5 March 2025

The Labour administration is doing all it can to avoid owning up to their part in Lambeth council’s dire financial position. 

Many councils have been starved of resources by central government austerity, but Lambeth’s circumstances are different. Decades of mismanagement and unscrupulous practices by the Labour administration are the real reason for its financial woes.  

Green opposition councillors have been warning of Labour’s recklessness, particularly over their terrible business plan for Homes for Lambeth (HfL), for as long as the current leader of the council has been a councillor.

Labour’s attitude of defensiveness and self-preservation is stymying honest reform. If the leadership’s denial and steamrolling over dissent with half-truths continues, they are not equipped to lead this council out of the financial crisis.

Lambeth’s external auditors have taken the unprecedented step of issuing statutory recommendations for corrective action, as previous warnings by them have failed to be acted upon. The Labour administration has responded, as it has done for years, without genuine humility, acknowledgment of their part in failures or commitment to change. 

Lambeth Labour are trying to say ‘there is nothing to see here, many other councils across London are in the same position’ – self-righteously trying to swerve blame instead of taking a grip of corporate governance. 

The simple truth is, the only other London boroughs to receive such an intervention by auditors are bankrupt Croydon – who also tried and failed to run their own public/private property company – and Tower Hamlets, where government inspectors have had to intervene.

Lambeth Labour alone are responsible for the expensive and failed HfL. They are responsible for selling off council homes and decades of neglect maintaining estates. They are responsible for millions of pounds in legal disrepair compensation payouts. They are responsible for unrealistic budget setting, poor contract management and weak governance.

Over the past 11 years I have seen the creep of their defensiveness infiltrate every tier of this council, which must make life extremely difficult for officers and backbench members, who may be concerned about putting their ideas forward. Ranks close when difficult questions are asked. No real change can take place in this suffocating atmosphere.

There is a penalty for Labour not taking ownership of its mistakes, it will always be too busy looking over its own shoulder to have a clear-eyed view of the road ahead. It will never open its ears to warnings from the Green Party and others who advocated so strongly against doomed schemes such as HfL. Lambeth Labour will never have the humility to completely reform its culture and shepherd this council out of financial crises. 

Lambeth’s Budget Council meeting is on Wednesday 5 March 2025 7pm. I strongly suggest you watch it. 

We are facing another confused, incomplete and unrealistic budget. Labour’s proposals to find £99m in savings over four years are mysterious at best, with £30m of this (Target Operating Model) still “in progress”. They must also now perform a magic trick to balance their Housing Revenue Account within one year and repay the £40m bailout loan from central government. It’s likely residents will see another fire sale of publicly owned assets.

A Green-led council would never have made the same mistakes, as we would have listened to the peoples’ plans on estates and worked with residents rather than against them. We would never have run estates into the ground in the first place or sold off council owned assets to private developers. We would never have signed off on such a poor business plan for HfL. We advocate participatory budgeting, so that communities have more of a say in how their money is invested in the borough.

For many years now, Labour has put party first. Greens would put people first. We work from the bottom up, not top down.

To read more on this topic see MyLondon’s coverage here .

For enquiries, contact lambethgreenofficer@gmail.com.

The post Lambeth Labour’s Financial Crisis appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Despite support from the majority of Lambeth MPs and residents, the Labour group refused to support a motion calling for the Council leader to write to all local MPs to support the Climate & Nature (CAN) Bill at last night’s full council meeting in Lambeth. The bill is due to be debated in Parliament tomorrow and aims to rapidly reduce emissions and restore nature. It has cross party support from MPs, councils and the Mayor of London.

Cllr Nicole Griffiths, Green Party councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s ward, said: 

“The Labour group got it so wrong last night. Not only failing to support the Motion but amending it to the point that its purpose was lost. The amendments, in my opinion, should have been ruled out of order according to Part IV, B, d of Lambeth’s constitution. The Labour group dealt a double blow to Lambeth residents’ concerns about the climate and nature crises by also refusing to support the Green motion on reducing emissions from plastic waste, therefore throwing doubt on claims about their commitment to the natural environment. Perhaps the Labour group thinks that the global impact of the nature & climate crises stops at Lambeth’s boundaries?”

CONTACT

Green Group Lambeth

lambethgreenofficer@gmail.com

The post PRESS RELEASE – LABOUR GROUP FAIL TO SUPPORT MOTIONS ON CLIMATE appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Thursday, 23 January 2025

At full council last night, Lambeth Labour avoided tough questions exposing their failing administration.

