We need independent, citizen voices in the Town Hall

End LTN chaos and unblock our roads * Citizen Forums to decide on major local issues * More power and control for residents’ associations * Abolish Hackney’s dictatorial Mayoral system 

We are facing major economic and social issues for which we need proper representation in the Town Hall. Haggerston has been hit badly by Hackney Council’s socially divisive LTN chaos. When it comes to housing – whether public or private, owners or renters – we are facing formidable issues for which we need help and support. We are all facing a cost of living crisis! 

Yet on every level, our elected representatives are failing us, and are increasingly distant and dictatorial! It’s time for a different approach. It’s time for citizens to shake up the Town Hall. 

Dear Haggerston voter, 

My name is Niall and I am campaigning as an independent candidate in the Haggerston ward, where I have lived for the last five years.  

Like many other local residents, I’m tired of being preached to by town-hall politicians, bureaucrats and lobby groups. It’s time these self-serving busy-bodies were replaced by those who know better. Us! 

The Council has to stop closing roads and public services without asking us. I’m fed up with being told how to live. I don’t want to hear again about the ‘health benefits’ of walking and cycling everywhere to justify why they closed our roads to cars. Each time they ‘consult’ us and ask our opinions, we end up being ignored, regardless! 

For many years, what we think and want has been mostly ignored or belittled. I want to fight for what local people want: a proper say in the decisions made by the local Council in our name.

Councillors have been taking voters for granted for too long. It’s time for a fresh approach. We need to shake up the Town Hall and renew our local democracy. 

I have lived in Hackney for over 20 years and plenty of experience of life, community and business here. Before moving to Haggerston, I lived (for years) on the De Beauvoir Estate and experienced many of the housing problems so many of us face, ranging from dealing with serious construction issues and soaring maintenance costs, to council estate disrepair and bureaucratic mismanagement.

In the early 2000s my partner and I opened The Eclipse bar (now the Elderfield) in Lower Clapton, and helped kickstart the revival of the area. We did it in the face of an obstructive and unhelpful council (even back then!), and so I know very well how difficult it can be to run a business in a place like Hackney. Supporting businesses is something I strongly believe in and I think we need an independent business network in Hackney.

Running a neighbourhood bar was a real privilege. Amongst other things I learned first-hand how wonderful, generous and resourceful people in Hackney often are. That goes for newer and older residents, so are often set against one another by Hackney Council’s socially divisive politics. I think we all have much more in common than we often realise. I really believe we can find ways and means of coming together across generations and communities. Too much is made of our ‘differences’ and not nearly enough of what we have in common. We need a much more cohesive community but council policy often puts barriers in our way, stopping us coming together.

I worked for years as a carer for my mother who suffered with vascular dementia and was bedridden for almost a decade.  I feel strongly about how we look after our older generation and families, carers and neighbours who do such an amazing job of looking out for them. The elderly should be at the very heart of our community and not shoved off to the sidelines. 

These are just a few of the reasons why I am standing and asking for your vote. Please vote for me on 5 May. 

Niall Crowley