Not difficult for the Harrow opposition to list out election promises for 2018, knowing that they are not likely to be in administration to fulfil these.
Harrow Tory group’s glossy manifesto highlights the well known local problems and lacks specifics how they will solve these. Moreover, the previous Tory administrations added rather than reduced similar problems.
Cllr Hall’s pre-2014 short lived administration, a fluke, achieved nothing – even the budget that Cllr Hall presented to the council was defeated
Since 2014, Tories have been politicising the waste bins and now pledge that ‘bin emptied first time, every time’, knowing that where a bin is not emptied, it is mostly because it contained wrong items, despite the council drive to inform what goes in which bin.
Hope the Tory group leader is not suggesting that the hard working bin collecting workers are intentionally missing out bins and he would somehow tighten up the net to improve bin collection.
The bin collection history has dark spots under Tories: soon after acquiring administration in 2006, Tories lost Harrow Weald by-election because of the arrogant introduction of erratic and most unpopular arrangements for empting the bin. Later on, they upset residents further as  one of their councillors (nicknamed ‘bin lady’) enjoyed the ‘truck’ ride, apparently to peep into people’s bin to ‘educate’ the residents about waste disposal  – but this didn’t work.
Another sweeping pledge is to reduce the brown bin charge for 12 months, without identifying any well calculated loss in revenue or telling what is going to happen after 12 months?
And then of course the pledge to make Harrow clean. Many remember that under Cllr Hall’s environmental watch during the 2006-10 Tory administration, Harrow streets looked ugly and were least maintained, presenting very depressive outlook of the borough – specially the Labour held wards, because of the attitude that residents in these wards don’t vote for “us”!
Regarding the ‘homes not towers’ rhetoric, the manifesto fails to show respect for the social housing needs nor it offers any suggestions where exactly such housing developments could take place in the borough to meet the housing target.
Under a previous Tory administration, the planning policy was seemingly to reject unpopular planning applications on such thin grounds that helped the appeals against the planning decision, as confirmed by some buildings in Harrow which acquired planning permission through appeals to government inspector.
Sadly the Tory manifestos without details and specifics means little.

The Labour manifesto gives right messages but would this adequately help the May council election outcome, given the factors that are neither Labour doings nor controlled by Labour.
Well worded manifesto, launched last week, pledges to build Harrow homes for Harrow residents, keep Harrow clean, revitalise local economy, protect local vital public services against Tory cuts and protect those most in need.
The pledge includes creating 5,500 new homes, 3,000 new jobs and building a major new library in Harrow town centre.
The manifesto claims that despite relentless Tory cuts, Labour administration has worked tirelessly to make Harrow attractive – for example by cleaning up hotspot fly-tipping alleyways on “unadopted service” roads and investing millions of pounds in improving road and pavement conditions  across the borough.
Labour is also committed to review the number of councillors per ward with a view to lowering the cost of running the council.
However, all this might not overcome some unfavourable situations:
The independents in the Headstone North ward, who captured two seats from Tories previously, are not standing for re-election, meaning Tory voters are very likely to vote Tories this time.
A long standing previous Harrow on the Hill ward Tory councillor who was viciously expelled from the Tory group under councillor Hall’s deputy leadership, is back after years as a Tory candidate for Harrow on the Hill ward.
The ongoing  Tory divisive politics in Harrow East, championed by their MP Bob Blackman who actively targets voters from the Indian and Jewish background, became more obvious at the Kenton East by-election  where as expected , a temple orientated Tory candidate won Kenton East by-election last year. Considering that the other two Tory candidates for Kenton East are similar, the by-election pattern is most likely to be repeated.

Despite Labour doing well in keeping Harrow tidy, building more houses and implementing an imaginative regeneration programme, their majority could be slim after the May election.
Labour could lose three seats in Harrow East – Kenton East and Edgware – not because of the party politics or they are running the council badly but because of the Tory divisive politics in the area, championed by their MP Bob Blackman who actively targets voters from the Indian and Jewish background.
“He has been allowed long enough to conduct his divisive and sectarian practices in Harrow. Mr Blackman is no friend of our diverse communities in Harrow. He does not deserve to be a public representative” said the London assembly member Navin Shah.
Tory divisive politics became more obvious at the Kenton East by-election  where as expected , a temple orientated Tory candidate won Kenton East by-election last year.
MP Bob Blackman’s reported divisive card that he speaks on behalf of his “Gujarati”/ “Hindu” constituents in international disputes as well as his individualised letters to certain residents, also helped in winning a Kenton East seat.
Exploiting minorities for votes is one thing but mixing up with the far right elements is entirely a different matter.
Mr Blackman has been reported sharing a story with the title “Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white British children ‘part of their culture’”, according to The Times.
Previously the Times reported  that Bob Blackman hosted in parliament an anti-Muslim extremist which resulted in a Harrow council resolution on 30 November 2017: ‘To instruct the Chief Executive to write to Bob Blackman MP, condemning the visit of Tapan Ghosh and reaffirming that Harrow is one of the most diverse places in the UK, where hate speech is not tolerated’.
“Blackman should be doing all he can to defuse tensions and to make residents feel safe, but with his postings on social media, his association with Tommy Robinson and with Tapan Ghosh, he seems instead intent on causing racial tensions. Harrow East residents deserve better than this” said Pamela Fitzpatrick, Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East.