There are only around five full council meetings a year where opposition councillors and backbenchers get the chance to ask questions of cabinet members responsible for specific areas of the council’s operations. These questions can be on a whole range of issues. They are submitted in writing and a written reply is given before the meeting by the relevant member. Questioners get a chance to ask a supplementary question orally in the meeting. Twenty-five minutes are put aside for this.

Cllr Scott Ainslie, Streatham St Leonard’s ward said: 

“Firstly, the written response from Cllr Amos, totally failed to answer my question on continuing weak governance year on year, as independently assessed by Lambeth’s external auditors. Then, there was no time left to ask my follow-up question as two cabinet members’ ‘speeches’ (they are supposed to be answering questions!) took up ten minutes!”

“Many questions from Labour are directed from one Cabinet Member (or set up for a backbencher to ask) so that another Cabinet Member can run down the clock – in one instance last night for five whole minutes! This way the Cabinet protects itself from answering the toughest of questions, which of course are going to come from opposition councillors, not those seeking promotion within the ruling party!”

“This is a clear sign of a council that is afraid of being exposed for its lack of accountability. They are letting the people of Lambeth down.”

“Had I been given the chance to ask a follow-up question, it would have been:

“You have totally avoided my question. Let me be clear – now the accounts are out today – the Housing Revenue Account has a deficit of £23m, it was £18m in surplus last year. There are continuing governance and monitoring failures – why has £13.5m gone to TLT solicitors for example, and what are you going to do to address these ongoing failures?”

CONTACT

Green Group Lambeth

lambethgreenofficer@gmail.com

The post PRESS STATEMENT – Lambeth Labour too afraid of hard questions appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Thank you again for helping us bring this important issue to the council and for your patience in waiting for their response. According to the constitution, the council is obligated to provide an acknowledgement of a petition in two working days and a response in a further 10 working days. We received a response 36 working days after we submitted your petition at the full council meeting of 16 October 2024. 

Unfortunately, the council has not set a specific objective to significantly improve the cleanliness of Streatham to the standard residents expect. 

Just to remind you – we asked the council to:

• review the contract performance of Serco specifically in relation to the cleanliness of Streatham according to the expectations and perceptions of the community,
• devote the necessary resources to address environmental vandalism in Streatham hotspots,
• demand Serco pay greater attention to the cleanliness of Streatham Town centre with enforced daily clean ups and regular jet washing.

The council’s response to this is:

“Since September the contract monitoring team have [sic] been working hard to improve both refuse collection and street cleansing performance. Over the past couple of months, we have seen a marked improvement in Serco’s performance with the number of missed refuse collections returning to an acceptable standard of 40 per 100,000.

There have also been a number of actions taken to improve the cleanliness of Streatham and the borough as a whole. These improvements include moving to the pro-active removal of fly-tipped waste. Contractually Serco has 72 hours to remove fly-tipped waste when a complaint is received. To fulfil this requirement Serco were responding to the complaints in an attempt to achieve the SLA. However when we reviewed this approach, we found it to be inefficient. Serco have [sic] now moved to the proactive removal of fly-tips where they check each road twice a week and remove any fly-tips identified. As a result we are starting to see the number of reported fly-tips drop. They are also monitoring and removing fly-tipped waste from hot spots on a more regular basis and liaising with Enforcement where possible to identify and fine offenders.

There has also been more focus on the standard of street cleansing. Under the contract Serco are required to litter pick once a week after refuse collection. A second litter pick is provided where needed by a mobile team. A deep clean is also scheduled to take place on a 30 day cycle to remove detritus and weeds. The 30 day cycle takes account on weekends and bank holidays to ensure no areas are missed for more than around a 6 week period.

Since January 24 officers have undertaken over 600 inspections in the Streatham area the vast majority of which met the required standard under the EPA code of practice that we use to measure the cleanliness of the borough. However if there are areas of concern officers would be happy to meet residents or members on site to walk around and make sure any issues are addressed.”

We are disappointed that Lambeth has chosen to ignore the lived experience of residents, we hoped for a more comprehensive action plan from the council. While we will have to wait to see if the bi-weekly fly-tip removal schedule has any real effect, we note that the litter picking and deep cleaning schedules appear to be no different to the existing service level. 

Since October, Green Councillors have been persistent in reporting hotspots, seeking contract performance and monitoring reports and updates from the relevant Cabinet Member, some of which is still not forthcoming after several weeks of delay. Kingscourt Rd residents are still reporting little improvement in their street after presenting their deputation. 

