Nneka Akwaeze attacks me in last week’s letters column (‘Delivered nothing’, Your Views, March 26). As the saying goes, ‘well she would wouldn’t she?’ Sailing under false colours, she neglects to say she is the failed Conservative council candidate for Colindale.

She criticises me for organising a meeting for Grahame Park residents worried about the regeneration – she clearly does not think the more than 100 residents who came should know what their rights are, from the top housing lawyer and property surveyor I brought in. Especially after the heartless way the council are treating people in West Hendon, forewarned is forearmed when dealing with tricky Conservative Barnet.

As for Labour’s record, we gave almost £200million to Barnet to modernise council homes that were in a terrible state of repair, and many would have become unfit for habitation if we had not.

One of the many problems with Conservative Barnet’s dash to overdevelop Colindale is that only a fifth of homes are affordable, even under their skewed definition (half what is required by the London plan). Homes are sold ‘off plan’ to foreign buyers to the disadvantage of local people who cannot compete with overseas speculators, and the council has grossly neglected the need for the services and infrastructure to provide for the new developments: no upgrade of Colindale Tube Station, no new GP surgeries, no new dental surgeries, no new bus services, no new Thameslink station, developers are not building enough parking, road upgrades are completely insufficient, loss of recreational land, running tracks and parks, and the utilities are not receiving an appropriate upgrade, to name but a few. And in the whole of the borough just 42 (0.02 per cent) of new homes will be council homes to rent, as the Conservatives do not want less well-off people living in their borough .

No wonder the voters of Colindale comprehensively rejected Ms Akwaeze at last year’s council elections.

Andrew Dismore

Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Hendon