Cllr Clare Whelan talks about Labour’s plans to close the general waste depot in Vale Street, West Norwood.  The decision means that Lambeth residents will need to travel to Battersea from 1 April 2009.

Cllr Irene Kimm on the Rosendale Gardens Estate

Labour Lambeth let down tenants before it took power in 2006 by failing to tell them it planned to set up the deeply unpopular Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), now called Lambeth Living.

Setting up the ALMO cost £1 milion at a time when the housing service was already failing.  What followed was a flawed consultation and a rushed ballot.  And in the meantime:

• Neighbourhood housing offices have closed.
• Late night opening hours have been cut.
• Saturday opening has ceased.
• Garden maintenance is appalling.
• Repairs have been cut – failing contractors.

Cllr Irene Kimm, Lambeth’s Conservative housing spokeswoman, says:  “Labour has presided over cuts in the repairs service, lousy performance by outside contractors, while cleaning and garden maintenance is practically non existent.”

There are rules regarding the allocation of this money.  The main ones are:

• No more than three projects per ward;
• No award to be less than £1,000;
• Essentially, only schemes within Lambeth are permitted. We also have to avoid things that are already funded from other budgets;
• Only capital schemes qualify: i.e., no scheme with revenue implications is allowed. The best example there is CCTV (disallowed because of related running costs).
• Tight deadline – all paperwork needs to be completed and sent by us to the Council by mid February and the money spent by May.

Andrew Gibson, a Conservative councillor in Gipsy Hill ward, says:  “A typical example might be a photocopier shared and maintained by community groups.  Any expressions of interest or ideas would be most welcome.

“If we cannot accommodate a particular suggestion in 2009 it may be that it could be considered for a future year if the funding continues.  Alternatively, we could lobby for its approval from a different source of funding.”

CLICK HERE to view a copy of the form that councillors have to submit to the council.  This gives you an idea of the information needed from you if you make a bid.

The roof of a kiosk outside the station was removed recently to dissuade the drunks and beggars – who steal from local shops and aggressively beg from commuters – to stop them from communing there.

Station managers Southern railways have also offered the British Transport Police (BTP) an office on a Tulse Hill station platform so they can have a semi-permanent base there to deal with the problem.

However, the BTP spokeswoman said there were no plans to take the office and local neighbourhood officers would be continuing with their current strategy of having sweeping stations on the line.

Conservative leader and Thurlow Park councillor John Whelan has called for the area to become a no drinking zone to find a permanent solution to the problem. He has asked the council to approve research into the feasibility of such a zone .

He said: “I am in favour of all the work that is being done to improve the situation but we need to find a permanent solution to a problem that is blighting the area.”

Shops in adjacent Station Rise and commuters have called on the council, police and Southern to find a solution to a problem that has existed for months. Frustrations came to the surface recently when someone sprayed the kiosk with the words “scum drink here.”

The seriousness of the situation was exposed when a man associated with the group was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted murder of a man outside the Railway pub next to the kiosk.

The idea behind it is to show where crime is occurring at a local neighbourhood level – grouped by no more than a few streets – and compare crime levels in different parts of the capital. Simply type in your post code and you will be able to access details about local crime statistics.

Previously the Police only published details of crime broken down on a borough by borough basis.

The site shows that reported levels of burglary, robbery and vehicle crime in Lambeth are ‘average’ compared with other parts of London. A more detailed inspection unsurprisingly shows that crime levels vary across different parts of the borough – from ‘below average’ to ‘high’ – and often between different parts of the same town centre.

Conservative Group Leader John Whelan says: “Crime mapping has revolutionised the way they fight crime across American cities – and it can do the same here.

“Allowing residents to see exactly where crimes are being committed should act as incentive to pressure the Police and Lambeth Council to take action and do everything they can to prevent them.”

Metropolitan Police Officials have confirmed that Clapham Police Stations are under threat as part of a programme that would see over 60 stations across London close.

Scotland Yard bureaucrats want to see police based in shops, supermarkets and even industrial estates, despite concerns expressed by many front line officers.

Local residents have voiced disquiet about the plan saying there needs to be a permanent police station in our area. Under the plan the nearest Operational Police Base would be on an industrial estate in East Brixton, meaning a poorer service in Clapham as response times would increase as police vehicles would have travel through Brixton to get here.

Conservative Action
Conservative Councillors are putting pressure on Labour Lambeth to reverse their support for the closure plans which are supported by the Labour Assembly member for Lambeth & Southwark at City Hall.

Conservative members of the Metropolitan Police Authority have already forced the Met to consult on each proposed closure after it emerged they planned to railroad the closures through.

Local campaigner Nick Maund said: “Labour seem to want to destroy all our local services. Not content with closing our library, demolishing our swimming pool and shutting our sub post offices they now want to close our local police station and move our bobbies to the other side of Brixton.”

Police stations throughout Lambeth – including Gipsy Hill – are under a new threat of closure and disposal to developers as operational services are likely to be centralised in east Brixton. This means that police vehicle response times to areas like Gipsy Hill would be increased.

The police want to work from modern facilities, which is entirely understandable. But any cars sent from Shakespeare Road to Norwood would inevitably face the prospect of being diverted as they made their way here.

Lambeth Council looks likely to provide the Shakespeare Road site, having moved dustcarts from there to Vale Street in West Norwood – a double blow against Norwood.

This apparently firm proposal is made despite the fact that there are three Safer Neighbourhood Teams in the area that could be usefully based at Gipsy Hill.

Councillor Graham Pycock said: “At present, the Gipsy Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team is based in the police station, but absurdly, the Triangle Team is in a converted shop on the other side of the road, and the Upper Norwood Team is based in South Norwood. They could be brought together and the station saved. In any event, we will be looking for the Safer Neighbourhood Team to be retained and fully supported, and will be asking that a public counter service be preserved.”

The local Labour GLA representative for Lambeth & Southwark has sought to justify the reorganisation generally, but as Gipsy Hill is on the border of the borough it inevitably loses out, despite having severe issues with violent and other crime.

Pictured: Graham Pycock outside Gipsy Hill’s police station, which is under threat from closure

Shirley said: “Throughout Lambeth and Southwark, crime is the number one issue of concern – on the doorsteps, in the streets, and on public transport. We have had more than our fair share of news headlines in this area over the last year, and we need some radical ideas to tackle the problems. In the last 5 months I have been the victim of a street attack and robbery, and had my car vandalised.”

The Boris Johnson plan to make London safer includes:

• Chairing the MPA to provide leadership in standing up against unnecessary form filling and government targets, so that police can spend more time on the beat.
• Making buses, trains and stations safer by investing in a greater police presence on the network and live CCTV on buses.
• Combating knife and gun crime with a comprehensive strategy that deals with every aspect of the problem including: funding community groups; providing police with handheld weapon scanners; and designing out crime on new housing developments.
• Helping the ignored victims of sexual violence by providing long-term funding for new Rape Crisis Centres in London.
• Demanding a police service that is accountable to Londoners by providing neighbourhoods with New York-style crime maps that show the true levels of crime in each area, enabling them to hold local police to account.

Shirley added: “If crime is not tackled properly now, it will only get worse.”

CLICK HERE to read Boris’ crime manifesto in full.