Ilford South Labour Party

The London elections may be over but Labour Party members are still out campaigning.  This month the focus is on Valentines Ward.  Councillors and local members will be out speaking to residents and delivering the latest newsletter.

Click here to see the newsletter on line.

If you have an issue you want to raise with your local councillors, wherever you live in Ilford South, find their contact details here.

If you live in Valentines Ward and want to get more involved, you could register as a Party Supporter for free. This would mean you will be kept informed of all forthcoming Party events. If introduced by an existing member you could join the Labour Party for £15 for the first year. Ring 020 8911 0899 or email contact@ilfordouthlabour.org.uk if you want more information.

The photographs show Party members running a stall at the successful Redbridge Green Fair, held at the beginning of the month in Valentines Park.

The elections on Thursday 3rd May saw Mandy Richards, Labour’s candidate for the Havering and Redbridge seat on the Greater London Assembly, reduce Conservative Roger Evans majority from 43,025 in 2008 down to just 3,899.

This fantastic result was due to the extremely hard work of Mandy and Labour Party members in the constituency since she was selected as the candidate in 2010. There was a disappointing turnout on the day, down by more than 8% from 2008. Yet, in Havering & Redbridge, Labour achieved an astonishing increase of 39%, or nearly 14,000 votes.

By comparison, the Tories’ vote fell by 32%, losing 25,000 votes.

The Liberal Democrat vote was down by a devastating 48% to just 6,453 votes as they trailed in 5th behind UKIP and the London Residents Association. With less than 5% of the vote they have lost their deposit.

The elections for the GLA have left the Labour Party across London with 12 seats, Conservatives 9, Green Party 2 and Liberal Democrats 2. Boris Johnson was re-elected as London Mayor, but only after a much closer run race with Labour’s Ken Livingstone than anyone had been predicting.

May 3rd also saw Labour making huge gains in Council seats all over England, Scotland and Wales, with poor results for both the national coalition government parties.

Voters are making it clear to the Tory/Lib Dem parties that the austerity measures are hurting, but they’re not working. The recent budget gives tax breaks to the wealthiest but raises taxes for millions of families, proving the lie in the government’s “we’re all in it together” message.

Eddie Izzard was in Ilford on Thursday 15 March to promote the campaign to elect Ken Livingstone for Mayor and Mandy Richards for the GLA Assembly.

He joined our Team and mixed with shoppers in the High Road. Many wanted to talk about their issues of concern.

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Better off with Ken is Labour’s campaign message for the Mayoral Election, with 6 key pledges that address the squeeze on Londoners’ quality of life.

The slogan sums up Ken’s Case for a fairer London and will be at the forefront of Labour’s campaign as the election kicks off in earnest.

Ken Livingstone’s campaign pledges directly address the rising cost of living which is squeezing millions of Londoners. Ken has pledged to:-

• Cut fares by 7 per cent this year – saving the average Londoner £1,000 over 4 years.
• Reverse Boris Johnson’s Police cuts, and restore local sergeants.
• Help reduce rents, improve homes with a London non-profit lettings agency.
• Tackle heating bills – through insulation and an energy co-op to reduce prices and help households save over £150 per year.
• London Education Maintenance Allowance of up to £30 per week to help young people stay in education.
• Support for childcare with grants and interest free zones – and campaign against Tory cuts to childcare tax credits.

Boris Johnson has made Londoners worse off with year on year bus, tube and train fare hikes. Boris Johnson has failed to oppose his Governments attack on ordinary living standards.

VOTE LABOUR ON MAY 3RD

VOTE KEN LIVINGSTONE FOR MAYOR

VOTE MANDY RICHARDS FOR LONDON ASSEMBLY MEMBER REPRESENTING HAVERING and REDBRIDGE

Ken Livingstone visited Seven Kings on Saturday (7 January) to promote his Fare Deal. He spoke to residents in the High Road and then joined the Ilford South Labour Action Team, who had been calling door to door in the area since the morning, for a further canvass of houses in Pembroke and St. Albans Roads.

