There are 63 councillors in Southwark Council. Of these, the Labour party currently has 48 councillors, the Liberal Democrat party  has 13 and the Conservative party has two. At the moment, there are no Greens on Southwark Council.

Next door, Lambeth and Lewisham have Green councillors – so why not us? Residents get a better deal when councils include different voices. The Electoral Reform Society has shown that people living in areas ruled by ‘one-party councils’ miss out on savings of around £2.6 billion a year! In Lambeth, Green counillor Scott Ainslie has supported the work of the independent 'People's Audit' which has identified errors and potential savings in the Lambeth Council accounts. Across the country, elected Greens scrutinise council contracts and accounts to make sure that councils are fair, transparent and getting a good deal for residents.

Southwark Council suffers from a lack of opposition. Labour Party councillors have pushed through the demolition of hundreds of council homes on the Heygate and Aylesbury estates, selling the land to private developers. The Green Party opposes the sale of public property for private gain. We will protect council homes and invest in building genuinely affordable homes.

And Southwark people are suffering from a lack of vision on public health. Labour have taken almost no action on air pollution. Green activists have paid for and carried out our own air pollution monitoring - with diffusion tubes supplied and analysed by the same company that is used by Southwark Council. They revealed levels of NO2 pollution more than TWICE the legal limit on busy pavements on Denmark Hill.

• We've lobbied the Mayor to clean up dirty diesel buses.
• We've run a free 'Travel Clinic' to help people find out the money they could save by choosing not to use a private car.
• We've taken part in 'anti-idling' sessions run by Idling Action.
• We've planted living screens around a school playground to shield children from air and noise pollution. 

In Southwark, the Green Party is the real alternative. We took 2nd place in one third of Southwark wards in the local elections in 2014. If you think having a Green voice on Southwark Council would be a good idea, please make us your first choice in 2018.