In this edition: Greg Hands M.P.’s Diary Website of the Week:Let Britain Decide Extract from the CourtCircular Photo news:Congress Majority Whipvisits Downing Street Boris Bikes to launch inFulham and remaining partsof Chelsea next week Earl's Court Free SchoolConsultation H&F Council adopts greensolutions to watermanagement Sweeping reforms to newsocial housing tenancies inKensington & Chelsea Free School Update:The Livingstone School,Hammersmith  How to contact Greg Hands M.P.  

Issue 386 – Monday 2nd December 2013 Since the last edition, Greg:

Was formally appointed as Treasurer of Her Majesty’sHousehold, with an audience with H.M. The Queen atBuckingham Palace. Greg was handed his wand of office. Gregis believed to be the 137th Treasurer of the Household, anoffice which dates back to the 15th Century. For more, see theCourt Circular below.Attended the Annual General Meeting of the Chelsea Society,in Chelsea Old Town Hall, with new president John SimpsonCBE.Joined the Chancellor of the Exchequer in welcoming U.S.Congressional Majority Whip, Kevin McCarthy, to DowningStreet. See photo below.Ensured that James Wharton’s EU Referendum PrivateMember’s Bill passed its remaining stages in the House ofCommons. For more on the Bill, see Website of the Weekbelow.Met LBH&F Leader Councillor Nick Botterill and seniorCouncillor Michael Adam in the Commons to discuss issuesfacing the local authority in the coming years. Carried out his extensive duties as the Government’s DeputyChief Whip.Held a regular, weekly, advice surgery for local Chelsea andFulham residents, at Fulham Library, on Fulham Road, close toParsons Green tube. Greg’s surgeries are generally weekly, onMonday mornings, at either Fulham Library, or Peter Jones,Sloane Square. To make an appointment, emailmail@greghands.com or telephone 020 7219 5448.

Website of the Week:www.letbritaindecide.com The campaign website linked to James Wharton MP’s PrivateMember’s Bill, which seeks to give the British people a say onthe future of membership of the European Union.

Extract from the Court Circular  Buckingham PalaceTuesday 26th November 2013 The Queen, Patron, Protector and Supporter, Royal Academy of Arts,today received Mr. Christopher Le Brun (President) and Dr. CharlesSaumarez-Smith (Secretary and Chief Executive). The Rt. Hon. Sir John Randall was received by Her Majesty anddelivered up his Wand of Office upon relinquishing his appointment asTreasurer of the Household. Mr. Gregory Hands MP was received by The Queen upon hisappointment as Treasurer of the Household when Her Majestyhanded to him his Wand of Office. The Duke of Edinburgh, Honorary Fellow, the Institute of Materials,Minerals and Mining, this morning received Professor Jonathan Binner(Fellow) and Mr. Jan Lewis (Fellow), who presented the BessemerGold Medal to His Royal Highness. The Queen was represented by Professor John Cunningham (Head ofthe Medical Household and Physician to The Queen) at the MemorialService for Sir Rodney Sweetnam (formerly Orthopædic Surgeon toThe Queen) which was held at St. Clement Danes Church, LondonWC2, this afternoon.

Photo news:Congress Majority Whip visits Downing Street

Greg Hands M.P. with Congress Majority (Republican) Whip

Kevin McCarthy in Downing Street last week.

