Children's Services in Ealing are performing well

Today Ofsted, (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills), has published its annual children's services rating report for 2009. According to Ofsted:

"The ratings look at performance in 152 local authorities in England for 2009 ...is a wide-ranging and robust assessment of the outcomes for children and young people in every local authority area which is strongly based on the evidence from inspections."

The rating is scored 1 - 4, where 1 indicates: "performs poorly: an organisation that does not meet minimum requirements", and 4 indicates: "performs excellently: an organisation that significantly exceeds minimum requirements"

As outlined in this letter (pdf) to David Archibald, Ealing's Executive Director of Children and Adults, children's services in Ealing are rated: 3, ("performs well: an organisation that exceeds minimum requirements").

The detailed performance profile is available here (pdf).

Ealing Arcadia Centre Development: Rejected

Good news for Ealing: John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has rejected the Arcadia redevelopment proposal for Ealing Broadway, previously rubber stamped by Conservative-run Ealing Council and London Mayor, Boris Johnson.

Denham's decision, which follows last summer's public enquiry, is a victory for common sense and will come as some considerable relief to those of us who live or work nearby. Politicians come and go, and London is littered with evidence of their bad planning decisions. Long after the politicians are gone, it's ordinary folk like you and me who have to live with the awful consequences. This proposal was a monumentally dumb one from the get-go. Ealing Council's unremitting stubbornness over the issue has bordered on the unforgiveable. It's as if they learnt nothing from the previous Labour group's experience who pushed an equally dumb West London tram scheme proposal, running roughshod over the wishes of local people: and were unceremoniously kicked out of power as a direct result. We won't have to wait long to see if a similar fate awaits the Tories.

Latest betting for the next mayor of London

Betting odds courtesy of William Hill (click table for bigger image)

At this rate Livingstone will be looking to LBC for his pension top-up, and not to you and me. So much the better. As far as I'm concerned, he makes a far better radio presenter than he ever did mayor of London.

UK recession continues

This morning the Office for National Statistics reported a sixth consecutive contraction of UK GDP (-0.4%). That makes the current recession the longest on record. France, Germany and Japan all moved into growth three months ago, but the UK's economic woes are looking ever more like a depression.

Yes, this was a "global downturn", it started in America, and of course, Britain was "best placed to weather the global economic crisis"...."we have reduced government debt"....remember all that crap?

Yeah, well remember it next time you're in a voting booth.

Councillor Phil Taylor calls for Censorship

There were fun and games on Ealing Today's community forum last week. One upset resident is claiming that Ealing's parking enforcement is turning a blind eye to parents who park illegally at a primary school near where he lives. The resident pointed out that the local ward councillor is also a member of the school's board of governors, and has previously expressed her indifference to the residents' concerns. He asserts that her membership of the board of governors is a significant conflict of interest with her duties and responsibilities as an elected representative of that area.

Now, whether or not any of this is a credible analysis of the facts has become slightly beside the point, (for now). What was astonishing however, was Councillor Taylor's reply. It wasn't so much the pompous, preachy tone that we've now all become accustomed to, but after making his point he finishes off by writing:

"I will ask the site editor to remove your comment as I believe that it is unacceptable."

I have to say, it was very generous of Mr. Taylor to confess to this authoritarian instinct of his. Whereas most reasonable people would prefer to discuss the relative merits and truth of a comment according to evidence, and within a free and open discussion, Taylor just wants to "remove" unwelcome or inconvenient opinions without properly addressing them.

To silence people according to some dumb concept of acceptability that exists among Phil Taylor's beliefs is, quite simply, political censorship -- and nobody needs it. Happily however, it seems the site editor in this case has not found it necessary to remove the offending comment, and all is still well in the free world. There you go Phil: omniscient, ubiquitous (certainly), but not quite omnipotent...

Another new hotel for Central Ealing

This time last month I mentioned that planning permission had been granted for a new hotel in Bond Street, in Central Ealing. Well, like the buses, you wait for ages, and then two come along at the same time!

As reported in the Ealing Gazette recently, Travelodge is planning to build a ninety-nine room hotel, complete with cafe and bar at 77 Uxbridge Road, previously the offices of Prince Evans solicitors. No expected date of completion was noted.

Located at X on map

Boris Johnson gets it right

"And if you want one decisive example of the terminal lunacy that afflicts this government, I give you the case the other day when a pair of female police officers discovered they were not allowed to babysit for each other, unless they both secured OFSTED credentials in baby-sitting.

Who is sitting there in OFSTED handing out degrees in baby-sitting to female police officers?

I don’t know – but I know that whoever it is no doubt draws a handsome salary and benefits and bomb-proof public sector pension and that is where the axe should fall.

Get rid of the nonsense, but don’t chop the investments essential to the UK economy. Cut the baby-sitting monitors, but don’t cut Crossrail. Cut the baby-sitting monitor human resources department, but don’t cut the tube upgrades. Cut the baby-sitting monitor equal opportunities action day but don’t cut the great projects and investments that will deliver jobs and growth now, and make London more attractive for generations to come."

Amen.

How refreshing.