BEXLEYLABOUR BUILDING A BETTER , FOR THE MANY NOT THE FEW

Bexley Labour Manifesto

London Borough of Bexley Elections

Thursday 3 May 2018

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 1 Contents

3 An opportunity to grasp

4 The challenges we face

8 Taking action to tackle the housing crisis

10 Protecting our parks & open spaces for a greener Bexley

12 Making the services we all use better

14 Ensuring every child receives the best education

16 Creating a healthier borough

17 Protecting our most vulnerable children

18 Supporting our older and disabled residents

20 A safer and more secure borough

22 Opportunities for all in a growing Bexley

25 Supporting culture and diversity across Bexley

26 Supporting our voluntary sector

27 Assisting our residents to be financially sustainable

28 Building a modern council

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 2 An opportunity to grasp Elections are a choice, but on This year’s election is the Thursday 3 May, Bexley does opportunity to look to our not just have a choice to make future, build a borough where but an opportunity to grasp; our children and future the opportunity to change the generations can afford to stay, direction of our borough. and all of us can be proud of today not obsessed with On 3 May, we all have out-of-date and tired ideas the opportunity to invest that have not worked for years in Bexley and stop the and cannot work tomorrow. decay of recent years. Thursday 3 May is an We all have the opportunity opportunity to build a to create a council that better Bexley that works puts compassion at its and will continue to work core and makes aspiration for the many, not the few. its mission, calling time on the thoughtlessness A new Labour council and cruelty that have for a modern Bexley. marked the last decade.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 3 The challenges we face Bexley Labour has a plan to their retirement with grown- tackle the real challenges up children forced to stay this borough faces. at home long after they hoped to fly the nest. We are clear on the path we need to take in the next Bexley’s Conservatives four years. It is plain to see have allowed hundred of the problems we have to properties built without overcome, and they are our a single affordable home priority; using the council’s provided. Thousands of powers to address the housing properties to be built but none crisis, protecting parks and are genuinely affordable to open spaces, supporting the hard-working local families police and being tough on and couples. A new Labour crime, safeguarding education council will address the and children and young borough’s housing crisis. people, and keeping the borough tidy all year round. In , and local communities have seen We have identified the their parks and open spaces problems. We stand ready sold off for development to implement the solutions. with the threat recently felt in and Belvedere From Crayford to , and the prospect of even young people are left more being built on across abandoned by a housing the entire borough. market that denies them a foot on the ladder. As one Conservative councillor said, ‘Everyone’s house The Conservative council was a field, to begin with’. refuses to accept there is a A new Labour council will housing crisis let alone offer stop, cancel and reverse the the solutions to solve it. From Tories programme to build to Belvedere on parks and open spaces, parents cannot fully enjoy within days of the election.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 4 By using brownfield land and Every child deserves the former industrial spaces, best start in life. However, we can build the homes Bexley’s Conservative council and create the jobs we have worked hand in hand need without destroying with their Government Bexley’s much loved green to deliver real terms and open spaces. cuts to local schools.

There are two-hundred and This has led to headteachers twenty-five CCTV cameras in and governing bodies Bexley. No one watches them. making the most difficult of decisions regarding support The council has put for our children ranging from money into their purchase redundancies to support staff, and maintenance, but rationing classroom resources inexcusably axed the staff and writing begging letters monitoring them live. to parents asking them to instead provide these funds Whether in Bexley Village, for their child’s education. or CCTV cameras are When challenged Bexley’s not preventing crime and not Conservatives state these helping our local police but cuts aren’t happening, but instead stare into oblivion, local headteachers, staff catching the odd incident and parents tell a different in retrospect by chance. story. The problems have been exacerbated by the A new Labour council will Conservative’s desire to spend the cash needed to deliver their ideological reinstate live monitoring to mission to academise every support our overstretched school in the borough. police, be tough on crime and take a stand for law and order in the borough.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 5 This has left our council and knee high is all too frequent communities with less and a sight in our borough. less say over the management of our local schools. We pride ourselves on being While Chief Executives of a green and clean borough academies take home six- but after years of cuts that figure sums, they are at pride is turning to shame. the same time writing to parents begging for money Instead of spending for essential resources. consistently, year-on-year, the Conservative council made These cuts are felt hardest huge cuts and then threw by those children with some cash around when they special educational needs need your vote in an election and disabilities, with a need year. Their policy stores up for more joined up working problems, is short-sighted and with health services and cost more in the long run. more urgency to provide the services they need. A new Labour council will budget consistently and A new Labour council will work maintain highways and to make academy schools pavements year-in and year- more accountable to parents out. It is common sense and and the community, work saves taxpayer cash in the with parents and teachers to long-run. We will keep the fight the Government for an borough neat and tidy all the increase in school funding time, not just at election time. and fight to ensure adequate funding for every Bexley child.

