H&F Labour Negotiates Extra Funds For Extra Police

Cllr Sue Fennimore (Lab): why more police
not less is H&F Labour's approach

Shortly after the local elections officials presented a series of deals with property developers that the former Conservative administration had agreed and closed the book on. My fellow Labour councillors and I re-opened those negotiations and have as a consequence secured millions of pounds in extra funds for the residents of Hammersmith and Fulham.

That means that at a time when the Conservative/Lib Dem government and Conservative Mayor of London are cutting police numbers for our borough, H&F's new Labour administration has agreed to step in and provide a 22% increase in the number of council-funded police officers able to protect our residents. That is the largest amount of council funded police officers in the borough's history.

This was debated last night. I guess I felt sorry for most of the Conservative councillors who looked sick to their stomachs that we had done as we promised we'd do, throughout our time in opposition and in our manifesto and achieved more than they ever did on policing and all within just six months of taking office.

One Conservative councillor, who should probably remain nameless, became so ridiculously full of rage during Councillor Sue Fennimore's speech that he could not stop himself yelling out abuse in anger.

Sue spoke eloquently about the extra police so I thought I'd highlight what she said here:

"Thank you Madam Mayor. I want to start by paying tribute to all those that work to fight to reduce crime: Police officers; PCSOs; this council’s own community safety teams; and many, many others. They rightly deserve our thanks and our support.

There is much talk of crime figures but as we all know, statistics can never tell the personal stories of those that have suffered crime:

The elderly woman too afraid to go sleep in her own bed after her home was ransacked by burglars; the young person violently attacked; a community intimidated by drug dealers; the woman beaten in front of her children by a boyfriend who had become all too confident of getting away with it. We all have a duty to cut crime.

This time last year my fellow Labour councillors and I promised to: “put police back on the beat.” I am therefore extremely pleased this new Labour administration is delivering on that promise and has prioritised extra funding for extra police. We will in fact be providing 22% more police - the largest number of council funded police officers in Hammersmith and Fulham’s history.

A big step to tackling crime, and a step taken less than six months since our new Labour administration assumed office on 16th June.

We want these Hammersmith and Fulham police officers to cut serious crime. I was not impressed to discover that just over two years ago we had a police officer stationed on the forecourt of the BP petrol station. There had been a spate of people driving off and not paying for petrol and that forced crime figures to shoot up. Stealing petrol is a criminal offence and should be confronted but a police officer pulled off the front-line and stationed on a petrol station forecourt is hardly the smartest use of limited public resources. So we expect all the police officers Hammersmith and Fulham Council funds to concentrate on reducing serious crimes.

As we know, crime figures can be disputed. In 2008 Boris Johnson said “We need to stop kidding ourselves. We all know that we are suffering from an epidemic of unreported crime”.

Strong words…

In fact, Boris Johnson pledged to take “take personal responsibility” and to tackle “the target-driven culture”. It’s a shame that he broke that promise. The situation now is that Mayor of London and this Conservative/Lib Dem government is cutting police numbers. And despite a promising start, this Borough’s former Conservative administration lost their way on policing.

On the 17th July 2008 Conservative councillors announced they had agreed a cut, yes a cut in police sergeants from 16 to 12. The quote given by the Conservatives was telling: “To be only losing four Safer Neighbourhoods Sergeants at a time when other boroughs are losing more is good news."

“Good news!?”… Really?

By 2014 Conservative councillors had become little more than apologists for a Mayor and a government that had reduced the borough’s police by 32 and planned to cut more. 

Residents voted for a different way…

So let us be clear: All - and I stress ALL - the money for the extra police this Labour administration is putting onto the streets has come about after we re-negotiated property deals Conservative councillors had already agreed and closed the book on.

That is staggering! No soft touch for property firms. No soft touch for criminals. This new Labour administration is:

Tough on crime

Tough on the causes of crime

And taking a tough, hard-nosed approach to winning extra funds to deliver extra police – and all just when the Conservatives have gone soft.

