Natasha Cox

• AMID all the fire and fury of the general election, there was also an Islington Council by-election last Thursday in St George’s ward.

I put forward my name as the Green Party candidate and came a strong, close second to the Labour Party candidate, increasing our vote share and winning the highest Green vote ever in the ward.

I would like to thank each one of the 2,501 residents who voted for me. I am proud of the campaign we ran, asking voters to consider whether another Labour councillor was needed, when the only opposition to Labour is currently made up of one Green Party councillor, plus a Labour dissident who seems to vote in line with the Labour majority.

The closeness of the by-election vote suggests a lot of voters were sympathetic to our argument that councils benefit from strong opposition, without which there’s evidence they risk providing poor value for taxpayers’ money and making bad decisions.

Of course, I respect the voters’ choice and wish the successful candidate Gulcin Ozdemir every success in her new role.

Nevertheless I will continue to work outside the council, not just to keep pushing them to do more to clean up our air and to help shape the development of a women’s building and locally needed housing on the Holloway prison site but also to do what I can to ensure adequate levels of oversight are maintained over the activities of our executive councillors.

It is essential that, in local government just as much as in national politics, we provide residents full transparency into and accountability for all activities entered into on their behalf.

NATASHA COX
Islington Green Party