Lambeth Council Watch - news and updates about the 'co-operative' council

[BusLanes]

Well I watched some bits of the meeting after seeing it referenced. I shall admit to largely fast forwarding through most of the Labour bits to watch the Green and Lib Dems.

They seemed promising? Obviously the Greens have experience but all five opposition seemed firm on scrutiny and the Labour committee/cash grabs.

 

[GarveyLives]

Lambeth Council has been criticised after prosecuting the mother of a child who missed school because he was scared of being groomed by gang members:

Lambeth Council prosecuted mum of boy who missed school because he was afraid of being groomed by gangsters

The Local Government Ombudsman criticised Lambeth Council for failing to clearly explain why it decided to prosecute the fearful child's mother.

 

[CH1]

Was watching the council AGM meeting replay on Join conversation (available until mid-December 2022 apparently)

At 1hr 50m approx Councillor Nicole Griffiths (Green - St Leonards) made a pointed speech about the chairing of the Scrutiny committees, whereby she stated that even the Labour Blair government which set up the cabinet and scrutiny system recommended that scrutiny committees should be chaired by opposition councillors.

She further pointed out that the opposition parties had obtained 33% of the vote - 22% to the Greens and 11% to the Lib Dems, yet neither party had been offered chair or deputy chair of any of the 4 scrutiny committees.

Cllr Matthew Bryant of Thornton Ward (Lib Dem) endorsed this complaint.

The Labour whip who rose to speak on the matter said that the Labour party had been more than generous in granting memberships of Health management committees etc - over and above legal requirements. Not only that she pointed out that the ward boundaries for the election had been determined by an independent body - the electoral commission - so it was not the Labour Party's fault that the minority parties got so few councillors.

At 2h 8m Scott Ainslie came up with a cracker of a point (in my opinion)
He must have done some FoI on councillors allowances - and said that the Labour Councillors clearly didn't all need their massive allowances as between August 2014 and February 2021 £225,384 of council allowances was diverted to the Lambeth Labour Group Campaign Fund - at the same time as implementing massive cuts.

In 2020 alone, £55,538 was transferred to the Lambeth Labour Group Campaign Fund.

As an old Lambeth hand I can imagine what the South London Press and the Daily Mail would have said if Ted Knight had done that. Labour Party funding "on the rates". At least Ted Knight and Linda Bellos just issued a newspaper - so-called propaganda on the rates.

Talking of which it seems to me that Scott Ainslie is probably the most convicted and fluent speaker in the Lambeth chamber since Ted Knight. Scott has an actor's basso profundo whereas Ted Knight had an extraordinarily penetrating whiny tone, and from what I can recall spent most of his time on his feet speaking, despite the council in his day being "balanced". I guess the trick in Ted's time was to keep control of the council committees (all open to the public) and use the full council as a vehicle for theatrics - often assisted by partisans in the public galleries.

 

[Gramsci]

Jason has done a good piece on the Council meeting:

Lambeth Council

www.brixtonbuzz.com

Bit surprised Cllr Scarlett is new Chief Whip. Seems to nice to put the thumbscrews on Cllrs not following the script. Could be sign the Labour leadership are so confident that the new batch of Cllrs are dutifully loyal that they don't need a hard case as Chief Whip. Plus the party of the labouring masses got overwhelming majority. So can ignore the opposition.

Who got a good chunk of the popular vote yet hardly any seats.

 

[Rushy]

Has anyone heard of a two year pause on non emergency maintenance and repairs on Lambeth estates? A friend of mine has been pushing for various problems to be sorted which are affecting their ex LA flat of which Lambeth is freeholder. After ineffectively raising a series of complaints over about nine months Lambeth sent a surveyor from Savills around to assess. Apparently Savills has only been in the job a couple of weeks and are overwhelmed by the number of complaints they are dealing with. Anyway the surveyor mentioned the two year pause on new non-emergency works.

