Labour council leader Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz welcomes Ollie Steadman to the ruling group at the Town Hall after his by-election success in Hillrise

THERE were no shocks or surprises as Labour easily held a council seat in the Hillrise ward by-election, securing their near one-party dominance at the Town Hall.

Newly elected Hillrise councillor Ollie Steadman, 27, said he hoped to bring “commitment, passion, and joy” to his new role.

He told the Tribune that he intends to continue canvassing regularly to ensure local residents’ concerns are heard.

“I feel that the best role I can be for constituents is a campaigning councillor,” he said.

As a private renter himself, Mr Steadman hopes that he can use his role as a councillor to advocate for tenants, and enact change aimed at better regulating the sector.

“There should never be a feeling that you’re shouting into a void,” he said. “There should be reasonable expectations around how long it should take to fix an issue.”

He added that the council should be looking at things like “trusted landlords” schemes. “We need to be putting more power back into private renters’ hands about who they’re renting from,” he said.

Originally from the West Midlands, Mr Steadman moved to Islington six years ago for his first job.

He now works at mental health charity Mind, where he oversees national campaigns to influence the government on mental health matters.

“My work is focused on big picture national change, so I’m excited about how I can bring that change to an individual level, to a local level,” he said.

Mr Steadman says it was at university that he got his first taste for campaigning when he ran a campus-wide mental health campaign to try and improve access to mental health support for students.

“We got the student union to commit to rolling out mental health training across societies and sports societies,” he explained.

“I think it’s an amazing feeling to get change. It’s only by many many people working together that that change is achieved.”

Since then Mr Steadman has worked alongside friends and colleagues in the Islington CLP on campaigns to save the number 4 bus route, as well as the maternity ward at the Whittington Hospital.

He explained that latter was particularly close to his heart. “I was born two months premature,” he said, “so I very much know the value for parents of having a neonatal care unit embedded in the community.”

Mr Steadman replaces Dave Poyser, who acted as a councillor for Hillrise for 10 years. He says he is anxious about stepping into the big shoes left behind.

“Someone said to me on Twitter on election day that I had a lot to live up to. And it’s true. I’m very aware of that,” he said.

The Greens established themselves in a clear second place with candidate Alex Nettle increasing the party’s share of the vote by 5 per cent.

The Lib Dems came third and the Tories did not bother to field a candidate.

HILLRISE BY-ELECTION RESULT:

OLLIE STEADMAN (Labour) 2,824 ELECTED
Alex Nettle (Green) 1,094
Rebecca Taylor (Lib Dems) 577
Turnout: 47.3 per cent