11:09am, 27th February 2009
I, and the other Shaftesbury ward councillors, recently wrote to residents whose homes back onto the Elsley School about the security arrangements in place there.
The school was closed following last year’s flooding and re-located to the Nightingale School site. While this was necessary because of the flooding damage, it also made good educational sense. The [...]
Category: Shaftesbury Tags: anti-social behaviour, school, security, Shaftesbury Park Estate.
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4:47pm, 26th February 2009
There is a bit of a fashion for things like Recovery.gov and realhelpnow.gov.uk (although the latter apparently only includes Labour Party ‘help’) and I wonder whether I should offer recovery.jamescousins.com.
While the council hasn’t developed a nifty front-end it has put together a substantial package of help and assistance for the borough’s residents and businesses that [...]
Category: Regeneration Tags: Economy, recession, recovery, town centres.
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10:34am, 25th February 2009
I had the privilege of presenting the first six ‘Good Neighbour’ awards at a short breakfast ceremony this morning. The scheme is part of the council’s ‘Tooting Together’ programme of work to improve Tooting Town Centre. Businesses are independently judged not only on meeting their statutory requirements (like safety and cleanliness) but also, and importantly, [...]
Category: Regeneration Tags: EDO, Good Neighbour, Posterous, Tooting, Tooting Together.
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10:06am, 24th February 2009
The council has successfully prosecuted a shopkeeper for selling a knife to a 15 year old. Legally, knives can only be sold to over 18s. You can read the full story in the council’s press release.
While it’s worth highlighting the successful prosecution, it is also worth highlighting the fact that most shopkeepers in the [...]
Category: Community Safety Tags: knife, police, prosecution, trading standards.
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3:46pm, 23rd February 2009
Here’s the crime briefing for burglary and street crime reported in Wandsworth between 12 and 19 February, 2009.
The map is hosted by Google, and occasionally will not load, or will not load the flags, especially if you are on a slow connection. If it does not display correctly, try refreshing the page or following [...]
Category: Community Safety Tags: crime, crime mapping, police.
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11:55pm, 22nd February 2009
Anyone fancy a stint as my PA? Unpaid, unless you count gratitude and karma as payment? #
It had to happen sooner or later… Just added the first BNP cllr to CllrTweeps. We’d agreed the policy on this, but still felt a bit odd. #
I’ve rejected some of these people I’ve never met on Facebook friend [...]
Category: Twitter Tags: Twitter.
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3:57pm, 20th February 2009
Wandsworth announced today that there would be no increase in council tax.
This makes the second year in the row that Wandsworth has not increased its share of council tax. However, it’s the first time that bills have not gone up at all – since Ken Livingstone more than doubled his share in his eight years [...]
Category: Wandsworth Tags: Boris Johnson, council tax, Wandsworth.
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1:02pm, 19th February 2009
I’m currently putting the finishing touches to my presentation for tonight’s public meeting on our community safety priorities for the year.
I’m told that, from the acceptances we’ve received so far, the venue is nearing capacity and we may have to open up the public gallery as an overflow!
However, if you are interested in finding out [...]
Category: Community Safety Tags: consultation, crime, partnership, police, priorities, public meeting.
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1:24pm, 18th February 2009
The news of the past day has been another worrying episode for South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust (SWLSG) and most especially the residents living near the Springfield hospital site.
In this example Paul Caesar, a convicted killer, absconded after being allowed to spend time unescorted in the hospital grounds. The escape was [...]
Category: Wandsworth Tags: escape, mental health, South West London and St George's, Springfield.
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2:07pm, 17th February 2009
I have tended to shy away from national politics and issues in this blog, keeping it more focused on local and council issues. However, one subject that increasingly concerns me is the erosion of civil liberties in this country. Yesterday saw another little chunk of our freedoms eroded with section 76 of the [...]
Category: Community Safety Tags: civil liberties, FUD, Gordon Brown, police, terrorism.
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