SIMON EMMETT . net

Yesterday evening I went to view Greenwich Council’s meeting, and as usual it has left me compelled to write this post. In what was a comparatively short meeting, there were three issues that I have previously written about that cropped up in one form or another.

The first was the issue of council rent increases. As I posted on 18th February, the Labour group endorsed the Labour Cabinet Committee’s report to increase council tenant’s rents by above the rate of inflation. During the debate, prior to the vote, Conservative group leader Cllr Drury argued that “in these troubled economic times that the council should at least freeze rents, or even cut them to assist its tenants”. This was ignored by the Labour group, and they voted en masse to increase the rents.

The next issue was regarding a petition for a one-way system in Red Lion Lane, Shooters Hill ward. After a member of the public was allowed to address the council, this was followed by a short speech by Cllr Thorpe, to which I overheard another Cllr say that it was the first time he had heard him speak in a debate for two years. Cllr Thorpe used this opportunity to wave a copy of my action team’s latest newsletter, and had a go at us for “trying to claim credit” for his work, and called us “out of touch”. as I posted in December, Cllr Thorpe presented a petition to the council regarding the one way system at the December meeting. However, as I said in the post the Conservatives had previously campaign for the one way system but had it turned down. In fact, the Conservatives actually began campaigning for it back as far as  December 2007! I’m not surprised that Cllr Thorpe was unaware of this as he did disappear to Australia for a quarter of his elected term, so I’m more than happy to set the record straight on here that the Conservatives HAVE been campaigning for this for over two years, and Cllr Thorpe only stated a couple of months ago, presumably because there is an election around the corner.

Speaking of elections, that brings me on to my third and final issue from last night’s meeting.

During a debate on recycling rubbish Cllr Hyland, who at present is a Shooters Hill ward councillor,  used to opportunity to say that she was looking forward to (and I quote) “whoop our ass” in Shooters Hill. This is not exactly the tone of language that I expected to see from an elected representative, but it made we question how she intends to do that considering that she is leaving Shooters Hill to stand in a safer seat on May 6?