Boris Bikes to launch in Fulham andremaining parts of Chelsea next week

Greg Hands M.P. welcoming new Boris Bike Docking Terminals

on Effie Road. It will be a bike bonanza in a fortnight when Barclays Cycle Hirescheme finally comes to Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F). To see a map of locations, visit this link on the TfL website. The south west expansion of the cycle scheme will launch on FridayDecember 13, with the help of H&F Council leader Cllr NicholasBotterill and leader of Wandsworth Council, Cllr Ravi Govindia. H&F Council has contributed £2 million towards the popular blue bikehire scheme using ‘Section 106’ funding - money that developers payto the council to reduce the impact of development and contribute tocommunity improvements, as part of their planning permission. Cabinet member for transport and technical services Cllr VictoriaBrocklebank-Fowler, said she was looking forward to seeing the bikes,backed by the Mayor of London, in the borough. She said: “H&F is already well-connected through its fantastictransport links, but this is another feather in the borough’s cap -especially as it is not costing our residents a penny, as ourcontribution has been paid through money from developers’ that is setaside for community improvements. “We have worked hard to bring this fantastic scheme to H&F and ourresidents can now enjoy the benefits of these bikes which are easy toride and offer low-cost alternatives to other ways of travelling around the borough. We hope more people will be encouraged to get on theirbikes and this could help cut congestion on our roads, which has beencentral to our Get H&F Moving campaign.” Around 1,700 bikes will be available to hire from around 60 dockingstations in the borough including from well-known locations like BBCWhite City, Olympia Exhibition Centre and Charing Cross Hospital. There will also be stations near the parks of Eel Brook Common,Parsons Green and South Park, and at tube stations includingRavenscourt Park, Putney Bridge, West Kensington and BaronsCourt. The furthest west docking station will be at Ravenscourt Parkstation in Hammersmith. The cycles offer another travel option to residents, commuters andvisitors in H&F and it is likely that the bicycles will be used for a varietyof reasons - leisure, tourism, work, or for popping to the local shops. Over 200 people contacted Hammersmith & Fulham Council in 2011as part of its ‘Get H&F Moving’ transport campaign to offer their viewson where the docking stations could be put. Additional suggestionscame from council officers and Transport for London, which owns thescheme. Each of the places has had to be reviewed against a set ofstrict criteria to see if the site is suitable. Phase 3 of the scheme sees the hire bike scheme expand westwardsto parts of H&F, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Kensington & Chelseabringing more than 2,000 new bicycles and around 5,000 additionaldocking stations to these boroughs. Each station has a touch screen terminal where you can enter yourcard details, before getting a ‘release code’ to type into the bike standand release the bike. When the bike is returned, it just has to bepushed firmly into an empty docking point and it automaticallyrecognises the bike, via its code, and locks it back in. There is also anoption to become a registered member and get a cycle hire key, whichallows you to access the bikes all year for £90 - that is 25p per day. The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has around 160,000 registered users- 3,900 of whom are H&F residents - with more than 8,000 bicycles ataround 570 docking stations across London. There is already one atOlympia train station, on the Kensington and Chelsea side of theborder, and in spring last year four stations were installed at Westfieldshopping mall in Shepherds Bush as part of Phase 2 of the scheme. For more information on cycling in H&F - including how to take part incycling courses to learn how to ride or to build confidence - and to seea list of docking station sites that have been approved, visitwww.lbhf.gov.uk/cycling, and for more information on the council'stransport campaign, Get H&F Moving, visitwww.lbhf.gov.uk/getmoving. Find out more about the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme atwww.tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire. To see a map of locations, visit this link on the TfL website.

Earl's Court Free School Consultation Parents, teachers and community groups in the Royal Borough arebeing asked what they think about proposals to open a primary freeschool in Earl's Court. The consultation is open until 5pm on Friday 3rd January 2014. Youcan fill in a questionnaire online at www.wlfs-earlscourt.org/consultation or you can fill in a paper copy using oneof the consultation leaflets that are being distributed across theborough. The West London Free School Charitable Trust (WLFS CharitableTrust) has been given the green light by the Department for Educationto open a third school in September next year. That school will becalled Earl's Court Free School Primary, though it will initially bebased in Cambridge Grove in Hammersmith, the current home ofsister school, West London Free School Primary. The trust also has asecondary school in Hammersmith, which opened in 2011. Subject to planning approval and consultation, the new primary schoolwill move to Earl's Court, as part of the regeneration andredevelopment of the area. This however will not be until 2020 whenthe multi-million pound redevelopment of Earl's Court is complete. Thirty children each year will be accepted to the reception class untilthe school relocates to Earl's Court, when the entry numbers woulddouble to 60 children a year. The school will provide children with aclassical liberal education, focusing on a core of academic subjectscomplemented by art, music, drama and competitive sport. Toby Young, chairman of WLFS Charitable Trust, says: "I helped setup the West London Free School because I believe that all childrenshould have access to a classical liberal education, regardless ofbackground or ability. That approach has proved so popular with localparents that my group is now opening a third school and our aim is toopen a new one every year for as long as there is demand for thistype of school from parents." Councillor Emma Will, the Royal Borough's Cabinet Member forEducation, said: "This new primary school is just one the manypositive aspects of the redevelopment of Earl's Court. "Demand for primary school places in the area is set to grow and ithelps to give local parents even more choice on where to educatetheir children." Councillor Georgie Cooney, Hammersmith & Fulham Council'sCabinet Member for Education, says: "We welcome the suggestion foranother free school and continue to offer our support to parentswanting to set up schools or those who opt to send their children tothese new schools. "With new housing and development coming to Earl's Court, there willalso be a growing population and greater demand for places in thearea in the future. A new school will help address this issue whileoffering local parents more choice for their children's education." An open event will be held at West London Free School Primary (theproposed temporary site for the school) at Cambridge Grove,Hammersmith, W6 0LB, on Wednesday December 11. There will betwo sessions from 6pm to 7pm and 7.30pm to 8.30pm. For more information on the proposals email consultation@wlfs.org.