 

[CH1]

Not Lambeth of course - but this extraordinary farce at Croydon shows there is more to go on strange non-council counting venues and delayed counts.
Thank God we don't have an elected Mayor (yet).

‘Based on this year’s elections, Croydon is in a very bad place’

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Reports over Croydon’s local elections have been lodged with the Electoral Commission and with Scotland Yard. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES There could yet be further repe…

insidecroydon.com

 

[donkyboy]

Has anyone had the £150 council tax rebate from lambeth?

 

[felonius monk]

Has anyone had the £150 council tax rebate from lambeth?

Yes. I pay council tax by DD and it came through on 3rd May.

 

[Gramsci]

Has anyone heard of a two year pause on non emergency maintenance and repairs on Lambeth estates? A friend of mine has been pushing for various problems to be sorted which are affecting their ex LA flat of which Lambeth is freeholder. After ineffectively raising a series of complaints over about nine months Lambeth sent a surveyor from Savills around to assess. Apparently Savills has only been in the job a couple of weeks and are overwhelmed by the number of complaints they are dealing with. Anyway the surveyor mentioned the two year pause on new non-emergency works.

No I haven't. I did have surveyor come around last year to look at defects I'd reported on my Decent Homes Standards work.

He was friendly young guy. Quite chatty. Not only looked at defects (holes on outside wall not filled in) but looked at all the works. Said he was going to go back to look at the specifications for the work. Asked about my windows. Thought maybe they should have been overhauled completely not just repaired.

Said he was going to look at the original specs and write a report on the works.

I emailed the relevant officer in Lambeth asking for update and copy of survey. Received no reply.

Feel I should chase this up. But not sure how to. And how much energy I have for it.

 

[Gramsci]

Has anyone had the £150 council tax rebate from lambeth?

I don't pay by DD. I've had no communication from Lambeth about the 150.

 

[Gramsci]

Has anyone had the £150 council tax rebate from lambeth?

Support for energy prices – Council Tax rebate

The Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme and Council Tax Energy Rebate Discretionary Fund scheme closed on 30 November 2022.

beta.lambeth.gov.uk

This says people will be written to. I received nothing in the post.

 

[donkyboy]

Support for energy prices – Council Tax rebate

The Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme and Council Tax Energy Rebate Discretionary Fund scheme closed on 30 November 2022.

beta.lambeth.gov.uk

This says people will be written to. I received nothing in the post.

Same here. No word at all-though I do pay by DD

 

[donkyboy]

Yes. I pay council tax by DD and it came through on 3rd May.

Hmm. How do you know its been allocated to you? Do you get a letter or email?

 

[felonius monk]

Hmm. How do you know its been allocated to you? Do you get a letter or email?

It's in my bank account, which is good enough for me. No paperwork.

 

[donkyboy]

It's in my bank account, which is good enough for me. No paperwork.

Just checked. It came through around time i got paid in May. Reason why I didn't notice it.

 

[Gramsci]

Same here. No word at all-though I do pay by DD

I see you got it. I don't understand why people who don't pay by DD just get asked if they want the 150 taken off the existing payments of CT.

 

[CH1]

Be intrigued to know what shows up in one's Lambeth online account - which they tell you to use to check your council tax.
I'll try firing it up tomorrow. I forgot if I even opened one.
I've got so many passwords these days that some day I'll get cleaned out ny an emergency phone call will come in an I will be told to download password hunting malware by a Mafia call centre in Maharashtra masquerading as the bank.

Easily done. A friend of mine lost £12,500 from 2 bank accounts the other week. Seems to think he will get some of it back - but not all.

Of course losing 12k is different from not receiving £150 I admit.
But no paperwork or audit trail for the £150 donkyboy - Now that's what I call Maladministration!

I was thinking about this whole fuel subsidy thing over my kipper this morning.

