Knights Hill News Oct 09

KNIGHTS HILL NEWS Autumn 2009

Kemi Adegoke • Nicholas Rogers

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Labour Lambeth housing scandal Millions of pounds lost as houses left to rot

One thousand Lambeth-owned properties are being left vacant, resulting in £3.5m lost rental income every year.

“I am shocked by this level of mismanagement,” says Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Kemi Adegoke. “The £3.5m in lost rent is just the tip of the iceberg in Labour’s failed management of our housing, locally and nationally. This could be spent on reduced rent and service charges. Local residents are punished for Labour’s incompetence.”

These properties could have been redeveloped, or sold for hundreds of millions of pounds, to create homes for the 14,000 people on the housing waiting list.

Letting properties become derelict makes streets ugly and increases antisocial behaviour. The council will not invest in developing these properties and refuses to sell them off swiftly, just leaving them there to rot.

“The Audit Commission has rightly fingered Lambeth Council and Lambeth Living,” says Kemi, “but the real problem lies with a Labour government obsessed with new and shiny things. Their high taxes on refurbishment have made it cheaper to build new than fix derelict properties and they restrict funding to new buildings.”

The scandal in figures 1

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,000 empty homes worth hundreds of millions of pounds. £3.5 million lost in rent EVERY year. £9.9 million in uncollecte d tenant arrea rs. £20k added to this year afte postage costs r huge blund ers with all of th e borough’s leaseholders .

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Labour Lambeth Rewards Incompetenc e

• Director of Housing

Managemen t – £100k pe r year + benefi ts. Director of L am £120k per ye beth Living ar + benefits . Consultants earning betw een £500 to £90 0 PER DAY.

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Promoted and published by Stephen Smith on behalf of Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Association, 495 Norwood Road, London SE27 9DJ. Printed by Multiprint Lithographics Limited, Unit 3 Gardner Industrial Estate, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1QZ.

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Woodvale Estate Flytipping the Woodvale Estate and discussed some of the problems the estate is facing.

Illegal flytipping is blighting the lives of many residents. Labour-run Lambeth Council has admitted that flytipping has increased dramatically since it closed the Vale Street waste facility to general waste from local homes. Places such as Woodvale are suffering as a direct result of Labour’s wrongheaded decision. Flytipping is increasing in Labour-run Lambeth

Nicholas, Kemi and fellow local Conservatives recently met residents of

Conservatives across West Norwood have joined local residents in campaigning for the Council to get its act together on illegal flytipping. Please get in touch if you want to support our campaign. Call Nick to get any flytipping removed on: 07843 225805.

Dog Fouling – Update

West Norwood. Many residents have been in touch, identifying the worst hot-spots. Nicholas then demanded action by the Council. The Council has at last responded to our protests. Council officers have revealed details of an anti-dog fouling campaign, and have issued a small number of fixed-penalty notices to irresponsible owners.

Nicholas and Kemi are pushing for action

Nicholas has been highlighting the serious dog fouling problem in

But much more must be done, and Knights Hill Conservatives will keep up the pressure. Please let us know if there is a particularly severe problem on your street – we will demand clean-up action.

Labour Neglects West Norwood

Local residents have always suspected that West Norwood is being neglected by Lambeth’s Labour Council.

Proof of this came at a recent public meeting when a senior member of the Labourcontrolled Council said that ‘West Norwood is not on the Council’s list of priorities’.

“At a time when West Norwood is suffering from issues such as flytipping, lack of housing and a chronic shortage of primary school places, this attitude from those who are supposed to serve the whole of Lambeth is shocking,” said Nicholas Rogers.

Knights Hill Conservative Action Team is busy helping West Norwood residents keep our local area pleasant and safe.

Knollys Road and Cameron Place

After being alerted by residents to repeated flytipping incidents on Knollys Road and under the railway bridge near Cameron Place, local Conservatives demanded that the Council act to clear up the mess. We were successful and the Council committed to increasing street cleaning activities in those areas.

Leigham Court Road

Following repeated pressure from local residents and the Knights Hill Conservative Action Team, the Council finally began to make repairs to a dangerous collapsing wall on this busy road.

Pondfield House

A walkabout revealed that the damaged steps in Pondfield House, reported months ago by Nicholas Rogers, had not been fixed despite the Council’s assurance that this had been done. Local Conservatives pushed for action, and are pleased to report that the steps are now repaired.

If there are any issues on your street that you would like us to take up with the Council – from potholes to primary school places – get in touch and we will be happy to help you.

Promoted and published by Stephen Smith on behalf of Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Association, 495 Norwood Road, London SE27 9DJ. Printed by Multiprint Lithographics Limited, Unit 3 Gardner Industrial Estate, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1QZ.