East Dulwich Lib Dem Councillor backs undeserved bonuses

Regular readers will be aware that Southwark Lib Dems are proposing to pay massive bonuses to the most senior council officers despite Southwark recently being rated the worst council in inner London. The Lib Dems seem happy to reward failure and are not holding senior officers to account. To put things in context, 17 council officers in Southwark are already earning more than £100,000 per year.

When local residents complained that it was wrong for the Lib Dems to pay lump sums to council bosses when services were failing, the response from our local Lib Dems was, apparently, ‘so what?’!!

Posting online, East Dulwich Lib Dem Councillor James Barber, refused to accept that those of us watching our pennies and keen to know that our council tax is being well spent, might be annoyed about this. He defended the policy by simply saying:-

“As for bonuses, so very senior managers have performance management pay, and some have delivered larger back office savings than expected.”

So that’s fine then. Worst council in inner London, 6th worst recycling rate in the country, £700 million hole in the decent homes budget, primary school admissions in a mess – here you go guys and gals, have a bonus!

This just won’t do. It’s time East Dulwich and Peckham Rye Lib Dems listened to local people and recognised the anger that is out there about the way they are running the council. Paying council bosses bonuses is exactly the wrong message to be sending out when services are being run so poorly.

Comments

Know Your Ryes!

A few weeks ago I was in a meeting with some local residents and council officers. During the meeting one person started referring to Rye Lane, when in fact they meant Peckham Rye East. Later on another started talking about Peckham Rye Common and it took us a little while to work out that they really meant Peckham Rye Park. You can't really blame people for getting a little confused. There are so many references to "Rye" in our little bit of South London that even the locals can get mixed up. So I thought I'd have a go at writing a little glossary of all the Ryes hereabout. Clearly I'm making a rod for my own back here, so please point out any errors I've made in the comments box below. Anyway, here are my definitions of the ubiquitous Ryes. Some serious, some not so serious, and in no particular order: Peckham Rye Ward - The council ward area. Peckham Rye Ward was created out of Rye Ward, Waverley Ward and Bellenden Ward following the Local ...

Lib Dems claim they're not in charge in Peckham Rye

(A tweet from the Peckham Rye Lib Dems) Peckham Rye Lib Dems are now claiming that Labour 'run' Peckham Rye (take a look above). When asked by a local resident "Am I right in thinking Lib Dems run Southwark but Labour run Peckham Rye?", a Peckham Rye Lib Dem candiate replied, "Yes you're right. For the next three months Lab run Peckham Rye. Then we take over..." Given that, just like every other area in Southwark, Peckham Rye is run by the Lib Dem-Tory Executive it seems this is just the latest in a string of attempts to mislead people into thinking they've got nothing to do with Southwark's failures. Of course, Peckham Rye does have three Labour councillors, who do a great job of representing our area and our concerns at the Town Hall. However this is very different from 'running' Peckham Rye. If only we could just opt out of the Lib Dem chaos! In truth, the policy levers and almost all the money spent by the council are under the cont...

Another Bog Standard Update

Many local residents may well be wondering what is happening with the previously proposed development of the toilet block near the junction of Peckham Rye and East Dulwich Road. Before Renata, Victoria and I were even elected as councillors, this had become quite a lively issue. I recently asked officers at the council what is going on, because nothing appeared to be happening with the block. Well, since the last update, this is what has happened: 1. The last proposed tenant - a not-for-profit gallery offering outreach programmes to local schools and groups - dropped out of the process without having made the required planning application. 2. The property is now under offer to a new proposed tenant. They run a children's nursery and wish to expand. 3. They have already made a planning application for a change of use. 4. We are currently waiting for a formal decision from development control so that the lease can proceed. I'll update again here as soon as I have further news. Sp...

Peckham Rye Labour

Search This Blog