What happens next?

• We will continue to seek contract performance and monitoring data to see if there are any improvements in the ward.
• We encourage you to continue to report service requests by emailing us or using the online tool; doing this ensures that the data is a representation of the issue on our streets.
• The council has offered to send officers to site to discuss problem areas – if you would like to arrange this please contact our office. 
• We will continue to stay in touch with Kingscourt Rd residents and liaise with the Cabinet Member to keep Lambeth accountable to their promised actions.

Thank you all again for your support and advocacy. If you have any questions or suggestions please contact us using the links below. 

Cllrs Scott Ainslie and Nicole Griffiths, Streatham St Leonard’s ward. 

The post Clean Up Streatham – Lambeth Council petition response appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

GREENS IN THE PRESS

GREENS IN THE COUNCIL

Cleaning Up Streatham was the focus for Cllrs for the last full council meeting with this petition, a motion and a supporting public deputation. Labour voted against our motion and we are still waiting on a formal response to our petition, supported by 270 people. Many thanks to the hard work and organisation of residents who brought their issues to the meeting. 

In other council meetings, Nicole called for more council-owned homes at council rent in the New Homes Program, and questioned the impact that schools closing will have on local children. Scott challenged the distribution of development funds across the borough and voted for divestment from businesses with activities in occupied territories after speaking at a Unison demonstration. 

Both Scott and Nicole made suggestions for improvements to the way the council is run to an expert panel, appointed by the Local Government Association. Cllrs have also been challenging the decision made by the Interim Chief Exec to restrict their meetings with Corporate Directors and limit what motions they can bring before council.

Last week, Lambeth celebrated London Living Wage Week – an initiative that former Green Party Councillor Becca Thackray campaigned for.  We’re very proud that this essential commitment continues to be council policy.

LAMBETH-WIDE NEWS

Scott and Nicole have attended many events that impact their work across the whole borough, see the image gallery below for some highlights.

LOCAL NEWS

Cllrs continue to call on the council to help deliver a better deal for Streatham by pushing senior leaders to deliver the Strategic Vision for Streatham. To make it easy to deliver this vision, the INStreatham BID put together a series of ‘quick deliverables’ fully costed Street Manual. Contact Scott using the links below if you want to help lobby for our area and avoid losing more of our precious amenities to the same fate as our long term derelict and neglected old Police Station (pictured above).

The group organising against the Woodgate Tower development have been fundraising for a judicial review. Support their cause here. 

Cllrs attended regular meetings with Streatham Action Group, Friends of Streatham Cemetery, and volunteered for food bank shifts. A highlight was our visit to The Spires and the Lunch Club – it was great to see them sharing resources and ideas with other organisations such as Streatham Senior Connections to build community resilience. The Spires still need donations as do Lunch Club.

See our gallery below for images of these groups and more.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Locations for Phase 9 cycle hangars locations are here, find out if there is a new one in your area.

Sign up for free Trauma-informed Practice training workshops for community groups, dates across November and December are listed here.

Respond to Lambeth’s Night Time Strategy here and win 2 free tickets to the BFI Imax Cinema.

Active Spaces Fund grants up to £80,000 are available to improve sports spaces and inspire activity in our community. Find out how to apply here.

Free books for under-fives are being offered by Lambeth Council through a partnership with a foundation set up by Dolly Parton  Learn more about the scheme here.

Council Estate Surgeries take place across the South Housing estates at the below times:

• The 1st Wednesday of each month, 2-4pm at the Jubilee Hall, Tulse Hill SW2 2LY
• The 2nd Friday of each month, 10am – 1pm at Edmundsbury Community Hall, 171 Ferndale Rd, London SW9 8FQ
• The 3rd Thursday of each month, 10am-1pm at St Matthews Hall, SW2 1NH

Nicole and Scott could not do what they do without the help of members like you. Please get in touch with them to help support their work. For immediate updates, please click on the links below.

Best wishes – Nicole and Scott.

contact@lambeth.greenparty.org.uk 

The post Lambeth Green Cllr Autumn Update appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

At last night’s full council meeting, Green Party councillors’ questions went unanswered as they highlighted peoples’ concerns that so many residents’ and workers’ voices were not being heard across the borough.

The Capital Programme for 2024-2028 report was discussed and Cllr Ainslie, Leader of the Green Group of councillors on the council, asked if Streatham was getting its fair share of development money. He also pointed out the lack of detail on where the money is being spent, adding that the only location-specific projects were in the north and centre of the borough.

