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Michael Pountney, left, who helped organise the new sculpture of Sam the cat, with Cllr Brian Woodrow at the unveiling in Queen Square, Holborn |
Slap in the face for bruised Brian
Faithful servant told he will not be allowed to stand again as Labour choose election team
HIS face was, by all accounts, bruised. But this was not physical abuse. The pain went deeper than a mere biff in the eye.
Told he was no longer wanted as a Labour candidate in his home neighbourhood of Holborn and Covent Garden, Councillor Brian Woodrow was said to have “held it together” in front of fellow party members when he learned of his surprise de-selection at a group meeting last Wednesday night.
A couple of recounts could not change the result: just a couple of votes saw him de-selected.
Behind the brave face, friends said Cllr Woodrow, 73, was actually left hurt at losing the chance to serve for another four years and extend a spell at the Town Hall which has run unbroken since 1990. “The day before the selection meeting he had an accident at home, a little bump and his face was bruised on one side,” said one Labour member who was at the meeting.
“It might have made some of the members think that he was older and not as capable as he once was and they wanted a young man instead. That’s how fickle it can be.
“What they should have been thinking about was what Brian has offered over all these years. He has recovered from health problems and deserved another roll.”
Cllr Woodrow has certainly rolled with the punches in recent years. When in charge of the council’s planning committee, he was accused of showing bias against the £2billion King’s Cross redevelopment before a decision to give it approval had been made.
He was reported to the Standards Board, but after two years of investigations, he was vindicated. He had to use his own money to defend himself.
In the meantime, his Labour colleagues had pushed him out of the chairman’s seat and wanted him to stay away from the final discussions.
Those close to him said he had been the victim of a “witchhunt” and his lawyer Robert McCracken said the council had a “sinister obsession” with what planning gain could be gleaned from the planning deal for the railway lands.
The episode is said to have created bad blood , almost splitting the Labour group in half. It made Cllr Woodrow all the more determined to carry on at the council.
Labour’s selection meetings – currently being held ward by ward, almost nightly – are held up internally as being the most democratic way to assemble a team to fight the boroughwide elections next May.
Other parties look to their leaders to field their final line-up.
Labour proudly points out that its system has given potential candidates from minority ethnic groups the chance to shine and the diversity across their team reflects Camden’s multicultural make-up like none of their rivals.
But the selection meetings are also known by insiders as a “snake pit”, a night of long knives, where experience and acumen can count for nothing in a final secret ballot. Overnight, nearly 20 years of council know-how can be dropped in a flash and last week it was Cllr Woodrow’s turn to be dumped.
“Maybe it was a stitch-up, maybe there was nothing – but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” said one serving Labour councillor. “He has worked so hard for Camden and then the party drops him just like that. I think he deserved better. I feel for him.”
After a career in an architectural practice, Cllr Woodrow served for many years as the council’s planning chairman. He is no longer in control of the committee – his party are no longer in control of the council.
But as a backbench member of the committee, he is skilled at cutting through the frequently clumsy debates about footling applications for dormer windows and such that otherwise threaten to run long into the night.
It is undisputed at the Town Hall that few councillors have a better insight into how the council works and members of other political parties are sad to see him go.
Yet, Cllr Woodrow’s council career was effectively ended by his colleagues. His ward colleagues Julian Fulbrook and Sue Vincent were re-selected – Cllr Vincent did not need to face a vote as she was the only female nominee and party rules state each ward’s ticket should be mixed-gender.
The new face is Awale Olad, who fought and lost a by-election contest in Kentish Town last year. He lives in the ward and has shown enthusiasm in the face of Labour’s difficulties in Camden. What’s more, he could become the borough’s first Somali councillor. There is no ill will inside the party or beyond towards him for his victory, but there remains a sense of regret about Cllr Woodrow.
He declined to comment, but a close friend compared his defeat to the selection meetings before the 2006 elections in which another long-serving councillor, Roger Robinson, was almost deselected. He lost an initial vote but an investigation into the ballot revealed some of those members who took part were ineligible. He then won a second vote.
The party have defiantly defended the process. Supporters Robert Latham and Mike Katz both have letters in the New Journal this week (see page 14) insisting that a team is being elected that is capable of wresting back control of the council in 2010. Labour is losing experienced councillors Theo Blackwell, Penny Abraham and its leader Anna Stewart, but it is confident new faces like Mr Olad and a few former councillors will go down well with voters. “It’s a mix of old and new,” said a member close to the action.
Cllr Woodrow, however, will not line up on the ballot paper for the first time in almost two decades.
Cat-napped: New Sam returns to Queen Square
WHILE Brian Woodrow was said to be sad about his de-selection this week, he could at least raise a smile at the return of an old friend.
The Labour councillor first met Sam, the bronze cat, at an unveiling in Queen Square, Holborn, in 2002. The sculpture peers out over the square in honour of Patricia Penn, a nurse who campaigned against the demolition of historic buildings in the 1970s. She died in 1992 and was fondly remembered along with her unmistakable sidekick, her pet moggy.
Unfortunately, the bronze version was cat-napped by thieves in August 2007. Determined for the memorial to be reinstated, a new Sam has now been installed and reinforced with steel rods in the bricks to prevent further thefts. It has been paid for by the trustees of Queen Square and insurers. |
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