Liberal Democrats improving Education in Ealing

In Ealing, things are improving as we see that crime is down, there are more people in employment and millions of residents have been taken on apprenticeships across the country.

Those running Ealing Town Hall, like to take the credit for the improvements to our education system, however they forget to mention that the majority of money comes directly from the coalition Government.

So when our primary and secondary schools are maintained, expanded and improved, large chunks of money comes from the government.

Gary Malcolm

Liberal Democrats believe in giving every child a fair start in life. That's why we put an extra £2.5bn into schools each year from our 'Pupil Premium', as promised in the 2010 election manifesto. The money is targeted at those that need the most help, to achieve equality of opportunity.

In just one year seven schools in our borough received the following amounts:

• Hambrough Primary School, Southall - £126,000
• West Twyford Primary School, Acton - £81,000
• Selborne Primary School, Greenford - £107,100
• Gifford Primary School, Northolt - £325,800
• Perivale Primary School, Perivale - £83,700
• North Ealing Primary School, Ealing - £54,900
• Southfield Primary school, Southfield - £144,000
• St John's Primary School, West Ealing - £171,000

Some of the great examples of what the Pupil Premium has been spent on included a Maths tutor for a year 10 pupil who had gaps in their learning. Another was curriculum adaptations for pupils going into key stage 4, who were on the spectrum of autism.

The additional learning and communication helped them out massively. This will help those children to better learn and develop, so they can gain employment or an apprenticeship more easily.

Also a hot and healthy meal at lunch time greatly improves the health, behaviour and results of schoolchildren, providing them with their best start in life, enabling every child to fulfil their potential.

Evidence has shown that free school meals make a real difference in our classrooms. They were first piloted in 2009 and my aspiration is that free school meals is expanded to give free school meals to every primary school pupil in England.

We’ve also provided £150m to upgrade school kitchens and dining rooms, on top of a billion pounds of new money to fund the meals.

The government has also increased funding of nursery places for 2 and 3 year olds and agreed for an increase in paternal leave so they parents can spend more time with their new-born children. All of these policies are helping families across Ealing.

Liberal Democrats release Local Election Manifesto

The Ealing Liberal Democrats launched their local election manifesto today. They are the effective opposition in Ealing, given that they are the only party who has costed policies to deal with the key local issues that residents are concerned about.

In Ealing we have a growing membership

Ealing Council has been selling off our day centres, left our streets and parks dirty and charged for collecting our garden waste. The Liberal Democrats are the only party who have costed policies. We will be tough as nails with contractors who are providing a poor service and we will freeze Council Tax for the next four years to give some stability to residents' finances.

The ten key areas of the 2014 manifesto where we will take action on include:
• Protect the vulnerable - save day centres like the Carlton Road day centre and local health services
• Freeze Council Tax for the next four years – cut costs not services
• Cleaner streets and fine contractors for poor performance
• Safer Ealing – more Bobbies on the Beat in high crime areas
• Restore free garden waste collection
• Freeze parking permits and vouchers
• More investment in roads and pavements
• Increase social & affordable housing supply
• Make the Council easier to contact
• Protect green spaces & prevent “garden grabbing

The Liberal Democrats have produced an alternative budget every year during this 4-year electoral term, while the Conservatives have not done so. The Conservatives have not done so, preferring instead to make statements about what they would do without proving that they could afford to do it. This is further evidence of how seriously the Ealing Borough Liberal Democrats take their duty to the electorate.

The Labour party have left Ealing far worse than we were in 2010 and the Conservative party's financial plans do not add up. Only the Liberal Democrats can improve Ealing giving fairness to how our council money is spent. We are the only party who treat our vulnerable residents with a priority.

On May 22nd vote Liberal Democrat to get hard working Councillors and a party that will focus attention on avoiding problems for the vulnerable in society.

Success at last for the Piccadilly Line to stop at Turnham Green

The Mayor of London announced some good news earler today (at the Mayor’s Question Time) that Piccadilly line trains will stop properly at Turnham Green once modernisation work is complete. Although this may be a number of years off, he did make a commitment that tubes will stop all night when the Piccadilly line becomes part of the “Night Tube” in 2015.

