Support for Ken is Waning

Today I have been knocking on doors in Chiswick. It isn't the sort of area you would expect to get huge support for Ken but clearly when a significant share of Labour voters I speak to say they are not voting for Ken it looks like he won't become the Mayor of London.

Support for Ken Livingstone is waning and more and more Londoners cannot bring themselves to vote for a candidate that has a real credibility problem.

Liberal Democrat Caroline Pigeon and Brian Paddick, along with their energetic and diverse team of London Assembly candidates, can offer real change and a real alternative to the Tory run Mayoralty.

They have lots of fresh and creative ideas for London and here are just five of them:

• A fairer London, with realistic fare cuts targeted at those who need them most: a One Hour Bus Ticket; Early Bird discounts; and Part-Time season tickets.
• A greener London, with electric buses, taxis and vans by 2020.
• A safer London, with police who listen to the concerns of local people and work with them against the criminals.
• Serious solutions to London’s biggest problems, such as tackling the housing crisis by building 360,000 new homes.
• Creating a network of Youth Hubs to give young people a positive alternative to gangs.

There are so many reasons why if you sit on the left of London politics, you do not have to vote for Livingstone.

To read more about what Brian Paddick would do, have a look at his manifesto here.

How to Avoid Being a Victim of Holiday Crime

I was speaking to the Safer Neighbourhood team in my area and they passed me some great tips on how to reduce being a victim of crime...

As summer approaches, many of you may soon be planning to go off on a well earned holiday. The police would like all residents to head off on holiday in the knowledge that they have done all they can to secure their homes whilst away.  Here are a few tips which the police team believe may help:

• If you are going away on holiday for a long period of time ask your neighbour or a relative to ensure your post is pushed fully thorough the letter box, letters sticking out of letter slots can be an indicator that you are away.
• Remember to cancel your milk and paper orders.
• Put light timer switches on in the house, try to have one that turns your TV on and off - these are available from all good hardware stores.

Simple advice that we all show try and follow. Do spread the word to help reduce crime.

Brian Paddick Walks the Walk

By far the largest numbers of journeys in London are made on foot. By developing better pedestrian schemes in our town centres and encouraging the growth of ‘green walkways’, we can make our town centres attractive places to shop, work and live. De-cluttering London’s streets, by removing excess signs and street furniture will also help in improving the local environment.

Brian Paddick will lead the way and will:

• Implement a bold plan to allow pedestrianisation of parts of central London from Trafalgar Square to Oxford Street.
• Develop a ‘summer streets’ scheme, similar to New York, temporarily pedestrianising streets so encouraging people to explore and travel to their destinations in central London on foot.
• Provide better signage to help people use pavements and footpaths highlighting the 108 tube journeys that are actually quicker on foot.
• Encourage walking, through incentives similar to store card loyalty schemes, using Oyster or smart phone technology.
• Extend 20mph speed limits to dangerous busy streets controlled by TfL where Londoners live, work and play – so reducing accidents and saving millions of pounds from the health service budget alone
• Set ambitious targets to encourage walking to school.
• Increase support for schemes like London’s Greenways, making them more attractive to use for recreational activities.
• There are 347 crossings in London that are unsafe for visually impaired people. Disability access standards must be met for every pedestrian crossing.

Professor David Bellamy Supports Gunnersbury Triangle‏ Campaign

Over the past couple of months hundreds of residents have been campaigning to protect leafy Gunnersbury Triangle from a proposed development. The campaign recently has had a lift when Professor David Bellamy has joined the campaign against the development.

The proposed development on the adjacent land, Collonial Drive, Chiswick, contains over a hundred flats with buildings over 6 stories tall.

Your three Liberal Democrat Southfield Councillors are against this development as it will cause damage to the Triangle, both visually and to the wildlife as the buildings would be only metres away from the border of the Triangle. There would be a lot of parking related issues as well.

David Bellamy when speaking to me recently spoke of the work he did in 1983 to save this "wonderful site from development". He added that: "The Public Inquiry at that time set a precedent in the UK in its ruling that urban nature should be favoured over commercial development.  It would be a terrible wrong to undo the spirit of that ruling by approving a development which would remove many of the benefits which were granted by this decision."

