What happened in the recent local elections, and how might it impact our campaign?

Local elections were held recently (Thursday, 7th May) in our local borough of Lambeth. The elections are an opportunity for voters to elect councillors to represent them on Lambeth Council.

Although the Tulse Hill gyratory is located on the borders of three parliamentary constituencies, for the council elections it is entirely in the St Martin’s ward, with the West Dulwich, Knight’s Hill and Streatham Hill East wards also very close by.

In hustings for the St Martin’s ward prior to the election, all candidates stated their commitment to affecting real change on the gyratory. The Green party also had a commitment to this in their manifesto, and the campaign literature from both Labour and Green candidates for St Martin’s highlighted the gyratory as one of their key priorities.

Both serving councillors in the St Martin’s ward, Olga FitzRoy (Labour) and Saleha Jaffer (Labour), were not standing again, so the election was an opportunity for voters to elect new councillors. Both candidates selected to stand for Labour, Georgina Berriman and Kitty Ussher, are both members of our steering committee.

Coming into the campaign, polling was showing Labour and the Greens almost neck and neck, and this was reflected in the final results with Jeremy Isaacs (Green) and Georgina Berriman (Labour) both elected with 24% and 23% of the overall vote, respectively.

Jeremy Isaacs, who topped the vote count with 1,268 votes, commented, “It’s a huge privilege to serve the people of St Martin’s. The gyratory makes Tulse Hill feel as though traffic is prioritised over people. I am confident that we will work across party and ward boundaries to convince decision makers at TfL and the council to transform Tulse Hill into the thriving community of people, homes, businesses and culture that we know it can be.”

On her election, Georgina Berriman said, “It is an honour to have been elected… I am hugely grateful not only to those who have placed their trust in me, but to all the Labour volunteers for their hard work during the campaign. I am excited to continue supporting Transform Tulse Hill’s vital campaign to redesign the gyratory. I will be building on the outstanding work of outgoing Labour Councillor Olga Fitzroy to ensure delivering this hugely important change remains a top priority.”

In the neighbouring ward of West Dulwich, campaign steering group member Tom Palmer (Green) was elected, a gain for the Greens from the Labour Party. Judith Cavanagh (Labour Co-op) was also re-elected.

Tom remarked that “The Transform Tulse Hill campaign seeks to secure funding to make the Tulse Hill Gyratory safer and improve this diverse town centre. It’s been a real privilege to help steer the campaign as Co-Chair of Norwood Forum, getting well over 1,000 signatures for our petition, inviting key decision makers to the area, presenting deputations to Lambeth Council and seeing the urgent case for action made at a city wide and national level.

I’m humbled to have been elected as a Green Party Cllr in neighbouring West Dulwich and will redouble my efforts to ensure Tulse Hill finally gets the funding that it so desperately needs.”

In the Knight’s Hill ward, all three serving Labour councillors lost their seats to Green Party candidates Elizabeth Fraser, Lisa Schulkind, and Matt Wilcock, and in Streatham Hill East, Labour also lost both its councillors to the Green Party, with Martin Abrams and Amelia Shoebridge winning.

Prior to the election, the Labour Party were by far the biggest party in Lambeth with 54 of the 63 seats on the council. In these elections, the Green Party won the most seats but without an overall majority, Labour were second and the Liberal Democrats third.

As of yet, it is unclear which party will form the administration at the Council, but it is expected that this should be agreed at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday 27 May.

You can find out who was elected as your local councillor on the Lambeth website.

Whilst these results represent a significant change to the local political landscape, we are confident that support for our campaign remains high amongst both re-elected and newly elected councillors.

We already have the support of our local Members of Parliament Helen Hayes, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Steve Reid who have all publicly backed our campaign.

We’re continuing to gather signatures for our petition asking for action from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London (TfL) to make changes to the dangerous Tulse Hill Gyratory. After reaching our initial target of 1,000 signatures in March, the petition is now approaching the 1,200 signature mark.

Please do sign the petition if you haven’t already done so, and if you are able to share it, please do!

Photo credit: With thanks to 17 year old Janet Aloa for her winning mural as part of the 2023 Grantham Climate Art Prize, which can be seen in full behind the bus stop on the corner of Elmcourt Road and Norwood Road, painted by mural artist Michelle Meola.