Time For Change

The local elections are now only three weeks away and after 16 years of Tory control, you may well feel that its time for change.

Under the Tory Administration your council has become a mini dictatorship.  Although the Council consists of 65 elected councillors, all decisions are taken by the 7 cabinet members. They are all Conservative.  The only scrutiny of this small cabal is by the Conservative dominated Executive Scrutiny Committee, which serves to rubber stamp rather than scrutinise Cabinet decisions.

The Tories would have you believe that Hillingdon is one of the best run councils in the country; however their record demonstrates the opposite.  Many of their policies have contributed to the increasing divide between the north and the south of our borough.

These policies Include; outsourcing various council service to private companies, spending millions of pounds on consultants, closing day care centres for the disabled, abolishing the band D housing waiting list, increasing the number of families in bed & breakfast accommodation, reducing the security of council house tenancies, amending planning policies to reduce the protection of green belt land, selling off various community assets & land to property developers, building on green belt land at Botwell Common / Lake Farm Country Park, and cutting housing maintenance resulting in a huge backlog of empty properties.

However they have made sure that those 7 key decision makers are well rewarded with increased councillor’s allowances.  Hillingdon’s Leader and Cabinet are the highest paid local (part-time) politicians in London.  In terms of allowances they are certainly at the top of the premier league.

So are you getting premiership performance from your highly paid Tory Cabinet?

Well, independent agencies continue to highlight deficiencies with the current Tory administration.

Before it was abolished, the independent audit commission consistently judged Hillingdon’s performance as being sub-standard and only achieving 2 stars out of a maximum of 4 stars.  The Leader of the Council brushed this off by saying that he “Couldn’t Give a Monkey’s” about this poor performance.

More recently the Ofsted inspection of Hillingdon’s Children’s Services resulted in an overall judgement of “Requires Improvement”.  Again the Leader of The Council has brushed this off in his usual arrogant style.

Hillingdon Labour believes that this is simply not good enough and that the residents deserve better.  After 16 years of Tory control we think it’s Time for Change, Don’t You?

Cllr Peter Curling
Leader of The Labour Group
London Borough of Hillingdon