Greenwich Conservatives fail to stop Time

Greenwich Council’s weekly newspaper, Greenwich Time, will continue after moves by local Conservatives to have its future reconsidered were rejected.

The Tories used their powers to ‘call-in’ the council’s decision to carry on publishing the newspaper but the three-member Overview & Scrutiny Call-In Sub-Committee voted last night not to refer the decision back to cabinet.

The decision to press on with Greenwich Time comes despite doubt being cast on the council’s claim that it saves up to £2 million each year by printing the paper each week.

Conservative opposition leader Spencer Drury told the committee meeting at the town hall in Woolwich that neighbouring Bexley only spent £15,000 annually on placing public notices in a local newspaper.

He was challenging a decision by the council’s cabinet to continue publishing GT weekly, defying a government code designed to restrict local authority publications.

It was also revealed at the meeting that a community publisher is threatening to bring a case against the council for alleged damage to its business.

Greenwich Council has long said that it saves money by using Greenwich Time to publish the notices – which detail planning applications and other formal matters – instead of paying a local newspaper to run them.

A report presented to the council cabinet in July said the council was saving £2.3 million a year by publishing the notices in Greenwich Time – but Cllr Drury said Bexley’s deal with the News Shopper proved the council’s cabinet had “given little consideration to doing anything different”.

“If Greenwich could get a similar deal with News Shopper and let us assume the Mercury, the same could be done for £30,000 for two years. This seems very different to the one to two million pounds randomly inserted in the report,” he said.

But council chief executive Mary Ney said the council’s estimates had been checked, and a comparison with Bexley was invalid because that borough issued far fewer public notices.

“Our volume of council advertising is quite considerable, and doesn’t bear any relation to Bexley, which hasn’t got a regeneration agenda, and doesn’t produce the same volume of housing applications, or licensing applications because of the different entertainment and tourism offers of the boroughs,” she said. “They’re at a very different level of activity.”

Council leader Chris Roberts was on leave and did not attend the meeting, and nor did any members of the cabinet who took the decision, despite being invited, leaving council officers to explain the authority’s position.

The publisher and editor of of Eltham-based community magazine SE Nine said they would be making a detailed complaint to the district auditor about Greenwich Time, “seeking financial redress for the damage to our business” since the code was introduced on 31 March.

In a statement handed to the panel, Mark Wall and John Webb accused the council of unfairly competing against their monthly, and of having an “in-house bunker mentality sponsored by the existence of Greenwich Time”.

Assistant chief executive Katrina Delaney, whose communications portfolio includes GT, admitted to there being “one or two issues” with SE Nine but said she was satisfied GT’s sales team had not set out to poach the monthly’s advertisers.

Ms Delaney said when the council had discussed working with existing newspaper operators, they freely admitted to not delivering to parts of the borough that did not fit in with their desired target audience.

“One of them told me that essentially, they were looking for people who don’t live in the inner cities and who were Land of Leather buyers,” she said.

“The Mercury sold ads for GT for six or seven months, but pulled out of the deal because it was too labour-intensive to chase advertising in Greenwich,” she said, claiming newspaper groups were less interested in the kinds of small businesses who promote themselves in GT.

“The News Shopper in Bexley carries the same car ads as in Greenwich,” she added.

“I’m not convinced the ads in Greenwich Time would appear anywhere else.”

Locally-based journalist and 853 blogger Darryl Chamberlain also addressed the meeting, claiming that recent coverage in Greenwich Time of the aftermath of Woolwich’s riot was not “objective and even-handed”, as demanded by the government in its code.

He cited an opinion column from leader Chris Roberts criticising media coverage of the riots. “If he wants to rant about the media, he could always start a blog,” he said, adding that it appeared checks and balances designed to ensure Greenwich Time was unbiased were failing.

But Ms Delaney said readers knew what to expect from a council publication.

“The paper covers the council’s view,” she continued.

