  an organisation with deep ties to the  labour  movement  in  the  UK  and overseas as well as social movements and progressive   activists.  It has a potential of becoming a political party like the Co-operative Party that has an electoral agreement with Labour Party since 1927.
“The peace and justice project is a very timely initiative. The world is in a parlous state and COVID19 has cast stark new light on the inequality and injustice surrounding us” Harrow councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick, a leading founder of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors, said after the launch of the nationwide project.
“Jeremy Corbyn is a politician who is genuinely altruistic and has been a powerful campaigner for peace and justice for decades. I very much welcome this exciting initiative” she added.
Achievements of the project include:

• Seeing 10,000 in attendance at their global refugee voices conference, held in partnership with the ITF.
• Supporting Palestine demonstrations which mobilised up to 200,000 people and increased international pressure on the Israeli government.
• Gained thousands of signatures on their vaccine internationalism petition and brought together leading figures in health campaigning across the world at their roundtable on the issue.

The movement is working on the projects from improving independent media   infrastructure to researching the impacts of Britain’s new Defence Review, to mobilising people to support food banks.

Harrow East parliamentary candidate (Lab) last election and a dedicated socialist, Harrow Councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick  is one of the six socialist women elected to the Labour’s new National Women’s Committee.
Delighted Ms Fitzpatrick said, “I am hoping the party has some big ideas to deal with the inequality and injustice that women face today”.
Each year National Annual Women’s Conference brings together hundreds of Labour women, politicians, stakeholders and activists from across the country.
The conference enables Labour women members to better participate in policy-making and offers the opportunity to share ideas with delegates from across the UK.
The National Annual Women’s Conference 2021 (26 – 27 June), is online because of the Covid-19. There was no need to be a delegate to be part of this historic first online Conference – it was possible to apply to be a visitor (tickets started at £5) for this year’s National Annual Women’s Conference.
Ms Fitzpatrick secured 162,560 votes.
This socialist win through public vote (affiliate delegates) is yet another setback for the Labour leadership.  Keir Starmer was head-hunted to bring unity to the Labour Party but far from this, the party is now more divided in terms of left, right, centralist and socialist.
A recent tweet from Ms Fitzpatrick helps to understand why things are as they are: “The problem with letting Tories and other non-socialists into Labour is that it moves our party ever more to the right. These are the entryists into our party. They climb into positions of power feigning socialist credentials then set about expelling all the real socialists” – the tweet appeared soon after Tory John Bercow joined Labour.

Looks the Labour Party leader Starmer has not only failed in uniting the party but also in effectively dealing with the racism in the party. This is bad enough, but worst is the right-wing elements now using divisive tactics for political gain.
‘We’re haemorrhaging votes among Muslim voters,’ one senior Labour official tells me, ‘and the reason for that is what Keir has been doing on antisemitism. Nobody really wants to talk about it, but that’s the main factor. He challenged Corbyn on it, and there’s been a backlash among certain sections of the community.’ writes Dan Hodges for the Mail On Sunday regarding the forthcoming  Batley and Spen by-election.
“This is a patently vile, Islamophobic briefing by a ‘senior Labour official’ to the Daily Mail. This racism needs to be challenged urgently and publicly by the Labour leadership & the party as a whole. There can be no hiding behind the anonymity of the source and briefing” Labour Muslim Network tweeted.
Most concerning that desperate Labour officials are using a divisive approach by playing ‘antisemitism’ card in anticipation of a likely defeat at this by-election.
Batley and Spen by-election is not about Jews or Muslims or a block-vote, but the outcome is likely to reflect the poor performance by the Labour Party under Starmer as confirmed by successive defeats at the recent elections.
The defeat by the Conservatives in Hartlepool earlier this month was followed by Chesham and Amersham defeat, one of the worst by-election results in the Labour history, with 622 votes.
Before this, Labour lost control of eight councils and more than 300 seats in the Local Elections, including County Durham, which had been under Labour control for more than 100 years.
Considering that Harrow has significant Jewish and Muslim population and had Labour specific anti-Semitism and Islamophobia headlines, it would be most appropriate for Harrow Labour (in/outside civic centre) as well as the Labour MP to distance from the racist elements in the Labour Party and their ‘vile’ statement, condemning that such undesirable tactics have serious implications for the communal harmony.

