Councillor Lambert - Guilty M'Lud!

Posted By: Wera Hobhouse
Date Posted: 10/11/2008

The collection of water charges for Council tenants continues to be a hot topic and I need to put the record straight:

Cabinet did not pass a new policy on the collection of water charges.

Cabinet did the opposite- it reaffirmed the existing policy. The exact headline of the decision Cabinet took on the 15th of September was: ‘Continue as before’. 
‘Continue as before’ refers to a policy that was introduced in 2005 when Labour Councillor David Murphy was the Cabinet Member for Housing, and Councillor Lambert, who is at the forefront of trying to rewrite history, was himself also a Cabinet Member.
Since 2005 the Council has collected water charges on behalf of United Utilities for which service the Council receives a significant financial sum from them.
All of that money has gone directly into making major environmental improvements on the Council’s housing estates, benefiting every Council tenant.
The Council has not evicted a single tenant for non-payment of water
charges alone, although in theory it has the right to do so.
This Council will work with any tenant, who out of hardship falls into
arrears. The policy isn’t there for tenants who can’t pay but tenants who won’t pay.
I am sure all honest rate-paying residents of our Borough would applaud the Council for being tough on people if they are simply playing the system.

Councillor Lambert knows all of this - so why on earth, if he was really so concerned about the fairness of this policy, did he not vote against its introduction when as a Cabinet member back in 2005 he had the opportunity? He is trying to drag the current administration down for a policy that he was himself involved in making.

The course Cllr Lambert has embarked upon is very dangerous - first leaking confidential documents to the press and second by spreading false information designed to upset our council tenants, especially those in vulnerable financial positions. This is pure political dishonesty at its worst!
The latest twist in this saga has now been revealed by Rochdale Online: In an attempt to prove his point about the perceived unfairness of water charge collection Councillor Lambert was found to have a convicted criminal front his campaign.