He is quite right. The proposed development is far too big; it is too tall, and too close to the boundary of the Reserve. Many aspects of this proposal will have an extremely harmful impact on the flora and fauna of the Gunnersbury Triangle: the reflective materials in the building; the overlooking windows and balconies; the noise from residents; damage from their pets; potential recreational use for parties and barbecues - these would be impossible to prohibit or enforce against.  The Triangle is proud of the bats which make this Reserve their home - they and the birds would suffer from the light pollution from this enormous structure.

A petition was set up that you can sign on line: Click to sign the petition

If you have questions please contact me by emailing me: gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk

Making the Cycle Hire scheme work for all of London

Part of encouraging cycling is making the cycle hire scheme work much better. Satisfaction of those who register and actual use a bike is dropping, while many find the casual users’ scheme too complicated. The Liberal Democrats first advocated a bike hire scheme in 2001 and want to make sure it works for the widest range of Londoners. Generating more income will come through greater usage by many more people.

Liberal Democrats will:

1. Promote the scheme to groups who are not using it regularly, particularly women and younger adults who live in London.
2. Make the scheme easier to use for casual users with a ‘one swipe’ facility.
3. Expand to south London and further into West and North London.
4. Require the contractor to improve overall service levels including the distribution of bikes or face tough penalties.
5. Increase the annual membership fee to non-Londoners.
6. Introduce special ‘limited edition’ bikes to celebrate key events such as the Diamond Jubilee, Pride and the 2012 Games and to put some fun back into the scheme.

Gunnersbury Park, Non Waste collection statement - Council's Cabinet meeting last night

Here is a summary of last night's Cabinet meeting in Ealing...

Non collection of Waste
The meeting started off with the Labour Councillor responsible for waste and recycling, giving a statement (apology) about the weeks of non-collections of household waste and recyclables. Although the contractor's performance has improved, it clearly isn't up to scratch.

They have been using lots of temporary staff to collect the waste. We await to see some perfection which we are told should be the norm!

Ealing Council is holding a meeting in Early May dedicated to this one subject. We think a proper and public review needs happen so that the Council officers whose job it is to manage the contractor explain why the contractor was allowed to mess up so badly. It appears no-one took the necessary actions to predict this when some things could have been avoidable.

Sign our petition calling for a full investigation into why this was allowed to happen: Sign the petition!

Same old faces, different jobs
In what appears to be an attempt to show Leadership (when he has been criticised publicly in recent weeks) the Conservative opposition Leader has reshuffled his political pack. It appears that their financial spokesperson has been moved to a less contentious area. Like most reshuffled they bring forward few new ideas. The same people in different roles.

Gunnersbury Park
The Liberal Democrats have been the only party over the past ten years to campaign on this issue. In recent times the Council have made commitments to invest in the Park so the buildings can be preserved. As part of this process the Labour-run Council is looking at leasing out the Small Mansion and Stables. My group feel that  although this may bring in money it may also allow for uses which are not positive to park users.

I gained a commitment from the Leader of the Council to ensure that a representative of all three political parties in Ealing can discuss the possible leasing arrangements before the Cabinet makes a decision on this very important location. Councillor Jon Ball has been an active campaigner on this and he is looking forward to seeing how the park can be renovated without any harm being done to the land or trees.

Childrens Centres
The Council is to put some money into Children Centres (a lot is coming from the coalition government) which is a good use of money. The Conservatives were verbally attacked as a number of Tory Councils have closed Childrens Centres, as they did not see them as a priority sadly.

Perivale and Hanwell Libraries
A year after the Liberal Democrat Group budgeted for funding to renovate these two libraries (the Labour-run Ealing Council was to close them). Since then with residents support the Council made a u-turn and has now finally pledged the money to get the renovation work done. Good news.

The bad news will be that the libraries are likely to be closed for about six months each (from the end of this year). I understand that officers are looking at what can be done to reduce the time where the libraries are closed.

