Lambeth Council Watch - news and updates about the 'co-operative' council
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CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Who owns the site as a matter of interest?
Back in neanderthal times those three large properties were publicly owned wrecks, then seemed to be being done up for shared ownership flats with the blessing of the health authority. The flats themselves don't control the front garden land use - it has to be the freeholder.
I think it's about time the Land Registry was free to use like companies house.
Would be nice to know who is profiting from billboard advertising spam like this.
wurlycurly
diss member
I watched it being assembled, took very little time. Utterly bizarre that it cost £5,000. It's also pretty ugly and very flimsy.
editor
hiraethified
It really is quite unpleasant to look at. Still, it might be handy for the street drinkers (although they'll probably quickly get moved on very quickly)
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I see that for all our problems with the redoubtable KH, the new(ish) Vauxhall MP, Florence Ashamoli, has managed to get a mention in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs (council allowances section.)
Seems Florence - ex Lambeth Council Brixton Hill, ex Lambeth and Southwark GLA member felt moved to claim £19,514 expenses from the GLA despite being the MP for Vauxhall from December 16th 2019.
Was this one her secretary slipped in in error - or was she just running late?
Seems Florence - ex Lambeth Council Brixton Hill, ex Lambeth and Southwark GLA member felt moved to claim £19,514 expenses from the GLA despite being the MP for Vauxhall from December 16th 2019.
Was this one her secretary slipped in in error - or was she just running late?
editor
hiraethified
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
I really wish my Lambeth Cllrs were more like this.
editor
hiraethified
editor
hiraethified
cuppa tee
Well-Known Member
editor
hiraethified
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Did I get this right some Labour Cllrs are sending part of there hefty allowances directly to the party?
I do think this should not be allowed.
Agree with Greens that the Cabinet system should be replaced with return to Committee system.
BTW I think editor and Tricky Skills plus the other contributors do a great job. Brixton Buzz is an invaluable independent info/ news resource.
So Ive set up monthly donation.
If enough people set up small monthly donation it will help to keep Brixton Buzz going.
Needs to be remembered as the article shows that Lambeth Council has a 2.6 million
An Independent news outlet like the Buzz does not have this.
editor
hiraethified
Quids in!
www.brixtonbuzz.com
Twenty-Four staff members earning £100,000+ at Lambeth Council with Chief Executive Andrew Travers pulling in £185,000
Twenty-four staff members at Lambeth Council are paid an annual salary of £100,000 or more. Chief Executive Andrew Travers is able to pocket £185,000 per year from his position.
www.brixtonbuzz.com
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
The days of star salary chief execs came in 25 years ago. Starting in Lambeth really with Heather Rabbats (1995-2000)Quids in!
Twenty-Four staff members earning £100,000+ at Lambeth Council with Chief Executive Andrew Travers pulling in £185,000
Twenty-four staff members at Lambeth Council are paid an annual salary of £100,000 or more. Chief Executive Andrew Travers is able to pocket £185,000 per year from his position.
She had to be offered £250,000 to encourage her to come to Lambeth apparently. Derrick Anderson was also on £250,000 I believe from 2006 to 2014.
What is interesting from the Brixton Buzz article is how the big rewards are now shared more evenly and to a larger pool of people.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Quids in!
Twenty-Four staff members earning £100,000+ at Lambeth Council with Chief Executive Andrew Travers pulling in £185,000
Twenty-four staff members at Lambeth Council are paid an annual salary of £100,000 or more. Chief Executive Andrew Travers is able to pocket £185,000 per year from his position.
Personally I don't see the justification for these high salaries. When the average Lambeth resident is on a lot less.
Also I wonder why Labour Cllrs defend senior officers so much. These officers rake in so much to sit at desks all day. Given that they get this is it to much to ask that Cllrs stick up for residents rather than the well paid bureaucracy?
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
The classic explanation for why its difficult to tackle corruption in places like Nigeria has been that people tend to think they may be the next lucky one.
This logic can be extended to people who are councillors and those who are council officers. They have an affinity as to what financial rewards they aspire to.
And there is also a revolving door - councillors do sometimes end up as officers in neighbouring boroughs and vice versa.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Id forgotten how Heather Rabbats was the kind of thrusting new class of senior officers that New Labour liked.
Even though the then leader Cllr Jim Dickson had reservations by the end.
I find it nauseating that this New Labour generation of forward thinking officers did so well out of the New Labour years.
Self promoting, hob nobbing with the modernising New Labour project.
On actual practise she was not called the "Terminator" for nothing. Under her swathes of Council services were outsourced.
She left to go onto higher things as part of the new political establishment.
Sue Foster is another who did well out of New Labour.
Heather Rabbatts: The terminator in see-through heels
She's the country's most famous - in fact, only famous - local authority chief. Now that she's quitting, Simon Hattenstone asks what she's really achieved
cuppa tee
Well-Known Member
.She left to go onto higher things as part of the new political establishment.
Heather Rabbatts: The terminator in see-through heels
She's the country's most famous - in fact, only famous - local authority chief. Now that she's quitting, Simon Hattenstone asks what she's really achievedwww.theguardian.com
and also Millwall FC.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I have an alternative theory anout Heather Rabbatts. I think that new Labour wanted a completely fresh approach, and Henry Gilby the existing CEO was the ultimate insider. He knew everything about every aspect of the council, and the councillors knew very little.Id forgotten how Heather Rabbats was the kind of thrusting new class of senior officers that New Labour liked.
