2nd opinion: Tough justice

Last month, Dame Shirley Porter finally paid up £12.3m and the "homes for votes" saga came to a close.

The scandal, of course, revolved around Conservative-controlled Westminster council's policy in the late 1980s of selling 250 homes a year in marginal wards to avoid rehousing homeless families in those properties and to improve the Tories' prospects at the next council elections.

It's disappointing that Porter has escaped paying the full £42m surcharge originally imposed by the district auditor, and it's disappointing that many of the people affected have never received an apology, with the exception of the homeless families who were knowingly placed in asbestos-ridden tower blocks. Despite the condemnations by the auditor and the House of Lords, no apology has been given to the families put into B&Bs as a result of the policy.

Nonetheless, the outcome is a huge victory for the Westminster Objectors, the group who waged a campaign to expose the gerrymandering. However, it's a major disappointment that this group has had to raise £120,000 in legal fees, while all other parties have had their legal costs met.

At the heart of the Westminster Objectors was a group of local people and councillors who uncovered evidence of the abuses, secured media coverage – notably a Panorama television programme – presented evidence to the auditor and argued it through each stage of the legal process. All this work, they did for free.

Among them are Bayswater GP Dr Richard Stone; Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group on the council, who led the election campaign that caused Porter to panic and has battled to keep the pressure on within the council ever since; Neale Coleman, now a senior policy adviser to the London mayor, who did much of the work amassing evidence of corruption, preparing submissions for the objectors and leading negotiations with the auditor; Jonathan Rosenberg, who maintained and cross-referenced hundreds of thousands of documents, used to supply material to key journalists and influential allies; and treasurer Steve Hilditch, who led a massive fundraising effort.

The campaign would not have achieved what it has without the incredible tenacity of its members. For more than 15 years, a small group of activists living in Paddington have untiringly sustained the pressure to bring the culprits of the gerrymandering to account. As a result, all councillors and senior officials know that they cannot act in that way, and the probity of local government has been upheld.

The campaign's political effects have been significant. In the mid-1980s, Porter was the most high-profile Conservative in local government and one of Margaret Thatcher's favourites. At the time, the Labour party was being weakened by persistent attacks on "loony left" councils, especially in London. The scandal destroyed not only Porter's credibility, but also fatally weakened Tory efforts to present the party as a model of responsible local government.

No less importantly, the strength of the auditor's and House of Lords' condemnations gave a powerful signal that homeless people have rights and cannot be used by politicians as pawns in desperate bids to gain votes.

When faced with abuse and malpractice, with the odds stacked against stopping it, the temptation to say "nothing can be done" is very strong. The Westminster Objectors show us all that, in fact, something can be done.