Camden has been left short-changed by Tory Mayor Boris Johnson through City Hall’s unequal allocation of Olympic funds to support Boroughs with the cost of the games.

Camden requires £2m to deliver a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games, with both placing significant demands on the Borough.  Despite this, the City Hall has allocated just £260,000  to Camden.

Camden Labour has criticised the lack of transparency from both the Greater London Authority and Government Olympic Executive who allocated the funds to local authorities. Tory Kensington and Chelsea received 100% of their bid for funding, while Westminster and Merton received more than they bid for.  Labour-led Camden received less than 10% of the grant it applied for.

Labour Councillor Tulip Siddiq, Cabinet Member for Culture said, ’This is evidently a very poor deal for Camden.  We have not received a fraction of our original bid.  We’re going to struggle enormously with our limited resources. There appears to be no transparency behind the decision making process when awarding these grants.  Until the rationale is explained in clear terms, the people of Camden have every right to feel short changed.

During the Games, Camden will provide the Olympic site with a key direct transport link to central London.  It is expected that 10,000 people an hour will get on and off high speed Javelin trains at St Pancras station and we need to make sure that any security concerns are met. This will place significant pressures on the Borough and its services such as street cleaning and waste collection. This means that the total grant of £260,000 from Boris and the GLA is woefully inadequate.

Labour Councillor Tulip Siddiq added, ’The Government has already asked us to take nearly £100million from our budget.  How can we now be expected to find more than £1million to cover Camden’s costs during the Olympics?  This is money that we need in order to provide essential services to our residents’.

Camden Labour is joining forces with families across the Borough in a campaign to Save Our Sure Start children’s centres from Tory plans to cut their funding and prevent access to these valuable services for families on middle and modest incomes. You can support the campaign at www.saveoursurestart.com.

Instead of the universal service Labour has created for all families, the Tories have said they would cut £200 million each year from the Sure Start budget – which could see one in five children’s centres being forced to close.

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Holborn & St Pancras MP Frank Dobson has sent the following letter to residents affected by Camden Lib Dem’s proposed cuts to the Maiden Lane Community Centre.  You can read about the cuts here.

“For years now the youth club at Maiden Lane Community Centre has been doing a really good job.  Everybody benefits – the young people benefit and everybody else benefits.  The youth workers have come to command the attention and trust of young people and as a result the young people behave better.  They even do better at school.  That, in turn benefits everybody else because the young people cause less trouble and nuisance to people who live on or around Maiden Lane.

Sadly the future of the club is threatened because the Lib Dems running Camden Council are withdrawing the grant that keeps it going.  The young people and their parents are devastated.  The police have described this decision as an “absolute disaster”.  And they are right.  This savage cut is nothing to do with the credit crunch.  The Lib Dem local councillors decided on this cut.  Nobody else has been involved in this decision.  The councillors didn’t do it because the Council is short of money.  In fact, Camden Council has reserves of £100 million.  As a result of the public outcry the Council have promised a small ‘one off’ grant.  But don’t be fooled.  It isn’t enough to keep the youth club going.

At the protest meeting I attended at the Community Centre on Wednesday 16 September I was impressed by the young people themselves, the youth workers, the police and the United Maidens mothers group.  At the meeting I pledged my continued support for families, for children and for young people on Maiden Lane.  I was heavily involved in the successful effort to get the children’s play equipment renewed a few years ago and in the effort to get the football pitches brought up to date.  The recent decision by Kentish Town tenants to pay to fence the pitch and provide floodlighting should be another step forward.  So to close the youth club on Maiden Lane would be a real stab in the back for the efforts of local people.

I will do whatever I can to support bids for extra money from charities but in the end what is needed is for the Lib Dem Camden Councillors to change their minds and pay up.”

Camden Labour Party has given their backing to a campaign that calls for a earned amnesty for some long term undocumented migrants in the UK.  The proposal, originally suggested by the Citizens Organising Foundation – a community organising charity based in London – has received support from across the major political parties, with politicians, academics, religious leaders and the public all giving their support.

Somers Town Labour Councillor, Roger Robinson, who proposed the motion backing the campaign which is on the agenda for full Council vote on Monday the 19^th of January said:

“With the economy entering into tougher times, its all the more important that we challenge the BNP and other racist groups who are trying to raise tensions within our communities in Camden.  This doesn’t mean we should avoid the difficult debates, it makes it all the more important that we pull together to discuss without raising fears or spreading lies what is right for Camden, the economy and hard working families.”

The Strangers into Citizens proposal calls on the Government to introduced a earned amnesty for undocumented migrants who have been living in the UK for four or more years, that are willing to work and pay taxes for a two year probation period, have a good standard of written and spoken English, can provide references before they are approved into the scheme from employers and community organisations like a church or charity and have not been in trouble with the police.  Despite much hostile media coverage on immigration nearly 60% back the Camden Labour group’s stance.

Bloomsbury Labour Councillor, Penny Abraham, who is seconding the Strangers into Citizens motion said:

“We would encourage all Camden councillors to back the campaign and back the motion when it comes to the Camden Council on Monday.  The Liberal Democrats as a national party backed the idea back in 2007, while the Conservative mayor of London is one of the campaigns most vocal supporters, the Greens in the London Assembly introduced their own motion last year that was passed overwhelmingly.  Lets work together to show that politics in Camden is working in all our best interest.”

Many undocumented migrants are former asylum seekers from countries such as Zimbabwe and Darfur in Sudan who cannot return to their own countries but are not allowed to work and receive little or no support.  Many have lived in the UK for many years and are keen to play a full as part as possible in their local communities, but feel frustrated that they are not allowed to support themselves and pay taxes to contribute to public services.

A Home Office agency has estimated that as much as £3.3 billion is being lost out in unpaid taxes and National Insurance because undocumented migrants are not allowed to work legally – enough to build 132 schools or 13 hospitals.  Many undocumented migrants are also treated appallingly, too afraid to approach the police or the authorities if they are assaulted or burgled and exploited by unscrupulous employers that force them to work long hours doing demining, dangerous and back-breaking jobs that don’t even pay the minimum wage.