Our photos show Ken with the Seven Kings Councillors, Bob Littlewood, Balvinder Saund and Stuart Bellwood, with Goodmayes Councillor Barbara White and meeting residents on the doorstep with Mandy Richards the Labour GLA Candidate for Havering and Redbridge.

From the reaction we encountered support for Ken's policies was obviously high and we will be on more doorsteps explaining what a change of Mayor can do for London in the coming weeks.

If you want to know more about Ken's policies for London visit the website http://www.kenlivingstone.com.

Ilford South Labour Party members have been out at stations across the borough today (3 January) leafleting about the fares increase and Ken Livingstone's proposed fares deal.
Ken has confirmed that if elected in May 2012 he would cut fares by 7% taking them back to at least 2011 levels. Bus fares would also fall still further back to 2010 levels. The deal would also see fares frozen in 2013 and the end of Tory Mayor Boris Johnson's plan for a further inflation busting rise after that.

This is all affordable, each year Londoners pay more in fares than the Mayor's own budget predictions say they will. This operating surplus grows each year. The Tories claim the increase is to pay for improvements, but the capital budget is entirely separate from the operating budget. Ken's policy is to put money back into Londoner's pockets and purses. It is estimated that over the next 4 years the average commuter can be £1,000 better off.

Mandy Richards, Havering and Redbridge GLA Candidate is backing Ken's campaign locally. She says:-

“In an area such as this where so many people travel to London each day, fare levels are important, for the future prosperity of London we have to ensure that people are able to afford to travel”

In our pictures Mandy is seen with Ken at a recent fundraising event and (above) with Labour members at Newbury Park. Ken will be canvassing with your local Labour Action Team in Seven Kings this coming Saturday 7 January.

The Chadwell Councillors are seen below at Chadwell Heath Station.

Mike Gapes MP wrote to the Ilford Recorder last week regarding the decision by the Secretary of State to proceed with the closure of A&E and labour services at King George. This despite the damning indictment by the Care Quality Commission of these same services at Queen’s Hospital. Mike also urges people to sign the petition against the Health & Social Care Bill.

The Coroners Inquest confirmed that neglect by Queens Hospital contributed to the tragic death of Sareena Ali (Recorder 17 Nov). Yet Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley “fully supports” closure of maternity and Accident and Emergency at King George Hospital . Health Minister Simon Burns told me in my Nov 8th Parliamentary debate that these services would go in about two years.

Nationally Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are going ahead with their reckless Health and Social Care Bill. We have already seen waiting-times increase since David Cameron came to power. His plans encourage local hospitals to treat more private patients while NHS patients are left waiting longer. They create a postcode lottery in the NHS, where patients are refused treatments in one area that their friends can get in another. The unwanted reorganisation wastes £3billion which would be better spent on medicines, equipment and staff.

David Cameron has no democratic mandate for this Health Bill. It wasn't in his manifesto. It wasn't in Nick Clegg's either. The public never voted for it and healthcare professionals are fearing it.

I have worked very hard with others on a cross party basis for six years to Save King George Hospital. But following Labour's justified condemnation of the Lansley decision in a leaflet distributed during the Aldborough by-election, Conservative Redbridge Council Leader Keith Prince told the Recorder on November 3rd that cross party campaigning was now over. Tories boycotted a campaign committee meeting on November 4th. Although there is no basis for a continuing cross party campaign I will continue to fight with local people of good will to defend King George Hospital and our NHS which is not safe in the hands of Lansley, Cameron and Clegg.

Aneurin Bevan, creator of the NHS, said there would be an NHS only for as long as there were people left to fight for it. That fight is now upon us.

Please add your name to the petition at www.dropthebill.com.

Last Thursday we got the fantastic news that Debbie Thiara won the Aldborough by-election for Labour with a majority of 365 and just over 50% of the vote. See what the local press are saying at:

W&W Guardian
Ilford Recorder

Mathew Goddin, Campaigns Organiser for Ilford North said:

“A massive thanks from Debbie and me for all the hard work from everybody who turned up throughout the month. This was won by activists getting out on the doorstep and meeting voters so it wouldn’t have happened without the help of those who volunteered!

