Labour Call-In Decision on Bonuses for Parking Tickets 26 September, 2006
Posted by Bassam Mahfouz in Labour's on Your Side.add a comment
Labour’s Transport spokesman Cllr Bassam Mahfouz last night ‘called-in’ the Conservative cabinet’s decision to pay bonuses totalling almost £1/2 million to a new parking contractor should they meet their targets. Cllr Mahfouz told us:
‘We welcome any savings that the new contract will bring. However, there’s no point in making savings if you’re then going to pay extra simply for doing the job properly. At the moment the new contract effectively says “If you do your job right, we’ll pay you extra”. The Conservatives are looking to make real cuts to our local services and popular projects such as Northala Fields on the one hand and with the other use taxpayer’s money to prop up a private company. If they can afford to give this company £1/2 million for doing their job right, why not reward hard working residents for doing their bit for the community? It’s their money.’
Cllr Mahfouz will raise the Labour group’s concerns at the next meeting of the ‘Call-In Panel’ later in October. He will also question the future of the contract once it has been agreed: ‘In the report it states that after four years, the decision as to whether to extend the contact by another three years will be up to a council officer – where is the accountability? This is an issue that should be decided by the elected representatives of the people, not an unaccountable civil servant.’
Residents & Labour Councillors speak out on Tory Plan to take money away from local park 23 September, 2006
Posted by Bassam Mahfouz in Community News, Labour's on Your Side, Northala Fields, Tory Neglect of Northolt.add a comment
Local Residents and Labour’s Northolt & Greenford Councillors have spoken out in this week’s Ealing Gazette with open letters to the administration about the future of Northala Fields. The future of the exciting new park for Northolt & Greenford is now under threat as the Tory administration looks to reverse a long standing commitment given by previous Labour administrations on the park’s funding.
Previously councillors of both parties took on board local residents’ views and made a commitment that every penny raised by the building of the park, would be spent on developing it for the use of local people. It seems that the Tory council already desperate to look for savings to off set their increase in spending in other parts of the borough want to grab the “profits” made by the first stage of the Northala Fields build rather than re-invest it in developing the park to include real facilities that local people can be proud of.
Click on the photos on the left to read last week’s Gazette piece and to read the letters page in full from this week’s edition.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We are asking all local residents who care about the future of this great local resource to sign a petition calling on the Tory council to stop their plans to take self-generated funds away from the park at a cost to the people of Northolt, Greenford and west London.
DOWNLOAD THE PETITION NOW AND SIGN IT (word document)
