Camden Labour calls on Council to pass on VAT cut to service users

Camden Labour today demanded that Lib Dem/Conservative run Camden Council pass on the Government’s 2.5% VAT cut to service users for ‘paid-for’ services like parking, swimming, building control and licensing.

Camden’s fees and charges raised from residents currently bring in £85 million a year, £30 million of which are raised from parking charges and fines. Labour is asking the Council to identify VAT-rated services and pass on the full cut either by reducing fees or giving users a one-off sum at the end of the year.

A poll of 34 finance officers by Local Government Chronicle revealed that a third of finance officers and chief executives are expecting to leave their prices unchanged, while another third will only pass on part of the cut. However, some councils, have passed on the full cut for a range of services.

Kiburn Job Centre saved thanks to Labour

Kilburn’s Job Centre Plus (JCP) has been given a reprieve thanks to concerted lobbying by local Labour campaigners.

The JCP in Cambridge Avenue, used by many residents on the Camden side of the Kilburn High Road, had been threatened with closure.

The proposal to close the centre was made as part of a national review by Job Centre Plus. If it gone ahead, jobseekers would have had to go as far afield as Kentish Town, Highgate, Willesden or North Kensington.

The local Labour campaigners argued that the JCP was needed in an economically disadvantaged area like Kilburn, especially given the economic downturn. In September this year 6.2 per cent of people on the Camden side, and six per cent of people on the Brent side of the Kilburn High Road were registered unemployed.

Camden ditches commitment to affordable new housing “on the sly”

Camden’s historic commitment to 50% affordable housing on new developments is being ditched on the sly, say Camden Labour Councillors.

New council development proposals are to introduce a new “sliding scale” of 10% to 50% to cover the amount of affordable housing required on developments of less than 50 homes - the vast majority of all developments in Camden.

The effect of this, warn Labour councillors, will be to reduce the amount of affordable homes required from developers and hamper attempts to reduce Camden’s massive housing waiting list.

In October Mayor Boris Johnson ditched Ken Livingstone’s commitment for 50% affordable housing.

Camden Council leaving the dead unburied at weekends

Muslim and Jewish residents in Camden are being let down by the failure of Lib Dem/Tory run Camden council to allow residents from these two communities to follow religious custom and bury loved-ones on the same day as their death, owing to a failure by the council to operate an all-day service on Saturdays and Sundays.

Responsibility for civil registration passed from the Crown to local authorities last year, ensuring that equality legislation now fully applies to the service. This should have meant that the service changed to balance the needs of people from different cultures and faiths.

However, in Camden services remained unchanged – bringing further pain to families who have been effectively told by the council that they can’t bury their relatives according to custom on weekends because “the offices are shut”.

Cost of parking permits up 267% in Lib Dem Camden

Camden Council has just ramped up charges for temporary parking permits outside residents’ houses for builders and plumbers from £9 to £33 a day in order to make even more cash out of residents.

This amounts to a staggering 267% increase. The justification? The Lib –Dem led council says it wants to make charges more “in line with Westminster”, the highest parking revenue collecting authority in the country!

Last year Camden Labour revealed that Camden Coucnil was making even more money than ever from parking. In 2007 Camden made £30 million from parking, up £8 million from 2006.