David Miliband for leader of the Labour Party

I believe that David Miliband would make an excellent leader and has the experience and the determination to take on the coalition. With David the Labour Party can and will reconnect with former Labour voters and truly engage with party members.

Labour Party members will vote later this year for a new leader, if you are not already a member please join today and vote for a leader who can really make a difference not just for the Labour Party but for the country.

Councillor Wellbelove with local supporters outside the special surgery

Whilst I was meeting people at the studio, Councillor Haselden and local supporters knocked on doors in the local area to discuss local issues.

This was an additional surgery to the regular Clapham Town Councillor sugeries. These are your opportunity to talk to your local councillors to talk about local issues.

I think it is really important that local councillors meet as many local people throughout the year and therefore you will see more of these special surgeries in the coming months at new locations.

Some of the graffiti reported to local councillors by concerned resident - images have been sent to local police

I was pleased to see that the graffiti had been removed from the bandstand, however dismayed that there was still graffiti on the cafe and immediately reported this to Lambeth’s Graffiti Line.

The Bandstand is the oldest and largest surviving bandstand in Greater London – and one of the finest in England. The restoration project was led by the local community who worked hard to raise £1.1million from funding including huge effort from the Clapham Society and the Friends of Clapham Common.

Councillor Christopher Wellbelove visiting the bandstand to check graffiti had been removed

Graffiti means that stretched council resources will again be needed to be spent on clearing up this pointless mess rather than on other improvements on the common.

The thousands spent each year on clearing up graffiti would be much better spent on improvements to our local environment and in providing for facilities for young people.

Councillor Christopher Wellbelove inspecting graffiti on Clapham Common which has yet to be removed by the owners, costing this small local business money and time

A previous campaign led by your local Labour councillors resulted in three vandals who targeted the Trinity Hospice being caught after Police received an anonymous report. With you’re help these latest vandals could also be stopped.

If you have any information please contact the Clapham Common Safer Neighbourhood team by calling 020 8721 2623 mobile 07920 233 839 or contact them in confidence on-line.

You can also help by reporting graffiti to Lambeth’s graffiti line. Simply send details to graffiti@lambeth.gov.uk. If you have a camera at hand please capture images of the graffiti. The Police keep a nationwide database of graffiti which they use in prosecutions.

Following the closure of Riley’s Snooker Club on Wandsworth Road local councillors received several complaints regarding the activites of  the squatters who had occupied the building.

To ensure action I:

• Wrote to the Police highlighting the issue and asking for them to take urgent action.
• Wrote to Rileys demanding that they take action to secure the building.
• Contacted Lambeth council calling on them to take action against the owner of the building.

After extensive work by the council and local police the solicitors of the freeholder finally accepted their responsibility and they agreed to take the case to the High Court to proceed with eviction notice, the case was upheld and the squatters were succesfully evicted.

This is excellent news for local people and now our attention needs to turn to the long term future of the building and stopping it turning into a large night club or something similar that could disturb local people.

Councillor Wellbelove with Kate Hoey MP on Willard Estate

Sixty per cent of people living in council housing in Lambeth are on benefits. Of those in work, many are on low pay, others have no work at all. Estates that were left derelict under Tory rule are now seeing massive investment thanks to Labour. But still, too many of our tenants live in conditions that are unacceptable. Living in a home that is damp, unheated or fitted with an out of date kitchen is demoralizing. It says to the people living there that they don’t matter. That’s why this Council, unlike the one that preceded it, has taken positive action to bring in the money to put things right.

We owe it to our tenants to give them the chance of a better home.

I regret the fact that the Liberals have called this meeting tonight to argue over whether ‘don’t know’ means ‘yes’ or ‘no’. That is simply irrelevant when the issue before us is how we bring in the money that will change people’s lives by improving their homes.

Can we please remind ourselves that every home that is improved will make a life-changing difference to the families living there. And the faster we can do it, the better. People deserve better than being left in cold, damp, out-of-date flats. Yet that would be the outcome of what these Liberals want.

The ALMO means we can bid for the money that will change lives for the better. We can bid for the biggest single investment in public housing in Lambeth’s history. I am appalled that the Liberals have decided to position themselves against the will of tenants themselves, against the interests of the poorest, and against the only chance we have to bring all our homes up to decent standards.

We need to get on and bring in the investment that will improve people’s homes and improves people’s lives in Clapham Town and right across this Borough. I’m proud to give my support to the ALMO that will make that happen.

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Madam Mayor

I am very proud to be speaking for the first time in this chamber. I know some people must be surprised that I’m here at all given the bold predictions last year of a Conservative landslide in Clapham Town, but I am pleased to say that, having ousted the only Tory in the village, we have three Labour councillors in Clapham Town.

Since being elected I’ve enjoyed helping people get things sorted. We got a street lamp fixed on Heath Road Estate after it had been broken for a year. We got a water feature on the Westbury Estate flowing again after the Council had neglected it. And I’ve campaigned against the graffiti that makes our area look uncared for and encourages crime.

After I suggested in this chamber that the Mayor of London should bring the Rise festival to Lambeth I was amazed when he agreed – if I had known Ken was so receptive I would have asked for back stage passes too!

I am proud to serve as a member of the Labour administration that is driving through real change in Lambeth. I glad that Clapham’s estates now have their own area housing office.

I’m very proud that we are investing a record amount to tackle domestic violence, a crime that happens behind closed doors and destroys the lives of the women and children who are its victims.

As a child who grew up in an abusive home. I saw my own mother punched and beaten. I know how important this support is. I remember my mother calling the council, begging to be re-housed as the violence got worse. We lived in daily fear for our lives. She received a standard response ‘that he would have to throw us out’ before we’d get any help. Twenty years on, things should be better. Here in Lambeth, we have some the highest levels of domestic abuse in the country, but until now we have failed to take this issue seriously enough.

There are many hidden victims of domestic abuse. Thousands of children brought up in abusive relationships move on to continue a cycle of violence. If we can break the cycle we could make a difference for today’s children and tomorrow’s children as well.

Abuse is not just physical, often the words hurt more. I still remember vividly the words he taunted me with. He told me endlessly that no one would ever like me – I would never get on in life – and that I would never be better than him.

Well he was wrong! I have great friends. I have a fantastic career that I love. Over a thousand people chose me to represent them in Clapham Town. In the past, not enough families got help when they needed it. Right now, families in Lambeth are calling to us for help. I’m proud that tonight I am going to use my vote to make sure that today’s victims of domestic violence get the support they need, support that my family never got.

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