The Leader of the Council's online diary - February 2007
27 February 2007
On Wednesday the Audit Commission published their star ratings for all the main councils in England and Wales. Lambeth got just one star - the only council in London in that category, and one of only five nationally.
The core service data this result was based on was the 2005 financial year, up to March 2006 - which was before the elections when I became Leader. So in the main, the star rating refers to the council as it was a year ago under the previous administration. Some parts of the local media have used the rating for some rather sensationalist and simplistic coverage. They're blaming the council's current administration for an assessment of services that was based on data collected before we were elected.
Before the elections, I was one of those saying the council let people down too often. It needs to get better, but I'm confident that we're taking decisions that will help it improve. It takes time to turn round a council that wasn't good enough. It doesn't happen overnight. Most residents are sensible people who understand that change takes time. But there are positive signs already. Our schools produced their best ever exam results last summer. A recent inspection of services for older people showed rapid improvement. Our benefits service used to take months to deal with new applications – now we're better than almost anyone can remember.
When we made our proposals for this year's budget, we listened to what local people wanted and so we're investing more in tackling crime and giving young people more things to do. But I know we're still not doing well enough across the board.
As Leader, I take responsibility with my colleagues for driving that improvement harder and faster. The one-star rating shows that a year ago the council wasn't doing well enough. But the same inspectors say we're now improving well, and we need to make sure that's the direction we keep travelling in.
Monday 26 February
Clapham's getting a new leisure centre and swimming pool, a new library, a public performance space and a new health centre, and the old library is going to become a community facility. That's pretty exciting for anyone who lives in the area!
On Monday afternoon, Councillor Lib Peck and I introduced a presentation to around 100 potential developers who came to find out more about the proposals, called ‘Future Clapham'. Before the council elections, there was a big campaign in the area to save the local swimming pool - and that's what we've done. The pool and leisure centre on Clapham Manor Street will be completely refurbished or rebuilt, and expanded to include more gym space. We're waiting for the developers to come up with some ideas of their own - but we told them Clapham's residents expect the best, so if they're thinking of doing something bog standard then this isn't the opportunity for them.
The library, too, will be outstanding. Our libraries in Lambeth are generally housed in Victorian buildings, quite beautiful but not always suited to the needs of today's library users. Clapham's new library, on the site of the derelict Mary Seacole House office block, will be state of the art.
And best of all, we're expecting it to include a new flexible public performance space that will allow live theatre to come back to Clapham for the first time in years. We've cancelled the council's earlier plans to sell off the old library building - instead, that will become a community facility. We're waiting to see what local people and the creative design teams come up with, although local people will have the final say. Clapham needs better public facilities, and that's exactly what local people can look forward to!
Thursday 22 February
Tonight, I joined 2,000 people on a march from Peckham to Brixton. The march, organised by local churches, was to demand an end to the shootings that have seen three young men shot dead in south London in recent weeks.
This was a truly positive, inspirational and moving event. It was a signal that the community is not going to allow the killing to go on. I sincerely believe that the solution to the shootings, and the gang culture and drug trade that is behind them, lies within the community. The public authorities must do everything we can to support those community leaders and ordinary mums, dads and young people who are coming together to say enough is enough. The marchers got it right as they walked into Brixton, heads held high, calling out to our young people: "pick up your future, put down the gun".
19 February 2007
There will be a public meeting on Wednesday evening to mark the death of Billy Cox. Billy was just 15 when he was shot dead at his home in Clapham North. Our thoughts are with Billy's family and friends. The public meeting will be a chance for the community to pay our respects as well as to voice concerns about what has happened.
Billy is the third teenage boy to be shot dead in South London in twelve days. The media have reported this latest tragedy sensitively. They have reported that gun crime in Lambeth is down 15% over the last year, and that overall crime is down too. They have reported that the Fenwick Estate, where Billy lived, is a decent place. There's a youth club and an adventure playground. Nearby Landor Road, once a by-word for open drug dealing, has been cleaned up. I spoke to a BBC reporter who told me that not a single resident had anything other than praise for the Police.
The underlying issue seems to be the gang culture that sucks in teenage boys, the drugs trade that sustains the gangs, and the availability of guns. There are people in the community who know who the gang leaders are, who has the guns, and who committed this murder. Those people must to be helped to come forward. We need to catch the killers fast before they can strike again. But there is a wider issue here too. What can we do to prevent young boys getting involved in gangs? There is no simple solution that the council alone can impose. The real solution has to come from within the community.
The council must do what it can to help this happen. We have already focused on strengthening local police teams and have invested record amounts in youth services in this year's budget. But to really change the culture of guns and gangs on our estates, we need all the public authorities to come together with the community to find a solution. I will play my part in making this happen. Too many young people have died already. There has to be a better way, and we have to work together to find it.
