Local Council Election Day

Well its just gone 5:45 and Perry Vale polling station has seen 313 voters so far not a massive turnout!
Lets hope it picks up before 10pm.

That’s peculiar. I wonder about the implications of a low turnout on the result?

Are the usual Labour voters being too complacent maybe?

One can but hope! Being realistic I just hope we dent the majority to scare them (Labour)

Is there only one polling station for Perry Vale Ward? Last time out most councillors won with about 1,500 votes (I think).

Just have voted. I think will be more people coming to vote after work.

No there are 6 polling stations for Perry Vale. Although I live on Sunderland Road I can’t use the polling station in my road! I have to use the one at St Georges School on Perry Vale!

Same for me. I’d always used the school on Sunderland. First time at this polling station.

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I hope everyone isn’t lying down on the job of doing their civic duty.

Please remember FH Library is a Polling Station for this side of the tracks.

Voting is important so please use your vote wisely!

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Have to admit I didn’t place a Mayor vote for anyone as I didn’t have enough info that would make me choose one over another.

None stood out to me so I didn’t vote on this, I may regret my decision at a later date but couldn’t make a definite decision with the info I had on all.

I voted for Cllr’s that I think can make a difference in our area

Lewisham isn’t expected to declare until 5pm on Friday. Time for bed then.

Can’t stay up any later but here’s how it’s looking with the first few results in:

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Slightly different story this morning:

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UKIP will be pleased - we’re leaving the EU.

Very true. They should’ve just withdrawn from this election as there is no use to them now. Never understood what they were doing in local politics anyways.

Maybe UKIP councillor candidates are people too? People that care about their local areas just as much as Labour or Conservative councillor candidates?

I was referring to UKIP as a party. But you’re right again. As people UKIP candidates will not be pleased.

Also, we still are not out of Europe yet so not “Independent” and with some way to go it seems.

UKIP leader just heard on radio 4 defending the Black Death

Conservatives take Barnet and hold Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth, but lose Richmond and are wiped out in Southwark.

Mayoral result any time now:

Lewisham 2018 Mayoral election result:
Damien Egan (Labour) elected: 39,951 votes - 54.30%
Turnout: 37.38%

An increase from 51% for Steve Bulloch in 2014. Amazing result.

Labour 54%
Conservatives 13%
Green 11%
Lib Dems 8%
Duwayne Brooks 7%
People Before Profit 6%
Democrats and Veterans 1%

change on 2014:
Labour - up 2%
Conservatives - up 2%
Green - up 1%
Lib Dems - down 2%
Duwayne Brooks - up 7% (or down 3% depending on how you look at it)
People Before Profit - down 2%
Democrats and Veterans - up 1%
UKIP - down 8% (did not stand)
TUSC - down 2% (did not stand)

Implying (to me at least) that the Tories are our go-to party of opposition in Lewisham as a whole, having increased their lead over the other parties since 2014.

Makes no odds for now, but may help swing future results between non-Labour parties.

Does anyone know why we start counting on Friday morning when other areas do it Thursday night?

I presume it’s cheaper but then why doesn’t everywhere do that?

It is Lewisham, cannot expect better than that.

Did any other than Labour Councillors get seats in Lewisham Council?

It’s not been announced yet. Nationally, the results so far:

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Ok, thank you Chris👍

https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcouncil/elections/results/Pages/Election-results-2018.aspx

This is not a fair comment.

Ballot papers are counted by people who are not connected to any of the parties. Doing the job after manning the polling stations can be exhaustive and if votes are close, there may be a need for recounts. (certainly there will be some who will do the both jobs)

As most wards will elect 3 people counting of the ballot papers is a bit more complicated than it is the case in a general election. Ballots where someone voted for the same party will be put on the party pile to be counted, but where a vote is split on the party lines, every ballot paper will be manually entered in a book before it is counted. (Last elections this was the process i.e. No robots or scanners). If your job is to do this task for hours in a fairly noisy place, in the middle of the night, where there are several watchers (representatives of all the candidates) you need concentration. At the last election Forest Hill ward was the last one to be counted and our result was declared probably about 4am.

So doing the count the following day is actually sensible approach IMHO.

I agree Maja, much more sensible approach, odd that others don’t do it.

You said 4am does that mean when Lewisham does the general election it is done overnight? Is that something central government mandates?

Rumours on Twitter that Heidi Alexander will announce her resignation as an MP after the count is complete (it could be nonsense).

Related topic: Heidi Alexander's move to City Hall to trigger Lewisham by-election

Surely it is reasonable to ask why Lewisham is much later than many other Boroughs?

Come on folks - Maja has provided a very detailed explanation. Let’s move on.

Evelyn, Downham and Whitefoot wards in. Labour sweep.

Ditto Crofton Park, which at least had a 42% turnout - 10-12% more than anywhere else that’s declared so far.

Edit: Ladywell: 3 reds and 45% turnout

Wonder if that was the Karen Sunderland effect.

