Re-using the LFB photo, if only because my wife likes it!

It isn’t unique to being a councillor (although it might be exacerbated by the lack of structure) but I struggle to think of the things I have been up to this week! So when I can look to my diary to remind me of what meetings and appointments I’ve had I find myself thinking “was that really this week?” So, in a slightly different format, this week’s wrap-up.

Stuff I’ve already blogged
A few of the things I have already blogged about, I attended a fund-raising dinner with Ken Clarke on Monday and spent time with the London Fire Brigade on their fire safety visits on Wednesday.

Stuff I missed
Annoyingly I missed two Christmas light switch-ons this week – Tooting last Tuesday and Northcote Road yesterday. I like to attend them where I can, partly to show support for our Town Centres, but also because it appeals to the child in me!

A prior commitment meant I also had to miss one of the regular meetings between the council and Chamber of Commerce. These are useful meetings, if only because it means we get to hear directly from local businesses. And I would have loved to hear how the season is going. We did, of course, get the good news that Wandsworth is going to benefit by £52,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government. An early Christmas present (although probably too late to use before Christmas) that will help us with our plans, which are already fairly well advanced, to ensure Wandsworth’s high streets are blighted by the recession.

Stuff I did, but didn’t mention
I’ve had a few of the fairly ‘routine’ meetings this week. Next week sees a Full Council meeting, the last before Christmas and New Year, so we had our usual Conservative group meeting to discuss it. It has an element of smoky rooms to it, since while we’re sat talking in one room the Labour Party are having the same sort of discussions just down the corridor. And afterwards the two whips compare notes to agree the agenda of council meeting!

I also had one of my regular policy meetings with the officers in my portfolio area. Checking on how things are going (a much nicer task as the recession seems to be easing and the spate of gun crime has ended) and discussing how various projects and ideas can be taken forward. Or not, if you’re of the Yes, Minister school of government.

Finally, I was at the inaugural meeting of the national Advisory Panel on Tackling Worklessness. I was a little surprised, as a councillor from a borough with fairly low unemployment, to be asked onto a body like that. I often wonder if I’m wheeled out as a token cynic because I do like to focus and concentrate on the deliverables, if you will allow me a little jargon. But an interesting body and one I hope will be productive, not least because, as a national group made up of many fairly frontline people, so many different perspectives can be brought to bear on the problem.

Stuff I’m not going to mention
A fairly self-defeating headline. But I occasionally worry I give the impression that everything is blogged and, therefore, if it’s not on here I didn’t do it. As usual the week has been peppered with reading, emailing, casework and small meetings and discussions; none of which ever get close to a blog post. While I’d love to pretend it’s because they are important and super-secret, it’s mainly because they are quite dull!

Category: Blogging, Community Safety, Regeneration, Weekly report Tags: Chamber of Commerce, Christmas, Conservatives, Fire Brigade, Group, Ken Clarke, Labour, Northcote Road, town centres, Worklessness.
Comments Off

The next of Wandsworth’s town centres to start getting the festive spirit is Putney, who are holding their annual festive market today.

The event starts at 3pm, with the Christmas lights turned on at 6pm by Paralympian and TV presenter Ade Adepitan MBE.

The market and events all take place in Church Square, near the northern end of Putney High Street.

Category: Regeneration Tags: Christmas, market, Putney, town centres.
Comments Off

As I go into the weekend I find myself almost computerless (mainly through my own fault) and using an old and slow computer means I’ll be keeping it brief!

Town Centre meetings
I had a meeting with representatives from the borough’s town centre partnerships early in the week which, I thought, was useful and generated a lot of ideas and issues for the council (and the town centres) to take away and work on.

The different character of the five town centres is one of the defining characteristics of Wandsworth and help give the borough its heart soul. There is nothing worse than an out of town shopping centre (having spent a large part of the day at Westfield, I’m glad we have never gone down that route).

It’s easy for a council to concentrate on its residents and not think about the businesses needed to serve the people who live there and provide jobs for local people. While I think we generally do a good job I know we don’t always get it right and am pleased the partnerships are prepared to tell us when we don’t!

Act of Remembrance
I took my son along to the Act of Remembrance in Battersea Park on 11 November. As always it was a moving ceremony that involved not just those affected or involved in the armed forces, but also local children. And while I do get a little annoyed at the few dog-walkers who cannot pause for a moment at 11am, it was good to see most people in the park taking a few minutes to those who have sacrificed so much for us all.

Civic Awards
Another defining characteristic is the council’s commitment to volunteering and giving some recognition to those who have given so much to their community. One of the year’s highlights for this is the Civic Awards which seek to recognise a handful of people each year who have given, voluntarily, huge amounts over the years to the area.

Wednesday saw five awards made to those whose lifetime of commitment had made a difference. It was an opportunity for the council to say thank-you, and for the recipients, their friends and families to celebrate. And one of those nights that really shows that the council is, and should be, about so much more than just providing services.

