Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Ken Livingstone (Labour), on Thursday, 19 May 1994, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 46 members in total.

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WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL (No. 3)

That this House calls on Westminster Conservative councillors to explain why schemes in an environmental project called Quality of Life were, according to internal Tory documents, to be targeted as far as possible into eight marginal wards in Westminster; notes that this targeting was part of the so-called Building Stable Communities strategy whose aim was to gerrymander the 1990 local elections; further notes that the councillor in charge of the Quality of Life project was Miles Young, currently the Leader of Westminster Council; calls on him to explain why in 1987 he put forward proposals that were subsequently implemented for the unlawful targeting of environmental and enforcement spending in the marginal wards, his role in the eviction of homeless young people from the Ambrosden Hostel in his marginal ward of Victoria and its subsequent sale to developers at ??2 million below its market value as part of the gerrymandering strategy and his role in co-ordinating unlawful party political publicity expenditure by the council through the so-called BSC Communications Strategy; and also calls on Robert Davis, the current Chair of the Planning Committee in Westminster, to explain why he wrote a paper in 1987 advocating that planning enforcement resources should, in line with BSC strategy, be concentrated in target marginal wards to ensure that the right type of homes are provided bringing with it the right sort of voters.

Amendments

The Early day motion has received an amendment.

WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL (No. 3) (1256A1)

The Early day motion has received an amendment sponsored by Teresa Gorman (primary, Conservative) and tabled on Thursday, 19 May 1994. It has been signed by 1 members in total.

leave out from 'calls' to end and add 'congratulates Westminster Conservative councillors on their outstanding achievement in being re-elected without the loss of a single Conservative seat in the recent local government elections; notes that the Westminster Labour Party ran its election campaign as a referendum on the so-called gerrymandering allegations and were roundly rejected by the residents of Westminster; deplores the attempts by the Labour Party to smear Westminster councillors by selectively leaking extracts taken out of context from non-council documents written seven years ago; and suggests that if the Labour Party wishes to attain electoral success in Central London it should follow the lead of Conservative run authorities like Westminster, Wandsowrth and Brent by offering excellent services at a low cost.'.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

1256 

1256A1 

Session

1993-94

Subjects

Councillors Hostels Planning Westminster City Council Davis, Robert Young, Miles

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk