Much done, much more to do - and an awful lot to lose.

I know I speak for all of us
when I promise we won’t let you down

It hard to believe that this BBC News report was filmed four years ago. But it was. I know that, like me, my fellow Labour councillors and our candidates, remain as determined now to make our residents proud as we were that election night, when local people across our borough hired us to do their bidding - and when I gave that interview.

These are challenging times but there’s much we’ve done: we’ve hired the best lawyers and health advisers in the country to join our fight to save Charing Cross Hospital. We’ve put the largest ever amount of council-funded police onto our streets in the borough’s history and we are the only administration in London to cut council tax over the last four years.

People sometimes think politicians are all the same. I understand why. But since our residents elected us into office in 2014 my colleagues and I have been striving to prove we’re different - by our deeds, not words.

In a few weeks time, on May 3, there is a real and stark choice on what happens to our community over the next 4 years. For many decades now our borough has only ever elected Labour or Conservative councillors. 

Whatever the rights and wrongs of our voting system, no other political party stands even a close chance of getting any of their candidates elected. A vote for any of them will help let the Conservatives back in.

The Conservatives are hoping you’ll forget what they did last time, so they can do it all again. So just a quick reminder of some of the things Conservative councillors did when they ran Hammersmith & Fulham just 4 years ago: 

• They sold off council homes, sold off community centres and sold off youth clubs - all at knock-down prices during the biggest property boom in the post war period
• They slashed funding to street cleaning and set about privatising our local parks e.g. here and here
• They sold off the Gibbs Green and West Kensington estates at a knock-down price and with such bad contractual obligations, they were highly likely to have bankrupted the council if the deal was ever implimented
• Closed Sands End Community Centre and tried to close Sulivan Primary School
• They vastly increased council charges, putting parking fees up 55% and raising meals-on-wheels charges by £700 a year and cruelly cut services to our most vulnerable elderly citizens
• They took lavish hospitality from property speculators enjoying free meals, free entertainment and free sports tickets - all while sanctioning the building of vast numbers of luxury flats for overseas investors. They even voted to keep doing so when tried tried to stop them
• Worst of all, the Conservatives backed plans to bulldoze Charing Cross Hospital and replace it with a small clinic.

We know that if we lose our hospital, our parks and our genuinely affordable homes, we will never get them back.

Some of the change we've brought

From the start, we sought to be ruthlessly efficient with taxpayers’ money. 

We took a tough approach to negotiating with property developers and won an initial £52.15 million for our residents by re-negotiating deals the Conservatives had already closed. Now, at this point, our hard-nosed stance towards developers has won our borough a record £310 million. 

We have cut £70 million of wasteful council spending. And we have built partnerships with residents, businesses and local institutions so we can get more things done together. So:

• As well as cutting council tax over the last four years, we have also frozen parking charges, slashed meals-on-wheels charges and reduced 85% of all council charges to our residents as featured on the BBC's Daily Politics programme
• As well as putting in extra police, we have invested in new CCTV and taken new measures to target and deter those at risk of getting involved with crime
• We are fighting hard to save the Gibbs Green and West Kensington estates and undo one of the worst financial deals done in modern local government history
• We have made a huge investments to make our streets cleaner and improve the quality of our air and put in the largest amount electric car charging bays in the UK and delivered a new electric car club for our residents - As this BBC radio feature details
• We are building the largest number of genuinely affordable homes in 10 years
• We saved Sulivan Primary School
• We negotiated funds from Chelsea Football Club and Thames Tideway to build a brand new Sands End Arts & Community Centre which will be run by local people for local people
• We're rejuvenating North End Road market as you can hear about here on BBC Radio London
• We are the only council in the country to abolish charges for adult social care as featured in this BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, You and Yours, and the Mail on Sunday
• We're the first council to stop using bailiffs to collect council tax, have introduced a huge new support programme for food banks, have taken all children out of homeless B&B accommodation and are setting the high bar for ending rough sleeping
• We have a new ground-breaking Industrial Strategy in partnership with a local university which aspires to bring our residents the best possible jobs and business opportunities for decades to come - as this BBC News report tells
• We are campaigning to ensure voters have the final say on the Brexit deal Theresa May ends up negotiating alongside the option an stay in the EU. Sign our petition here
• And, of course, we are fighting to defend Charing Cross Hospital.

My colleagues and I are seeking to run a different kind of council, one that listens more and works with our residents to find smarter, more creative ways to take us forward. The Conservatives will just take us back.

The outcome of your vote on 3 May will have a huge impact on our borough and this neighbourhood for the next four years. There is so much to lose.

So on May 3rd,  please vote for all our Labour candidates. I know I speak for all of us when I promise we won’t let you down.