Huge contribution to the council

LEADER Bill Stephenson will be hugely missed at the helm of Harrow Council as a widely respected colleague of integrity, humour and quiet distinction.

When he moved to Harrow more than 35 years ago, Harrow West was one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, but in 1997 he played a key role in getting Harrow’s two Labour MPs, Gareth Thomas and Tony McNulty, elected.

A year later, Labour won control of the council and Bill was elected councillor for Headstone South, a ward he has served tirelessly since 1998.

We know his decision to stand down as leader due to ill health has not been easy and one he has given great thought to.

Bill leaves a legacy he can be justifiably proud of. Despite Tory cuts hitting Harrow hard, he has made sure the council builds a better future, making sure Harrow Council not only listens more to residents but directly involves them in the changes it has to make.

This has meant changes in the way the council delivers services, such as using IT and other initiatives to drive up efficiency and give greater value for money to residents. He played a critical role in protecting our local libraries and indeed extending the opening hours on Sundays.

As his colleagues, we would like to take this opportunity to recognise Bill’s enormous contribution to the council, and our party, over many years.

When Labour won control of the council in 2010, against great economic uncertainty, he set four clear pledges to residents about keeping neighbourhoods clean, green and safe, supporting those most in need, uniting and involving communities and regenerating the town centre and our district shopping centres – reinvigorating our town centre regeneration ignored by the previous Tory administration.

We will take forward his legacy and would like to thank him for his huge commitment. We also hope we can continue to count on his wise counsel and good humour from the back benches.

We wish Bill and his family all the very best for the future.

HARROW COUNCIL LABOUR COUNCILLORS

Bill a calm and tolerant man

WITH reference to your article ‘Leader is stepping down’ in the Observer of September 27, some of us in Harrow Council for Justice have known Councillor Bill Stephenson since the early 1990s.

He is a softly spoken gentleman with no confrontational attitudes at all.

He is calm and tolerant, even in situations like the opposition leader Councillor Susan Hall’s arrogant walk-out from a council meeting, which even her side had distanced from.

Like the previous leader of the council, Bill has good leadership qualities – for example, he is not vindictive, as is confirmed by the fact that one of his cabinet members who abstained from voting on a crucial move by his group at a council meeting is still in place.

He is not an opportunist, as confirmed by the fact that he never made a political meal out of the fact that two opposition councillors left the Conservative group since May 2010, raising fingers towards that group’s leadership.

Similarly, Bill never cashed in on the reported ‘civil war’ in that party, which was going on because of the group leadership’s interesting position regarding the Stanmore Park by-election.

We respect Bill’s honest and sincere decision to step down because of his given reasons and wish him well.

DR PRAVIN SHAH

Legal and general secretary

Harrow Council for Justice

My concerns are not addressed

Once again, a further complaint about Harrow Council and environmental health issues in Rayners Lane.

Firstly, I complained to the council about the grass verges in The Drive, Rayners Lane, and the surrounding area.

When I enquired about this, the excuse was ‘the weather’.

Yet I have been able to cut my grass in the garden without any problem, whatever the weather.

When they did come to cut the grass verges, they left it in a mess and they left several bags of rotting grass waste on the verges, for what must have been 10 days or more.

I had to make several complaints about this until they decided to remove it.

Secondly, there is a grocery store which we do not need at all.

I went there recently, only to find food such as pastries and sweet foods left on a shelf, uncovered, for all to touch with their bare hands, and there were also flies landing on it as well as young children handling these.

I was concerned over this, so raised the issue with environmental health. They investigated the matter and when they got back to me, I was informed that this was well within the legal requirement.

I for one, would not purchase there on principle and it just shows how there are no rules or regulations for these retailers.

The council have informed me that they logged 35 calls from me regarding such matters. Well, that just shows that 35 times they have not satisfied my concerns.

MRS E DABORN

The Drive

Pinner

Service will focus better on patients

I FELT it was important to address some of the concerns Mrs Jackson raised in her letter published on September 20.

Under the ‘Shaping a healthier future’proposals, the vast majority of people who now come to A&E can be treated at an urgent care centre on the same site and under the proposals all sites will have one that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In fact, many people are already being treated at urgent care centres without even realising it.

In north-west London, we already have urgent care centres at all nine of our acute hospital sites.

For anyone that does need to go to a different A&E (under our preferred option we anticipate that only a small percentage of A&E attendances would need to move) we purposefully considered the geographic location of hospitals as well as public transport and access and developed proposals to ensure that everyone is within a safe, fair and reasonable distance from their nearest A&E.

Patients who dial 999 and go to hospital by ambulance, or are seen first by their GP, will be taken straight to the appropriate type of hospital.