Cllr Scott Ainslie (Streatham St. Leonard’s ward) said: 

“It was beyond disappointing to get a non-answer to my follow-up question from the cabinet member for finance. Words were uttered, but they totally avoided answering the question I actually asked. And at the Cabinet meeting last week, I asked why Streatham St Leonard’s was second last on the list of wards in receipt of development money, receiving a mere £18,000 for a CPZ consultation, when 17 out of 25 wards had received over £100,000 and some had received millions of pounds! The leader of the council totally avoided the question, which was specifically about St Leonard’s ward. It is totally unacceptable.”

When discussing the changes to the council’s constitution, Cllr Nicole Griffiths (Streatham St. Leonard’s ward) asked why opposition councillors on the council, who represent over one-third of the electorate in Lambeth, were being blocked from meeting with corporate directors unless the interim chief executive is present. Cllr Griffiths also pointed out that it was not serving the 22% of people who voted Green at the last election to deny Lambeth’s second largest party a seat on the constitution working group.  

Cllr Nicole Griffiths (Streatham St. Leonard’s ward) said:

“I am becoming increasingly concerned that instead of values, including the Nolan principles, dictating the politics by which this administration operates, that politics are dictating the values. Thus, creating an administration determined to silence and ignore opposition whenever they can.” 

CONTACT

Green Group Lambeth

lambethgreenofficer@gmail.com

020 7926 9456

The post PRESS RELEASE: Greens demand more openness and accountability from Lambeth Council appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Our High Street is dirtier than ever, putting off visitors and shoppers from frequenting local businesses, causing knock-on acts of anti-social behaviour and environmental degradation.

We are paying higher levels of Council tax this year – yet local services are failing. People are quite rightly asking why Lambeth is not getting the basics right – keeping our streets clean, when charges paid to the council have risen.

Street cleaning and waste collection services are provided by SERCO – we urge the Council to hold them to account and ensure that our local area receives the services that we all pay for and deserve.

The post Sign our petition to Clean Up Petition appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Statement of Solidarity

Scott and Nicole were horrified by the recent far-right, racist demonstrations across the UK. We sent a letter of solidarity to community groups and faith leaders in Streatham St Leonard’s, read more here.

Green Success

After getting four Green MPs elected at the last election we know that our movement is growing. We also came second in 39 seats, 18 of which were in London and one of the narrowest margins was Streatham and Croydon North, where Scott stood.

With Labour in power at national, regional and local level, they now have no-one else to blame. Greens at all levels of government will continue to be that strong opposition to austerity and status quo thinking. People on the side of progressive politics are looking for a new party. We are already Lambeth’s second party with 22% of the vote across the borough. There has never been a better time to build our capacity locally and get more Greens elected.

You are key to our success. If you’d like to get involved in any of the campaigns our councillors are leading on, please get in touch with them directly or at the contact address below. Be part of our growing success in Lambeth and across the capital!

STOP PRESS: Last night, Hackney elected a new Green councillor – the first Green by-election win in London since 2008! If you want to help in a local up-coming by-election or want to find out about becoming a councillor yourself, please contact us.

Green Party Conference

Nicole, Scott and several other Lambeth Greens enjoyed the conference in Manchester 6th – 8th September – some of the highlights were…

Greens Organise

Partly in defiance of the far right riots and Labour turning its back on working class communities across the country, a new left-wing group of Green Party members established Greens Organise – in the same room the first TUC meeting was held in 1868. See if you can spot Lambeth Greens in the picture above!

Policy Passed

Greens become the first politcal party to recognise Israeli government conduct as ‘Apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ in Gaza and back Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS)

Rejoin EU

Greens back rejoining the EU as soon as the conditions are right.

High-Speed Rail

In an extremely close vote Greens change direction on HS2, but warn of closer scrutiny of spiralling costs and habitat destruction. Find full details of the party conference here.

Council work

Labour Ignore Greens Motion

July’s full council meeting saw a very full agenda of important issues presented, including committee reports, constitutional changes, IICSA and special urgency decisions. Scott and Nicole spoke on every report and motion, however the Greens motion on Accelerating Climate Action was voted down by Labour who, as usual, turned a deaf ear to opposition voices. Read our press release here and follow this link to watch the full proceedings and access minutes and reports.

Committees Discuss Housing

Nicole attended important meetings for both Overview and Scrutiny (OSC) and Housing Sub-Scrutiny Committees (HSSC) over July where she questioned the targets in the inadequate New Homes Program and heard from local residents about the realities of temporary accommodation. You can view the proceedings and the submissions following the links to the OSC and HSSC pages. 

