Sadly we don’t have (as we had previously) a candidate for Executive Mayor who wants to abolish the position of Executive Mayor. None of the candidates have anything to say about the current system and whether it has been a success.
There’s also the question of whether all the London Boroughs can survive as they are - each with their own administration, internal services, and patchy service provision. That’s a lot of HR, payroll, etc. especially at a time when services are being cut and some statutory services are barely covered.
I don’t have a problem with the executive mayor position what i have a problem with is electing three councillors for each ward without using a sysyem of PR. What we generally end up with is three councillors from the same party in each ward despite more than 30% of the voters selecting another candidate.
This week we are likely to see councils across the country fall to extremist parties made up of the dregs of the mainstream parties. A sensible electoral system would balance out these dangerous swings and also prevent a one-party state as we had at the last Lewisham elections.
I think you are correct in suggesting that there are simply too many London boroughs and even when they work together, they do it badly (e.g. lighing contract for Lewisham and Croydon). The police forces in London have been combined into multi-borough command structures and we should begin to do the same for local councils - or maybe just transfer more powers to the GLA.
The Forest Hill Society contacted all the local candidates recently to ask a series of questions, and we heard back from many of them. We’ve posted the questions and answers on our blog in case you are interested:
Also, as a reminder, DON’T FORGET TO BRING SUITABLE PHOTO ID IF YOU ARE VOTING IN PERSON ON THURSDAY.
I didn’t realise until today that one of the Lib Dem candidates - John Russell - is in the House of Lords. Not sure if that would be helpful or not to have a councillor who also has a seat in HoL? I assume there are no rules excluding Lords from being councillors.
As a resident of Thorpewood Avenue I think the statement that the rebuilt pools were intended to be “public transport only” is somewhat disingenuous. At the time, before we became a one party state, I had a conversation with one of our non-Labour councillors and was told that the proposal for what is now the linear park on Dartmouth Road to be the pools/library car park was dismissed as “there are 200 free parking spaces around Thorpewood Avenue” so perhaps, as very few people actually us that space, the solution is to implement that earlier proposal.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a bit of a shock when I looked out my polling card to find that my polling station has changed. I’ve voted at St George’s Primary School for 20 years I think … but they’ve moved it to the Friends’ Meeting House on Sunderland Road this year. They’ve also made this the location for those who voted at Perrymount School.
I thought I would mention this here in case anyone else is surprised and ends up going to the wrong place!
I think this is the only area in Perry Vale that has changed, but you never know!
(and, note to self, as I no longer habitually carry my wallet with me, MUST BRING PHOTO ID)
In Perry Vale, I’ll have voted in three different locations in the last four elections – Perrymount Primary School, Perry Rise Baptist Church and now the Friends’ Meeting House. Where next, I wonder…?
Very interesting result. However, the count for the ward councillors isn’t until tomorrow, so there’s still a wait to see who will be representing us in our local wards. I expect there will be a lot of change in Lewisham if Labour were not able to hold on to the Mayoral role.
It will be quite interesting to feature on the news for a while too
Definitely living in (locally) interesting times. Now we wait for tomorrow. NOC will be a bit of a kick in one sense as you don’t get to see what a party can do vs what they promised to.