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Bellingham Ward. Labour, Labour, Labour.

Forest Hill. Labour x 3. 42% turnout!

In 2014, in Crofton Park, the Conservatives won a total of 10.3% of the votes.

In 2018, in Crofton Park, with Karen Sunderland, the Conservatives won a total of 10.4% of the votes.

Also note not every borough has elected Mayor. Therefore there are 2 counts for us.

Not to my knowledge. It is up to election officer to set up when the count will be done. I guess it is done overnight as it is possible to do it all because you only vote for one candidate. That is much easier to count.

I forgot to mention, last time the mayoral vote was done the following day, so even after the most night work not all results were in.

Waiting to see the Brockley result to see if we have any opposition councillors in Lewisham!

In 2014, the Conservatives candidates did not rank in the bottom three places in Crofton Park.

In 2018, the two Conservative candidates ranked in the bottom three, with suspended Conservative candidate Sunderland.

Nope.

Labour sweep in Perry Vale.

It is awful

It is worse than we had, no opposition at all, 54 seats Labour.

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Farce

That’s very sad for local democracy. It’s hard to see a future here for anyone that cares about local politics and is right of centre.

Chris, Labour has good tactics: Labour for poor, poor for Labour. Until Lewisham stays poor, Labour will be reproducing itself.

Deprivation

‘’ In the Index of Multiple Deprivation, Lewisham ranks as the 48th most deprived of all 326 local authorities, placing it in the 20% most deprived areas in England. ‘’

They are expert in the dark art of identity politics.

They “own” the poor and they “own” the BAME community.

Labour policy self-perpetuates the Labour vote.

Lewisham is a lost borough.

Yes, poor - poor financially, poorly educated, poorly brought up, the list is long. Shame.

Not as sad as 52:48 in the referendum.

Political spectrum aside, the real issue here is that there is not a single, solitary voice of opposition. Councillors will have to be very diligent if they are to avoid groupthink.

At least the turnout was 72% - almost two-and-a-half times what it was in some wards yesterday.

Diligent

They would not care! 4 years for them are secured, they will relax now and would not care less! And when the next elections come, they will get their gang together to do exactly what they did this time.

That was brilliant!

The result of that referendum is that British people will no longer have only 10% representation in a parliament that makes laws which are supreme over them.

British people will (eventually, when we fully leave) have 100% representation.

That referendum makes our politicians more local, more accountable, and more representative.

What happened today in Lewisham has made our councillors completely unaccountable.

They may be the best councillors. There may be no corruption. But we won’t know either way.

I would like to disagree, i think my comment was very symbolic.

Deprivation

In the Index of Multiple Deprivation, Lewisham ranks as the 48th most deprived of all 326 local authorities, placing it in the 20% most deprived areas in England. Deprivation is concentrated in New Cross and Downham, where in both wards nine out of the ten Lower Super Output Areas are in the 20% most deprived in England. Pockets of deprivation are spread throughout the borough, but the areas of the highest deprivation are found in Evelyn, Lewisham Central, Rushey Green, Whitefoot, and Bellingham wards.

Lewisham has the highest proportion of children and young people (29.6%) and older people (25.7%) in economic deprivation in England (Indicies of Multiple Deprivation 2015).

Poverty

See how Lewisham fares in comparison with the other London boroughs in terms of:

inequality
homelessness
housing
worklessness
benefits and welfare reform
education and
health.

According to the Trust for London Poverty profile Lewisham ranks among the worst in benefits and welfare reform and education.

But Labour voters would not care to read that and even research. Because if they did, they would never vote for Labour.

Interested to hear what others feel about the results. Do any Labour voters feel concerned, or do you think the unanimity will help get stuff done locally?

Sorry Chris little more info

Conservatives came second in the mayoral run but, again, with huge difference:

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I’m a labour supporter and remainder but I think its unhealthy to have no opposition, worse so when we have an executive mayor.

I have a question, if i may, what are reasons for you Labour support?

Very disappointed that we have another 4 years of a “one party state”. But it doesn’t help when the candidates don’t communicate with their constituents and so many people can’t even be bothered to vote.

Well many but in summary:

I know that I and maybe average person in the UK would be better off under the conservatives. I can see that UK Plc would be more productive etc. etc. but.

I believe that as fellow human beings we should be looking out for each other. I have been very fortunate in my life, born to loving parents, been given good health and able to hold down a job that pays me a reasonable salary. Many are not so lucky though and I feel that as a society we need to support them. Further I believe that we are all of equal value to society, that’s never going to be reflected by pay, earnings, property etc. and so we need sensible taxes to distribute some of that wealth. Part of that all comes from the welfare state but part also comes from how people make laws, I’d like to see council tax doubled for every month a house is empty (to encourage it to be rented out), I’d like to see employees as preferential creditors in a insolvency situation and I’d like it to be illegal to declare a dividend if your pension fund is in deficit.