Overgrown grass verges next to inch deep potholes and litter lying for months in streets where weeds grow

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 6 THE SOLUTIONS WE OFFER

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 7 Taking action to tackle the housing crisis There is a housing Bexley’s ambitious and crisis in Bexley. forward-looking growth strategy came about after It does not just affect younger years of Labour pressure people who cannot afford for joined-up thinking and to get on the housing ladder an aspirational vision for or find affordable rents; the the future. We believe that housing crisis affects that the growth agenda is the generation’s parents who best means to address the cannot enjoy the fruits of housing crisis in our borough. their hard work with grown- up children living at home.

The housing crisis breaks up families with local people forced out of the communities where they grew up. Our communities are being transformed by unscrupulous landlords and developers who rent and sell below par accommodation changing the character of our neighbourhoods.

Bexley Labour is clear: things have to change quickly and drastically but Bexley’s Tories, unable and unwilling to help, turn a deaf ear to calls to tackle the crisis.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 8 A Labour council in Bexley will:

• Introduce a Private Renters • Improve temporary Charter to protect renters in accommodation provision Bexley by ensuring they are fully by introducing new purpose- informed of their legal rights built sites in the borough for and take stronger enforcement accommodation for those who against rogue landlords to are waiting to be rehoused. protect tenants. • Work with the Mayor of • Support genuinely affordable London to develop new housing housing because what is termed schemes that make rent as ‘affordable’ too often is and home ownership more unaffordable for hardworking achievable for everyone. local people. • Ensure that the council- • Strengthen planning policies controlled housing development to address the housing crisis, company, Bexley Co. delivers ensuring a tougher approach is 50% affordable housing on all of taken on viability assessments its development sites. to deliver higher proportions of genuinely affordable in • Develop more densely and developments and to ensure efficiently in town centres and developers no longer fail to offer around transport hubs such what we need. as train stations to boost the numbers of homes available. • Use our nomination rights to prioritise local residents • Invest the council’s staff when allocating properties and pension fund into affordable through Bexley Co., the council’s housing, addressing housing housing development company, demand and securing a put Bexley residents at the top of return for the council’s the housing list. much-valued workforce.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 9 Protecting our parks & open spaces for a greener Bexley Bexley has a proud industrial London and Kent: we must heritage. For generations, get that balance right, or we it has been a place where risk becoming a place where people work and make things, developers can cut corners but just as important are the off our greenery and build green spaces and parks that sub-standard developments. characterise our borough. Bexley will be less attractive and less able to attract The Conservative plans the growth we need. to build on these open spaces are indefensible Bexley should transform, and risk ruining the nature but in a way that works for of Bexley forever. existing communities.

Places like , East We must build a future Wickham Open Space and but not on the wreckage Franks Park are community of our heritage. We must assets, not bankable assets. protect and secure our parks and open spaces for Bexley’s attractiveness lies a greener Bexley where in it being the gateway to we and future generations can live, learn and play.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 10 A Labour council in Bexley will:

• Support parks, green and open • Commit the London Borough spaces by stopping, cancelling of Bexley to reducing the impact and reversing the programme to of climate change, locally, build on the borough’s park and nationally and globally by open spaces immediately on the assessing and reducing the election of a Labour council. council’s CO2 emissions.

• Review cuts already made to • Incentivise carbon neutral the maintenance of green spaces development and business in in recent years to find new ways Bexley and microgeneration and of protecting them now and in renewable energy schemes. the future. • Introduce car clubs, • Back measures by the Mayor including through the planning of London to protect the green- process, to reduce car usage belt. by offering an alternative to private car ownership.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 11 Make the services we all use better The pavements we walk on, A Labour council and the roads we drive on we in Bexley will: use without much thought. We expect them, rightly, to be • Work within the statutory in a good and safe condition. framework to pass balanced budgets and keep council tax as We depend on the refuse low as possible. collection to keep our homes clean and tidy just as we • Focus on improving street depend on street sweepers cleaning, weed spraying and to keep Bexley clean and tidy. grass cutting in Bexley, including We only notice those services residential areas, not just town when they go wrong, and centres. recently residents in Bexley have started to notice them. • Budget in a consistent way, not hold-back cash and store- It is crucial that we look after up problems that mean our these services and make them highways and footways are left work better for residents. It is damaged and unattended for essential that those services years before being considered are delivered and give value for repair. for money at the same time. • Instruct operators that waste collection must be carried tidily and not add to litter on our streets.