Instead of farting about paying thrid oarties to send out unconfirmed payments to bank account of 12 million people why didn't Rishi
1. temporarily halt VAT on all fuel (now possible as we are out of the EU)
2. temporarily suspend green surcharges on fuel
3. subsidise the energy providers who are importing shiploads of Liquid \Natural Gas from Qatar - at the point importation

12 million payments plus loads of supplementary benefit claims could have been truncated into a few hundred transactions and we could all have gone down the pub.

 

[Gramsci]

Be intrigued to know what shows up in one's Lambeth online account - which they tell you to use to check your council tax.
I'll try firing it up tomorrow. I forgot if I even opened one.
I've got so many passwords these days that some day I'll get cleaned out ny an emergency phone call will come in an I will be told to download password hunting malware by a Mafia call centre in Maharashtra masquerading as the bank.

Easily done. A friend of mine lost £12,500 from 2 bank accounts the other week. Seems to think he will get some of it back - but not all.

Of course losing 12k is different from not receiving £150 I admit.
But no paperwork or audit trail for the £150 donkyboy - Now that's what I call Maladministration!

I was thinking about this whole fuel subsidy thing over my kipper this morning.

Instead of farting about paying thrid oarties to send out unconfirmed payments to bank account of 12 million people why didn't Rishi
1. temporarily halt VAT on all fuel (now possible as we are out of the EU)
2. temporarily suspend green surcharges on fuel
3. subsidise the energy providers who are importing shiploads of Liquid \Natural Gas from Qatar - at the point importation

12 million payments plus loads of supplementary benefit claims could have been truncated into a few hundred transactions and we could all have gone down the pub.

Or as political economist James Meadway says stop big companies sitting on needed resources from profiteering. Meadway quotes Ricardo as saying this kind of rentier capitalism needs to be stopped. Not treated as just inevitable.

Sunak’s package fails to tackle the true cause of UK inflation: shameless profiteering | James Meadway

The fact is, the price cap on energy bills is still going up – and this is a political choice, says James Meadway of the Progressive Economy Forum

www.theguardian.com

 

[CH1]

Or as political economist James Meadway says stop big companies sitting on needed resources from profiteering. Meadway quotes Ricardo as saying this kind of rentier capitalism needs to be stopped. Not treated as just inevitable.

Sunak’s package fails to tackle the true cause of UK inflation: shameless profiteering | James Meadway

The fact is, the price cap on energy bills is still going up – and this is a political choice, says James Meadway of the Progressive Economy Forum

www.theguardian.com

I agree the cap increases could and should be halted. It must hold that if the government has abandoned the internal market in gas and electricity they can set (or in fact they could have frozen) the price of fuel and sorted out any compensation to supply companies at their leisure.

They for years encouraged people to "switch" in the belief that it was logical to keep changing your billing agent.
Now it turns out that not only were the majority of billing agents under-capitalised speculators in a falling market where it was quite difficult to lose - though some companies did go bust. Now prices of fuel have shot up the major companies have been forced to absorb badly run minor companies and are hiding behind the skirts of OFGEM and therefore the government.

It was quite clear from evidence given to the Parliamentary select committee by OFGEM that they see their role as protecting the fuel companies, not the public.
Also clear that most MPs don't understand what is happening. Talk about posh boys who don't know the price of milk. If only it was just that.

 

[CH1]

Support for energy prices – Council Tax rebate

The Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme and Council Tax Energy Rebate Discretionary Fund scheme closed on 30 November 2022.

beta.lambeth.gov.uk

This says people will be written to. I received nothing in the post.

regarding being written to about the £150 bonus to defray energy costs, I have this very morning received a letter from the council's administrative offices in Winchester/Southampton.

This says that because I hadn't paid my direct debit in April (correct - Lambeth were late taking the money) I would have to make a claim.

A website address is given - grantapproval.co.uk I assume that means this is yet another outsourced BorisGov operation. I will let you know if it goes wrong!

