Whittington hospital “is saved”: closure plans to be shelved
Emily, Jeremy and Frank Dobson celebrate with Save The Whittington campaign co-chair, Shirley Franklin
Three days ago, Labour’s Councillors in Cally predicted that the threat of closure would be lifted from the Whittington.
Today, Andy Burnham Labour’s Health Secretary confirmed this saying “it is inconceivable that Labour would support the closing or downgrading of the Whittington A&E or its maternity service.”
Councillor Catherine West, Labour leader on Islington Council said that “after months of local campaigning, I joined Emily Thornberry and Jeremy Corbyn to announce that the review has been halted. The Government has told local NHS bureaucrats that they may not close the Whittington’s A&E. NHS Islington will have to decide on the future of local health services based on what is best for local health and not on cost-cutting.”
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said “I will order a complete halt in the process that is being run and I’m asking NHS London to go back to the drawing board. As a government we only support changes in the NHS when the local clinicians propose them and when there is evidence that they will improve quality and save lives.”
Please click here to find out more about the hospital and how you can help us to keep on standing up for you. www.islington-labour.org.uk/whittington
Today (Thursday) Jeremy, Emily and Labour’s Councillors will be joining the campaigners from the Defend the Whittington Coalition outside the Hospital for a rally as part of the day of action.
Chris Smith nominates Labour’s Cally team for the Council
Rupert, Paul and Charlynne are standing for re-election to the Council and are proud to be “proposed” by our former MP, Chris Smith.
As in 2006, Labour’s team has been nominated by Chris who was Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury between 1983 and 2005.
Chris holds a number of public roles these days which require him to avoid involvement with political parties.
But he has been kind enough to nominate us once more for election to Islington Council representing Caledonian – the Ward in which Chris has lived for over 20 years.
The nomination papers for Rupert, Paul and Charlynne also include the names of prominent community campaigners in our neighbourhood. We are grateful to have their personal support.
Guardian newspaper launches “sound map” of the Cally
Cally Road - a mix of old and new
The Guardian has teamed up with award-winning presenter Alan Dein to create an innovative new ‘sound map’ for the Caledonian Road. Available at www.guardian.co.uk/caledonian-road the Cally Road story is told in the words of the people that both live and work in and around the area, the pensioners Fred and Joan, who can trace their family connections to the road since it was built in the 1820s, the old-time butcher, the co-owner and creator of a Turkish culinary treasure-trove, the local campaigner, the entrepreneur and his vertical garden, the street-kids with a vision as well as Dave, the popular Elvis impersonator.
The Guardian developed specially created software for the project, and a team of photographers and designers have compiled an accompanying slideshow and interactive elements – including previously unseen archive images.
Cllr Rupert Perry comments “Cally Road is a rich mix of long term residents and newcomers. Old and new alike will find this a fascinating oral history of the neighbourhood. Even for those of us who have lived here a long time, there’s some gems in this sound map of our area. The Guardian has done a great job (newcomers themselves) settling in as neighbours in our area. Alan Dein is no stranger to our area having worked on the Kings Cross Voices project and the Guardian could have chosen no-one better qualified to document our area and its history”.
The Guardian’s Cally sound map is designed to be downloaded and used as an audio guide along the road along with an accompanying PDF map or it can be viewed online as an interactive slideshow documentary.
Whittington A&E will not close
Thousands of us marched up the Holloway Road earlier this year
The prospect of closure at the Whittington Hospital Accident and Emergency has infuriated and alarmed everyone in Islington … Camden and Islington too. It’s also been rumoured that the Whittington’s excellent maternity facilities could close in a further ‘rationalisation’.
The fury in our Borough is widespread because absolutely everyone has a story to tell about a friend, neighbour or relative who has been born at the Whittington or had their life saved there.
In the House of Commons, Labour’s health Minister has said that “no case has been made” for its closure. So why does the threat hang over everyone? And why are the Lib Dems and Tories in Islington claiming that a Labour Government wants to “close the Whittington” when it isn’t true?
The answer is … NHS bureaucrats. They are the ones who have decided, in secret, that ‘we have too many hospitals’ and they want to close some of them.
Most people assume that the NHS is a single “top-downwards” organisation, managed day-to-day directly from Whitehall. But that is not the case at all. It is actually a very decentralised organisation. And during the lifetime of the current Labour Government, it has become even more decentralised so that many of the healthcare decisions are taken by local boards with significant local government involvement. Accountability for decisions has passed “downwards” to local authorities rather than “upwards” to the Government. And a law passed in 2006 gives local authorities quite strong powers to scrutinise Primary Care Trusts and Hospitals.
