A Camden man is facing prosecution for putting up posters that urged tenants to vote against the council鈥檚 arm鈥檚-length management proposals.

Alan Walter, a council tenant on the Peckwater estate, stuck the posters up in a bus shelter three months ahead of the ALMO vote in January 2004, which the tenants voted overwhelmingly against.

If found guilty of flyposting when he appears in court later this month, he will have to pay legal fees of 拢460 and a 拢1000 fee.

In a letter to the Camden Journal newspaper, he said he had put up posters 鈥渕any times over the past 20 years鈥� but had never before had a complaint from the council.

He said: 鈥淚t is one thing to go after companies using commercial flyposting gangs to make money.

It鈥檚 totally different when local people tape up posters as one of the few means we have to participate in the democratic process.

鈥淭his is an outrageous attack on democracy. The campaign against the ALMO had a tiny fraction of the council鈥檚 resources, while 拢500,000 was spent promoting it.鈥�

A council spokeswoman said its policy was to prosecute all cases of flyposting that breached the 1990 Town & Country Planning Act 鈥渨hether carried out by a private individual or a large corporation鈥�.

She said 140 cases had been prosecuted last year and 60 cases had started this year.

But the council was not able to say why Walter鈥檚 case has taken eight months to come to court.

Source

Housing Today