Harrow Labour Group have condemned Boris Johnson’s huge fare rises and called on him to put the needs of ordinary Londoners first.

On 2 January millions of Londoners will pay higher fares on London’s buses, tubes and trains because of decisions taken by Boris Johnson and his Tory Chancellor George Osborne.

Since Boris Johnson’s election in 2008 the cost of a single bus ticket has risen by 44%. Thanks to Boris Johnson and George Osborne’s fare hikes, Londoners will pay even higher fares from 2 January including:

* Zone 1-4 weekly travelcard is up £34.60 to £39.40 between 2008-2011, an extra £249.46 a year.

* 1-6 annual travelcard rising from £1,784 to £2,016, up 13% between 2008-2011.

* Peak single journey in one zone (not in zone 1) is up 27.3%, from £1.10 to £1.40 between 2008-2011.

* Monthly zone 1-2 travelcard will rise above £100 for the first time, up from £93.00 to £106.00, up 14.0% between 2008-2011.

* Rail fares will rise by an average of 6% on 2 January, many rail tickets will rise by 10% or more.

Funding for London’s transport system has been cut by George Osborne and Boris Johnson by 21% or £2.1 billion. Boris Johnson said he was ‘pleased’ with this decision and called it ‘a good settlement’.

Leader of the Harrow Council, Cllr Bill; Stephenson said: “Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson and Tory Chancellor George Osborne have cut the grant for London Transport by 21%. £2.1 billion taken out of London’s Transport budget and it is us poor Londoners – not Boris and George – who will feel the pinch as fares rise yet again in January.

These draconian and completely unnecessary Tory fare rises will hit local residents hard at a time of unprecedented financial difficulty. Along, with rising VAT to 20%, this is not a New Year present that any one was looking for.”

When Boris Johnson visited and signed a petition to save the local North Harrow ticket office, in a run up to his campaign to become Mayor of London, he categorically announced that he was absolutely committed to “ensuring there is always a manned ticket office at every station,” and stated: “I will [also] defend local ticket offices.”

Mayor of London has now backtracked and took a complete U turn to announce major cuts to the many ticket offices across London. This will, in particular, affect the suburban stations like Harrow which are usually more affected by security and safety issues, as well as, need to have information as trains and tubes are less frequent and hampered by the maintenance work or network signalling problems.

To add insult to the injury, at Mayor’s Question Time in City Hall, Boris Johnson said that: “The first and most important point to make is no ticket office will be closed. They are not going to be closed.”

Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Bill Stephenson, said: “Boris Johnson misled our residents when he visited Harrow as part of his election campaign to become the Mayor of London. He again failed to tell the truth to the London Assembly at the Mayor’s Question Time when he categorically stated that no ticket offices will close under his programme. This must be one of his biggest broken election promises. Documents issued by his office clearly show he was not telling the truth. Several ticket offices will indeed close, others will close for most of the week, and 90% of offices will see their opening hours drastically cut.

“In fact, nearly 450-500 ticket office will close and 800 staff will lose their jobs under Boris Johnson’s cuts. Many stations will feel less safe and less friendly as a result of this broken election pledge. Harrow residents are entitled to ask what the Mayor of London is delivering.”

“The source, who spoke out under condition of anonymity, said high ranking officers in Harrow Council were too afraid of repercussions to give constructive criticism of Conservative policies.

There were also claims political influence was exercised over a programme of redundancies launched to balance the authority’s tight budget, leaving officials scared that speaking out of turn would cost them their jobs.

In an exclusive interview with the Harrow Times, the source said: “There are a number of projects that have been railroaded through by the Conservative administration. They have developed, over a period of time, a culture of fear. Senior staff, middle managers, have been dictated to and honest and justifiable advice has been ignored.”

Read the full article.

The Challenge Panel consisted of Cllrs Green (Chair), Gate, Kinnear, Romain, Teli and Mr Ramji Chauhan.

The Challenge Panel’s Report was submitted for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on Tuesday February 23 and appeared on the supplemental Agenda 1, pp 37 – 60.

