Angry at cuts? Take it up with the Labour council, says Ed Miliband

Published: 11th November, 2010

EXCLUSIVE by RICHARD OSLEY

 

NEW Labour Party leader Ed Mili­band told the New Journal that residents feeling the force of cuts to Camden’s libraries, play services and help for the elderly should take their grievances to the Town Hall.

In his first comments to a London regional newspaper since he was made leader at the party’s annual conference in Manchester, Mr Mili­band said the case to save certain services needed to be put directly to Camden’s Labour councillors.

Speaking to the New Journal from his Portcullis House office on the banks of the Thames, Mr Miliband said his party’s representatives, in control at the council, would try to be as “fair” as possible when the squeeze hits.

His advice, however, came as a leaked document of early plans to deal with the cuts in Camden suggested startling proposals such as leaving potholes in the roads unrepaired, turning off some street lights at night and – a measure that has echoes of historic battles in the borough – closing libraries. More than one could be shut down.

The report predicts possible unrest on council estates when cleaning services are pared back and warns of negative media coverage.

The file, effectively an early sketch of how the council may perform with less money, was cited in part by the Observer newspaper on Sunday but, in exchange for seeing the information, it agreed not to name the authority involved. But council  sources have told the New Journal that the shocking case study relates directly to Camden.

The document, thought to have been compiled last month, suggests there will be “a deterioration of estates leading to antisocial behaviour” and a “reduction in overall standards of cleanliness for litter, detritus and fly-tipping”.

Full details of what faces the axe will not be officially released until later in the month, but firm clues as to what’s in the firing line are emerging. 

Officials from all departments have been floating possible ideas for cutbacks with their elected masters. One wild plan to slash libraries back to just four “super centres” was flatly refused when it was put before the Labour cabinet in Camden.

Meanwhile, Labour members are entrenched in a communications campaign to publicise how the money trail – or the lack of money – runs back to Whitehall.

The message is: We don’t like it, but we have no other option because the cuts are deeper than ever before. 

Mr Miliband invited councillors  to his offices on Thursday in the aftermath of the Kentish Town by-election. The New Journal was exclusively invited to be in the room for the congratulatory handshakes and asked the new Labour top man whether worried residents should be marching through the streets, and organising sit-ins and demonstrations.

“Making representations to Camden about these services is what people want to do,” he said. “Labour councils are going to be forced to implement very very difficult things as a direct result of what the government in Westminster have decided. Camden’s councillors are going to make the fairest decisions that are possible. They are going to do everything they can to protect people as much as they can.”

He shifted the blame on the Liberal Democrats for “breaking promises” in their coalition with the Conservatives.

Mr Miliband, speaking just a couple of days before signing off on paternity leave to care for his baby son Samuel at the family home in Dartmouth Park, said: “Frankly, the Lib Dems who used to run Camden have betrayed people in Camden. They have made a series of promises at the election and they have broken those promises  – and that undermines trust in politics.”

In the week of the Phil Woolas case, Lib Dems locally say Mr Miliband’s comments on trust in politics are ill-timed.

At the Town Hall, finance chief Councillor Theo Blackwell will face the torrent of complaints heading Camden’s way when the knife begins to cuts. He hit out at critics of Labour’s handling of the crash: “The coalition parties are in two minds: they order deep cuts centrally but then oppose cuts locally. They do not understand the full picture or are not appreciating just how deep these cuts are.”

Labour councillors feel the demands to hack back £80 to £100 million from the council budget has left them with no wriggle room to settle on any policy other than cutting everything back to legal minimums.

Cllr Blackwell said: “It is the discretionary services that will suffer.”

But Conservative group leader Councillor Andrew Mennear said: “The whole attitude of the Labour group is wrong. They are saying everything is terrible – when they should be adopting a ‘can do’ attitude. There are choices that can be made at the council about which services you fund. They are making the mistake of going straight to cutting frontline services when they should be making savings in the back office.” 

He said that even the Lib Dem and Conservative “Better and Cheaper” programme – run when the two parties shared power in Camden – had not flushed out all of the possible savings at the Town Hall.

“People are not stupid. Their question for Ed Miliband is: does he accept that the Labour government’s profligacy brought us to this stage? What the council must do now is do all it can to keep libraries open where possible.”

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Keith Moffitt said: “Everybody is realistic and knows nothing can be ruled out but what we are saying to the council is that we need it to be imaginative rather than defeatist. There is the idea of looking at the usage of libraries and how volunteers can help. If you are looking at closures then you have to think very hard.”

He added: “I’ve said it before but it is an important point that if Labour had won the election, it would have made cuts. Their own manifesto said that cuts would be worse than under Thatcher.”