Blue Badges 
After years Ealing blue badge holders might now not have to hide their blue badges when they park their vehicles overnight. When they did this their badge was safe but lots of residents got parking fines as the rules said they needed the badge to be placed in the window.

The council are to create a new permit which will cost no more than the cheapest permit (it is said to be charged so that it only covers the admin fees). No exact price is known yet. If you bought the permit then you would place the permit in the window of your designated car. This way thefts should be reduced.

Lighting for crime hotspots
The Council last year promised to upgrade the lighting in places where crime was high. They said they would upgrade lighting at three locations. The report last night, covering this years lighting, will improve six areas.

One area is Warple Way which is the road between Acton and Chiswick. There was an attack a few months ago and the Southfield ward Liberal Democrats agreed to fund lighting for the alleyway and get the overgrowth cur down to reduce the crime levels and the fear of crime. This additional money is welcomed. I look forward to the scheme being introduced.

Reducing Pollution and New Technology in London

So much about London is about making our TODAYS fast and furious but little is spent on making what we have last - whether that be our transport, our buildings or our environment. London’s buses, taxis and vans still mostly run on diesel. This should no longer be the case. Air pollution from traffic causes huge health problems and this must change.

Under our Big Switch plan, all of London’s buses and taxis, and most commercial vans, will run on electricity by 2020. This is financed primarily through fuel cost savings, so taxi drivers will make big savings too.

Brian Paddick will:

1. Modify the existing Source London charging network to focus on supporting buses, vans and taxis in central London where the pollution is worst.
2. Begin at once to purchase new electric buses as well as trialling the retro-fitting of electric power trains into existing buses.
3. Ensure that by 2016 all buses in central London, the most polluted area, are powered by clean electricity, with all 8,500 of London’s buses converted by 2020.
4. Run a competition for a new iconic London electric black taxi and begin production by 2015 of at least one electric taxi design.
5. Set up a clean air zone for central London modelled on current schemes in European cities like Berlin, using national registration details to enforce higher engine standards, with income from fines ringfenced to fund a scrappage scheme.
6. Explore with manufacturers the setting up of a subsidy scheme to reduce the upfront capital costs for drivers needing to convert to electric vehicles.

Brian Paddick Supports Small Business

To demonstrate its return to responsible business practices, Liberal Democrats will challenge London’s banks and investment houses to create a London Small Business Fund so that no viable enterprise is prevented from expanding through lack of finance. Brian Paddick challenges all London’s big business to offer mentoring support and advice to SMEs and, crucially, to open up their contracting to London’s firms by publicising opportunities through the established "CompeteFor" platform.

London’s entrepreneurs need support and encouragement to grow their businesses and get people into work. The GLA must promote cost effective business support programmes, champion the needs of business, ensure business costs are kept low and promote London’s cultural, sporting and entertainment offer.

Brian Paddick will:

• Involve existing successful entrepreneurs in advising on ways to improve the government’s replacement Business Link advisory service.
• Challenge big companies to promote entrepreneurism, through contracting and mentoring, learning from work done in the inner city areas of the United States to help combat disadvantage and discrimination that led to the riots and disturbances that took place on our streets in August 2011.
• Demand that large companies give priority to local purchasing, to keep buying power in the London economy, using the "CompeteFor" database and procurement portal created for the Olympics.
• Ensure all parts of the GLA family including Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and the Homes and Community Agency in London put work into the database so that small firms can bid for contracts as public sector projects are put out to tender.
• Insist central government extends to London’s businesses all the benefits from the National Insurance holidays and grant funds made available to other regions of the UK.

Advice on Ealing's Garden Waste collection

Given the two weeks or so of very poor service from Enterprise, in their non collection of household waste and recyclables, many residents have asked about their garden waste.

Sadly the Council is charging for this type of collection when in the financially approved Liberal Democrat budget, residents would not have had to pay extra. We believe recycling should be free - anything else and we are going to reduce participation and increase the chance of fly-tipping.

