LIBERAL

DEMOCRATS

Lewisham Liberal Democrats

Manifesto 2010

freeze council tax

for a minimum of two years

revitalise council housing

and build the first council homes for a decade

strengthen local police teams

and have them work with young people and local enforcement teams

double recycling rates

by improving facilities and processes

improve young people’s lives

by providing more facilities, activities and opportunities

campaign to abolish the mayoral system

and create a more democratic and accountable form of government

1
 LIBERAL
DEMOCRATS

Liberal Democrats want to provide Lewisham

with a fresh start. We want to create a place
where people choose to live because it’s a safe
environment, offers good quality of life for all
residents and because it’s a place where people
of all ages can realise their full potential.

Labour has run Lewisham for nearly 40 years,
and our community has suffered because of
it. There is a stale, uninspired and complacent
attitude towards delivering services to local people.
Liberal Democrats know we can do better.
We will revitalise the Council and our local
communities by making sure that residents are
at the heart of all the Council’s activities. Liberal
Democrats will make sure that Lewisham Council
works harder for its customers, and that our
borough is a better place to live, bring up a family,
and grow old.
We are the challengers to Labour across the
whole of Lewisham. For the last four years, Liberal
Democrats have been a strong and effective
opposition. Our councillors have a proven
record of serving their communities, keeping
people informed, consulting residents and making
a real difference.
At this election, only the Liberal Democrat team
fully represents the diversity of Lewisham residents;
only we have the vision, experience, vitality and
enthusiasm to make a real change in Lewisham.
A vote for the Liberal Democrats… or the stale,
old Labour party? The choice is clear. In this
manifesto, we set out policies that will achieve
our vision of making Lewisham a great place to
live: a place people choose because it is a safe,
caring community and has a council that helps
them lead the life they choose.
It is time for a change, and we hope that you will
help us make it happen.
Chris Maines
Liberal Democrat candidate for
Mayor of Lewisham

2 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
 LIBERAL
DEMOCRATS

Lewisham Liberal Democrats

Manifesto 2010

housing 4

community safety 6

environment 8

our community 12

children and young people 14

open, efficient and accountable local government 17

beating the recession 19

Published and promoted by Marcus Mayers

on behalf of Chris Maines and the Liberal
Democrats, all of 8 Woodham Road, SE6 2SD

3 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
 Under Labour, there are 17,000 families on the waiting list for
Housing Liberal housing in Lewisham, and 70% of Lewisham Homes’ housing
fails to meet the government’s basic decent homes standard.
Democrats believe Very little has been done by the current Labour Mayor to
address Lewisham’s housing crisis.
that decent and
Liberal Democrats want to tackle homelessness and provide
affordable housing is more family housing. We would seek to raise the standard
of all tenures of housing in Lewisham, starting with service
every citizens’ right improvements for Lewisham Homes customers. We want to
empower tenants and leaseholders so they can exercise more
control over their homes, services and estates.

Tackling homelessness

• A Liberal Democrat Mayor will build Lewisham’s first new

Council Houses for a decade.

• We will enlist the support of local housing associations to

access Temporary Social Housing Grant funding to bring
empty properties back into use.

• We will seek to establish London’s first Community Land

Trust within Lewisham, working with the Mayor of London.

Providing more family housing

• We will provide more attractive incentives for tenants

occupying larger houses to move to smaller homes,
covering removal and redecoration costs.

• We will look creatively at Lewisham’s existing housing stock

to see where larger homes could be created by merging
flats together, or ‘de-converting’ shared houses.

• Where private sector housing is built on Council-owned

land, we will ensure residents get better value for money
with a higher proportion of affordable housing, and more
family units.

Raising the standard of Lewisham’s housing

• A Liberal Democrat Mayor will seek urgent discussions with

the new Housing Minister to demand the reinstatement of
Lewisham’s Decent Homes funding.

• Almost a third of the housing stock in the borough is now

privately rented. We will establish a ‘Lewisham Standard’
for private rented accommodation.

4 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Improving housing services

• Within 12 months of a Liberal Democrat Mayor taking

office, we will submit Lewisham Homes to an external
inspection to ensure tenants are receiving quality services.

• Tenants will be entitled to a £10 refund if a repair

appointment is missed.

• We will introduce a ‘repairs guarantee’, whereby tenants

can arrange their own repairs with private contractors if the
council fails.

Empowering tenants

• All council tenants will be offered the opportunity to take

control of their housing through a tenant management or
community gateway approach if the majority of residents
want it. We will also explore the transfer of community
centres and tenants halls to community groups.

• We will ensure that leaseholders are properly consulted on

works that affect their properties, and provide access to
independent sources of help and advice.

