by Jay Coward, South East London Socialist Party
50 people, packed with energy, protested the night before the Lewisham Labour council set the borough’s budget. Four Green council election candidates attended, along with their mayoral candidate Liam Shrivastava.
Passions were rightfully high. A few of the speakers were on their way in to make motions and demands of how the council funds the area.
Can we afford them?
Private firm LandSec intends to ‘redevelop’ Lewisham Shopping Centre, and use half of the space for high rise flats. Just 6% is promised to be ‘affordable’. And there is widespread doubt that the Labour council will ensure that any of the 11,000 households on Lewisham’s council housing waiting list would actually be able to afford them.
This does not even mention the profound effect the development would have on local business, increased emissions, and residents’ access to sunlight. Residents were angry, and eager to fight back.
Lewisham Labour Council wants to cut £33 million in the near future:
- £9 million from children’s services
- £800,000 from special needs children
- £850k from adult social care
Lewisham Labour is also proposing the maximum legal increase to council tax – 5%. And the council is reducing council tax support for those struggling to pay.
Green mayoral candidate Liam echoed the disdain for Labour’s cuts. He said he was on his way to the council meeting to propose the council use £2 million reserves to combat cuts and prevent future ones. He called on Lewisham Labour mayor and council cabinet to take a 20% pay cut.
Labour cuts
We welcome this change. Only a year ago, Liam was part of the Labour group which oversaw massive cuts to services.
We want Green candidates to oppose cuts. Trade unionists have launched a national petition calling on Zack Polanski to only allow Greens candidates to stand if they are willing to publicly commit to voting against all cuts.
The petition was received enthusiastically. A Green trade unionist signed it, promising to circulate it. We want Liam and the Lewisham Green candidates to sign the petition too.
This would help build confidence to build a mass campaign to demand central government funding to reimburse what’s been cut from Lewisham by Tories and Labour. In Lewisham, we will be standing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates in May’s local elections to help push that too.
- Sign the petition: Greens must pledge ‘no cuts’ – change.org/GreensMustPledgeNoCuts