In the early hours of this morning a young 18 year old man tragically lost his life after having been stabbed in Walthamstow Town Square. Two men have been arrested in connection with the incident and are now in custody.

Liberal Democrat Councillors for High Street ward, James O’Rourke and Johar Khan, voiced their dismay and sadness as yet another life has been lost to knife crime and wish to convey their sincerest condolences to the victims family and friends.

On the day when the celebrations of the Olympic handover from Beijing to London was to be shown on the screen in Walthamstow Town Centre hundreds of people were being turned away at the Police cordon.

The Children & Young People and Community Safety & Housing Scrutiny Committees, chaired by Lib Dem Cllrs James O’Rourke and Sean Meiszner, will be holding an extraordinary meeting in October and calling all relevant agencies to provide evidence as to how they are dealing with the serious issue of knife crime in Waltham Forest.

Note: The Police are appealing for witnesses. Anyone with information should call the incident room on 8345 3715; or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Our plans for water: new consultation opens today 

Today marks the launch of our draft business plan for 2010 to 2015, and the publication of a summary of our proposals: ‘Our plans for water - what will you get and how much will it cost?’

What will you get?

We plan to:·    

v    Continue our Victorian Mains Replacement project to greatly reduce leakage

v    Introduce a programme of metering in areas where water supplies are under greatest pressure
  

v     Provide more advice and assistance to help customers use water wisely

v       Develop plans for and, if approved, start work to construct a new reservoir to safeguard water supplies

v     Greatly reduce sewage overflows into the Rivers Thames and Lee

v    Make sure our sewers and sewage works can serve our growing population

v    Greatly reduce the number of our customers’ homes threatened by sewer flooding

v    Improve 250km of rivers to meet new water quality standards

v    Cut our carbon emissions by 20%, and implement projects needed to meet the requirements of legislation

v    Provide more financial assistance to customers who have difficulty paying their bills to ensure our services are affordable

What will it cost?

Our  £6.5bn investment programme will lead to an average annual increase in our bills for water and wastewater services of 3%.  The total increase from 2010 to 2015 will be 16.2%.  This is an increase in real terms from £283 to £329.*

Let us know your views

Our proposals have  been  informed  by  our  biggest  ever  programme  of consultation,  and  I  am  confident  that we have put our customers at the heart  of  our  plans.   We are launching a 12-week online consultation to continue this dialogue, and I hope you will take this opportunity to let us
know your views.We  will  use  the results of the consultation to modify our plan before we submit  the  final  version  to  our  regulator Ofwat in April 2009.  Their review of our proposals will set price limits for 2010 to 2015.We look forward to receiving your comments.

Peter Antolik
Regulation and Strategy Director

v    Bill impacts are quoted at average 2007-2008 price levels.

 Please  click  http://www.thameswaterconsult.co.uk/  to  register  for  our consultation   or http://www.thameswater.co.uk/fiveyearplan  to  view  our
plans.

If a copy of wfm has popped through your letterbox then you should shortly be receiving a voter registration form so that you can be included on the borough’s 2008 register of electors. 

The register will be published on 1 December this year and will be used inany elections that may be held after that date. 

All eligible names must be added or confirmed on this form, though only one member of the household needs to sign it.

If the details on your form are correct you must still respond in order to remain on the register.  

The correct information can be confirmed in one of four ways: 

•    By using the free automated telephone response service   
•    Internet registration  
•   Completing the form and returning it to the Council    
•   By SMS text service 

If the details need to be updated, simply amend the form as necessary and return it to the Council in the prepaid envelope provided.

If you need any more help to completing your form there’s a handy guide on the Council’s website, www.  walthamforest.gov.uk 

Residents are advised to return your form as soon as possible.

Highly trained teams are hunting properties that are easy to break into – luckily they are police officers giving home security advice to absent minded residents. 

Waltham Forest’s police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and the Council’s community safety team have worked together to produce hundreds of cards which can be used to identify how a home is vulnerable to burglars. 

The Safer Neighbourhood Team officers patrol the borough until they spot a vacant home that could be easily broken into.

They fill in a card and post it through the letter box to advise the owner how to secure their property more effectively. 

Although burglary is down in Waltham Forest over the last year,research shows that most homes that are broken into during the summerare targeted because doors or windows are left open. 

The new scheme is a simple but effective way of tackling a very upsetting crime.

Each card has a number of tick boxes about problems like windows being left open. Police officers will tick the relevant box and post the card.  Residents are likely to be a bit surprised to find these cards lying on their doorstep, but it’s better than coming home to find you’ve been robbed by burglars. 