“If you get a Marks & Spencer card, you’ll get Marks & Spencer’s magazine and it’ll cover Marks & Spencer’s view. The same with the gas board or BT or whoever. I think people understand it represents the views of the organisation.

“Greenwich Time represents the views that come from the decision makers at Greenwich Council.”

The three-member panel split on party lines over the issue, with Conservative Eileen Glover (Eltham South) backing the call for the cabinet to reconsider the decision.

“When other people question our decisions, there should be evidence that we’ve gone out and based the decisions we do make on firm evidence,” she said.

“We should contact other councils who have changed their distribution – ask them how they’re doing, and if they’ve got a better idea that’s more cost-effective, then we should be doing that.”

But Allan MacCarthy (Labour, Charlton) said the cabinet “must be at liberty to do what it considers to be appropriate”, and said there was no evidence that GT had affected the local advertising market.

Chairman Mick Hayes (Labour, Eltham West) said that it seemed to him that most people had already made their minds up about GT and “I’m not sure any evidence would sway people one way or the other”.

He said GT should be judged on its “effectiveness”, and no other paper could reach the number of households it did.

“Is it effective in doing what we as a local council should be doing, and telling people what’s going on in planning, licensing, and lettings? My understanding is that it has been proven to be effective. Have other means been proven to be effective? I’m not so sure they have.”

The panel decided by two votes to one to let the cabinet’s decision stand.

Updated

A Greenwich Council spokesperson said “The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel voted to note the decision of the Cabinet taken on 19 July 2011, with regard to the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity and take no further action.

“Greenwich Council will continue to publish GT on a weekly basis in order to keep residents informed about local services, to advertise statutory notices such as planning applications and to promote social housing available through our Choise Based Lettings scheme.”

Daily Photo: 31/08/2011 – Olly Murs in Greenwich

FORMER X-Factor star, Olly Murs, was filming at Greenwich Market this morning. Local photographer, Tom Dingley, got these snaps of the ‘Xtra Factor’ co-host who has just scored a number one hit with ‘Heart Skips a Beat’.

You can follow Tom on Facebook and on Twitter.

Daily Photo: 30/08/2011 – The moon on the Thames

Thanks very much to George Austin for sending me this photo of the moon reflecting on the river one evening last week.

Taken any nice photos in Greenwich recently? Contributions to the Daily Photo can be emailed to rob@greenwich.co.uk and look out for a Daily Photo competition in September.

Local residents Roar for charity

THREE local women have joined a fundraising effort by recording a charity single.

Annabel Kaye and Hela Wozniak Kay from Greenwich, and Annie Brooks from Blackheath, were among the forty women that made up ‘Sisters Roar’.

The group were joined by ‘The Survivor Birds‘  at the Angel Studios in north London to record a version of the Helen Reddy-classic, ‘I Am Woman’.

Money raised by the song, which is available as a CD and as a download via iTunes, will be used to support women affected by breast cancer, cervical cancer and domestic abuse.

Annabel Kaye commented: “It was a fabulous experience to be part of Sisters Roar and to have the chance to raise money for charity.”

Click here to purchase the charity song via iTunes.

Daily Photo: 24/08/2011 – Homes under the hammer

If you’re not a regular viewer of daytime television, you may have missed  Greenwich’s appearance on the BBC’s ‘Homes Under The Hammer’ programme yesterday morning.

You can catch it again on iPlayer at this link for the next six days and follow the story of a property renovation in Brand Street.

(The episode was a repeat so you may well have seen it before anyway.)

Plans for redeveloped John Roan School revealed

PLANNING applications for the redevelopment of John Roan School have been submitted, along with proposals to temporarily move hundreds of pupils to a former school in Royal Hill.

The John Roan Lower School in Westcombe Park Road is set to be completely demolished and replaced with a new 7,845 m² campus. Using a “marketplace” design concept, the redeveloped site will comprise of a main academic block and a dedicated sports block with state of the art facilities and a drama studio.