Thank you.

Nous sommes Charlie, Vive la France!

The Tricolour and Union Jack fly together at half-mast over Hammersmith Town Hall sending a message of solidarity to the family and friends of those lost during last week's terrorism, to surviving victims and French citizens everywhere following the atrocious attacks in Paris.

 

There are 5,400 French citizens living in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham who are are an important part of our local community. In fact, after  English, French is the second most widely spoken language in the borough.

 

Residents from all faiths, no faith and all nationalities have been touched by these terrible events and I am proud that our council stands shoulder to shoulder with our friends across the Channel stating Nous sommes Charlie, Vive la France!

H&F Labour's 2015/16 Budget: Council Tax Cut; Hundreds Of Council Charges To Be Frozen; Cut, Abolished Or Kept To An Inflation Rise; And The Largest Ever Increase In Council Funded H&F Police Officers

H&F Labour's election pledge cards

At next month’s budget meeting my fellow H&F Labour councillors and I propose to cut council tax by 1%, to abolish home care charges for disabled and elderly people, to cut meals on wheels charges by 33% and cut 14 other council charges. We are likely to be one of the few, and maybe the only borough in the country, to cut council tax and we will be one of only two to abolish home care charges. All of this is exactly what we promised we would do on pledge cards (see attached) and in our manifesto prior to the local elections.

We inherited budget proposals from H&F’s former Conservative administration to freeze council tax. Meanwhile, many residents have been surprised to learn that, H&F's Conservative councillors also planned an immediate 14.7% hike in parking charges and to increase school meals and hundreds of other charges by much more than inflation. We have frozen parking charges and propose to freeze school meals and 137 other council charges – which is a real terms cut in costs. All bar a few of the remaining council charges will only be increased by inflation.

 

The budget contains much. For example, regular readers will recall that we are also about to put the largest ever amount of council funded police officers onto the streets of Hammersmith and Fulham in the borough's history with ALL of the money for the extra police coming from property deals we re-opened and re-negotiated after the former Conservative administration had agreed them and incompetently closed the book on them. We have also negotiated millions of pounds in extra new affordable homes to buy and to rent. We're about to provide new support to local food banks, along with new initiatives on homelessness, cycling and the environment. Most importantly, we are undertaking a range of measures to defend Charing Cross Hospital including putting together The West London Independent Health Commission chaired by the brilliant Michael Mansfield QC.

H&F Conservatives'
tax-payer
funded
lamp post
vanity banners:
ABOLISHED

Last month the Conservative/Lib Dem government announced that it will again cut funding to Hammersmith & Fulham Council. This time the cut is officially 4.7% but that increases to a cut of over 10% if ring-fenced budgets and new statutory obligations are added into the list of the council’s financial commitments.

We are now five years into the government’s economically illiterate austerity programme. Local government has taken the brunt of the public sector cuts with even the Conservative flagship Barnet Council producing what they call the Graph of Doom to describe the government’s approach to council finances. So how have we balanced the books?

Well, for all their propaganda and spin H&F’s Conservatives were pretty weak when it came to negotiating contracts, they also employed too many senior managers, they wasted vast amounts of public money on irrelevances and even messed up many aspects of their 'tri-borough' initiative causing unnecessary costs and high profile service failures.

The first thing my fellow Labour councillors and I cut was £400,000 worth of lamp post vanity banners (the attached featuring the current Conservative leader of the opposition) and council magazines. Since we have begun to make a wide range of savings including cutting the number of senior managers; cutting the costs of the office space; making the 'tri-borough' more efficient and negotiating more effectively with suppliers and property developers.

At the last council elections H&F Conservatives put leaflets out falsely telling the public that my fellow Labour councillors and I would put council tax up by 7.7%. Now, that we've done as we said we'd do and cut council tax and many other charges they're all awash.

We said we’d put money back into people’s pockets and improve services. I’m glad that we are able to do exactly what we promised and do precisely that.