Lambeth Labour has been responsible for running Lambeth Council for most of the past 20 years with a succession of disastrous administrations from the nightmare of Ted Knight and Old Labour in 1986 to the New Labour line up of 2006. Labour will do anything to gain power so as to reward its supporters with patronage and influence.
Even when they lose the first thing they do is try to save their skins. In 2002, when the local elections resulted in a hung council, the then Labour Leader Tom Franklin twice offered to form a joint administration with Lambeth Conservatives who held the balance of power between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The 1998-2002 Labour administration is the most recent complete four-year administration, which included just one change of Leader, on which to form a judgement of their performance. By the time they left office in 2002, they had almost bankrupted the Council despite having a new Chief
Executive who brought in new expertise as a former head of the Child Support Agency and the Customs and Excise. Here are some of the low points when they left office:
- Overspends of £38 million by Social Services in 40 months.
- A £28 million overspend at the end of 2001/2002.
- Under provision of £20 million in the pension fund.
- Under-provision for bad dents of £29 million.
- On special measures with 10 Downing Street because of inadequate community safety policies.
- CCTV only funded for seven months of the year.
- Several schools on special measures.
- At least one library about to close.
- Friends of Parks and Libraries Groups left in the dark about service delivery.
Labour councillors never change their spots. During the election they promised to deliver better services especially for council tenants and leaseholders. Instead they clocked up a huge overspend on housing in their first year and are now proposing to slash the handy man service and the energy out of hours repairs service.
In a largely self created panic, they announced a ballot among tenants and leaseholders to transfer them into a privatised Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). They “won” the ballot by the slimmest of margins by 51:49 per cent making announcements of which the world’s remaining dictators would have been ashamed. Many tenants claim they never received a ballot paper.
The pain extends to all residents of the borough especially the elderly, disabled, and vulnerable. Home care charges for the elderly are set to rocket to £21 an hour – the highest in London. Voluntary sectors grants have been cut making it more likely that older people will be forced into care homes rather than living independently. Residents parking permits have gone up to £115 a year from £60 – a back door ‘stealth tax’ and the cost of using leisure centres and tennis courts has also escalated. In the meantime libraries have been ignored and the fund to buy books cut.
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