But NHS agencies in this part of London do not seem very accountable to anyone. And their boards appear to be an escape hatch for failed local politicians. Labour Councillors were astonished in May 2006 when Islington Council’s Lib Dem Leader was dumped by the voters only to be re-appointed weeks later as the Vice Chair of Islington Primary Care Trust. He held that position for another 3 years before being given an even more senior “non-executive” role in charge of “reconfiguring” acute services in North London.
Incredibly the Lib Dem Council leadership has played along with this. Last October they were in cahoots with the Primary Care Trust over the closure of Whittington’s A&E. And for almost a year they were actively supporting the decision to close Finsbury Health Centre. Now the same Lib Dems have the sheer nerve to claim that all these changes are the responsibility of Labour. They have even managed to rustle-up a yellowing clip from the Daily Express making this barmy allegation.
Now they have been caught out wildly exaggerating their role in the broad-based community campaign against the A&E closure. Shirley Franklin writes in the latest Islington Gazette that she is:
“…fed up with the Liberal Democrats implying in their election literature that they organised the 5,000-strong demonstration against the closure of The Whittington A&E, maternity, paediatrics and trauma units. They did not.”
Labour in Islington has been trying to get a grip on the NHS bureaucrats for 4 years. But the Lib Dems have a laissez-faire attitude that the “professionals know best” and should be left to take their decisions without interference. The Lib Dems maintain a cosy arrangement with the Primary Care Trust taking all the credit for “improved health outcomes” without ever accepting any of the accountability that should go alongside this. And when something goes wrong they flip-flop around claiming to be leading the public opposition.
Bemerton residents determined to beat anti-social behaviour
A"near-riot" by teenagers outside Perth House last month prompted BVMO to call the public meeting
Residents of the Bemerton have agreed to set up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme on their estate in a bid to reduce incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Councillor Paul Convery joined police Sgt Mike Atkinson to encourage the initiative at a community meeting organised last night by the Bemerton Villages Management Organisation (BVMO).
As a first measure, the police will help a group of residents in 1-20 Earlsferry Way to set-up a pilot Neighbourhood Watch in their blockwhich has experienced the worst problems of teenagers loitering in stairwells and walkways.
The police have committed to support the first group of residents with extra patrolling and faster response times – based on their available shifts. Paul Convery called this a “great start to helping residents regain control of their own estate”.
The meeting also heard Paul argue that the estate and surrounding neighbourhood needs more police with extended powers; teenagers also need more organised and supervised activity; and they need more hope for the future – secure jobs and the chance to get homes in the neighbourhood where they grew up.
Paul said that “the vast majority of teenagers in our area are good kids from decent homes who need more and better opportunities to spend their spare time in positive activities.” But he argued that “a generation of young people have lost touch with the values which previous generations stuck to: respect for other people; prepared to tolerate differences; resolving disputes peacefully; ambition for personal achievement; willingness make the effort required to succeed.”
“We have a small number of teenagers who are determined to have a laugh or get a buzz – often at someone else’s expense or discomfort. Some of the kids have grown up without any understanding of the consequences to their actions or clear boundaries to their behaviour.
“When gathered in groups, teenagers often lose their inhibitions. Behaviour can routinely turn from thrill-seeking and energetic showing-off towards vandalism and destruction. At that point, it doesn’t take much for behaviour to turn violent. Add-in alcohol and drugs and things can get extremely dangerous.”
Paul also said that there were no simple answers. “But a part of the solution is to provide many more youth facilities to give kids in the area regular clubs to hang-out and socialise, for supervised sports, music, media and other leisure. But we also have to crack down on knife-crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets, estates and parks. In this area, we now need similar gang-intervention strategies that have been deployed in the north of the Borough which followed the fatal stabbing of Martin Dinnegan.
“But most of all, we need to give this generation of kids some sense of hope in the future. Most of them cannot envisage a way into regular employment. Many are still stuck at home with their parents and have no faith in their chances of getting somewhere affordable to live and to settle down. That’s why we need to help with employment – like working for the Council or its contractors. And we need to build new affordable homes that are suitable for the young people growing up on our estates.”
Labour’s pledges in Caledonian Ward
Labour in Islington yesterday launched its manifesto for the Borough elections on May 6th. The manifesto launch featured Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry alongside former London mayor Ken Livingstone. The manifesto – which was drawn-up after consultation with residents’ associations and voluntary groups throughout Islington – is a programme for change in this increasingly fragmented Borough.
Labour’s top priorities have already been enthusiastically received by voters on the doorstep in Caledonian Ward.