In particular they have asked whether theirs will be collected even if they haven't paid or are still waiting for their garden waste receptacles. I asked a senior Council officer and was told:

"...The borough is split into two areas, week A (West) and week B (East).  This means for constituents [in Acton and Chiswick] they will be collected on week B and therefore scheduled for collection on 9/4 and 23/4. Any garden waste presented should be collected on those days irrespective of whether a resident has subscribed to green bags. What is supposed to happen is that anyone who has not subscribed to the service should be given a card to explain how to do so.

This arrangement will be in place until the end of April.  The arrangements from May are that for  those residents who opt not to subscribe, their garden waste will not be collected.  At this stage, there are no plans to alter that arrangement, although it will be kept under review. However, if anyone has experienced missed collections, the same message applies i.e. leave the recycling out."

I am told that this week's collections are much better than last week's (I have had fewer complaints) but do let me know if you have any issues to report.

Be aware: Bank Card Fraud

I was speaking to the local Southfield Safer Neighbourhood Police team and they spoke of a bank card fraud affecting residents of Chiswick and Ealing.

Operation Sterling with its partners at the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit is warning the public of a new fraud.

Elderly members of the public have been receiving unsolicited telephone calls from individuals purporting to be from the police or their bank. These individuals obtain the card details from their victims and inform them that their card needs to be collected by a courier.

The bank cards are then used fraudulently without the victim’s knowledge.

If you receive such a call end it immediately.

Please be aware of the following:

• Your bank will never attend your home
• Your bank and the police will never collect your bank card
• Your bank and the police will never ask for your PIN
• If you have already given your bank card or disclosed your PIN you should call the police non emergency number 101.

 Remember if you think someone who calls you is acting strange then your instincts are often correct.

Enterprise may have apologised but we want answers about the non collections

Despite the apologies from Ealing Council and its waste contractor, Enterprise, there are a lot of questions that need answering.

What actions were taken by Ealing Council before the contact started to ensure the contractor did what they had contractually promised to do. The twenty million a year contract is a huge one and so many residents have been left asking why the mess occurred.

See this article about Ealing's problems from the website Let's Recycle.

For weeks, residents did not know when their waste was to be collected, they understandably thought that recyclables were going into landfill and the communication from Ealing Council was limited - that from the contractor was not present from what I saw.

It is clearly time for a proper scrutiny to stop this from happening again. To sign our petition to persuade Ealing Council to scrutinise the hand-over from ECT to Enterprise click the link here.

Is Chiswick's Esmond Road being treated like rubbish?

You would have to be on Mars not to know that the combination of Ealing Council and its new waste and recycling contractor, Enterprise, in combination have left some areas of Ealing and Chiswick with many days of no waste collection.

After regularly visiting different roads over the past two weeks, the winner for the road in Southfield, Chiswick that Enterprise has ignored the most is Esmond Road. See some pictures today of three examples you can see walking from South Parade northwards on Esmond Road (there are about twenty occasions where waste is waiting to be collected):

Exhibit One

Exhibit Two

Exhibit Three

Since seeing the state of this street I have contacted Ealing Council's CEO and asked that the Council write to residents of Esmond Road and apologise as the residents I saw on this street were quite understandably spitting blood.

I guess Monday afternoon will be the time when we see whether Enterprise gets its act together. Fingers crossed.

A decent affordable home for every Londoner

Brian Paddick and his Liberal Democrat team has said that part of the solution to the housing crisis is to
make better use of our existing assets, including empty homes.

He has pledged:

• To create an extra 40,000 homes in the spaces above London shops
• To bring empty homes in London back into use as affordable housing, insisting boroughs establish clear strategies for tackling empty properties and so bring 50,000 empty and underused properties back into use as housing.
• With retailers and transport companies, identify unused urban space above and around supermarkets and stations for affordable housing and make it easier for people living in social housing to move within London if they need to be nearer to employment opportunities or have caring responsibilities, by ensuring better housing mobility options for social housing tenants to end discretionary tax discounts for empty homes and second homes, to encourage more productive use of existing housing assets.

