Westminster Labour welcomes new Halfpenny Steps Health Centre

Labour Councillors have welcomed the opening of the new Halfpenny Steps Health Centre on the Harrow Road which has opened today and will serve residents in Queen’s Park and Harrow Road wards. The Halfpenny Steps Health Centre provides health services for registered and walk-in patients. It is staffed with a team of GPs, nurses and other healthcare professionals to deliver a high quality, continuous service.

Opening hours are from 8am to 8pm, 7 days week. The surgery is open for new patient registrations now.

Halfpenny Steps Health Centre,
427-429 Harrow Road,
London, W10 4RE.

Tel: 020 7286 6009

Queen’s Park Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “This is a fantastic new local health facility which will provide and even better local service to residents seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Six get the sack as Tory Westminster moves post room

Six more Westminster City Council staff have been given the sack following the Council’s decision to save money by moving its post room from City Hall in Victoria Street to the Council House in Marylebone Road. The six staff are: a Manager, a Post Driver, 3 Post staff; and a Porter.

These latest cuts are the result of the Council’s financial bungling which led to a £20 million hole in the Council’s budget following a shortfall in the planned income from car parking.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “Every week brings more news of job losses, price increases and service cuts at Westminster Council. These six jobs are from some of the lowest paid Council staff and it is typical of Westminster’s heartless approach that the most vulnerable staff are targeted for the sack.”

Westminster Tories fund Summer party despite £20m budget hole

Despite a £20 million hole in the Council’s budget, which has led to £60 million of cuts over the next three years, Westminster Conservatives found no difficulty in spending nearly £10,000 on a ‘Living City 2010 Summer Reception’ at Westminster Abbey on 1st July.

Attended by 151 people, the Reception costs were £9,381 of which food was £1,680 and drinks were £1,123 (97 bottles of wine, 25 litres of orange juice, 21 bottles of water). Other costs included venue hire, and other catering (services, equipment, etc), printing invitations etc make up the remainder of the total.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Opposition, said: “There is no excuse for this sort of extravagance at a time when children’s play schemes are being axed, charges are going up and staff are being sacked right across the Council. Westminster Conservatives are so used to spending the Council’s money as it were there own that they have lost touch with reality. In this day and age it is simply not acceptable and totally unnecessary to spend so much on entertaining. The money would be much better spent on front-line services.”

Westminster Conservatives jack residents’ parking permit charges up by 10%

Westminster Conservatives are planning to increase the cost of a Residents’ Parking Permit by 10% this August, from £120 to £132 a year, increasing the profit the Council makes from residents’ parking by £189,000 in 2010/11 and by £379,000 in 2011/12.

This latest price rise will increase the Council’s profit from Residents’ Parking Permits to £3.2 million a year in 2011/12.

This price increase was not mentioned in the Conservatives’ Council Election Manifesto in May. However, at the Council Elections Labour promised a £10 a year CUT in the cost of a Resident’s Parking Permit to be paid for by scrapping the loss-making Motorbike Parking Charges.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group; said: “Once again, the Conservatives have increased parking charges for residents following an election. Nothing breeds contempt more for double-dealing Conservative politicians than announcing price rises after an election.

Queen’s Park community projects axed by ConDem government

Two projects in Queen’s Park Ward, Westminster have lost over £100,000 following cuts in Local Area Agreement funding announced by the Government. Plans to extend the Katherine Bruce Nursery costing £91,000 will not now go ahead and a project to help disengaged young men will finish 6 months earlier than planned to save £25,000.

The Katherine Bruce Nursery Extension would have created a more flexible space to deliver services to the wider community. The types of services could have included the delivery of employability programmes such as IT training, CV writing and confidence building as well as providing a secure, well equipped centre to support local groups and forums.

The Young Men’s Outreach Project will now finish 6 months earlier than planned. The project targets disengaged young men aged 13 to 25 who are engaged in anti-social behaviour and/or at risk of engaging in criminal activity. The project is delivered by Working with Men.

