John Howard – Pam Bartram – Clyde Kitson
The Cathall Ward FOCUS Team will be contesting the local council election on Thursday 22 May.
Please remember you have 3 votes for the Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team.
Polling Stations are open from 7am until 10 pm.
Please don’t forget to vote.
All residents are welcome.
Come and meet your ward councillors and have your say about the area.
Following the debate on the coalition welfare reforms at last Thursday’s council meeting, it has emerged that 75% of council staff earn less than the £26,000 benefits cap.
The figures, which exclude those working for schools in the Borough, show that only 25% of council workers earn more than the £35,000 that someone would need to earn to take home £26,000.
At the meeting Labour claimed the cap was a ‘London living tax’ and was unfairly penalising London residents.
Lib Dem Deputy Group Leader Councillor Farooq Qureshi said:
“The welfare reforms are extremely difficult for some people in our Borough and as councillors we are on the front line of trying to help them.
“But Labour’s claim that this is a “London living tax” just aren’t credible when the majority of council workers take home less in their pay packets.”
“The Labour Party are quick to campaign against the welfare reforms but refuse to put forward any alternatives. Ed Miliband supports capping welfare spending, so where will Labour’s cuts come from?”
On Thursday the Liberal Democrat group voted against proposals that would mean more special responsibility allowances for councillors.
Lib Dems criticised the Labour group for using scrutiny politically to avoid any real scrutiny of council policies, whilst at the same time awarding themselves more money.
The Labour council are splitting the health and adults committee into two new committees that will focus separately on public health and adults services.
They are creating two additional paid positions for their members who will take the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee, who will get an extra £8,000 and £4,000 respectively on top of the £10,000 a year they earn as councillors.
Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“Labour are just creating more paid positions to reward their members. The current proposal could mean £12,000 in extra costs to Waltham Forest council tax payers.”
“There are a lot of ways Labour could ensure this doesn’t cost more money: Either by cutting these allowances across the council or by sharing the existing allowances for the old committee across the two new ones.
“Labour councillors should stop trying to hide their failures by stuffing committees full of their own members.
“They should be taking responsibility over their failures over jobs in this Borough and cutting their ‘special responsibility allowances’ rather than giving themselves more allowances.”
Over the last few years council phone bills have soared. According to figures released by the council mobile phone costs soared by over £110,000 last year costing taxpayers a total of £314,000 in one year alone, whilst landline costs also rose by £80,000.
Council tax payers are now forking out £860,000 every year for phone bills alone.
Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“Labour need to get a grip on these soaring phone bills. Other council services are being cut whilst phone bills are going up and up.
“The council are putting more and more services online but clearly aren’t making any savings by doing it.
“This £190,000 could be helping us build a fairer society by investing in social services, it could help build a stronger local economy by investing in jobs or it could even protect local services like keeping open a library.
“Instead, Labour is proving time and time again that they can’t be trusted with our money.”
Former Police Station in High Road Leytonstone
At a recent meeting of the Planning Committee planning permission was refused for change of use from police station to school and nursery.
The reasons for refusal included an over-development of the site; increased traffic generation, congestion and increased demand for on street parking.
Full details can be found on the Council’s website, by quoting the application number in the Planning Explorer.
The Cathall FOCUS Team took up a resident’s query about the lack of the hanging baskets, that were a colourful feature of the High Road during the Olympic Year.
They are pleased to report that they are back in place.
LOCAL LIB DEMS RENEW CALLS FOR OLYMPIC TRADERS’ COMPENSATION
Local Lib Dems have renewed calls for council action over the Leyton Olympic traders mess last year. The council has so far failed to take any responsibility for the mess despite heavily promoting the market before the Olympics, whilst it was clear the planned routes for Olympic visitors were outside the area.
Local Lib Dems believe this is an issue of trust and the council should be clear about its responsibility. If compensation is due from North London Business and not the council then Waltham Forest councillors should refuse to sit on their board if no action is forthcoming.
Leyton Councillor Bob Sullivan said:
“The Chief Executive of North London Business resigned over this debacle last year, so traders are right to expect some compensation.”
“I’ve repeatedly asked the council whether they will be giving out compensation to the traders and they have so far refused, putting the blame squarely with North London Business and Skateco UK Ltd.”
“Yet councillors and Cabinet members have consistently failed to put pressure on North London Business and Skateco UK Ltd to reimburse the traders, who were sold promises of customers that never arrived.
“No action has been forthcoming from North London Business since last year so it is long since time for Waltham Forest councillors at the very least to refuse to sit on their board or, better yet, take some responsibility themselves.”
Waltham Forest Council is demanding that the Christian Kitchen cease using the Mission Grove car park in E17 as the location for their daily soup kitchen.
The soup kitchen has rejected the allegations that their service contributes to local street drinking and anti-social behaviour and local Lib Dems and residents are supporting them.
Proximity to the Town Centre is important to a soup kitchen and Waltham Forest is taking this action without proper consultation.
The local Lib Dem Focus Team has been surveying residents about the issue and so far local residents are overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the soup kitchen where it is.
Waltham Forest Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“It is crazy that this Labour council appear to be scapegoating this long established soup kitchen and demonising their service users.
“The Christian Kitchen has been a part of the local area for many years and is there to help the most vulnerable in our society. The soup kitchen has even offered compromises to the council but they have been rejected.
“This is a heartless act by this Labour council that is clearly not supported by local people.
“It seems ‘One Nation Labour’ has not yet made the journey to Waltham Forest from Ed Miliband’s Westminster bubble.”
However, cancelling the speeches of the three party leaders also meant that the time usually devoted to scrutinising the council’s priorities for the next year and to review the last year was lost.
The speech prepared by Lib Dem Leader Councillor Bob Sullivan, before the attack took place, contained criticism of the council’s budgeting process, attacks on money wasted on unnecessary events and exposed the misleading statements being made by Labour over the £160 million they claim to be investing in the Borough in 2013-14.
Councillor Sullivan was to say:
“The councils’ recent finance report show that almost all council departments were reporting under spends.
“In accountancy terms an under spend is just as bad as an over spend because it means that there is something wrong with the budgeting process. It also means that our services are not being carried out as planned and our residents are losing out.
“So what is going wrong with our processes? And how are we building this into our planning? The council can’t continue to plead poverty simply because it is over-estimating what’s needed in the budget.”
“As for investment, Labour cabinet members seem to be sending confused messages about the £160 million that they’re touting around to residents through Waltham Forest News and the various announcements and videos that they’re making.
“Many residents have read the big figures plastered over their copy of WFN and have been asking me if the council could spend some of this money on local projects.
“Unfortunately the explanation is, that most of this investment is not council money and all of it is already earmarked and being spent on other things.
“The confusion isn’t helped when Cabinet members give confusing written answers at full council meetings. Such as when Cllr Rusling declared ‘We are investing £160 million in the borough…’ in a written answer in March.”
“…under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal has only spent £9 million net on players over the last ten years.
“That’s less per year than this council are spending on events!
Although these events are said to be free, they are not really, as the council tax payers are funding them.
“It seems like every day this council feels more and more like a booking agent or a live music promoter, with over a million pounds planned for events this year.”