Labour Freezes Council Tax in Hackney for 5th Year in a Row

It's now official! Hackney will now be freezing the council tax for the 5th year running, whilst still investing in key frontline services - the first council in Britain to achieve this.

At Cabinet last week, Mayor Pipe announced his early budget plans for 2010/11, which included a record-breaking fifth year of freezing council tax.

Mayor Pipe said:"Hackney Council is on the side of residents in difficult times – we are the only authority in the country to be freezing our Council Tax for the fifth year running, while continuing to invest in what matters most to residents and providing better value for money. Hackney residents rightly expect their local authority to be efficient, well run, and provide high quality services. I am committed to improving Council services, while at the same time ensuring Hackney residents receive better value for money from their Council Tax.”

Since 2002, Hackney has set the third lowest Council Tax rise of all the 33 London boroughs, meaning that Hackney’s Council Tax is now below the London average.

By running the Council more effectively Hackney has made savings of more than £40 million during the past five years, the highest amount in London according to recent Government figures, and the third highest in the country. This has allowed consistent investment in those services that matter most to residents and a proposed fifth year of frozen Council Tax.

Cameron Links up with Undesirable Europeans

David Cameron's judgment has again been called into question after he confirmed that he is supporting John and Edward in this year's X Factor.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6498923/X-Factor-twins-Jedward-win-David-Camerons-vote.html

Hackney kitten saved after two day ordeal

On Sunday, Hackney Fire Brigade braved the wind and rain to rescue Mushy the cat from high up in a local tree.

Called out by the RSPCA, the local fire team spent half an hour coaxing the 18 month old cat down from the upper branches of the huge poplar tree. Mushy's owners said their cat had been too frightened to make its way down the tree by itself, having chased a squirrel up the tree two days before.

Ravey Street Licensing Application

Basement

5 Ravey Street
London EC2A 4QW

http://www.3blindmicebar.com/index.php?action=contact

Mr Hallam
Application for a premises licence to allow supply of alcohol and recorded music from 11:00 to 23:00 Mon to Thurs, 11:00 to 00:00 Fri and Sat and 11:00 to 22:30 Sun and live music from 11: to 22:30 Mon to Sat and 11:00 to 22:00 Sun.

If you want to object you have until 17/11/2009 to do so.

Community Payback

Local residents and community groups are being invited to suggest outdoor spaces, streets or buildings in Hackney that could potentially benefit from a facelift through the Community Payback Scheme.

The London Probation Service and Hackney Council will consider all requests for jobs, so long as the work visibly benefits the community. The first Community Payback project - the Lea Bridge Tow Path - was suggested by local residents back in April and is now complete after 1000 hours of work.

The team has also completed work on 30 Hackney Homes gardens where residents had been unable to maintain these themselves. Do you have a favourite place in Haggerston Ward that could benefit from the project? Let us know or fill in the online form here.

How can we improve recycling in Hackney?

Recycling performance in Hackney has really improved over the past few years.

But we have a huge challenge facing us. Central government has set us a target of 50% recycling by 2020 and in an inner-city borough like Hackney, that is a significant hill to climb.

So the council is asking how we can best improve our recycling service and asks what is stopping you recycling more. Are we collecting food waste in the best way? Do we need to collect recycling more often? What improvements can be made to how we collect garden waste?

The consultation is available here and we'd be grateful to hear your views.

Public Drinking Ban for Hackney?

Residents and businesses across Hackney have been raising their concerns about the increase in anti social behaviour relating to alcohol. The problem is particularly acute in and around Shoreditch including parks such as Hoxton Square.

As a result, Hackney Council is considering introducing a borough-wide Controlled Drinking Area (CDA). A borough-wide CDA will give police powers to confiscate alcohol or issue fixed penalty fines to those drinking and causing disorder or threatening behaviour in streets, parks and open spaces.

A CDA is not a ban and does not make it illegal to drink alcohol responsibly in a public place.There have been designated areas in Hackney where CDAs have been in operation and these have been successful in reducing drunkenness and rowdy behaviour in public. However, this can mean that the problem is then moved to a new area, so a borough wide CDA is now being consulted on.

The public consultation runs until 24th December 2009. You can fill in your views online here or download more information about the proposed CDA here.

Tories Fail to Stand up for Hackney Residents

As you will know, London Mayor Boris Johnson (front row, 3rd from left) recently announced plans for massive increases in fares for Londoners.