Westminster-wide petition calls for axed City Guardians to be re-instated

Labour Councillors will be handing in petition at Wednesday’s Council meeting calling for Westminster City Council to reinstate the 66 City Guardians who face the sack as a result of the Conservative Council’s mismanagement of its finances which resulted in a £20 million hole in the Council’s budget.

The petition says: “We, the undersigned, call on Westminster City Council to halt plans to sack 66 City Guardians who work with the police to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour all over Westminster. We call on the Council to reinstate the 66 City Guardians, the cost of whom could be met by cutting £2.1 million from the Council’s £3 million a year press and communications budget, thereby providing a much better use of residents’ Council Tax payments”.

The petition has been signed by many hundreds of people living and working in all parts of Westminster, including:

* Residents on the Queen’s Park Estate

* Residents in Odham’s Walk, Covent Garden “who have found the services of the Covent Guardians very helpful. Anti-social behaviour has been reduced”

* Residents living in Peabody Avenue, Pimlico

* Businesses in Soho and Covent Garden who feel “the City Guardians’ presence helps their business run smoothly and is good for the area”

Westminster’s new “Head of Government Relations” paid more than MPs

Westminster City Council has appointed a ‘Head of Government Relations’ at a salary of more than either of Westminster’s two Members of Parliament, Karen Buck and Mark Field.

The Council’s new Head of Government Relations will be paid at a rate of £5,500 per month, equivalent to an annual salary of £66,000. Karen Buck MP and Mark Field MP earn £65,737.

Last month Westminster City Council announced cuts to front line services totalling £60 million over the next three years, with a further £10 million a year of cuts expected following the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s June Budget.

This month, 66 City Guardians are being made redundant to save £2.1 million a year. Yet Westminster Conservatives run one of the biggest Press and Publicity Departments in London, spending over £3 million a year.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “Why does the Council need a ‘Head of Government Relations’ when Westminster has two experienced and well-respected MPs in Labour’s Karen Buck and Conservative Mark Field?

Westminster Council benefit service letting down the vulnerable

Westminster City Council’s benefit service is failing vulnerable people who need its help, according to the independent Audit Commission which gave the service only one star (on a range of none to three) and told the council to make improvements. The service is run by Capita.

Inspection of the service in March this year discovered that people making new claims have to wait over a month, on average, for their claim to be processed. Some have waited 80 days, and the delays are longer this year than last. Nearly one in three claims have to be sent back to Capita because of an error.

According to the Audit Commission, when trying to get more people to claim benefits to which they are entitled, the Council does not target areas known to have poor take-up, and doesn’t check to see when it has been successful in promoting claims.

Westminster parents left scrabbling for primary school places

Primary schools crisis hits North Westminster as parents search for reception class places for their children. Conservatives fail to get their sums correct and provide for an increased number of children.

North Westminster primary schools are in crisis, again, as the Conservative-run Council has once again failed to plan for enough places for primary school children.

Alerted by parents who had failed to get a primary school reception class place for their children, Labour Leader Paul Dimoldenberg asked the Head of Schools, Angela Drizi for an explanation for this unsatisfactory state of affairs.

Ms Drizi told Councillor Dimoldenberg: “In terms of availability of reception class places in North Westminster you are correct in surmising that there is a current shortfall of places in North Westminster this year. We have had a rise in applications to Westminster schools in reception this year and this may be a trend that is set to continue.

Westminster Conservatives spend £13m on temporary staff

Westminster City Council is spending £13 million a year employing 281 temporary staff, with an average salary of £46,250 per temporary employee, according to figures uncovered by Labour Councillors just days after the Council announced a £60 million package of cuts to front line services and job losses right across the Council.

Labour Councillors say that spending millions of pounds a year on expensive temporary staff is very poor value for money and represents another example of the incompetent way in which the Council is being run by the Conservatives.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “Huge amounts are being spent by the Council on expensive temporary staff at the same time as massive cuts in service are planned.