Following our report regarding Councillor Hall’s non-declaration of the pecuniary interest, we now understand that the Harrow Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Hall, is the subject of an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
The police are investigating allegations that Cllr Hall failed to adhere to Harrow Council’s pecuniary and non pecuniary declaration and propriety rules for its elected councillors.
“We expect better of our elected politicians and Harrow UNISON will take full part in the investigation, if required” informs the Unison press release.
In presenting a regeneration-specific Wealdstone petition at the council meeting, Cllr Hall said: “It will damage the entire Wealdstone business community”.

The petition was debated at the council meeting but Cllr Hall who has a shop in Wealdstone did not declare a pecuniary interest and remained present during the debate, despite being warned that the Tory Group Leader is using her elected and political position in an inappropriate manner which could directly impact on her business and personal economic interests.

Cllr Hall shows no remorse:  she is pleading everywhere that she has not really done anything wrong.  However, what really matters is the police verdict – watch this space for further update! 19/4/16
Political backlash: Cllr Hall now leads a highly divided group as 42.31% members of her group did not vote for her at the recent leadership election, despite heavy canvassing by the group whip! 13/4/16
Further update: Cllr Hall is seemingly in self-denial about the seriousness of the matter. In a public statement she refers to the minutes of the council meeting in February – the minutes simply say that she “declared a non-pecuniary interest”, while the alleged  criminal offence that could lead to disqualification* is about not declaring a ‘pecuniary interest’. In the same meeting another councillor declared pecuniary interest in an item in that he had investment properties and left the Chamber during the discussion and vote on this item. 11/4/16 15:56
Update: breaking news: Detective Sergeant of the MPS Special Enquiry Team has informed us that “this is now an ongoing police investigation”. 06/04/2016 08:24

Note:
*There are a number of potential criminal offences associated with:
• the failure to register or disclose a disclosable pecuniary Interest
• discussion and/or voting on a DPI
Successful prosecutions can result in a fine of £5000 and disqualification for five years from the local council and from other local authorities – page 24

Following our report regarding Cllr Hall’s non-declaration of the pecuniary interest and drawing authorities attention to investigate the breach, watch this space for a follow up news soon.
In presenting a regeneration-specific Wealdstone petition, Cllr Hall said: “It will damage the entire Wealdstone business community”.
The petition was debated at the council meeting but Cllr Hall who has a shop in Wealdstone did not declare a pecuniary interest and remained present during the debate.
Such a serious non-compliance of the councillors code of conduct by a senior councillor damages the council’s image and shakes people’s confidence in the local democracy/ transparency.
She has an honourable option – step down before the news breaks!

We hear that as Cllr David Perry is passing on the baton to a new leader of the council, the opposition should also have fresh leadership to put behind a sort of ‘Punch and Judy’ attitude at the council and  to work productively with the administration in the interest of effectively serving the community.
The performance of the Tory group appears weak and hostile under Cllr Hall’s leadership, considering what the group ought to be doing but is not doing.
The feeling is that the opposition should work as a critical friend, assisting the administration whenever possible and suggesting healthy alternatives whenever necessary. There is no point in keep attacking the chief executive who is leading the council’s most challenging regeneration programme.
Since Cllr Hall, the leader of the less effective Tory group, has not followed Cllr Perry example to step down, the leadership challenge in the Tory group is a right move.
It would be welcoming to have a team of calm and well balanced Tory group leadership who could harmoniously work with the members and officers of the council – a good combination could be like councillors Marilyn Ashton and Amir Moshenson who have multiple expertises amongst themselves, including place shaping/ planning and critical mind respectively!

Cllr David Perry is to step down as Leader of Harrow Council this May saying “It is now the right time for a new Leader to take up the baton and build on the foundations I have laid”. He became the leader after regaining the council in 2014.

The new leader could either be Cllr Sachin Shah who is responsible for the council’s finances or Cllr Keith Ferry, deputy leader leading the council’s regeneration programme.
Cllr Perry was elected the leader of the Labour group in 2013, followed by the following happenings:

Perhaps Cllr Hall, the leader of the less effective Tory group, could follow Cllr Perry example and let the council have a fresh start.
Cllr Hall has a history of leading her group to defeats: lost two by-elections in 2013 and failure to gain the  council  in 2010 and in 2014 where five sitting Tory councillors were defeated despite the London mayor, prime minister and home secretary visits to Harrow to support her council leadership chances.
Lately she failed to declare pecuniary interest while actively presenting Wealdstone petition and saying: “It will damage the entire Wealdstone business community” – she has a shop in Wealdstone. Non declaration of pecuniary interest involves the commission of a criminal offence.

While most of the state secondary schools in Harrow now have academy status, a vast majority of primary schools have not.
We hear concerns about the government plans to turn every state school in England into an academy – many teachers from Harrow were at the recent academy protest in London and of course at the teachers conference that has demonstrated strong opposition to total academisation.
Academies are independent, state-funded schools, which receive their funding directly from central government, rather than through a local authority. They are overseen by the charitable academy trusts which are mostly not local and are not well monitored – scandal at an academy chain is an eye opener!
In pointing out total abolition of national pay and conditions under academy status, Christine Blower, general secretary NUT, has listed some (photo).
Teachers also voted to opt out of the of Prevent duty for schools, developed due to the rift between the education and home secretaries at the time as who is not doing enough about ‘..isms’.
Considering the failures in experimenting the education models and modes, it is about time to listen to the education practitioners regarding what is taught, how and where it is taught.

