Support Lambeth College - Demo tonight

Members of UCU Lambeth College are balloting for further strike action in their dispute over new contracts, which will include cuts to holidays, a drastic reduction in sick pay and longer working hours.

The ballot will close on the 13th October.

This evening (Tuesday) there will be a demonstration called by London Region UCU in support of the dispute. It will start at 5pm at the Clapham Centre site (nearest tube: Clapham Common).

You can join them or send a message of support via Mandy Brown at mandybrowncow (at) yahoo.com

Mandy spoke about the dispute at the South London People's Assembly. 

You can watch the closing plenary here (her speech is 8 mins in).

You can read more about the dispute here

Homes under the sledgehammer

It’s hard these days to tell whether Lambeth Council is being run by Labour or the Conservatives. Across the borough Lambeth is working with developers rather than local residents, in a strategy dictated by finance and commercial opportunities.

The beautiful Cressingham Gardens estate next to Brockwell Park, with its vibrant community of 300 properties, faces the bulldozer.  Sheltered housing communities in Streatham, West Norwood, and Gipsy Hill will be broken up, so the land can be developed. Meanwhile, in the Clapham area ‘shortlife’ housing co-ops set up between local people and the council over 30 years ago - but then ignored by Lambeth - are being sold off for profit and the residents evicted.

It follows a combination of chronic underspending and endemic waste by Lambeth Council which has left a backlog of repairs and a crisis of its own making.    

According to last years council’s accounts Lambeth Living spent three times more (£75 million) on supervision and management than it did on repairs and maintenance (£27million).   Neighbouring boroughs of Wandsworth and Southwark spend 40% more on every property they are responsible for.

But rather than get their own house in order, Lambeth has decided to kick local people out and get commercial developers in.  Local residents have described it as being framed for someone else’s crime.  The result is a form of ‘social cleansing’.

But there are plenty of alternatives.  There are grants available from Government and GLA to bring empty homes back into use.  Homes can be refurbished or rebuilt with extra stories, raising additional finance for repairs elsewhere.  Community Land Trusts can provide permanently affordable housing.  And of course, the huge inefficiency and waste of poor management should end. 

Rather than breaking up housing co-ops Lambeth could empower residents to be self-reliant - just as these communities have been since the start.

This is what a real co-operative council would do.  

Why was Trinity Free School in Brixton allowed to open with just 17 pupils?

'Why was Trinity Free School (in Lambeth) allowed to open with just 17 pupils?' asks Streatham MP Chuka Umunna.

Part of the answer is here in this article in the Brixton Blog from January which states:

MP Chuka Umunna has refused to come out in support of, or against, the school.

The fact is, that as with many other issues, the MP has sat on the fence and failed to take a position.

Air pollution is killing Lambeth residents, but the Council will not act

If there were a series of local murders or even fatal road deaths there would quite rightly be public outcry.  Resources would be thrown at dealing with it – whether it be to track down a killer or redesign a dangerous stretch of road.

There is another silent killer in Lambeth responsible for around ten times the number of deaths caused by violence or traffic collisions. But not only is little being done to stop it, the Council is trying to cover it up.

In April, Public Health England estimated there were 112 deaths in one year in Lambeth linked to air pollution.  The victims tend to be those who are most vulnerable – the old, the young, and those with lung and heart conditions.  But when the Green Party proposed a motion calling on the council to deal with it, Labour councillors removed all reference to the deaths.  Not only that, they also tried to pretend it wasn’t their responsibility to protect local people.

There are some very basic things the Council should do.  It could lobby the London Mayor for more low emission buses on routes through Lambeth. It could stop incinerating the borough’s waste. It could create ultra low emission zones and more green and pedestrian areas.   

But it refuses even to put small, cheap air pollution monitors outside local schools as other boroughs have sensibly done.  That would at least indicate how much pollution our children are being exposed to on a daily basis. It would at least enable schools to make better decisions about how to protect those in their care.

Its time for the Council to stop blaming others for problems it could address itself.  Until it does, with every new edition of the Lambeth Weekender, we should remember that another four Lambeth residents will have died because of local air pollution.  

First published by Councillor Scott Ainslie as an article in the Lambeth Weekender, 31st July 2014. 

People's climate march this Sunday in London

Lambeth Greens will be meeting with other London Greens at 11am this Sunday 21st September at Middle Temple Gardens, Embankment, to take part in the London Climate March.

The march will start at Temple Place at 12.30pm and finish at Parliament with a rally at 2.00pm. 

It comes on the eve of The World Leaders' Climate Summit in New York which will be a key moment in the fight against climate change. 

Where: Greens will be assembling 11am, Middle Temple Gardens, Embankment

Green Party Contact: London Campaigns Officer Dave Plummer

More info can be found at the Campaign Against Climate Change website. 

Chuka Umunna's failure to act over bringing Crossrail 2 to Streatham

We have now received a response to our Freedom of Information request to Transport for London regarding Crossrail 2, asking about what dealings Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has had with TfL.  

