A school’s cleaners are taking their employers to the High Court over their low wages because they are mostly Latin American. Trade union United Voices of the World (UVW) is supporting a group of migrant staff suing La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School in Atkins Road, Clapham Park, for “institutional racism”.
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Teachers are voting on a strike as their union official faces disciplinary action for speaking up about the risk of relying on Covid tests done by staff and parents. Greenwich’s branch of the National Education Union is balloting members to defend their rep Kirstie Paton who is facing dismissal for speaking out about health and safety in schools.
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The number of families needing help after outbreaks of domestic violence has surged by 10 per cent in the last year, a baby charity has revealed. Balham project Little Village has released new figures showing that the number of women it supports due to domestic violence has increased in the last year.
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An earlier national lockdown at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic could have prevented the deaths of London bus drivers, a new report has found. The TfL-commissioned report from University College London’s Institute of Health Equity found that, of the 27 London bus drivers who died between March and May 2020, 22 of them probably caught the virus before lockdown measures were introduced on March 23.
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Families in one borough can get £221 a year towards their food shop. Through the NHS’ Healthy Start Voucher scheme, Greenwich has hundreds of pounds in vouchers waiting to be claimed by eligible families.
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Almost one in ten Londoners are expected to have no job by December this year, a report has found. London’s unemployment total is expected to peak at 9.4 per cent, or 464,000 people, by the end of this year according to new forecasting commissioned by London Councils.
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Women can now feel safer when walking in Peckham Rye Park at night thanks to a new volunteering initiative, Peckham Patrols, that launched on Monday. In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder and the police’s violent response to the Clapham vigil last Saturday, East Dulwich resident Amy Todd, 28, was tired of feeling powerless.
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A woman has revealed the extent of the painful effects of endometriosis, that could leave her unable to have children, and the stigma that women face as a result. “At first, I was told it was because I am overweight and if I lost weight it would go away. I was even told at one point that it was all in my head.”
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Emergency accommodation was given to 250 rough sleepers in Westminster when the temperature plummeted this winter, according to official figures. Across the UK the severe weather emergency protocol is called when the temperature drops to 0 degrees or below.
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A 75-metre office block is set to be built over Southwark underground station after a planning committee approved plans on Wednesday. Transport for London (TfL) is planning to build a 17-storey block over the station.
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March is endometriosis awareness month and despite the condition affecting one in ten women, many people are still unaware that it even exists. Lauren Colfer, 31, from Shortlands in Bromley, lost her kidney as a result of endometriosis and wants more people to be aware of the seriousness of the condition.
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TfL suspended cash payments at many Tube stations at the height of the pandemic in a bid to stop the virus spreading, but plans to make the move permanent were criticised by campaigners and eventually dropped over fears that up to 260,000 adult Londoners without bank accounts would be negatively impacted.
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The Government’s emergency funding deal for TfL will be extended until mid-May, the Transport Secretary has revealed. Grant Shapps announced via Twitter yesterday that the current deal, which runs until March 31, will be extended by seven weeks to May 18 under the same conditions as the existing deal.
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Motorists may have to pay a £3 toll to cross Hammersmith Bridge under a set of plans that could see it fully reopened by autumn 2022. Hammersmith and Fulham Council has announced that proposals it unveiled in November – where a temporary second deck would be built while repairs take place – have been deemed “feasible” by experts.
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The murder of Sarah Everard as she walked home at night has triggered an outpouring of sadness and criticism of the Met Police from women across South London. A vigil held on Saturday for the 33-year-old marketing executive at Clapham Common, where she disappeared, escalated into chaos when police officers flooded the bandstand and arrested attendees.
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The new owners of the historic former lap dancing venue at Soho’s Windmill Theatre say their £7m restoration plan will transform it to “a first class performance venue and cabaret”. For decades the iconic Windmill neon sign was a landmark in Soho and the venue was immortalised in a film starring Dame Judi Dench as Mrs Henderson who founded the Windmill Girls – nude performers who never moved.
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Crossrail has given an update on the work it has left to finish by its expected completion time in mid 2022 – nearly four years behind schedule. It comes amid uncertainty about whether the 26-mile Berkshire-to-Essex project will get the funding it needs to even hit this belated deadline.
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Rotary clubs in Bexley and Dartford are launching a series of free workshops run by volunteer professionals aimed at helping the unemployed put themselves in the best position to find employment (or self-employment).
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A virtual event will take place next week to ease the concerns of Lambeth residents over the Covid-19 vaccine. Lambeth Together, alongside the local NHS and Council, will host the online event called ‘It’s Time to talk about the Vaccines’ that will take place next Monday evening (March 22).
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