TODAY
BRENTFORD, CHISWICK, HOUNSLOW & ISLEWORTH
THIS IS THE DAY TO MAKE A CHANGE
today@hounslowlibdems.org.uk
Lib Dems on the Up! Liberal Democrats
+9.3%
LIB DEMS FASTEST GROWING PARTY AT GENERAL & LOCAL ELECTIONS
+1%
Summer 2007
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Green budget to tackle climate change
Knight attacks Post Office closures
Tory
Change in percentage share of the votes in Brentford & Isleworth between the General Elections
Labour
-12.5%
LOCAL LEADER FOR MP Lib Dems reselect leading councillor Andrew Dakers to fight next general election Cllr Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, has been reselected as the Liberal Democrats Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Brentford & Isleworth Constituency.
Lib Dem Prospective MP Andrew Dakers has pledged to topple 'Mrs Expenses' Ann Keen at the next general election and be the greenest MP in the country
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First elected last May, at 28 he is one of Hounslow Borough's youngest and most energetic councillors. Andrew has worked professionally for organisations including the BBC, GlaxoSmithKline and most recently WWF, the environmental charity.
Speaking to TODAY Cllr Andrew Dakers said: “I grew up in Brentford, made my first friends at a nursery in Chiswick, attended my first school in Isleworth and I still live and work in the constituency. Its these local roots that make me so passionate and determined about making Brentford, Chiswick, Hounslow and Isleworth safer, greener and fundamentally better places to live. In 2005 as the previous parliamentary candidate for Brentford & Isleworth constituency Andrew
helped deliver the Liberal Democrats’ best ever local result on an unprecedented swing of 9.3% (10,477 votes). Brentford & Isleworth Constituency is now a three-way marginal. Andrew added: “That result was good. But next time we can do even better. The opportunity is there for the Liberal Democrats to win this constituency.”
Contact Andrew anytime by email: andrew@ hounslowlibdems.org.uk or call: 020 8580 2955 or visit: www.andrewdakers.com
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BRENTFORD, CHISWICK, HOUNSLOW & ISLEWORTH TODAY
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COMMUNITY VISION FOR BRENTFORD HIGH STREET
LIB DEMS GREEN BUDGET TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE A year after forming a minority administration in Hounslow the Tories are failing to move fast enough on climate change
At this year’s March budget and council tax setting meeting the Liberal Democrats spoke out against the administration’s final w.brentfordhighstreet.co.uk budget and tax package. Download the draft report from ww The Lib Dems had established and chairs The Brentford High supported many of the the steering group, said: Street Steering Group savings brought forward has published the results "A huge number of in previous months, as of a five month visioning ideas have surfaced well as the goal of zero or and these have been project looking at the low council tax increases. tested to ensure we are future of Brentford reasonable confident the Town Centre. proposals are financially Lib Dem Group leader viable. What we have The project, supported Cllr Dakers said: “We established is a vision by councillors from support the Hounslow for a world-class town across the political Plan. We support centre. spectrum, was funded the administration’s by Hounslow Council's aspiration of zero or very "Now the challenge is Community Investment small increases in the to work through the Fund. It set out to unreformed and unfair details with site owners look at what measures Ballymore/ Geronimo and council tax. However this would be needed to other stakeholders. This final package of budget shape an economically, is a diffcult and complex environmentally and proposals is too severe site, but hopefully socially sustainable and has not been properly any problems can be future for the town considered through the resolved to achieve a centre. council’s scrutiny process. win-win solution for Cllr Andrew Dakers, who the community and “This is why we are not developers alike."
Sustainable Food for Hounslow
Lib Dem and green activists call for real action by Hounslow Council
supporting cuts of £200k in the annual payment to CIP Trust - the borough’s leisure, libraries and parks service provider. Some of the additional cuts risk hitting the most vulnerable in our community. “Whilst we recognise the work that the new administration is continuing or initiating
to tackle climate change, we do not believe these actions anywhere near reflect the size of the challenge before us. The Liberal Democrat group proposed at the council meeting that the borough should employ a cycling officer, energy manager and sustainable food marketing manager at Western International
Market. They argued this should be supported by assessments of the council’s CO2 emissions and wider community’s ecological footprint. Cllr Dakers concluded by saying that Lib Dems would continue to work constructively with the administration to determine how these proposed posts can be introduced.