- Labour will be tough on crime and its causes. This ward desperately needs activities for young people. We will invest in new youth facilities to give kids in the area regular youth clubs, supervised sports, music, media and leisure. The vast majority of teenagers in our area are good kids who need more and better opportunities to spend their spare time in positive activities. But we shall also crack down on knife-crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets, estates and parks. We want more police officers and we want them to use their existing powers more widely. We shall extend a proposed alcohol-free zone around Kings Cross to cover the whole of Caledonian ward.
- In Caledonian ward, Labour will build hundreds of new affordable homes as part of our Borough-wide plan to build thousands of new homes. We want overcrowded families, single people and young couples to stay in the area and be housed in decent quality homes they can afford. We will aggressively pursue policies that prevent private developers from building luxury apartments.
- Parents at all 5 primary schools in the ward have strongly backed our commitment for free school meals for all primary age children. This helps hard pressed families – especially those who want to move off benefits and into work – and it improves children’s health and their achievement at school.
- Residents in this ward also support our pledge to achieve value for money in the Council. Times are going to get tougher with the Council’s finances over the next few years, so money must be spent on frontline services which make a difference to people. We will make sure Council taxpayers’ money is spent on what matters, by cutting waste, pointless Council propaganda and councillors’ expenses. We want to make sure more of the Council’s funds are spent in harder-pressed neighbourhoods like ours.
- The state of local environment in Caledonian ward is poor. Despite what the Liberal Democrats claim, we do not have “cleaner, greener estates and streets”. We suffer from fly-tipping, dumping, dog fouling on our estates and streets. Labour We will take rapid action on fly-tipping and dog mess on all estates and streets. We’ll bring back the free skips service and introduce a new programme to insulate homes, cutting carbon emissions and energy bills.
- We will improve and extend services and support for older people especially those on low incomes. It was a Labour Budget in 2009 which introduced a £100 Council Tax discount for over-65s. Many older people hope we will protect the discount and expand the services like lunch clubs and social gatherings in the different voluntary groups in our ward.
You can read a copy of the manifesto (it’s 15 pages long) in the attached PDF file: Islington_Labour_2010_Manifesto_FINAL
Kings Cross … will the public ever be asked?
The current scene - chaos and clutter in front of Kings Cross
Network Rail and Camden Council have just announced the winners of a competition to appoint architects to design the new “square” in front of Kings Cross station.
As part of the Kings Cross station redevelopment, Network Rail will demolish all the buildings which currently make-up the current waiting area, shops and ticket offices. A new concourse is being constructed on the west side of the station.
In 2013, a new square will be created on the area immediately south of the historic station structure. This square (actually more of a triangular shaped area) is to become a 7,000 square metre public space. The latest PR declares this to be “larger than Leicester Square”.
But, every step of the redevelopment of Kings Cross station has been undertaken without any significant public involvement and has excluded Islington Council. Efforts to pursaude Camden Council – which is the planning authority responsible – have been rebuffed repeatedly.
The new Kings Cross square (artist's impression) with an improbably small number of people walking around
In the latest announcement, Camden Council’s spokeswomen talks about a “better public realm along Euston Road at the heart of the borough of Camden”. The Kings Cross square is not at the heart of Camden at all. It’s on the Borough’s very eastern edge and is a piece of geography that is shared with Islington. Camden’s boundary with Islington actually runs along one side of this new square.
This is another example of regeneration being done “to” people and not “with” them. The latest design competition has not involved local people at any stage and despite what Network Rail’s press statement says, there is no evidence that Islington Council has been involved. It may eventually transpire that some Islington official has attended a meeting or two. But big decisions are being taken without proper concern for the people who live in the area or their elected representatives.
Cllr Paul Convery says “the whole philosophy guiding this crucial redevelopment lies in a cosy arrangement between Camden Council and Network Rail. I am particularly critical of Camden which seems doctrinally blinded to the fact that thousands of people and their active community organisations already live in Kings Cross.”
Election poster war hots up
Huntingdon Street is fairly well decorated
Political parties get very excited about the number of window posters visible during an election campaign. At the very least it gives encouragement to supporters and to campaign volunteers. The most prized locations are those reserved for “estate-agent” style boards mounted on railings.
So how is the contest for posters going in Caledonian Ward? We reckon that Labour posters are ahead by a fair margin. Well we would say that wouldn’t we? To be fair, the Lib Dem posters went up a few days ahead of us. And they do have a slightly brighter colour scheme, so maybe they are a little more visible.
One curious feature of the poster war is the number of signs that our opponents have put up outside the homes of people who do not actually support the Lib Dems.