This victory is an excellent platform for next years GLA and Mayoral election and a big step towards full control of the Council in 2014. Hope to see some of you at our GC next Wednesday when you can meet our new councillor and Iain McNicol the Labour Party general secretary.”

For more on this see the new Redbridge Labour website

Last week the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published the report on its investigation into deep seated issues around the quality of care provided by the Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospital Trust. On the same day, the Secretary of State for Health announced his decision to approve plans to close Accident & Emergency and Labour services at King George Hospital, based on the advice of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.

The CQC stated:

"Long-standing concerns in maternity services have progressively worsened. The most significant problems were identified at Queen's Hospital…"

"Accident and emergency services at Queen's Hospital have struggled to meet the four-hour target for admission. A tipping point was reached last winter when the quality of services began to collapse. There have been some improvements in 2011 which the trust needs to consolidate to reduce the risk of poor care happening again."

"There are challenges for the trust in terms of capacity at Queen's Hospital. There has been a gradual transfer of services from King George Hospital to Queen's Hospital, but the efficiency gains that were supposed to occur at Queen's Hospital have not come about."

"The majority of maternity services are now provided at Queen's Hospital. Staff, stakeholders, patients, and evidence from external reviews all indicate that too many women now attend Queen's Hospital for their maternity care, and that the trust cannot cope with the level of activity."

"The trust has had difficulty in ensuring that patients are admitted from the emergency department in less than four hours, particularly at Queen's Hospital since it opened in 2006."

"The emergency department reached its tipping point last winter when the quality of service began to collapse."

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel noted that Health For North East London had consulted widely regarding its plans. It failed to acknowledge that it had completely ignored the overwhelming response from local people.

The CQC has made 73 recommendations for improvements at the trust and will be monitoring their implementation. The Labour Party in Ilford will continue to work with others, from all political parties & those with no affiliation, to ensure the trust is held to those recommendations. But it’s a disgrace that David Cameron & his Secretary of State have reneged on the promises they made before the last election to prevent the closure of local hospital services.

Redbridge Labour Group Leader Bob Littlewood was in Rochdale recently to hear Labour Leader Ed Milliband give his backing to Labour Councils that are handing power to local people in a radical bid to improve services. Labour’s cooperative councils believe almost all services can be improved by shifting more power to local people. This new approach is not about turning all services into co-ops nor is it intended to replace skilled professionals. It is about giving local people choice and control over the services they use.

Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, the first cooperative council, said,

We are changing the way we run council services so that local people have a much bigger say over what happens to them and the places they live. It means more community-owned cooperative housing, more older people choosing which care services they want to use, more local control over parks and green spaces. We call it the cooperative council and the community work together to make life better.

Michael Stephenson, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party said,

These Labour Councils have come to the home of the co-operative movement in Rochdale to reclaim founding traditions of the Labour and Co-operative movements- of collective action and co-operation, or empowerment and enterprise. These co-operative councils will help transform local services and local communities.

How Does This Translate Here In Redbrige?

In Redbridge of course we are not in control of the Council, it is run by the Conservatives in partnership with their Lib Dem allies. We have developed a strategy for rethinking service provision. Since May 2010 the Con/Dem leadership of Redbridge has embarked on a savings programme involving very serious reductions in public services. They have concentrated on finding across the board savings and lopping off bits here and there.

• They have failed to work out a vision of what their priorities are for the future, or to examine all of the possible means of providing local services.
• Their savings programme, which is not coupled with any vision or direction means it is impossible to justify any individual service cut or redundancy.
• The Council carries out lots of consultation, but this is not the same as working with residents.
• We thus vigorously oppose the planned cuts and will not accept privatisation.

WE SAY IT IS TIME TO RETHINK SERVICE PROVISION

• It is time to look at new ideas.
• We would examine other councils who have created partnerships with residents to provide services or community facilities.
• We would work out where we can establish partnerships with residents to provide services or community facilities.
• Rather than cut grants to the voluntary sector, we would examine expanding their role.
• We would examine where mutuals or not for profit organisations can take on service provision.

Our Labour Action Teams are out weekly talking to you on your doorstep.

If you want to read the Co-operative Councils press release or a fuller version of our rethinking of service provision the full documents are available on this site.