5 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Community safety We recognise that the experience and fear of crime and anti-
social behaviour are of great concern to all Lewisham residents.
Tackling gun, knife and gang crime is essential. We know that
We will introduce these are challenging problems but we are committed to finding
imaginative and creative solutions for them.
effective policies to
Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
make the borough
• Provide a 24-hour patrol service and telephone line for
safer for everyone. reporting anti-social behaviour.

• Strengthen local police teams by involving council

enforcement officers, anti-social behaviour officers and
local youth workers in Safer Neighbourhood teams. Where
necessary, provide extra PCSOs and work with the police
to provide night-time cover.

• Hold a public question-and-answer session with the

borough’s Police Commander at least once a year.

• Work with partners and agencies to tackle and reduce

domestic violence throughout the borough, and ensure that
victims and their families receive more support and advice.

• Work with national and local police and other agencies to

address the problem of crime against children and young
people near bus stops and on buses.

Tackling gun and knife crime

• Initiate an amnesty for knives and weapons – create a

confidential advice line for those aware of knives and
weapons in the community.

• Work nationally and locally with the police and the

community to implement intelligence-led policing against
guns and gangs.

• Collaborate with schools, youth clubs and other agencies

to support local communities in tackling gun culture and
drug problems.

• Provide specialist training and support to carers and

families who are concerned that their children are involved
in gang activities.

6 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Creating a safer environment

• Improve poor street lighting, and badly maintained

footpaths to make people feel safer.

• To complement Envirocall, we will provide one phone

number for sending text messages or photos about graffiti
and broken street lights.

• Improve and promote the use of community mediation

and restorative justice programmes and mentoring for
young people.

• Bring all Council enforcement services together under one

new department to make more efficient use of resources.

• Be more proactive prosecuting the illegal sale of fireworks,

knives, alcohol and tobacco.

• Work to ensure that all new housing developments are

designed to a high standard that seeks to prevent crime
through intelligent design.

• We would introduce ‘cumulative impact’ licensing policies.

7 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Environment The We will ensure your local environment is improved and
protected, and that our local economy is fair and sustainable.

Liberal Democrats A cleaner, greener borough

promise practical and • We aim to become a zero-waste council.

workable solutions to
• We want to double Lewisham’s recycling figures within
put the environment four years, beginning with immediate action to reduce
drastically the amount of Lewisham recycling that is being
at the heart of council
rejected due to contamination, by:

policy-making. 1. ensuring residents can recycle all types of plastic and

Tetra cartons within the first year

2. ensuring residents in flats can fully recycle

3. building local bio-mass waste facilities, introducing a

kitchen and garden waste collection service.

• We will devolve funding to local bodies in order to:

1. carry out major cleaning blitzes annually in each local
area

2. ensure street drains are regularly cleaned, and

encourage residents to report blocked drains

3. improve smaller local parks and play equipment.

• Acquire a bubble gum removal machine and remove

bubble gum from town centre pavements.

• We will plant 1000 new trees in the first year, and properly
maintain existing trees.

• Work with independent housing providers and Lewisham

Homes to provide allotments on housing estates and
provide funding and training to local groups to help set
them up and run them.

• Provide more help and support to develop and expand our

nature reserves to promote biodiversity and to protect sites
of special interest.

• We will work to set up community land trusts to manage

and enhance spare parcels of land for local people.

8 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Town centres

• Use the planning system to support local shopping

parades that meet local peoples’ needs.

• Actively fight any further closure of post offices in Lewisham.

• Encourage greater use of the council’s power to acquire

underused properties to revive local housing and to help
improve run-down areas.

• Provide more ‘shopping time’ parking spaces and disabled

parking spaces in or near local high streets.

Buildings

• Seek an energy company partner to install free home

insulation to all Lewisham residents.

• We will reform local planning policies to make it easier for

residents to build micro-energy generation schemes, and
to make sure that all new housing schemes obtain at least
a third of their energy from renewable sources and reuse
‘grey’ water.

• We will make best use of new building and renovation

projects to try to provide apprenticeship schemes were
appropriate.

• We will engage with local people when developing

planning policy.

• Provide extra resources for better planning enforcement.

• We will reward good development by establishing a

prize for the most innovative, creative and sustainable
developments in the borough.

9 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Transport

• Campaign to improve bus and train services across the

borough.

• Develop and promote accessible and safe pedestrian

routes to encourage more walking.

• We will make the parking system simpler to use, and

investigate the use of pre-pay cards similar to Oyster cards
for parking meters.

