Joanne Cash

Joanne Calls on Labour Councillors to Back All Stars

- Joanne asks Harrow Road councillors to allocate some of their new ward budget to under-threat local facility
- Proportion of the £100,000 could help secure long term future of the club
- Joanne calls for ‘co-operation’ between main parties on the issue
- Joanne asks Dimoldenberg to honour written pledge of support with financial backing

Joanne today made a direct appeal for funds to local Labour councillors and Labour’s top Council representative to save the under threat All Stars Boxing club on the Harrow Road. Westminster Council announced last week that from next April all wards will receive a £100,000 community budget to spend on local projects. Joanne has written to Harrow Road councillors arguing that some of the new money should be spent securing the long term future of the boxing club.

Joanne has been working closely with the gym management since her selection as the Conservative candidate earlier in the year and a petition to save the club launched last month has already attracted over 500 signatures. The gym caters for people of a wide range of ages and ethnicity throughout the North Westminster area and provides a vital hub of community activity in one of central London’s most disadvantaged wards.  Despite its’ excellent work, the club’s future remains uncertain with the gym’s current landlord refusing to sanction the upkeep of basic repair work to the ageing building. If the repairs and maintenance are not carried out regularly it could render the building unsafe and uninhabitable, forcing the club to relocate or worse still to close altogether. By taking action in the courts the club’s owners have managed to force the landlord’s hand in carrying out recent essential maintenance but the long-term outlook remains uncertain.

In her letter to the three Harrow Road councillors: Guthrie McKie, Sharan Tabari & Ruth Bush, Joanne said: ‘The club is a wonderful facility serving its local community. This sum of money would help to secure its long term future. The club needs money to pay rent, ensure the facilities are maintained to a basic standard and to try to meet the demand for its services locally.....this is also a wonderful opportunity for our parties to work together to support local people doing local work.’

Joanne’s plea for co-operation from the Labour councillors followed a breakthrough last month when Labour’s Westminster Council leader Paul Dimoldenberg wrote a letter in which he publicly pledged his support for the club. Joanne now hopes that Dimoldenberg will honour his pledge by lobbying his Labour colleagues in the Harrow Road to secure some of this cash for the All Stars: ‘I am delighted that Paul Dimoldenberg has acknowledged the importance of securing the All Stars’ future and hope that he will now use his influence within the Harrow Road Labour party to help allocate some of this new money to the club.’

Joanne Shocked at Government Failure to Protect Child Information

Following news that the Government has lost the child benefit records of 25 million children in the post, Joanne said:

'I am shocked that the Government has treated such sensitive information with such negligence. As yet we do not know what the full ramifications of this security breach will be. However it is likely that this latest example of Government incompetence may well expose the large number of families with young children in Westminster North to risks of fraud and breaches of privacy and child protection which are wholly unacceptable. The Government needs to now come clean and fully explain the reasons for this security lapse and ensure that nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again.'

Cash launches childcare consultation in Westminster North

• Six month consultation seeks to extend childcare facilities to help more families
• Consultation looks to tackle five core childcare challenges: information, cost, standards, resources and access
• Cash says extending good affordable childcare in Westminster North is an ‘urgent priority’

Joanne today launched a childcare consultation into childcare provision in the constituency whilst on a visit to the Lisson Green Play Project in Church Street. The six month consultation will see Joanne talk to staff, parents and children at a number of pre and after school clubs in Westminster North to identify ways of extending childcare services to help more families in the area. 

Joanne’s childcare consultation sets out to tackle five core childcare challenges: the level of information available to parents about childcare facilities, the amount of affordable childcare in the constituency, the standards of existing childcare facilities, the resource requirements of these facilities and the ease of access for children and parents to them.

Launching the consultation Joanne said: ‘In an area like Westminster North where many young families are juggling the demands of raising children with the difficulties of work, access to good, affordable childcare is an urgent priority. Over the coming months I want to work with the staff, parents and children of the existing childcare centres in Westminster North to identify ways of extending good, affordable childcare to more families throughout our area.’   

Boris Praises Joanne

Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party candidate for London mayor praised Joanne when on a visit to Westminster North as part of his election campaign which culminates next May.

At a function attended by Joanne’s supporters, Boris said: ‘Joanne is a fantastic candidate and somebody who I very much look forward to working closely with as I try to break King Newt’s stranglehold on our great city. In only a very short space of time she has already proven that she has the ideas, energy and commitment to help make this part of London a better and safer place to live.’

My Constituency Wide Survey

Hopefully by now you will have received a survey from me in the post giving you a chance to outline your priorities for our area.

After ten years of Labour failure I believe it is important to ask you, the people that live and work within Westminster North, about your insights for how to make Westminster North a safer and better place to live.

So please, if there is a crack den on your street and nothing is being done, if the after school club your children go to is under-threat, if the local post office you use is facing closure or if the GP service you attend is being downgraded then please return the form to me in the freepost envelope enclosed with it.

No stamp is needed and I very much look forward to hearing your concerns about, and aspirations for, the part of Westminster we all call home.

If you have not yet received your survey, please email me at joanne@westminsternorthconservatives.com

Unsure if you are in Westminster North? Please click here

Joanne dismayed about the lack of progress in primary school literacy standards

Joanne was dismayed, though not surprised, to read that the millions of pounds Labour has pumped into the education system has had a negligible impact upon standards of literacy within our primary schools. The Cambridge Primary Review is the most comprehensive study of primary level schooling for decades and its latest briefing papers indicate that government claims about an advance in reading skills amongst children of this age are based on a testing system that seriously exaggerates any changes in attainment levels. Not only are these tests misleading but the pressure that they place on students is manifesting itself in a widespread loss of love for reading amongst children.

Commenting on these findings Joanne said: ‘This report serves to highlight the inadequacies of Labour’s policy on education. One in five children are leaving primary school unable to read to an acceptable standard and yet the education minister is content to hide behind his figures and talk of progress, utterly disregarding the findings of comprehensive, impartial studies such as this. Complacency of this kind is unacceptable and is severely undermining the life chances and future opportunities available to our children.'

To read the latest Cambridge Primary Review briefing papers, please click on this link