Councillor Newsletter - June 2022
Cllrs James McAsh, Portia Mwangangye and Charlie Smith
This is one of our regular newsletters. They are posted online and emailed out to Labour Party members and anyone who signs up here.
Election success
On the 5th of May, voters across Southwark went to the polls to elect their local representatives, for the first time since 2018. Whoever you voted for, thank you to everyone who voted. Our democracy is precious and it only functions if people turn out and vote.
Across Dulwich, Labour won all nine seats: three seats in Goose Green and two in Dulwich Hill, Dulwich Village and Dulwich Wood respectively. Eight of these were already councillors. The ninth, Portia Mwangangye, replaced Cllr Victoria Olisa in Goose Green. We are grateful for all of Victoria’s work in the community over the previous years.
Across Southwark, voters demonstrated their overwhelming support for our Labour vision for a fairer, greener and safer Southwark, electing with 52 Labour councillors out of 63 in total. We are proud to be part of the most diverse group of Labour councillors in the borough’s history, with over 50% women and over 40% from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.
We will be working hard to represent you and all of our constituents for the next 4 years.
Work is already underway to deliver our manifesto, which contains 100 pledges on creating good jobs, tackling the climate emergency, more good quality homes, safer streets and supporting our most vulnerable residents. Find our plan for the borough at southwarklabour.com/manifesto2022
Save Southwarks Buses
This month we have had the awful news that Tory cuts to Transport for London's budget could lead to major cuts to our local bus services. We are campaigning against them.
During the pandemic, Londoners did the right thing and stayed at home to save lives. But doing so decimated TfL's finances because it is so reliant on fares revenue.
Unlike other major cities like New York & Paris, London's transport network does not receive substantial funding from central Government.
The Government are now forcing short term funding settlements on TfL that require major cuts to services. This month TfL have set out what this looks like. This involves cutting four routes in Southwark which include the 12, 45, 78 and 521 buses. Other routes such as the 43 will face partial cuts.
Labour Councillors have been supporting the Save Southwark Buses campaign which you can sign up to here: Petition · Save Southwark Buses · Change.org.
The Council will also be launching its own campaign to ensure that residents can respond to the consultation, however you can find it by following this link: Central London Bus Review | Have Your Say Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk).
Southwark Labour leads London's council home building revolution
Last year more new council homes were started than in any year since the seventies and Southwark led the way.
Southwark Labour started 878 new council homes in 2021/22, more than any other London borough. Successfully hitting our target of 2,500 new council homes built or on site being built by the election in May. Last year we started almost 300 homes more than our nearest competitor, Havering. Once delivered, these council homes will go to Southwark residents, of which we have 16,500 on our housing waiting list. You can find a list of homes being built in your ward here Where we're building - Southwark Council.
Labour delivers a state of the art nursing home for Southwark residents
Southwark Labour has now opened a new state of the art nursing home in Camberwell, delivering on one of our manifesto promise already. The home will be covered by our nationally leading Residential Care Charter ensure a London Living Wage for all staff and good quality care for residents. The building is also rated as BREEAM excellent which means that it is the best in practice for sustainable building design, contributing to the borough becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
Cost of Living
The Cost of Living crisis continues to hit residents who are struggling to make ends meet. The national party forced the Tories into a welcome U-turn on Labour’s idea for a windfall tax, however it is clear that with inflation hitting levels not seen for the last 40 years more needs to be done. Southwark Labour has a proud record of helping residents through the pandemic, and we have taken steps to tackle the cost of living such as providing free school meals throughout the school holidays, provide direct support for low income households with energy bills through the Southwark Energy Saver’s Service and distributing the energy rebate. We will be leading a campaign on further measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, and will provide details on how you can get involved.
Roles in the council
Cllr Portia Mwangangye has been appointed a Deputy Cabinet Member for Youth Engagement. Cllr Charlie Smith is continuing his important work on the Licensing Committee and Corporate Parenting Committee. Cllr James McAsh will be joining the cabinet next month to cover maternity leave for Cllr Helen Dennis. His remit will be the Climate Emergency and Sustainable Development.
But all three of us will continue to be, first and foremost, Goose Green representatives!