My task this evening is to reflect on the past year and set out the challenges we face in the years ahead. The period since the election has been one where we have all been learning how to work in a new way. I believe we have, on the whole, adapted to the changed circumstances effectively and I want to pay tribute to the Party Leaders and in particular to the chair who has had the task of managing our business so that it makes sense. I do not doubt that we can raise our game further and while our constitution has not always helped us we have found ways to get the business done. I believe we are at our best when we debate honestly how best to deliver those things which are within our powers for the people of Lewisham – and perhaps at our worst when we seek to mimic parliament and debate those matters about which we may have opinions but little ability to act!
But first I want to say something about the events that took place here and elsewhere last Sunday. The Commemoration of the ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807 has a special resonance for this borough and its people. John Hawkins departed from Deptford in 1592 on the first voyage of that trade while the former slave Oluadah Equiano first set foot on English soil at Deptford in 1762. His brilliance electrified audiences and his book was a best seller and hugely influential in building public support for the bill.
It is right that we use this anniversary to remember and to try to put right some of the damage caused by slavery but we should do so with a proper understanding of what really happened 200 years ago and what is happening today. We should not underestimate what Wilberforce achieved but it is essential that it be seen in context. The victims of slavery are not incidental characters in a European based struggle – their role in opposing and ultimately ending slavery must be given proper attention. It was, after all, the Jamaican Slave revolt of 1831 that prompted the legislation that finally freed slaves in the British colonies.
By the time Wilberforce and others began their campaign millions of Africans had been transported or killed and their families devastated. Other nations took part in the Slave Trade but we must never forget that it was Britain that dominated the trade. That should be a matter of the greatest regret and I am clear that British Institutions owe the victims of slavery and their descendents the most abject apology.
Despite the fact that we are commemorating the end of slavery it still exists today if in a different form. Let me give you but one example. Elsewhere in this very city tonight there are young women brought here under false pretences or by force who are being made to work as prostitutes, who are being bought and sold by today’s slave masters. It is shocking but it is true.
I hope we will use the opportunity given to us by this commemoration to teach today’s young people about the long struggle to abolish slavery and the significance of things that occurred on their own doorstep in that struggle. I hope we will use it to find a fitting way to create a permanent memorial in Lewisham. I hope we will use it to put right the damage that slavery is causing to this day and finally I hope we will use it to redouble our efforts to bring to an end latter day slavery in all its forms.
Let me turn to domestic matters and begin by making clear that I am making no changes to my cabinet. Heidi Alexander, who has made an extraordinary impact already, will continue as my deputy with the same portfolio.
My advisers have continued to support and to challenge me and I owe them my thanks.
The Mayor’s charity has continued to raise funds for the Lavender Trust in the main this year. I am delighted that my wife Kris and Susan Wise have been able to recruit a wider group of volunteers to work with them in particular Alyson McGarrigle and Denis Hunter who will be familiar to many of you are now heavily involved. Great thanks are, of course, due to Derek Johnson and his team who make such a vital contribution to the work of the charity and do so with such enthusiasm. Three of you have been brave enough to enter the London Marathon this year and raise funds for the Lavender Trust – I wish Cllrs Wise, Priddey and Morris well and hope you all finish safely!
Our work with our partners overseas has continued and I welcome the interest shown by a number of fellow councillors in looking at how we can develop this work further and in particular explore ways to exploit our Europeans links and experience. I hope that an all-party group will begin discussions shortly.
Our hearts went out to our friends in Ekhuruleni South Africa when we heard of the death of their beloved Adelaide Tambo in January – mother to the nation and inspiration to all who met her – to spend time in her company was the greatest of privileges. Those same colleagues hosted a group of Lewisham young people recently who were on a visit to South Africa. These youngsters had been looked after by Lewisham and they raised funds themselves for the trip supported by a group of Lewisham Officers. I hope we will all be able to learn more about this extraordinary initiative shortly – if I tell you that it caught the imagination of Sir Richard Branson to the extent that he arranged for Virgin to provide free flights for the young people you will realise just what an impression they have been making.