Some highlights of his proposals include:

- raise the cost of a single bus fare by 20%, from £1 to £1.20

- raise the cost of a weekly bus pass by over 20%, from £13.80 to £16.60

- raise the cost of an off-peak tube journey from Hackney into central London by 12.5%, from £1.60 to £1.80

This is all to ensure he can look after wealthy voters by abolishing the Western Congestion Charge, at an estimated cost to TfL of £70m, and by abolishing the £25 gas guzzler charge at an estimated cost to TfL of £50m.

As a borough with low car ownership and heavy reliance on buses, these rises hit Hackney people harder than most.

It was incredibly disappointing to see Hackney Tory councillors at last night's full council refuse to stand up for the people they represent. During a debate on the fare rises,they queued up to praise Boris's plans, completely ignoring the impact it will have on Hackney people.

Slowly people are waking up to the fact that underneath the cuddly manner and the messy hair, Boris is a far right Tory who wants to use his adminstration as a test bed for any future Conservative government's approach to investment in public services.

As my colleague Cllr Rob Chapman said last night: "He's not so funny now."

Safer Neighbourhood Teams Celebrate Fourth Birthday

It was back in October 2005 that the council, working with the local police, accelerated the investment into community policing and brought forward the borough-wide roll out of Safer Neighbourhood police teams.

Hackney became the 2nd local authority in the country to have a complete deployment of the teams. Each team is responsible for policing in one of Hackney's 19 wards and is headed up by a police sergeant and is comprised of PCs and PCSOs.

In Haggerston there is an additional team dedicated to the Shoreditch Triangle and the night time economy.

The result has been the second fastest drop in crime in London. Crime has reduced so that there are 10,000 fewer crimes each year, with overall crime down over 35%. Confidence in the police has increased massively and the police now sit down with residents in each ward to discuss and agree policing priorities in each community. This is not the police paying lip service to local people - residents who attend the meeting really do get to set the priorities for local police - in recent meetings in Haggerston this has ranged form drug dealing to cycle theft to peiing in the street.

To find out more about our local Sergeant, Jeremy Hinde, and his team click here.

Baby Dennis Born on 394

A Haggerston resident was one of the heroes as Emiloju Fatima Lawal went into Labour early on the 394 bus.



Carole Allen, from Whiston Road, along with driver Pauline Jacobs form Hoxton helped delvier the baby at the back of the bus before an ambulance took the lady and her new son to the Homerton.


Mum and baby are well and she has given her son the middle name Dennis after the manufacturer of the bus.

Yelo Licence Application

Yelo
8-9 Hoxton StreetLondon N1 6NU

Application for variation of premises licence within basement for live music and recorded music from 10:00-23:00 Monday to Saturday and from 12:00 to 22:30 Sunday and Good Friday.

Closing date to have your say: 12/11/2009

If you need advice on licensing matters including making representaitons contact me on jonathan.mcshane@hackney.gov.uk or 07921 870908

Green power for Hackney?

As you may have read in Hackney Today and the Hackney Gazette last week, there are proposals from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to build a wind turbine on Hackney Marshes.

If the 120 metre high turbine goes ahead, it will offer Hackney the opportunity to buy green energy for up to 25 years, cutting carbon emissions significantly. The ODA is already going ahead with one wind turbine on Eton Manor in the neighbouring borough of Waltham Forest. If a turbine was built on East Marsh, the two together could generate enough green electricity to power Hackney's street lighting at night and all the main Council buildings by day.

I wholeheartedly support the proposals and think this is an excellent opportunity to help Hackney meet carbon reduction targets, support the Council's commitment to sustainability, and ensure that more green energy could be produced in Hackney than in any other London borough.

The Council is aware that there are strong feelings about Hackney Marshes which is why there is a public consultation on the wind turbine proposal - you can fill this in online here or find out more about the proposals here.

No armed police patrols in Hackney

Thanks to Alan Laing, my fellow Councillor and Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods for clearing things up regarding armed police patrols in London and how this might affect Hackney.


Alan says on his blog:

Some people may have seen press reports about the Met Police deciding to allow armed officers to patrol some of London's "worst" estates and neighbourhoods as a way of tackling gun and gang crime.We've received confirmation from Hackney borough commander that this will not happen in our borough.To quote Detective Chief Superintendent Bending:"On no occasion has there been the deployment of armed officers on foot patrol in Hackney."I am proud that all of the officers stationed within this borough are unarmed and that will continue to be the case."