Hounslow NHS cash crisis
Figures obtained by local Liberal Democrat Prospective MP Andrew Dakers reveal that Labour has left the local NHS struggling under the growing burden of debt
Local campaigner Phyllis Ballentyne and Andrew Dakers inspect the sustainable food at Chiswick Farmers Market • Appointing a sustainable Cllr Andrew Dakers, has food marketing manager published a discussion at Western International paper "Sustainable food in Hounslow". The paper Market (which is owned by Hounslow Council) sets out a way forward • Lobbying supermarkets for Hounslow borough to pilot the supply to address the climate of local, organic and change and ecological seasonal food at impacts of the food we Hounslow stores eat. • Developing allotments on the roofs of new The report highlights developments across the that 22% of a Hounslow borough resident's 'ecological footprint' is from the Andrew said to TODAY: production, processing, packaging and transport "Whilst farmers' markets help set the mood of food. Residents' total average footprint would music, the government and Hounslow Council demand three planet need to get on with earths to sustain. making sustainable food affordable." Proposals include:
Our hospitals are facing their worst budget crisis since health cuts under the last Conservative Government back in the mid-1990s, according to new figures.
allowing local hospitals to bleed to death. Labour promised us so much, but they have been as bad as the Conservatives on health."
At the end of the 2006/7 financial year it is forecast that the West Middlesex hospital will
"The problem is when the deficit situation gets this bad, it can become an endless distraction. Instead of focussing on patient care and creating clean hospitals, managers and NHS trustees are worrying about how to make the books balance."
be £4.4 million in deficit and Hounslow Primary Care Trust (PCT) will have accumulated a £23 million deficit. Prospective Lib Dem MP Andrew Dakers has lambasted Labour's health policies as a mess, with local residents suffering as a result and a demoralised workforce. Andrew said: "The Government is
DID YOU KNOW?
West Middlesex Hospital has recently imposed a cap on the number of maternity cases admitted and faces a tight financial squeeze. The grandson of Vincent Cable (Lib
Cllrs Munira Hassam and Andrew Dakers, Prospective MPs for Hounslow Borough, outside the debt burdened West Middlesex hospital Dem MP for neighbouring Twickenham) was recently born in the one local maternity unit, Queen Charlotte's, which does not have a cap on it. Vince said to TODAY: "Vast amounts of tax
payers money has been poured into the NHS by the Labour Government. There are some improvements. But too much is wasted on bureaucracy. Residents ask me - why is it so difficult to see a GP? Why can't I get an NHS dentist?"
Labour and Tory MPs voted in May to change Freedom of Information law to prevent publication of their expenses. You can sign the Lib Dem petition against this disgraceful move at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/foi
BRENTFORD, CHISWICK, HOUNSLOW & ISLEWORTH TODAY
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KNIGHT ATTACKS OLYMPICS POST OFFICE CLOSURES LEGACY?
THE DEE DOOCEY COLUMN
Cllr Stephen Knight, Lib Dem prospective South West London Assembly candidate, has accused Hounslow’s Labour MPs of failing to defend local post offices TODAY: "Our motion 'noted with concern' the announcement by the Government in December 2006 of Ministers plans to close 2500 Post Office branches across the UK. Far from scaremongering, this is based on our experience of heavy cuts in Hounslow.
