Latest news

Westminster Labour Councillors have called on Westminster City Council to save Paddington Law Centre from closure by making a £50,000 grant out of the £850,000 in the Paddington Community and Social Fund. The Paddington Social and Community Social Fund was established through contributions from the developers of the Paddington Goods Yard in order to improve facilities for local residents in the area. The £850,000 in the Fund, which is administered by Westminster City Council, has been unspent for over a year despite huge cuts in local… » Read more

A report released yesterday highlights how many housing authorities are not well prepared to protect the health and safety of the most vulnerable tenants at a time when residents need that protect more than ever.

At a time of massive change in the housing sector it is critical that safeguards are in place to protect tenants. The Housing Act 2004 gives local authority provisions to enable them to do this but many do not seem to be making full use of them.… » Read more

Westminster Pre-school Learning Alliance is a grouping made up of nine community nurseries. In past years the Alliance has received grant funds from Westminster City Council to aid with affordable nursery provision in the area.

However, Westminster has recently cut this grant. This means the loss of approximately £45,000 from each nursery. The nine nurseries affected are: Parkview Lodge Pre-School (Westbourne Area), Moorhouse Pre-School (Westbourne Area), The Vestry (Abbey Rd/Maida Vale Area), St. James Community Pre-School (Bayswater Area), Ashmore Pre-School (Queen's Park Area), Fisherton Street Pre-School (Church Street Area), Independent Mother's Pre-school, (Church Street Area), Barrow Hill (St. John's Wood… » Read more

A great many homes and cafes in Central London have been buzzing with political excitement this spring, but this buzz has owed less to a clamour for debate about the merits of reform to our own electoral system than to the close interest London's Arab diasporas have taken in the event of the ‘Arab spring'. It is not only the internet and Twitter which have globalised even the smallest stirrings of protests in universities, refugee camps and city squares across the Middle East- it is also this extended… » Read more

Westminster Conservatives want to raise the rents of people for council tenants who they consider to be earning too much and has asked the Government to give the Council the power to set its own rent levels.

Speaking at a Council meeting last week, the Council's Cabinet member for Housing, Philippa Roe, claimed that there are more than 2,200 Council tenants earning more than £50,000 a year and that the Council should have the power to increase their rents in order to raise more revenue to pay for Council services.

Quite where she got this information is unclear but it… » Read more

Although there is a cross-party agreement in principle about the importance of early intervention measures - support for Labour's Sure Start programme, Children's Centres, and childcare is high - it is now clear that that agreement is more rhetorical than substantial.

In a Parliamentary vote last week, both Conservative and Liberal MPs opposed a motion seeking to protect Children's centres from central Government cuts. Sure Start services across the country are being taken away from communities who rely on them.

A year ago, David Cameron said he… » Read more

On Thursday 28th April Queen's Park and Harrow Road Labour Councillors were joined by over 60 residents at a public meeting at St Luke's Church.

They were joined by Graham King of Westminster City Council's Planning Department and Lizzie Williams representing the Campaign opposed to HS2.

Graham King made the following observations and comments:

•That the Queens Park Estate has two levels of Heritage status - Heritage protection of some properties in Fifth Avenue and Conservation Area Status elsewhere.
•That many properties in other parts of Westminster also lie above underground lines and have similar poor foundations to… » Read more

The revised route for the planned High Speed Rail link has caused concern amongst some residents in Queen's Park, with worries being expressed about the deep tunnelling under the Queen's Park estate.

I will be joining Queen's Park ward councillors at a meeting to discuss these concerns and try and get answers to resident's questions. The meeting will be held at:

St Luke's Church (at the top end of Fernhead Road by the junction with Kilburn Lane)

Thursday April 28th

7:00pm

Launching the rally against youth violence in the Harrow Road on Saturday March 5th , Karen welcomed the parents and voluntary groups coming together under the banner ‘It takes a whole community to raise a child'.

Postcode-related gang violence has been worsening in the last two years, and it was especially heartbreaking to hear the plea for help from the mother of murdered local 22 year old Daniel Smith, who it is thought died as a result of mistaken identity. Too man y of our young people are living in fear, too many are being hurt and some are dying… » Read more

40 students from the City of Westminster College joined Karen for a discussion about the impact of the abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance. Top of their list of concerns was how they would be able to afford to travel to college in future. Many chose City of Westminster because it offers specialist courses not available elsewhere, which would prepare them for university. Others said they made a deliberate decision to break away from schoolfriends who were not supporting their efforts to get on in education.