One of the tasks a mayor is charged with is the articulation of a clear vision for the borough. I have endeavoured to do that in a number of ways not only at election time but also in the document I published in 2004: “ A Place Called Home. At its simplest that vision was rooted in rebuilding our borough’s physical infrastructure, seeking to take decision-making closer to our communities and developing partnerships that deliver the services we need.
That vision was not something I developed in isolation – it grew out of the work of many others and was influenced by experiences, discussions and learning both within the borough and further afield.
In the last 5 years we have made great progress in a number of ways. The physical rebuilding of our borough’s infrastructure is now well advanced. The schools covered by the PFI are progressing rapidly while the massive Building Schools for the Future programme that is bringing £200m investment has the key delivery agency now in place. Our work on Decent Homes has leapt forward with the decision by Tenants in Bellingham and Downham to establish the Phoenix. Elsewhere the Brockley PFI has been signed off and the ALMO, so vital to improving the repair and maintenance performance, is up and running. And despite the best efforts of critics to say otherwise our investment in Arts and Leisure is delivering. The stunning Downham Pool, Library and Health Centre is not only open but doing cracking business, work is underway on the second pool at Wavelengths, the refurbishment of Forest Hill is proceeding and of course the planning of the new flagship centre in Loampit Vale is in hand. Lewisham Town Centre will soon be a reality not just a plan. But there is more to come with schemes like the NDC Centre in New Cross, Deptford Station and Giffin Street all demonstrating a commitment to address both physical and community regeneration. The sheer scale of investment now taking place means that we must strive to get the best possible value from it and the Regeneration Directorate is imaginatively pursuing that task and the opportunities we have with that task.
I have said many times that the historic failure of regeneration in the UK has been that while the bricks and mortar may have changed all too often there has not been a parallel enhancement of capacity within communities and the creation of the Community Services Directorate likewise was intended to enhance our capacity to make a lasting change for the better.
The Local Strategic Partnership brings together public services, community representatives and local business to work in partnership. The LSP has been successful and the partnership has matured to the point where we felt it timely to invite the Improvement and Development Agency to arrange a peer review. That review was positive and offered ideas and suggestions for areas where the partnership can be further strengthened.
The Audit Commission say of Lewisham that it “is performing well. Council services are improving in line with priorities and what local people think is important.”
Our Children and Young People’s Directorate continues to drive up performance in our schools – surely the greatest contribution we can make to their futures. It also has responsibility for the safety of our young people and I know that events of recent weeks have led to staff in both that directorate and Community services which has responsibility for safety matters along with colleagues from the Metropolitan Police to look very hard at how we can protect our young people. The fact that none of these tragic deaths have occurred in Lewisham should not blind us to the very real risks to young residents both as potential victims and by being sucked into a culture which can permanently damage young lives.
Our Customer Services Directorate is also a new creation but has quickly settled down. It now encompasses our key environmental services and, while we should celebrate coming second in the recent Cleanest Borough Award, I am equally pleased that the reaction has been that we will aim to do even better in the future.
I must make some reference however briefly to resources – both the Directorate and the challenge. The directorate are often the unsung heroes who labour behind the scenes without grabbing the headlines. But we will undoubtedly face a very rigorous financial situation for the next few years and we will need their help and assistance in identifying ways to make substantial further efficiency savings while endeavouring to protect vital services. Tonight is not the time to debate the budget but we should have no illusions about how large it will loom for us in the coming year.
It is highly dangerous ground for a politician to speak out on matters, which appear to be about morality, but I feel that the time has come for me to do so. The matter of which I speak affects Lewisham but is part of a much wider problem that afflicts our society.
I believe that there are some basic values that the overwhelming majority of our citizens share – these are often most clearly articulated by Faith Communities but they are not exclusive to them – individuals and groups of many faiths and of none raise similar concerns.
