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Letters to the Editor
 
Labour in Camden is good for our kids

As school governors at Camden primary, secondary and special schools across the borough, we ask people to think long and hard about who they vote for on May 4.
Please do not be distracted by national issues or promises which will not be kept when it comes to a local government election – Labour in Camden is good for education, good for our schools and good for our children – just look at our results which are the highest in inner London.
Results are improving for all groups of children, including those with special needs and those from underachieving groups.
We are the envy of neighbouring boroughs – look at the way parents in boroughs run by other parties try to get their children into Camden schools.
According to the Times Educational Supplement, Camden invests the second highest amount of money in our schools per pupil in the country.
This didn’t happen by accident, this happened because Camden Labour values education, sees local schools as a priority, and has invested in them systematically over and above central government funding for the last 12 years. Here is a track record and experience of how to deliver quality that you can trust.
In order to shave a couple of pence off their council tax, neighbouring boroughs don’t put extra investment in schools – we think that’s wrong.
Investing in the education of our children benefits the whole community.
And there’s value added: just consider the magnificent music from children at Camden schools at the Albert Hall on March 22 through Camden Labour’s investment in music at our schools (Albert Hall hosts the capital’s biggest school concert, March 23).
Under Labour, Camden has invested millions of pounds in needed school repairs and modernisation after they were starved of cash under the Conservatives.
Over the next four years, Labour is bidding for £165 million to radically modernise our local schools, investing in classrooms and computing, to build schools fit for the future.
Labour will also invest in better sports provision for children and young people and continue to expand childcare.
Parents in our schools already enjoy the benefits of Camden’s excellent after-school and holiday play schemes, which make it possible for so many of us to work.
You can trust Camden Labour to fund and run our schools, please don’t put that at risk on 4th May. Go out and vote, and vote for all three Labour candidates standing in your ward.
DOROTHEA HACKMAN, Governor, St Aloysius Juniors, and Great Ormond Street Hospital School
GEOFF BERRIDGE, Chairman Hampstead Secondary School
HELEN REARDON BOND, Chairwoman, Rhyl School
LUCA SALICE, Chairman Torriano Junior
HILARY PATERSON, Governor, South Camden Community
MICK FARRANT, Chairman, Carlton School
SALLY GIMSON, Governor, Royal Free Hospital School
PHIL JONES, Governor Argyle School
JOHN DOOLAN, Governor, St Mary and St Pancras School
MIKE KATZ, Governor, Hampstead School
DAVID QUEEN, Governor, Acland Burgley
JESSICA ASSATO, Chairwoman, Jack Taylor School
GILES WRIGHT, Chairman, St Albans
MERLE MAHON, Vice Chairman, Rhyl School
GILL ROY, Chairman, Chalcot School
JILL SHEPHERD, Governor, Torriano Juniors and Torriano Infants
JANET POPE, Chairwoman, Hawley Infants and Camden School for Girls



The Green manifesto is full of “promises” which the Green Party cannot keep, either because local government lacks the powers to achieve them or because the resources are not available to fund their proposed expansion.
It is a wish list they know they will never have to deliver.
Labour Camden meanwhile continues to offer sustainable green policies across the board from recycling (already the best in inner London and with current investment in new vehicles, facilities and educational work to drive our figures upwards) to fair trade where we are encouraging and enabling Camden citizens to help right global inequalities.
Green votes “to give Tony Blair a bloody nose” could give Highgate to the Tories and Camden to a shambolic coalition. They would ensure a major setback to green policies in London’s greenest borough and I doubt that Camden voters will risk that.
JOHN THANE
Councillor for Highgate ward
Executive Member for Environment
Town Hall
Judd Street
WC1



Tory councillor Piers Wauchope is quite right to say that Labour has no will to tackle the drugs trade in Camden (We’ll make it a drug-free zone‚ April 6).
However in a short-sighted ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ fashion, he misses the point and supports the very Labour policy that is failing to address the problem of drug dealing and related crime.
Anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) have not helped in the fight against drugs. In fact they undermine it, as they move the problems from highly policed areas and increase crime in nearby residential streets and housing estates.
By treating criminal offences as more trivial anti-social behaviour, they fail to generate long-term solutions.
The prolific use of Asbos – mainly against young and vulnerable people – are simply media-friendly responses that conceal the fundamental problem that we do not have enough police officers on the streets.
If we are serious about wanting to crack down on drug dealing in Camden, we need to tackle directly those buying and selling illegal substances.
More officers on the street – not simplistic, ineffective subversions of the legal system – are the only way to do this.
BEN RAWLINGS
Liberal Democrat Candidate
Cantelowes ward
Camden Park Road
NW1


