It is becoming very clear that the war drive against Syria is also to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn who has been mixed up in all this.
Like Margaret Thatcher who sharpened the colonial ‘divide and rule’ and cleverly used it on the miners, David Cameron is systematically using the Syria factor to divide the Labour Party.
David Cameron who has visited Harrow to support Cllr Hall’s short-lived council administration – a fluke*, might have learnt how to divide Labour.
Jeremy Corbyn success and public appeal ended the New Labour/ Blair era that systematically damaged the Labour and social justice ideology over the years! This of course has troubled the New Labour gurus like Tony Blair and his followers like Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas.
Therefore, no surprise that Mr Thomas who supported Liz Kendall, a Blairite, for the Labour leadership, voted for the Cameron motion to bomb Syria while even some Tory MPs, including David Davis, voted against!
Mr Thomas came close to losing his Harrow West seat at the last general election. He also contended for the London Mayor candidacy but badly lost.

A typical email response:
From: ………@gmail.com
Sent: 03 December 2015 21:46
To: Harrow Monitoring Group
Subject: Re: Gareth Thomas, shame on you!
Come next elections and I shall vote against Gareth Thomas and canvass others likewise for the single reason that he voted for bombing Syria.
R…d
*

Like now, in 2010 voters voted in Labour administration to run the council.
In mid-2013, a breakaway Independent Labour Group, encouraged and supported by the Tory group, snatched the council administration from Labour because of what has been described as the personal grudge against some in the Labour group.
Few months later, the Tory group 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 (i.e. a hung council where both the Labour and Tory groups had 25 councillors each, and Tory minority administration was in place because of the 8 ILG councillors).

A Barnet Council’s regeneration project which the Barnet and Camden London Assembly member Andrew Dismore described as “disappointing”, “unimaginative” and “a multi story car park” design, has remained a matter of bitter concern for the residents on the Harrow side of the Stonegrove.
Stonegrove development to reintegrate the problematic Stonegrove estate, is on the edge of the green belt at the very northern edge of the London Borough of Barnet, close to Stanmore tube station and adjoining the London Borough of Harrow.
The residents expressed concerns three years ago that the frontage along Stonegrove needed better presentation as the urban ‘cardboard box’ style housing bears no relationship to any of the existing buildings or character of the area.
Since then there have been a number of added features to the development like a four-storey block. The latest being a planning application to build an extra level (which is called as “Minor Material Changes”!), despite that the objecting residents were seemingly assured of nothing higher than four.
A further concern is that this application appears to be a retrospective planning application as the work on the extensive extra floor has commenced (photo) before the planning committee permission.
The residents are concerned that increased density means implications for the character of the area, more people and increased demand on the services.
Such is the level of transparency and consultation that the residents discovered the application purely “by chance” when a large protected oak on Stonegrove was cut down on 17th October. On checking to see if there had been permission for that, they discovered that there had been an application to add a fifth storey to one of the massive buildings under construction, with patchy consultation with the affected residents.
“Most of my neighbours in Jesmond Way and Pangbourne Drive denied having received a notice” said the leading local campaigner Rhona Myers.
“The residents of Regents Court are distraught as they watch the building get even higher than the already overbearing mass directly opposite” added Mrs Myers who has been consistently airing the resident concerns about this development. Mrs Myers is set to address the Barnet planning committee meeting tomorrow.
It is disappointing the way Barnet is behaving and ignoring the residents expressed concerns. We hope this time the local planning authority would seriously consider the residents’ concerns and views in determining this application.