• Practise zero-tolerance on fly-tipping and those who litter with the support of newly invested in CCTV and by bringing prosecutions against those who spoil our borough.

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• Investigate the potential of establishing a council run trading company to make better commercial use of our waste depots, collect bulky items from residents which will help fight fly-tipping and explore bringing waste collection back into council control so that it is managed in a way that works for residents, not shareholders.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 13 Ensuring every child receives the best education Every child deserves the A Labour council opportunity to make the in Bexley will: best start in life. Parents rightly expect schools to be • Challenge the government cuts provide adequate funds to to local school budget and fight educate their child and for to ensure adequate funding for their school to be accountable every child in Bexley. for the decisions made. • Better plan for the increase in For parents with children children with additional needs with disabilities, they find a and work with schools to ensure system that fights against children with special needs are them and that ensures they fully admitted to all schools must constantly battle for in Bexley to achieve their full the resources that the law potential. says their child is entitled to. • We would seek excellence The push to pursue a mass for all pupils in the borough academisation programme, and build a closer relationship has led to a fractured with all schools, stakeholders, relationship with all schools, governors and parents to which has resulted in the achieve a cohesive partnership council not being able to for excellence in all schools plan adequately for the across the borough. education of every child. • We would work to ensure We will not cower as the that attainment and results are current council does to the improved for children across Government’s demand that the borough and ensure that these cuts are essential and progress is made with those acceptable, and we will ensure schools performing well below the future of every child is average expectations in the our priority, not the risk of secondary sector. upsetting our ministerial friends in Whitehall.

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• We would seek to build more • Improve and increase the good quality schools across the provision for pupils with Special Borough to meet the growing Educational Needs. demand and aspirations of parents and pupils. • Ensure a school place for every child of statutory school age and • Challenge the government increase the number of school to adequately resource Special places. Educational Needs in Bexley, as budgets have been severely • Campaign to encourage constrained in recent years take up of free school meals which has led to reducing by increasing awareness. numbers of teaching assistants.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 15 Creating a healthier borough Having a healthy borough is A Labour council vital to the work of the council, in Bexley will: and easing the pressures placed upon it. Sadly, a range • Work with local health of austerity measures has providers to continue to develop placed more pressures on and improve services at Queen our most vulnerable residents Mary’s Hospital. leading to an increase in residents experiencing • Review our governance mental health issues. structures to ensure councillors are better able to influence local Our health services are seeing health decisions. these increased pressures, and while measures are • Ensure Bexley is a borough being taken to join-up local where improving mental health services, more needs to be and wellbeing is at the heart of done. Councillors of all parties everything we do. are not able to adequately scrutinise or take part in • Continue to ensure that health decisions affecting local health and social care are joined up to services, due to the current deliver the locally accountable governance arrangements and integrated services our within the council. residents expect.

The council and its partners • Develop an obesity strategy are working to address the with an absolute focus on reasons why Bexley residents preventing obesity and ensuring are above the national adequate investment and average for obesity statistics. promotion is given to leisure A Labour council will work to facilities and opportunities to ensure that the council uses assist in the delivery of this aim. its role to ensure obesity is prevented at an early stage.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 16 Protecting our most vulnerable children One of the council’s most A Labour council important roles is not only in Bexley will: to ensure our children get the best start in life, but to • We will continue to support support those children who our children’s centres and other find they need vital support. early years provision to help parents and their children, The council has a vital role and campaign against cuts to to support those children children’’s centres and early placed into care and years provision. supporting foster carers and the adoption process. • We will ensure adequate support is given to our staff and It also has a vital role to partners to support children support families of children in care, foster carers and the with disabilities to ensure adoption process. not only the child but the parents or carers get the • We will continue to monitor support they need. social workers caseloads ensuring that there is not an excessive workload and ensure challenge is embedded to continue to improve service delivery.

• We will exempt foster carers who live in the borough from council tax.

• We will work with voluntary partners and families to ensure there are adequate weekend and holiday services for children with disabilities and respite support and support within the home for their families.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 17 Supporting our older and disabled residents Caring for our older and A Labour council disabled and vulnerable in Bexley will: residents is one of the most important jobs we • Implement initiatives to reduce have as a society. loneliness for older people in the borough. Older people contribute a huge amount to the life • Increase support to the 20,000 of the borough and are carers in the borough and to often at the heart of our review the increasing cost of communities, creating and respite care in the borough sustaining many of our community organisations. • Make sure ageing well events are held across the borough However, some of our older to make all residents aware residents find they require of services available to older our support for various residents. health conditions, and that austerity is impacting on • Work with housing partners to the services they rely on. develop new housing schemes for older people for those who The same position occurs wish to downsize. for many families with adult family members with • Look at sustainable solutions disabilities, with a battle to to deliver better home care ensure that adequate service standards, looking at different levels are maintained. solutions to offer better quality of care.

