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Positive campaign meant best candidate was elected
• IT is a real honour to have been elected to represent Kentish Town in the by-election last Thursday and I am very much looking forward to working with local people over the next three-and-a-half years. The result is, I believe, an endorsement of the Lib Dem leadership, our positive campaign and of the hard work that Lib Dem councillors Faruque Ansari and Philip Thompson have put into the area since May.
My priorities will be local priorities. Whether that’s campaigning for local shops, policing or parking. For example, I want to see Kentish Town get its fair share of the extra £240,000 that Camden will be spending on young people in 2007 – providing positive alternatives to anti-social behaviour.
I want to ensure not only that we have a strong Safer Neighbourhoods Team but it’s also vital that we retain a proper police presence in the area to tackle burglary and other serious crime.
Across the Ingestre, Peckwater and Torriano estates and in council street properties around the ward we need to tackle the desperate condition of some of our housing 60 per cent of which does not meet the government’s decent homes standard.
That will need investment and for the government to release funds earmarked for renovations but currently being withheld. It’s also clear that we need to get need a better deal for leaseholders, who have been neglected in the past.
There are big challenges ahead. The election aired many issues and provoked debate about how we tackle them together.
I hope that debate will continue and that together we can find solutions to them.
CLLR RALPH SCOTT
(Lib Dem) Town Hall
Judd Street
WC1
• YOUR headline ‘Greens sense poll victory’ (December 7) like so much of what’s been heard this year from the noisy Greens, proved to be fanciful hyperbole.
The reality is that the two Green Camden councillors are there primarily because Highgate residents were determined to remove their then-councillor, John Thane.
There are true greens in all of Camden’s political parties, be they Cllrs Penelope Abraham, Rebecca Hossacks or Fred Carver and we are all working together under the passionate Lib Dem green champion, Alexis Rowell, in a new Sustainability Task Force.
In last week’s New Journal Alexis explained eloquently why he left Labour but didn’t join the Greens – because he wanted to change the world, not shout about it. The Greens will continue to wish for things but they have as much chance of achieving them in Camden as turning the moon into cream cheese. There’s smoke, lots of letters but no substance. The Kentish Town by-election has shown the future’s orange.
CLLR PAUL BRAITHWAITE
(Lib Dem) Town Hall
Judd Street, WC1
• I WANT to say a huge thank you to the voters of Kentish Town for turning out in such high numbers last Thursday.
Unfortunately I will be unable to thank all those who gave me their support in person. I am sorry not to be able to stand up for them in the council chamber this time, but I will continue to be active in our community holding the Tory/Lib Dem coalition to account.
Standing in this by-election has proved to me beyond doubt that Kentish Town was the right place to make my home.
SAM MCBRATNEY
(Labour candidate)
Lady Margaret Road, NW5
• THERE are a number of lessons to be learned from the Kentish Town by-election. An excellent candidate, fighting a positive campaign, focusing on the issues that really matter to people ended up as the clear winner. Ralph Scott’s victory was thoroughly deserved. He will be a great councillor for Kentish Town and a real asset to the Lib Dem Group.
The Conservatives’ poor showing (less than seven per cent) reminds us that there are large parts of Camden where they are an electoral irrelevance.
Coming third was a terrible result for Labour in an area which used to be a Labour stronghold.
After 35 years in power, many Camden residents believed that the Labour Party had become arrogant and out of touch with its natural supporters. They were delighted to see Labour kicked out of the Town Hall in May. The result in Kentish Town is the clearest possible evidence that they haven’t changed their mind.
As for the Greens, they may claim to be pleased with second place but actually this was a really disappointing result for them. Sian Berry is co-leader of the Green Party nationally and this by-election was the perfect opportunity for them to make a real impression. But, when the votes were counted, Sian was 281 votes adrift, even further away from victory than she was in May, despite the lower turn-out.
The message is clear: if you want change, vote Lib Dem.
CLLR DAVID ABRAHAMS
(Lib Dem) Town Hall
Judd Street, WC1
• WELL done to Ralph Scott on his victory in last Thursday’s by-election in Kentish Town.
I am disappointed Labour’s superb candidate Sam McBratney was not elected, and that people didn’t feel ready to come back to Labour.
On the doorstep there were very real concerns expressed about the cuts being pursued by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition which is running the Town Hall, however six months into a new administration the electorate clearly wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I do hope that now the election is over Ralph Scott will have the courage of his convictions and do what he promised in his campaign and stand up for the Kentish Town Citizen’s Advice Bureaux and the Camden Law Centre against the 42 per cent decrease in funding which Camden’s advice services are facing.
CLLR ANNA STEWART
(Labour)
Town Hall
Judd Street
WC1
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