Mayor's News - July 2008

I have always been of the opinion that when politicians stand for election that they should rely on more than soundbites and slogans, that they should have to clearly set out, in detail, what they will do if elected. That way, at the time of the next election, voters can look again at this list of promises and judge whether or not they have been delivered.

That is why, when I stood for re-election as Mayor two years ago, Hackney Labour Party published a detailed manifesto setting out our aspirations for the borough and priorities for the Council, and what will be achieved by 2010 – if you want to look at it, it is available at: www.hackney-labour.org.uk.

One of the many targets I set the Council was around Green Flags – the national awards that measure whether our parks and green spaces achieve a national standard. In 2006, Clissold Park was the only green space in Hackney to be recognised in this way, and in our manifesto I set the Council a target to achieve another Green Flag every year, so that five of our parks would reach the standard by 2010.

Last week, it was announced that another three of Hackney’s green spaces were awarded Green Flag status, bringing the total to seven: namely Clissold Park, Springfield Park, Hackney Downs, London Fields, Shoreditch Park, Haggerston Park and St John's (with St John’s also achieving Green Heritage status) – so achieving the manifesto commitment two years early and at no extra cost to residents with Hackney’s element of the Council Tax having been frozen for three years. It is great news that the work of Hackney’s Parks staff has been recognised in this way. Our task now is to make sure that all of our green spaces are as good as the best, and that they continue to be welcoming, fun and relaxing places to spend time.

Another commitment I made was that we would create 1,800 new secondary school places, by building five new, mixed secondary schools. Three of these (Mossbourne, Petchey and Bridge) are open, and are already proving popular with local parents, the remaining two will open in 2009 and 2010. I said that the Council would work more closely with the Police to cut street crime – and Hackney’s work in this area is now being hailed as among the best in the country where there are now 15 boroughs in London where you are more likely to be a victim of street crime or knife crime than Hackney. There are now also 15 London boroughs where you are more likely to be a victim of burglary. I said that 2,000 affordable homes would be built in Hackney by 2010 to help people get on the housing ladder and to tackle over-crowding – with over 600 affordable homes completed last year and another 600 planned for this year, it looks as though we’ll hit the target.

There is clearly much more to do, in all of these areas and more, and your Labour council will continue to work to make Hackney a better place.

Along with my Labour colleagues, I personally made these written commitments in 2006 because they were what Hackney residents told me were important – and we made them the priorities of your Council. I welcome being held to account for the commitments I made to you – alongside those politicians of other parties who I don’t remember committing to anything.

Mayor Jules Pipe

Previous newsletters are available as Word documents to download on the right of this page.

Back to top

Page updated: 7 Aug 2008