Westminster City Council's Cabinet Member for Value for Money and Finance, Cllr Paul Fisher, outlines how the government's cuts to Westminster's funding are so large that closing the gap will likely require a combination of savings and council tax rises.
The BBC is reporting that three Conservative council leaders in London, including Westminster's Cllr Paul Swaddle, have written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham accusing the government of "devolving blame" for steep council tax rises. "This is fiddled funding, cooked up in Whitehall but leaving town halls to carry the blame," the letter states.
BBC London is reporting that new options are being considered for the future of the Pimlico District Heat Undertaking, a 70 year old communal heating network believed to be the oldest of its kind in the UK, which supplies heating and hot water to more than 3,000 homes and businesses.
Cllr Paul Swaddle OBE has called for action to save summer jobs across Westminster by removing barriers to young people entering work. The council leader has backed new Conservative plans to give young people more flexibility over shift patterns and breaks and simplifying restrictions on evening working, whilst protecting young people's education.
Same old Labour: contract and capital review uncovers yet another due diligence failure, taking total waste uncovered past £37 million, with more findings to come. A waste depot project at Mandela Way will now cost taxpayers’ an extra £7.97 million, after Labour signed off the budget without properly checking the ground beneath the site.
"I think it's fair to say that the media has been used in order to advance a political agenda rather than to necessarily inform people about what the real questions are in this debate. There aren't any real truths to the idea that we want to stop vertical drinking inside or outside pubs or that we want to curtail activity after 10 pm" Cllr Tim Barnes tells the BBC.
We have seen a wave of confusing and misleading stories about our licensing policy. So let me be clear: there is no plan, and there never has been, to ban drinking while standing up in a Westminster pub. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong.
Cllr Tim Barnes explains that just two Westminster wards, West End and St James's, account for 26% of all "small crime" across the whole of London, which he says is exactly why some regulation of venues is necessary. He again pointed to the Mayor's record on transport as the bigger barrier to a good night out, saying Sadiq Khan "keeps cutting the night buses and won't bring in a late-night tube service on Thursdays."
LBC is reporting that the Metropolitan Police seized 90 vehicles worth more than £8 million during a weekend crackdown on antisocial and dangerous driving across Kensington, Chelsea and Hyde Park, the highest number and value of vehicles seized in the five-year history of the operation.Among the veh