Soon after the Jewish demonstration against ‘anti-semitism’ at the Parliament Square, the Tory MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman, an officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel Parliamentary Group, has been reported sharing a story with the title “Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white British children ‘part of their culture’”, according to The Times.
The racist article was from a far-right, anti-Muslim media outlet called ‘Hardcore News USA’.
Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick has condemned Bob Blackman’s such action and has demanded an explanation.
Wider community concerns could be summarised as:
‘We now see he chooses to share anti-Muslim material from a site full of Islamophobia. If the Conservative Party claims to be a party for all, it cannot continue to tolerate and even reward such behaviour. It cannot give Islamophobia a free pass.’
‘The post has since been deleted, with Blackman apologising for posting the piece. That being said, it’s not the first time that the MP for Harrow East has found himself in bed with far-right extremists and xenophobic figures. He has been accused of facilitating extremism in the past, after retweeting the founder of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, on Twitter.’
Previously the Times reported  that Bob Blackman hosted in parliament an anti-Muslim extremist which resulted in a Harrow council resolution on 30 November 2017: ‘To instruct the Chief Executive to write to Bob Blackman MP, condemning the visit of Tapan Ghosh and reaffirming that Harrow is one of the most diverse places in the UK, where hate speech is not tolerated;
Mr Blackman is widely condemned for his divisive politics. Harrow has not seen such a Tory divisiveness in Harrow East before!

Harrow council has started issuing anti-social behaviour fixed penalty notices to the Pinner Road shopkeepers for gaining vehicular access to their front courtyard by crossing over public footpath which has been recoded by the CCTV on the site.
We understand that the Tory opposition group on the council is raising hopes, through their temple links that surfaced during the Kenton East by-election, to rectify the situation, knowing well that there is not much they could achieve except to claim that they tried to help but Labour administration did not cooperate!
The shopkeepers did not know nor were they reminded that the Section 34(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (RTA 1988) provides that anyone driving a vehicle over a footpath, as is the case here, is guilty of an offence unless it can be shown that there is a private right in place for people to use the access-way to gain vehicular access to their property. The burden of proving that there is such a vehicular right of way in place rests with the defendants.
Some years back, a fixed-head street camera was installed (photo) for general safety purposes but now it seems to have a long range rotary head and is used to detect the vehicular access to the shop front yards – there are no warning signs on or around the camera about the purpose/scope of the camera.
It could have helped the shopkeepers to have advance warning about crossing the footpath to park vehicle at their front courtyard. Failing this, the council could consider issuing business parking permits   to businesses that have premises within a controlled parking zone – the area is full of yellow lines [the CPZ under Cllr Hall watch was a bitter issue (also read this) and resulted in serious setbacks for the Cllr Hall led Tory group – lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 as well as two by-elections in between].
Those now trying to exploit the Pinner Road situation are long-standing associates of Cllr Hall.

Good to see improvements in the NHS Health Check screening programme in Harrow.
The programme is to prevent a number of health problems for certain age group (40-74) with no history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Those who not already have these risk factors will be invited (once every five years) to have a check to assess their risk.
The programme, commissioned by the Harrow council through the public health grant, used to commission individual GP practices to deliver the programme but this achieved very low results, said Carole Furlong, Consultant in Public Health.
Now the change of provider to Harrow Health CIC has allowed them to look at different delivery models e.g. centralising the delivery of the checks which reduces pressure on individual practices, Ms Furlong informs.
“The recent data (Jan 18) shows a big improvement in numbers having healthchecks” said Ms Furlong .
They focused on the more deprived areas in Harrow where the health inequalities are more pronounced but the programme has now been widened to include less deprived areas and invitations should be going out on a practice by practice basis.
The practice is responsible for advertising/promoting and inviting eligible patients and for delivering the full health check.  They are performance managed by HHCIC and the council performance manage HHCIC.
Not all GP practices in Harrow appreciate the change in the NHS ethos to respect patients as clients nor do they feel comfortable when patients ask them questions about the performance of the practice, but still the concerned patients should ask practice for a health check.  If they are signed up to deliver they should be able to make an appointment.  If they are not signed up, they can be asked to do so.

