onionbagblog

A rather decent Lambeth Life this fortnight – blimey. It won’t last. But as ever, accentuate the negatives, and overlook the positives in @lambeth_council’s ‘information freesheet.’

Actually, that’s not fair. The Big Difference eco campaign gets the front-page treatment. Essentially it’s an online means of communication between residents and the council, that allows fly tipping to be reported.

It works rather well. I feel slightly disappinted that I can’t introduce the legendary (and very useful, not to mention good humoured) @janeinlondon / E Hants to the pleasure of Palfrey Place and the crap that the locals leave around here. I reported the latest dumping to the Big Difference folk last week, and yep, it’s now been removed. Job’s a good ‘un.

Other good news stories (in brief, we haven’t got all day) include a decent double page feature on community safety, Portugal’s Party in the Park (wrapped up in two pages of Little Porto advertising) and a lovely news piece on Councillor Aminu making the most of Walk to School Week with his young daughter.

But anyway. Back to the Rotten Borough.

Co-operative Model for Council is the main headline, courtesy of our friends from Lambeth Life. It’s nothing but a re-hash of the press release that has been tarted around by the good @cllrstevereed over recent days.

“Model, delivery, apply, empower, complete bollocks” – all of the buzz phrases that the Glorious Leader has trotted out over recent days are present and correct.

Ah – but *which* Glorious Leader?

In an intriguing twist of fate featuring the poacher and gamekeeper, the apolitical Derrick Anderson, the Chief Executive of Lambeth Council, is now championing the co-op council model.

Cripes.

The Big Man is a decent bloke, and perhaps by having the Lambeth Life front page, he feels that he is adding a little extra value to the £218,870 he is paid per year. Flick through to page 6 and the Leader’s Column (go on, you know you want to) and whaddya know – it’s only the Guest Column, with the guest for this week being yer man Dez:

“The borough is set to become the first co-operative council in the country.”

Ignoring the minor point of order that the whole Nu Labour exercise is nothing but a ploy in allowing private capital to have even more influence in our little patch, but shouldn’t the Chief Exec be apolitical?

The co-op council is the political smoke and mirrors masterpiece from our friends at @LambethLabour. It may have been hidden away on the penultimate page of the manifesto, but @LambethLibDems and the lovely Lambeth Tories can see through the twaddle that the Lambeth Big Society Co-op is.

Derrick Anderson it would seem is now doing the political work for the ruling Labour party in the borough. It is a move that resonates with the recent suspension of @LambethLabour’s Councillor Abrams, following the carrying out of a political act by an apolitical council officer.

I wonder why @cllrstevereed hasn’t been keen to milk more of the co-op model in his local patch? The fine fella has been happy to pimp himself out pretty much everywhere else of late, chest beating the progressive approach of setting up a Citizen’s Commission that doesn’t actually contain any citizens.

*Wednesday 2nd June, 19:30 update*

Cheers to @CllrMarkBennett, for pointing out that possibly purdah comes into play once again, with the Tulse Hill Situation. It’s still the same positive New Labour spin, no matter who is the messenger though.

Moving on…

Elsewhere in Lambeth Life, and the good people of Vassall ward are none the wiser about why one of their councillors is missing. There is no mention whatsoever of the removal of Councillor Abram’s @LambethLabour whip. The Tulse Hill Situation is explained, with the reporting of:

“Tulse Hill residents will vote in a by-election following the resignation of Labour councillor Toren Smith. The election comes less than a month after the local and national elections and will be held on July 1.”

That Lambeth Life family favourite of the Star Letter throws up the Streatham Question once again, with Jane Parke of SW16 observing:

“I viewed the plans [for Streatham Hub] on display at the proposed site and was reassured by architects and Tesco representatives that the current ice rink would remain open until the new rink was completed.

And now I am concerned that groups of residents who have the same collective goal – continuous use of the ice rink – are being pitched against each other.”

The Streatham Question has gone rather quite in the south of our borough in recent weeks. Time is ticking, and answers still need to be given about the location of the temporary ice rink, now that cabinet has caved in to the demands of the superstore.

But back up in the north end of the borough and contained within my #hyperlocal edition of Lambeth Life was a leaflet from the good folk of the Oval Safer Neighbourhoods Panel. As blogged before, this is a great initiative that allows local residents to set the agenda and hold to account the policing within their particular patch.

Except that it appears that participation in the Oval SNP is a closed shop. Oh dear. I had my doubts whilst attending the recent Fentiman, Richbourne and Dorset Road Resident’s Association. A rather decent and friendly lady told me that she was the representative for Dorset Road.

The SNP leaflet suggests the same closed shop policy. The next meeting on June 8th *isn’t* advertised, and there is no suggestion that the SNP is an open policy platform for all to attend. Which rather makes a mockery of the Neighbourhood tag.

Still, it could be worse; it could be a co-operative form of crime control.

That’s Life!