H&F Council adopts green solutions towater management Pavements and roads that soak up rainwater and roofs that arecovered in vegetation are set to become more familiar sights inHammersmith & Fulham. Across the globe, many cities are now adopting ‘Green Infrastructure’(GI) as they look to cope with increasing populations while making thebest use of rain water by preventing it from seeping into their sewers. Now, Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council is set to become one ofthe first local authorities in the country to follow suit by including theprovision of GI, or Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), in its newWater Management Policy. H&F Council argues that GI is a much more environmentally-friendlyway of dealing with rainwater than simply increasing the size of thesewer network as Thames Water intends to by constructing the£4.2billion, 16 mile, Thames Tideway Tunnel. Evidence from major world cities, such as Philadelphia, Chicago andMilwaukee, shows that a combined solution using green infrastructure,which prevent fresh water from overloading the combined sewernetwork, is likely to be the best way forward for London rather than atunnel on its own. The new Water Management Policy means that building schemeapprovals in H&F will have to consider the implications for flood riskand to assess the feasibility of installing sustainable drainage. It willalso see each council department work to develop green infrastructureand sustainable drainage policies and will consider whether there areopportunities for more areas to implement sustainable drainage andflood risk mitigation measures. Cllr Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council Leader said: “We are setting theexample nationally by practising what we preach. In more ecologicallyenlightened cities in America, Scandinavia and Northern Europe,planners are no longer looking at ‘grey infrastructure’ storagesolutions such as large tunnels in isolation anymore. “It is vital that we follow their example and redirect surface water run-off from the sewerage system and return it to the natural ecosystem orstore it for use in times of drought. Sustainable drainage measuressuch as green roofs, permeable paving, rain gardens, rainwaterharvesting and rills and swales offer a holistic solution to our watermanagement problems and a far cheaper and less disruptivealternative to the Tideway Tunnel. “By failing to deal with the root of the problem, which is too muchrainwater entering the sewers, Thames Water is building a bigger bathto stop water from overflowing instead of turning the taps off.” Philadelphia is currently undergoing a radical transformation, withpermeable pavements, green roofs and infiltration trenches installedto stop fresh rain-water flooding into sewers in the first place. The man responsible for much of this ‘greening’, Dr Mark Maimone,Vice President of water management experts CDM Smith, recentlysaid that London should follow this example and consign the idea of atunnel-based solution to the scrapheap. He said: “London is eminently suitable for greening. There is morespace here than there is in the denser areas of Philadelphia where weare doing it right now and Philadelphia has to handle twice as manycombined sewer overflows as London does.” Thames Water has long argued that the Tideway Tunnel is necessaryto prevent millions of litres of sewage being pumped into the rivereach year. Carnwath Road on the Fulham riverside is set to bear the brunt of thedisruption from major excavation work, while 14million Thames Watercustomers are set to pay an extra £80 a year for life on water bills. Sixprimary schools and two secondary schools are all within a mile of thesite with some residents living just 10 yards away from where thedeep sewer drilling work could happen. There are also concerns overthe fumes, noise, dust and effect on already congested roads, whilesome people may need to move home. The council has tried to block Thames Water’s plans because at nostage during their consultation were all the options to clean up theriver open for discussion. Carnwath Road was only introduced asThames Water’s ‘preferred option’ in phase 2 of the consultation afterThames Water decided against using Barn Elms, south of the river, asa main drive site. It is not too late to have your say! An open hearing of the Planning Inspectorate, which is looking intoThames Water’s 50,000 page planning application for the scheme,takes place on Wednesday November 20 at The Worx, 10 HeathmansRoad, Fulham SW6 4TJ. Registration to speak at the hearing opens at9am with the full meeting starting from 9:30am.

