Islington Tribune - by SIMON WROE and ROISIN GADELRAB Published: 4 April 2008
Sell-off ‘short-term’
A ROW blew up this week over Town Hall plans to sell 90 properties – the last of its commercial assets. The Lib Dem-controlled council hopes to raise a minimum of £17.5million by selling the shops and offices.
It emerged this week that Labour group leader Councillor Catherine West’s surgery office in Hornsey Road, Holloway, is due to be sold, along with the Lambo Centre, in Archway, which caters for mental health patients in the Afro-Caribbean community.
Labour councillor Phil Kelly accused the council of “short termism” and warned that the sell-off could leave a future administration in a “real mess” in terms of public expenditure.
But the council’s Lib Dem deputy leader Councillor Terry Stacy argued that the sales will pay for much-needed rebuilding of schools, homes and estates, which will last for generations.