 

[CH1]

Further to the above - you have to upload your passport or birth certificate or driving licence.
You also have to upload a bank statement not more than 3 months old.
There is also veery heavy pressure to allow your details to be credit checked - the threat being not to do so will hold up processing of the claim.

GrantApproval.co.uk and Apply4.Online are trading names of Ascendant Solutions Limited.

© Ascendant Solutions Limited - Privacy Policy

 

[Gramsci]

Further to the above - you have to upload your passport or birth certificate or driving licence.
You also have to upload a bank statement not more than 3 months old.
There is also veery heavy pressure to allow your details to be credit checked - the threat being not to do so will hold up processing of the claim.

GrantApproval.co.uk and Apply4.Online are trading names of Ascendant Solutions Limited.

© Ascendant Solutions Limited - Privacy Policy

No option just to have the 150 just taken off your existing CT bill?

 

[Gramsci]

Further to the above - you have to upload your passport or birth certificate or driving licence.
You also have to upload a bank statement not more than 3 months old.
There is also veery heavy pressure to allow your details to be credit checked - the threat being not to do so will hold up processing of the claim.

GrantApproval.co.uk and Apply4.Online are trading names of Ascendant Solutions Limited.

© Ascendant Solutions Limited - Privacy Policy

No option just to have the 150 just taken off your existing CT bill?

 

[CH1]

No option just to have the 150 just taken off your existing CT bill?

Not as far as I can see. I would have thought the whole thing could have been done like that - but this government doesn't like simple logic.

 

[Gramsci]

Double post

 

[Gramsci]

Not as far as I can see. I would have thought the whole thing could have been done like that - but this government doesn't like simple logic.

From this government info it sounds like this is intended to make people set up DD.

Households urged to get ready for £150 council tax rebate

Households across England are being urged to set up direct debits with their local council to receive a council tax rebate that will help millions of families manage costs of living.

www.gov.uk

Households across England are being urged to set up direct debits with their local council to receive a £150 council tax rebate that will help millions of families manage costs of living.

People who pay council tax by direct debit, which is a safe, simple and quick way to pay will see the cash go directly into their bank accounts from April. Those who do not pay by direct debit will be contacted by their council and invited to make a claim.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Further to the above - you have to upload your passport or birth certificate or driving licence.
You also have to upload a bank statement not more than 3 months old.
There is also veery heavy pressure to allow your details to be credit checked - the threat being not to do so will hold up processing of the claim.

GrantApproval.co.uk and Apply4.Online are trading names of Ascendant Solutions Limited.

© Ascendant Solutions Limited - Privacy Policy

that sounds so dodgy! What legal reason could they have for credit checking - when they have to give you money? Everything about that sounds like a scam!

I pay by dd so got the 150 with no forms at all, no action from me at all - why on earth cant they just send you a cheque or credit your account. Madness

 

[nick]

If feeling obstructive (with justification) and have the time - it could be illuminating to follow up with a Subject Access Request, once you've got your £150

 

[alex_]

that sounds so dodgy! What legal reason could they have for credit checking - when they have to give you money? Everything about that sounds like a scam!

I pay by dd so got the 150 with no forms at all, no action from me at all - why on earth cant they just send you a cheque or credit your account. Madness

Bearing in mind they say it’s optional but will slow the process down, it’s probably for kyc purposes to check you live there and they have a manual process as use as well.

 

[CH1]

that sounds so dodgy! What legal reason could they have for credit checking - when they have to give you money? Everything about that sounds like a scam!

I pay by dd so got the 150 with no forms at all, no action from me at all - why on earth cant they just send you a cheque or credit your account. Madness

Well quite. Even the extremely controversial energy company Ovo managed to send me a cheque - once I had sent them a photo of my meter (at their request) to prove they had overcharged me!

You need to accept that the default position of the individual citizen in UK 2000 is somewhat like "K" in Kafka's "The Trial" or "The Castle". Guilty until proved innocent.

All to protect our massive largely private computer controlled infrastructure.