• Commence the process of implementing an ethical care charter through more sustainable pay, conditions and training levels of our care staff.

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• Work with the Alzheimer’s society to become a dementia- friendly borough.

• Ensure adults with disabilities are supported particularly in the transition period into adulthood.

• Ensure those voluntary groups supporting older and disabled adults receive the support they deserve.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 19 A safer and more secure borough Bexley is one of the safest from Whitehall are making borough’s in London. That Bexley a less safe place has little to do with whether to live and work. the council is Labour or Conservative and everything to In the last eight years, the do with our local police service. Conservatives have cut £700 million from the Metropolitan To keep Bexley safe and Police budget and axed 2,495 secure we need to invest police officers and 3,261 Police in our police force and put Community Support Officers officers back on the beat. while Bexley’s Conservative council has stopped We need to give them the monitoring our CCTV network. resources to catch burglars and violent criminals and Working with the Labour the tools they need to Mayor of London, a Labour secure prosecutions to Council will make keeping prevent anti-social behaviour Bexley residents safe a priority. and violent crime. We cannot have security on the cheap, so we will invest Since 2010 that has not in measures that will support happened. Conservative our police, not cut their austerity policies directed resources and make their job that much more difficult.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 20 A Labour council in Bexley will:

• Help cut crime and increase prosecution rates by reinstating the live monitoring of CCTV in the borough by employing enough staff to watch the live feed 24/7.

• Take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour and use our powers to assist our local police in area- wide problems when they arise.

• Ensure our community safety work supports ward policing teams to implement the local priorities of police teams, residents and traders.

• Ensure adequate support is given to those impacted by domestic violence not just in the aftermath, but in the longer term.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 21 Opportunities for all in a growing Bexley Bexley’s industrial heritage exploit our borough. We do provides the stepping stones not seek to stop change or for a vibrant future. Our future even slow it down but to is our history. The industrial accelerate the transformation land of our past will be the of Bexley so we can achieve land we use to develop homes our potential more quickly. to tackle the housing crisis. A Labour council may not Although we will not return directly dig the foundations to heavy industry, new of the transformation but technology and innovation will set out the fundamentals provide the opportunities to of change and ensure it create new industries in the works for local communities, digital sector and renewable not trample on them. We energy to bring industry have a plan to change our back to Bexley and train and borough that works for employ local residents. the many, not the few.

In the 1860s William Morris In partnership with private led the arts and crafts enterprise, we will quite movement from Red House literally build a better in , taking the Bexley. A Labour council train to to get will champion infrastructure to our borough; we need to investment and lobby London grasp that heritage of creative and national government and dynamic enterprise and seek joint working with to grow our future. business to deliver it.

Being a riverside borough Our plan for growth and gives us an advantage that we regeneration works hand- must take. Our communities in-glove with our mission to are already changing, and a tackle the housing crisis. It Labour council will lead and is because we are proud of direct that change, not sit our past that we can be so back and watch developers confident of our future.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 22 A Labour council (CR2G), including new and less in Bexley will: disruptive options than laying new lines, to enable the required • Oversee the building of truly construction of new homes and affordable homes. We will take development of new businesses. a tough line with developers and strengthen our planning policies: • Develop ‘segregated transport securing more affordable homes, links’ including trolley buses affordable workspace, jobs and and express buses to improve apprenticeships for low paid and transport connectivity within key workers across the borough. the borough, especially between town centres and transport • Seek to sympathetically hubs and integrate them with increase the density of our town neighbouring boroughs to other centres and key transport hubs, rapid transits links including providing new affordable homes the Dart in north-west Kent and that Bexley residents need and a riverfront route to the North deserve. Greenwich Peninsula.

• Oversee the regeneration • Work with Transport for of inactive industrial land for London to develop a longer-term housing, creating new mixed strategy to extend the London communities along with social Overground into the borough and transport infrastructure. from Barking Riverside and through linkages to existing • Promote public transport routes in South London. infrastructure in Bexley including closing the deal to bring the • Lobby the Government, Docklands Light Railway to to bring national rail routes Belvedere within a decade. operating in the borough into the Transport for London • Pressure the Treasury and family, to ensure metro services Department of Transport and all week round and to bring work with London government about improved levels of to deliver Crossrail to Gravesend staffing on transport services.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 23 • Review our parking charges and policies to ensure they achieve the balance between protecting residential parking and supporting our town centres.

