March 2009 Archives

In the latter half of last year more passengers were paid refunds for journeys delayed by late-running trains on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines than on any other underground lines.

Figures obtained by the Observer under the Freedom of Information Act show Tube bosses doled out £118,447 for 26,273 claims relating to the Met line between June and November. Jubilee Line passengers received paybacks totalling £73,907 for 19,369 claims in the same period.

Travellers can apply to Transport for London (TfL) for a reimbursement equivalent to a single fare if their journey is delayed by more than 15 minutes.

Performance figures for roughly the same six months reveal the District line suffered the most late-running trains, an average of 28 a month.

The Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines held the second poorest record with 24 delays each a month, followed by the Central line's 22.

Those using the Jubilee line experienced an average of 13 services a month in which arrival was more than a quarter of an hour overdue.

However, these are absolute numbers and do not take into account the total number of services run on each line.

There may be a number of reasons why TfL pays out more to Metropolitan and Jubilee line passengers than any other.

Statistics show travellers using the Met have the longest average journey time of any line - around 41 minutes.

This, combined with the fact the line stretches from zone 1 to zone 9 and therefore a typical fare may be more expensive, could explain why a Met passenger would be more inclined to seek a refund than someone who hops on the Northern line for a handful of stops within two or three zones at relatively low cost, for instance.

Furthermore, long sections of the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines run on the surface, especially in north-west London, so are susceptible to the impact of bad weather compared to, for example, the Victoria line, which is entirely underground.

Anthony Wood, chairman of the Harrow Public Transport Users' Association, attributes the large number of claims on the Metropolitan to three factors.

He said: "One, the average journey on the line is longer for each person, so the fare is higher. Two, the line has the oldest trains on the system so there's more failures, and three, the signalling system is the oldest on the network, so there are more faults.

"These are the main failures but these are being sorted within the next seven to eight years - a much longer period than we were originally told."

He added: "There are a large number of passengers who know the customer service charter and are quite rightly making claims."

Harrow on the Hill's Catholic college has applied to construct a new security checkpoint.
St Dominic's Sixth Form College is seeking permission to build a "discreet and hidden" security booth by the chapel north entrance.
It would have pedestrian turnstiles to better control access of visitors on foot and would overlook a separate raisable barrier with intercom for vehicles entering and leaving the campus in Mount Park Avenue.
The scheme would involve the loss of five parking spaces but the addition of one disabled parking space and 10 cycle spaces, as well as new railings and landscaping.

To celebrate the opening of its new Harlesden store, Specsavers has teamed up with the Observer to offer four lucky readers the chance to each win £150 worth of eyecare.

The competition is part of the store's two-week celebration to mark its launch.

Each prize includes a free eye examination and a pair of designer specs up to the value of £125.

The four winners can chose from well-known brands including Jasper Conran, Quiksilver, Red or Dead, Missoni and Specsavers' own best selling range of designer glasses - Osiris. A trained store stylist will be on hand to advise on the best frame style and shape to suit their face.

To enter email your name, address, and daytime telephone number to or on a postcard to Specsavers competition, Gazette House, 28 Bakers Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1RG.

The closing date is March 27.

A deal to reopen The Old Post Office on the Hill is close to being agreed, a ward councillor has revealed.

The branch shut on July 3 2008 as one of 152 across London that the Post Office Ltd had decided to wind up three months earlier.

It had served the local community for five decades but customers, including the 800 boys at Harrow School, must use the next nearest service: down the Hill in College Road, Harrow.

Councillor Mark Versallion said: "Just before Christmas, I initiated Harrow Council and Harrow School talking to each other to save the Post Office.

"The school and the council are prepared to do this. We're looking to sponsor it."

"I'm very much lobbying everybody all the time to make sure we come up trumps.

"It's got put through [to the Post Office board] but since then it's dragged on.

"I'm confident we're going to succeed, though."

Mr Versallion said a reopened post office may not offer exactly the same opening hours and services at it used to.

The Observer's Save Our Post Offices campaign encouraged readers to take part in the official consultation process,and more than 500 wrote to the newspaper saying they wished for their local branch to be spared.

But despite the massive public outcry, four other post offices were also earmarked for closure in the borough.

PINNER'S latest season of jazz is expected to end in style next month - with the popular Dave Newton Trio closing out the event.
For years Dave was fully occupied as accompanist to singer Stacey Kent but now he's back on the freelance trail.
He has consistently been rated among the genres top brass in recent years and has been lauded for his work with US tenor star Johnny Griffin.
Accompanied by his regular companions, bassist Andy Cleyndert and Steve Brown on the drums, the trio will take to the stage at Pinner Parish Church, Church Lane, on Saturday, April 4.
The concert begins at 8pm and doors open at 7:20pm.
Tickets start from £9 - if booked in advance - and the box office information line is 020 8429 1260.
For more information visit www.pinnerjazz.org.uk

Neighbours in Harrow want to know why Harrow School's cricket fields have repeatedly flooded over the past five years, leaving their back gardens submerged.

