Lib Dems on Lambeth Council - an update

5.50.17pm GMT Fri 28th Jan 2005

Liberal Democrats in Vauxhall constituency are proud of progress being made locally as a result of our work on Lambeth Council:

• Lambeth has been awarded over £100 million from the government to invest in the fabric of all the borough's secondary schools.

• No Lambeth mainstream school is now in special measures or with serious weaknesses.

• Even more has been invested in roads and pavement repairs by increasing expenditure on them to £1.4 million (compared with Labour's miserly £229,000 in 2001/02).

• Lambeth is independently judged to have the fourth cleanest streets in London. Missed refuse collections this year are running at just 125 per 100,000 (compared with more than 600 per 100,000 in 2000/01 under Labour).

• Lambeth's accounts for 2003/04 were adopted by the Council in July 2004, a month ahead of the statutory deadline.

• The launching of the 'reframing' of the Housing service has seen satisfaction levels with the repairs service increase to 88% this year (compared with the highest level achieved in London last year, 87% by the Corporation of London).

• Fourteen empty properties have been brought back into use through the use of compulsory purchase orders or the threat of CPOs.

• There has been a substantial reduction in the number of delayed discharges from hospital to care. Of the six delays reported in October 2004 (compared with 20 delays in October 2003) only one was due to Lambeth, the remainder resulting from issues in the Health Service.

• Increased investment has been made in the Lambeth Parks and open spaces through the Lambeth Opportunities Fund, with £700,000 towards the Heritage Lottery Funding bid for Myatts Fields Park.

• Improvements in the recycling service have seen recycling rates shoot up in the borough to the level where 15% of Lambeth's household waste is recycled each week (compared with only 8.7% under Labour in 2001/02). This is just short of the government's target of 17%.

*There has been an improvement in Lambeth's performance grading by the Audit Commission, with an 11-point increase in the points scored. This is the greatest increase amongst London boroughs.