The Panel made 11 recommendations as set out on p 92 of the report. In essence these were highly critical of the way in which the whole scheme had been conceived and implemented. For example, it was recommended that there should be proper financial planning, costing and controls; that formal plans and monitoring processes need to be put into place; that consideration should be given as to how local ward councillors could be involved and their training needs; that phase two which involves more controversial proposals should not be rolled out before further clarification of the scope is provided to Cabinet. Representatives from the boroughs of Brent and Hillingdon, who had provided evidence for the Challenge Panel, had emphatically stated that such a roll out was not appropriate for the schemes in their boroughs.

In line with usual procedure the Report had been circulated in advance for the comment of Panel members and no adverse comments were received. It was therefore submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for onward transmission to the Cabinet. At the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny committee, the Chairman, Cllr. Sheinwald, reported that the two Conservative councillors on the Challenge Panel (Cllrs Romain and Teli) said that they did not agree with the findings of the Panel and Cllr Teli added that he had not even read the report until two days before the meeting and was reprimanded by Cllr. Sheinwald. Councillor Romain did not attend the meeting and his concerns remain a mystery. After an hour long debate, the Conservative majority on the Committee voted to refer the report back to the Challenge Panel for further consideration so suppressing any debate on its recommendations for the time being.

Cllr Mitzi Green, Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Chair of the Challenge Panel, Labour, said: “I believe this was a very fair report which made constructive criticisms and laid out very clear lessons about how any such similar schemes should be put together in the future. Elementary managerial mistakes were made which we had hoped the acceptance of the report would have highlighted and corrected, and which we hoped would not be repeated in the future. Playing party politics with the scrutiny process demeans all of those who sink to such tactics.”

Cllr Paul Scott, Lib Dem, said: “This is a damning report of the way in which this scheme was conceived and implemented. All members were given the usual time to comment. It is ridiculous to refer this back if no member of the Panel had dissented from it before the agreed date of its publication. This report has now been kicked into the long grass.”

Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, has signed up to the campaign to stop so called ‘Vulture Funds’ at a reception held in parliament this week. Vulture funds are secretive firms that buy up the defaulted debts of the world’s poorest countries, often at low prices. They then take countries to court to aggressively recoup the debts at full value for immediate repayment, often in UK and US courts.

This action allows a small number of investors to take money which poor countries urgently need to spend on health and education for their citizens. Charity Jubilee Debt Campaign has been working to outlaw this practice for over a year.

Earlier this year Greater Manchester MP Andrew Gwynne decided to do something about the problem. He introduced a Private Member’s Bill – something open to only a handful of MPs every year – to prohibit vulture fund activity against the poorest countries in the world. The Bill will receive its Second Reading on Friday 26 February and has support from MPs from across the political spectrum. Gareth Thomas MP will join Andrew and support the Bill in Parliament on this day and help the fight against global poverty.

Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas said:

“This Bill would represent a major step forward in tackling these funds. This proposal would heavily restrict the actions of creditors that do not participate in debt relief, dealing with the so-called “Vulture Funds.” For too long, some companies have been allowed to get away with exploiting the debt relief received by developing countries for their own profit; taking vital resources away from those that need it most. I aim to support this Bill and put a stop to it.”

Jubilee Debt Campaign campaigned to highlight a case last November in which vulture funds won £20million against Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, in a UK court.

Celebrity and star of West End hit Priscilla Queen of the Desert Jason Donovan supports the campaign said:

“Like most people I want to see an end to global poverty. I certainly support this campaign, which aims to reduce third world debt help and make a real difference to the lives of some of the poorest people in the world.”

Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign said:

“We have seen that nothing short of legislation will stop these investors from their outrageous practices. It’s great that so many MPs have expressed support for this Bill, and will be taking time out of their diaries to make sure it becomes law. We have to make sure vulture funds are stopped from feeding off the poorest.”

