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 Cllr McGovern's open letter in support of Camberwell baths |
On 20th October Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory executive will decide the fate of Camberwell leisure centre. Cllr Alison McGovern, Southwark Labour’s culture leisure and sport spokeswoman, here writes an open letter to her opposite number in the executive, Cllr Lewis Robinson, to ask for the full refurbishment of the baths on behalf of the Labour councillors. Dear Cllr Robinson, I am writing to you because later this month you will, with the rest of Southwark Council’s Lib Dem/Tory ...
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| Labour victory as Lib Dems make violent crime strategy u-turn after
2 year-long campaign |
After two years of campaigning by Labour, Southwark’s ruling Lib Dem/Tory coalition has finally agreed to put party politics aside and cooperate with Labour councillors to write a new violent crime strategy for the borough. In that time Southwark has become the most violent crime-ridden borough in London and the ninth most dangerous area to live in the country. The move marks a key departure from the Lib Dem/Tory executive’s policy as they have insisted that a strategic approach ...
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| Southwark Council wastes millions on hundreds of long-term ‘temps’ |
Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council is wasting millions of pounds a year on hundreds of agency staff that have been working at the council for longer than six months and haven’t been offered a contract, a Southwark Labour Freedom of Information request reveals. In total 416 members of council staff, 7% of the council’s employees, are agency staff who have been on placement with the council for longer than six months. 103 have been at the council for more than 2 years. The FOI request a...
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| Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory executive split by George Osborne’s
anti-local plans |
The Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition that has run Southwark since 2006 has been split this week by George Osborne, the Tory Shadow Chancellor’s, plans to take the power to decide council tax levels away from local councils. In a survey conducted by the Evening Standard, the Liberal Democrats of the coalition are quoted as opposing the plans which would take power away from local representatives, while the Conservatives’ position isn’t made clear. The plans are opposed by ...
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| Kath Whittam selected as candidate for Rotherhithe |
Labour have selected community campaigner Kath Whittam to fight the forthcoming Rotherhithe by-election. Kath has lived in Rotherhithe for over 20 years and is the manager of the Surrey Docks Farm. Active within the Rotherhithe community since she moved to the area, Kath was a teacher at a local school before having her own children, who now attend a Rotherhithe primary school. "I have always stood up for Rotherhithe and would be honoured to follow in the footsteps of...
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| Council set to increase agency staff bill by £5.5 million |
In the 23 weeks since the start of this financial year Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council has spent a staggering £16.9 million on wasteful agency staff, an average of £733,460 every week. The size of the bill means that if spending continues at its current rate the council will spend £5.5 million more on agency staff this year than last year despite promises by the executive to cut down the amount that the cash-strapped council spends on temps. Agency staff are significantly more ex...
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| Southwark parents to get help with childcare costs to train |
Southwark is to be one of the first areas in the country to benefit from a new government scheme to open up access to training to parents. The £75 million national scheme will mean that parents who want to train will be able to apply for up to £205 a week in childcare costs which would be paid direct to the childcare provider. The scheme will be open to low income families where one of the parents is working and the other parent wants to improve skills that will help them to go back int...
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| Majority of towed cars taken less than an hour after getting
parking ticket |
The majority of cars which are towed away by Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council are taken less than an hour after they have been issued with a parking ticket, new figures obtained by Southwark Labour can reveal. 705 cars were removed by Southwark between 1st April and 22nd June, in an average time of just 54 minutes after they had been issued with a parking ticket. 23 of the vehicles were removed under 10 minutes after the ticket was issued. The time that elapses between a parking ticket ...
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| Cllr Veronica Ward welcomes the increase in national school leaving
age |
Southwark Labour's spokeswoman for Children and Education Cllr Veronica Ward discusses the change in the national school leaving age: From last week the school leaving age was raised to 17; a very significant step forward for all young people despite an apparent lack of interest from the press. It is not about keeping young people in school when they don’t want to be there, but is linked to the development of wider curriculum activities which will be recognised through the diploma pr...
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| Cllr Bates welcomes opportunity of new council housing cash |
Southwark Labour’s housing and regeneration spokesman Cllr Paul Bates has welcomed the government’s decision to relax rules which had previously prevented councils from applying for money to build new council housing. As part of a collection of measures to support the housing market the government announced on Tuesday (02/09/08) that councils would be able to compete for the social housing grant on a level playing field with other providers of social housing. The grant had previous...