Improving housing is one of the best ways to reduce fuel poverty, increase environmental standards and address climate change. It is now widely recognised that poor housing has a big impact on health, while overcrowding affects educational achievement. Brian Paddick will:

1. Be ambitious to make larger developments achieve at least Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 and require good liveable space standards.
2. Set a target for CO2 reduction in the existing housing stock and speed up action to roll out loft and cavity wall insulation.
3. Expand retrofitting schemes to see existing stock brought up to modern day standards, using the Government’s Green Deal initiative to drive take-up, including using new powers to force private residential landlords to undertake energy efficiency improvements.
4. Insist that a fair share of the national energy company obligation is ring fenced for London which is currently losing out through planning policy.

How Brian Paddick Will Bring Jobs For London

Brian Paddick the Liberal Democrat Mayoral Candidate has been active visiting all parts of the London over the past year or so. London suffers the second highest rate of unemployment of any region in Britain. A new deal for young Londoners is needed:

• London Youth Contract - he will ensure all jobless young Londoners who apply after leaving school and aged up to 25 are productively engaged, in work or in learning linked to a genuine job opportunity, working with employers to create an Apprenticeship Alliance and ensure graduates get six months real work experience leading to a job.
• Adult Skills - We will bring the £653 million spent in London each year on adult skills training under the control of the Mayor and appoint a new powerful Business Board to put employers and business in the lead.
• Five-Star Fund - Brian will set up a fund worth at least £10 million, supported by a voluntary £1 a night luxury hotel bedroom levy, to co-fund youth opportunities in needy areas.
• Youth Hubs - Brian Paddick will work with banks on funding the development across London of ‘Youth Hubs’, open seven days a week and in the evenings where young people, as well as socialising, can receive advice and support.
• Access to Education - Brian will make sure no young Londoner is deterred from entering a suitable further or higher education course because of financial concern, by channelling educational bursaries through enhanced careers advice in schools.
• Supporting enterprise & jobs of the future - Brian Paddick as Mayor will establish a London Small Business Fund. We will work with socially responsible banks, so all viable small enterprises get the finance they need with mentoring support and advice too. He will establish a London Green Investment Bank to co-fund the industries of the future and transform London into a centre of digital technology.

If you have any views on these topics please let me know @CllrGaryMalcolm

Discussed Ealing's Waste Collection Issues with the Chief Executive

For those who live in Ealing you will know for the last ten days or so that some or all of your waste items have been left, uncollected in the street. This is a very sad affair and due to the very poor service that residents are suffering myself and fellow Councillors Andrew Steed, Harvey Rose and Nigel Bakhai, raised this issue at a meeting tonight with Ealing Council's Chief Executive.

A number of things were highlighted during the meeting:

• Confirmation that 25 percent of roads in Southfield have not had their waste collected this week.
• Acceptance that their needs to be a change of policy so that streets missed out on a particular day should be treated with a higher priority.
• Part of the cause of the problem was that the contractor had too few staff, they were not fully trained with the new collection vehicles and the collection rounds were larger than before.
• That the backlog of uncollected waste is reducing borough wide and they hope to have no backlog by the end of this week.
• Confirmation that better communication is needed from the Council when communicating with residents who have made complaints about the poor service.

As you can imagine I am currently taking all promises from the Council, and their waste contractor, with a large pinch of salt. But tonight Ealing's Chief Executive was open and honest about the issues he is facing and I could see he is active in trying to ensure that the problems are not repeated next week.

Wherever you live in the borough, do let me know which street you live on if your expected collection does not occur. I will report it to the Council officers who will pass on the details to the Council's contractors.

We have set up an on-line petition to get the Council to hold a review so that this type of poor service cannot happen again. Please sign it yourself and then please pass it on to friends and neighbours. The more signatures the more powerful our statement will be.

The link to click is: http://signme.org.uk/727

Another Monumental Failure For Ealing

Last Monday was a disaster given most of Southfield ward had none of their waste collected or a couple of items, leaving things to pile up.

Promises given by Ealing Council have sadly not been honoured and residents trust no-one: the Council and the contractor's names smell worse than horse manure.

