As it is most people, December is very much a holiday period and time spent with family. I took two weeks off work and headed to Brighton just before Christmas to celebrate my brother Rod's birthday at a local Indian restaurant with Rod and Helen, Dad and Heather, Glenn and PJ.  Apart from a mad dash round the shops to buy presents, Christmas Day and most of Christmas week was spent at my mother's home eating far too much and watching television. December is also a quiet period politically for me because of the holidays and I only attended two meetings of any local significance.

On Tuesday 8th I attended a meeting of the Hanwell Community Forum. Of particular interest to me, a new planning application to develop the "Town Square" in front of the Lidl was discussed by the Forum before it was passed by the Planning Committee on the 16th. I was mainly opposed to the application on the grounds that it allowed Lidl to break the original planning agreement to provide public toilets on the site. Lidl built a toilet but inconveniently lost the key so it was never opened or used. Although the Council has now started a community toilet scheme in Hanwell, I firmly believe that the council should provide public toilets which are open twenty-four hours every day so residents have somewhere to go even when the shops or pubs participating in the scheme are closed, and they should have held Lidl to their obligations. Lidl's new plans mean the removal of the toilet and the seating area in front of the store which will be replaced by the planting of some new trees. Lib Dem Councillor Harvey Rose abstained while all the other Tory and Labour councillors on the Planning Committee voted to support Lidl's application.   

On Monday 7th, I attended this month's Hanwell Carnival committee meeting. I have been a member of the Hanwell Carnival committee for the past two years, producing the carnival programme, updating the old website and helping to set up the main stage/ family arena on the day.  Given that the General Election is expected to coincide with the local elections in May, I have been reluctant to commit to producing next year's carnival programme, but I have willingly remained on the carnival committee to help in the preparations in any other way.

The Hanwell carnival is believed to be the oldest carnival in London and next year will the 50th consecutive carnival since it was re-started in 1961. The theme of the carnival will be "60s Gold" and the committee is working hard to ensure we celebrate the carnival's Golden Anniversary in style.  At the meeting, we discussed the idea for a commemorative key in a presentation box to give away to special guests or to sell on the day. We have also raised the idea of extending next year's carnival and plans for an evening concert with the council and local police but the suggestion of having fireworks at the end of the carnival was voted down at the meeting given that it will be mid summer and it would not be dark until very late. Alastair showed the committee the shell of the new carnival website that he is working on ww.hanwellcarnival.co.uk which has a much more modern and enticing feel about it. Members of the committee were certainly enthusiastic about the possibilities that the new site will bring like and hopefully visitors will find it a vast improvement on the old website www.hanwellcarnival.org.uk once it is up and running. 

At the moment, many of the discussions at these meetings revolves around the committee's rather limited finances and this evening was no exception. Unlike Acton or Greenford carnivals which are run by Ealing Council, the Hanwell carnival is independently run and does not charge an entrance fee. Unfortunately, though, the carnival has run at a loss for the last few years so the committee is keen to find new sponsorship or advertising to help pay the bills. The committee is also in the process of trying to achieve charitable status for the carnival to avoid paying VAT  and because it is hoped that the committee will be able to apply for various lottery or government grants once the carnival is a registered charity. On top of this, along with other committee members, I attended a meeting with a local Tory Councillor in October to ask for his support for the carnival on various matters including finances. The Elthorne and Hobbayne ward forums currently pay for the traffic orders required to hold the carnival procession and we have asked for extra financial assistance to support the carnival's 50th anniversary. Although we don't have a firm commitment that the Council will provide any specific additional finance, hopefully local Councillors will look at our request sympathetically if there is any unspent money left over from this year's ward budgets.