Lambeth gives £60m to… Southampton

Whatever happened to Lambeth’s ‘cooperative council’? Rather than creating locally run services for local people, they’re shipping jobs to Southampton!

The Council’s decision to outsource a £60m revenue-collection and call-centre contract to Capita, a private company based on the south coast, means dozens of local jobs will be lost.

Furthermore, next time a Lambeth resident calls the Council with a problem, they will probably end up speaking to someone who has never even set foot in the borough.

To make matters worse, Capita has a dreadful record in this area. They were in charge of housing and council tax services in Lambeth between 1997 and 2001, but the service had to be bought in-house after the council declared its service to be “unacceptable”. Are we sure they’re going to do a better job this time?

There’ll be a demonstration against the plans outside the Town Hall tomorrow, Thursday 21st July, at 6pm. Be there if you can!

Tesco and Streatham's ice rink and leisure centre

Suddenly the room seemed warmer. A strange dark presence breathed and whispered into the room. And there they were. Two members of Tesco's senior management team in the flesh, blinking eerily into the light....

Yes this was the public meeting of the Tesco's "We've Already Got Planning Permission So Don't Try And Stop Us Store" proposals for Streatham: to build a new Tesco's shop and redevelop the leisure centre, ice rink and swimming pool, and build affordable housing to boot. Too good to be true? Actually yes. The plan itself has been on the cards for almost seven years and although Tesco's were given permission to build years ago, um, they haven't quite got round to it yet.

Not that we're particuarly fond of Tesco's but we are stuck in a no win situation.Tesco's already own the land. Years of zero investment have left the leisure centre and ice rink are on their knees. So this was the night where reps from Lambeth Green Party and about 50 other concerned residents and interested parties gathered in Streatham Business Centre to find out where the plans were at and what was going on. In short, not much. Not for the next 8 weeks anyway when we were promised faithfully by Lambeth Council and Tesco's that a new proposal was being 'looked at'.

Despite many questions from people about whether Tesco's were going to keep the ice rink open, and actually when is this all going to happen, to cut 2 hours and 15 minutes short a newmeeting is promised for just before Christmas.

Think Tesco's and the Council will sell us out? Mmm our jury is out too. In 8 weeks we'll see.

A Living Wage for Lambeth

Lambeth's Green Party councillor, Becca Thackray, has successfully passed a motion to commit the London Borough of Lambeth to paying a ‘Living Wage’ for all its employees.

However, a wrecking amendment put forward by Labour means that the Council can continue underpaying hundreds of staff who work for the Borough as contractors. These include cleaners, security/reception staff and labourers, many of whom are paid much less than regular Council staff.

The original motion stated that, "Lambeth Council reaffirms its support for the establishment of the London Living Wage, set at a level calculated by the Living Wage Unit to avoid the 'working poverty trap' in the capital, a situation affecting around 400,000 Londoners who are paid less than can reasonably fund the basic costs of living in London."

By watering the motion down, Labour have let down precisely those working people who they claim to represent. Their rhetoric about helping the people of Lambeth get through the recession will sound particularly hollow to those earning poverty wages on Labour-run Lambeth contracts.

In The News

New Labour's Climate Change figures do not seem to be scrupulously accurate (The Guardian)

Worries over plans for Granville Arcade (South London Press)

Streatham's Labour councillors can't tell the difference between their party and the Tories any more(thisislocallondon)

Green Party launch London campaign (Green Party)

Brixton Tesco wants to be even bigger (South London Press)