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Age and religion are no barrier to office
• THERE is nothing confusing about the Greens’ policies on parking in Camden, despite Councillor Penny Abraham’s perverse interpretation in last week’s letters page.
While we promote many measures that will help people avoid car journeys and switch to cleaner cars we also recognise that a wide range of vibrant local shops is essential for a sustainable borough.
Independent shops face a huge number of pressures that government is failing to address. Many cannot take further attacks on their profit margins, which the loss of the small number of customers who park their cars nearby would cause.
We therefore support a minimal yet adequate number of short-term parking spaces near local shops and want to see clear signs informing drivers where they can and cannot park.
Driver confusion, due to the lack of clear signage to the spaces already available in Kentish Town, has led to our high street being responsible for the fourth highest number of parking fines in London.
And of course every car parked illegally causes congestion and increases hazards for cyclists and for pedestrians crossing the road.
Our policy is entirely consistent with a holistic, sustainable transport policy. If these businesses were to go to the wall many more people would be encouraged to get in their cars and drive straight through Kentish Town Road on their way to large stores with free parking that have no stake in our community.
Our policy is a mature, reasonable and above all Green response to the transport problems of Kentish Town. It is a shame Councillor Abraham has not thought about the issue so deeply.
SIAN BERRY
Green Party candidate in Kentish Town
Fortess Road, NW5
• AT last we know it from an official source: the Lib Dems in Camden have no real desire for their Tory ‘partners’. They are only staying with them because Labour turned them down, as David Simmons, Chairman of St. Pancras Lib Dems, wrote last week.
It’s a customary tale of spurned lovers getting into a marriage of convenience with the first half-decent person who walks through the door. The message for Kentish Town voters is clear: keep away from the Tories, and from the Lib Dems who prop them up for reasons of convenience. Labour made a massive mistake in Iraq (and a few smaller mistakes here and there) but the smartest people around still wear a Labour badge.
LUCA SALICE
Mansfield Road NW3
• YOUR correspondents Becky Purcell and Omar Salem (Nov 9) have obviously not met Councillor Ben Rawlings. If they had, they would know that he has an understanding, experience and ability far beyond his years.
Ben Rawlings is an exceptional asset to Camden. I have no doubt he will prove this to us all over the next few years.
Meanwhile, Ms Purcell shows that people in glasshouses should not throw stones! Tory criticism of Labour’s candidate in Kentish Town for being a priest is out of order, but how committed is he to Camden?
Six months ago he was a defeated Labour candidate in Islington.
JOHN LEFLEY
Highstone Mansions, NW1
• I WAS surprised to read an unrecognisable depiction of Councillor Jane Schopflin last week.
Many people in West Hampstead have cause to be grateful to Jane for the care and attention she has given to their problems and they acknowledge the way she has battled for fairness and justice for tenants and residents over many years.
Though fighting ill health recently, she makes a point of always attending her regular advice surgeries and never turns down a request for help.
SALLY TWITE
Achilles Road, NW6
• RELIGIOUS belief is a disqualification for holding public office says Camden Tory councillor Andrew Mennear.
Of course it’s ludicrous, undemocratic and abusive. But why has the possible election of mainstream Methodist Sam McBratney for Labour in Kentish Town produced this reaction? I suspect it’s because of a real fear local man Sam McBratney is a strong candidate who can win in Kentish Town.
ROY LOCKETT
Torriano Avenue, NW5
• LIVING in Kentish Town I was surprised by the recent Tory leaflet calling for tough action on crime. Clearly the Tory candidate hasn’t been told that his party actually do run the Town Hall in cahoots with the Lib Dems. And that those same Tories are very supportive of the Lib Dems soft on crime stance.
Rather than misleading Kentish Town voters about the Tory Town Hall policy perhaps the Tory candidate should get one of his party’s councillors to have a word with their Lib Dem chums to scrap the ‘review’ and actually deal with crime and anti-social behaviour.
Afterall the Town Hall Tories could commit to keep Asbos and to keep funding community projects which deal with the root causes of nuisance behaviour before it starts.
The current soft approach by the Tory/Lib Dems leaves Camden’s residents more vulnerable to criminals, while they are also cutting vital services that help divert people from crime. In short they have left Camden with no prevention and no cure for the crime that is blighting our streets.
SARAH HAYWARD
Leverton Street, NW1
• I WAS shocked to read that Tory councillor Andrew Mennear used a Town Hall meeting to say that Rev Samuel McBratney should not stand for the council as he is a Methodist minister.
Surely this is an attack on people of all faiths – Christian, Muslim, Jewish – as it implies they will not treat other people fairly. I have many friends from different faiths and it would not bother me one bit if my councillor was a priest, an imam or a rabbi.
All councillors and political parties should distance themselves from Cllr Mennear’s brand of intolerance.
As Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson once said: “The Labour Party owes more to Methodism than Marxism.” It would be a refreshing change to have someone like Rev McBratney at the Town Hall and I wish him well.
DORIS YOUNG
Hampstead Road NW1
• IT seems that Camden Labour Party have finally accepted the failure of their petty party political and irrational attempts to attack the new administration’s review to find the most effective and responsible ways to challenge antisocial behaviour, and have now resorted to cowardly and disingenuous personal attacks.
With some Labour councillors calling for the review to be faster and others calling for it to be slower, and with Labour leader Anna Stewart calling for this attempt at responsible and effective government to end immediately, they can’t seem to agree on how to try and undermine the choice of the people of Camden and demonise the new administration.
Now, Theo Blackwell’s ageist insinuations about Cllr Rawlings undermine the Labour group’s pretence of respect for and empowerment of young people. And Theo’s sidekick Omar Salem should be careful – his position as youth officer for Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party suggests he has career aspirations, so following his master’s direction and attacking Cllr Rawlings because of his age might come back to haunt him.
PIERRE GIRAUD
Address Supplied
• FOR those long suffering residents of Kentish Town who are probably drowning in paper, the byelection is now only a few weeks away. And yet the real issues are not being debated.
There are some candidates running around busy doing nothing, some door knocking and some in a vain attempt to retain the ward calling out the big guns to help them.
Now I see scare tactics being used in some election literature and the mud is really beginning to fly, even the odd MP is being called out to prop up campaigns.
So I say to Sian, Sam and Philip: debate me and let’s really see who is the best candidate for the job. Name the time, name the place and let the people of Kentish Town decide really who is best to represent their interests.
RICHARD MERRIN
Countess Road, NW5
• I HAVE now seen at least two leaflets during the Kentish Town byelection in which Labour claims that the Lib Dems are cutting the budget for the Camden Community Law Centre.
This is disingenuous. Understandably after 35 years of Labour one-party rule, the Liberal Democrats are looking at funding of services overall.
Far from deciding to cut the Centre, the Lib Dems are consulting widely on priorities.
No decisions have been taken. But what Labour doesn’t say in its leaflets is that over 40 percent of the Centre’s funding comes from the legal aid budget. As the national charity Citizens Advice made clear, proposed changes to legal aid (inspired no doubt by central government) will make it impossible for many advice bureaux to continue. Perhaps Labour’s criticism should be made closer to home.
CHARLES MARQUAND
Tremlett Grove, N19
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