onionbagblog

The plan was hatched to submit two parallel Freedom of Information requests - one asking about the attendance record at full @lambeth_council meetings of our democratically elected representatives, and then a secondary request asking about how much in allowances our good Councillors have trousered.

The filthy wonga issue is already out there on the public record. The @lambeth_council website sets out the maximum amount that each Councillor is entitled to claim.

My FOI was more concerned with knowing if all Councillors actually claimed the full amount, and if so, what do we get in return?

The rather non-news story coming out of this prolonged procedure (missed legal deadlines from @lambeth_counicl in responding to the FOI’s) is that yep - *most* Councillors are rather decent at democracy, and yep - *all* Councillors play the system to their financial benefit.

Wouldn’t you?

My interest in full council meetings is that I believe that this is the bedrock of local democracy. Ten meetings are held each political year. The debate is placed on the record, and it is the one time where the electorate can actually see what work their representative in their local ward is actually doing.

I accept that to gauge the effectiveness of a local Councillor via an attendance record is a slightly flawed analysis. Still, if you can’t be arsed to turn up less than once a month, then I really can’t see why you deserve my vote.

And so after waiting for @lambeth_council to legally comply with the FOI’s, the data finally dropped this morning and I fired up Excel.

Bugger that.

I’ve got better things to do (um, ironing…) than fiddle around with a spreadsheet all morning and provide a graphical analysis of attendance linked in with wonga.

I simply present the data as it is provided. It’s not difficult for you to find out your own #hyperlocal interests. A list of Councillors for each ward can be found over here, also detailing which political party they represent.

It is my understanding that the figures quoted are the actual allowances paid, rather than simply the amount each Councillor is entitled to claim. This is a crucial difference. I phrased the question deliberately, with this in mind:

Please could you tell me the annual allowances paid to each elected local Councillor for the past financial year?

The self-proclaimed “third hardest working Councillor,” @LambethLabour‘s Councillor Morgan of Prince’s ward / um, Orpington, claimed his full allowance of £10,599, despite only attending 50% of full council meetings.

Likewise for Councillor Akhtar, the Labour representative for Stockwell, and the Councillor with the worst attendance record in the borough (40%)

Councillor Morgan has explained his non-attendance at full council meetings by stating:

On five occasions I had other events I had to attend. However Lorna and / or Mark were able to attend and represent the people of Princes Ward in my absence.

It’s good that the residents of Prince’s ward always had some form of representation at full council, but an empty seat in the council chamber still doesn’t quite justify to me the claiming of a full allowance.

On the point of Councillor Campbell, I note that she has been unwell towards the back end of this political year. This explains her 50% attendance record at full council.

I accept that this might also be the case for other elected representatives, and I welcome any instances of this being placed on record.

I would like to also put on record the woeful level of allowance awarded to Councillor Wellbelove, the Mayor of Lambeth. A £10,599 basic annual allowance, and then only a further £15,954 special responsibility allowance.

To speak outside of council chamber etiquette - Mr Mayor has worked his arse off this year. His overall allowance is less than Councillor Smith, whose special responsibility allowance for chairing the Planning Applications Committee is £16,356, plus his basic allowance of £10,599.

I have no particular issue over the work or allowance of Councillor Smith. I do think that Mr Mayor is worth a hell of a lot more though.

Overall and the allowances seem more or less appropriate to me. A cabinet member can trouser £39,117 in total. This pretty makes the work of a cabinet member a full time job. There are many responsibilities with holding this office, but my fear is that the high level of the allowance will attract career politicians.

The answer of course is in the ballot box. If you don’t like the allowance claimed by your local Councillor, or even their lack of availability at full council meetings - boot them out.

Or even stand yourself…

*full pdf’s for attendance and allowances are available to download if the data below is giving you something of a local authority headache*

*15:30 edit on 20th April:

…the ever helpful Tim Stevens, the Democratic Services Manager at Lambeth Council, has come back to me with some more documentation. In particular my attention has been drawn to Constitution Part 6 of the Members Allowance Scheme.

Setting out the Key Duties of elected officials, the constitution states:

Councillors will:

Attend meetings of the Council.

Help decide service priorities and participate in agreeing and setting a budget.

Blimey.

