Westminster Labour Councillors have called on Council Leader Colin Barrow and Housing Cabinet member Philippa Roe to mount a campaign to reduce the proposed 6.6% rent increase for Council tenants, announced by the Government last week. Labour say that the proposed Council house rent increase is higher than the proposed 6.2% increase proposed last year which Conservative Councillors campaigned agai...

Westminster Labour Councillors will be submitting evidence to a House of Commons Inquiry into local authority investments in the wake of Westminster City Council’s £17 million loss in the Icelandic banking crash. The House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee will examine: * The present arrangements for local authorities' treasury management – and in ...

Westminster's Labour Councillors have slammed Conservative plans to switch off dozens of traffic lights in an experiment to improve traffic flow in the West End. The experiment will start with a set of lights about 100 yards from Westminster Abbey, at the junction of Victoria Street and Strutton Ground. For the first two weeks the lights will work normally while for the following fortnight th...

Westminster's Labour Councillors have found further evidence that the City Council's 1,000% increase in court licence fees for the three independent Paddington Recreation Ground tennis coaches is way above the fees charged by neighbouring Councils. Labour say that Hammersmith and Fulham Council charges £200 a year for tennis coaches using the Bishops Park tennis courts and Wandswor...

Three Tennis Coaches at Paddington Recreation Ground have been asked to pay 1,000% increase in tennis fees - from £98 a month to £1,000 a month - which has forced them off the tennis courts and is set to ruin their long-standing businesses, as well as disappoint the hundreds of local residents who can no longer learn tennis with their tennis coach of choice. Labour Councillors say that...

The Lib Dem controlled Northampton Borough councillors this week voted to pass themselves a 7.7% pay increase for all councillors. The leader of the council voted himself a 43% pay increase. Yes, you read that right, a forty-three-per-cent pay increase....

On Monday, Labour MP Nic Dakin said in the House of Commons: "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what evidence he used to determine that planned changes to housing benefit for those out of work for over 12 months will increase employment levels." Guess what he got in response...

545% increase in costs for holiday play schemes as Westminster Council hits parents and children with the biggest ever increase in charges. Westminster City Council is planning a 545% increase in charges for holiday play schemes and a 360% increase in the cost of after school play provision, according to a consultation report sent to head teachers in Westminster. This is biggest ever increase in c...

Westminster's Conservative stealth taxes would cost residents over £400 a year. Westminster Conservatives' decision to increase the price of meals-on-wheels by almost 10 per cent (from £2.30p to £2.55p) will cost elderly people an extra £91 a year, according to Labour Councillors who say that this latest stealth tax is a direct result of the Conservatives' &p...

New evidence from a Parliamentary inquiry has shown just how reckless Westminster Council's investment policy was in the months before Icelandic banks collapsed and froze £17m of Westminster Council taxpayers' money. Independent consultant on local government Howard Knight has been conducting a survey of councillors responsible for finance in a representative sample of councils. He...