The public consultation for a controversial £14 million redevelopment of the Norwood Hall site in Lambeth to build a polyclinic and swimming pool has got off to a flawed start. Lambeth town planning officials have sent details of the plans to more than 750 households but admit in a covering letter to councillors that there are problems viewing the documents online through the Council Web site.

Conservative Group Leader Councillor John Whelan says: “This is nothing short of a disgrace. Launching a public consultation in mid August when many residents are on vacation is bad enough. The inability of people to find out what is going on via the Internet is even worse. Not everyone has the time to go to the public library in West Norwood and view the plans. In any case the library has been shut because of copper stolen from the roof.”

The redevelopment of Norwood Hall is a flagship project for Labour Lambeth but some residents would prefer alternative uses for the site including as a primary school. Doubts persist about the security of the funding since Lambeth Council itself has made no provision for the ongoing costs of managing the leisure facilities at the site if they are ever built. The previous Labour Government approved the £14 million building costs at the bidding of the local Labour MP under what is called the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). So far there has been no confirmation from the Coalition Government or the NHS that it will go ahead.

At the July council meeting she said: “Members who sit on these [scrutiny] committees should remember why they do so, it is to scrutinise and investigate the council and the administration’s policies on behalf of local residents and taxpayers.”

Cllr Whelan, who until recently sat on the Labour chaired Environment Scrutiny Committee, is highly critical of the committee’s failure to properly hold the administration to account and to reflect the concerns of the public. For example it took years for the committee to carry out a commission on dangerous dogs, even though everyone knew it was a real concern and problem for local residents. The commission should have taken only a few weeks – instead it was years between the commission being agreed and actually reporting – too late to make a real difference.

She adds: “Scrutiny is failing to deliver.”

At a full council meeting on Wednesday, July 28, Conservative group leader Councillor John Whelan argued that in the face of more than 400 council job losses this financial year, the free sheet should be scaled back and the money saved ploughed into saving essential services.

Recent figures show the paper, which costs £566,431 to run a year, relies on £163,146 in taxpayer cash to prop it up, because of a lack of advertising revenue.

One of the damaged trees on Lancaster Avenue

Mature trees on a West Norwood avenue boasting million pound houses were cut down after a cock-up by contractors replacing the pavement.

Workers for Conways were relaying a section of paving in Lancaster Avenue when they damaged the roots of at least eight trees, the oldest believed to be at least 60-years-old.

Lambeth Council deemed the trees a health and safety hazard, and potentially immediately unsafe, and ordered them to be cut down last week.

But concerned residents believe the council was too eager to order all the trees’ destruction after only one was seen to show signs of being damaged.

Antony Mason, chairman of the Lancaster Avenue Residents’ Association, said residents had tried to protest with the tree surgeons who cut down the trees. He demanded all the trees be checked again to see they were really damaged, but to no avail.

He said: “It was very disappointing, trees should not be lost like this.”

Thurlow Park ward councillor John Whelan said: “The whole incident must be investigated and assurances given this will not happen again. We don’t want further trees damaged when other pavement work is carried out in Lambeth.”

A Lambeth council spokesman said: “A number of trees were damaged by a contractor undertaking pavement work – we regard this as totally unacceptable and share residents frustrations and have made our concerns very clear to the contractor responsible.

UPDATE: On Sunday 15th August 2010 another tree collapsed outside No. 25 Lancaster Avenue. John says: “Fortunately there was no person or property damaged in this latest incident, but I am now calling for a full inspection of all trees as work has only just started on the south side of the road and this must not be allowed to happen again.”

The Emergency Budget papers due to go to a meeting of full Council on July 28 fail to quote any figures on likely job losses and will only become clear after the Government public spending review in the last quarter of 2010. After that officers forecast that the administration will need to produce a “second emergency budget.”

Natural wastage from people leaving for other jobs or retiring accounts for a reduction of around 8 per cent a year in staff. Nevertheless, some council departments will be axed by up to 40 per cent. The proposed cuts do include a long list of service areas where funding has been withdrawn including children’s services. Other services such as planning, payroll and human resources may become merged with other local authorities to achieve savings.

Responding to press questions a senior Labour Cabinet member has said that the 2,000 figure is “unrealistic” but refused to say how many jobs are due to go over the next four years. Cllr Whelan comments: “Whereas no one would expect a list of specific job cuts at this stage it is irresponsible in the extreme to stonewall the question when people need to make decisions about their future.”

In a further sign of belt tightening the Council is scrapping all refreshments for events or council officers and members attending town hall meetings. “No one will mourn the loss of the town hall sandwich or chicken leg which you can buy in a nearby coffee bar,” says Cllr Whelan. “The people responsible for this crisis are the Labour Party who refused to take any action to reduce costs before the election. They made election promises knowing that big cuts in public spending were on the horizon whether Brown or Cameron was in No 10.”

Iraq War hero Will Blackburn, who served as an officer in the Territorial Army during the immediate aftermath of the invasion in 2003, is the Conservative candidate for the Tulse Hill Ward by-election on Thursday 1st July. Voters demanded an immediate by-election after a newly re-elected Labour councillor was arrested and bailed, by a specialist unit of the Metropolitan Police, on allegations of downloading material from pay-for-view child abuse pornography web sites. The Labour councillor had resigned after just 17 days in office — a new record for Lambeth.

Will, aged 40,  moved to Tulse Hill in 2002 and joined the Territorial Army through the depot at Tulse Hill. Shortly afterwards he was mobilised to Iraq during the allied coalition operation to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. On completing his tour of duty in April 2004, Will returned to working in software publishing and now concentrates on using technology to deliver savings and efficiency in local government throughout the United Kingdom.

