onionbagblog

#lambethcoop, Porto pastry and an out of context moment with a man I usually see half naked each morning - what could possibly go wrong at the quarterly forum organised by the fine folk of the Stockwell Partnership?

I always find it confusing seeing people out of context. Straight outta, um, Brixton Rec showers, and down the Stockwell Road to the Community Resource Centre; I almost didn’t recognise Swimmer David as he greeted me on the door, fully clothed and without Speedos.

But there was little time for chitter chatter about shampooing the short ‘n curlies. It was straight down to #lambethcoop business (yeah, *business*) with the good @LabourStockwell doing his PR pitch on behalf of @LambethLabour.

Councillor Bigham came well prepped. He outlined the overview of the Co-operative Council plans, stating that the objectives are twofold:

“There is a moral need - councils don’t always know better than citizens about how to run services. Secondly there is a financial need - it could be cost effective for the community to run local authority services

The first point is probably just about right, although there are some major concerns over democratically elected officials washing their hands of all accountability and responsibility.

The highest-ranking Co-operative Party MP, Ed Balls, has already dismissed the second point as not being the right reason for @lambeth_council to become a co-operative. The Labour Party leadership contender even went as far as saying:

“Cutting corners is not what a co-operative council is about. Does being a co-operator save money in public services? I’m not sure that it will. I think that it might actually encourage us to spend more money for local people.”

@LabourStockwell then gave examples of how #lambethcoop has been successful during the trial period. He stated the Tenant Managed Organisation of Lambeth Towers at Kennington as a shining example of how #lambethcoop should work. Except a FOI request I made to @lambeth_council earlier this year confirmed:

“Consequently, no savings / losses are incurred as a result of a creation of new TMO.”

The cash saving ethos of #lambethcoop was also justified by @LabourStockwell as a consequence of: “the 20% cuts that are being put in place by the coalition government.”

Nasty, nasty ConDems, but #lambethcoop was part of the @LambethLabour manifesto *before* the Love Me I’m a Liberal Lot sold their soul to the Nasty Party. #lambethcoop was coming, for whatever reason, irrespective of what financial constraints may, or may not, be imposed from Westminster.

I pitched in (get you) with asking about the role of big business within #lambethcoop. The White Paper talks of “interested partners” in a different context to citizens. @LabourStockwell cited the example of Veoila working successfully to help provide a council service.

I cited in return the example of Veoila getting away with not paying staff a London Living Wage, all with the blessing of @LambethLabour as part of this brave new world of co-operation.

The old Lilian Baylis site is apparently another example of how co-operation within the borough is working. I didn’t like to mention how this partnership is currently costing Lambeth Council Tax payers £380,000 a year, and still there is not definite conclusion as to what will be the future of the site.

My fully clothed swimming partner made a great point from the floor. He pointed towards the, um, Stockwell Partnership as a model that #lambethcoop should be looking at to see how genuine citizen involvement can be successfully implemented.

The Stockwell Partnership has spent the past ten years securing investments for the local area, and then consulting with local people about how best to distribute the funds for the benefit of the whole community. Local residents get to sit at the top table and make decisions.

Meanwhile the #lambethcoop Citizen’s Commission still hasn’t appointed any citizens to sit alongside the three high ranking members of the @LambethLabour cabinet.

It was jolly decent of @LabourStockwell to put forward the justification by @LambethLabour for walking away from all local responsibility. Cynical, jaded and in disbelief (me, *not* @LabourStockwell) but still I applaud the information that is finally coming our way.

The exact mechanics of how #lambethcoop will actually work are slowly, slowly trickling down from the top table, with more events planned around the borough to try and pull off the PR trick on behalf of @LambethLabour. But any genuine citizen power is still not part of the deal.

Time for a break. Time for some Porto dancing.

Hurrah!

And so it was straight outta #lambethcoop and best foot forward as some rather ace young Porto kids gave us a brilliant demonstration of how the traditional meets the contemporary, Sunny Stockwell style.

It was hungry work just watching. Which all boded rather well for the table laid out with Porto food, all kindly donated to the Stockwell Partnership Forum from the good folk of the local Porto cafes.

Now that’s what I call co-operation.

A brief break, and then a Q and A followed with Ian Beaver, a planning expert who represents the Stockwell Partnership. Ian outlined some of the major developments that are heading our your way over the course of the next few years.

The thirty-three-storey Vauxhall Sky Garden is an interesting case in how developers can backtrack on all original promises, and yet somehow come away with a done deal that suits the commercial agenda, and not that of the local residents.

The original planning application contained fifteen floors of social housing, a bonkers two floor space of an indoor garden, and then fifteen floors of high rent, high class commercial property.

The joined up thinking that ticked all the correct boxes in terms of council corporate talk of inclusiveness, is that the garden would be the common ground. Quite literally.

Never the twain shall meet however. The revised plan, now accepted by @lambeth_council, contains the small detail of pushing the social housing out towards a separate site on Wyvil Road. The implication is that the bonkers indoor garden is out of bounds for social housing residents.

Clever. And quite a con as well.

The fifty-storey Vauxhall Tower was next up for discussion. When complete, this will be the tallest residential tower in all of the country.

Cripes.

Completing the trilogy of Vauxhall high rises is the Octave Tower on Bondway. Having had the wisdom to turn down the original plan, the appeal starts next week at Lambeth Town Hall. It will be interesting to see how close @lambeth_council wants to cuddle up to commercial partners in an attempt to justify this new age of *shhh* co-operation.

Ace Porto food btw.