• WHAT is Camden Council trying to hide about its financial situation?

Earlier this week a group of us in Gospel Oak tried to make a deputation to the resources scrutiny committee meeting about information of the costs of the Carlton school closure proposals.

This information was promised at the cabinet meeting in early September, but never produced.

The deputation was initially blocked for an entirely false reason. Then, apparently a very senior council officer blocked it.

This refusal was emailed to the deputation just 38 minutes before the meeting started, their extensive preparation wasted.

This decision joins those of the council’s refusal to have a review of the Veolia contract; the stalled promised review of the Chalcots refurbishment debacle; the blocking of meetings of the Community Investment Programme scrutiny panel; and the Talacre lost “overage” payments scandal, widely reported in the CNJ.

Is there a financial time-bomb hidden in the borough’s finances and are we likely to be joining Croydon and Bexley in the list of bankrupt authorities?

Is the elephant in the room really the CIP programme, or is there something more sinister?

Labour councillors, apparently, are toothless with some jockeying for lucrative (£40k+) cabinet posts with their toadying.

Meanwhile we in Gospel Oak continue to live in litter-filled streets, a massive non-building site, demolition of workshops, legions of expensive consultants drawing up in secret plans for our future, and growing demand from residents for food parcels and hot meals.

MICK FARRANT,
NW5