Judge slams "hopeless" Hackney Council

From the Hackney Gazette :

A woman is celebrating after the threat of eviction from her De Beauvoir home was lifted following a bungled court bid by Hackney Council which a judge described as "hopeless."

Eco-campaigner Michelle Goldberg, 55, who lives in Lawrence Court on the De Beauvoir Estate, breathed easier this week after the council decided not to lodge an appeal over the judgement made against it at Shoreditch County Court a fortnight ago.

The council had alleged she had breached an injunction they took out against her two years ago not to harass "anyone going about their lawful activity in the London borough of Hackney."

But it blundered by failing to specify how the injunction had been breached as well as re-applying for a possession order when they should have applied for a warrant to evict.

The injunction, prohibiting "abusive or threatening behaviour," was also found to be "defective" because of discrepancies between the original draft and an amended version.

The judge threw out the application describing it as hopeless and "incontestably bad" and ordered the council to pay all Ms Goldberg's legal costs.

"The council needs to get it own house in order before it victimises others," said an angry Ms Goldberg this week.

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Hackneyed thinking

From The Times:

Exhibitors seem a little thin on the ground this year, but councils are out in force spending thousands on stands to lobby for more money. Take Hackney: posh stand, plasma screen, glossy booklet. Two members of staff. Councillors on hand if someone wants a photo. Why? “The 2012 Games give us a golden opportunity to make Hackney a better place. We will work with partners and organisations to get the best out of the Games for the people who live in the borough . . . ” But would Hackney council tax payers agree?

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Pounds, pints and a personal vendetta

Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph:

Last week I reported how, two days after the media had been claiming victory for the Metric Martyrs and that Brussels had reprieved pounds and ounces for ever, council officials and police officers again swooped on the Hackney fruit and veg stall run by Colin Hunt, one of the original "martyrs", to seize his "illegal" non-metric scales. Because this did not suit the media's new "narrative", only the local paper bothered to pick up the story.

Visitors to Ridley Road market might be surprised to see how many other stalls, mostly run by members of "ethnic communities", are selling in pounds and ounces without Hackney council taking any action.

The body that supposedly oversees enforcement, Lacors (Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services), has issued a "Con-cordat", stating that the law must be imposed impartially.

But instead of insisting on a policy of non-discrimination in Hackney, Lacors has circulated a leaflet personally attacking Neil Herron, director of the Metric Martyrs Defence Fund and Mr Hunt's champion, for claiming that he had "saved the crown on the British pint".

Since Mr Herron has never made any such absurd claim, one must ask whether it is the role of public officials to pursue what appears to be such a scurrilous personal vendetta.

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Non-job of the week

From Burning Our Money.

This week’s non-job is rather sobering. Given the anarchy sweeping the UK, with gangs attacking children and other innocents, the political classes recognise the crisis on our streets. Calls for more police are one thing. People recognise that police on the beat cut crime. A police presence makes our most vulnerable feel safe and secure; free to walk the streets they have every right to be on. Yet no one is calling for more “community safety coordinators”, bureaucrats with fancy titles whose good intentions feed inaction and ineffectiveness against the scourge of crime on our streets. Every penny siphoned off to town hall apparatchiks fighting crime with bits of paper behind a desk is one less penny put to frontline policing. That’s fewer funds to train and employ new police who can fight crime.

Our non-job of the week therefore comes from Hackney council:

“Community Safety Co-ordinator

£32,961 - £35,593 p.a. inc.

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