Labour's desperate bid to stop Conservatives winning exposed 15/09/03

Enfield and Haringey Council's could be merged into one single local
authority if the London Labour Party gets its way, claim Conservatives. Such
a merger would be hugely contentious locally as it would combine one of the
worst Labour authorities in the country (Haringey) with a flagship
Conservative authority (Enfield) where only last year voters turfed out
Labour after 8 disastrous years in office with one of the biggest swings in
May 2002 council elections.

The instigator of the plan announced on 10 September, London Assembly Member
Len Duvall, is also chairman of the London Labour Party. He and his Labour
colleagues who control the GLA with the support of the Liberal Democrats
intend to review the size and functions of London boroughs. They intend to
examine 'new models for London government' which is code for fewer bigger
Councils.

Mayor, Ken Livingstone, is already on record as saying that London has too
many Councils.

Commenting on the developments, Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate
for Enfield-Haringey, said:

"This is a nightmare scenario. Combining the 2 boroughs would be a marriage
made in hell. Enfield voters have had a taste of Labour control and soon had
enough. Being combined with Labour Haringey would drag Enfield
down...especially as the voting patterns in the new 'super-borough' would
mean Labour control.

Haringey would benefit hugely from such a merger. But they need to sort out
their own problems and should not be baled out by being merged with a much
higher performing borough.

When Conservatives raised the spectre of amalgamation in 2000, Labour
accused us of scaremongering. Now voters can see that we were right and that
this was part of Labour's secret agenda".

ENDS.

Notes to Editors:

Ken Livingstone said at Mayor’s Question Time on 23/5/2001:

“I made clear before the election my view that 32 boroughs is no longer the
right structure of government for London - even before we had this Mayor and
Assembly system.  I think we need a smaller number of boroughs.”

It was agreed at a meeting of the Business Managers and Appointments
Committee the Assembly on September 10th 2003 that a scrutiny will take
place looking into the composition of the London Boroughs. The Conservative
Group were the only group who voted against.