News: May 2008 Archives

On Saturday 7 June there will be a daylong celebration of cycling in Walthamstow at the Hornbeam Centre (458 Hoe Street near the Bakers Arms). "Small Revolutions" will feature a range of activities throughout the day for all ages including free cycle training lessons, second hand bikes for sale, bike repairs, information stalls and opportunities to pimp your bike. The day will culminate at 5.30pm with a celebration bike ride through the streets of Walthamstow and the Hornbeam Cafe will be open all day for refreshments. For more details visit www.wfcycling.org.uk and www.1lesscar.org.uk.

Ensuring working people are treated fairly and equally in their jobs is I believe good for our economy and our society. That's why I was pleased this week that agreement has been reached to give agency workers the same rights as permanent staff after twelve weeks on the job. This is defined to mean at least the basic working and employment conditions that would apply to the workers concerned if they had been recruited directly to occupy the same job. These proposals have won the backing of both business representatives and trade unions, and will affect around 1.4million people in Britain currently on agency contracts, many of whom I know live in Walthamstow. If you are currently on an agency contract and want to know more about these proposals please get in touch.

Further to previous posts, the results of the Post Office consultation on planned closures have been announced. The proposals for closure of all three post offices in Walthamstow have been put to "further review". We don't know as yet what this will mean in terms of alternative proposals for our service and the timescale is as unclear. But, from the feedback we've had, I understand that the concerns raised by local residents, including those over queues at the central post office and its ability to cope, were key in this re-think. Thank you to everyone who took part in the campaign - we will fight on to make sure Walthamstow has the post office service it needs. It does show that campaigning can be effective! I'll keep updating readers of this blog with details of the next stage of this process as and when I get them. You can read how the local paper covered this here.