‘Shutting down scrutiny’ – Southwark will no longer allow estates to raise major works issues at scrutiny committee

Southwark’s main scrutiny committee will no longer accept representations from residents raising issues relating to major works projects on estates.

The decision comes after residents from the Canada Estate and Devon Mansions attended the scrutiny committee to expose mismanagement in relation to improvement works on their estates.

Members of the Southwark Liberal Democrats have heard from council officers that the chair of scrutiny no longer intends to hear evidence from individual estates in regards to major works issues.

The Liberal Democrat opposition members of the scrutiny committee were informed of the decision after requesting that the residents of Arica House be invited to speak regarding major works issues.

Residents of Canada Estate and Devon Mansions separately used the main scrutiny to highlight massive overspends, poor quality of work and works running far over schedule on their estates.

In response, the council has suspended staff, launched investigations and the director of housing offered “unreserved apologies” to affected residents.

The Southwark Liberal Democrat opposition group have said the decision to not hear any more evidence from individual estates relating to major works is an attempt to “shut down scrutiny” to “avoid further embarrassment”.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat councilor and vice-chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Irina von Wiese said:

“Once again we are seeing how inadequate scrutiny is in Southwark. Labour are able to manipulate agendas and block any issues that they don’t want to address. The recent revelations regarding major works at the committee were exactly what scrutiny should be doing, and Labour have decided to shut it down to avoid further embarrassment.

Residents deserve transparency and accountability, but Labour consistently close ranks and refuse to take responsibility for these scandals.”