Camden & Islington - Letter July 2010

Dear Sir,

Earlier this year, Cllr Theo Blackwell, as chair of Camden's Resources Scrutiny Committee made an unusually thoughtful speech highlighting the tough choices ahead for Camden Council no matter who won the general election.

Cllr Blackwell explained, whichever party that won control in Camden should look to see how other councils elsewhere delivered equally good services at less cost and examine ways of sharing services with other boroughs.

Following May's council elections, Cllr Blackwell is now Cabinet Member for Resources and, following the financial excesses of the Gordon Brown and Tony Blair administrations, there is no question that he and Camden have been left facing a very tough financial outlook, as with every other part of the public sector.

Further to his speech earlier this year, Cllr Blackwell has indeed highlighted the need for Camden to explore the sharing of services with other London boroughs. I and other Conservative councillors support this approach. However, Cllr Blackwell has added an additional rider that these boroughs must be ones that share the same 'values'. The same values as whom, I am forced to ask? For Cllr Blackwell seems to have decided that Camden, a top performing council, has similar values to Islington, Haringey and Hackney - councils hardly reknowned for their quality of provision - rather than other councils with top performing services such as Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham.

Our residents are used to four star services. Camden should be looking to share environmental services with Westminster, not Islington; social services with K&C, not Haringey; and, education with Hammersmith &Fulham, not Hackney.

I am left to lament that when Cllr Blackwell spoke about sharing services with councils sharing 'our values' he was meaning his own tribal Labour values rather than those of our local residents. Why else would he want to tie Camden to local authorities reknowned for profligacy, waste, inefficiency and political correctness?

It's impossible not to conclude that Camden's Labour leadership has decided to prioritise its own doctrinal comfort over the quality of local services and local residents have every right to be feeling extremely worried by this.

Yours etc