Local residents and ward councillors asked the Council to remove the dustcart depot from Vale Street by this September, as the council had promised.

The Council’s decision?

It has decided to keep the dustcarts in Norwood for at least four more years and increase the likely frequency of truck visits on Saturdays.

In 2007, Lambeth Council gained temporary planning permission to site dustcarts at the Vale Street Depot.

Labour-controlled Lambeth and the local MP said this was only a stop-gap solution.  Residents and ward councillors strongly opposed having dustcarts on Vale Street at all, as we didn’t trust the council to remove them as promised.

Now, at a Planning Committee, the Council has confirmed its betrayal.

Gipsy Hill councillor Andrew Gibson says:  “The best way to get rid of the dustcarts from our residential area now is to bring about a change in control at Town Hall.  We have the opportunity to do that next May at the council election.  We must never forget Labour’s betrayal of Norwood.”

Councillor John Whelan, Conservative Group Leader, says:  “The report finds that the overall service is now weak but by contrast it adds several times that in 2006 Lambeth Housing (as Lambeth Living was then known) was performing adequately and demonstrating improvement.

“The biggest risk now is that it will take too long for the service to recover in time to reach the standard necessary to qualify for £250 million from the Government to meet the decent home standard by 2014.”

CLICK HERE if you would like to download key extracts from the new report.

Clapham is set to lose its pool for at least 17 months

Three years after fighting the last council elections on a promise to “Keep Clapham Swimming”, Labour Lambeth have announced plans to close and demolish the Clapham Leisure Centre in September.

While Lambeth Council says that another will be built on the site, even by their own figures Clapham would be without a pool for at least 17 months – and many expect it to be much longer.  Indeed, in the current economic recession, there must be a serious risk that, even if the project starts, it may never be completed.

“Labour has betrayed the people of Clapham,” says former Councillor Bernard Gentry.  “They promised to ‘Keep Clapham Swimming’ and now they are closing the pool.  What other Council would demolish one of its main leisure centres in the run up to the London Olympics when demand for swimming facilities will be increasing?”

“Their actions are reckless and risk leaving Clapham without a pool for several years,” adds Sebastian Lowe.  “There is plenty of space to build a new pool on the Mary Seacole House or the Depot site, which would mean that the existing pool would then remain open until the new one is built.  Why is Labour so keen not to preserve the continuity of service and start off by demolishing the existing pool?”

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.”

300 squatters spent 6 months in Clapham's Limerick Court, costing Lambeth Council £500k

Labour bosses face an investigation over a possible overspend of £22m in housing budgets.  Houses were left empty while the council continued to pay private landlords for their use and it regularly took six weeks for new tenants to move in once occupants had left.

FACT: In one incident 300 squatters moved into Limerick Court housing estate in Clapham for six months, costing the council an estimated £500,000.

Critically, housing officials failed to do their sums properly when the Labour government cut benefit funding.  All these factors led to a shortfall of £6 million last year but the knock on effects may bring this up to around £22 million by March 2010.

An all-party group of councillors has recommended an investigation into the possibility of fraud because private landlords were paid for houses lying empty.  Their report says they were “astounded” at the “reckless” behaviour concerning the use of private properties.

Gipsy Hill Conservative councillor Andrew Gibson says:  “Make no mistake, Lambeth taxpayers will foot the bill for Labour’s mismanagement whatever the outcome of the official inquiry.  The vast majority of tenants have completely lost faith in the Labour council.”

Demands for five-figure sums will be sent to 3,500 leaseholders in the coming fortnight for works such as roof and windows replacements carried out as long as eight years ago.  In almost all cases, the cash demands from Labour Lambeth are expected to be disputed because of the poor quality of the work and its exorbitant cost.

The council has admitted leaseholders were not billed before because of its housing department’s “inconsistent practices” and misplaced files.  This gross incompetence means leaseholders face a lottery over who has to pay as the struggling council tries to balance its books after it racked up huge overspends over the past 12 months.

While the 3,500 will have to find huge lump sums to foot the bills, a further 2,000 will have their bills reduced or cancelled because the council does not have the information required to issue the demands.

Council officers have had to write off up to £4million worth of works because they cannot process them, admitting that thousands of other leaseholders will have to “cope with a large debt in a difficult financial climate”.  An official report warns the council will take legal action against those who do not hand over the cash.

Conservative councillors have slammed the move, with Cllr Irene Kimm saying: “This could not have come at a worst time for leaseholders, who are going to face huge bills because of the council’s incompetence.

“In many of these cases, the quality of the works carried out is poor and the cost to the leaseholders is extortionate.”

Lambeth Council's irresponsible advert

Labour-run Lambeth Council has been slammed for encouraging residents to join the electoral register to apply for a credit card.  The adverts have been sited on busy streets across the borough just as the credit crunch kicks in for many people with a reduction in wages and job losses.

Conservative councillors have supported efforts to increase the number of residents who are signed up to vote in elections, but this latest advertising campaign is insensitive and the wrong way to promote the importance of registration.

Councillor John Whelan, Conservative Group Leader, says:  “Given the credit crunch it is grossly irresponsible for Lambeth Council to try and bolster the electoral register by encouraging more people to apply for credit cards.  It is morally wrong that the Council is inviting people to take on more debt when people are losing their jobs every day and rents are going up for council tenants by £12 a week.  Whoever produced this advertisement should be fired.”

CLICK HERE to find out how to sign up to vote in Lambeth and download a copy of the registration form.

A local Labour MP has admitted that the economy is wrecked after 11 years of Labour Goverment and facing a recession “deeper than any that we have known”.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, made the admission while being interviewed about London’s bid for the 2012 Olympics on the BBC’s Daily Politics.  The stunning confession came only weeks after the Chancellor predicted that the economy would return to growth in the second half of 2009.

Lambeth Labour are slashing sports funding

Almost £1million worth of spending cuts are to be made to sports provision, libraries and parks in Lambeth.

Labour are set to reduce community sports programmes and slash previously planned investment in libraries and parks to save £995,000.

Secret town hall documents, leaked to a local newspaper, revealed the council plans to make the harsh spending cuts between now and March 2008. It reveals plans to:

• Cut £250,000 to oversee plans for developing leisure centres in the borough.
• Cut £200,000 worth of sports development jobs to run community sports programmes for kids, pensioners and other groups.
• Cut maintenance budget for sports facilities by £100,000
• Scale back the sports booking service.

It means a planned expansion of the council’s community sports programme has been binned, but none of the already scheduled activities will be affected.

The plan will also see less park rangers employed to look after the borough’s parks, and cash allocated for floral displays like hanging baskets axed.

Libraries will also suffer, with cash earmarked for new IT facilities and special events axed as part of the council’s cultural services recovery plan.

Leader of the Conservative Group, Councillor John Whelan, said: “If this is a recovery plan then it’s likely to kill off the patient.

“At a time when there is national concern about rising levels of obesity among young people, the borough is cutting its commitment to providing sports facilities by £600,000.

“Further cuts are going to put libraries and parks under threat.”

“Labour commissioned a Review of Libraries in 2006, but some two years later the report is still gathering dust on a shelf,” says John.  “Since then nearly all the senior officers who were leading the service have voted with their feet and left the Council.

“Libraries in Lambeth are under threat of closure once again given the financial holocaust facing the administration.  Leaving a service to wither on the vine is usually the first step to axing it.”