Harrow council’s call-in scrutiny sub-committee resolved (14 June) that the Harrow Town Centre Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) can be implemented but observed significant inadequacies.
The sub-committee considered the challenge, signed by 302 residents, to the ill-thought and overly forceful PSPO decision.
The PSPO, promoted by the portfolio-holder and gone through the cabinet stage (27 May), forbids the activities like Amplification of music and voice; Placing of tables, chairs, stands and other fixings / furniture on the street and Distribution of leaflets.
Failure to comply with a PSPO is an offence and can lead to a summary conviction and fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.  All enforcement officers as well as police are authorised to take action under it (there is no publicity about the role, responsibilities and powers of the Harrow council Environmental Enforcement Officer –  however, we managed to find some useful information about them).
The Call-In sub-committee found that clarification is required in terms of expectations by virtue of existing legislation (religious and political groups, charities) and that this needs to be made clear in any publicity. Also, that any leaflet make it clear how the council will determine applications/requests for permission. The portfolio holder should also recognise that the order will be subject to review.
The portfolio holder Cllr Assad, present at the meeting, did not do well and attracted concerning comments.
“She did very badly and failed to address the issues raised with her.  In fact, she made excuses that she is new in the job and that this is not ‘her’ report.  Then why didn’t she ‘pull’ it.  Very unsatisfactory. Hopeless really.” said a resident who watched the meeting.
Nadeem Hussain who presented the Call-In notice later said “PSPOs can be an effective resource to counter unreasonable and persistent behaviour that adversely affects the quality of life for residents in Harrow.
“However,  there are strong concerns about parts of this PSPO. I was disappointed with lack of answers received from the Portfolio Holder to specific questions and points I raised at the call-in regarding protected characteristics of groups under the Equality Act 2010, clarity of language, transparency, proactively contacting and identifying those who are most likely to be affected, consideration of adequacy of litter bins in the town centre”.
“I am pleased that the Sub-Committee did make some recommendations to the Portfolio Holder but I felt they did not go far enough” Mr Hussain added.

The Call-in notice, challenging the ill-thought and overly forceful Harrow Town Centre Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) decision, signed by 302 residents, has been sent to the Harrow council today (3 June).
The PSPO, promoted by a newly appointed inexperienced portfolio-holder and gone through the cabinet stage (27 May), forbids the activities like Amplification of music and voice; Placing of tables, chairs, stands and other fixings / furniture on the street and Distribution of leaflets.
Failure to comply with a PSPO is an offence and can lead to a summary conviction and fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.  All enforcement officers as well as police are authorised to take action under it.
Historically and without any negative impact, the Town Centre has been used by the political parties and civic liberty groups for setting a table/stand for literature/canvassing, or distributing leaflets and amplifying canvassing voices.

On 1stFebruary 2021, the Borough Wide Public Spaces Protection Order was renewed which included controls around alcohol consumption in public places as well as urinating, defecating and spitting.
But now the Harrow Town Centre Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), gone through the cabinet stage (27 May), includes Amplification of music and voice; Financial Agreements (people trying to get visitors to sign up to them); Placing of tables, chairs, stands and other fixings / furniture on the street; Feeding of birds and vermin; Distribution of leaflets; Illegal street trading  and Begging.
The newly appointed portfolio holder grabbed the publicity opportunity and tweeted:
Failure to comply with a PSPO is an offence and can lead to a summary conviction and fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.  All enforcement officers as well as police are authorised to take action under it. The PSPO will be in place for a maximum 3 years as per the law, but will be reviewed to ensure it is effective in its approach in tackling issues that affect businesses and the public.
While many aspects of PSPO are good, but some are seen inappropriate and a public Call-in of the order is eminent under the council procedures.
The argument is that the Order does not strike the proper balance between the rights of businesses and residents and the basic right of civil protest and campaigning.
Historically and without any negative impact, the Town Centre has been used by the political parties and civic liberty groups for setting a table for literature/canvassing, or distributing leaflets and amplifying canvassing voices.
Another enjoyable feature of the Town Centre has been the street musicians who use non-acoustic instruments – most are of non-British origin.
We support the Call for the Harrow council to  re-evaluate the Order in order to better protect fundamental human rights.