Age-friendly consultation 

Lambeth published its Age-Friendly strategy for consultation in July, you can find the Green Group’s response here. 

Standing up for Child Abuse Survivors

Following news reports on Sky News and South London Press, Scott called into question the limits of Lambeth’s Redress Scheme aimed at settling claims out of court for victims of child abuse and asked why a former Lambeth social worker got away with systematically aiding and abetting paedophiles for so long.

Also, Scott continues to press the council to ensure that looked after children placed outside the borough are checked on regularly after the IICSA report highlighted ongoing concerns with such placements as late as 2016. 

Green Wins

Article 4 direction to limit HMOs in Streatham

We have received a number of complaints about ASB resulting from the concentration of HMOs in Streatham. We therefore welcome the decision to make an Article 4 direction to limit HMOs in the area. You can have your views heard by responding to the consultation here by 7 October 2024.

Accountability and Transparency

We have been fighting for more transparency and accountability within the council and welcome this step in the right direction. Lambeth has introduced an Outcomes Framework that will require directorates to report on their work quarterly.

Lambeth-wide News

Cost of Living Support

Lambeth has announced another £5.3m in cost of living support for the 24/25 financial year. Find out more here. 

Woodgate Call In

We made an exemplary call in to the Mayor of London on Lambeth’s planning decision on Woodgate tower, Streatham. We will report back on their response, here’s the link to our objection.

Brockwell park trees

The over-commercialisation of Brockwell park continues to concern councillors and residents. The Greens have called for a full investigation into the impacts of summer festivals on equal access to green spaces.

Clapham Park Development

This is one of the largest areas of redevelopment in Europe and, since the original Master Plan from 2008, the developer has continually sought to make ‘minor variations’. You may remember, Green campaigners tried to fight off the destruction of mature trees. 

Residents are trying to stop further overdevelopment of the site – which is more than was agreed to in the original application. If you would like to help in this campaign, please contact Scott.

Local News

Complaints about waste and the lack of street cleaning
Following the transition to fortnightly waste collections, residents have been reporting high levels of missed collections, fly tipping and unsatisfactory street cleaning. We have met with council officers and they are investigating these reports with the contractor. We aim to bring a group of residents to the next full council on 16 October to highlight these concerns. Please let us know if this is happening in your street.

Streatham station lifts

Scott met with Network Rail, GTR, BAM Nuttall, Rubax, Streatham Action Transport Group and local councillors on 11 July to agree a series of measures to ensure maintenance of lifts including resources, training and patrolling. We are glad to report the lifts are currently working.

Fernwood Avenue

Councillors alerted Lambeth officers to the poor road condition on Fernwood Avenue and are happy to report that the potholes have now been filled.

Nicole and Scott could not do what they do without the help of members like you. Please get in touch to help support their work. For immediate updates, please click on the links below.

Best wishes – Nicole and Scott.

contact@lambeth.greenparty.org.uk

The post Lambeth Green Party Summer Councillor Highlights appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Read our full response here.

The post Appeal against Woodgate Drive appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.

Council in denial

Lambeth Labour cannot face up to their lack of action on the climate, despite declaring an emergency five years ago.

Green councillors’ motion to Accelerate Local Climate Action has been ignored by a Lambeth Labour administration in denial of its failed response to the climate emergency. At Lambeth Town Hall’s full council meeting on Wednesday 17 July 2024, Greens denounced Labour for using its majority position to escape scrutiny and accountability at the expense of residents’ concerns. 

Cllr Scott Ainslie, Streatham St Leonard’s ward said:

“Lambeth labour cannot bear scrutiny. They do not like opposition councillors shining a spotlight on their lack of progress. They are totally in denial about the single biggest existential threat facing us. Council heard two public deputations tonight on the climate crisis, the people of Lambeth want to talk about the council’s lack of climate action. What is particularly frustrating is that they talk the talk – but need to do much more to prove they can walk the walk.”

Cllr Nicole Griffiths, Streatham St Leonard’s ward said:

“Lambeth residents have told us that climate action is important to them, but by ignoring our motion this evening, the Labour administration is sending us all a clear message that the climate crisis is low on their agenda. The commitment to reach net zero across the borough and its own operations by 2030 will not be reached unless they act much more boldly and with much greater haste.”

The post PRESS RELEASE appeared first on Lambeth Green Party.