Jon Bartley has declared his intentions to stand as a Green party candidate in the Lambeth Council local elections in May 2018. Speaking at his party’s conference in Harrogate on Monday, the Co-Leader of the Green Party said:
“Next year I will be standing for election to my local council. I want to join the Green opposition to social cleansing and reckless financial management in Lambeth, standing up against demolition of estates, telling a Labour council at odds with its own leader that its toxic policies aren’t welcome in my borough.”
Jeremy Corbyn issued a warning to his own Labour Councils when he delivered his speech to his party conference this month in Brighton.
The Labour Leader stated:
“Regeneration is a much abused word. Too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing.”
This led to Bartley to invite Corbyn to Lambeth to meet residents at Cressingham Gardens who are being socially cleansed by the Labour Cabinet.
Bartley argued:
“Jeremy Corbyn is saying the right thing about regeneration. Meanwhile on the ground Labour councils are acting in direct opposition to what he has committed his party to. Labour councils like the one in Lambeth where I live are bringing about the very social cleansing the Labour leader has now pledged to stop.”
The ‘estate regeneration’ in Lambeth has faced many delays by the Progress dominated Cabinet. Lambeth Labour pledged to build 1,000 new Council houses by May 2018. The most recent plans for Cressingham Gardens shows that the project will benefit from only 27 new council houses.
Meanwhile the ‘regeneration’ of the Fenwick estate in Clapham North has had to start from scratch. A local turf war has broken out between competing property developers. Lambeth Council has been scared off by the possible legal bill.
Bartley stood as a Green party candidate in the 2015 General Election for the Streatham constituency. He finished in a respectable fourth place with a 7% swing.