Sweeping reforms to new social housingtenancies in Kensington & Chelsea People with genuine local connections and armed forces personnelwill receive greater priority for council housing as part of a package ofsweeping reforms to new tenancies in Kensington and Chelsea. The reforms, agreed by the Council's Cabinet last night (21 November2013),following six months of public consultation and scrutiny, includemeasures that will transform not only who can get a Council home, butalso on what terms. Amongst the measures is an end to lifetime tenancies. New tenantsare already issued with 12 month introductory tenancies. But from 6January 2014 a tenant who completes such a tenancy withoutbreaching its terms will then be eligible for either a two or, moretypically five-year tenancy. There would typically be a presumption to renew; however, tenancieswould not be renewed if at the end of their term:

there has been a serious breach of the tenancy agreementincluding rent arrears or antisocial behaviourthe tenant or tenant's partner has acquired a legal interest inanother property suitable for occupationhousehold income has grown to more than £50,000 for oneand two-bed flats and £65,000 for larger propertiessavings and investments, other than for pension purposes,exceed £25,000.

In addition, if the property has become too large for the household'sneeds, a new tenancy would only be offered on a smaller property, sothat families trapped in overcrowded accommodation have a betterchance of being allocated a home that meets their needs. As well as amending the terms of tenancies, the Council is alsoaltering the rules on which households qualify for Council and HousingAssociation homes in the first place. From 17 February 2014 peoplewho have not been in the borough for at least three years willgenerally be disqualified. Extra points will be awarded to householdswhere at least one member is in paid work for 16 hours a week ormore. Serving and former members of the armed forces and bereavedpartners of forces personnel also attract extra points. Households withhigh incomes and significant savings will no longer be eligible forsocial-rented properties, but will instead be able to accessintermediate housing options, such as shared ownership or discountmarket rented properties. "Our social housing is a scarce and precious resource," said Cllr RockFeilding-Mellen, the Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member forHousing. "We have an absolute duty to make sure that it goes to theright people. For us that means those in the greatest need, those withreal roots in our borough, those who work and are good neighbours,and those who have served our country. Therefore, we are adjustingour policies accordingly." As a corollary of the reforms, the Council intends to remove from itshousing register those households with no realistic prospect of evergetting a Council or Housing Association home. Last year the Councillet 470 properties but it has nearly 9,000 households on its housingregister, nearly 6,500 of which are neither homeless, overcrowded orin pressing medical need. "People are currently able to join our housing register that in fact havevery low priority", explained Cllr Feilding-Mellen. "It is better to offer them realistic housing advice about where they canfind actual accommodation than to leave them languishing on a list forhomes which will simply never become available because quiteproperly the homeless, the ill and the chronically overcrowded willalways be ahead in the queue." These new tenancy policies form part of a wider set of planning andhousing policy reforms intended to increase the supply of new housingof all tenures across the borough, but with a special focus on morehousing for those who are ineligble for social housing but unable toafford private housing in the borough. Cllr Feilding-Mellen concluded,"In order to protect and preserve our mixed community, we need tomake sure there are more homes available for those hard-workinghouseholds and families in the middle of the income spectrum, and sowe will be looking at every opportunity to deliver more intermediateand mid-market housing here in Kensington and Chelsea."

Free School Update:The Livingstone School, Hammersmith www.livingstoneschoolhammersmith.com With Hammersmith & Fulham benefitting from the establishment ofseveral free schools in the borough, a new secondary free school,‘The Livingstone School, Hammersmith’ hopes to provide furtherparental choice locally. The pressure on secondary school places inLBHF is rising. This new Secondary Free School has recently beengranted sponsorship approval from the Department for Education andaims to ease the pressure and struggle many parents face whenmaking secondary applications. With Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise at its heart, the curriculumwill focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics(STEAM). The teaching staff will be well qualified and a digitallycreative workforce themselves, motivating and inspiring students in allsubjects. They will foster curiosity and innovation. As well as acquiringhigh standards of literacy, numeracy and communication skills,students will be problem solving and creative thinkers. There will be 120 students in year 7 and 200 in the Sixth Formproviding a total of 800 secondary school places in the borough. TheLivingstone School, Hammersmith will provide relevant teaching thataddresses the lack of technological and creative expertise amongststudents today. With sponsorship approval now in place, the school aims to open in2015-16. It is now gathering evidence of interest and needs 240signatures of interested parents with primary school age children. Thepetition is at www.livingstoneschoolhammersmith.com The websitealso provides further information about the School ethos andFoundation. Please do sign to help both expand secondary choice inHammersmith & Fulham and establish a high performing, relevant andcreative school in the borough.

5 ways to contact Greg Hands M.P.:

By Phone: 020 7219 5448By email: mail@greghands.comBy post: Greg Hands M.P.

House of CommonsLondon SW1A 0AA

In person: Click here for details of howto book an appointment atGreg Hands M.P.’s weeklysurgery

www.greghands.com

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Greg Hands M.P. – a strong voice for Chelsea & Fulham

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