• We will review parking across Lewisham, ensuring that

residents parking schemes are more flexible, that shopping
parades are not strangled by parking regulations, and we
will introduce incentives for low-emission vehicles.

• Undertake a ‘full conditions’ survey of Lewisham’s roads

and pavements and use the results to develop an action
plan to tackle the poor conditions which currently exist.

• Promote pedestrian safety over car use. We will aim to

slow traffic by widening pavements, instead of using
excessive numbers of speed humps.

• Provide more mobile traffic enforcement cameras to

address persistent motoring offences.

• When replacing council vehicles, we will purchase cheaper,

greener alternatives and install electric car charging points
for public use.

• Investigate 20-mph zones for non-main roads to help

reduce accidents.

• Work with Transport for London immediately to provide

road safety improvements at known accident blackspots.

• Improve cycle paths in the borough and introduce more

secure cycle parking.

• Promote healthy living by promoting car-free days.

10 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Leisure facilities

• Provide a Youth Opportunity Card to all young people

under 16, widening access to all council leisure and
cultural facilities.

• Do more to ensure that Lewisham residents benefit from

and contribute to the 2012 Olympic Games.

• Work to ensure the borough has a cinema.

• Work to bring improved leisure facilities into the borough

and to ensure they are accessible to all.

• Provide more support to grassroots sporting clubs and

societies working with our young people. We will ensure
that these facilities are accessible to all and that they are
free or affordable to all.

11 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Our community Lewisham has many strong local communities with a rich and
diverse heritage. We will support existing activities, such as
festivals, cultural events, adult education classes and social
We will engage and networks, and will seek to strengthen them wherever we can.
We are particularly concerned to see the rights and contribution
support the many of older people and people with disabilities properly recognised.

community activities Building strong community groups

that take place • Recognise the diverse festivals and activities around the
borough, and engage and support them.
around the borough.
• Work towards setting up a local history museum in the
borough.

• Extend and promote a year-round cultural calendar.

• Work with the community to create and host a Lewisham

Heritage and History website.

• Recognise the importance of adult education that enriches

people’s lives, not just for the sake of qualifications.

• Free up council buildings for greater use by adult

education groups.

• Promote better access for disabled people in all spheres

of life.

• Work towards greater equality in access to all council

services and against discrimination in all its forms.

• Develop better social, cultural and educational

opportunities for elderly people.

• Provide a higher standard of service to those who need

support in their home, and to provide as much help as
possible to carers.

12 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Helping the elderly live dignified lives

• Strengthen citizen befriending and inspection services for

care homes.

• Help ensure all elderly people are safeguarded from abuse

and neglect.

• Establish a Mayor’s Commission on dementia care and

long-term care for the elderly.

• Create a multi-agency Safeguarding Adults Partnership.

• Continue to give priority to supporting carers.

13 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Children and Children prosper when they grow up in a comfortable and
secure environment, free from fear of abuse or neglect.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for many children in our
young people borough. We will work hard to break inter-generational cycles of
poverty, neglect and abuse.
We will do our best
We will ensure everyone in Lewisham has access to a good
to give Lewisham education and all sections of the community are given equal
educational opportunities.
children a fair start Our ambition is to make education in Lewisham better than any
in life by directing comparable area in London.

resources at those Poor planning by the existing Labour administration means we

face a crisis in primary school places. On current projections

children who need an extra 500 places (or 15 classes) will be needed across the
borough by 2012-13. The government has refused to give the
council any extra money to meet the need for places. We shall
most support. address this need by opening new schools and expanding
existing ones where possible.

We shall work to increase and improve pre-school provision in

the borough.

Education

• Liberal Democrats’ national policy is to enable smaller class

sizes by introducing a pupil premium so that resources are
directed to where the need is greatest.

• We will do whatever we can to ensure complete fairness

in school admissions’ policies. The strengths of Lewisham
schools will be actively promoted to all parents to ensure
they attract a balanced comprehensive intake of children.

• We will upgrade the support provided to supplementary

schools and recognise the valuable contribution they make
to education in the borough.

• We will make reading a priority and support parents to read

to their children.

• We will encourage restorative justice and mentoring in all

schools.

• Our aim will be to enable more use of programmes to

encourage learning outside of the classroom.

• Primary schools will be encouraged to set up allotments.

14 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
 • The important issues of guns, knives and gang culture will
addressed as a high priority in all our schools as part of a
borough-wide initiative to tackle the rise of violent crime.

• We recognise that some pupils prefer vocational to

academic routes to achievement; all are valuable and
should be recognised and supported.

• We will continue the Building Schools for the Future

programme, where possible, but put greater emphasis on
good design and quality project management.