Today many roads in Bedford Park and streets in Acton Green such as Antrobus Road and Rothschild Road have had only some of their waste collected. I called the most senior officer about this and a Labour councillor responsible for this area of Council activity. Neither could give me any assurances. They said they were to have a meeting with the contractor about the issues.

They said that last week. De ja vu.

I now like residents trust little from Ealing Council about this and my ears are still bleeding from residents who quite understandably are rather annoyed about how they have been treated. The advice from the Council has been patchy and not good enough.

When I cycled around the 70 or so roads in Southfield ward last week I had hoped that it would be useful but now it appears only if we bang the heads together of the contractor and the Council can anything be solved.

I wonder what would happen if residents all sued the Council for the clearly poor service they have received...

Brian Paddick's London policing policies

When Brian Paddick speaks about policing you should listen up as his experience is rarely bettered.

Ealing specifically and many other places in London had the worst riots for a generation last summer. A vote for Brian Paddick and the Liberal Democrats this May will send a powerful message that Londoners have had enough of high levels of crime and poor community relations with the police.

It’s time for the police and public to stand side-by-side together against the criminals.

As Mayor, Brian Paddick will also take up the office of Police and Crime Commissioner for London, instead of delegating it to a deputy, and will personally lead a new era of tough and responsive policing in London. Check out some of these great policies which would reduce crime and help us feel safer especially at night:

• More bobbies on the beat - We will guarantee 33,500 police in the Met by protecting local neighbourhood teams from the current Mayor’s cuts.
• Safer travel - We will allow night buses to stop on request closer to passengers’ final destinations, rather than at fixed bus stops.
• Tough payback sentences - Those convicted of criminal offences will be made to work in the community to repay their debt to society while gaining new skills. Re-offending can be halved through payback sentencing.
• Survivors of rape - will be better supported and taken seriously. Guaranteed funding for rape crisis centres and retraining of police to raise awareness.
• Better stop and search - We will stop police targeting innocent people and accurately target the power on criminals. Stopping people just because they are from minority ethnic communities destroys trust and wastes time that could be better spent targeting real criminals.
• Independent public commissioner for standards - We will create a policing ombudsman for London to enforce tough and clear standards of conduct over behaviours that have brought the police into disrepute, such as abusing stop & search, racist attitudes and corrupt relations with the media.
• Local policing - We will give each neighbourhood its own plan for policing and how officers are deployed, based on ward surveys and involving local people and local businesses in decisions over policing priorities in their areas.

All in all, Brian Paddick's plans will get the police to focus their attention on reducing crime and building up better relations with our communities. Tough but effective payback sentences will reduce the rate of re-offending, which will in turn reduce the number of future victims of crime.

See this great article from Dave Hill at the Guardian about Brian launching his campaign in the boxing ring!

Of all the Mayoral candidates he is the ONLY one that knows the difference between the gimmicks used by other political parties. His time in the Met at a senior level shows he has the judgement needed to sort the Met out and make it an organisation that we can trust.

Some of the questions that have been asked about the non collection of waste in Ealing

After a week of waste not being collected at all or many days late the following are some of the questions I have asked the Council's Chief Executive Officer.

1.   With respect to being able to honour obligations of the waste collection contract:

• When was Ealing Council aware of problems?
• What were the reasons for Enterprise not honouring the contractual obligations?
• What proportion of the borough's streets had one or more collections missed for at least 1 day.
• What was the average delay in days for the borough?
• Has any member of staff (from Enterprise or Ealing) been suspended pending investigations, or sacked, because of the problems over the last 7 days?
• Has any 'waste' (collected as recyclables) been landfilled?

2. Why have streets reported by myself, or other residents, to Council officers appeared to Enterprise as having been done?

3. What was the strategy for "catching up" when a backlog had developed?

4. What actions, taken by Ealing Council and Enterprise, will ensure the same issue does not occur again (in the next few weeks and when the contract is re-tendered out)?

If you have any questions you want answering about this last week of confusion and poor service delivery please let me know by email at: southfield@ealinglibdems.org.uk

Today I cycled around 70 or so roads in Southfield...

After the Council said most of the streets in Southfield, Chiswick had now had their household waste and recyclables collected I decided to cycle around each street to check for myself. Yes, I am quite cynical.