Which all seems to suggest to me that attendance at full council meetings is more or less part of the job description. 40%, or even 50% Councillors just aren’t good enough.

As for setting the budget - I wish I had taken a register at the budget setting full council meeting back in February. The council chamber was half-empty, with missing Councillors from all three parties.

Did you catch the Newsnight piece on the rolling out of the Tory election manifesto last night? Ignoring the irony of the Blue Rinse mob having the front to make their pledges at Battersea Power Station - an SW8 location where Thatcher promised regeneration some twenty-one years ago - but blimey: the dreaded mutualisation of politics was back on the agenda.

The policy being put forward by the right wing Conservative party sounds suspiciously like… a John Lewis style of local government.

Cripes.

It’s a point that has been picked up on by the ever-excellent @BrixtonBlog, as part of an interview with @lambeth_council leader @cllrstevereed. At least Dave and his Bullingdon Boys haven’t pledged a public consultation, knowing full well that there isn’t time to implement it out before the electorate is asked to vote on the policy.

Yep, the @LambethLabour mutualisation of housing, education and health, is rather fashionable as we approach May 6th. No coincidence that it is equally as popular in national right wing circles, as it is in local right wing circles.

Much was made of the “success story” of leisure in Lambeth (steady) as part of the existing mutualisation model with Greenwich Leisure Limited. I rather like the fine folk at GLL, who have managed to patch up the sinking ship of leisure in Lambeth under incredibly testing political circumstances.

An example of how the coop model of managing local services is destined to fail, has found itself up for discussion on the @lambeth_council website today:

We the undersigned petition the council to transfer the management of the Kennington Park leisure facilities from Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) to the Lambeth Sports and Recreation Service, or a new management team, created with the sole purpose of running the facilities for the benefit of the larger park, the users and the local community

@LambethLabour would no doubt respond by saying that “the benefit of the larger park, the users and the local community” is a model of mutualisation. Not so, my friends. What is being called for here is for the council to take direct responsibility for what it was elected for - to manage council owned facilities.

The majority of Lambeth’s leisure facilities operated by GLL have been temporarily or permanently closed and, if this is a sign of their management, it is possible that Kennington Park will be next.

Kennington Park can only be booked by contacting the Ferndale Leisure Centre, there is no promotion of the facilities on the GLL website, payments have to be sent to GLL’s head office in Greenwich, meaning that users suffer from a lack of internal communication and oversights. The changing rooms have been getting progressively worse and wanting for repair for over three years.

I am very sceptical of these e-petitions as being nothing but online lip service for local politicians, who would rather be transparent online than have to go out and receive petitions from the Little People.

Not surprisingly, the yays outweigh the neighs right now. It’s a perfect example of how outsourcing council services to a cooperative (urgh) style of management is destined to fail.

All accountability is lost, and the electorate is left with an inferior service. We vote in our local politicians to manage their own micro patch of land, and not to hand over accountability and responsibility.

Meanwhile, sticking in the same little patch of South London (a mere hop, skip and a jump away from my Oval / E Hants area…) and the political career aspirations of Councillor Morgan are coming into question, over on the wonderful Lurking about SE11 blog.

@se11_lurker blogged about how Councillor Morgan, the sitting @LambethLabour councillor for Prince’s ward, is also ‘doing an Edbrooke‘ - e.g. rather fancying himself as a Westminster MP first, and as a Lambeth Councillor second, should he not land the top job.

It’s the ultimate in political hypocrisy. Hedge your bets, best of both worlds. Or possibly even the worst of both worlds, should the double gamble spectacularly backfire. The good people of Prince’s ward, and their newly twinned political constituency of, um, Orpington, will have the final say on this particular political careerist.

But anyway. About the achievements of the “third hardest working Councillor” at Lambeth Town Hall…

Cripes.

Councillor Morgan has come up with an impressive boast in the blog comments over @se11_lurker, stating that he is the “third hardest working Councillor in Lambeth.” So far, no evidence has been presented to verify this claim.

The effectiveness (or not) of a local Councillor is difficult to quantify. I’d also like to know who the first and second hardest working Councillors are - never mind the length, feel the thickness etc.

What is undisputed however is that Councillor Morgan has the second worst record for attending full council meetings. This was established in a Freedom of Information request I put forward last month.

