U-turn on public access to Hammersmith Police Station

Strong lobbying of the Met Police has led to a U-turn on the decision to close the front counter at Hammersmith Police Station.  The station underwent a £60 million refit only five years ago and is a major centre for Met operations so it seemed bizarre to close off public access.

Opening hours will be 10am-10pm Monday-Friday and 9am-7pm on weekends. Hammersmith and Chiswick also has the benefit of Acton Police station nearby which will also remain open. Charing Cross Police Station will be one of only two stations in London open 24/7.

Of course policing remains a 24-hour operation but it is important the public have face-to-face access to officers. The next step is to ensure we have a sufficient police presence on the streets and ideally, bases for officers in Chiswick and Shepherds Bush that no longer have operating stations.

In other Police news, London MPs recently quizzed the Met Commissioner on standards following the recent Panorama investigation into racism and misogyny among officers working at Charing Cross Police Station. This station is part of the same command unit as Hammersmith and Fulham so I also met with senior officers locally.

It is necessary to hold the police accountable but also a distraction from their primary role in catching criminals and making neighbourhoods safe.  Recent initiatives to tackle mobile phone theft and shoplifting are welcome but I continue to receive complaints about anti-social behaviour and lack of police visibility.

Heathrow

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow grind on, and those of us who have been fighting Heathrow expansion for 40 years know to remain vigilant.  Last week I took part in the debate in the House of Commons on revising the National Policy Statement on airports. Contrary to its title it just deals with the proposals for Heathrow.  The other London airports already have the green light to expand at much less cost and inconvenience.

With other West London MPs I questioned the Transport Secretary on whether she would re-examine the economic and environmental cases for and against a third runway before there was any decision on whether to proceed.

I also asked whether there’s a need for additional flights in the south-east of England beyond the approved plans substantially to expand Luton and Gatwick airports.

There are numerous stages before any construction can begin and even if the government went with one of the two current plans for expansion there would be no flights from a third runway until 2035 at the earliest. However, Heathrow remains fundamentally the wrong place for an airport and we will continue to campaign against further expansion.

World-leading medicine

We are very lucky that Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust hospitals provide Hammersmith & Chiswick with some of the best secondary and tertiary care to be found anywhere.

This month, I visited the new Renal and Haematology Triage Unit at Hammersmith Hospital along with Ben Coleman, MP for Chelsea and Fulham. This is a pilot emergency department for sickle cell sufferers in north-west London and is one of seven across England that provide emergency treatment for people with sickle cell disease.

The unit provides pain relief and treatment for those suffering from what is a very serious but under-resourced disorder.  The unit means sufferers in extreme pain can get earlier and more-informed treatment. Now we need to make the funding permanent.

H&F Pathway Bond

Hammersmith & Fulham came to the House of Commons last week to launch the Pathway Bond with the aid of Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister.

For several years H&F council has been using its Upstream London industrial strategy to attract some of the biggest and most pioneering companies to base themselves in the borough. The next stage is to ensure the jobs and opportunities those companies provide are available to local young people, especially those from more deprived backgrounds.

The Pathway Bond is a way to link young people to their prospective employers Nearly 100 businesses have already expressed interest in offering mentoring, work experience, apprenticeships and international placements.

Chancellor visits Sipsmith distillery in Chiswick

I was delighted the Chancellor of the Exchequer chose Sipsmith distillery in Chiswick to celebrate the UK-India trade deal which will generate 7,000 jobs across the UK, a third of them in London.

Those of you who’ve been following the fortunes (and enjoying the produce) of this very west London company may remember that Sipsmith’s original still Prudence (pictured with the current Chancellor and named in honour of her predecessor Gordon Brown) was originally based in a garage in Nasmyth Street in Hammersmith – they moved to Chiswick when they expanded in 2014 and I tagged along some years later.

The visit included a meeting with Sipsmith co-founder Sam Galsworthy and distiller Jared Brown.  A chance for them to explain how Sipsmith having pioneered the gin revival in the UK is now planning to take that around the world – and also to make some strong points on supporting emerging businesses.

Fullers, a more-established Chiswick success story, were also lobbying me last week on the current risks to and potential for the hospitality industry.

Tackling local issues

There was good news from the Treasury last week with an announcement that London will receive £36 million of the additional £84 million national budget for  homelessness  £28.4 million is for preventing rough sleeping, £7.1 million is for families in temporary accommodation, and £960,000 is for drug and alcohol treatment for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Both Hammersmith and Fulham and Hounslow will receive substantial investment.

