Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks Labour Party

September Branch Meeting:
Thursday 12th September 20020\defl

SOUTHWARK GLA MEMBER VAL SHAWCROSS COMES TO ROTHERHITHE

Membership Survey Prize Draw to be held - you MUST attend to win

Valerie Shawcross CBE MLA Valerie Shawcross will be our guest at the Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks branch meeting this September on Thursday, Road, off Rotherhithe Street, 12th at 7.30 pm at our usual venue - Trinity Halls, Bryan Rotherhithe.Val, who was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in the New Year's Honours List and made a Commander of the British Empire, is due to launch her 'The State of our Stations' campaign on 18 September at the new City hall, and so this is our opportunity to get involved in desperately needed improvements to Bermondsey South railway station in neighbouring Livesey Ward.

We all know this is one of the main destinations for football fans to visit Millwall FC's New Den ground in Zampa Road, Deptford - which is technically in the Borough of Lewisham. Last season saw one of the most shameful incidents of rioting and affray in south London since the Brixton riots of 1981 - caused by rampaging Millwall fans after the game on 2 May. Police, some on horseback, were pelted with bricks, bottles and stones, cars were torched, and properties were wilfully damaged, leaving local residents terrified in their own homes.

This sort of disgraceful mayhem by mindless so-called football fans cannot be allowed to occur again in our locality.

One thing that can be done to avert further trouble is at Bermondsey South station. A covered walkway is needed for away fans to walk directly to the away fans enclosure inside Millwall's ground and Southwark Council has already vowed to stump up around £100,000. However our colleagues in Lewisham have not been so positive about matching the funding so there remains a shortfall. This could be our chance to work with Val to persuade Lewisham to come up with some cash. That would be a major point we could campaign on in Livesey Ward which is one of Labour's four main targets to regain Southwark Council.

Val is also currently in the thick of things with negotiations with the Fire Brigade Union over a pay claim.

If you have any other concerns, Val is coming to listen to you. She has visited our Branch often before and I am sure you would all like to welcome her again.

Got doubts about congestion charging? Wondering who should be Labour's candidate for Mayor in 2004? Maybe there was something in Ken Livingstone's recent London Plan that didn't meet with your approval? Come and talk to Val - she is our voice on the Greater London Assembly.

There will also be the Prize Draw with THREE lucky winners pulled out of the hat from all the completed Membership Questionnaires which we distributed this summer. If you haven't sent back your questionnaire now is your chance - the prizes include a bottle of champagne, £15 worth of vouchers to spend in Tesco, and 2 cinema tickets to the UCI multiplex to see a film of your choice.

Not bad for just filling in a one-sided sheet of paper, eh? If you don't attend the meeting you will NOT get your prize and there will be a re-draw, so REMEMBER - come along to your Branch meeting and help Labour in our long-term aims - to regain control of Southwark Council, win back the Parliamentary seat of Bermondsey. WE also want to see Labour MEPs returned to Brussels and we want to ensure Val continues to represent Southwark on the GLA. Plus, if that's not enough, we want a Labour Mayor of London. So with all that to achieve, where do we start?

That's right - we start next Thursday, 12 September at 7.30 pm precisely at Trinity Halls, Bryan Road, Rotherhithe.

Be there!

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