Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Southwark Labour Conference 2009

Saturday saw the 3rd Annual Southwark Labour Conference, which we held in Bermondsey at the Beormund Centre. It was a terrific day with speeches from Harriet Harman MP, Ed Milliband MP, Cllr Steve Reed and Val Shawcross AM.

We also held two working group sessions which discussed policies for the local elections which will be taking place on the 6th of May next year.

The day was really well attended,and it was terrific that so many members wanted to contribute to the debate about ideas for making Southwark a better place to live.
Ed Milliband, the Environment Secretary, spoke about the need for us to make the case for wind farms - over 70% of the population think they are a good idea, but 'NIMBY'ism takes over when a planning application is submitted. Even on the Isle of Wight, where the Vesta Wind Turbine factory has recently closed, the Tory Council and Tory MP opposed the erection of wind turbines! So people have to be consistent in how they want us to generate power in future.

In Southwark the administration cannot portray itself as 'green' yet sell off our metropolitan open land and green spaces. We do have to preserve what little green space we have in our borough!
Harriet Harman has been a great supporter of our borough conferences - and I hope that we will be able to welcome her back next year when we celebrate the first 100 days of a Labour Council back in Southwark!

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