Whether it is corruption or not, a big part of it is that the opposition doesn't have the numbers to make real challenges. 5 Greens and 1 Tory in the council, even if they work together and are amazingly effective, can be easily ignored. Don't get me wrong, they'd still probably push this stuff through, but if there were a lot more opposition councilors then at least they'd have to work for it a bit harder. Although presumably a few of you were around pre 2014 when there were a lot more and remember that things were not necessarily much better!
The lack of local newspapers doesn't help either even though Buzz does a good job of raising housing issues and other council issues. But the old style proper newspapers that used to have a few local reporters nosing about would be good as well. I sometimes read stories from elsewhere in London or UK where the local papers still are able to send council reporters along to every public meeting and then run stories on papers that thousands of people read everyday and feel a bit jealous.
