Lambeth under Labour is once again a by word for complacency and arrogance after four years between 2002 and 2006 when the joint administration involving the Conservatives started a major clean up and clear out. Honourable exceptions exist, but for many people the idea of bringing back Capita to run part of the revenue and benefits service is just the final straw.

No. 10 Downing Street's favourite outsourcing company was an ardent supporter of New Labour when it came to office and it is hardly surprising that once Labour returns at local level the company is quickly back in the frame. You only wonder who gives the orders. There is, of course, a technical justification of sorts, but the politics of it are almost beyond belief.

So let's fast track back to 2001 when Labour's first honeymoon with Capita ended in tears. The Guardian reported:

"Lambeth claims its benefits service has deteriorated since Capita's seven-year contract began in 1997. It says the problems peaked in April last year when it faced 55,000 outstanding queries and the quality of the service remains unacceptable."

And the link with New Labour? Let's go back to The Guardian again only reporting in 2006 about donors to the Labour Party.

"One of those named was Rod Aldridge, head of support services firm Capita, who passed Labour £1m in loans. His company undertakes considerable business for the government. He insisted the one-year loan was a personal matter on commercial terms."

So that's alright then?

Only a Cabinet with the sheer brass neck of Labour Lambeth would reappoint a failed contractor with a high profile connection with loans to the Labour Party to return and operate the service again. No doubt there is a business case for doing this and officers are not there to give advice to elected members about political fall out. To my way of thinking though this nightmare is as scary as "The Return of the Swamp Thing."

But that isn't all. Local residents have been poorly served not only by "revs and bens" but in other areas of service delivery - notably transport. Again there are honourable exceptions, but we are talking here about a Council which can't even handover work properly when a key project manager dealing with a new parking scheme left. If that happened in the private sector company where I work in the daytime, it would be P45 time.

Labels: Capita, Labour Lambeth, Revenue and benefits, Swamp Thing

It's been a busy week in the Dulwich and West Norwood Parliamentary constituency with well attended local public meetings about planning applications and two separate mass petitions to save the West Norwood Farmers' Market and the Flower Stall in Norwood Road.

As I write, I've got a letter given to me by a constituent addressed to our high flying Labour MP about saving the flower stall, which says "it is to us what Eros is to Piccadilly Circus." It hasn't got a stamp on it so I expect that will cost me 32p.

There isn't much evidence that she'll be around to read it judging by her "Tessa Jowell: My Week" column in that Labour loving newspaper The Independent. Let's see last Sunday she spent in Brighton with her chum Polly Toynbee and then dined with Lord Falconer. Monday - it was a Labour party dinner and she's backing Hazel Blears for deputy leader. Tuesday - off to Merseyside and enjoyed a "lovely dinner" with luvvy film director Anthony Minghella. Wednesday it's a visit to Barking Abbey school. Finally, Thursday sees the watchdog of our local community here in West Norwood swanning off to Cannes for the film festival doing wonders for her carbon footprint.

Doesn't sound as if she had much time for her constituents what with all those "darlings" at the film festival. They don't figure anywhere in her diary. So I thought I'd remind her about the problems that were raised in my advice surgery on Saturday morning - depressed woman wants to be rehoused due to racist taunting on her estate; elderly man worried about bogus council officials calling him for his bank details; a leaseholder with an unresolved dispute over decorating costs going back to 2004; a business man with a complaint against Thames Water - the most uncooperative utility in the world; and an elderly woman angry that the police have failed to investigate a complaint she made, well there's a surprise.

Those are on top of the 30 or so requests for help I alone received by e-mail while our MP was away in Liverpool, Cannes, and Brighton. I think I've read somewhere that MPs get quite long holidays, but I never thought it was on a 365-days a year basis. Funny old world.

Labels: Petitions, surgeries, Tessa Jowell

It took a call from the warden at a Lambeth sheltered housing scheme telling me about the death of an elderly constituent to realise how worrying the threatened changes to care packages are for the elderly. "The anxiety about change hastened her death," he asserted, repeating it several times in a short telephone conversation. At the Lambeth budget setting meeting in February the Labour administration delivered a 'double whammy' blow to the elderly and the vulnerable of the borough by increasing social care charges by more than 120 per cent while at the same time tightening the eligibility criteria.

Is this any way to treat older people - the generation that lived through the Second World War and its aftermath? There are a series of so-called consultation meetings planned for the month of May, but no one believes anything will change as a result. Confidence in this administration because of its unwillingness to listen to people is at an all time low. In any case people are already dying as the call from the warden indicates.

Lambeth, in common with the rest of London, had no opportunity to go to the polling stations this month but the verdict elsewhere in England was pretty decisive. There are 89 councils where there are no Labour councillors at all. The Tories won control of 38 more councils, including Warwick the very last to declare on May 8. With 900 more councillors the Conservatives are by far the biggest party in local government.

So I thought I'd share with you an e-mail from Labour MP Jon Cruddas which somehow got forwarded to me. This seems to becoming a habit because a Labour councillor recently sent me his ward activist list by mistake - they have all been targeted for conversion to the Tory cause. Mr Cruddas writes in a rare moment of Labour honesty:

"Dear friends,

Last Thursday, the Tories won 41% of the vote compared to Labour's 27%. Despite some bright points in areas like Thurrock, Sandwell and Tyneside, and despite the hard work of activists and candidates, we lost almost 500 councillors, and many Scottish MSPs and Welsh AMs too. In the days since the election, some people in the press and the party have insisted that the results "are a springboard" to the next election. I disagree."

He follows this with a call to action to his party workers. Arguably, it is already too late to save a dying government.

Labels: Care charges, Elderly, Elections, Labour Lambeth