The small number of patients who need a specialist A&E service, but who get to urgent care centres by their own means, will find staff at urgent care centres will be skilled in stabilising patients and arranging for rapid transfer to an A&E.

This all means that specialist A&E services and senior doctors will be better able to focus on those patients who really need them while those with less serious or complex conditions can get faster, more convenient treatment.

DR MARK SPENCER

GP and medical director for Shaping a healthier future

NHS North West London

Did leader read poll on mayor?

A FEW weeks ago, the Observer asked the question ‘Does the borough need a mayor?’

The response was overwhelmingly against.

Separately, I had written to Bill Stephenson, leader of Harrow Council, asking why we have a chief executive, a mayor and 63 local councillors.

I regard these 63 people – three councillors for each of the 21 wards – as local MPs.

Believe it or not, in his written reply Mr Stephenson said: “I have not heard any groundswell for any such reforms.”

This was his letter of September 11. Does he ever read the Observer, or have some of the other councillors drawn his attention to polls? I wonder.

You may like to follow this up. I thought it worthy of informing you.

P SAYERS

Albury Drive

Pinner

Passion with a pinch of salt

London Assembly Member Navin Shah has been doing a lot of marching of late, most recently regarding Central Middlesex Hospital. He says he wants to ‘save local health services for the local community’.

However, I honestly can’t recall him speaking out when one of the most significant shifts in local health provision was promised, then quickly vanished into thin air.

I refer, of course, to the boast of Gareth Thomas MP – just before the 2005 general election, to much shock and surprise – that he had secured £305m for a complete rebuild of Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow.

Of course, once the election was over, Harrow Primary Care Trust raised concerns about the affordability of the promises made, and Northwick Park remained as it was.

But Navin Shah – then leader of Harrow Council – said nothing about this, and he certainly didn’t march anywhere near Gareth Thomas.

This was the greatest betrayal of a healthcare promise in Harrow’s history, and Navin Shah – as one of the most high profile political figures in Harrow – said nothing, because it was a promise made by a fellow Labour politician.

So I’m afraid I must take his current passion for health services with a pinch of salt.

COUNCILLOR BARRY MACLEOD-CULLINANE

Conservative group deputy leader

Harrow Council

Shrubs slashed by the butchers

THERE has been much controversy recently regarding the poor state and lack of maintenance to the verges in the North Harrow and surrounding areas.

For the few, like myself, who regularly tend, weed, fertilise and water their verges with passion, beware. The Worshipful Company of Master Council Butchers is on the loose.

They have irresponsibly slashed the mahonia shrubs outside my premises with gay abandon – one cut at ground level so that it will die – with little thought of the damage and grief they cause.

This is the reason the verges are in such a state in the first place.

Consecutive councils have authorised this senseless slaughter over the years, whereby cutting into the hard wood will cause these to shrubs die – to be replaced with weeds, grass and a sea of dandelions.

Had I not confronted these men to voice my shock and horror before they drove off in their truck, leaving a trail of devastation behind which I duly cleared up, I should have been convinced that vandals were at large.

I have been a resident here for 48 years. The road was once an attractive place to live, with a full complement of lush glossy shrubs along the verges. Sadly, these days are long gone.

So, wake up Harrow Council, enrol your workforce on a crash horticultural course, as they know not what they do.

MRS J JAYLETT PORTER

Alfriston Avenue

North Harrow

Wear pyjamas for children’s charity

Humphrey’s Pyjama Week, in aid of The Children’s Trust, is an annual fundraiser from Monday to Friday, October 8-12, for nurseries, playgroups and primary schools.

Youngsters will be encouraged to put on their favourite pyjamas for a day for a donation of £2 each, and themed events can also be organised such as treasure hunts and best-dressed competitions.

So, why not spread the word to your children’s teachers or playgroup assistants to take part in this special fundraising week to raise money for some very special children.

Money raised will be of huge benefit to the trust, a charity based in Tadworth, Surrey, which provides care, education and therapy for children with multiple disabilities and rehabilitation services to children with acquired brain injuries.

Join up now at www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk/humphrey.

SID SLOANE

CBeebies presenter

On behalf of The Children’s Trust

Make sure you claim for childcare

Parents with children of all ages should take the time to check that they are getting all the financial support with the childcare that is available to them.

London has the highest childcare costs in the country, but the lowest number of families taking up help with childcare costs.

All three and four-year-olds, and some two-year-olds, are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare a week.

Many families can receive up to 70 per cent of their childcare costs through working tax credits, while parents whose employers run childcare voucher schemes can potentially save more than £1,000 a year.

Parents can contact their local family information service, by visiting www.daycaretrust.org.uk/nafis.

ANAND SHUKLA

Chief executive

Daycare Trust