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| Violence increases in Southwark despite London figures generally
improving |
Violent crime has fallen all over London since 2002, but in Southwark it has increased. In the last six years violent crime in Southwark has risen by 4.3% in contrast to a 6% fall across London as a whole, according to Home Office figures. This shocking news comes in the wake of a study released this week by public safety charity the Suzy Lamplugh Trust ranking every area in the UK based on their rate of violent crime, which exposes Southwark as the ninth most violent place in the country. ...
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| Boris to make inflation busting price hikes to public transport |
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced that he will increase the cost of travelling on public transport in London at more than the rate of inflation to plug a massive black-hole in his transport budget. The previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, had frozen all increases in Transport for London ticket prices. Mayor Johnson has been forced to look for extra cash after making a series of expensive changes to his predecessor’s policies, including: Cancelling t...
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| Boris outburst casts a cloud over CRT |
Boris Johnson today hinted that the days of the Cross River Tram project are numbered by stating in a public meeting that he is “not intending to spend a lot more money on the Cross River Tram”. The cost if the tram were to be built would be over £400 million, suggesting that hopes that the project would survive the new Tory Mayor’s first year in office are all but sunk. The accidental slip by the Mayor of London follows months of speculation about the future of the tram after Cit...
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| Councillor John Friary welcomes news of new police officers for
Southwark |
Southwark Labour’s spokesman for community safety has enthusiastically welcomed news that the Metropolitan Police will be deploying 23 new police officers to the borough at a cost of £1 million. The announcement follows several years of campaigning by Labour politicians including local councillors, Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman and London Assembly Member Val Shawcross, as part of the cross-party campaign to get 1000 police officers for Southwark. Southwark currently has 850...
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| Outrage as Lib Dem/Tory internal review snubs disability
campaigners |
Southwark Council's internal review into the Disabled Freedom Pass scandal that led to hundreds of disabled people standing in ‘soviet-style queues’ without seats or refreshments was hit by more scandal this week as Lib Dem and Tory councillors on the review committee voted against having a disability expert on the panel. The motion to co-opt a disability specialist was unanimously supported by Southwark Labour councillors, but was rejected by Lib Dem and Tory councillors. &nbs...
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| Labour says Southwark's Olympic vision is 'pitiful' |
Southwark’s Labour opposition has blasted Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council’s plan for the London Olympics, calling it ‘pitiful’, and said that Southwark residents will miss out on health, employment and cultural opportunities as a result of the administration’s lack of preparation. The new ‘vision’ document for the London Olympics which was released by the Lib Dem/Tory executive on Thursday (14/08/08), seven months after it was originally planned for publication, is mad...
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| Southwark Labour ask for local right to say no to lap dancing clubs |
The deputy leader of Southwark Labour group of councillors, Cllr Susan Elan Jones, has written to the government minister Gerry Sutcliffe MP to ask him to support calls to close a loophole in the law which prevents local communities from having a say in licensing new lap-dancing clubs. The loophole would be closed by reclassifying the clubs as sex encounter establishments for licensing purposes, just as sex shops and adult cinemas currently are. Under the law as it currently stands, new ...
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| 'Accept Government cash for free swimming now', Labour tells
Tory/Lib Dem Town Hall |
Southwark’s Labour councillors are calling on the Lib Dem/Tory coalition that runs Southwark Council to accept the government’s offer of money to make swimming free for everyone over the age of sixty. Swimming makes particularly good exercise for older people as it has the same health benefits as other forms of physical activity whilst also being low impact, meaning that it places less stress on limbs and joints. The provisional financial settlement, which was received by the council ...
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| Save the Cross River Tram from Boris's Tory cuts! |
Southwark Labour’s councillors are fully backing a new cross party campaign to save the proposed Cross River Tram from Boris Johnson’s campaign of cuts. Local Labour councillors who helped launch the new petition at the Elephant and Castle on Saturday (26/07/2008), say that this is the time to act to change the Mayor of London’s mind. “There’s every indication that Boris intends to scrap the tram” said Cllr Barrie Hargrove, Southwark Labour’s Spokesperson on Transport. “H...
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| Boris makes massive cuts to Metropolitan Police budget |
Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London, is to make real terms cuts of £195 million to the Metropolitan Police Authority over the next three years, based on the current rate of inflation. The cuts are the equivalent of literally thousands of fully trained police officers. The Met currently has a budget of £2.6 billion, but under Johnson’s new spending plans it will only increase by 1.75% this year and 1.25% in the two years after that. The small increases are well below the current ra...
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On 20th October Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory executive will decide the fate of Camberwell leisure centre. Cllr Alison McGovern, Southwark Labour’s culture leisure and sport spokeswoman, here writes an open letter to her opposite number in the executive, Cllr Lewis Robinson, to ask for the full refurbishment of the baths on behalf of the Labour councillors. Dear Cllr Robinson, I am writing to you because later this month you will, with the rest of Southwark Council’s Lib Dem/Tory ...