Even though the then leader Cllr Jim Dickson had reservations by the end.
I find it nauseating that this New Labour generation of forward thinking officers did so well out of the New Labour years.
Self promoting, hob nobbing with the modernising New Labour project.
On actual practise she was not called the "Terminator" for nothing. Under her swathes of Council services were outsourced.
She left to go onto higher things as part of the new political establishment.
Sue Foster is another who did well out of New Labour.
Heather Rabbatts: The terminator in see-through heels
She's the country's most famous - in fact, only famous - local authority chief. Now that she's quitting, Simon Hattenstone asks what she's really achieved
There is another point too. The impression I had was that Gilby was clinging to his Chief Exec post like a limpet - as indeed anyone would.
This Independent newspaper comment is interst - especially for those who don't remember the panicky atmosphere
Local Elections: Labour under threat amid financial chaos
ONE POLITICIAN will wake up on 6 May and might begin to wonder what on earth he or she has done. That person will be in charge of Lambeth, arguably the worst-run local authority in Britain.
www.independent.co.uk
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ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
The other thing I noticed was reference to Jo Negrini.
Some people might remember she was one of Lambeth Councils leading officers.
As Brixton Town Centre manager she saw her job as doing the Councils bidding. Making sure annoying residents were ignored if what they questioned/ said did not fit in what her masters the Council wanted. The worst sort of on surface PC Council bureaucrat who is paid a lot and knows which side their bread is buttered.
On the back of her "success" in delivering projects for the Council she got to be Chief Executive of Croyden. On nice fat salary.
See her ingratiating herself with the Labour party establishment has meant she has come a cropper. From link in the Brixton Buzz piece.
Bankrupt Croydon faces fresh inquiry into £66 million hole
An independent investigation into who was responsible for the risky property speculation that bankrupted Croydon Council and how they were allowed to get away with it has been initiated by the cross-party Local Government Association.www.standard.co.uk
.
I am starting to loathe these kind of people. Its the kind of people Ive had to deal with over the years in Brixton. Grin and bear it. On big salaries.
Remember her saying to me once " the trouble with you is you like doing things on the outside". This was on basis I turned up to the Brixton Town Centre meetings and asked questions ( after reading up on an issue) of the Council
Maybe she was right she got half a million. I havent got much to show for anything Ive done.
The inquiry will drag on and she will be alright.
She shat the bed in Streatham too, almost let Tesco walk away with providing no social housing, & got violently defensive when called on it at meetings with residents & local groups.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Short-term gain/money in the council coffers, plus being able to boast that HfL has "developed" housing there.
It's fucking stupid. Lambeth are taking services back in-house from all points of the compass, so will require more staff, & more office space. Retaining International House seems like a no-brainer to this Council Tax-payer.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Chance would be a fine thing!
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Quids in!
Twenty-Four staff members earning £100,000+ at Lambeth Council with Chief Executive Andrew Travers pulling in £185,000
Twenty-four staff members at Lambeth Council are paid an annual salary of £100,000 or more. Chief Executive Andrew Travers is able to pocket £185,000 per year from his position.
Given Travers' absolutely fuck-up of a sojourn at Barnet, he should in no way have been offered the Lambeth job in the 1st place. Having attended meetings where he sat in, I can see why some Barnet cllrs nicknamed him "Sleepy". The man is either knackered all the time, or is narcoleptic.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
That is a good point. Lambeth might find in future they need some more office space due to taking services back inhouse.
At recent meeting of Brixton Neighbourhood Forum the officers presented the proposals for International House and Pop site.
I asked what was wrong with International House. Was told the plant etc was at end of life and needed replacing. I said Id heard the lifts had been replaced. Answer was oh yes but all the windows need replacing.
Council had done a lot of maintenance work as they used it for temporary offices when the new Town Hall had been built. I knew about this. Officer assumed I didn't.
After meeting someone told me that the windows of International House are built from anodised aluminium. Like all the details of the Rec/ International House buildings they were high spec and built to last.
What I got from all this is that International House is useable building. That officers have been told to tell residents its in bad shape when it is not.. So just pluck things out of thin air to say at meetings.
I don't blame officers who attend meetings. They have been given job to sell this to local community.
The other fiction is the usual one trotted out- Nothing is decided yet.
When unofficially it has.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Your source is correct that IH has anodised ali frames. If the officer is saying that the panes need replacing, or require new seals, that's pish money - standard building maintenance costs, especially as you can replace on a pane by pane basis.
I'm pretty much used to officers doing the "plucked out of their arse" thing at every meeting, regardless of the subject. Now, if an officer - especially middle management or above - starts spieling at me, I pull them up, & ask them to talk about what they actually know.
They're complicit in deception that invariably ends up costing Lambeth residents money, so I absolutely blame them. It's unprofessional.
That goes without saying. We're well aware here on Cressingham that when we were told "nothing is decided" in 2013, it meant "we've already made our decision, & now we have to bully you into going along with it". There's a whole culture of this in local authorities, although Lambeth & Southwark are particularly egregious examples that aren't helped by having cllrs who are gutless in the face of the whip, & cabinets who operate in a manner more akin to a big business board cabal, than to a group of officials elected to enact the public will.
