In April 2019 Keir Starmer gave his support to Camden Council’s Clean Air Action Plan, which included proposals to limit construction and to force residents into a “modal shift away from private vehicles towards walking, cycling and public transport.” He went further and gave his endorsement to Extinction Rebellion’s tactics:
“Climate change is the issue of our time and, as the Extinction Rebellion protest showed us this week, the next generation are not going to forgive us if we don’t take action. It’s been lots of talk, now we need action and the plan today is about what action we’re going to take here uh in Camden.“
Camden Council has since gone on to propose its own expansive ULEZ which would be charged on top of Khan’s one, as well as limiting families to one car only. Does Starmer support that too?
Extinction Rebellion tactics have racked up Metropolitan Police bills of almost £100 million. The Met is clear that eco-terrorist tactics lead to “hundreds of officers being taken away from local teams” to deal with them. Meanwhile, Starmer’s Shadow Transport Secretary said that Extinction Rebellion has a duty to protest. The loons will have more than one ally in a Labour Cabinet…
Camden’s Labour-run council has proposed an additional ULEZ of its own which would introduce a new 75g/km C02 band and hike charges for diesel and petrol vehicles. The council also proposes to limit families and businesses to one car per permit, down from the original three. Camden is one of London’s poorer boroughs, with 34% of residents living in households with an income of below 60% of the UK median. They must be glad the council has their interests in mind…
Under new plans the cost of a business permit will be quadrupled and traders using a diesel car emitting average levels of carbon dioxide will be charged an extra £622 annually. Even short-term parking will be subject to graduated C02 charges. Meanwhile, doctors on call using the same car will be charged an additional £448 per year for providing medium-emission life-saving care. The party of the many strikes again…
UPDATE: A government source tells Guido:
“Sir Keir’s own council is waging war on motorists. He may try to distance himself from Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ but his council is introducing their own version and limiting each house to just one car.”
Tories on the council are preparing for a fight on this…
Camden Council pleaded guilty to two health and safety breaches concerning the lack of fire detectors, alarms and a viable escape route at a council-maintained block of flats in which a blaze took the life of 35-year-old Magdalena Fink in November 2017. The council have been ordered to hand over £500,000 of taxpayers’ money in fines. It will also cover the £41,000 legal costs of the London Fire Brigade, who brought the prosecution.
Worse still, the council were warned in a 2013 risk assessment that the block urgently required a new fire alarm system, replacement fire doors and removal of flammable cladding on the only escape route.
Cllr Matthew Kirk of the LibDems said:
“This is a huge amount of money which could have bought a lot of benefits for Camden residents… no officer has taken responsibility for this clearly dramatic failing.”
The Camden Council member responsible for planning, regeneration, economic growth and “Camden’s ambitious council house building programme” since October 2017 is none other than Danny Beales. A councillor since May 2014, Beales’ tenure at the top has been plagued by mould, damp, and fires. Yet despite the dangerous living conditions, the Camden cabinet voted to put council home tenants’ rents up by 7% in January.
Beales is bidding to be underwhelming on the national stage as he hopes to unseat Boris Johnson at the next election…
Camden Labour Group’s chief whip Lazzaro Pietragnoli has resigned after his secret abusive Twitter account @PHillmum, which he used to publicly attack and humiliate colleagues, was exposed. The account – with which Pietragnoli masqueraded as a mother of three living in Primrose Hill social housing – called fellow Labour councillor Maryam Eslamdoust a “scumbag” and her husband and fellow councillor Thomas Gardiner a “disgraceful man”. Pietragnoli also frequently used the account to praise his own work and achievements. Not exactly subtle…
Last week, Pietragnoli blamed the account on his own wife, university professor Valentina Arena, when confronted by the Camden New Journal. In reality she had nothing to do with it, and didn’t even know that her name had been used in now-deleted reports by the Camden New Journal…
Just one week later, Pietragnoli fessed up to the Camden New Journal:
“I want to confirm that she [his wife] was never involved in the twitter account nor had she any knowledge of what I told you last week. That twitter account was set up by me as a prank, which clearly evolved into something very negative and abusive for which I am sorry”.
All in all a humiliating affair…
Camden Council has spent £93,000 on an anti-racism training contract, despite cutting £230,000 worth of jobs. Priorities…
The council’s Library Service has committed to slashing jobs in order to save £230,000. The council will cut management/ back-office roles and frontline staff as part of its Mid-Term Financial Strategy and instead hopes to recruit more volunteers to compensate for this loss. The council will also cut further jobs to ensure the new Library Service structure costs remain within the revised service budget. Guido wonders why the council – which is clearly hard-pressed for cash – chose to waste £93,000 on ‘woke’ training instead of saving some of those jobs…
Slides leaked from the anti-racism training session include lessons on “types or racism” such as “white privilege, micro aggressions, intersectionality, [and] tone policing”. Sounds like £93,000 well spent…