• Lobby the Mayor of London to develop new road river crossings integrated with options to extend public transport at the same time.

• Invest in our boroughs Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, by helping them to become more resilient, win new contracts and employee more staff.

• Work towards becoming an accredited Living Wage employer and commence the process to require organisations that receive council grants and have contracts with the council, to pay the London Living Wage.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 24 Supporting culture and diversity across Bexley Bexley is rightly proud of A Labour council its cultural history with in Bexley will: unique attractions including the Engines, • Continue to support our , Red House, cultural provision and work to Danson House, ensure it is better promoted to and Five Arch Bridge. increase tourism in the borough.

The borough also hosts a • Ensure that support is given number of cultural venues to cultural groups and work and groups including Erith with them to promote cultural Playhouse, Rose Bruford opportunities. College and Bird College which we believe should continue • Ensure that the borough’s to be fully supported. diversity and groups representing all parts of the We also have a wide range borough are reflected in our of community groups run events and cultural activities. by volunteers supporting cultural activity across • Ensure that the council actively the borough. However, supports activities which support the Conservative council Black History Month, LGBT continues to support cultural History Month and International activities and events without Women’s Day. recognising many of the groups that exist or residents • Work with the voluntary sector that support these groups. to develop innovative models to support these cultural events More needs to be done to put and a range of community- our cultural offer on the map based groups including religious and to support a much wider groups. range of events and cultural activities across the borough.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 25 Supporting our voluntary sector Residents across Bexley do A Labour council a fantastic job giving their in Bexley will: time to support voluntary groups in supporting a range • Work with Bexley Voluntary of community activities. Service Council to ensure that hard to reach community Bexley’s Conservative council groups are better supported. has however placed more and more pressure on voluntary • Work with our main strategic groups, cutting their grants, voluntary partners to ensure expecting them to provide they can maintain their existing the same levels of service service provision and develop through contracts with ways of introducing new services the council for less money where possible. and calling for far more to be done by volunteers. • Acknowledge that the council continues to have a role to play Voluntary sector groups in both commissioning and feel they have suffered developing such services, and enough pain and that many that volunteers alone cannot of the concerns they raise deliver vital services. aren’t being adequately acknowledged. Our plan • Work with council staff and will be to work with Bexley’s local businesses to more actively Voluntary Sector to build on support the voluntary sector. their existing good work to ensure that all parts of the • Ensure our voluntary sector voluntary sector are able groups are more involved in to flourish and continue to the democratic process. provide the support to our residents that they deserve.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 26 Assisting our residents to be financially sustainable Many families have faced the A Labour council impact of huge Tory cuts to in Bexley will: benefits, the bedroom tax, the threat of the tenant tax • Explore whether council tax and the arrival of a flawed exemptions can be introduced Universal Credit system. Sadly, for care leavers and other while Labour Councils have residents in need of support. invested to protect residents • Work to ensure the roll out of from the impact of those cruel universal credit does not lead to policies, Bexley’s Conservative increased housing pressures with Council have stood by and increased rent arrears. allowed our residents to suffer the consequents of these cuts. • Work to ensure support is given to voluntary sector groups We know that these changes supporting those impacted by have impacted the most the roll out of universal credit. on the disabled and single parents. We would plan to • Review how bailiff orders are redress this balance to ensure used and whether they should that the council works to be banned for cases involving support those suffering the vulnerable residents. most from these changes, to remove them from the • Provide a debt and benefits risk of a debt cycle and to advice service involving council put spending power back officers, housing associations, into the local economy. credit unions, the Citizens Advice Service, businesses and local voluntary sector agencies.

• Work to ensure the groups involved in debt and benefits advice service have the resources they need to adequately support our most vulnerable residents.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 27 Building a modern council While Bexley council may be A Labour council located in a new headquarters, in Bexley will: many of its working practices are stuck in the previous • Ensure that action is taken century. Conservative to reduce the gender pay gap councillors continue to insist and to ensure appointment on committee agendas into all posts including senior and correspondence being posts make us a more diverse delivered to their homes. organisation. At the same time, the same councillors support a • Review our governance governance structure which arrangements to ensure that is not fit for purpose. both our committee structures and scrutiny processes are fit While improvements have to serve our residents and their been made, our staff and expectations of decision making. councillors do not adequately reflect the diversity of the • Review the role that councillors communities we serve. Our play in the democratic plan will bring our council into process and the support the 21st century in terms that is provided to enable of our governance, ways of them to be true champions working and to ensure the of work within their wards. staff that serve us reflect the communities they serve.

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 28 Building a better Bexley together

BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 29 BEXLEYLABOUR

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BUILDING A BETTER BEXLEY 30