Belsize Park parents’ voices silenced, but Camden Council leader says: ‘Democracy is in our DNA’

Published: 30th June, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY

SCHOOLS campaigners were blocked from speaking at Monday’s full council meeting after missing a deadline by little more than an hour.

The Mayor’s office refused to use discretion to allow the parents to put their case. They are eager to solve a places problem in their neighbourhood by setting up a new primary school in decommissioned hostels in Belsize Park.

“It was refused because it was late,” said new mayor Abdul Quadir. “I didn’t make the rules, they have been rules over the years.”

At the same meeting, Camden’s only Green councillor, Maya De Souza, left the Town Hall chamber in tears after being told by Cllr Quadir that she could not contribute to a debate.

The two flashpoints at Monday’s session came on the heels of the budget-setting meeting, which was held with the public gallery doors locked because of protests over council policy.

Immediately, the council’s ruling Labour group was warned that a key speech from leader Councillor Nash Ali at Monday’s meeting in which he promised more “democracy” and “community engagement” in the year ahead had been critically undermined.

In an extended speech marking the start of Labour’s second year back in power at the Town Hall, Cllr Ali said: “I will focus on three themes that really matter to me and I believe matter to Camden: leadership, democracy and community.”

Yet less than an hour later, Cllr De Souza was on her way home early, insisting she had been prevented from speaking.

Members of all parties were privately unhappy that the De Souza had not been allowed just a few minutes to speak, and several rushed to comfort her in another room.

Cllr Ali had, in fact, offered to take her questions and extend the debate but the Mayor, who has the final say on how meetings are run, insisted she had missed her chance. 

With only one councillor, the Greens do not officially constitute a group at the Town  Hall and Cllr De Souza does not enjoy an automatic guarantee to speak in every debate. 

But their supporters remind rivals that the party collected 12 per cent of the vote in Camden at last year’s general election.

Cllr De Souza said afterwards: “I know that I am not called on every issue but I feel obliged to try and speak for the people who do vote Green in this borough. This doesn’t feel like a fair way of doing things.” 

The incident is due to be discussed informally among Labour members.

In the case of the Belsize parents, who watched the meeting from the public gallery, the most sceptical cynics suggested there had been no attempt to relax the rules because the deputation was critical of the Labour administration’s decision to offer the hostels involved for sale on the private market. 

Parents want the council to halt the sale so they can be used under the government’s “free school” programme. 

In the past, late requests for deputations to be heard have occasionally been accepted as it was considered a positive thing to have more residents taking part in council proceedings.

In his speech Cllr Ali said: “Democracy is in our DNA.” He added: “There is a danger that the difficult times ahead may lead to cynicism and disengagement from the political process. We must revitalise and modernise our democratic institutions.”

Lib Dem leader Councillor Keith Moffitt said there was “a yawning gulf” between “the rhetoric and the reality”.

Conservative leader Councillor Andrew Mennear told Cllr Ali: “I felt the collective energy eke  out of the chamber as you were speaking. I see the words but they are just words.”