We want young people to grow up to respect others, to be tolerant of difference, to work hard and put back into our community. We want them to be able to enjoy their youth and the enthusiasm and exuberance that comes with it but do so in ways which do not harm them or others.
Yet we live in a society where a very different set of values are set out on a daily basis through advertising, magazines, video games, music and TV. Those values are about individualism, acquisitiveness, greed and violence. They portray as acceptable the very patterns of behaviour that parents want to warn their children against.
The pressures placed on today’s young people are greater than anything my generation ever faced – of course peer pressure and the desire to fit in are not new – but resisting that pressure is so much harder today and frankly we as adults need to raise our voices and say enough. We want an end to this propaganda aimed at our young people. It is not in my powers as mayor to halt it but perhaps if enough of us raise our voices we will be heard.
In his book “The Empty Raincoat” Charles Handy talks of the paradox that while we are succeeding we do not want to change yet if we do not prepare for change we sow the seeds of future failure. He urges us to “keep sceptical, curious and inventive – attitudes essential in a time of change, and the best way of coping with the contradictions which accompany such a time.”
There is no steady state we can seek to achieve, no sunlit upland which once reached will allow us to relax and just keep on doing what we do now. The truth is that even when an organisation is successful, even when it is still improving it must think about how it will need to change in the future. The same is true for places – in the modern world to stand still is to go backwards.
As I set out earlier I believe it is clear what our challenges and priorities are for the next 3 years but the time is right for us to examine what sort of place Lewisham should be beyond then – and how our world needs to change in response. I, as mayor, you as councillors along with our colleagues in the LSP and around the borough have a responsibility to shape a vision for that new decade and work to bring it about but in so doing we must strive to understand what our fellow citizens aspirations are and take them with us on that journey.
I will be proposing that over the next 12 months we do two distinct but related things. Firstly, that we discuss with our residents their hopes and fears, wants and needs for that decade 2010 to 2020 – a decade which will see our population grow, the Olympics come and go, climate change impact on us and much, much more. Secondly, we need to look at how the council as an organisation needs to change to meet those future needs.
If a successful organisation is to be sustained, its leaders need to recognise that even when it is on a rising curve somewhere ahead the peak lies and that the organisation will begin to slide down. The challenge is to strike out in a new direction before the old one tips over into decline. Often those who have had less involvement with the current approach can see more clearly what is needed for the future. Put another way, it is likely to be the young who most readily offer ideas up for the new curve. It will be they who experience it – deliver it – and enjoy it we hope.
And that is how I intend to approach this task here in Lewisham. I will ask a group of talented young staff to lead this exercise in seeking to understand what kind of place Lewisham can become and what kind of public services will be needed in the next decade. I will also look to make sure that young people’s voices are clearly heard in the public discussion that will shape Lewisham as a place. I will look to the Young Mayor and advisers to assist me in that endeavour and I should say here what a superb job Siobhan Bell has been doing – we have had three outstanding young people emerge to serve as our Young Mayors and they provide clear evidence that we can be optimistic about the future.
That is not to say that we more mature individuals do not have a role to play. Our knowledge of what works and what doesn’t when allied to the enthusiasm of the young can produce a new rising curve.
Before concluding I want to return briefly to the matter of politics – last year I stated my willingness to work across party divides in the best interest of the borough and I restate that commitment tonight. However strongly politics weighs on me I know that my duty as mayor is to do what is best for Lewisham.
Last year I announced two commissions on Neighbourhood working and the Environmental Crisis. I thank those councillors who have served on them and take up the invitation to leave aside the usual party rivalries – I also thank the many individuals from our community and further a field who have contributed to the work of the commissions. They will both be reporting soon and I hope we will be able to take their recommendations forward during the year.
I look forward to working with you all during the next year as we strive to make our borough a better place for all to live, to work, to learn and to play – we may disagree on exactly how to do it but I trust we can agree that as our shared objective.