Merton’s education spokesman, Cllr Peter Walker, was sacked on Thursday after being filmed ripping down a teenager’s fundraising poster from the railings around Dundonald Rec.

15 year old Ben Baulkwill, who lives on Graham Road, had put up posters on railings around the Rec before Easter, but these had been torn down. Ben had wanted to help local children with their bikes by organising a one-off sponsored bike repair and maintenance event, with the money raised going to Protect Dundonald Rec, the residents’ group campaigning against the expansion of Dundonald Primary onto the Rec.

After new posters were put up, an anonymous person filmed the councillor, who lives nearby, tearing down the posters during his morning jog.

The leader of the Labour-run Council, Cllr Stephen Alambritis said in a statement:

“I regard this conduct as wholly unacceptable. It is not the way the Labour administration does business.”

But Cllr Walker was unrepentant, publishing an open letter to the Council leader:

“I now find myself in the strange position for being sacked for doing what Council staff had been instructed to do. Namely to remove illegal flyposts put up by supporters of Save our Rec in my local recreation ground . . .

“It goes without saying that I will continue to support you and this Council’s policies loyally from Labour’s back benches, and will use all my efforts to ensure that the progress that schools in Merton made while I was Cabinet Member for Education continues.”

In a shocking comment to the Evening Standard he said he had no regrets:

“My colleagues have capitulated to the Nimbies.”

Merton’s Conservatives have called for Cllr Walker’s resignation as a councillor and reported him to the Standards Committee.

Dundonald Liberal Democrats have been critical of the way the Labour administration has attempted to expand the school and ignored public opinion on the issue.

Responding to Cllr Walker’s dismissal, Liberal Democrat Cllr Mary-Jane Jeanes felt that the priority now was ensuring a proper strategy was put in place to deal with the borough’s massive lack of primary and secondary places:

“We hope Cllr Martin [the new cabinet member for education] will now be able to get a handle on a proper plan for education in the borough. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – whilst the birth rate was going up – Merton was busy selling off schools and playing fields, land that could have been used now.

“It is clear that sites for new primary schools and a secondary school must be considered. It is therefore hugely disappointing – and another example of a lack of joined-up thinking by this Council – that the recent proposals on potential sites to develop across the borough in the next 10 years failed to identify a single location for future educational development.

“Hopefully this will change now.”

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