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 about 120 people, most of whom are Harrow residents”.
We leave it to the council to determine whether Cllr Hall breached the councillors code of conduct by not safeguarding the financial interest of the council as her public statement potentially enhances the Premier Banqueting’s and diminishes the Harrow council’s negotiating powers in a possibly active contractual deal for the council to acquire the Premier Banqueting, paid by the public money.
Furthermore, the council could finish up paying far more if the owner of the Banqueting hall gets fed up by less assuring political situation at the council and sells the venue to someone else, and the council finish up paying far more to the new owner than the current negotiated price.
Cllr Hall also presented the petition ‘Don’t Force Communities out of Wealdstone’ at the Council meeting on 25 February 2016 which says: ‘Council has announced plans for a new Civic Centre in Wealdstone, which could force out a community banqueting hall, a local temple and undermine local businesses by closing the Peel House car park … putting these popular and valued community assets at risk would be a major loss to Wealdstone and its local economy’.

Cllr Hall said: “It will damage the entire Wealdstone business community”.
The petition was debated at the meeting but Cllr Hall who has a shop in Wealdstone did not declare a pecuniary interest and remained present during the debate.
Again we leave it to the authorities to act as non declaration of pecuniary interest potentially involves the commission of a criminal offence.

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 the Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group.

Mr Thomas might have a political score but the local walk in centres are in no real danger of taken over by outside bidders as the key GP partners in the surgeries running these centres are likely to bid and win with the addition of New Harrow East walk in centre. All these high profile key players – Dr Amol Kelshiker (The Pinn Medical Centre), Dr Genevieve Small (Ridgeway / Alexandra Avenue Surgery), Dr Kanesh Rajani (Streatfield Health Centre) – are senior members of the Harrow CCG governing body.
On the other hand the position of the GPs owned Community Interest Company (transformed from the Harrow health Ltd) which has limitations on how much profit can be distributed, seems to be played down and is not likely to be used as a local serious bidder.
Such is the upper hand of the HCCG, that it seems to be involved in the board election for the independent Community Interest Company/Harrow health Ltd where each practice’s vote will form the number of points based on its patient list size – the election results are point based. Pinn has the highest number of registered patients with the Ridgeway Surgery in third place. Conflict of interest?
Good that the walk in centres provide primary care services 365 days a year, but there are implications, especially where the care services are channelled in a certain direction on the basis of more patients more funds flow their way, because of which majority of the other GP practices will lose funds as these would be siphoned off to the three walk in centres in Harrow.
There are also concerns about the loss of the continuity of care – for example, the GP practice which has tried not to issue the antibiotic unnecessarily, loses the battle as the walk in centre doctor could readily prescribe it.

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 deemed currently unable to work but are capable of trying to find employment.
More than half a million disabled people could lose out as a result of further changes over the next four years to welfare payments as the formula the government uses to calculate the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for disabled people will change – BBC reports.
The public protests warn that the “cumulative effects” of cuts to both benefits and social care is eroding the capacity for some disabled people to live independently.
Bob Blackman has previously generally voted against laws to promote equality and human rights, and has voted to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998.
While he voted for pinching money from the vulnerable, Bob Blackman’s claim for expenses have been highly controversial.
His last year’s expenses £172,353.95, included £142,486.90 on staffing of which £35,000-£40,000 was the salary for his wife, his office manager of unknown formal qualification for the post. The other £25,885.20 included is for renting office space at the Harrow East Conservative Association office – the same HECA then financially supports the constituency’s political activities from the income.
An investigation by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) found that the Harrow East MP submitted more than 700 “inaccurate” claims, amounting to more than £1000.

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 on the health system as in some cases hospital beds were being occupied by patients who could not leave because there was a lack of social care in place to support them.
In Harrow, of the 47 regulated providers inspected by CQC as at November 2015, none had received an outstanding rating overall, 35 received a rating of good, and 10 were rated as requires improvement and 2 received a rating of inadequate – requiring improvement and being inadequate are the failing categories.
Harrow specific number of allegations of abuse of people using social care services has increased, reported by us previously.
Quality of the care has co-relation with how well people in the social care are paid.
From the CQC data, as at December 2015, there were an estimated 150 establishments and 5,500 jobs in adult social care in Harrow, around 3,700 of these jobs were care workers and there were 86 registered managers in post.
As at December 2015, the average hourly rate across Harrow for a care worker was £7.61, including the independent sector average £7.50, which was less than the regional average across the London area (£8.00).
Furthermore, across Harrow, around 89% of care workers were aged 25 or over and 32% of these had an hourly rate less than £7.20.
Across the sector, 12.3% of care worker roles in Harrow were vacant as at December 2015 – equates to an estimated 450 vacancies.

Harrow assistant director of social services Chris Greenway has previously assured, “we have developed a Residential and Nursing Care Quality Charter, which reflects the views of people that have used Care Homes and their families to identify what a Good home should look like”.