Thousands of children have to move from central London

Thousands of school children in central London may be forced to move home and school because of housing benefits cuts.

More than 4,000 children are estimated to be living in Westminster, the borough which will be most affected by the housing benefit caps. Also Islington, Camden and Kensington & Chelsea will be impacted by the Government’s benefit shake-up; nearly 3,500 children in total are expected to have to move from these boroughs.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, stressed that he had secured significant concessions from the Government including more funding, incentives for landlords to reduce rents and more time for existing claimants before benefit caps become effective. He wants to ensure that the welfare changes are brought in ‘humanely’.

The manoeuvre will anyway cause huge disruption to thousands of families, increase pressure on school places in outer London and risk leaving schools in the centre of the capital struggling with a number of surplus places which may be costly to maintain.

The restrictions on housing benefit payments, which came into force in April for new claimants, are meant to stop people from getting over £100,000 a year to leave in homes the average family can only dream of.
The benefit caps will apply to people already receiving the benefits from next January.

Feis-tival in Finsbury Park

Last weekend Finsbury Park, one of the main park in North London, was transformed into a wonderland for Irish music lovers.

Despite the weather, more than 70 thousand people of any age took part in the Feis Festival between Saturday and Sunday.

With the likes of The Cranberries, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy -just to mention a few- it was far from unenjoyable.

Gunel Addullaerva is a hairdresser from Stoke Newington and came to the festival with her partner. “This is my first time at the Feis Festival; I came yesterday to see the Afro Celt Sound System performing and they were simply great! I am sure tonight is going to be exciting as well and I will be happy to come next year,” she said.

Despite the vast repertory of Irish music, some of the participants were no really happy about the organisation. Christopher Whitby is a museum worker from Finsbury Park and was at the Festival for a second day in a row to see his favourite singers on stage. “This Festival is all right, I had the chance to see The Gaslight Anthem yesterday and today I am here because of Van Morrison’s performance but the organisation is a bit disappointing. Queues are long anywhere and it feels a bit like a local fair,” he said.

Many professionals linked to the world of music took part in the Feis Festival, as well. Stuart-Roy Clark is photographer from the Lake District and came to London to make pictures for one of his exhibitions. “I produce books and art exhibitions all over the UK and I have collected material from 155 festivals in six summers, but this is the first one in am attending in London. The best pictures will go into one of my next exhibitions,” he said.

A Feis is a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival and this year it was its first time in Finsbury Park, which was partially closed to the general public for the duration of the build and on event days.

Airport number six is on its way

London will get its sixth major international airport when easyJet starts flying from Southend before the Olympics.

Southend was unveiled yesterday as the new base for easyJet, which will launch 70 flights a week on 10 scheduled routes in April 2012.

The low-cost airline expects to fly more passengers into London next summer than any other airline, as Southend will be the closest airport to the Olympics.

There are three new routes that have already been confirmed: Barcelona, Faro and Ibiza. The other seven European destinations will be disclosed soon. EasyJet expects to attract many holidaymakers heading to the Spanish resorts but also business travellers.

Southend, which is close to the mid-Thames estuary site, in Essex, was Britain’s third biggest airport 50 years ago and served as the initial base for Sir Freddy Laker’s pioneering cut-price New York Service. It fell into rapid decline with the rise of Gatwick and Stansted and now has only a few flights per week to Jersey and to Ireland.

A newly-built control tower at London Southend Airport is now fully operational thanks to the Stobart Group, which has invested millions of pounds in the project. A runaway extension, a new terminal building and the railway station are due to be finished this autumn.

There is some good news for those who are always in a hurry; passengers will not suffer long queues as the airport has been designed for short-haul travel and there won’t be long distances to travel through the terminal.

Countdown to the huge strike

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) will stage a one-day strike over pension row at the end of June.

The Government’s pension proposals will leave teachers working longer, losing serious money from their pay every month to support the new scheme and receiving less when they retire. These new plans are also giving teachers the chance to question if it is all worth it.

Teachers’ ballots show overwhelming support for strike: 83 per cent of ATL members and 92 per cent of NUT members voted in favour of the biggest day of strike since the government came into power. June 30 will also be the first time in the history of the ATL that the teaching union takes national strike action.

Civil servants and other public sector staff will be joining hundreds of thousands of teachers and lecturers who backed a walkout in protest at pension changes. About 750,000 workers are espected to take part in the strike, while thousands of schools will be hit by major disruption, job centres will be closed and queues will form at airports.

Meanwhile, more than 1 million workers in the UK’s biggest public sector union are prepared for protracted strikes over pension changes, job, pay and service cuts. The proposed action is likely to take place later this year.

Going to University? You should consider apprenticeships instead of a degree spot.

More than 200,000 candidates might miss out on university places this year as applications hit a record high.

With many university tuition fees looking to treble to up to £9,000 in 2012, this is the last chance most students have to apply and pay normal annual fees, before top education will be restricted to the rich elite.

Applications are already up 1.4 per cent on this time last year and if the current demand is maintained, more than 700,000 students will submit requests for 479,000 places, meaning three in ten will miss out on a degree place.

Among applicants there are also some of the students who were hopeful of making it on to a course in 2010. In fact 27 per cent of them were left disappointed and according to student leaders, the government’s failure to act on last year’s figures by adding more places was unacceptable.

Universities Minister David Willets said students should start to consider apprenticeships instead of fighting for a degree spot.

Meanwhile there are thousands of ambitious young people who want to know how universities will spend the extra income while others are anxious about job prospects after graduating.