Cllr Stephen Knight (centre), Lib Dem Prospective London Assembly Candidate, joins campaigners in Hounslow calling for an end to post office branch closures and new investment The Liberal Democrat Group successfully tabled a motion on Post Office closures at Hounslow's January full council meeting. The motion highlighted that 19 Post Offices closed between 1999 and 2005 in Hounslow Borough (8 Brentford & Isleworth/
11 Feltham & Heston). Cllr Stephen Knight (Lib Dem Prospective South West London Assembly Candidate) is now throwing his weight behind the fight in Hounslow. Cllr
Knight
said
to
"Labour thinks that a post office within a ‘mile’ is an acceptable ‘local’ service. But how can they ask elderly people to walk a two mile round trip to their ‘local’ post office? Post office closure is taking the heart out of rural communities and is also reducing quality of life in our towns and cities. "Our local Labour MPs have clearly been completely ineffective given the severity of the cuts imposed since 1999
in Hounslow. They - and their government - have failed to put together the coherent investment programme required to defend our post offices." Specifically, the Liberal Democrats would: • Split Post Office Ltd from Royal Mail, so they were two separate organisations • Sell 49% of shares in Royal Mail to raise £2bn • Give employees 50% of the remaining shares, in a John Lewis-style trust • Free Royal Mail from Treasury controls so it can invest • Establish a £2bn investment fund that will enable Post Offices to invest in new business - for example, establishing themselves as mini parcel depots for Royal Mail and private firms.
CALL FOR RADICAL REFORM OF LEISURE MANAGEMENT A report published in early April by a crossparty scrutiny panel has called for radicial changes at the CIP Trust. CIP manage Hounslow's parks, libraries and leisure centres. The scrutiny panel concluded that there was need for a significant refresh of CIP's board of trustees. Concerns were
raised at the trustees' accountability to a negligible membership base. The panel recommended a link be established between holding a leisure card and membership of the trust. Commenting on the report, Cllr Andrew Dakers, who sat on the panel for six months, said:
DAKERS CHALLENGES TORIES & MAYOR ON INCINERATOR PROPOSALS Lib Dem members of the West London Waste Authority board controversially abstained on the decision of whether West Waste should seek Judicial Review of the Mayor of London’s Directions.
Cllr Dakers (Hounslow West Waste board member 2006-7) explained to TODAY that the Lib Dems “felt that West Waste and the Mayor of London should work collaboratively to find new sites for the most environmentally desirable alternatives to landfill. "Instead both the majority (Tory) members of West Waste and the Mayor seemed increasingly intent on confrontation and wasting tax payers money in court."
"Shockingly Labour allowed the CIP Trust to get £840,000 into debt. Good CLIENT quality green & S CRUTIN PARTNERSHIP spaces and leisure Y PANEL APRIL 2 007 in Hounslow Scrutiny Re now demands – A Way view Of Leisur e and Cu Forward ltural Se rvices s u s t a i n e d investment." A link to the report can be found on www.andrewdakers.com ADVERTISEMENT
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Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Dee Doocey considers the progress being made - and challenges ahead - in planning for a legacy beyond 2012 London’s bid to host the Olympics made great play of the ‘legacy’ and this was a major factor in winning the contest – but this legacy cannot be taken for granted. Amongst other things, London’s bid promised to bring 50,000 jobs, affordable new housing on a large scale and contracts for small businesses in east London where the Games will be held. At the London Assembly, members from all parties voiced their concern about a possible gap between the rhetoric of the Olympic project leaders and the likely reality on the ground. We commissioned the London East Research Institute at the University of East London (UEL) to research into the legacy of recent
UEL advised the London Assembly: “London has made a good start to securing a sustainable physical legacy from the Games. London has set in train an ambitious programme of urban renewal, which, if it succeeds, will eclipse the most impressive achievements of previous host cities. “Much more work remains to be done to secure the soft legacy benefits such as employment, skills, sports participation and disability
Seb Coe and Dee Doocey discuss the work of the London Assembly in monitoring plans for the Olympics in 2012 Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. The UEL research team concluded that Barcelona did best. The Games were a catalyst for urban renewal, which was driven by legacy successes, both hard (infrastructure) and soft (such as increased confidence). Atlanta performed worst. Its aspiration was commercial redevelopment – which it achieved – rather than neighbourhood renewal. As a result, there appeared to have been little or no improvement in the lives of the city’s least well-off residents.
awareness. Unless London learns from [previous cities] experience, it too risks failure.” The lessons from other cities are clear. The Olympic legacy will not happen automatically. The benefits will not fall into our lap. They have to be fought for and worked for. That’s why I’m using my powers of scrutiny at the London Assembly to identify problems early on and press for timely action to deal with them. Dee Doocey is chair of Economic Development, Culture Sports and Tourism Committee – the London Assembly’s lead committee for monitoring the Olympics.
