Council Assembly, Community Council, Murray in Australian Open Final and Hibs fantastic win at Parkhead!!

A rather tedious Council Assembly last night with lots of mindnumbing, I mean grandstanding from the Lib Dems about what a great job they had done over the last 8 years.

We were happy to remind them that despite a 37% increase in Government funding from this Labour Government they:

- have had their Audit Commission rating reduced to 2 stars, the worst Council rating in Inner London

- have been "red flagged" for failures in Decent Homes

- have been heavily criticised by the Care Quality Commission, with a rating of "adequate"

- have social care in the worst eight

- have the lowest Council tax collection in London and the 3rd lowest in the Country (they refused to accept a quarter per cent increase for this year!!)

- have the 6th lowest recycling collection rate in England(Tories apaparently critical of them in Dulwich Newsletter yet seconded their motion!! - you could not make it up could you?)

- trying to force through an Elephant and Castle deal with no Masterplan or any plans for the Shopping Centre or Transport

- have a Canada Water Library currently £6M over budget and running costs of £1M per year!

- no coherent Town Centre Management Strategy although agreed it cross-party in 2006!!

The Camberwell Community Council had an interesting on Burgess Park with Youth Council Members contributing to the discussion.

A really positive event! We really need to engage young people in a more regular and structured way and I believe an active Youth Council plus a Youth Mayor is the way to do this!

Ian, Norma and I met to discuss the Election Strategy and hopefully our first Newsletter should be going out next week!

Great news to see Scot and Hibs supporter Andy Murray get through to the Australian Open Final this morning.

The blow by blow account below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8484401.stm

Even better news was the stunning 2-1 away win by Hibs over Celtic at Parkhead with youngster Danny Galbraith scoring the winner in the last minute!!

Sorry that we are helping Rangers out but a great win and we are really looking like a solid squad and a 3rd place shoe in!!

Look at the highlights below and weep (Celtic fans!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8484344.stm

Burns Night, Comminuty Council and Hibs keep winning!!!

I had a very nice Burns Supper last night with a few whiskies to wash it down and even a couple of Cypriat Brandies to follow!!

Camberwell Community Council tonight with Council Assembly on Wednesday as we close in on the Election run-in!! No doubt loads of grandstanding to be had over the next few months!!! God preserve us!!!

Hibs continue to impres with a 5-1 thrashing of Hamilton at the weekend and Stokes and Riordan scoring for fun and we look much beter at the back!!

Long may it continue wioth 3rd place looking a strong possibility and a Europa cup spot!!

Highlights of Saturday's game below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hibernian/default.stm

Brunswick Park Ward Selection and Hibs beat the "Meadow"!

Big news for me of course is that I was selected by the 35+ Members of the Brunswick Ward Labour Party on a very cold Friday evening to stand as a Labour Party Candidate for their Ward in this year's Southwark Council Elections. As you can imagine I am very grateful to those Members and to have the opportunity to continue as a Camberwell Councillor and represent the residents of Brunswick Park Ward, a patch I know very well as a previous Brunswick Ward Member from 1994 to 2002 before the boundaries changed!
The important thing now after a difficult situation over the Past 2 months is to focus on the job at hand, delivering a victory in Brunswick Park Ward, Southwark Council and the UK as a whole for a historic and unparalleled 4th Term Labour Government and the Opinion Polls are sharply moving back in the right direction as the "airbrushed" Cameron becomes gradually more exposed!! Watching Cameron on the Andrew Marr Show at the moment is a timely reminder to me why I do this to keep him and his sort out of power for as long as Humanly possible!!! Perhaps rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated!!!
I am sad for my good friends Sandra Rhule and Mark Williams who were not selected. Sandra has been a fantastic colleague to work with and i hope to continue to work with her in the future and I feel for Mark especially as he was Selected in the first running so must feel very disappointed but he accepted the result with good grace despite my profound guilt but he did remind me that he will still be under 30 by the time of the 2014 Elections so he has time on his side and will be a truly fantastic Councillor for Camberwell and Southwark! For me I cant pretend that the Camberwell Green wounds have fully healed but I need to get over that as quickly as possible and move on and I will!!!
Hibs got through to the next round of the Scottish Cup after a historic game against Irvine Meadow, the first ever competitive match between a SPL team againt a Junior Team, only possible because of recent SFA rule changes.
Inevitably the Meadow came away with all the plaudits if not the result and details are at link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_cups/8442110.stm

Fire in Camberwell, BPK Selection tonight and Willi Soukoup!

Back to London and back to work and a major fire in the ward on Wednesday as another building site went up in flames, with over 75 firefighters tackling it and over 150 people evacuated.

By the time I got there the site was closed off but residents were back in their homes. Made local TV News and another site fire in Southwark!!! Story well covered in Southwark News:

http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/

Good story about Leaseholders in Peronet House being hit with £12000+ bills for Fire safety Works after Lakanal Fire!! Once again it is the Leaseholders who are penalised!!

The News also covered the Brunswick Park Ward Selection Meeting tonight and my last chance to be selected so I am hopefully for a good turnout of people who I actually recognise and hopefully they might select me?

Just put in a CGS Bid to have the Pied Piper Relief by Willi Soukoup Remounted in Camberwell Green.

Also a Memorial to Sid Bates VC "A True Camberwell Boy"!!!

I would love to see more sculptures and memorials around Camberwell so hopefully this will get through. Also included in bid is some upgrading to Play Area.

BPK Decides, Tory Airbrushed Poster and Hibs draw Derby match!!

The Brunswick Park Ward Shortlisting Meeting was held on Monday and i have been shortlisted with the Selection Meeting on Friday evening! This is my last chance saloon so weather permitting and a good turnout of Members I hopefully have a chance of being selected!!
I spotted this version of the new Tory Poster on the Labour Goes Forth Facebook site and it made me smile!!
Tory tax plans are also in tatters after it clear that their numbers dont add up again!! Not a very good launch week for the Tory machine!!
Hibs and Hearts fought out a 1-1 draw with the usual head butting, sendings off and bookings galore!! The Fans loved it!!!
Highlights below;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/8436134.stm