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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 13 March 2009

Review spending and priorities now

• WITH money being tight residents are looking for their money to be spent on services important to them.
We need a fundamental review of council priorities and expenditure. We are entering unchartered waters and we need to consider what life is going to look like over the next five years.
I want to start the debate with a few thoughts.
• First, recession will bring threats to community safety. Crime will probably increase. Let’s have a fundamental review of the use of the 150 CCTV cameras and put them in crime hot-spots rather than using them to give parking tickets to motorists.
• Second, advice agencies report a 40 per cent increase in caseloads over the past three months. This represents a massive call for help. At present, advice and information is a small scale service farmed out to others. People want their council to give them a helping hand its front-line staff will need extra training to enable them to deal helpfully with distressed and vulnerable residents.
• Third, people will be looking for cheap ways of enjoying their leisure time. Free museums and art galleries have never been more popular. So the city-wide network of free libraries could well experience greater demand for books and DVDs.
• Four, shopping parades are already under huge pressure in Church Street, Tachbrook Street, Lupus Street and Harrow Road. We cannot expect small traders to pay upwards-only rent increases. National retail chains are saying “no” to rent increases. The council needs to recognise this fact of life unless we want swathes of vacant retail premises.
• Fifth, people want to know that the council is on their side. Councillors need to be close to their constituents and the ward budgets help that process and are a useful tool in keeping the council and councillors in touch with local concerns.
• Sixth, we need to introduce a culture where the council exercises more discretion, introduces more flexibility and generally operates a more of a “can-do” approach. Residents don’t want more petty rules, bureaucracy and more reasons why something can’t be done.
• Finally, we need regular and public discussion of the financial issues and choices facing the council. We need an open, transparent and partnership approach to discussing how we are going to chart our way through the difficulties ahead. The current approach to keeping discussion to just a few cabinet members or for half an hour at an occasional meeting simply will not do.
Labour councillors will continue to offer constructive and positive suggestions.
CLLR Paul Dimoldenberg
Leader of the Labour Group

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. 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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