Families and the community

• Greater support will be provided to parents who need it

most by providing better access to a range of specialist
services and advice.

• We will improve existing play parks and facilities and

explore extra grant funding to create new ones.

• We will work to ensure more schools can and do open

out of hours so that their facilities can be used by local
communities.

Child health

• We will work to address Lewisham’s issue of childhood

obesity by promoting healthy eating projects in the
community, providing healthy school meals, and promoting
competitive sport in schools and the wider community.
In addition, the council’s planning process will be used to
restrict the opening of new fast food outlets near schools.

• Childhood diseases such as measles and chicken pox

will be addressed by working to achieve better rates of
immunisation in our area. Currently rates are well below the
national average.

• We shall work to raise awareness of sexual health issues.

15 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Protecting children

• Safeguarding children and young people is a a priority.

We all share responsibility for it. Lewisham has had
a number of recent Serious Case Reviews resulting
from failures in practice – we will ensure that all the
recommendations are implemented.

• We will take every opportunity to listen to children in care

and children leaving care so that we can learn from their
views and experiences.

• We will give more individual support to looked-after children

who need it to help them achieve to their full potential.

• We will aim to secure the lowest possible turnover of

placements for our looked-after children by recruiting a
pool of foster carers and improving training for them.

Engaging young people

• We will give a Youth Opportunity card to all young people

under 16, to widen their access to leisure and cultural
facilities.

• We will launch a programme of consultation with young

people, to produce a strategy for young people between
the ages of 16 and 25.

• We will work to provide more jobs and apprenticeships for

young people.

• Lewisham has one of the highest rates of teenage

pregnancy in the country. We will work on finding effective
solutions to this issue.

16 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Open, efficient The Liberal Democrats are committed to fair, open, responsive
and transparent local government.

and accountable Good service is about inclusion, efficiency and attention to

detail. All Lewisham staff will deal with the public respectfully
local government and efficiently, so that issues are dealt with effectively first time. [

We will create fair Openness and accountability

and efficient public • A Liberal Democrat Mayor will be more accountable

and accessible. We believe the public should be more
services for all. involved in Lewisham’s decision-making processes and will
establish regular opportunities for the public to scrutinise
Council decisions.

• We will promote openness through a user-friendly and

useful council website, webcasting council meetings and
providing access to reports and information, including
councillors’ expenses.

• We will ensure the council promotes an open style of

participation and management, and fully complies with to
the Freedom of Information Act.

• Liberal Democrat councillors and the mayor will keep in

touch with residents through a regular newsletter.

• We will promote participation in decision-making

processes, rather than meaningless consultations.

• We will transform the Local Assembly system, giving

residents real control over services in their area.

• We will promote equality of representation and involvement

in council decision-making for all, including young people,
elderly people and people with disabilities.

17 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Value for money

• We will freeze Council Tax for at least two years.

• The overall cost of council senior management posts will be

cut by freezing the highest salaries and reviewing each post.

• We will reduce the dependency on agency staff and

expensive consultants.

• We will investigate innovative ways of using council tax to

tackle deprivation.

• We will find new ways to use council land and assets to

unlock regeneration and help kickstart the local economy.

• We will reduce Labour waste by cutting out duplication of

services and excessive communication spending within
council departments.

• We will investigate ways of attracting more income and

commercial sponsorship.

• We will make it easier for residents to access and comment

on planning and licensing applications.

• We will support and promote community asset transfers

for some council-owned buildings, such as Louise House
in Forest Hill.

18 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk
Beating the The recession has had a devastating effect on Lewisham. Due to
the crisis in public finances, the next administration is likely to be
forced to make sweeping cuts to council services. These could
recesssion We total as much as 14% of all services over the next four years.

will do all we can to Managing the budget

keep Council Tax • We will always remember that it is your money we are
spending.
low, protect front-line
services and help • We will look for ways of rationalising council services to
save money.
those most in need.
• Any new projects we undertake will be assessed for value
for money in the long term.

Creating jobs

• The council will work to provide more jobs and

apprenticeships for our young people in particular.

• We will devise a scheme to re-introduce Council mortgages

for first time buyers and seek support for the scheme from
central government.

• We will work to create a ‘green’ economy and create local

jobs in providing home insulation, planting trees and other
environmental and community improvements, such as
providing 600 new affordable homes, and business support
to the voluntary sector.

• Assist residents and businesses by providing more support

for business advice.

Supporting vulnerable people

• We will make sure everyone who is claiming benefit gets

what they are entitled to

• We will provide a £20 council tax reduction for pensioners

on means-tested state pension credit and investigate other
ways to make this regressive tax fairer.

19 www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk