Labour-run Haringey Council stripped assets to pay off the Council’s massive debts and fund the controlling Labour Group’s pet projects at the expense of children at risk and the mentally ill, say Haringey’s Opposition Liberal Democrats and their social services spokesman, Ron Aitken.

Over a 15-year period, the Council closed and sold off children’s homes, social services offices and family support centres, but refuses to say whether the money went into better child protection or facilities for the mentally ill.

Haringey recently received zero stars for its children’s services and has been heavily criticised for withholding information from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry.

“At the height of the property boom Haringey sold off children’s homes and cut funding to organisations supporting children and the disabled, yet they failed to put the money raised from their asset-stripping back into improved services,” says Lib Dem spokesman Ron Aitken.

The Council last night at full council approved an emergency increase in funding for social services in an attempt to stave off further criticism from the Social Services Inspectorate. “This has come too late to save Victoria Climbie,” said Cllr Aitken, “and only partly compensates for the daylight robbery of the social services and voluntary sector by the Labour Group.”