It can only be good that this year Harrow won the Best All Round Small Business Friendly Borough credit for its work to promote business start-ups and growth.
“This is now the best time to set up shop in Harrow as we embark on the largest regeneration programme for a generation” said Cllr Keith Ferry (middle), portfolio holder for business, planning and regeneration.
However, Harrow has a very clear identity within the West London that consists of other six borough council areas of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hillingdon and Hounslow, and therefore shares the challenges for West London.
A very recent West London Economic Assessment, carried out by the Peter Brett Associates LLP for West London Economic Prosperity Board, has identified a number of issues that have implications for Harrow’s business growth.
The PBA report says that there is a mismatch between the skills of the West London population and the needs of businesses, likely to become more acute over the next ten years and as the population continues to increase, this has positive as well as potentially negative economic consequences.
“The lack of affordable housing in particular risks putting a brake on economic growth” emphasises the report.
Perhaps the Tory opposition could realise the unhelpfulness of their opposition to the housing developments in Harrow.
The report alerts “West London could end up with an entrenched low-skill workforce servicing wealthier (central London) populations”.
Comparing West London with other London areas, the report highlights that:

• West London is about London average for business growth but well behind North and East London
• West London is about London average for Knowledge Based Economy employment but behind North and East London
• Unemployment in West London is not falling as quickly as elsewhere in London

The Tory opposition group on the Harrow council is not using the councillors question time at the cabinet meetings productively.
Fifteen minutes are allowed for members of the council to ask a portfolio holder a question on any matter in relation to which the Executive has powers or duties.
This established time limit allows a reasonable number of councillor questions to be answered at the meeting but lately there is an unnecessary increase in the number of questions by the opposition, some of which should have not been asked anyway as the information is already in the public domain.
In the October 2015 cabinet meeting, Tory councillors asked eleven questions, where only five could be answered at the meeting within the time limit.
Such was the nature of the questions, that one question by the deputy leader of the opposition (photo) was about the information regarding the tenants Right to Buy. The information is public and available on the Council’s website as well as via personal enquiry to the Leasehold Team.
The number of the opposition questions reached to thirty five at the November cabinet meeting, twenty nine of which were asked by the deputy leader of the Tory group, seemingly in a show-off. Obviously only seven questions could be answered at the meeting.
One of the questions he asked was about the concessions being offered to residents under the new food and garden waste collection regime. The information is in public domain .
In the public interest, they should not waste the council time in scoring political points in public.

Good that the Harrow council has taken notice of our intervention and has now amended the road marking to remove the ambiguous right turn arrow and leave an arrow indicating straight on.
The right turn arrow on the filter lane at the junction of Gayton Road and Station Road, Harrow caused confusion, resulting in a £65 fine when the motorists innocently failed to comply with the prohibited right turn signs around.
Although the signs for the restricted right turn are mounted, the right turn arrow marked on the road was more readily noticed, tempting and was therefore followed by the drivers!
The fines from this spot generated significant revenue for the council.

Harrow council could helpfully consider any appeals against the PCNs previously issued for mistakenly taking a right turn at this junction under somewhat misguided circumstances.

Lobbying MPs, offering them hospitalities and taking them out on ‘fact-finding’ trips by the interested parties is much heard about and of course the MPs have to declare any interest which someone might reasonably consider to influence their actions or words as an MP.
But it is not often that the local councillors receive gifts or hospitalities from those who have wider national or international interests, but it does happen and must be declared!
In Harrow, the following councillors have provided information about the positions they hold, and gifts or hospitalities they have received:
Cllr Keith Ferry – Lab – deputy leader of the council and chairman planning committee: 18/10/2015 – hospitality received at a Rugby World Cup Event offered by The Berkeley Group; value £500.
Cllr Ameet Jogia – Con – a new comer but in Canons ward: 07/06/2015 – delegation to Israel – 7 to 12 June 2015 offered by Conservative Friends of Israel, Embassy of Israel; value £2000.
Councillor Jerry Miles – Lab – chairman of the powerful Overview and Scrutiny Committee: 03/10/2015 – Tanglewood Monday Club 50th Anniversary Event offered v £60.
Cllr Paul Osborn – Con – very capable and influential councillor irrespective of the council administration: 24/08/2015 – VIP Tickets offered by England Hockey; 1x VIP Tickets for 24 and 25 August, 2x VIP Tickets for 29 and 30 August; value £1300.
Cllr Kiran Ramchandani – Lab – a new comer but holds a most powerful portfolio for the Performance, Corporate Resources & Policy Development: at present, this councillor is looking for the right wording to declare a trip to Israel paid by the controversial Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre.

