Listen to Lambeth

Councillor Dan Sabbagh

Local community groups staged a mass lobby of Lambeth Council executive meeting on Monday 22 August 2004 to denounce the lack of consultation on how millions of pounds of taxpayers money should be spent

The Liberal controlled Council has £15 million available to spend, following a £27million windfall payment from the Government which came to light following the discovery of an accounting error. The Liberals held no external consultation whatsoever on how to spend the money, deliberately excluding local community groups. Instead they carried out a closed bidding process involving only council officers.

Lambeth’s opposition Labour Group told local groups about the council’s attempt sneak through their funding plans, and they turned en mass to protest and put in their own bids for funding.

Backed by Labour councillors, Groups such as Stockwell Skate Park, Secondary Schools for Lambeth and Unison expressed their anger at the Council’s failure to listen to their suggestions on how the money could be spent.

Cllr Dan Sabbagh, Labour’s Finance Spokesperson, commented:

“If you’re handing out £15 million of local people’s money, the sensible thing to do is to consult them. Apparently the Liberals don’t want to engage with the people of Lambeth and so once again they have ignored them.”

Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Labour Group, commented:

“The council have managed to turn what should have been a good news story for Lambeth into another row about their refusal to consult.”

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