Hackney Liberal Democrats Vice Chair Darren Martin has said that the Lib Dems will continue their fight to hold Labour to account in the borough, vowing to hold the newly elected Labour councillors in Cazenove’ “feet to the fire” on their promises made during the campaign.

Following the local election results that leave the Conservatives the only opposition to Labour he added the party will be “reaching out to progressive parties and campaigners” to help residents hold the council to account and campaign on key issues such as Brexit and a fairer voting system.

The Hackney Liberal Democrats are calling for Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier MPs to strongly oppose plans to change eligibility for free school meals under Universal Credit reforms.
The Government wants to introduce a new earnings limit from 1 April 2018, so that any family on Universal Credit earning more than £7,400 a year won’t be eligible for free school meals.

The Hackney Liberal Democrats will tonight set out £1.5m plans to fund additonal community policing and a Violence Reduction Unit in Hackney based on the successful initiative that has drastically reduced knife crime and violence in Scotland in amendments to the proposed council budget set to be voted on at full council.
The amendments proposed to the 2018/19 budget will ask for an additional £713k for 10 additional police officers serving the borough (1 sergeant and 9 PCs) and £752k for youth workers across Hackney.
The additional policing and youth services capacity will be used to set up and fund the Violence Reduction Unit which takes a public health approach to violence with innovative schemes to identify and help vulnerable people alongside targeted policing based on intelligence to identify and disrupt groups and gangs engaging in violent activity.

Cllrs Abraham Jacobson(left)Dawwood Akhoon(Centre)

Ian Sharer (Right)

Hackney resident Les Kelly who received a letter from Diane Abbott saying she would argue for the people to have the final say on the Brexit deal, before backtracking and calling the letter “poorly worded”, is standing as a council candidate for the Lib Dems in May’s local elections.

Lib Dems have responded to resident's warnings that new Council charges for bulky waste will cause fly-tipping to skyrocket across Hackney.
Since September, disposing of unwanted furniture or other large items costs a minimum of £15, with some collections charged as much as £60.
National figures for last year revealed that there has been a fly-tipping epidemic across the UK as local authorities implement similar bulky waste charges, with recorded incidents reaching 1m for the first time since 2008.

Darren Martin/Becket McGrath say scrap the charge.

Hackney Council has agreed to set up a private housing company to get around government restrictions and provide homes for London Living Rent in a policy that bears a striking resemblance to Liberal Democrat proposals from 2014.

Hackney Lib Dem Vice Chair Simon de Denney has welcomed the new policy but says Labour's version needs to go much further.

The Hackney Liberal Democrats have unveiled their key crime & policing policy for the upcoming local elections in May, announcing plans to create a Violence Reduction Unit in Hackney based on a similar program that has had a dramatic impact in Glasgow and has since been rolled out across Scotland

The Hackney Liberal Democrats have welcomed the backtrack from Mayor Glanville on plans to raise the amount of council tax paid by those entitled to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, but say the 2% rise is still asking the poorest and most vulnerable to foot the bill.
The original Town Hall plans would have seen residents who qualify for the scheme seeing their bills rise by a third- going from paying 15% of the full tax to 20%.

The new Hackney Liberal Democrat executive met for the first time last week with Geoff Payne as new Chair looking to build on the progress made in 2017 into the local elections in May 2018.