Will, a resident of Helix Road in Tulse Hill, says: “My work with local government has encouraged me to get involved in local politics and gives me an insight into how the environment and housing stock in Tulse Hill could be improved. I am a fighter and will work as hard for people in Tulse Hill in peace time as I did in the armed forces in time of war.”

Conservative Leader on Lambeth Council Cllr John Whelan says: “Will will be a great  Lambeth councillor with a fine record of service to his country and the community.  We hope the residents of Tulse Hill will trust Will to deliver — given that he will have access to the new Conservative led government and the Mayor of London.”

The house in a leafy street opposite a church was “decanted” in August 2009 of its former residents and boarded up but nothing happened about the proposed major repairs and just before Christmas squatters moved in with possessions stacked in two vans. They broke in, disabled the security alarm, and reconnected the electricity. Now the council faces determined opposition from the squatters and will have to spend thousands of pounds of tax payers money to evict the illegal occupants.

Lambeth lawyers have reacted quickly but that’s more than you can say for the housing department which is a by-word for incompetence and overspending with its housing revenue account £7 million in the red.

Conservative Group Leader Cllr John Whelan takes up the story.

“It beggars belief that the council ignored so many telephone calls, e-mails, and representations by local councillors,” says Cllr Whelan.

“The truth only emerged at a meeting with Labour MP for Streatham Keith Hill, the chairman of Lambeth Living, where it was stated by the Chief Executive of Lambeth Living a few days before the squatters struck that no decision had been made about proceeding with the repairs.”

In addition, the Council ignored several requests for the front garden of the property to be cleared of dumped rubbish.

Cllr Whelan (see picture) says: “In the end, I went round myself and spent 90 minutes tidying up the garden helped by the waste contractor Veolia who sent a vehicle to take away the garbage. What I’ll never know is why the residents were moved out four months before the repairs were finally authorised. The biggest losers are the two families that lived in the house who will have to wait ages to get back into their homes.”

John (left) and the Veolia crew doing the rounds in West Norwood

Lambeth Conservative Group Leader John Whelan “wheelie binned” it for a day on October 30 to raise money for the children’s charity Barnardo’s. He volunteered for a shift as a bin man to raise money for the charity. And Lambeth’s waste contractor Veolia fixed for him to empty his own bin and those of his neighbours. They include two other West Norwood councillors—David Malone from Labour and Irene Kimm from the Conservatives.

Cllr Whelan has already raised £700 in sponsorship from friends, colleagues, and family for doing the round and has emerged with a new respect for the “professionalism” of Lambeth’s waste collectors. “The crew (see picture) were absolutely brilliant and incredibly caring,” he says. “Apart from one load of abuse from an impatient white van driver in Avenue Park Road which is a one way street, we only had compliments from the public. Or at least those residents of West Norwood who were awake at 0600 in the morning, or later on making their way to work.”

The fund raiser is part of a “team building “ task set by Cllr Whelan’s day time employer to send a team to run the Barnardo’s charity shop in Lambeth for a day on Thursday November 5. Already in the frame to visit the shop on Bonfire Day are local MP Kate Hoey, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Glyn Chambers, Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Nick Ephgrave, and the Mayor of Lambeth Councillor Christopher Wellbelove who will preside over the drawing of a raffle.

Cllr John Whelan, Cllr Evans-Jacas and Streatham Parliamentary Candidate Rahoul Bhansali

Labour smears directed at a new Conservative councillor in Brixton who converted to the Tories collapsed in shame today, exposing Labour as the “nasty party” of South London.

Labour Leader of the Council Steve Reed alleged at a Lambeth Council meeting on October 21, and on his personal blog and Twitter account, that the Conservatives had allegedly “bought a seat on the Council” by promising Councilor Betty Evans-Jacas a huge increase in her allowances on the London Fire Authority. It was a false allegation with no evidence.

Today, the now Conservative-controlled London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority voted in new appointments scheme recognising proportionality between the parties without making any change in special responsibility allowances for Councillor Evans-Jacas.

In the meantime, ex Labour Lambeth Mayor Lloyd Leon, a stalwart community activist in Brixton since the 1980s, has reported the Leader of the Council to the Lambeth Standards Committee, which upholds standards in public life. Additionally, Fabian Wells, Chair, South London Black Business Association, has also publicly slammed Labour attempts to brand Cllr Evans-Jacas as a “scab,” which he says equates with the even more derogatory expression of “black leg.”

Conservative Leader in Lambeth Councillor John Whelan says: “Labour has lost all moral compass and lets itself down by making libelous and defamatory allegations that have no foundation.  I also fear that the Leader of the Council is out of touch with his elected members.  We can expect more of the remaining back bench Labour councillors to reconsider their futures in coming weeks.  Watch this virtual space.”

The events started on October 9 when Councillor Evans-Jacas resigned from the Labour Party and applied for the Conservative Whip.

“It sparked a ferocious attack on her by the Labour Party,” says Conservative Leader Councillor John Whelan.  “I have now seen the text of a letter written by former Labour Mayor Lloyd Leon expressing his disgust at this abuse which calls for disciplinary action by the Council through the Chief Monitoring Officer.  Lloyd recalls a previous occasion from the 1980s when a councillor changed allegiance — the political parties show respect and constraint.  Sadly, this is lacking in today’s Labour Party which has lost all sense of moral compass.”