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.

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.