The people of Prince’s ward were represented by their democratically elected representative at only 50% of full council meetings in the past political year. I am awaiting the (delayed) response to my parallel FOI request, asking what allowance each Councillor has claimed in the past year.

And so with Kennington Park under scrutiny, and with one eye on SE11, and one eye over in Orpington, Prince’s ward should be a lively political patch in the coming weeks. And here was me thinking that The Oval / E Hants area is where all the action is at.

Lordy, lordy…

It seems that I have been slightly harsh on @janeinlondon / East Hampshire. I shouldn’t have singled out my local @LambethLabour candidate for having parliamentary political ambitions over in East Hampshire, or failing that, looking after the Little People in Lambeth.

A bit of digging around, and it now appears that Jane Edbrooke is not alone within @LambethLabour in looking towards Westminster first, and then the Rotten Borough second.

Blimey.

Forget the previous parlour game of Political Musical Chairs - it now seems that a number of @LambethLabour local Councillors are playing Pin the Tail on the Political Constituency / Ward.

First up we have Councillor Morgan, the democratically elected representative for my nearby Prince’s ward. You may remember how the ward was forced into a by-election, when Councillor Townsend decided to bugger off to Bristol with his £10k allowance.

Whoops.

The good voters of Prince’s ward would do well to remember this when they head to the ballot box on May 6th. So would the good voters over in Orpington, where Councillor Morgan is ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ as it is now known in local political circles.

Yep - that’s right. If at first you don’t succeed, double yer money (and your electable chances) by having the option of either a Westminster seat, or a local Council seat.

Priorities, priorities. It’s a complete sham of democracy, both for constituency and wards alike. The electorate want firm commitments, not a politician that is going to flip loyalties, depending on the size of their majority.

But wait - there’s more…

Looking over the boundaries of my Oval ward, and I note that Neeraj Patil, the current @LambethLabour councillor for Larkhall, is putting himself up once again to represent the fine folk of SW8.

Looking out further still, and I note that the flipping (as in flipping loyalties, natch) Councillor is also putting himself up to become the next MP for the not so nearby Surrey Heath.

Cripes.

Completing the hat trick of current @LambethLabour Councillors who are getting a little too big for their local authority boots is Councillor Sabharwal. The current Ferndale representative has a lively local ward to represent. One can only wonder then how he will find the time to also represent the good folk of North Herefordshire as their next MP.

A recent Freedom of Informaton request revealed that Stephen Morgan attended only 50% of full council meetings in the past political year. I am awaiting details of a further FOI request, asking what level of allowance each Lambeth Councillor has claimed this year.

Given his attendance record, it would be most disappointing to find that Councillor Morgan has troused his full £10,000 annual allowance; a fee of £5,000 would seem more appropriate.

Councillor Patil fares slightly better, having attended six out of the ten full council meetings. Credit where it is due - Councillor Sabharwal has the full set of ten out of ten.

Someone give that man PPC status…

But we’re not finished yet. Not quite ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ but what about the mysterious case of Kingsley Abrams, the current @LambethLabour Councillor for Vassall ward? Kingsley is standing once again under the Nu Labour banner in an attempt to become a local Lambeth politician.

I’m still not sure about the Wimbledon constituency though. It seems neither is Kingsley…

His own personal site was a campaigning shop front, boasting of how Kingsley is the best candidate for the good people of Wimbledon to elect as their next MP. A screenshot of the Vassall Councillor campaigning over in SW19 is published below.

How very strange then to find that the website has now been pulled, and Councillor Abrams is no longer listed as the Labour PPC for Wimbledon.

Maybe it is simply that Councillor Abrams has more sense than Neil Sabharwal, Neeraj Patil, Stephen Morgan and yes, Jane Edbrooke, in realising that local voters in Lambeth don’t take too kindly to this dual candidacy betrayal.

Political ambition - yes please. Doing an Edbrooke and keeping it quiet to the Little People of Lambeth about how you want to bugger off to Westminster - no thanks.

@LambethLabour has some very fine candidates. The Town Hall is a better place for being represented by these folk.

But once again, @LambethLabour - clarification on all of the above local / national candidates would be appreciated. Any more career politicians to add to my tally chart please?