Local elections 5 May 2022
Many of you have contacted One Dulwich about the local elections tomorrow, 5 May, to say that you want to choose candidates who will remove the Dulwich LTNs and represent the views of the local community. If you have yet to vote, please consider the following five points:
All Labour candidates support the Dulwich LTNs. (See the report of the Herne Hill hustings in Southwark News.) For information about the other parties, please see our previous post entitled ‘Where do local candidates stand on the Dulwich LTNs?’
Local issues are key. Forget about sending messages to national politicians or parties. Local councillors cannot affect national policy, but can – and do – make important decisions that affect our daily lives.
Are you sure the candidate will represent your views? Councillors should be committed (in the words of Southwark’s Code of Conduct) to “championing the needs of residents” – that is, not their own needs, or those of their party, but the needs of the whole community. When it comes to the Dulwich LTNs, this really matters.
Do you want a councillor who lives locally? Candidates must live or work in Southwark, but don’t necessarily have to live or work in the ward. Understandably, some don’t give their addresses. Some, however, do. If it’s important to you to choose a candidate who lives locally, look under ‘election notices’ on Southwark’s ‘Information for Voters’ page.
Each Dulwich ward has a different voting history. If you think previous elections give a snapshot of how people might vote in 2022, you can see all the results going back to 2006 on Southwark’s website. Historically, some wards are more likely to return Conservative candidates, and others Liberal Democrat candidates. You may want to look up, for example, who came second in 2018.
Finally, with thanks again for all your support over the past two years, we want to reassure you that – whatever happens on 5 May 2022 – we will continue to campaign with other local groups to reduce traffic, improve air quality and enable safe walking and cycling in ways that are socially just and do not discriminate against main roads, vulnerable people or local businesses (please see ‘Changes to the Dulwich LTNs: have they made any difference?’).
We hope that the councillors who are elected this week will work with the community to achieve these aims.