Nancy Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party and Waltham Forest Trades Council assistant secretary
Campaigners, including Socialist Party members, gathered outside Waltham Forest Town Hall to lobby the council, which was about to ratify its cabinet decision to close the Markhouse Centre, a centre for adults with learning difficulties, serving local adults and their carers for over 40 years. Around 50 people use it.
After standing in the general election in July as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, a number of people had written to ask whether, as we had stood on an anti-austerity platform and had a consistent record of campaigning against such cuts, we would help to keep it open? I took this campaign to the local trades council, and we organised a joint meeting with the Markhouse Centre supporters’ group. We immediately got to work campaigning.
No expense spared
The council had claimed that the building would cost £1.2 million to repair, with the boiler alone costing £100,000. We have pointed out that they have £50 million in reserves and spent at least £25 million renovating the town hall! Sitting in the public gallery felt positively palatial and it was quite obvious that no expense had been spared.
The local trades council hosted a public meeting in October, we pledged to be present at scrutiny committee meetings, cabinet meetings and then the full council. We spoke to the workers at the centre, we engaged with the carers’ group, and we spoke to the press. The councillors would like it if what was said in the council chambers, stayed in the council chambers; campaigners were determined for that not to happen.
A survey, commissioned by the council from a company called Evolve Norse and called ‘independent’, condemned the building. The council has a 25% stake in this company, with a councillor and council official on the board! Councillors eventually admitted that using the word ‘independent’ was inaccurate. The officer involved has now (fortuitously) left the council. The health and adult care scrutiny committee has commissioned another company to ratify the original report.
We won’t go silently
We believe if we hadn’t been out campaigning, the centre would have silently been closed. But the campaign has paid off, at least temporarily, and the decision to close the centre was pushed back, with a new decision due towards the end of February.
On the night of the lobby, dozens of people also turned out to oppose car parking charges. The local Tories took to the plinth outside to lead the charge against the council. We made sure they didn’t get away with going unchallenged for their 14 years of year-on-year cuts.
The Markhouse Centre is the first big cut by this Labour council under a Labour government. The parking charges look like the next attack. After Christmas, cuts to council tax relief are coming down the line.
We will fight back against every attack, and continue to make the case for councillors who are prepared to resist further austerity by backing needs-based council budgets. As part of that we will continue to stand against the cutting councillors at the ballot box.