A new “entrance plaza” will be created for “public safety” and to “minimize disruption along Westcombe Park Road.”

The Grade-II listed Upper School in Maze Hill will be refurbished throughout with the original building “returned to its former glory”. The gymnasium will be converted to a dedicated 6th form facility and new ICT facilities will be added.

Two previously infilled courtyards will be opened up to create new “covered dining, social and break-out areas.”

The project, which already secured funded from the Building Schools for the Future initiative, could begin early next year and take two years to complete.

To enable teaching to carry on throughout the redevelopment, it is also proposed that about 400 year-10 and year-11 students be temporarily “decanted” to the Victorian school building in Royal Hill, Greenwich.

The school is named after its founder, John Roan, who died in the seventeenth century and bequeathed money for the education of the “poor town-bred children of Greenwich”.

The school has had various incarnations at several sites for boys and girls in the borough, before coming together in a new mixed Comprehensive school in the early 1980s.

Controversial plans to move the John Roan School to Greenwich Peninsula were dropped in 2009.

Illustration of the interior of the new Westcombe Park Road site

Illustration of a newly covered courtyard at the refurbished Maze Hill site

Victorian school in Royal Hill where it is proposed that year-10 and year-11 students be relocated to while the John Roan redevelopment takes place.

Guy Awford’s Food Column: August

We are now well into the summer and many of the seasons ingredients have a distinctly Mediterranean feel. Plump aubergines, bright red tomatoes, crisp peppers and firm courgettes dominate the shelves and market stalls. These ingredients have a natural affinity with olive oil, onions, rosemary and basil, and although they are traditionally combined and stewed to produce ratatouille and caponata, there are many different cooking techniques that can be used to get the very best from them.

Aubergines can be baked until soft and chopped with spices and herbs to produce a wonderful puree that is delicious with grilled flatbread. Peppers can be stuffed and gratinated under a hot grill Perfectly ripe plum tomatoes need little more than a twist of salt and pepper. For a real treat keep your eye out for baby courgettes with the flowers still attached. Stuffed and deep fried in a light tempura batter they epitomise summer eating.

Courgette Flower, Goats Cheese and Chive Tempura with Peach Chutney – serves 4

8 Courgette flowers with baby courgettes attached

200g Goats cheese, rind removed and processed until smooth

Chopped chives to taste

• Open the leaves and stuff with a ball of cheese puree. Don’t over fill
• Dust with seasoned flour and then dip into the tempura batter.
• Deep fry until golden & crispy.

Tempura Batter

1 Egg

1cup Iced water

1cup Plain flour

½ cup Corn flour

P Salt

• Stir ingredients together until just combined.
• Refrigerate.

Peach chutney- makes a large jar

1Onion – finely chopped

1 Orange – juice & zest

150g Caster sugar

P Cinnamon

P Nutmeg

P Cayenne pepper

1 Tablespoon Ginger – finely chopped

150ml White wine vinegar

1T Salt

P Saffron

4 Peaches– peeled & chopped

• In a saucepan combine everything except last three ingredients.
• Cover & cook gently for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Add fruit & cook for 20 minutes uncovered.
• Pour off any juice & boil it down to a syrup add back to chutney & bring back to boil.
• Pour into sterilised jar.

Seasonal Ingredients

Vegetables:  Aubergine, Courgette, Cucumber, French Beans, Pepper, Sweetcorn, Spring Onion, Radish, Marrow, Tomato, Globe Artichoke

Fish:               Grey Mullet, Sardine, Crab, Scallop

Meat:             Lamb, Venison

Fruit:              Raspberry, Greengages, Nectarine

Platform: Council wrong to evict tenants involved in riots

Tom Gann and Andrea Marie explain why they think the council is wrong to seek to evict tenants involved in last week’s disturbances…

As Labour activists in Greenwich, we are ashamed that our Labour council has said that it will seek the eviction of council tenants involved in last week’s disturbances.