Building Confidence in Our Community
Finally, I spent yesterday in Roehampton at a conference organised by the police (with some help from the council’s Community Safety Division) about the different factors affecting confidence in the police in the borough.

You might, superficially, think it is just a function of the police themselves – but there are so many factors that affect what people think about safety in the area. We happen to have excellent police, but many other factors seem to determine how people think. For example, many ‘communities’ within the borough have different views because their access is restricted, not deliberately, but because people haven’t thought about their situation.

There were some powerful presentations given, I was particularly touched by two ladies who discussed their experiences of interacting with the police when they were victims of domestic abuse. It is a recurrent theme for me, but it is important to realise that things are very very rarely as clear-cut as they might seem.

Category: Community Safety, Regeneration, Wandsworth, Weekly report Tags: civic awards, confidence, police, remembrance, town centres.
Comments Off

If you are in Balham this weekend then make sure you get along to the Balham Street Festival this Sunday between 1 and 5pm on Hildreth Street.
 
The event boasts a packed programme of entertainment.
 
You can get more information from the Balham Town Centre Manager’s blog at http://balham.squarespace.com/tcm-news/2009/7/17/balham-street-festival-sunday-9th-august.html

Posted via email from jamescousins’s posterous. Want to know what this is? Then click here.

Category: Regeneration Tags: Balham, Hildreth Street, town centres.
Comments Off

As I said last week I was stopping doing my weekly report because it didn’t quite work, and, instead, replacing it with a weekly round-up.  Already, I’ve broken the promise (a politician, a broken promise, never!) by changing the name.  I obviously don’t know if this will work any better – only time will tell.

Dealing with a backlog
For anyone going on holiday having work build up while you are away is just one of those things you have to live with.  For most people you can delegate or ask someone to cover for you while you are away.  For a councillor, that just isn’t possible.  We don’t have admin support and don’t work in an office where people can keep an eye on your desk.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to chip away at the back-log of emails and mail that built up – while all the time new stuff is arriving.  Of course, much of this falls into the spam category (for example, as a councillor there are an amazing number of companies who think the council would like to pay several hundred pounds for me to attend their latest conference) but I don’t know that until I’ve opened the envelope or double clicked the email and read it.

As someone who likes to keep his inbox empty it is frustrating.  And if you are waiting for a reply from me and haven’t had one yet.  I apologise, I promise it will be coming as soon as possible.

Tooting
One of the real highlights of the week has been Tooting.  We had a bit of a review of how the work under the Tooting Together programme has been going – and I hope most will agree that it’s made a real difference and has been a great example of how all the council’s departments can work together to astonishing results.

One of the real successes has been the time-banded waste collection, which has meant Tooting’s streets are much much cleaner.  It has also meant that we have identified a lot of businesses that were illegally dumping their waste.  It was a common cry from Labour that Wandsworth wasn’t cleaning the streets enough.  In fact Tooting was (jointly with Clapham Junction) the most cleaned area in Wandsworth, some parts were cleaned every couple of hours.  But Labour’s political convenience ignored the fact that it wasn’t the council littering the streets in the first place.

The subsequent crack-down has made a huge difference – even though there are still a few businesses resisting, feeling they have the right to dump their rubbish on our streets.

Hopefully the successes from Tooting can be copied in our other Town Centres in coming months.

Shaftesbury Ward News
We’ve also started putting together the July/August edition of the new ward newsletter.  Summer is always a quiet time, with people going on holiday and the formal business of the council taking a mini-recess (though that doesn’t seem to make any difference to how often I am there).  The newsletter should be out in a week or two, but if there’s anything you’d like to see in there, or even any local events you’d like to advertise, let me know.

Category: Shaftesbury Tags: fly-tipping, holiday, Labour, Shaftesbury Ward News, Tooting, Tooting Together, town centres.
Comments Off

If you had the choice of hiding in a number of UK cities, where would you go?

Google’s Street View launched in the UK yesterday with a Wally character hidden somewhere.  And it seems that given the choice of a number of major UK cities (and Scunthorpe) Wally decided that hiding out in London was the best bet… And if you are in London where would you want to go but Wandsworth?

Wally decided to do a bit of shopping on Putney High Street, and was spotted outside the O2 store:

View Larger Map
While I’d say our other town centres, Balham, Clapham Junction, Tooting and Wandsworth provide competition, I’m not that surprised he chose Putney over Scunthorpe.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: Google, Putney, Putney High Street, town centres.
Comments Off

I’ve written several times about Balham on this blog, largely the negative news surrounding the closures of Woolworths and Marks and Spencers. This time I get to be a little more positive and flag up the council’s ‘Beat the Credit Crunch’ seminar taking place tomorrow (Wednesday 18th March).

The seminar is one in a series of events the council is hosting to help businesses cope in the recession.  The session is led by BIG, a business development company and will run from 12 noon for an hour at the Balham Bowls Club in Ramsden Road.  The event will cover topics like driving sales, forming strategic partnerships and networking.