To find out more about home security ring the Council’s Community Safety Team on 020 8496 3000 or your Police Safer Neighbourhood Team on 020 8556 8855

Waltham Forest Council is declaring war on dog owners who persistently let their pets foul the borough and don’t bother cleaning up after them.

Street Wardens, Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and enforcement officers will be patrolling the areas most affected by the issue, at the times most often visited by dog owners.

Anyone who is spotted failing to clean up after their animal will be asked to do so, and issued with a fixed penalty notice if they refuse.

Bags for dog owners will also be available at the Council’s Waltham Forest Direct shops.

 Waltham Forest Council’s spokesperson for Community Safety, Enforcement and Protection, said:

“Dogowners who refuse to clean up after their pets are exhibiting disgusting, anti social and hazardous behaviour towards other residents. “If you own a pet you need to take responsibility for its welfare and for cleaning up after it. People who are unwilling to do that, will be targeted and they will be punished.

It’s as simple as that. “We are sick of some dog owners using this borough as a toilet. We want to make Waltham Forest a place where people aspire to live and we won’t do that if people can’t be bothered to clean up after their pets.” 

To report dog fouling, contact Waltham Forest Direct on 020 84896 3000.

Residents can collect dog bags from WFD Shops in the following locations:

Leyton, 774-776 High Road; Walthamstow, 137 Hoe Street; Leytonstone, 819 High Road. 

Hard working schools in partnership with the Council have implemented plans to reduce congestion, improve road safety and encourage walking to school.

All 88 schools in Waltham Forest successfully introduced their travel plans, one year ahead of the government targets.Waltham Forest Council’s School Travel Planning Team hosted a celebration event at the SCORE centre to mark the achievement and identify and reward schools with particularly good plans.The event was attended by schools’ representatives, senior councillors and council officers. 

 Performers ranging from clowns to jugglers and trick cyclists kept everyone entertained.

Over the past 20 years the number of children travelling to school by car has almost doubled and account for at least one in five cars on London’s roads between 8-9am and 3-4pm during term time.The Council also wants to encourage young people to socialise with their friends and get some exercise on the way to school as well as cut congestion and car use.In the last year there has been a 4.9 per cent drop in the number of pupils who travel to school by car.

The aims of the school’s travelplans are to:

•  Reduce traffic congestionaround schools and encourage people not to use cars on the school run
•  Increase the number of children walking, cycling andusing public transport while travelling to and from school
• Raise awareness of road safety and the health and environmental benefits of using alternative transport for the journey to and from school

Waltham Forest police have launched week-long Operations to tackle knife crime and disorder on the borough’s transport links.

The aim of the initiatives, which came just days after the British Crime Survey showed violent crime was dropping, is to tackle knife crime and offences on the tube, train and bus network.  Officers herded passengers through high tech knife arches to search for hidden weapons at Blackhorse Road and Leytonstone Tube Stations and made a number of arrests.These officers also offered crime prevention advice, tackled fare dodgers with Transport for London staff and mounted high visibility patrols at bus, tube and rail stations across the borough.

Chief Inspector Andy Norfolk from Waltham Forest Police, said: “Knife crime has gone down in this borough and has also dropped nationally but that doesn’t take away the impact it has on people’s lives.  “There are a small number of people who think it is acceptable to carry a knife and those people will be targeted and arrested.

“Tackling the problem of knife crime is a challenge and everyone has a part to play in rising to that challenge – parents, the police, the local authority and the media.”

Your local FOCUS team want tough action to be taken against those caught selling knives to children and young people. 

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats revealed that half of all traders tested in Waltham Forest had attempted to sell knives to underage buyers.  

The worrying statistics come on the back of nationwide figures for prosecutions which reveal that, in the last five years, not one person has been sent to prison for the illegal sale of knives to children.

 Cllr Johar Khan says that the stats reveal “a completely inadequate deterrent to unscrupulous shop keepers who flout the law to sell these weapons to children and young people,”  

Cllr Johar Khan added: 

“The number of local traders who are apparently prepared to sell knifes to young people is extremely worrying. 

  “Liberal Democrats will be calling for officers to carry out further test purchasing programmes in an effort to really drive this message home.” 

“We believe that further tests must be carried out and that the courts must take a much stronger stand on this issue. 

“Cutting the supply of knives will be one of the most effective ways to reducing knife crime in the first place.”  

Local residents in High Street are being hit hard by rocketing costs for food, energy and fuel.  

It doesn’t matter how much you earn, all of us are paying more when we buy basic groceries, pay the gas bill or fill up the car. Hardest hit of all are those on fixed incomes – especially pensioners. 