John Cooke, of Merton Road, said since 2002, standing water has not soaked away from the pitch after it has rained and eventually the pool overflows into his garden and four others that back onto it.

Residents like him have complained to the school and local politicians in an effort to resolve the historic dispute.

He told the Observer: "Despite spending huge amounts of money on a new irrigation scheme during last summer and autumn, this cricket field complex has ended up with a massive pool of rainwater which remains on the surface for weeks.

"There are other satellite pools also, besides the increased flooding threat over the garden boundaries of Merton Road. Much of the grass surfaces are waterlogged.

"Harrow School is guilty of landscaping all the character out of these grounds, over the years, by removing trees and bushes and eliminating natural land profiles and other features.

"These changes have brought about problems with surface water and drainage. When challenged the school claims that responsibility lies with Harrow Council and/or Thames Water."

In order to find a solution, Gareth Thomas, Labour MP for Harrow West, has brokered a meeting between the Merton Road residents affected and Harrow School on March 30, with the possibility that representatives from the utility company and the council may attend

A fake diamond-encrusted belt and a discarded cigarette butt helped to bring a pair of rapists to justice.

The 14-year-old victim of Jeton Jashari remembered his distinctive initialled belt after he raped her in a wood last year and detectives later found an identical one in his cupboard.
DNA from the saliva left on the cigarette butt found at the crime scene was also used to identify him.

The 18-year-old of Toorack Road, Harrow, was convicted on Monday of raping the teenager in The Grove Open Space in Lowlands Road on September 3.

He and Binak Hasa, 19, had been charged with assaulting two 14-year-olds they had spotted on a 183 bus coming into Harrow from Kings-bury. Hasa, of Salmon Street, Kings-bury, had been accused of raping one of the girls in another part of the wood at the same time, and pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

His brother, who had also been on the bus, followed them from Harrow bus station, in College Road, to Lowlands Recreation Ground, where Hasa and Jashari later caught up with them, the court heard.

Hasa's brother left swiftly, saying he didn't want anything to do with it, the jury was told.

But Hasa and Jashari, both of Albanian descent, followed the girls into a wood in The Grove open space where they began chatting to the two on a fallen log.

When left alone, Jashari pushed the frightened teen to the floor and held her down in the mud, before taking off his trousers and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

The court heard that the pair also stole a mobile phone from one of their victims and later rang the other saying her friend would have to pay £50 to get it back.

One victim said in interview that her attacker wore a distinctive black leather belt with a buckle containing a fake diamond encrusted J.

n Hasa and Jashari now face lengthy sentences when they reappear at court on April 2.

Police were called at midday on Saturday after an 18-year-old girl was mugged in Station Road, Harrow.

The hooded attacker, believed to be about 20 and 5ft 4in tall, snatched the teenager's handbag, containing £100 cash and bank cards, before running towards an alleyway opposite Lyon Road.

Addicts in desperate need of treatment may revert to crime if health bosses carry out plans to hand responsibility for drug treatment programmes to private firms.

That is according to a senior source at Harrow Primary Care Trust (PCT), who says plans are in the pipeline to commission out the services in a bid to cut costs - raising fears the quality of the provision will be compromised.

The whistleblower approached the Observer because of growing concerns that drug users will no longer get the attention they desperately need and that drug-related crime could rise as a result.

The source said: "If all the services are put out for tender it is likely that voluntary groups will run substance misuse programmes for a lot less money.

"These services do offer decent treatment, of course, but they have a history of having lower standards because they don't have to meet the same government criteria.

"Because of this they are not required to hire staff with greater qualifications and are therefore, comparatively, less qualified to deal with these vulnerable patients."

If these plans do go ahead, the doctor says staff who currently work within the service will be moved or redeployed, not necessarily within the same field, and crucial relationships with users will be lost.

They added: "Statistics show that the best kind of treatment for drug users comes when they deal with the same person on a regular basis.

"If staff are moved around, this rapport will be lost and, therefore, so will the effectiveness of the treatment.

"If this happens then more drug users face failing to deal with their problems and potentially there will be higher levels of crime in the area."

The medic added that at present there are seven programmes set to go out to tender, used by 642 people, according to the latest figures - many of them for the use of drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.