Lambeth London Borough Council

Lambeth London Borough Council
Coat of arms
Council logo
Type
Type	London borough council of the London Borough of Lambeth
Leadership
Leader	Lib Peck, Labour
Leader Of The Opposition	Timothy Briggs, Conservative
Mayor of Lambeth	Marcia Cameron, Labour
Structure
Seats	63 councillors
Political groups	Executive (58)      Labour (58) Opposition (5)      Conservative (3)      Green (1)      Independent (1)
Committees	North Lambeth housing committee
Joint committees	Housing planning and redevelopment committee
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	22 May 2014
Next election	2018
Meeting place
Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton
Website
www.lambeth.gov.uk

Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton, but currently meetings are at locations across the borough due to renovation works on the Town Hall.^[1] Lambeth is divided into 21 wards, each electing three councillors. The council was first elected in 1964.

Composition

As of March 2017, the Council Composition stands at 58 Labour Councillors (-1), 3 Conservative Councillors (nc), 1 Independent (+1) and 1 Green Councillor (nc). ^[2]

Leadership

The leader of the council from 2006, Steve Reed, stepped down following his election as Member of Parliament for Croydon North on 29 November 2012 and was replaced by Councillor Lib Peck,^[3] following confirmation by the full council on 30 January 2013.

Cressingham Gardens

Cressingham Gardens is a council garden estate^[4] in Lambeth. It is located on the southern edge of Brockwell Park. It comprises 306 dwellings, a mixture of four, three and two-bedroom houses, and one-bedroom apartments. It was designed at the end of the 1960s by the Lambeth Borough Council Architect Edward Hollamby, and built at the start of the 1970s. In 2012 Lambeth Council proposed demolishing the estate, to replace the terraced houses by apartment blocks. Most of the apartments would then be for sale to the private sector.

The residents, those in Lambeth who wish to prevent the gentrification of the borough, and those who want to conserve what they believe to be important architectural heritage, are campaigning to prevent its demolition.

The residents have argued that there has been no consultation or legal advice to confirm that the residents would be able to move into the homes once the demolition and re build had been completed.

Council Opposition

All 3 Conservative and the solitary Green and Independent councillors opposed demolition. 2 Labour Councillors (out of the 57) also opposed the demolition.

Judicial review

On 17 July 2015 the high court ruled that Eva Bokrosova's request for judicial review of Lambeth Council decision to only consider options for demolishing Cressingham Gardens.

The court was told that Lambeth Council originally consulted on five options:

• Option 1 - Refurbishing the estate and bringing all council tenant homes up to decent homes standard, including the six void flats that have stood empty for over 16 years;
• Option 2 and 3 - Refurbishing as in Option 1, plus infilling to create new homes.
• Option 4 - Partial demolition of the estate, with the net extra in new build homes sold at top market price
• Option 5 - Full demolition and rebuilding of the estate

At the High Court Mr Justice Holman granted permission to allow Ms Bokrosova to challenge Lambeth Council’s decision to ‘abruptly close down’ consultation on options 1-3, options which were strongly supported by residents.^[5]
On November 24 Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing ruled that the decision to remove options 1, 2 and 3 from the consultation was unlawful.^[6]

Wards

A map showing the wards of Lambeth since 2002

• Bishop's
• Brixton Hill
• Clapham Common
• Clapham Town
• Coldharbour
• Ferndale
• Gipsy Hill
• Herne Hill
• Knight's Hill
• Larkhall
• Oval
• Prince's
• St Leonard's
• Stockwell
• Streatham Hill
• Streatham South
• Streatham Wells
• Thornton
• Thurlow Park
• Tulse Hill
• Vassall

History

The council was created by the London Government Act 1963. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the London Borough of Lambeth on 1 April 1965. Lambeth London Borough Council replaced Lambeth Metropolitan Borough Council and also took over some 40% of the area of the former Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough Council covering Streatham and Clapham. Both Metropolitan Boroughs were created in 1900 with Lambeth Metropolitan Borough Council replacing the Vestry of the Parish of Lambeth. The former Clapham and Streatham parishes, which became part of Lambeth in 1965, were governed by the Wandsworth District Board of Works from 1855 to 1900.

It was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Lambeth as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council. The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the local authorities responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection. This arrangement lasted until 1986 when Lambeth London Borough Council gained responsibility for some services that had been provided by the Greater London Council, such as waste disposal. Lambeth was very active in the Ratecapping campaign in the 1980s. Lambeth became an education authority in 1990. Since 2000 the Greater London Authority has taken some responsibility for highways and planning control from the council, but within the English local government system the council remains a "most purpose" authority in terms of the available range of powers and functions.

Policies

The Labour Party had included an aspiration in their 2010 manifesto for Lambeth to become a "Co-operative Council" with greater use of mutualist models. This attracted considerable media interest in the run up to the May 2010 election, characterised as the notion of the John Lewis Council in contrast to the EasyCouncil model being promoted by the Conservative Party in Barnet.^[7] Following the 2010 election, the Council established a Commission to look at what this might entail.^[8]

One aspect of this is that the council aims to make Lambeth a place where there is a coproduction of public services by service users and communities

Summary results of elections

Summary of council election results:

References