Hackney Lib Dem’s accuse the Town Hall of not taking the problem of fly-tipping seriously as the council admit to losing track of the figures for a whole year.

With over 10,000 recorded incidents of rubbish being dumped in the borough last year, more needs to be done to tackle this problem including scrapping the bulky waste charge.

Last week, following pressure from the Hackney Liberal Democrats , Hackney Council finally debated and passed a Brexit motion at the full council meeting.

Good news right? Well not really.

We had previously called on the Labour directly elected Mayor of Hackney to pass a motion that backs a people vote to show support to the overwhelming majority of people in Hackney who want to stop the national embarrassment that is Brexit.

Both of Hackney’s Labour MPs refuse to back a people’s vote so it was a chance to show real leadership in a borough where Labour’s fudged ‘all options on the table but election first’ position highlights the massive divide between most Labour voters and members and the left-wing Brexiteer leadership of the party.

Instead what we actually got was a motion that is essentially a copy and paste of the national position that Councillors in the chamber then masqueraded as People’s vote backing.

Unfortunately the devil is very much in the detail in this motion that clearly states rejecting a no deal as a “first step in achieving the call for a General Election.” Although it goes on to reel off the all options on the table list including a People’s vote, it is simply not enough to reassure the people of Hackney that want the final say on Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn has clearly said he would deliver Brexit even if Labour won a General Election and therefore any motion that contains an election as an option is meaningless and is just putting Corbyn before Country.

Hackney Labour were quite literally just going through the motions at full council. Our pressure, and to be fair, a good majority of councillors and the Mayor who do genuinely back a People’s vote, meant the motion made it to the chamber. But the wording of said motion should clearly indicate to everybody just how useless Labour are on the key issue of the day.

They couldn’t leave out a General Election from the wording because of the hard-left elements that have taken over large parts of Hackney Labour. You only have to browse through the tweets of some of the top Hackney Momentum activists to see them describe the people’s vote campaign as some kind of neo-liberal conspiracy against their Dear Leader Jeremy. Self-interest kicks in for politicians who know those very people will hold the key for their reselection as candidates in the future. Indeed Meg Hillier who was excellent on Brexit early on has since gone vey quiet with the looming prospect of boundary changes where she is at risk of being deselected.

The result is a party that is not reprensting the views of the people who voted them in. It is no longer acceptable for those within Labour who fundamentally disagree with the position of their party to turn a blind eye and it is time voters start showing them the consequences if they continue to do so.

The Liberal Democrats have had a consistent and clear message for over two years, you should have the final say and you should be able to choose to remain and exit from this Brexit mess.

We will continue to fight to end this national embarrassment.

The Liberal Democrats have again urged Meg Hillier to back a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal.
This week in Parliament Meg Hillier said she shared “deep concerns about what it could do to the country” and that the proposals for a People’s Vote were “riddled with challenges”.
She did however add at the the end of her speech that if parliament was not able to reach a solution on Brexit then there would be “no alternative but to return to the people with all the damaging consequences that could have.”

                                    Meg Hillier MP (Left) Dave Raval Lib Dem Spokesperson (Right)

The Liberal Democrats have called on local Labour MPs Meg Hillier and Diane Abbott to publicly back a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal.

Meg Hiller, the MP for Hackney South & Shoreditch has been recently very quiet on Brexit but she has told constituents in letters that Brexit could not be stopped, so we should make the best Brexit deal possible.

Meanwhile, even this week, Hackney North & Stoke Newington MP, Diane Abbott, has stated she looks forward to leaving the Single Market and ending Freedom of Movement.

However, the European Court of Justice ruled this week that the UK could unilaterally revoke article 50 without needing the permission of any other member state. This now gives a clear route to a referendum on the Brexit deal and makes the option of remaining possible.

Hackney Liberal Democrat Vice Chair Darren Martin has contacted the Mayor of Hackney to express deep concern that planning permission waved through for the controversial Britannia Leisure Centre development will now put open park space at risk across all of Hackney and London parks.

Liberal Democrat London assembly member Caroline Pidgeon will also be asking the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan a question on the issue.

Justifications given to allow Hackney Council to build on the outdoor hardstanding ball courts in Shoreditch Park as part of the Britannia development classify the tennis courts and 5-a-side football pitches as previously developed land rather than open space.
The Council have also claimed to be making equivalent space available elsewhere to the 3421 sq ft being lost in the development.
CPRE London who campaign to protect open green space in London’s parks have challenged the justifications given by the council in their planning permission applications that were approved at London level last week.

Pippa Morgan, the Liberal Democrat by-election candidate for the Victoria ward in Hackney, has made fighting to save the 48 bus route from being cut a key priority if she is elected to Hackney Council.

The 48 bus route is set to be cut completely under plans set out by the Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan along with changes to other bus routes in Hackney including the 242 and 149.

Pippa Morgan has launched a petition to save the 48 bus and says of the planned cuts,

”There has already been cuts to bus services in Hackney with routes like the 277 being changed. 1 in 4 people in Hackney rely on buses to travel to work and these cuts will lead to overcrowding, more difficult and longer journey times and more expensive commutes when residents already have it tough.

”Hackney Council needs a strong voice to stand up to the London Mayor and seeing as the council is run by Labour at the moment, they are just going to roll over and follow the party line in the end.

”The Liberal Democrats have been holding Sadiq Khan to account at London level on bus cuts, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight to save this vital bus route for the Victoria area and Hackney.”

You can vote for Pippa Morgan in the Victoria ward by-election on Thursday October 18th.

Darren Martin, Vice Chair of the Hackney Liberal Democrats, has welcomed the Mayor of London adopting the Glasgow public health model that his party championed during the Local Elections in the Summer, but insists Hackney can use this as an opportunity to show real leadership in tackling violence.

The Hackney Liberal Democrats have selected Pippa Morgan to stand in the upcoming Victoria Ward by-election.

She has lived in Hackney for six years and in the Victoria area for three and half.

Civil Rights campaigner Pauline Pearce, known as the ‘Hackney Heroine’ delivered a barnstorming speech at the Liberal Democrat conference on Saturday as the party passed a motion demanding justice for the Windrush Generation.