We have met people living on Caledonian Road, Campbell Walk, Hemingford Road, Huntingdon Street and Offord Road who have torn down Lib Dem boards which appeared without warning outside their homes over the Easter Weekend.
Lib Dem poster stuck-up on railings outside the home of a Labour voter ... now in the recycle bin
Shops on the Cally have featured the same problem. In at least 4 cases, Lib Dems have just walked straight into shops to put up a poster. And torn down Labour posters too … we definitely do ask shopkeepers first.
But this election is not just about posters. The elections for our national government and our local Council are about a myriad of policies and priorities.
Meanwhile, a bizarre leaflet has gone through doors in our ward this week suggesting the Conservatives have given up. It was covered in the current edition of Islington Tribune at http://bit.ly/bUJ1Wk
It’s yet another letter from a “former Conservative candidate in Islington South” called John Szemerey who stood for the Tories in the two general elections of 1974. It’s hard finding anyone in the Borough who remembers this chap. But he now features extensively in the Lib Dem campaign which is repeatedly saying “the Conservatives cannot win here”.
A lot of people are getting quite fed up being told how the Tories cannot win in Islington. Especially Labour voters who suspect that the Lib Dems are wooing Conservatives with a promise to back Cameron if the general election result turns out to be very close. That might not be such an odd thing either. Over the border in Camden, a Tory/Lib Dem coalition has run that Borough since 2006 with some disastrously divisive policies.
Fatal stabbing incident on the Cally
The Thornhill Arms and surrounding area are cordoned-off while the police investigation continues
A young man was fatally stabbed yesterday evening outside the Thornhill Arms pub at the junction of Wynford Road and Caledonian Road. The 20 year old was named today by police as Sam Fitzgerald who lived on the Priory Green estate. He was at the pub to watch the Arsenal-Spurs game and had stepped outside briefly where he became involved in an altercation at around 8pm.
He was attacked by a young man outside the pub and received a stab wound to the body. He was taken to the Royal London Hospital but died shortly after arrival. The police say that a 20-year-old man was arrested last night and is still being questioned. Officers have said they “retain an open mind as to any motive.” A post-mortem will take place at St Pancras Mortuary on Friday 16th April.
The pub and area around it remain sealed by police. Friends and neighbours have begun to place tributes to Sam at a spot on the pavement across the road.
The police are appealling for witnesses. Anyone with information that may assist police should call the incident room on 020 8345 3865 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
Councillor Paul Convery said “This is a shocking crime and deeply distressing to everyone in the area. My sympathy and thoughts are with Sam Fitzgerald’s family and friends. At first I feared this murder was gang-related. It is now increasingly likely that a bitter personal dispute underlies this tragedy”.
We will bring this community building back into use
The disused building at 315 Caledonian Road ... time to bring it back into community use
At a lunch meeting with the Islington Bangladeshi Association today, Paul and Rupert pledged to bring a disused community centre back into use. The building at 315 Caledonian Road (on the corner of Kember Street) is not simply an eyesore but a daily reminder that this neighbourhood lacks a good high street community centre.
Known as the National Heritage & Tourism Library, the building is vacant – apart from beat-up furniture and enormous piles of yellowing paper.
The last known instance when the former community centre was publicly funded was in the mid 1980s when the Manpower Services Commission awarded some grant-aid to run an employability and education scheme. Now the building is becoming severely dilapidated – the condition of the flank wall on Kember Street has deteriorated badly with each recent winter’s weather.
It is quite a mystery how this building covers its business rates. We believe the freehold is held by a dormant charity and it may have an exemption from paying business rates. This will date back several decades to a time when 100% rate rebates were automatic for registered charities.
The Labour team in Caledonian Ward has been trying for several years to unpick the ownership of the building. They believe that the charity has failed to meet its legal duties to submit accounts and annual reports to the Charity Commission. It is also pretty clear the charity is not meeting its own charitable purposes and should be wound-up.
If Labour wins a majority in the Town Hall on May 6th, we will order an immediate start to legal proceedings to transfer the building to a new charitable entity that will run the building for genuine community purposes. Over the past 4 years, Cally Councillors have tried to get the Council’s legal people to undertake this task but without agreement to proceed.
Rupert Perry says “I’ve lived here for over 20 years and this building has always been out of use. I’ve been trying for years to find a way to get it back into community ownership. Some detective work over the last couple of years has revealed what I always suspected – the charity is defunct. So it’s time to exercise determined legal action to release the property back to the community. Then we’ll get on with raising some money to renovate the building.”
Labour Councillors representing the Cally neighbourhood in Islington 