A fiery audience member attacked the council’s £50 million sale of the Heygate Estate nine years ago branding it “cheap”.
He was addressing councillors at a Walworth hustings held at St Peter’s Church last night (Wednesday 20 April).
Sitting on the panel were Labour Cllr Alice Macdonald, Lib Dem Cllr David Noakes and Green party hopeful Peter Baffoe.
Walworth Society, who organised the hustings, told the News the Conservative Party was asked to send a candidate by they did not respond.
The issue of regeneration and council homes was high on the agenda at the Walworth hustings, as this part of the borough has seen it’s fair share of redevelopment. The Heygate, which was demolished in 2013 came up as residents discussed the current demolition and regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate.
Tempers frayed when an audience member called Jim asked: “If elected will you oppose any council land being given away to developers cheaply and develop the land yourself?”
Cllr Alice Macdonald said she disagreed with “the premise of the question”.
She argued the council only sells when they “can’t afford to develop it themselves” adding: “We try to acquire land where it’s affordable.”
Audience member Jim described the statement as “nonsense”. Referring to the demolition of the Heygate Estate he said: “You had 1,000 houses and now there’s only 75. You call that a good deal? I call it cheap!”
Peter Baffoe said: “We lost the Heygate and Aylesbury and we should learn lessons from those developments.”
Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Neil Coyle kicked off proceedings by evoking Ukraine’s struggle saying that, by attending the hustings, people were “celebrating their right to vote”.
This set the tone for a hustings that, for the most part, remained calm.
Cllr David Noakes did urge voters not to let Southwark become a “one party state”, advocating for transforming the council into a committee structure to counter Labour’s dominance.
He also railed against Labour’s “mistake” of cutting youth services investment by 80%, speaking of the need to “protect frontline youth services.”
Southwark Soapbox: residents shocked at ‘astonishing’ lack of youth services in Newington ward
Alice Macdonald hit back, saying that the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition had cut local council funding by two thirds.
Asked about infilling, Peter Baffoe said the Greens were against infilling on estates where people were people were already in social housing.
David Noakes said the Liberal Democrats had changed their policy on infilling in response to resident complaints.
He said people on council estates “shouldn’t have to sacrifice their greens spaces” and the council needed to be better at tackling empty homes.
Alice Macdonald said the council had protected the Aylesbury Road allotments and Laurel Square Gardens from infilling.
However, she said “there are no easy answers” and highlighted the need to place the 16,000 people currently on the waiting list.
Alice Macdonald will be standing as Councillor for Newington this year, David Noakes for Faraday, and Peter Baffoe for North Walworth.
Comment: Get on our Soap Box and please do go out and vote on May 5th so the council represents you!