Now I accept that comes with some inefficiency, but I would rather suffer supporting the odd person too many than missing someone out that does need support. I also accept that if you go too far left then people might be less motivated to work to support themselves, within reason (I’m not a communist) then this is better than not supporting others.

What I’m not is a Corbyn supporter, mainly because I feel he is too far left to get elected, without being elected we can’t achieve anything. Nor am I a supporter of the big state, I’m not fussed how healthcare is delivered if people much cleverer than me have worked out its better done by the private sector then so be it so long as it is delivered to all. I’m also not a big trade unionist, while I agree people should be able to club together so they can negotiate with employers I feel trade unions mainly support the older generation at the expense of the younger. My experience of them has been that they fight to keep good ts and cs, keep defined benefit pensions etc. when they do that its the younger people who loose out. They can’t dig their heels in as they need to progress in their careers, they can’t dream of a defined benefit pension and its their defined contribution pension that ends up having to pay the price.

So what I’m saying is that I lean just slightly to the left, I know its not perfect, I just think that the not perfect left is slightly better for the UK than the equally as not perfect right.

Dan

Thank you Dan for sharing

Do you feel that Lewisham local goverment and the Council under Labour, for how many years they were in power, delivered your expectations? And if yes, which of your expectations, do you feel, have been met by them ?

Says it all!

I wonder if various left-wing comedians will keep their seats on Question Time despite no one ever voting for them in any election, local or general?

Perhaps a discussion best continued in our General Politics category and not in here (which is a public area of the forum)

Comedians left, right or centre have no place on Question Time. As long as they do its only an entertainment show. Though seldom entertaining.

With the possible exception of Eddy Izzard who is on the Labour NEC and Boris Johnson who is Foriegn Secretary

For clarity I’m a labour supporter but I didn’t vote for them this week as I’m not keen on a one party state. I also think that local and national politics can’t be compared. I personably wonder whether some local positions would be better served by trustees or non exec directors.

Saying that from my totally uneducated view I don’t think Lewisham council do all that bad a job as a whole to be honest, most recently thanks to their new interim chief exec coming in. That’s obviousky despite my regular grumbles.

New Mayor of Lewisham Damien Eagan has announced on twitter the following

Delighted to announce I am nominating @JanetDaby as Deputy Mayor of Lewisham. Building on her great work in community safety and as an committed local activist, Janet will also have responsibility for children’s social care #ForTheMany

I am nominating @PaulBell1971 as my Cabinet Member for Housing. In this vital role, Paul will lead on our pledges to deliver 1,000 new social homes and build a new generation of council-owned homes for private rent #ForTheMany

I am nominating @kevinbonavia as Cabinet Member for Democracy, Refugees & Accountability. Kevin will lead the Local Democracy Review we announced in our manifesto and lead on our pledge to become a Sanctuary Borough by expanding our refugee resettlement programme #ForTheMany

In our manifesto we pledged to promote flexible working which is why I’m pleased to be nominating @Brenda_Dacres and @SophieMcGeevor to job-share as Cabinet Member for Parks, Neighbourhoods & Transport to lead our work on leisure, green spaces, recycling & air quality #ForTheMany

I am nominating @chris_barnham as Cabinet Member for School Performance. I am proud we will have a dedicated cabinet member focussed on improving the performance of Lewisham’s schools by supporting our brilliant teachers, heads, governors and parents #ForTheMany

I suppose there will be more announcements today.

I should like firstly to congratulate the newly elected Councillors for Forest Hill. Then I want to say how much I enjoyed meeting the voters in the ward and hearing their varying views. The ones who needed their trees cutting back, the ones who would like more trees to be planted, the hero who arranged for the planting of many trees in his neighbourhood. The sufferers from official neglect whether it be damp or roads that no-one takes responsibility for and the volunteers trying to fill the gaps in official provision. To all those of all ages who took the time and trouble to answer the door and engage with us in discussion a heartfelt thankyou. I look forward to meeting you all again .Margot Wilson,
Libdem Candidate for Forest Hill

And the rest of the cabinet

Delighted to announce I am nominating @ChrisBestUK as Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Social Care to continue her great work supporting our local NHS and our older residents, sign UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter and ensure parity of esteem for mental health services #ForTheMany

I am nominating @JoaniReid as Cabinet Member for Safer Communities to work in partnership with our local police officers to make our borough safer. Joani will also lead on developing a public health approach to preventing youth violence #ForTheMany

For our second Cabinet job-share, I am nominating @AmandadeRyk and @Joe_Dromey as Cabinet Member for Finance, Skills & Jobs to lead on our budget, doubling the number of Living Wage employers in Lewisham and expanding our apprenticeship service #ForTheMany

I am nominating @jgslater as my Cabinet Member for the Community Sector. In this role Jonathan will work in partnership with Lewisham’s voluntary and community organisations and lead on child poverty and equalities #ForTheMany