Lambeth Liberal Democrats

Labour councillors in Prince's ward and Oval ward that make up the majority of councillors within the giant Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area have seemingly come out in favour of the controversial Northern Line Extension even before Lambeth's much heralded Overview and Scrutiny meeting meets publicly at the Wheatsheaf Hall, Sth Lambeth Road on 20th March to discuss the matter.

For the first time in decades Labour's budget contained no overall savings that could be factored-in over the coming financial year to reinvest back into running essential services.

Are we really to believe that Lambeth is now so lean and mean as an organisation that they have pared away all the fat with the ruthless efficiency of a meat processing factory?

And having built-up vast reserves sitting around earning no interest at all so that Labour politicians can stand around at conferences boasting that their reserves are bigger than everybody else's, wouldn't you think that some of your spare cash might, again, be used to pay for services that local people value and that Labour are cutting.

We listened in vain during the Budget-Setting Council Meeting on 27th February 2013 for explanations of how Labour's lack-lustre calculations stacked-up but Labour politicians - every single one of them - used the time merely to repeat the mantra of how awful the Government had been to them. It really was like a cracked record - and sadly nobody goes along to budget-setting meetings to hear their tired, lazy worn-out excuses any more.

What we did hear was that everything will be all right once the Co-Op Council is up and running. It seems that everything, every thought and every action, is now on hold until this life saving and life-enhancing project finally gets off the ground. Listening to all this vacuous stuff, we'd be deeply worried if we were Labour back-benchers.

The Vauxhall Gyratory System has certainly had its critics over the years and various Labour councillors and council cabinet members clearly have strong views and wish to do away with it in a quixotic tilt at Transport for London.

So it is interesting to learn that at least one local resident and former Vauxhall Society committee member is suggesting on the Vauxhall Society website that she's heard no really convincing argument from the proponents of change as to why their ideas are so much better than the status quo.

Like it or loathe it, there's no missing or mistaking the brutalist Seventies BT Building Keybridge House in Vauxhall, which was constructed to house a monster telephone exhange and equipment for the then new Post Office Telex services. The building stands on the site of the former Brand's fish paste factory.

Bishops ward councillor Peter Truesdale has demanded that the Council takes action over a derelict building that was once used as a community centre.

Lib Dem Peter Truesdale complained that the derelict Cornwall Club in Cornwall Road, Waterloo had previously been used by Scouts and Girl Guides and other community groups until it was closed for redevelopment in 2004. However the charity operating it was deregistered in 2008 and the site is currently owned by Eurotop Enterprises.

Lib Dem Councillor Peter Truesdale joined with Vauxhall's Labour MP Kate Hoey in calling for a review of safety regulations and tall buildings in the wake of the tragic helicopter crash on January 16th that resulted in the death of the pilot and a pedestrian walking to work. Their concerns were raised in the South London Press on 1st February 2013.

Cllr Lib Peck was questioned at Full Council whether it was right for the new Labour Leader to claim her Special Responsibility Allowance as Leader of the Council from 4th December 2012 when the appointment was only agreed by councillors at Full Council on 30th January 2013.

Wouldn't we all like to be paid for a job we hadn't yet started? And didn't it send out the message that Labour cabinet members were grabbing all the money on offer just as soon as they could while at the same time sacking staff and telling residents there was no money left for services? It was suggested that it would be perfectly fine if the Labour Party coughed up the extra two months salary but why should hard-pressed local taxpayers?

From the minutes of the Lambeth Council meeting of 30 January 2013:

Question 7. By: Councillor Brian Palmer (Liberal Democrat) To: Councillor Lib Peck, Leader of the Council (elect) Brixton Recreation Centre

Will the Council Leader give a complete breakdown of the £10 million of work she estimated would be needed to keep open The Brixton Recreation Centre at the recent public meeting of 10th December? Has a full structural survey ever been undertaken of the building and its condition? If so has an estimate been made of the full cost and the total future lifespan of the building?

The fabulous news that the Department for Transport finally withdrew Network Rail plans to terminate Thameslink Services from Tulse Hill and Streatham Stations at Blackfriars got a curiously mixed response from Labour's MP for Streatham Chuka Umunna in the South London Press last week.

Chuka Umunna and Labour were also strangely muted throughout the all-party campaign (although trying to claim much of the credit for it in the media). After vigorous campaigning and complaints from residents about the plans, it is odd to throw a bucket of cold water over the welcome announcement that they had been scrapped.
Lib Dem councillor for St Leonard's ward, Brian Palmer, in a letter to the South London Press (1st Feb), threw the cold shower right back where it belonged. The plans to terminate local rail services at Blackfriars were in fact hatched during Labour's term of office, when it was Chris Nicholson (Lib Dem candidate for Streatham) who first started our campaign to save the local service.