• Last Friday night my front doorbell rang and to my surprise it was the Leader of the Council Raj Chada canvassing.
At this point, I had not realised that he has been my local councillor for the last four years. I pointed out to him that my friends and I were not too happy with New Labour just now over the proposal to close the Jamestown Mental Health Day Centre.
A court ruled that the council consultation procedure before attempting to close the centre was unlawful.
Perhaps Cllr Chada would like to tell us if he still is going to support this proposal if he were to be re-elected?
LEO MCLAUGHLIN
Upper Park Road
NW3


• I recently moved to Islington having lived in Camden for the last ten years, and it has brought home to me just how good the Camden Labour-run council actually is.
Things that I used to take for granted in Camden – two bin collections a week, an excellent recycling scheme, regular street cleaning – simply doesn’t happen here in Islington, which is run by the Lib Dems. It is a real, noticeable change for the worse.
I love my new area in many ways, and look forward to settling in, but as far as the local council is concerned, it is pretty diabolical.
If anyone is thinking of voting Lib Dem in the forthcoming council elections, they should take the bus up the Camden Road and spend a day around the litter-strewn streets of Islington, before going to the ballot box.
Labour deserves praise for its achievements in Camden. Don’t take their achievements for granted. Believe me, this particular neighbouring borough is struggling by comparison.
ALF LAWRIE
Parkhurst Road
N7


• Becky Purcell has got it all wrong in her letter attacking the Lib Dems for throwing a £50-a-head fundraising do (Lib Dem launch is a bit rich at £50 a throw).
At least we’re open about how we raise our funds, unlike other parties who appear to be selling peerages for millions of pounds at a time.
Labour in Camden is spending tens of thousands of pounds in its election struggle to cling on to power. To put us in a position to defeat Labour and win control of Camden Council, our local members and supporters have dug deep to raise the money we need to fund our campaign.
We’re not the clique of wealthy homeowners that Ms Purcell imagines.
Lib Dems come from all walks of life. Our candidates at this election reflect that balance, including council tenants and leaseholders, private tenants and home owners.
What’s more, we’re united in our determination to make Camden Council a fairer place to live, one that treats all its citizens with respect.
Take our party’s policy on the minimum wage. Ms Purcell attacks us for challenging Labour’s original proposals. She doesn’t mention that we argued for a minimum wage that reflects regional variations in the cost of living. Our proposals would have given more to the lowest-paid in London.
As for “giving very little away about our policy agenda”, Ms Purcell should return to our website www.cam
denlibdems.org.uk, where she can now download our detailed, 18-page manifesto for Camden.
Far from “squandering their money” on backing the Lib Dems, our members are funding a determined campaign to sweep Labour’s tired and out-of-touch administration out of power in Camden, to be replaced by hard-working Lib Dem councillors who will respect the views of the communities which they serve.
Unlike Ms Purcell, many of the New Journal readers may well agree that’s a cause well worth supporting – and will cast their votes to make it happen on May 4.
PHIL WAINEWRIGHT
Chairman
Camden Liberal Democrats
and Highgate ward candidate
Berridge Mews


• During Labour rule, the Council Tax (on all bands), has risen by 30 per cent at a time when the retail price index has risen by 9 per cent.
Just what have we got for our money that has cost so much, apart from a bloated administration and worthless projects. One example is these unnecessary leaflets continually posted through our doors?
An efficiency audit and a purge on council waste are top of my agenda.
One key local issue I want to focus on is parking enforcement in Camden
Whilst it is certainly true that the council’s vigilant enforcement contractors keep our parking spaces working, the enforcement should be done by applying the principles of fairness, appropriateness and proportionality.
This is definitely not taking place at the moment, not surprising given that the contractors have a target of fines that they have to collect, with scant regard for the above principles. This is absolutely scandalous.
I intend to target the arbitrary nature of the Council Parking regime and ensure that the above principles are applied.
BRIAN KETTELL
Independent Candidate
Hampstead Town ward
South End Road
NW3


• Nice to see Labour’s second campaign launch of the election covering most of a page in the last edition of the New Journal. Readers may like to know that Camden Green Party also launched our campaign last week and are again fielding a full slate of 54 candidates across the borough.
Our 26-page manifesto is not just about environmental issues, after all we are not a single-issue party.
At least two thirds is about improving Camden’s public services and helping local, independent businesses.
Yes, we do have an eight-page section on making Camden the greenest borough in London, and it is all a good deal more ambitious than current Labour plans.
Just a handful of Green councillors are able to make a real difference.
In Kirklees district in Yorkshire, where Greens hold the balance of power, one twentieth of the solar capacity of the entire UK is now installed in local public buildings.
Meanwhile, Camden Labour Party timidly promises us just five solar thermal and 2 solar-electric ‘pilot projects’ by 2010.
The full Green manifesto for Camden is available at www.cam
den.greenparty.org.uk
SIAN BERRY
Candidate for
Kentish Town ward
Camden Green Party
Fortess Road
NW5


Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
 
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