Booker winner – Closing libraries would be a mistake

 

BOOKER Prize winning novelist Howard Jacobson has become the most high-profile critic of the trend for libraries to become more commercial and offer a wider range of services than simply books on shelves – as Camden Council faces swingeing cuts in funding that could mean library services are slashed. 

The author was a speaker at the Friends of Heath Library annual general meeting last night (Wednesday) and heard committee members warn of rumours that closures were on the horizon and that their members must remain vigilant. 

Mr Jacobson, whose book The Finkler Question scooped the accolade last month, said libraries must not lose sight of their original purpose – to provide  books to borrow and a haven for reading them.

He said: “Call me a pedant, but I think of a library as a place that houses books – books which educated opinion deems us to be the better, intellectually and spiritually, for having read. It amazes me that we have to go on insisting on this. 

“The idea of a free library presupposes the value, to the individual and to society, of reading, and the value of reading presupposes the value of books. 

“If we fill a library with pot-boilers and that genre of contemporary literature described as crossover because its crosses us over from maturity to infancy, we abandon the grand educative function which libraries were philanthropically invented to serve. 

“First the serious books give way to footling books, then the books give way altogether to something else – records, tapes, CDs, DVDs, and now computers.”

He added that he expected dedicated library users would campaign to keep their local libraries open.

Friends of Heath Library treasurer Lee Montague told a crowd of more than 60 people that library groups across the borough would remain vigilant. 

He said: “There are rumours libraries will close. In my view this is a mistake – the money saved by doing so would be relatively little.”

DAN CARRIER

Sports cuts will hit kids

 

THOUSANDS of children in Camden will be denied free sport and health boosting exercise sessions when a massive grant is pulled by the government in April.

A dozen staff at the Camden School Sports Partnership have been told to “prepare for redundancy” after the £380,000 funding was withdrawn.

The project brings thousands of children from all the primary schools together in their nearest secondary schools for free after-school sport.

It has doubled the number of children in Camden getting two hours of PE a week since it began in 2003 – more than 17,500 pupils are now hitting the national target in Camden.

CSSP manager Ian Warren said: “There has been investment in sport and we have had real results. To see it all go it would be a real disappointment.”

Each secondary school has a co-ordinator – all are facing unemployment – and sixth-formers volunteer to gain coaching certificates for their CVs. 

Haverstock co-ordin­ator Claire Panyandee said: “We are supposed to be getting ready for the Olympics but here we are cutting all the funding for sport – and it’s happening across the country.”

TOM FOOT

How the cuts could change Camden

LIBRARIES
Councillors will no longer guarantee the future of every branch. Private briefing papers warn of “negative media coverage” ahead over cuts. A plan to slice back the number of branches to just four was suggested but apparently dismissed out of hand by Labour leadership.

 

STREET LIGHTING
Camden estimates it can save £50,000 by switching off street lamps at night in some streets.

POTHOLES
“Expect more potholes”, an unnamed councillor predicted at the weekend. Road repairs may be ranked in terms of priority with smaller jobs left untouched.

LITTER
Camden’s cuts checklist included a plan to “review cleansing”. This could translate to fewer litter patrols in streets, parks and estates.

COUNCIL ESTATES
A block on repairs to some council-owned properties could see simple jobs like replacing toilets and unblocking gutters left undone. Decorative work may not be completed where urgent repairs are done.

LUNCHEON CLUBS/PLAY CENTRES
If the service isn’t a statutory obligation then it is at risk of losing funding.

PRICE HIKES
Camden’s services are likely to cost more in the future. Leisure centre fees, for example could be brought level to prices paid at private facilities.

Inside Miliband’s office

 

Oh for an office like the one Ed Miliband won when he took over the leadership of the Labour Party! 

It has large windows from Portcullis House with a cracker of a view of the Thames. 

He has a big West Wing desk, a chill-out couch with nice green cushions and a big King Arthur table for his shadow cabinet to sit around when summoned.

In the corridors outside, worthy old Labour posters from a different age about making sure women vote and celebrating Welfare state goodness decorate the walls. I saw the Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain admiring one. 

There is a still feeling that the new man hasn’t fully unpacked – these are Opposition offices vacated in a rush six months ago. A crate of Becks beers was left untouched in the waiting room. 

On Thursday, Miliband had the distant eyes of a man a couple of days away from being a daddy again, brisk, brief, to the point. 

But he was warm and welcoming to his new councillor for Kentish Town Jenny Headlam-Wells and her ward colleague Meric Apak. 

Her by-election victory last week, largely against the Liberal Democrats has earned Brownie (Milibandy) points with the high command. 

Being invited in for a “well done” from the top dog is certainly a mark of how much importance the party placed in defending the ward. 

They have high hopes for Cllr Headlam-Wells. First impressions suggest she won’t just be a mousey backbencher.

RICHARD OSLEY