Green by-election candidate Rachel Laurence asks voters to bring in some “real scrutiny” to Lambeth Council, which has misled residents about both recycling and the Living Wage.
Lambeth Green Party has selected Lambeth mum Rachel Laurence as their candidate for the Vassal ward by-election on the 28th November.
Speaking on their website, Rachel said: “I am standing for the Greens because I believe ordinary people in Lambeth should be able to live in affordable homes, earn decent wages, get proper health-care locally when they need it, and breathe clean air.”
Rachel has worked for years as a community campaigner in London supporting children, families and community organisations to work for change and hold decision makers to account. She is now standing for election so that she can push the Labour Lambeth council to fulfill the commitments it made in response to pressure from the Greens to pay employees and subcontractors the London Living Wage.
The motion to support the principle of the Living Wage was proposed by Green Councillor Becca Thackeray (2006-10) and was passed by Lambeth Council in 2009. Although Labour Councillors initially resisted extending this commitment to subcontractors, it later did so after facing pressure from Greens and local campaigners.
4 years on, however, the Labour led council is still yet to honour its commitment to stop its “poverty pay“.
Rachel has also pledged to sort out Lambeth’s plummeting recycling rate. DEFRA recently released data showing that the borough has one of the fastest falling rates of recycling in London – despite London wide targets to increase recycling rates to 45% by 2015.
If elected, Rachel will prevent a repeat of the Council’s shocking attempt to pass off incineration of waste as ‘recycling’ to pretend its record is improving, as it did last year.
Rachel added: “The Vassal Ward by-election is a clear choice between voting in one more Labour councillor to join the 43 out of 63 already in the council, or bringing in some real scrutiny and fresh thinking.
“The Labour council is implementing government cuts without a fight, freezing council tax for the wealthiest while taking away council tax benefit from those who earn the least, axing social housing and cutting public services.”
Rachel wants to see the council fight the bedroom tax, rather than evict those who can’t afford it. If elected she will lobby the council to reduce its waiting list of over 27000 households, instead of evicting tenants from short life housing to sell it off to developers.
For more information about London by-elections the Green Party are contesting, please see here.