📰 Camden New Journal: People are living on ‘forgotten estates', says Conservative election contender

Tories' Julie Redmond finds mould and drug dealing on the Regent's Park Estate
 

TENANTS on “forgotten” estates told a Tory hopeful they were living with mould in their homes and drug dealing outside as she canvassed their opinion this week.

Julie Redmond is looking to break new ground in traditional Labour areas during her London Assembly campaign, telling the New Journal on Tuesday: “For me, having now been to probably every inch of Camden, from Frognal to Highgate to Hampstead, I’m looking at where I could really help and do the most good work, and I’ve identified around the Regent’s Park estates… and also Somers Town.”

She is standing in the Barnet and Camden twin-borough constituency currently held by Labour’s Anne Clarke.

Andrew Sophocleous, who lives in the council flats at the 40 Hampstead Road block, said drug users regularly left needles in the stairwell, adding that most of the flats in the block are affected by mould and damp.

“Nothing’s happened even though I reported the mould two years ago,” he said, adding that he was often “freezing cold” inside his home.

“It’s hard to keep warm when you can’t afford to pay [for heating],” he said, adding: “I won’t eat today.”

London Assembly candidate Julie Redmond with Andrew Sophocleous

Next door, Mohammed Mia said he often saw “hardcore addicts” smoking class-A drugs in the stairwell of his building, but complained that the council “never pick up the phone” when he tried to report it.

And in Ennerdale block in Varndell Street, Abdul Hamid told Ms Redmond that water from the toilet of his upstairs neighbour, a private tenant, had been leaking through the ceiling for several months.

“The council says negotiate with the private tenant,” Mr Hamid said.

Ms Redmond told the New Journal: “Camden Council, I feel, has been complacent. They obviously have the majority of councillors, they don’t need to prove anything, or do anything.”

She said of the estates she had visited: “I definitely think they have been forgotten. I think the drugs, crime, the rough sleeping has escalated in the last two years. Obviously the council is Labour. But I think, by me being in opposition, I could really start… bringing those issues to the fore.”

Ms Redmond acknowledges she faces an uphill battle, calculating she needs to increase the Conservative showing at the ballot box by 12,000 votes if she is to win a seat at City Hall. She is hoping to convince voters who are frustrated with a “lack of policing” and Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

Julie Redmond said it was too easy for the council to always blame the government

She said members of the London Assembly can effect change by “bringing up issues that are really affecting communities” in City Hall and “using funding from the Mayor’s budget”.

Since 2010, two-thirds of the money that once went to Camden Council has been slashed by the Conservative government, a cut amounting to more than £200 million.

But Ms Redmond said: “It’s very easy for people to blame other people. This is what annoys me: Camden Council, any issues… they blame the government. They have to take ownership for this themselves, or for some of it.”

She added: “I know it’s very hard as a Conservative member and candidate to say, ‘yes, we’re going to bring change’… It’s really hard for me, and some days I think, ‘I’m just going to give up’, but again, I don’t give up easily.”

She said that when asked “whether people will be voting for the party or voting for me”, her answer is: “I think it will be voting for me rather than the party – I hope the people see me for who I am. I do believe in the Conservative values. We’ve just had a really traumatic period in government, and we’ve had a few people that have put their own interests first before people’s interests.”

Housing chief Labour councillor Meric Apak said: “This Tory government took the deliberate decision to cut funding available to much-needed council housing, affecting local authorities right across the country.

“Michael Gove also recently handed £1.9bn in housing repairs funding that could and should have gone to councils. Despite this, in Camden we have worked hard to find the millions of pounds needed to remove damp and mould from people’s homes and carry out vital fire safety works. We have also created the £2m cost of living fund for families who need support – all while this out of touch government has stood by.

“In the Regent’s Park area in particular, for over a decade now the Tories have utterly mismanaged the HS2 project, caused significant blight across the area, and consistently ignored the voices of local people.”

Link to article on Camden New Journal