14 February 2007
On Monday I joined a large crowd of people to celebrate the start of work at the site of the new Michael Tippett School in Herne Hill. The new school will be a first in two ways: The first new school anywhere in London built under the Government's massive ‘Building Schools for the Future' (BSF) programme. And it's also the first new school in Lambeth to be built with environmental sustainability as a key principal of its design.
The school's architect is Julia Barfield, the designer of the London Eye -so we've got the best in the business working with us.
It has been designed so that natural light and air flow through the school. Uniquely, it will have a green roof - covered in grass which helps retain heat in the winter and keeps the building cool during the summer, as well as being an oasis for birds.
The school serves children with special needs, and some of them were there to share the excitement. Cllr Sally Prentice, Lambeth's Cabinet member for children and young people, cheerily climbed onto a mechanical digger and dug out the first scoop of earth.
To a round of applause, Sally launched the biggest investment in schools that Lambeth's ever had. Once the BSF programme is finished, we'll have two brand new secondary schools, and every other secondary school in the borough will have been rebuilt or refurbished and expanded to provide the extra school places we need. On top of these, we're still talking to Government about our hope for a third, brand new, secondary school to meet future demand.
These new schools will be serving children in Lambeth long after those of us at Monday's event are forgotten. It's exciting to see a little piece of history in the making. And it's exciting to think that this programme will allow us to make sure – for the first time – that there's a place in a good local school for every Lambeth child that wants one.
I was unable to attend a community meeting in Streatham last week. I was due to give two presentations at a conference the following morning. One of the presentations was about what Lambeth's doing to promote community engagement.
Since I hadn't written either of my speeches I had to spend the evening getting them finished. I asked Councillor Mark Bennett to pass on my apologies to everyone at the meeting. "So", said Mark, "you want me to say: sorry Councillor Reed can't come and engage with the community, he's too busy writing a paper on community engagement".
Mark was using a joke to make his point, but it was a point well made. As you'll see from other entries on this online diary, I try and get out as often as I can. But as elected politicians, we need to always remember that getting out and listening to 'real people' is much more important that sitting in meetings or talking to ourselves.
10 February 2007
On Saturday, Cllr Jackie Meldrum (the Deputy Leader of the Council), Cllr Betty Evans-Jacas and I received an award for best practice in promoting equality.
All three of us had been involved in launching and leading a programme to promote diverse representation on Lambeth council. Before the last council elections, Lambeth had just five Councillors from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. Three of those Councillors were Labour and two were Lib Dems. Out of 63 Councillors, that was a disgracefully small proportion considering that, according to the 2001 census, nearly 40% of our population come from the BME community.
Something had to change.
Without a more representative council, there was a risk that Lambeth was not reflecting the life experience of almost half our residents. We ran a three-year project to encourage more people from under-represented communities to get involved and stand for election. The process involved looking at how we needed to change our own structures, as well as developing training and mentoring programmes for people who wanted to get involved.
I'm delighted the project worked. The number of black and minority ethnic Labour Councillors increased from three to twelve - one of the biggest increases anywhere in the country, bringing us closer to the proportion of our population from the same communities.
Every one of those new Councillors is an individual with the skills, talent and experience to take on a leadership role and represent every part of the community. The Lib Dems stayed the same with two black Councillors and, even though there are not yet any black Conservative Councillors, that means Lambeth now has 14 BME Councillors - a big improvement on the situation before last May's election.
If you would like to contact me, you can do so by emailing sreed@lambeth.gov.uk.
7 February 2007
A young man of 16 was shot dead at the ice rink in Streatham on Saturday night. The police are still gathering evidence about what happened, but the local community has been shocked by this senseless waste of life.
My sympathies, like so many other people's, are with the family and friends of the dead youngster.
I first heard about the incident on Sunday morning when I had a phone call from Councillor Mark Bennett, Lambeth's Cabinet Member for Community Safety. Mark had already been in touch with the police to establish the facts as they were then known. Our concerns were to give whatever help and support we could to the police investigation, to make sure Lambeth's other public facilities were safe, and to provide information and reassurance to members of the public.
On Monday afternoon, I met with the Police Commander, Martin Bridger, and Ros Griffiths, a black community leader who runs a project for young people in Brixton. Ros was visibly shaken and said the black community was horrified at the number of black boys they were having to bury. We agreed we need to do more to tackle the problems of gang culture, drugs, and the knife and gun crime that goes with it.
Lambeth has failed to invest in a decent youth service for nearly 20 years now. This year's council budget starts to reverse that, with the announcement of the biggest new investment in youth services our Borough's ever seen. But it will take time to have an effect. There is a direct link between good youth services and tackling youth crime. But the issue is far deeper than that.
I should say that there is no need for undue alarm. Despite these terrible incidents, crime in Lambeth is falling. Shootings are still rare. But I will make sure we get together with the community to understand and combat whatever sickness it is in our society that makes a tiny minority of young people think it's acceptable to get hold of a gun and murder someone in cold blood in a packed, public facility.
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