Currently, Greenwich has the power to evict council tenants who commit offences within the neighbourhood or locality of their house. The reason for this power is to remedy a situation where a tenant’s repeated pattern of antisocial behaviour makes their neighbours’ lives miserable, for example, where there has been an “ongoing campaign of harassment” against neighbours. Greenwich, alongside other councils, proposes to widen substantially the notion of “locality” underpinning this power to evict tenants involved in the disturbances. Where offences committed in the rioting differ from those that have usually resulted in eviction is that they are not linked strongly to the home, nor are they likely to be repeated, continuing to make neighbour’s lives miserable. Consequently, eviction is merely an extra punishment to those in this particular type of accommodation.

Unlike the millionaire’s daughter accused of looting shops in Charlton after travelling up from Orpington, Greenwich residents who live in council housing will be punished twice. Given, as the council’s own Equality Impact Assessment for its Housing Strategy makes clear, Black and Minority Ethnic residents are more likely to live in council accommodation, evictions also risk discriminating on the grounds of race.

Evictions will also target family members who live in the same house who have not committed a crime and are likely to be women and children. These families will be caused considerable disruption to their family life while being rehoused. Children living in temporary accommodation are some of the most deprived, missing out on schooling, on play, and opportunities to develop.

If, like Wandsworth Council, the council deems the family to then have made themselves deliberately homeless and sees no responsibility to rehouse them, the council will not only be undermining their right to a family life but also making destitution a punishment. Both of these things should never be used as a punishment for people, whether innocent or guilty of a crime.

A Labour council advocating this “double punishment” of council tenants and their families can only be made sense of within a wider context. The coalition government’s social housing white paper undermines the principles sustaining council housing and was initially, at least, enthusiastically welcomed by Greenwich Council. Councillor Offord, the cabinet member for housing, “welcome[d] the opportunities set out in the White Paper” and stated we “welcome…the capability to vary rents and lengths of tenure independently…we do not think that landlords should be required to offer a lifetime tenancy.”

The ideology behind this and the proposed evictions is one that characterises council housing as an emergency and charitable measure for people who have failed and need help to get back on their feet, at which point tenants are expected to progress to renting in the private sector or buying their own house. Without security of tenure living in a council house ceases to be treated as being worthy of respect. The right to a home ceases to be unconditional and becomes conditional in a way that would be experienced by any owner-occupier as profoundly oppressive.

Suggesting, at least for council tenants, that the right to decent housing is not unconditional is an attack on the rights of all council tenants, including the law-abiding. We are embarrassed to see our, Labour, council alongside Tory Wandsworth, and against Ed Miliband, who has warned against “kneejerk” responses like evictions, at the forefront of this tawdry and destructive populism.

It seems that there will be campaigns including direct action against evictions. We hope we will not have to take action against decisions taken by councillors who we usually respect.

Tom and Andrea are Labour activists in Greenwich. They blog on politics at http://labourpartisan.blogspot.com/

Daily Photo: 17/08/2011 – Old Royal Naval College

Taken in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College on Saturday morning.

Can you help the police identify these people?

The Metropolitan Police have issued CCTV images of people they wish to speak to in connection with the disorder that occurred last Monday night.

The police would like to talk to this person in connection with the fire at the Great Harry pub in Woolwich.

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This man is sought in connection with criminal damage at the Great Harry.

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The four images below are of people the police wish to speak with regarding attacks on officers and a police car in Woolwich on Monday night.

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The police want the following people to assist with their enquiries into looting and criminal damage in Woolwich town centre.

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Richard Wood, Borough Commander said: “We are appealing to members of the public to help us with our enquiries. Your assistance is vital, please contact us.”

If you have any information on the identity of these people, you are asked to call the police on 0208 284 9449 or CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111. Each image has a reference number to it which can be quoted when calling.

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