Fight The Cuts

Vote Socialist

MANY PEOPLE in Telegraph Hill ward are really fed up with the penny-pinching way that New Labour runs Lewisham council. They are pleased to have the chance to elect health worker Chris Flood as the ward's second Socialist Party councillor.

You can see this clearly on the local council estates. Socialist Party councillor Ian Page led the Save Lewisham Housing Campaign in 1999. This stopped the Labour council selling off 7,500 flats and houses but the battle to maintain decent public sector housing continues.

Since then Socialist Party councillors and members have campaigned alongside Honor Oak estate residents to win £14 million-worth of refurbishment.

Some properties on Honor Oak have since been found to have asbestos. Lewisham council knew about this - but they have the insolence to try to charge leaseholders (people who have bought their own council home) up to £11,000 to remove the asbestos.

The council want ordinary residents to foot the bill for their stupidity. Socialist Party candidate Chris Flood says: "The council should fund the costs of removing asbestos - they built the houses and sold them to former tenants without telling them of the dangers. The money should not come from the leaseholders or from the tenants' refurbishment programme."

On Kender estate many tenants have been transferred to housing association (HA) property. As the Socialist Party warned, the HAs have put all their rents up sharply, given many tenants smaller flats and lumbered them with water meters and ultra-expensive heating systems.

Meanwhile those who stayed with the council find their homes are only being maintained up to the legal minimum standard. Ian Page told the socialist: "Tenants suffer from the council's penny-pinching contracts. Contractors are leaving places undecorated and with holes in the wall because repairs like this are not in their contract with the tight-fisted council.

"Even workers on the contracts say they should be allowed to finish the decorations but that's not happening - the budgets are so tight because the council are accepting the government-imposed cuts."

Together with tenants' and pensioners' activist Bob Gardiner, local tenants have fought back, occupying the Housing Association office to get their concerns discussed at a meeting. Bob and other local people are helping the Socialist Party get Chris Flood elected as our second councillor in Telegraph Hill ward.

As Ian says: "Everywhere there are people coming together to fight the council cuts and organising to defend services. They need the political alternative that the Socialist Party can provide."

• If you want to help Chris Flood and the Socialist Party win this vital by-election, please ring the Socialist Party at 020 8988 8777.

Why We Need More Socialist Councillors

Ian Page speaks to the socialist

IAN PAGE, Socialist Party councillor for Telegraph Hill ward in Lewisham explains why he is fighting to get Chris Flood elected to Lewisham council in the 4 December by-election.

LEWISHAM COUNCIL has a massive Labour majority and cuts services regularly against the wishes of local people. The council are under such great pressure because every year the government cuts the money it gives to local authorities.

The council doesn't campaign to get more money to keep these vital services going so they're forced to cut services. You can see that in the big cuts such as trying to sell off council housing and closing schools but on smaller issues as well.

Across the ward the council are cutting and 'economising' and it's difficult on my own to fight back that effectively. Once Chris gets elected we can put more pressure on the council.

So in a practical sense, a victory for Chris Flood would help enormously because tenants and residents know it's no good approaching Labour. It's me and the Socialist Party that they always approach to help them get these things done. A victory would double the number of people we've got to do that.

At the town hall the three main parties don't argue about whether there should be cuts, they just split hairs about where they should happen. I sometimes work with the Green Party councillor but even he won't go against the idea that we have to stay within budgets.

Of course those budgets are not enough to provide the services we want. If Chris wins this election, it gives us a basis within the council to really challenge Labour, Liberals and Tories and hold them to account.

We can put motions forward and force New Labour to say why they're not providing services and explain why they're not challenging the government. If Chris wins, we will have a political base on the council.

Of course both as a political party and a group on the council it gives the message that there's a socialist alternative to Labour; there's a socialist alternative to services being run down and money being spent on wars rather than on schools.

Chris Flood has proved that he's a fighter - in his trade union he was active in fighting the threat to close Charing Cross hospital. Locally he's shown that he'll battle for people in his area.

The people of Telegraph Hill ward need Chris on the council. The Socialist Party needs Chris there to start providing a real political alternative and building our party and its socialist alternative in and out of the town hall.