Hackney poll-fix councillors jailed

Sandra Laville in the Daily Telegraph.

TWO councillors were jailed yesterday for their part in the country's largest vote-rigging conspiracy, which "betrayed democracy" in one of the most deprived areas of Britain.

Isaac Liebowitz, a Conservative, and Zev Lieberman, a Liberal Democrat, raised enough bogus votes to change the course of the 1998 municipal elections in Hackney, east London, by robbing Labour of a stronghold ward. The men created non-existent voters, registered electors at addresses that did not exist and tricked elderly women into signing away their vote.

Special Branch officers, who spent 18 months investigating the matter, described it as "the largest attempt to subvert the democratic process" that they had come across. Judge Jeremy Connor sentenced Liebowitz, 35, to six months in jail and Lieberman, 29, to four months at Wood Green Crown Court, north London, yesterday.

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Hapless Hackney faces £40m meltdown

Peter Hetherington in the Guardian:

Rubbish piles up, hundreds face rent arrears misery as officials from other areas try to help sort out years of infighting and incompetence

Rubbish piled high in black bags and boxes outside houses and shops awaits the elusive council dust cart. The grubby streets, swirling with the remains of bursting refuse sacks and last week's takeaways, are rarely swept. "It's easier to spot the rats than find the binman," jokes an elderly woman, laden with shopping bags, as she stumbles between the high rises.

Around the tower blocks, in an area dominated by council housing, the walkways are crumbling and the window frames rotting. "In 20 years we haven't had a lick of paint," yells Rose Richardson, a 78-year-old who chairs a community association on the Trelawney estate. "They make promises, but they always put it back. They treat us terribly badly."

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