The council is doing all it can to help small businesses through difficult times, for example by encouraging claims small business rate relief nearly 2,000 business in the area have benefited by over £1,100,000.  You can find out more on the council’s business support webpage and find out more about what the council is doing generally on the fighting the recession webpage.

Unfortunately I cannot make the Balham event as I have a prior engagement (which will almost definitely feature on the blog) but if you want to attend then get in touch with the Balham Town Centre Manager, Kim Bellringer, on 020 8767 4082 or email kbellringer@wandsworth.gov.uk.

Please RSVP to Kim Bellringer, Balham Town Centre Manager: 020 8767 4082 or kbellringer@wandsworth.gov.uk

Category: Regeneration Tags: Balham, Economy, EDO, recession, town centres.
Comments Off

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 will be considered at next weeks Corporate Resources OSC and at next month’s full council meeting (when we will hopefully be approving the 0% increase in council tax).

The report is being submitted under the Leader’s name, as it is the result of co-ordination of every council department to deliver real assistance at a time when it matters.  But as this is my blog I’m going to boast about the work that, at least in part, falls into my council remit:

1. A review of enforcement to ensure it’s carried out in a business friendly way
2. Spreading business rate payments over 12, rather than 10, months
3. Promoting small business rate relief (in 2008/09 nearly 2,000 businesses benefited by over £1,100,000)
4. Organising ‘Beat the Credit Crunch’ seminars for businesses
5. Helping small retailers by letting them take payments on behalf of the council
6. Making it easier for small businesses to bid for work from the council
7. Providing grants and interest free loans for businesses to improve their premises
8. Looking at ways to reduce the impact of vacant properties on their town centres
9. Launching Tooting Together to improve the environment in Tooting town centre
10. Working with businesses who want to establish Business Improvement Districts
11. Launching the ‘Go Green’ project to help businesses make more efficient use of energy and resources
12. Investing £170,000 in the Northcote Road action plan
13. Holding Inward Investment events around the borough to promote job-creating investment across the borough
14. Participation in the Employment and Skills Partnership to fight the effects of the recession and help the long-term unemployed into work
15. Programmes specifically targeted at getting  young black men and those with disabilities into work
16. Increasing the availability of apprenticeships
17. Launch the Personal Best project, which will help over 200 people into work by improving their skills through volunteering
18. Working with Job Centre Plus to deliver the Job Shop next to the Power Station, which has helped over 2,000 people into work since 2005
19. Spending nearly £2,000,000 to deliver Adult and Community Learning to support over 10,000 adults to provide more skills and job-readiness courses
20. Keeping the country’s lowest council tax, keeping more money in people’s pockets and in the local economy.

Of course, this doesn’t include the excellent work the council does on a daily basis providing top quality services for businesses, especially through initiatives like our Town Centre Managers.

I will not deny that I have tended towards pessimism on the economic situation – but it has always been tinged with an optimism that Wandsworth is well placed, and while it won’t totally avoid the ravages of recession it will hopefully avoid the worst.

You can read the Leader’s full report on the council’s website.

Category: Regeneration Tags: Economy, recession, recovery, town centres.
Comments Off

Marks and Spencer have confirmed their decision to close their Balham Simply Food store.

The store, which has been open for nearly six years, will close on 19 March.  I know this is going to be a big disappointment to many Balham residents.  And is a big disappointment to me, Balham is a Town Centre on the up and leaving it seems an odd step.

Unfortunately, the council’s arguments did not persuade M&S who will now be talking with their 25 employees about their options.

The council and Town Centre Partnership will continue to promote Balham as a destination for retailers, but unfortunately we have little control over who moves into the vacant unit.

Category: Regeneration Tags: Balham, Economy, recession, town centres.
Comments Off

  Clapham Junction

One Clapham Junction development I am allowed to talk about are the council’s plans to improve the area around the road junction.

Anyone who knows the area will know the junction of Lavender Hill, St John’s Hill, St John’s Road and Falcon Road is something of a mess. Visually, it’s full of clutter, and it just doesn’t work that well as a junction for traffic or pedestrians.

Tonight’s Planning and Transportation Overview and Scrutiny Committee will, hopefully, be passing a report to make a start on improvements.

The overall scheme, which has been in development since 2007, it too expensive for the council to undertake alone, but elements of it can be done. The suggestion is to look at the ‘traffic management’ since, by improving the way vehicles move through the junction it will improve the quality for all users, including pedestrians – and most importantly improve safety.

Drivers will get a better junction to traverse, and some may be able to avoid it altogether, with a right turn now being allowed onto Falcon Lane (past Asda). Pedestrians will benefit from wider pavements and better crossings. And everyone will benefit from a visual improvement, with a much cleaner and more attractive gateway to one of our busiest town centres.

Category: Shaftesbury Tags: Clapham Junction, Latchmere, Lavender Hill, Northcote, Shaftesbury, town centres, traffic.
Comments Off