Housing Stock transfer
Now that the Castle Point tenants
have let their views be known by a massive 2 to 1 vote against the Housing stock transfer perhaps the Council will now put
to rest any further proposals to repeat the exercise. Virtually the same exercise
carried out 1994 and rejected then.
This was a very costly exercise
involving unprecedented expense to both the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account.
It involved
- Specially delivered, two full colour magazine type communications along with a slick DVD presentation.
- A further specially prepared and delivered full colour rebuttal to a Tenants Against Transfer leaflet (which itself
was produced on a duplicator and was partially delivered and partially posted).
- Every occupant being canvassed three times by an array of high profile personalities including the Council’s
Chief Executive, the Director and Deputy of Housing, Cabinet Members from the Council, Executive members of Swallow (or Swan)
Housing Association and other paid employees.
It is to be hoped that the Borough
Council will produce an itemised costing of this exercise before the May elections.
In addition to the massive salvo
funded by Council Tax payers and the Rent Paying tenants themselves, the Local Conservative MP lent his support to this wasteful
exercise. It’s a shame he always seems to not be able to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s………”
Setting aside merits or
otherwise of the proposed transfer, the Council mounted a slick operation of bombarding the tenants with materials and canvassing
pushing their side of the argument while at the same they virtually excluded the possibility of any views other their own
from being disseminated. This included only supplying to the Tenants Against Transfer, very late in the process, a typed copy
of the Council owned properties only (which excluded the associated post codes as well as the tenants’ names) when the
Council themselves had access to the electronic list with the complete data.
Even with that the Council still
made it virtually impossible for Tenants Against Transfer to gain access to the Council’s sheltered accommodation.
This exercise was carried out
in a similar manner to that of third world dictatorships, except for the conduct of the ballot which took place under the
auspices of the Electoral Commission.
Tony
Wright, a past Chair of the Council’s Housing Committee and the Labour and Co-operative Party candidate for St.
Mary’s Ward at the Borough Elections 1st May commented “A good day for the Tenants, a bad few months
for the Council Tax payers.”