I met Network Rail and Transport for London last week to discuss the future of Gunnersbury station.  With the latest planning application for Chiswick Tower, which looms above the station, shortly to be determined, now is the time to decide. We need a scheme both for step-free access and improving the capacity of the station. which is frequently closed during busy periods due to the crush on the single access stairway.

I am pleased to see both organisations working together and a scheme emerging but the bureaucracy and buck-passing that characterises the whole railway industry, still suffering from post-privatisation fracture, means we are in a race against time.  Similar issues arise at Olympia where better access and a timetabled tube service are needed to meet the demands of the new Olympia development.

I continue to lobby Network Rail both about the Chiswick Station footbridge and its extended closure for repairs, and the Strand on the Green footbridge, which has had running repairs but needs to be replaced with a new and accessible bridge.

On the thornier subject of Hammersmith Bridge, I received a reply from the Transport Minister last week that he ‘intends to convene a further meeting of the Taskforce in the near future to discuss next steps for the project’. This to include ‘potential engineering options for the next stage of the project and an assessment of the traffic levels in South-West London.’

I am always trying to help with planning, building and property management issues. At present there are testy disputes over Chiswick Village, FirstPort and Peabody Housing.  These are complex and contentious matters but if there is a common thread it is the lack of accountability of freeholders to leaseholders and tenants.  In the long run the solution has to be leasehold reform (abolition) and improving the rights of social tenants as the Renters Right Act (passed this week) should do for private tenants.  The government, alongside its ambitious targets for house building, has said it want to achieve leasehold reform by the end of this Parliament.

Out and About

I joined the celebrations at the opening of the new changing rooms at Chiswick Rugby Club. There have been many other improvements to the facilities including a new pitch, outdoor hospitality area and coffee shop. There are plans for new padel courts.  With many guesting teams, including women’s rugby, and the support of the RFU the club is continuing to go from strength to strength, and is attracting players from across London.

On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending I Dreamt I Dwelt: Irish Composers, WB Yeats, and Bedford Park’s Heyday, a wonderful concert celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park and W B Yeats association with the area. Held in the magnificent surroundings of St Michael & All Angels Church, the event brought together Irish Heritage musicians and WB Yeats Bedford Park to honour Chiswick’s artistic legacy and its Irish connections. Many thanks to Cahal Dallat for organising and for his Joycean knowledge of every house and street in Bedford Park and their cultural history.

I met with residents of the Peabody Estate in Hammersmith Broadway to learn more about the improvements and repairs needed on the estate. The Estate has a great location and is an example of how they built decent affordable housing over a century ago, the least we can do is maintain it now. With their excellent local Councillor Callum Nimmo, I will be pursuing residents’ concerns.

Returning to William Morris Sixth Form in Baron’s Court, which I helped set up and where I was a governor for 25 years, I talked to students about current politics and my work as an MP.

Justice Committee

The Ministry of Justice is extremely busy at present trying to reform a fractured justice system while keeping the show on the road.  Not easy, as last week’s release of a prisoner who should have been deported showed.  This means the Justice Select Committee which I chair and which scrutinises the MoJ is also very busy.

We debated the radical proposals for reform of the criminal courts based on Sir Brian Leveson’s review. I made a speech about the proposals within the Review and how measures to reduce the Crown Court backlog must be weighed against concerns these could curtail the right to trial by jury.

I also made a statement following the government’s response to the Justice Committee’s report on the work of the County Court and the crisis facing the civil court system. The report set out a number of recommendations, most of which the government has accepted, but it is the county court which has most impact on the lives of citizens of any legal body and it badly needs reform.

There are three Justice Bills going through the House of Commons at present: Victims and Courts, Sentencing and Hillsborough.  They are all significant reforming measures but are also attracting a lot of proposed amendments.

Meanwhile, we have two more major Justice Committee reports on prisons being published in the next few weeks.  One on drugs and organised crime in prisons and one on rehabilitation and reoffending.  The first is a barrier to the second but it is only with effective diversion and preparation for release that we will achieve a safe drop in prisons numbers.

I am also part of the inquiry into the ‘China spy case’ as the Committee also scrutinises the Director of Public Prosecutions who decided not to proceed with the prosecutions.  After correspondence and private meetings, the Justice, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Committee chairs finally get to question witnesses in open committee this week.

Lastly, I hosted and spoke at Liberty’s celebration of 25 years of the Human Rights Act.  At a time when both the Tories and Reform are threatening to repeal the Act or withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights it is good we remember that the purpose of such legislation is to equip and protect the individual against arbitrary exercise of state power

Plenty to do then.