Harrow Strategic partnership commissioned IPSOS-MORI to carry out a major opinion poll of Harrow residents. This replicates the official Government ‘Place Survey’ carried out every other year and so is comparable to the survey carried out last year.

Cllr Bill Stephenson, Leader Labour Group, said: “The Interim Place Survey carried out by Ipsos Mori confirms what we have always thought: local residents do not think that Harrow Council provides value for money nor are they happy with the way the Council runs things.

“75% of residents in a sample of 1634 residents said that Harrow Council does not provide value for money. Down 1% from 2008/2009. 60% of residents in a sample of 1710 are not satisfied with the way Harrow Council runs things. Also down 1% from 2008/2009.

Cllr Stephenson continued: “This shows that, even with all the media blitzes, the self nominations for various awards, and the phoney Westminster City Council opinion polls, Harrow residents are massively dissatisfied with the way the Council runs things and even more of the view that Harrow Council does not give value for money. This is a very large survey carried out by the internationally accredited opinion pollster Ipsos Mori.”

However, given the continual divisions within the Conservative Group, no one should be surprised that Cllr David Ashton has simply had enough. Of course, it is always possible that he went before he was pushed. We understand that the Tories will be electing a new leader in early March and this will bring the continuing Tory splits to the fore again, as it did in the election for the Deputy Leadership.

Cllr Bill Stephenson, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“Cllr Ashton’s resignation is a major blow to the Tories in Harrow. I have no doubt that a major factor in coming to this decision was the never ending splits and quarrels within the Tory Group. These will be underlined again when they elect a new leader at their AGM in early March. It looks as if they will choose someone who is either very right wing or very, very right wing. This could mean even more damaging ideological cuts and redundancies. Only Labour will be able to offer sensible moderate leadership and policies at this difficult time.”

Gareth Thomas, Harrow West MP and Minister for Trade and Development, visited New York this week to attend an international humanitarian meeting and to speak in the UN Security Council.

Mr Thomas met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss climate change, drug trafficking and to raise continuing concerns about human rights in Sri Lanka.

He discussed whether aid agencies and NGOs are being allowed to help Tamil and other citizens returning to their homes, he also encouraged the United Nations to continue to press for full access to the Government of Sri Lanka’s closed and so called ‘open’ refugee camps.

Mr Thomas also met with Sir John Holmes, Head of the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance, which leads the co-ordination of the UN effort in Sri Lanka and with Ann Veneman, Head of the UN’s Children’s Charity UNICEF to raise the same issues.

Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas said:

“I was pleased to able to raise a series of issues in New York at my meetings at the UN including climate change and drug trafficking. I also raised concerns about the situation in Sri Lanka and in particular the plight of those hardest hit by the conflict.”

Cllr Bill Stephenson, Leader of Harrow’s Labour Group, said:

“This is a very serious matter indeed. Many residents will be appalled at the idea of libraries, for example, being outsourced. Councillors, local residents, and arts and sports organisations will want to be fully consulted before any decision is made. In my view, no final decision on such an important matter should be made until after the local elections in May. So far I have not been able to get any reassurance on this.”

Already £49 million has been cut from controllable expenditure, leaving only £181 million. It is proposed to cut a further £10 million from this budget, meaning that every department is will have to cut their controllable budgets by a further 5.5% – with £3.3 million from Adults and Housing, £2.4 million from Community and Environment and £2.1 million from Children’s Services.

The actual proposed cuts will be presented to the Cabinet in December but to go by past practice it will be very difficult to find out exactly what is proposed until the impact assessments are released usually in late January.

It is believed that several millions of pounds of cuts have still to be found. Furthermore there are proposals for a further 30% cuts in the next few years.

Cllr Bill Stephenson, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“These cuts will seriously affect front line services. Indeed some services may have to cease altogether. Harrow residents have the right to know up front precisely what is being proposed in an open and transparent way so that they can have their say before any decisions are taken. I am calling on the current Administration to publish precisely what they are proposing and the expected impacts in time for the December Cabinet. It may not be a very nice Christmas present but we all have the right to know what is going on in.”