Chris Flood, Socialist Party Councillor

An eventful year for a Socialist councillor

JUST OVER a year ago, CHRIS FLOOD was elected as the second Socialist
Party councillor in Telegraph Hill ward in Lewisham, south London.

Chris tells us what he and his fellow Socialist councillor IAN PAGE have done in that year.

FROM DAY one of my election Ian and I, backed by the local community have
challenged rent increases, called for the compulsory purchase of empty homes
and opposed student top-up fees.

We have also opposed the closure of a vital local swimming pool in Ladywell
(working closely with the campaign that arose in the area), kept up the fight
for a new secondary school in the northern part of Lewisham borough, supported
a campaign to save Deptford Park and dealt with major problems with
refurbishment on the Honor Oak Estate.

We’ve challenged:

• why the number of senior council personnel earning over £50,000 a year has
  gone up by 48% while so many Lewisham council employees and Lewisham residents
  are low-paid;
• why Lewisham’s council housing stock has declined by over 1,000 in the
  last year despite a growing housing crisis;
• why Lewisham council are backing the government’s plans to force councils
  to sell off their housing stock;
• why Lewisham council has allocated £100,000 to date for the so-called
  ‘consultation’ on this proposal alone.

Ian and I have also taken up why tenants in newly built housing association
homes have worse agreements on service provision than council homes.

Before we intervened, bins weren’t being emptied, existing wardens weren’t
allowed to cover new Housing Association areas and the council and housing
association had begun to squabble over who was responsible for ground
maintenance! On the Honor Oak estate, the playground was severely damaged yet
they still couldn’t agree who was responsible.

We’ve supported the struggles of local workers. For example, we visited
Deptford Job Centre’s picket line when civil servants went on strike recently
over 100,000 job cuts and attacks on the pension rights of mainly low-paid
workers.

Asbestos scandal

WE ARE still defending Honor Oak Estate residents, both tenants and
leaseholders, in making sure their refurbishment is done properly.
Leaseholders were sold asbestos-ridden council flats, without any warnings and
now face huge council refurbishment charges that include the disposal of
asbestos.

We have demanded that all asbestos removal takes place for leaseholders at
no extra charge. Ian and myself closely scrutinised the whole refurbishment as
we’ve worked alongside local people who understandably don’t trust private
contractors one inch.

The council should have carried out this work at regular intervals. It
should not have handed it out to the private sector to make huge profits after
years of neglect. Some of the bills could be more than £20,000, which Ian and
I are fighting.

Sector J clubhouse

Now the council are threatening to withdraw funds from the Sector J
clubhouse on the Honor Oak estate. This would mean basic facilities such as
kitchens and toilets used by elderly and disabled people not being renovated.

This is despite local residents being told that the club would be totally
refurbished. We are challenging the council on this miserly cut in the
improvements they promised.

Recently we had further shocking proof that councillors from all the major
political parties put their own interests above those of the community they
are supposed to represent. They now have one more perk. Just minutes after
justifying cuts to local services, they voted themselves onto the council
employees’ pension scheme.

All this, while council workers face attacks to their pension from New
Labour. Compare this to Ian and myself. We not only voted against this scam,
but we also only take necessary expenses, donating the rest to local campaigns
and the Socialist Party.

The council should have considered the performance of the pension scheme
for existing employees as a priority, especially as many employees are already
low paid and there is uncertainty about pension schemes generally.

Working class party

WE ALSO take up individual constituents’ problems, which can make a huge
difference to people’s lives. Ian and myself always tenaciously represent the
people of our ward and the people of Lewisham.

More and more people from outside our ward seek our support. It’s common to
hear people, even life-long Labour voters, say "I’ll never vote Labour again"
and say what little time they now have for New Labour.

People are looking for a new political force in Lewisham. We believe we
need a new party to represent ordinary working-class people. We’re prepared to
stand where we can in the future in Lewisham to win more seats for the
Socialist Party but also to work co-operatively with all sympathetic forces.