Some people have been waiting since Monday to have their waste collected whether it be their black bag waste, recyclable items or their kitchen waste.

Most streets have been partially done but this is not good enough. The streets where I found issues were the following:

• Clovelly Road - recyclables and some kitchen waste
• Graham Road - recyclables and some kitchen waste
• Carlton Road - recyclables
• Florence Road - recyclables and some kitchen waste
• Priory Road - kitchen waste
• Kent Road (Rouham Lane) - lots of black bags uncollected
• Kingswood Road - kitchen waste
• Weston Road - kitchen waste
• St Albans Avenue - mainly kitchen waste but there is an open black bag of household waste outside number 79
• Fielding (both the East and Western side) - kitchen waste
• Blandford Road - kitchen waste
• Whellock Road - kitchen waste

I was told that eight roads were yet to be done in Southfield so the contractor might have been exaggerating from  what I have seen. I even was spotted by two residents opening their green kitchen waste bin (that they had left on the pavement) to check if they had been emptied or not. Sadly the crews had not been around.

I have reported these to Ealing Council and senior management to ensure anything the contractor says to them can be challenged if needed. I also took a lot of pictures of the uncollected waste.

After about 3 or four hours cycling around Southfield I am very tired but probably a lot fitter!

The Southfield "week of household waste non collections" continues...

The saga where Ealing Council's contractor, Enterprise, has failed to collect the waste it should have taken away on Monday, continues. It appears that Ealing Council has some confidence that by the end of today (Thursday) all the streets in Southfield will have had all their waste and recyclables removed.

Earlier in the day a number of streets in Acton Green and Bedford Park were left with uncollected waste. I phoned the Director of the department who are responsible for our waste and recycle collections. Like many residents I am not happy and passed on some of the views of residents at this poor level of service.

I was told of the recent commitment to work late tonight and over the holiday to get rid of the large backlog before the next week starts when (being cynical) something similar might happen.

If tomorrow your road is not clear of waste or recyclables then please email me at southfield@ealinglibdems.org.uk as I am speaking to senior management tomorrow about any roads that still are not free of uncollected waste and recyclables.

This is very poor performance by the contractors but the Council hired them so they are responsible. I did see Ealing Council's apology.

It appears that the new contractor hired the wrong sized vehicles and so could not get around the whole of each ward due to some streets being more narrow than most streets. However the previous contractor seemed to collect waste.

Bring on tomorrow, when I will be pedalling around Southfield to check that every street in the ward is clear from uncollected waste.

Liberal Democrats Demand Explanation About The Waste Collection Cockups

Ealing Liberal Democrats have slammed Ealing Council this week for the huge number of streets that have not had their household waste collected.

The streets in my ward that have not had their waste or recyclables collected either at all, or on the wrong day, include: Bollo Lane, Antrobus Road, South Parade, The Avenue, Woodstock Road, Whellock Road, Fielding Road, Blandford Road, Marlborough Crescent, Blenheim Road, Queens Anne's Garden, Ramillies Road, Berrymede Road, Esmond Road, Rothschild Road, Church Path and Cleveland Road!!!

This was the roads where residents phoned me or emailed me. Tweet me on @CllrGaryMalcolm if your road still does not have your waste collection.

The new contractor needs to smarten up quickly and explain why so many cock ups have occurred. Ealing Council, who chose the contractor, must also share some of the responsibility. The Liberal Democrat Group have asked that a report is produced to explain why the cock ups occurred and what it is doing to stop it happening again.

LBC Mayoral Debate

You may have read or heard about the LBC Mayoral Debate that took place earlier this week.

Brian Paddick the Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate debated some key issues with the three other main mayoral candidates at the LBC Studios in Leicester Square.

The live online poll at the end of the debate put me as joint winner on 24% with Boris Johnson languishing in 3rd place. Brian pushed a lot of great policy ideas on crime, transport and housing.

You can see a quick clip of the debate here on the BBC website. Brian said: "I apologise for the ‘other two’ who couldn’t help but squabble for almost the entire clip"