Letter: Come on Camden Labour, join Tories in the fight to scrap HS2
The Camden New Journal published the following letter from me calling for Keir Starmer – who obviously represents the constituency most harmed by HS2 – to pledge to oppose the project if he’s elected Labour Party leader, given he is no longer constrained by collective responsibility: I was delighted to see a large number of Conservative MPs unite to re-form the HS2 Review Group in the aftermath of the general election to push for HS2 to be scrapped.I have met with almost all of these MPs and made the case against HS2 over...
read moreOp-ed: Councillors passing the buck robs kids of a great education
Below is an op-ed that I have written for the Ham & High on Camden scrapping the full council debate on education and Labour eschewing responsibility for local services: The Ham & High is a great newspaper – and very generous when asking for my views. They’ve never censored them or told me what to write. But for this piece, they told me one thing: “Don’t mention the election.” Sorry, I guess I just did – won’t happen again.“Keep to local issues, not national politics.” And I’ve got to tell you – this was music to my ears.In Camden...
read moreFull Council Meeting: 25 November 2019
There was a meeting of Camden Council on Monday, 25th November. As part of my accountability to residents, below are the actions I took at the meeting. I paid tribute to Frank Dobson, who passed away last week. Frank was the Leader of the Council from 1973 to 1975 and one of the borough’s MPs from 1979 to 2015. I recalled a story of our first meeting, when I was dragged in at short notice to debate him when a student at UCL. (A)In response to a deputation to the council by Chalcots residents about the £76m works contract for the towers,...
read moreCore services matter but Labour wants them to be discretionary
The Camden New Journal published the following letter from me in response to Labour tabling the most absurd motion I have ever seen: calling for an end to block grants from government and legal duty to use it to deliver statutory services, despite Camden receiving a larger block grant than all but two councils nationally. I am astonished and appalled that Camden’s Labour councillors are set to pass a motion demanding the government allows them to cut Camden’s core services.Currently councils are required by law to provide some core services,...
read moreCamden Council gets in the way of going green
The Ham & High has printed my letter below about the UK’s world-leading decarbonisation of its electricity supply and highlighting about two areas where Camden Council’s own policies have gotten in the way of taking advantage of that massive decarbonisation. This week, it was revealed that the UK generates more electricity from renewable electricity than from fossil fuels for the first time ever. Since the Conservatives took office in 2010, renewables have increased seven-fold to over 40% of all generation, while coal...
read moreFull Council Meeting: 7 October 2019
There was a meeting of Camden Council on Monday, 7th October. As part of my accountability to residents, below are the actions I took at the meeting. I spoke on the themed debate on the climate crisis by noting that Camden was only rated as the top Inner London borough for climate change because Hampstead Heath’s trees. Without the work of residents 153 years ago to save Hampstead Heath, Camden would actually have been fourth, not first – and I thus implored people to think of the consequences of their actions 153 years hence....
read moreNow really is the time to scrap HS2 – and everyone needs to be pulling towards that goal
I’ve been fighting to stop HS2 since it was first announced in 2009. I grew two miles from its tracks, and have seen the heart torn out of countless communities by its bulldozers. First and foremost of those communities is right here in Camden. Large parts of Euston and Regents Park have been bulldozed. Works further up the track have hurt Primrose Hill, Belsize, and Kilburn. And yet despite the decimation, the Camden Conservatives are almost alone in continuing to argue in our borough for the scheme to be scrapped. I have written to...
read moreOliver writes to endorse renewal of Hampstead and RedFrog fora
I’ve written to Camden to back the redesignation of the Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum and its sibling to the west, the Redington Frognal Neighbourhood Forum. By law, neighbourhood fora must be ‘redesignated’ every five years to ensure they retain support and relevance. You can read my submission here. Neighbourhood fora are responsible for Neighbourhood Plans, which are phenomenally helpful tools to help preserve the best of the character of a local community. They outline what local communities themselves want to see happen...
read moreAmbedkar Museum saved by Government after write-in campaign
I’m delighted that the Government has overturned Camden’s decision to order the Ambedkar Museum in Primrose Hill to close down. I wrote to the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick last week to express my deepest concerns about this and ask him to use his power to ‘call in’ the decision. You can read my letter here. The Ambedkar Museum is an internationally-renowned memorial to Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who wrote India’s constitution and is revered especially by the marginalised groups (especially the Dalits, or...
read moreOp-ed: Don’t sideline or ignore residents’ work
Below is an op-ed that I have written for the Ham & High in light of the defeat of the CIP policy: Last Tuesday, something very rare happened in a grey conference room in Camden’s temporary town hall. For the first time since Labour took power in Camden in 2010, the administration had a decision formally overturned.I had challenged the council’s decision to commit £3m to draw up a property development scheme on Camley Street, east of Camden Town. So far, so what?Well, this proposal – part of Camden’s crumbling,...
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