Brixton Society Slams Lack of Vision

11.16.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 25th Oct 2007

Brixton Market's future is uncertain unless Labour are prepared to act

In a strongly worded rebuke a key local amenity society has criticised Lambeth Council for having a lack of overall vision or dynamic for how Brixton Town Centre should develop over the next 10 years.

The Brixton Society in its October 2007 Newsletter to members says there is a lack of co-ordination of separate proposals within the Town Centre which lies immediately outside the Labour-run citadel at Lambeth Town Hall.

The greatest criticism is reserved for Labour's Brixton Central Square pet project which, the Society claims, ignores the future likely arrival of new tram services. The anonymous author of the front page piece says "There are rumours a Master Plan exists but no-one seems to own it or follow it."

The unidentified author hints at further rifts with the Council. "In search of a better way, some of us have been in touch with the Prince's Trust to bring in experts for intensive discussions with locals to thrash out a Master Plan that we can feel we have a part in."

This outspoken criticism comes in the wake of a hurried planning application brought before the Council's Planning Committee on 5th September when critics complained that many residents were still on holiday. It later emerged that a number of objecting local groups were not notified of the date of the committee by the Council.

The controversial Brixton Central Square proposal was passed, though, using Labour's inbuilt majority on the Planning Committee.

It is highly unusual for civic societies to show such open hostility towards a Council's regeneration proposals for an area and it appears to indicate a serious breakdown in dialogue between the two bodies.

Liberal Democrats believe that consultation is something that starts at the beginning not the end of a process and that plans for major Town Centre Developments should evolve out of discussion and close involvement of local residents and key civic societies.

Labour's chronic myopia towards any kind of pragmatic problem solving or involvement at local level stems from its unshakable belief in a top down, centralised, nanny knows best decision-making process. That and an extraordinary faith borrowed from its own Government, that private developers can be safely left to build the new Jerusalem.

In Lambeth, it seems, we're saddled with a curious mixture of Labour's dogmatic style and a lack of joined-up thinking.