BRENTFORD, CHISWICK, HOUNSLOW & ISLEWORTH TODAY
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GOVERNMENT PRESS TODAY AHEAD WITH HEATHROW IN BRIEF EXPANSION BRENTFORD, CHISWICK, HOUNSLOW & ISLEWORTH
CLLR MORGAN-WATTS APPOINTED FIRST LIB DEM MAYOR OF HOUNSLOW
Lib Dem Cllr Andy Morgan-Watts was appointed the Mayor of Hounslow at the Council's May AGM. The Mayor’s charities will be Shooting Star Hospice, Cancer Research UK and Cllr Andrew Dakers with the new the Hounslow Mayor and Deputy Mayor branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. In a lively council meeting the Mayor introduced his mascot for the year - a yellow elephant called Sunflower from the Alzheimer's Society.
MOGDEN STINK CONTINUES
Andrew Dakers and other local councillors questioned Thames Water executives thoroughly on the future of Mogden at the May local area committee. Thames Water are proposing an expansion to the plant. Cllr Dakers sought further justification from them given the current plant already has huge social impacts. Thames Water, who are presently subject to a class action by members of the community, could not explain why they were spending £40m, rather than the £55m it has previously been suggested is required to largely eliminate the stench from the plant.
REFORM LOCATA HOUSING LOTTERY
Cllr Andrew Dakers is calling for Hounslow Council to reform ‘Locata’, the social housing allocation system used by people across six boroughs. Cllr Dakers said: “The idea of greater user choice which drove Locata’s design is a nonsense when demand massively outstrips supply by about 10:1. Locata is now a West London Lottery and increases the disappointment that comes with continual failure.”
He went on to suggest reforms to Locata’s banding system: more graduation and new criteria. Cllr Dakers has also proposed that Locata users should be able to save their bid preferences. The computer system could then automatically place their bids. ADVERTISEMENT
Geoff Pope, Liberal Democrat Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, looks at the latest plans
Plans now include a third runway, increased flights through ‘mixed mode’ runway operations, a sixth terminal and new terminal buildings to be known as Heathrow East on the site of terminals 1, 2 and 3. Clearly terminals 1, 2 and 3 are in urgent need of major refurbishment, but the case for expansion of flights is not proven and will be very environmentally damaging. A 12 week public consultation on a third runway and the environmental impact is expected later this year. This will probably include the delayed consultations on the possible introduction of Mixed Mode runway operations at Heathrow and the future of the 'Cranford Agreement'. This currently imposes severe limitations on the use of the northern runway when airport operations are in an easterly direction to the benefit of local residents. In view of the importance and wide reaching nature of the consultation, Local Authorities are right to say that this is too short a period. Local organisations are preparing to react strongly, many saying ‘enough is enough’, and want real action for carbon dioxide and other pollutants to be reduced. London Assembly says "No!" During the London Assembly debate in April Lib Dems argued for Heathrow carbon reductions and for more high speed rail links. The London Assembly agreed to oppose further expansion at Heathrow. We also pointed out that in the last 12 months passenger demand at Heathrow has actually fallen slightly and that the airport already has 20% more capacity than any of its European competitors. Building a
Lib Dem London Assembly Member Geoff Pope, is calling for more ambitious bus improvements to service Heathrow third Heathrow runway is calculated to increase environmental costs by £400 million a year by 2030. Heathrow Terminal 5: Proposed bus services are totally insufficient Lib Dems have slammed London Buses proposals for Terminal 5 as totally insufficient. It is forecast that over 6,000 bus trips per day will be made to and from Terminal 5, about half of them by staff, and about half by airline passengers. Two of the routes will only be on a 20 minute frequency and this is not good enough. We need a 'turn up and go’ service. Lib Dems say: 1) Extend the H91, the only route along the Great West Road, to Heathrow Terminals 4 and 5 with an improved frequency. 2) Expand the 203 service, that runs from Hounslow to Staines, to serve both Bedfont and Terminals 4 and 5.
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u k o uS d 9
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1
9 2
5 4
7 8 5 6 4 3
6 8 4 9 5 1
5 1
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Intructions: Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3 x 3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
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