Review of 2008 - A Year Under Hard labour

5.45.39pm GMT Tue 6th Jan 2009

The year 2008 will not be forgotten in a hurry. Many of our poorest residents were clobbered by a series of virulent Labour attacks on valued services while imposing soaring and wholly unjustifiable charges. Here's a flavour of life under hard labour in 2008.

January 2008

Lib Dems exposed how much Labour was spending on spin. We dubbed Lambeth Life the most expensive 'freebie' in the world at £300,000. We also exposed how Labour was raking-in the cash through its dodgy parking practices. Meanwhile, tenant leaders rejected Labour's whopping 7.23 per cent rent increase while cutting services at the same time. Labour ignored their protests.

February 2008

Labour Lambeth set the highest level of Council Tax in London at 4.75 per cent - a double whammy for residents - and for the second year in succession. We reported on the aftermath of the Great ALMO Vote Swindle and how Labour was closing more area housing offices, while sacking caretakers and doubling estate parking charges. Meanwhile Lambeth topped the charts for violent crime. No wonder a poll of residents said Labour-run Lambeth provided poor value for money.

March 2008

Labour took the wrecking ball to its empty homes to stop them being squatted. More waste and more misery for Lambeth's homeless. Some cheer amidst the gloom. Lib Dem Steve Bradley roasted Labour in the Vassall By-Election. Former Lambeth Labour Mayor, Claudette Hewitt, also switched her allegiance to the Lib Dems saying " Labour take people - especially black people - for granted. Once they've got people signed-up to Labour they just use them to look like they're diverse."

June 2008

We called on Labour to reintroduce bottle banks. Despite an acute shortage of green glass for bottles, co-mingled recycling meant that glass was not pure enough and had to be imported - a criminal waste of resources. Three Lambeth wards ( St Leonards in Streatham, Herne Hill and adjoining Thurlow Park ) recorded the highest residential burglary rates in London. Newly elected Lib Dem Cllr Steve Bradley said. " As with so many things, people are discovering that Labour's record on crime is only so much hot air."

July 2008

Lib Dems forced Labour to do a U-Turn on their proposed hike in Home Care charges to £20 an hour. They pegged them at £17.50 having raised them from only £7.50 the year before. But Labour was still, apparently, happy to have the highest care charges in England. We asked what more Labour could do to pile on the agony after it was revealed that they'd wasted £6 million on temporary housing that was never used. The answer came barely a week later - figures suggested the scandalous waste of money could rise to £14 million.

August 2008

Labour's much-hyped Clapham regeneration scheme looked close to collapse, Labour broke an election promise about not closing Clapham's beloved swimming pool and an empty Council block of offices, Mary Seacole House, cost nearly £1 million per year to mothball. A former council officer spilled the beans about how no checks were made on council house repairs and how middle managers manipulated spreadsheets to cover their backs. Truly shocking.

September 2008

Labour Lambeth's so-called fairer parking regime was exposed for the sham it always was. Lambeth issued the 5th highest number of parking tickets in London. It sent the 2nd highest number of vehicles to its pound, had the 3rd highest number of vehicles clamped and the issued the 3rd highest number of bus lane PCN's. It also had the 2nd highest number of appeals of which 79 per cent were allowed. And it was raking-in an astonishing £2 million a month in fines. Labour then announced a mammoth 162 per cent rise in tenants' heating bills.

October 2008

Just as the recession was really taking hold and house prices started to tumble, Labour announced a panic fire-sale of 43 properties as part of a massive sell-off of empty homes. A scandalous 1,500 empty Council properties were revealed after Lib Dem investigations. Labour said it had no money to make even the most elementary repairs. Hardly surprising, really, given their appalling record on housing finances.

November 2008

Angry Lambeth tenants staged a mass walkout from the annual Tenants Conference protesting at potential rent increases of 14 per cent and the slashing of front-line services and jobs, particularly in Lambeth Living ( ALMO ) where staff are required to bring in a two star service before any of the promised money is released for estate improvements. A further whistle-blower revealed how Lambeth staff creamed off the Council's parking profits to round-off another desperate month under Labour.

December 2008

Widespread media coverage this month of how Labour conned Government inspectors into awarding the borough higher scores on its cultural services department by opening three temporary cultural information centres, dubbed Ghost Libraries, and closing them again after the inspectors left. This was done to boost library opening hours to maintain Lambeth's star rating. Then, just before Christmas, the press delivered front page stories on the shock arrest of the Lambeth Living ( ALMO ) Chair on potential fraud charges.

Conclusion

As years go 2008 was a pretty grim one for council tenants, council tax payers, vulnerable people needing care, motorists and almost anyone needing a decent Council service. What luck that Lambeth Labour had spent so much of your money on spin to say how successful they've been.

The next few weeks and months should start to reveal where Labour is taking us all in Lambeth set against the background of a national economic recession of unprecedented seriousness. One thing's for sure - they'll be helping themselves to even more of your money.