The Tory party glossy material (photos) that has hit some Harrow letter boxes today, brands the Labour leader almost an ‘enemy within’.
The David Cameron letter says “supporters of Jeremy Corbyn have gathered an army of the far left …. as your Prime Minister my first duty will always be to protect and defend our nation and our way of life …. we can no longer trust them to keep our nation safe and secure”.
A recent YouGov poll found that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is one of Britain’s most popular public figures while Cameron is the most hated.
Moreover, there is an online petition calling for a no confidence vote in David Cameron which has attracted more than 180,000 signatures.
No doubt the party politics is expected to be nasty but perhaps not to this extent and not at this time!

Tory group leader Cllr Hall has used the Tax Payers’ Alliance list of the council managers whose remuneration exceeded £100,000 to defend why her “previous administration abolished the expensive Chief Executive role”.
After the Labour regained the council last year, they restored the chief executive post that was “unilaterally and wrongly” deleted by the short-lived Cllr Hall’s administration – a fluke, forcing the chief executive Michael Lockwood to go.
Many say that the deletion of the chief executive’s post was not for the financial reasons but seemingly because of the ‘Punch and Judy’ style leadership of the Tory group.
Such was the nature of the show that the members of the Tory group were seemingly instructed not to attend the chief executive’s leaving party in any noticeable numbers to demonstrate that the leaving chief executive is not popular and would not be missed.
The other named officer on the list is the former corporate director of place shaping Andrew Trehern who remained on the Tory hate list seemingly because he had no appetite for some lead Tory councillors.
Both of these officers are known for their appreciation for the Harrow’s diverse community.
Cllr Hall seems to have wider unforgiveness: “we’ve noticed some senior officers have already been given new positions after their old ones were abolished” she said.
Chris Spencer, Harrow Interim Corporate Director, People whose previous post was deleted was the candidate who applied through the internal advertisement and has now been appointed as Corporate Director, People.

Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust says it will deliver mental health services in line with Harrow Council’s vision as the services ‘require improvement’ (a concerning category).
Reporting to the Harrow Health and Wellbeing Board on 5 November, Tanya Paxton, Harrow Borough Director of CNWL informed that the trust will provide safe and integrated care within the borough and all Harrow residents will be able to access mental health services.

The Care Quality Commission inspection of CNWL early this year found the area of greatest concern related to safety and responsiveness on the acute wards for adults of working age which were rated as inadequate (very concerning category).
The inspection also found that the services responsive to people’s needs require improvement (lesser concerning category).

For example, the pressure on acute beds meant that wards were over-occupied and there was not always a bed for patients and they slept on sofas or a temporary bed was used.
The 14 points ‘Must Dos’ for Harrow teams, include:
• promote the privacy (phone calls) and dignity of patients
• reduce the number of times that patients are moved to other wards to sleep for non-clinical

   reasons, staff must ensure that a thorough handover takes place to promote continuity of care

   and patients must only be moved at reasonable times so that they are not adversely affected
• make sufficient staff available to work as care co-ordinators
‘Should Dos’ for Harrow teams include:
• reduce 5 week waiting times for patients to be assesses
• further training for staff to support patients with personality disorders

This Shelter leaflet reminds that the next Mayor of London can build the homes that our children will be able to afford.

Demand for housing in Harrow is increasing, particularly as the changes to welfare benefits affect people who live both in affordable housing (renting from the council or a housing association) and private rented housing.
While there is a firm commitment by the Labour London Mayoral as well as Brent and Harrow London Assembly candidates to build more affordable homes, not sure about the Tory candidates except that Harrow East MP Bob Blackman has joined a group of campaigners in voicing his opposition to plans for 318 new homes on the former post office site in College Road, Harrow.
“The political game he is playing with his chums in Government will at the very least delay the supply of these much needed homes” said Cllr Glen Hearnden, Housing Portfolio Holder.
“To stop the building of affordable housing is criminal given the housing crisis affecting many of our residents” he added.

Shelter has organised a petition for more affordable homes and it can be signed here