Lib Dems back in 2010 at a demonstration

The Liberal Democrats have campaigned for ten years to get this good news for residents. It may not be happening straight away but we will be counting down until the tubes stop all day at Turnham Green station. Thank you to all the residents who completed the consultation forms on this subject or filled in our petitions. A nice end to the year!

So much work has been done by Caroline Pidgeon over the last number of years. We thank her very much. She has been in attendance for many meetings either at City Hall or more locally, where these issues have been discussed.

Some comments on Twitter I read gave thanks for the hard work that the team has spend over many years, some behind the scenes in meetings with Transport for London officials showing them the many reasons why this service will improve things for residents in Chiswick, Acton and the neighbouring areas.

“Well done to @CllrGaryMalcolm, who campaigned for the pic line trains to stop at Turnham Green all-day.”

“Pic Line to stop all day at Turnham Green tube station once line is upgraded. Well done to local campaigners especially @CllrGaryMalcolm”

As mentioned, the campaign has gone on for about ten years. Lots of residents have helped the campaign. Recently others have joined our growing band waggon. Thank you to all who have helped the campaign.

Liberal Democrats give evidence to Independent Hospital Reconfiguration Panel

As many of you are aware it is possible that four local hospitals may have their A&E and their maternity wards shut. The hospitals at risk are Ealing, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Central Middlesex.

Ealing Council with the support of the Liberal Democrat Group arranged for an independent review to take place so that our hospitals can be protected. Hanwell's Liberal Democrat Councillor, Nigel Bakhai, spoke up at the meeting which took place on 8th July in Ealing Town Hall.

I attended this crucial meeting where the independent panel will take evidence on why the current plans will leave Ealing's heathcare in tatters. Councillors from all three of Ealing political parties spoke including Nigel Bakhai, councillor for Elthorne.

Me speaking a hospital rally

It appears that their report will be written by 13th September and then a month later the Secretary of State will make a decision on the Panel's recommendations. The team giving evidence also included a member of the public.

There was no meaningful engagement of the proposals by the NHS North West group during the process. The consultation did not actively look to involve the diverse range of languages and community groups. The consultation form was so long that it made War and Peace look like a short story. The changes have been foisted upon us as a fait accompli.

We heard evidence about the huge numbers of residents who took part in two local marches, the tens of thousand people who filled in petitions. I was lucky enough to speak on Ealing Common to the crowd of residents who want their NHS services protected not downgraded.

Councillor Nigel Bakhai spoke about the lack of support from doctors and consultants for the plans to shut local maternity and Accident & Emergency services. Nigel added that surveys of local GPs did not agree with the proposals - which was a critical test set by Secretary of State.

The Ealing area is so diverse, with lots of people with diabetes (like myself). The high demand for A&E services during this hot weather showed that we need our A&E services kept local. We have a large increase in the birth rate and so the planned maternity closures do not make sense.

Travelling further for treatment will mean people become more ill or will die. We heard one person give evidence about a 37% increase in death due to extra travelling.

People travelling to the hospital for treatment are likely to need at least two buses plus a walk. The estimates for a small 10% increase in journey time assumes that people all drive! I have said many times that part of a good treatment is to have your family or friends with you so you can recover more quickly. If I had to wait for visitors getting two buses and a long walk then I think most people would not be able to visit as often.

With Nigel Bakhai campaigning in Hanwell

We saw that the authors of the NHS proposals used different sources of data when it was clear that some examples gave some strange outcomes...

...for Hammersmith hospital it stated that 7 patients would use each bed, each day! How can we trust the data never mind their projections based upon quicksand.

Since the news that Ealing Hospital was due to be downgraded they were forced to advertise to state they were "open for business"!

Part of their plans also involve huge number of patients having treatments from their GPs who cannot currently cope with their numbers. No plans have been arrange to assist any changeover to a new way of working and so quite simply the plans are unsafe.

To sum it up the plans are unsafe. At the same time the Government is reviewing health care such as hospitals and so the plans to shut our maternity and Accident & Emergency wards should be shelved until the Government review has been concluded.