Things to note:

• It contains the astonishing revelation that "At the time of your request there had been no meetings between TfL and Chuka Umunna MP".
• It states: "Crossrail Ltd have not met Chuka Umunna in his capacity as the local MP for Streatham, nor to discuss route and station proposals for Crossrail 2."
• It suggests the MP has not engaged at all with TfL over bringing Crossrail 2 to Streatham, until after the decision was made over the route,
• The only correspondence seems to have come after we invited Mr Umunna to a public meeting at the beginning of June 2014.  At the public meeting it was made clear that all the decisions had been made, there had been no lobbying on the issue, and Streatham would not be getting Crossrail 2.

Why is this relevant?  

• The Streatham MP has been accusing Transport for London of overlooking Streatham over Crossrail 2, when it appears he has in fact done next to nothing as the MP for Streatham to try and get Crossrail 2 to Streatham.
• Mr Umunna was elected on a pledge to work for improved transport links for Streatham, with a petition which noted: "The planned Crossrail 2 scheme, running from Chelsea to Hackney, would considerably relieve congestion on the Victoria line, creating the potential for an extension southwards to Streatham from Brixton."
• It would appear that Streatham is not getting Crossrail 2 due in no small part to a failure by the MP to ask for it. 

The full text of the Freedom of Information request is below...

TfL Ref: FOI-0463-1415 

Thank you for your clarification email which we received on 26 June 2014 asking for information about meetings between TfL and Chuka Umunna about Crossrail. 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked: 

"Please can you let me have details of any questions or meetings between TfL and Chuka Umunna, MP for Streatham (e.g. the questions he has submitted, how many meetings he has had, what they were about & what was agreed)?" 

At the time of your request there had been no meetings between TfL and Chuka Umunna MP.

The following correspondence, regarding the Crossrail 2 scheme, has been sent and received: 

Letter sent by TfL Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, in response to e-mail received on 10 June 2014 

19 June 2014
E-mail received by TfL Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, regarding Crossrail 2 serving Streatham and transport links to Streatham 

10 June 2014
Stakeholder information e-mail regarding current Crossrail 2 consultation sent to a range of stakeholders, including MPs, by Michele Dix, Managing Director for TfL Planning. 

09 June 2014
Stakeholder information e-mail regarding Crossrail 2 sent to a range of stakeholders, including MPs, by Michele Dix, Managing Director for TfL Planning and Paul Plummer of Network Rail. 

14 May 2013
We also provided information to the Department for Transport (DfT) to assist them in responding to a letter they had received from Chuka Umunna MP in April 2014. As this correspondence was not between Mr Umunna and ourselves you should contact the DfT for further details. 

Further information on Crossrail 2 can be found at http://crossrail2.co.uk/ 

In addition, please see below for a description of the information we hold in relation to Mr Umunna’s meetings with Crossrail Ltd (CRL). 

Crossrail Ltd have had three meetings with Chuka Umunna since 2012. 

· On 24 November 2012, Chuka Umunna met with CRL CEO Andrew Wolstenholme. While there are no meeting notes, a follow up letter confirmed they discussed the Rolling Stock procurement, employment issues including direct employment, blacklisting allegations, compliance and apprenticeships & training. 

· On 11 July 2013, the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, the then Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna and Lord Adonis visited Canary Wharf station, hosted by the Crossrail Chairman and Chief Executive. The nature of the visit was to view the progress made on the project and the visitors gave a media interview on industrial strategy policy, using Crossrail as a backdrop. There are no meeting notes as this was not a formal meeting, only a site visit. 

· On 24 June 2014, Crossrail’s Chairman met Chuka Umunna in his role as the shadow Business Secretary. The main purpose of the visit was to discuss progress on the Crossrail project, in particular the skills agenda and economic impacts on the UK economy and businesses. 

The meeting notes from the meeting on 24 June 2014 are as follows:
· A general project progress update was provided.
· An update on the extension to Reading was provided.
· An update on the rolling stock procurement was provided.
· An overview of the recent National Audit Office report was discussed.
· Chuka Umunna did mention Crossrail 2 (the route of which is a constituency issue for him in Streatham) but recognised that it was nothing to do with Crossrail Ltd and there was no detailed discussion.
· There was an explanation given as to the cost and final resting place of our tunnel boring machines.
· There was an extended discussion on skills, both in the context of the changing profile of the Crossrail workforce and the changing nature of railway technology.
· Chuka Umunna was interested in the demographic diversity of Crossrail’s apprentices and we undertook to send him the data we have.
· An update on industrial relations was provided. 

Crossrail Ltd have not met Chuka Umunna in his capacity as the local MP for Streatham, nor to discuss route and station proposals for Crossrail 2.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

Lambeth Council gripped by a 'profit making culture' over housing policy

The Evening Standard carries a report today on Lambeth Council's ongoing evictions of residents in short-life housing, with comments from a former Lambeth council housing policy officer.

The whistleblower suggests that Lambeth Council is gripped by a 'profit making culture' over the emptying of council houses.

 You can read the article in full here: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/council-house-evictions-in-lambeth-are-symptom-of-profit-making-culture-claims-whistleblower-9566815.html