After two years of campaigning by Labour, Southwark’s ruling Lib Dem/Tory coalition has finally agreed to put party politics aside and cooperate with Labour councillors to write a new violent crime strategy for the borough. In that time Southwark has become the most violent crime-ridden borough in London and the ninth most dangerous area to live in the country. The move marks a key departure from the Lib Dem/Tory executive’s policy as they have insisted that a strategic approach ...
Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council is wasting millions of pounds a year on hundreds of agency staff that have been working at the council for longer than six months and haven’t been offered a contract, a Southwark Labour Freedom of Information request reveals. In total 416 members of council staff, 7% of the council’s employees, are agency staff who have been on placement with the council for longer than six months. 103 have been at the council for more than 2 years. The FOI request a...
The Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition that has run Southwark since 2006 has been split this week by George Osborne, the Tory Shadow Chancellor’s, plans to take the power to decide council tax levels away from local councils. In a survey conducted by the Evening Standard, the Liberal Democrats of the coalition are quoted as opposing the plans which would take power away from local representatives, while the Conservatives’ position isn’t made clear. The plans are opposed by ...
Labour have selected community campaigner Kath Whittam to fight the forthcoming Rotherhithe by-election. Kath has lived in Rotherhithe for over 20 years and is the manager of the Surrey Docks Farm. Active within the Rotherhithe community since she moved to the area, Kath was a teacher at a local school before having her own children, who now attend a Rotherhithe primary school. "I have always stood up for Rotherhithe and would be honoured to follow in the footsteps of...
Southwark is to be one of the first areas in the country to benefit from a new government scheme to open up access to training to parents. The £75 million national scheme will mean that parents who want to train will be able to apply for up to £205 a week in childcare costs which would be paid direct to the childcare provider. The scheme will be open to low income families where one of the parents is working and the other parent wants to improve skills that will help them to go back int...
The majority of cars which are towed away by Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council are taken less than an hour after they have been issued with a parking ticket, new figures obtained by Southwark Labour can reveal. 705 cars were removed by Southwark between 1st April and 22nd June, in an average time of just 54 minutes after they had been issued with a parking ticket. 23 of the vehicles were removed under 10 minutes after the ticket was issued. The time that elapses between a parking ticket ...
Southwark Labour's spokeswoman for Children and Education Cllr Veronica Ward discusses the change in the national school leaving age: From last week the school leaving age was raised to 17; a very significant step forward for all young people despite an apparent lack of interest from the press. It is not about keeping young people in school when they don’t want to be there, but is linked to the development of wider curriculum activities which will be recognised through the diploma pr...
Southwark Labour’s housing and regeneration spokesman Cllr Paul Bates has welcomed the government’s decision to relax rules which had previously prevented councils from applying for money to build new council housing. As part of a collection of measures to support the housing market the government announced on Tuesday (02/09/08) that councils would be able to compete for the social housing grant on a level playing field with other providers of social housing. The grant had previous...
Violent crime has fallen all over London since 2002, but in Southwark it has increased. In the last six years violent crime in Southwark has risen by 4.3% in contrast to a 6% fall across London as a whole, according to Home Office figures. This shocking news comes in the wake of a study released this week by public safety charity the Suzy Lamplugh Trust ranking every area in the UK based on their rate of violent crime, which exposes Southwark as the ninth most violent place in the country. ...
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced that he will increase the cost of travelling on public transport in London at more than the rate of inflation to plug a massive black-hole in his transport budget. The previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, had frozen all increases in Transport for London ticket prices. Mayor Johnson has been forced to look for extra cash after making a series of expensive changes to his predecessor’s policies, including: Cancelling t...
Boris Johnson today hinted that the days of the Cross River Tram project are numbered by stating in a public meeting that he is “not intending to spend a lot more money on the Cross River Tram”. The cost if the tram were to be built would be over £400 million, suggesting that hopes that the project would survive the new Tory Mayor’s first year in office are all but sunk. The accidental slip by the Mayor of London follows months of speculation about the future of the tram after Cit...
Southwark Council's internal review into the Disabled Freedom Pass scandal that led to hundreds of disabled people standing in ‘soviet-style queues’ without seats or refreshments was hit by more scandal this week as Lib Dem and Tory councillors on the review committee voted against having a disability expert on the panel. The motion to co-opt a disability specialist was unanimously supported by Southwark Labour councillors, but was rejected by Lib Dem and Tory councillors. &nbs...