Harrow GP surgeries need to offer high quality services which meet users demands, manage expectations and be responsive to meet the needs of the different communities in Harrow, finds the Healthwatch research, commissioned by the Harrow council ‘to gain an understanding of patients and service users experience of GP services within the borough’.
The research report recommends that surgeries address patients’ frustrations as many lack awareness of the health care services or how to access these or how to complain about their GP.
Raising patient awareness to complain is important but what is more important is to give them rights to deal with any backlash to their complaint, like GP removing them from the practice list – victimisation difficult to prove but does happen.
We support the Harrow Council for Justice initiative asking for more and better patient rights. In a letter to the Commons health select committee, they said:
‘We would like to draw your attention to the NHS England Standard General Medical Services Contract 2015/16 (GMS) and its interpretation by David Lock QC.
As you would see from the section 13 of the GMS and section 11 of the QC report, a GP has absolute powers to remove a patient from the practice list (reference here is not the removal of the patient because of violent, or threatening to be violent, towards a GP or practice staff which it is different matter). GPs are at lib to determine their own ‘good reasons’ for the removal action and there is no mechanism to challenge it, not even through the Ombudsman action.
The NHS practice contract gives the patient no right to object to the proposed removal or to challenge the factual basis of the decision to remove him or her from the practice list.  The provisions in the contract treat this mater as being solely to be decided between the practice and NHS England.  Neither the GMS Regulations nor the GMS contract gives any legal right to the patient to object to being removed from a practice list.
It is therefore difficult if not impossible to see how a patient could construct a cause of public law action arising out of the decision of a GP practice to remove a patient from their list of registered patients.  The patient’s only remedies appear to be to sue in defamation or to complain to the GMC.
Such a denial of rights to a patient is against the natural justice with serious Human Rights implications!
Institutional collusion to keep patients silent is highly concerning.
We would appreciate if you could take up this matter with the legislators, with a view to make legislative changes to allow patients a right to seek a review or appeal against the GP’s decision to remove them from the practice list’.

We reported that ponding after rain around a Wealdstone bench, near a bus stop, makes it unusable.
This long standing problem near 130/132 High Street Wealdstone, seemingly due to the slop towards the bench or the earth sinking around the bench, not only caused water build-up but also attracted environmental abuse.
Within days a senior manager at the Harrow council positively responded, “We will raise a job to have the levels improved at this location – will take between 5-8 weeks for its completion”.
We have noted that the work has been carried out today – well within four weeks!

Harrow council prides itself for being one of a minority of councils in the UK that is ‘not expecting to raid its financial reserves next year’ – despite facing massive cutbacks in government funding.
Cllr Sachin Shah, leader of Harrow Council, said, “I take being careful with your money very seriously. Reserves are for emergencies. That’s why we are cutting our cloth to what we’ve got”.
But opposition leader councillor Paul Osborn questions the council leader’s budget assertion.
“In their Final Revenue Budget 2018/19 which they approved at Cabinet and Council in February, it makes it clear that the only reason they have not touched the reserves this year is because they are not allowed to do so” says Cllr Osborn.
In his budget statement, Cllr Sachin Shah also said, “We are making hard choices every day. Some councils, like Northamptonshire, have run out of money – with disastrous consequences. Our job is to make sure that doesn’t happen in Harrow.”
In responding to the council leader’s stated approach to keep the council in a healthy financial state, Cllr Osborn points out overspend in this year’s budget, resulting  in running down reserves as the Quarter 3 figures in the budget show ‘a draw down from reserves of £2.815m’.
Commenting on the appropriateness  of the administration’s financial decisions, Cllr Osborn said, “They have run the reserves down to a minimum whilst also making Harrow residents pay £421 more on average on Council tax since Labour took control of the Council”.
“They have not been careful with public money and cannot be trusted to do so” he added.
Like many local authorities, Harrow Council has raised Council Tax this year by 2.99% plus 0.5% in a government-authorised precept to pay for rising costs of adult social care.

It looks that some opposition councillors with little knowledgeable of planning matters are making most noises in Harrow that ‘Labour cannot be trusted on planning’, all because these Tory councillors don’t like the developments needed to meet the challenge of housing shortage in the borough.
They seem to be more interested in point-scoring rather than appreciating the housing needs in Harrow.
According to the recent information from the Harrow council, there are 329 homeless in temporary accommodation in the borough and 47 outside borough. Total on waiting list for council accommodation as at 07/12/17 was 1995 – average waiting time for being re-housed in permanent accommodation could be anything up to eleven years.
It is interesting that the Tory councillors on the Harrow planning committee can vote against a planning application but cannot produce good reasons for a refusal, using the local, regional or national planning policies, when needed to overturn officer recommendation to grant a planning permission (pity that the planning-able Tory councillor who could effectively do so has been kept away from the planning committee by some in her group since her return to the council in a 2011 by-election).
Similarly their attack on London Mayor for granting some housing developments is immature.
According to London Councils’ analysis of housing statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Greater London Authority, 526,000 new homes are needed to be built between 2011 and 2021 in London just to keep up with current housing demand.
It is easy to outcry ‘green belt’ but building on just 25% of the green belt land inside the M25 would allow for just over one million new homes to be built. This would be a substantial gain in the current housing crisis.
[Green belt is not necessarily open countryside; green belt designation is an issue of policy and not necessarily always applicable to the wider countryside].
It can only be good that Harrow council plans to build almost 6,000 new homes during 2017-2022. Numbers of anticipated houses and sites as per LBH housing plans, 2017-22, are – to maximise the use of available land and to attract developers, tower blocks are unavoidable.