School Place Planning Strategy 2010-2020

Here is a page linking to the School Place Planning Strategy and in that various documents for download.

If, after reading the above, you wish to provide feedback, here is the eForm.

The deadline is 3 December and I would urge residents to participate.

Couple of alleys in Feltham North

Looking much better at the side of 116 Lansbury Avenue (rear of Harlington Road West):

But looking very untidy at the side of 102 Harlington Road West:

Will report the latter case and see what can be done.

The necessary online revolution

I may have tried over the years, but not certain I put it any better than this.

I only hope that Hounslow Council understand this also.  Things went in the right direction in my time and foundations are laid for the future.  As things stand, I do not believe that they are part of the ‘revolution’.

Responsible Opposition

Here is my latest column in the Chronicle.

Change to comments on this blog

From immediate effect, the ability to comment on a posting will close after 14 days.  I will continue not to play the role of a strict moderator.

I will keep the above under review.

Gould Road

The following article brought back something from the General Election period:

http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west-london-news/local-hounslow-news/2010/11/18/mp-s-advice-leads-to-thousands-of-pounds-in-parking-fines-109642-27673510/

I received a lot of contact regarding the issuing of tickets for people parking two wheels on the pavement where there are double yellow lines (near the junction with Staines Road).

Some residents told me that I had lost their vote at the General Election because of the implementation of the cameras in the first place and some would not vote for me because I refused to be critical of the cameras being deployed at all (I was only critical of the poor implementation e.g. no consultation, poor signage).

But I am pleased not to be associated with an article like this one.  This posting is not critical of Mr Keen as I was not part of any conversation between him and the residents, nor have I seen any emails or letters.

But some from Labour were critical of these cameras being deployed and six months after they became the administration, the cameras remain.  Funny that I do not recall them saying when and why they had changed their minds.

Article on 102 Hounslow Road

This is a fair article on some of the things that have been happening recently, based on the contact I have received.

It is important, however, that residents report things through the relevant eForm when things happen.

I intend to take up any offer to visit the place when works are complete.

Update: I need to post the url as wordpress has changed the way that links are added and it seems to be having teething trouble:

http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west-london-news/local-hounslow-news/2010/11/18/residents-unhappy-with-home-used-for-worship-109642-27676055/

Invitingly inefficient

In a recent post, I referred to move away from the most efficient communication channels by the Council since the election.  I also alluded to an internal problem where more and more invitations to events/meetings are not being sent via the Calendar function on Microsoft Outlook. 

At the beginning of this month, Councillors received an invite – via email – for an event at Redlees Studio towards the end of the month.  I queried (not for the first time) the method and just kept my hopes that there would not be a repeat.  When I arrived home earlier today, imagine my frustration when I saw two copies of the same card inviting me to the same event.

Not only has 50p been wasted on postage but what rarely gets discussed is the true cost of this inefficient process e.g. people using their time to engage in paper based processes.  Has the same thing happened with all 60 Councillors?

This is unacceptable when times are good but even more so when times are tough.  I will ask John Laing to explain what went wrong here.

Using the calendar function is the best way to invite large numbers of people for the following reasons:

• The invite only has to go out once;
• The person who has sent out the invite can see at any time who has accepted or declined;
• The recipient only needs to click accept for it to be placed in their diary/calendar
• It is the quickest way;
• It is the cheapest way.

The reasons why inviting a group of people by email is a bad idea are:

• For every person who accepts, it requires them (i) to send an email to the organiser and (ii) to manually insert the event into a diary/calendar;
• More manual effort is required at anytime for the organiser to state how many and whom have accepted;
• This is very inefficient

The reason why inviting people through paper methods is wrong are the following:

• All of the reasons why inviting people by email is wrong;
• The cost of card/paper
• The cost of mailing the card/paper
• Other costs e.g. those associated with cutting, folding, sticking writing etc

Having to present such an argument feels 10 years out of date.  Inviting people in the most efficient way is a no brainer elsewhere.

Some people at the Council do not have access to Microsoft Outlook and the above arguments assume that everyone being invited to something (in this case, Councillors) do have access.

Most matters such as these, I try to keep in-house but even I have a limit on pointing out the obvious.

On a more positive note, I do encourage anyone interested in art to pop along.  More details here.

Fighting dog poo

Well done  to Gill Hutchison on this piece of work.  I know how much time she put into it and innovation she showed.  Well done also to everyone else involved, especially the pupils at Sparrow Farm.

Fingers crossed that this will deliver the intended benefits!

Eldridge House

Just been informed via a comment on another thread that the demolishion work has begun to the above today.  I think that most residents will welcome the progress here.