High Street Cllr Johar Khan said, “Everyone I meet is worried about rising prices. There is also a lot of fear about job losses and the threat of repossessions as house prices fall. People want to see action from Gordon Brown, but nothing seems to be happening.” “Gordon Brown and Labour are simply out of touch with real life in High Street. It is time for a change.”

 Local Lib Dems are fighting for a better deal for local people hardest hit by rising prices. They want to see a big rise in the basic pension to make sure older people can afford to heat their homes properly this winter. 

Cllr Johar Khan added, “Pensioners have been let down by Conservative and now Labour Governments. We need to give older people a fair deal at last.” 

Conservative and Labour MPs are working together to STOP attempts to strengthen the Climate Change Bill.

They want to stop emission targets on shipping and aviation being included in the bill. But scientists and leading environmental organisations believe that such targets are vital to make the bill effective.

Liberal Democrat MPs have been working hard to make sure such targets are included. Their efforts have been praised by the Chief Executive of World Wildlife Fund UK David Nussbaum.

High Street Cllr Johar Khan said, “Other parties may talk green, but they fail to deliver when it really matters. I am proud that Lib Dem MPs are leading the charge to tackle climate change in Parliament.”

It’s official – Gordon Brown is the most unpopular Prime Minister since records began. 

 It’s not surprising given Labour’s record since he took over. Soaring prices of fuel, food and energy are hitting everyone hard. Violent crime continues to rise.  

Brown’s decision earlier this year to increase taxes on the least well off pensioners and families was a disgrace. 

More and more people are saying that it is time for a change. 

The Conservatives have no real ideas on how they will change Britain. Only Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats in High Street are fighting for a better future for local people.  

The Lib Dems are fighting for lower taxes for local families. They have real plans to tackle the rise of anti-social behaviour and violent crime. They will protect and improve vital local services like hospitals, schools and post offices.

Only the Liberal Democrats will put protecting the environment at the heart of government. 

The Mayor, Boris Johnson has set out his priorities for his first budget which he will present to the Assembly for approval in early 2009.However a meeting of the London Assembly’s Budget committee last week revealed that there were some dangerous holes in the guidance that that the Mayor has issued to the GLA and its Functional Bodies (Transport for London, the London Development Agency and the Metropolitan Police) in preparing their draft budgets for the financial year 2009/10. Consultation on the budgets will begin in the late Autumn.

As Mike Tuffrey told the Budget Committee: “The     Met Police have budgeted for an increase of 2.5% in police spending next year, just to cope with inflation. At a time of rising fuel costs and wage increases, this was always going to be a tough sum to achieve.

Now the Mayor has told the Met Police that they should only budget to spend an extra 1.75% in the next financial year. This means real cuts in spending on London’s police service next year.

I am always in favour of looking at ways of making efficiency savings, but the Mayor has failed to say how he can balance the books without job cuts. 80% of the policing budget for London is made up of staff costs.

“Boris Johnson should guarantee now that there will be no real cuts next year in the policing service Londoners receive.

“The Mayor’s budget guidance documents are available for download at http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/budget/0910budget.jsp  

Last week’s meeting of the London Assembly’s Audit Panel revealed that the former Tory Chair of the Assembly, and current Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Brian Coleman spent over £8000 on taxis in one year.

Caroline Pidgeon told the media: ” Tory Brian Coleman’s taxi expenses are extraordinary given that he also gets an all -zone Travelcard too.

At the meeting I asked that the rules be tightened so that Assembly Members don’t run up bills that, frankly, many hard pressed council taxpayers would find astonishing.”

GLA officers will now review and tighten the taxi policy.

`GAS PRICES UP 35%-ELECTRIC PRICES UP 30%’

When Lloyd George brought in the first Old Age Pension for over 70`s, in 1908, at five shillings a week, drunks and those with a prison record were not allowed a pension.

Only 1 in 4 people were able to claim a pension in 1908. In 2008, pensions should be an absolute human right for all.

Now in 2008 growing older into senior years should be something people look forward to, as a `golden time’.  But now in `Brown’s Britain’ there is a real prospect of `Fuel Poverty’ next winter, for many pensioners, unless they take action on the:

Ten Ways to Save Energy in the Home.

1.Turn the thermostat down to reduce room temperature by 1C that could cut the heating bill by 10% or £50 per year.

10.Do a Home Energy Check. This can save up to £270 a year on your household energy bills.

1NE Carers Service has now moved from 1 Beulah Road to:

10 The Broadway, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 0HL

 Tel: 020 8220 0132 

This essential service is for all those people who are being affected by someone else’s drinking or drug taking.

1NE also has a service for young people between the ages of 14-21 who are being affected by one or both parents abusive use of drink or drugs.

Please feel free to ring the above number if you think you need this service