Next month, voters in the ward of London Bridge and West Bermondsey will decide who they want to represent them on Southwark Council. The election has been delayed due to the death of a conservative councillor. With Southwark Labour retaining overall control of the council, voters in the ward are focusing their attention on the candidates and how well they’ll be served.

Latest figures released show that over the last four years, Southwark Council have felled 2,248 trees in the borough. For every three trees it cuts down, it only replaces one, meaning overall Southwark loses a tree every single day under the Labour council. Moreover, 144 tree beds which are ready to have trees replanted in them lie empty.

Southwark Council has confirmed that three members of the Council Cabinet who announced their resignation months ago will each receive four-figure pay-offs. Opposition Liberal Democrat councillors have described as a ‘scandalous use of council taxpayers’ money’.

Latest figures from the Borough Commander show that Southwark has 60 fewer police officers this year compared to last, meaning that Southwark loses a police officer every week. Over the same period of time, knife crime and moped-enabled crime in Southwark have increased by half and muggings have increased by a quarter. All of these increases are double the London average.

Sadiq Khan accepted that mistakes had been made by Transport for London, when it decided to halve the RV1 bus route service. Cuts to the route, which connects Covent Garden to Tower Hill via the Southbank and Bankside, were announced suddenly last month, without any consultation with residents or passengers.

Southwark Liberal Democrats have surveyed locals about crime, following the surge across the borough and the capital in the last few years. Robberies in Southwark were up a quarter last year, while knife crime, gun crime and violent crime went up by almost half – roughly double the rise across London as a whole. The capital is now more dangerous than New York for rape, robbery and violent crime.

Introduction

Jamaica Road is one of the most gridlocked roads anywhere in Britain. The overriding priority for residents, local businesses and road users – pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and bus users – is to cut congestion.

Responses to Transport for London’s plans for the CS4 route between Tower Bridge and Greenwich have been published. The most difficult aspect of the plans remains Jamaica Road, which lies in the middle of the proposed cycle superhighway route. The road is frequently gridlocked, is difficult to cross and has some of the worst air pollution in the capital. Congestion rose by 19% last year alone.

The leader of Labour-led Southwark council has conceded his administration’s record on empty homes was ‘unsatisfactory’, admitting that they ‘haven’t managed it properly’. At the previous Council Assembly, the Liberal Democrat councillor Ben Johnson asked the leader about newly released figures. They show that six thousand homes in Southwark are currently empty – much more than any other borough in London and more than neighbouring Lewisham, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets put together.

The Liberal Democrat opposition on Southwark Council have produced an alternative budget which enables the a 3% increase in spending, but delivered through efficiency savings rather than the council tax increase.