October 2009 Archives

Council tax will fall by three per cent for the fourth year running, Hammersmith and Fulham Council announced today.

The authority claims it is able to make the cuts having stripped away more than £42 million worth of waste and bureaucracy over the past three years.

Back-street pubs perform a vital community service and should be protected from being shut down and turned into flats, councillors agreed last night.

Guidelines will be drawn up to try to stop developers getting hold of local pubs with a high land value, then carving them up to sell on for large profits.

School dinners are to be delivered by members of the public using their own cars in Shepherd's Bush after Hammersmith and Fulham Council handed control of catering over to a private firm.

Adverts appealing for 'owner drivers' of estate cars and vans have placed in print and online, raising concerns about how closely people recruited to transport children's food will be monitored.

Five young children escaped with their lives after their Hammersmith home was gutted in a fierce fire.

A seven-storey block in Aspen Gardens, near King Street, had to be evacuated after the blaze took hold in the ground floor flat at around 6,30pm on Friday.

A 60-year-old man was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for setting fire to the stairwell of flats in Shepherd's Bush in which several people were sleeping.

William Spillane set light to the stairs of his home above Askew Carpet Warehouse in Askew Road in March 2006, causing serious damage and injuring those forced to escape.

A teenager is facing life in jail for the murder of a young father who was shot dead as he unloaded Christmas presents outside his girlfriend's Shepherd's Bush home.

Nathan Harris, 16, was found guilty today of the murder in Loftus Road on Christmas Eve last year following a six week trial at the Old Bailey.

A car sharing club in Shepherd's Bush now has 3,000 members using 45 vehicles in 35 locations around the borough, with another 10 locations to follow before the end of the year.

Streetcar claims local demand for VW Golfs, Polos and Transporter vans - which are hired on a pay-as-you-go basis from bays on the street and in car parks - has rocketed by more than a third in Hammersmith and Fulham over the last 12 months.

A mother whose five-year-old daughter was distressed by a dead fox left outside their Shepherd's Bush home is appealing for animals killed on the roads to be cleared more quickly.

Carol Robson discovered the large fox shortly after it was hit by a car in Goldhawk Road early on Monday morning,(OCT 5) and immediately reported it to Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

Police are urging people to come forward with information about a grandfather missing for eight years who was known to frequent Shepherd's Bush.

Retired betting shop manager Don Banfield, 71, has not been seen since disappearing from his home in Harrow in May 2001.