HOW can axing 50 jobs at Harrow Council not have an effect on services?
The authority, desperate to save £2m, announced this week it is looking for volunteers to leave jobs by mutual consent in April.
This isn't because the work no longer exists but purely for financial reasons. If anything, the council is busier than ever.
Whether the employees who opt for the pay-off are admin staff, street cleaners, traffic wardens, or even service directors, their colleagues who remain will have to absorb their workload.
Either way,this is bound to be detrimental to day-to-day business. It may be something as lowly as office filing being left incomplete or something important such as crucial funding applications being halfheartedly filled in or streets left uncleaned.
The council must also be aware of past mistakes: in 2008 they had to re-hire approximately half the number of street cleaners that had been made redundant the previous year because the standard of street cleanliness nosedived to embarassing levels.
'Terror' photos
IF YOU are planning on taking photos in public in Harrow,now or ever, then think again.
Harrow police are taking a zealous approach to Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 by stopping, and sometimes searching, people taking photos of friends, family and buildings.
Of course we all need to be vigilant.
But it seems a huge waste of time for officers to stop and interrogate anyone with a camera.
Even Greater London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow Navin Shah was stopped from taking pictures of a disused building for a public meeting.
It begs the question whether some of these officers have a little too much time on their hands.
