• TWO years ago New Labour Camden hired a firm of consultants to do a stocktake of every green space, children’s play area, football pitch, tennis court and indeed any other leisure space owned by the council. Who were these consultants, how much were they paid, and what was their remit?

We have so far been denied the list of tennis courts, football pitches, children’s play areas and green spaces that have already been confiscated to facilitate the Community Investment Programme, and in addition been denied the list of similar spaces that are destined for the chop as this plan gathers pace.

At the end of the CIP over a total of 15 years, how many such leisure spaces will Camden Council own and what size of area will they cover? The New Journal should be given a before-and-after list to publish, so that the people of Camden can see the true cost to them of the so-called CIP.

Cllr Danny Beales stated: “In the face of prolonged government austerity we won’t sit idly by”. The austerity has been “prolonged” precisely because Cllr Beales and his New Labour colleagues in town halls up and down the country chose to manage the austerity agenda rather than oppose it with a massive, sustained and co-ordinated campaign.

The CIP essentially enshrines the principle that the people should continue to pay the price for the banking crash of 2008. Thus if you want a small net gain in your overall council housing stock in Camden, the people must pay for it themselves by building private flats and houses for sale on public land over a 15-year period.

The “programme” is above all a political choice on the part of New Labour Camden. This is why Cllr Beales chose not to criticise the sale of 67 acres of public railway lands in King’s Cross by the New Labour Tony Blair/Gordon Brown government.

He was also silent on my suggestion that the massive proposed sale of public land and buildings by Network Rail should be strongly opposed with a view to seeing how this might be used to help ease the council housing crisis.

And he also had nothing to say on Frank Dobson’s suggestions as to where the next generation of council housing should be built in Camden.

At the forthcoming elections, the people of Camden have a stark choice: They can accept another four years of building private flats and houses for sale on public land or they can vote for a party, such as the Green Party, that is not willing to accept that the people should continue to pay the price for the 2008 banking crash.

LOUIS LOIZOU
NW5