Introducing a 20mph speed limit on residential roads in Westminster will save tax payers £50 million a year, according to Labour Councillors who say that Department for Transport figures show that each death on the roads costs £1.8m and each injury costs £59,700 in hospital, police and ambulance costs, lost taxation and lost working days and lost production. In 2008, 1,604 people...

Westminster's Labour Councillors have voiced their dismay at the loss of six Sergeants from the Safer Neighbourhhod Teams across the borough. In four residential areas, eight wards will have to share four Sergeants instead of having their own Sergeant. In addition, Councillors have been told that existing Sergeants will have to reapply for their jobs and even if they are successful they may b...

Westminster's Labour Councillors have accused the Conservative-led Government of breaking their election promises following the news that St Mary's Hospital, Paddington could be closed, and have vowed to lead a public campaign to keep the hospital open. St Mary's was where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The 500-bed hospital was rec...

Swindon Councillors are right to look at how the £400,000 a year on speed cameras could be better spent to make things safer. They could also ask whether they need to spend the whole £400,000. Speed is a factor in well under 1 in 10 accidents, so a safety policy based on curbing speed is not

Labour Councillors have unveiled their Safer Streets pledge which includes the following five key promises: * We will crack down on anti-social behaviour, knife crime and dangerous dogs by closer working with the Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams. * We will use Westminster’s 100 wi-fi CCTV cameras to catch criminals, rather than fine motorists. * We will improve street-lighting and repair dan...

Westminster Council has been forced to scrap plans to save £14 million a year by making every resident and business clean up the front of their property after being told that the plans would be illegal. The plans, hatched at a secret meeting of the 'High Level Group' of Conservative Councillors and Officers on 23rd August and subsequently leaked to Labour Councillors, were aimed at...

Labour Councillors have issued an eleventh hour plea to Westminster Conservatives not to go ahead with the planned closure of the St James's Library in Victoria Street on 23rd August to save £357,000. Labour Councillors say that a petition handed in at the last Council meeting on 20th July calling on the Council to keep the library open has not yet been considered and therefore the plan...

Labour Councillors have condemned Westminster City Council for spending only £20,000 on gritting salt to clear Westminster's treacherous pavements at the same time as they plan to spend over £23,000 on next month's Civic Dinner when hundreds of guests of Conservative councillors will be entertained at a lavish dinner at public expense. Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of ...

David Ruffley, the shadow minister for police reform, has exclusively revealed through a piece for the Platform blog this afternoon how the next Conservative Government will save one million hours of police time. He pledges today that the Conservatives will...

Westminster City Council has lost £1 million in interest because of the £16.25 million invested by the Council in now-failed Icelandic Banks, according to information gained by Labour Councillors. In response to an enquiry from Labour Councillors, the Director of Finance Barbara Moorhouse told Councillors: "The amount of interest lost, calculated assuming all Icelandic deposits fully m...