Southall is a dynamic, cohesive and multi-cultural town with an awful lot going for it.

It has been my home for the last 40 years and I am proud to be a Southall resident and the Member of Parliament. With the advent of Crossrail there will be even greater opportunities in the future for Southall.

But if we are honest we know that as well as the positives there are also some challenges that we face and need to tackle.

As a result of the London Mayor Boris Johnson’s decision to give the planning green light to the Southall Gas works development we know that the already difficult problems associated with traffic congestion are going to get worse. The lack of car parking facilities only adds to the traffic misery. The Channel 4 Despatches documentary “Landlords from Hell” that aired a few weeks ago also highlighted the problem of people living in garden sheds and outbuildings in Southall.

This is linked with the shadow population that exists in Southall due to illegal immigration. Drugs, prostitution, crime and anti-social behaviour also blight the lives of individuals and the community as a whole.

Many people also complain to me about the paan spitting in our town centre, the encroachment of stalls onto the paving areas and the proliferation of betting shops in Southall.

This is a full “in tray” of challenges so I wanted to bring you up to date with what I have been doing to tackle these problems. In February of this year I along with the Borough Commander, Andy Rowell, the Labour leader of the Council, Julian Bell and Southall Councillors met with resident, community, religious and business leaders to talk about formulating a plan for the “future of Southall.” We discussed all the problems I have outlined and over the past 6 months we have been working on putting in place the resources, personnel and plans to tackle them.

The Labour Council has allocated £5.5m for a new car park and town centre regeneration initiative and is well on the way to delivering a new temporary car park in Hamborough Road. The Council’s transport officers are also busy working on a bid for funding from Transport for London that if successful could lever in £4m to improve traffic flows and the pedestrian environment in The Broadway, the High Street and South Road. The Council have also negotiated £11.55m section 106 funding to try and mitigate the traffic impacts of the Southall gasworks development.

Additionally the Council has allocated resources through the Local Strategic Partnership to work with its key partners including the police, the NHS, and voluntary sector on an area based special project in Southall tackling all the problems I’ve outlined. The Police are also allocating resources to fund a senior officer to head up this effort from the Police side. The Council and the Police have set up a joint problem solving team to tackle crime, drugs, prostitution, and anti-social behaviour.

They have been working jointly to tackle anti-social behaviour in and around betting shops and through positive engagement with the betting shops have significantly reduced such problems. More needs to be done to actually change the law that currently ties the Council’s hands when it has to decide whether to allow new betting shops as there is a legal “presumption to grant” a licence.

The Council is currently consulting on its betting shop licensing policy to try and include factors such as anti-social behaviour around such establishments that currently can’t be considered when making such decisions. However until there is a change in the law what the Council can do is severely limited.

I have been campaigning on this issue with Ken Livingstone and Labour’s GLA candidate for Ealing and Hillingdon Dr Onkar Sahota for some time and will continue to do so. Southall has too many betting shops and we need the legal powers to reduce the numbers.

The Police and Council are also working jointly with the UK Border Agency to tackle the problem of illegal immigration and people living in sub-standard garden buildings and sheds. This team was being set up prior to the Channel 4 programme because we know it is a problem and this new joint team began work in July.

Again the law needs to be changed to give greater powers to Council and police officers and the government needs to provide more resources through the UK Border Agency to tackle the associated illegal immigration.

Let me end on the issue of paan spitting. We need to improve the environment in Southall town centre, and eliminating the red stains that colour our pavements and buildings would be a good start. People need to be educated to stop this anti-social habit so I will be leading a campaign with the help of the Council to put a stop to it.

I ask you to join me in this campaign and to let the perpetrators know that we will not tolerate it any longer. We are all proud of Southall and we want to see it improve for everyone who lives, works or visits here. All working together I am sure we will succeed.