30
COMMUNITY NEWS
LONDON BANGLA = Friday 03 May 2013
Take action; demand justice
Continued from front page.
Have your say on the future of London Fire Brigade Continued from front page. Although the London Mayor has tried to cut back the money given to the London Fire Brigade (which would cut the services the Brigade is able to offer), the argument is not over. The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), the political body which runs the London Fire Brigade, is consulting on its Draft Fifth London Safety Plan, which outlines how the Authority will deliver the capital’s fire and rescue service over the next three years. Bruce Epsly, the Fire Brigade’s Borough Commander for Tower Hamlets, pointed out that the consultation meeting on 7th May is one of a series of meetings. He explained, “The meetings have been arranged for local people to come along and hear about the changes being proposed to the fire service across London, as part of the Draft Fifth London Safety Plan.” Included in the plan are details of how the Authority proposes to make savings worth £28.8m, including closing 12 fire stations, removing 18 fire engines, relocating four fire engines and reducing the number of firefighter posts by 520. This would be done while maintaining existing response time targets of getting the first fire engine to an incident, on average across London, in six minutes and the second, if needed in eight minutes. These are amongst the fastest target response times of any emergency service in the country and almost twice as fast as some other brigades. However, some boroughs will see reduced actual attendance times. After attending the meetings to learn more about the proposals, the Brigade hopes people will then take part in the consultation which is available online at www.london-fire.gov.uk/LSP5.asp . The consultation is due to close on 17th June.
Massive rise in new homes for London
Latest figures from NHBC have revealed the capital experienced a 61% increase in the registration of new homes during the first quarter (Q1) this year compared to the same period in 2012. In total 7,287 new homes were registered in London between January and March – an increase of more than 2,700 against last year’s total of 4,529. However, the Battersea Power Station redevelopment helped boost the Q1 figures as more than 800 new properties were registered during the first phase of the project. Over the next 15 years, more than 3,000 new homes will ultimately be built on this iconic London site. As the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, NHBC’s housing registration statistics are a key indicator of the overall performance of the housing industry. Richard Tamayo, NHBC’s Commercial Director, said that the latest figures are proof of the returning confidence to the industry: “The Q1 figures for London are a huge boost for the house building sector and shows the vast improvement this year compared to the start of 2012. Across the country we are seeing positive signs and increasing registration levels which is encouraging news for the sector and hopefully proof that we are emerging from what has been an extremely difficult few years.”
Those killed and injured in the Bangladesh building collapse were employed by garment factories which made clothes for Primark, Matalan, Mango and other major brands. War on Want is organising a campaign demanding that these UK high street brands take responsibility for this tragedy by paying full compensation to the workers and commit to action to ensure disasters like this become a thing of the past. Primark, Matalan and Mango make huge profits off the backs of the workers in factories like these, and now they must take responsibility for their failure to ensure workplace safety and prevent disasters like this. These companies must pay full compensation, including their lost earnings, to the families who have lost relatives and the workers injured in this disaster. Compensation alone is not enough – these companies must act to ensure that disasters like this never happen again. The Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement is a landmark project, bringing together brands, supplier factories, trade unions and NGOs to end the appallingly unsafe factory conditions and ensure decent working conditions. These brands must sign the agreement and commit to make real changes to ensure the factories that make their clothes are safe, and no workers’ lives are at risk. Stop press: Bonmarche has now admitted that it also took supplies from companies based in the collapsed building and its name has been added to the War on Want petition. After just 60,000 people had signed the petition, Primark agreed to pay compensation to victims and/or their families, whereas Matalan had indicated that it would not pay full compensation. For more information about what you can do, visit: http://waronwant.org.
lMeanwhile in Bangladesh, the very latest reports confirm that the death toll has reached 431, with 374 bodies having been handed over to relatives. This makes this incident the worst death toll in any building collapse in Bangladesh’s history. The most up to date estimates are that 149 people are still missing. This number has been reduced over recent days as it seems that some names of missing people were put on more than one list. Nearly 2,500 people were rescued. Rescue workers have now given up on finding anyone still alive in the debris, but they continue to clear the rubble very cautiously out of respect for the dead bodies they are now retrieving.
Workers give the Osmani Trust is community winner boss a break
72% of British workers are giving their bosses an extra 10 hours of free labour every week. This free productivity is giving British companies a boost of £142 billion a year.
As we enter into a new financial year, a new lifestyle study out today has revealed that an alarming 72% of British workers are giving their bosses an extra 10 hours of free labour a week – in a bid to manage their workload and to keep their line manager happy. So big is the problem, that one in ten workers are cramming a whole extra week of unpaid work on top of their normal working schedule, just so that they can keep ahead of the game, while a third of Britons are working an additional 16 hours a week more now for free than they did prior to the recession starting. The study, conducted by Travelodge, surveyed 2,000 British workers across the UK in order to investigate what effect the modern working life is having on home life. Key findings revealed the average British worker is giving his employer a bonus of ten hours of free productivity every week which translates into a saving of £6,635 for companies. Across the working population this equates to a grand total of £142 billion of free productivity for British bosses. Within the last 12 months, not only have seven out of ten workers given their bosses an extra 10 hours of free labour but 55% of employees have missed a vital family celebration due to a work commitment such as a child’s / partner’s birthday, child’s school play / sports day and a family holiday. One in ten male workers has even missed the birth of their child due to a work commitment. When it comes to the biggest workaholics across the UK, Londoners take the crown as workers across the capital are giving their bosses a generous contribution of an extra 12 hours of free labour a week. Scousers workers come in second place for giving their bosses a free contribution of 11.5 working hours a week and Brummie workers take third position in the workaholics table for giving their bosses an extra 10 hours of free working time.
The Osmani Trust has won the “Best Community Organisation UK” at the Channel S Awards 2013. The winners of the Channel S Awards 2013 were announced at an awards ceremony in London. The Osmani Trust won the Best Community Organisation UK in a year of unprecedented nominations. Channel S Awards 2013 aims to bring many achievers from every generation of Bangladeshis in Britain to celebrate successes and legacies. Channel S Awards is one of the most influential awards schemes for promoting the British-Bangladeshi community in the UK. The Osmani Trust was recognised for the range, quality and innovativeness of its services to young people and the community in some of the most disadvantaged areas of London. The Osmani Trust is a multi-award winning youth and community organisation based in Tower Hamlets. The Trust offers a wide range of youth, community, health and sporting initiatives tailored to the needs of the community. It aims to provide a holistic service, which helps people, particularly those living in disadvantaged urban communities to re-engage with mainstream society and improve their quality of life. Through its provisions, Osmani Trust seeks to address issues impacting the community including substance misuse, racial tensions, criminality and anti-social behaviour, territoriality and gang-related violence, unemployment and overcrowding, lack of training and employment opportunities. It also places strong emphasis on the health and social welfare of the community. Osmani Trust works with ordinary people helping them to do extraordinary things. This latest award adds to the string of successes recognising Osmani Trust’s dedication and services to young people and the community.
Gherkineers wanted! The NSPCC is urging people to take on The Gherkin Challenge, racing up the stairs to scale the 38 floors to the summit of London’s iconic Gherkin building to raise vital funds for the charity. Funds raised from the event will help the NSPCC to protect vulnerable children through its projects and services including ChildLine, the UK’s free, confidentiall 24-hour helpline and online service for children and young people. For further information or to register for The Gherkin Challenge, visit www.gherkinchallenge.org.uk.