Last week's council election results: an unclear future for the borough

What will the outcome of last week's elections, which leaves the council without a majority party, mean for the borough? What difference will the new Green group make?

Voters elected five Green Party candidates, seen here at the Civic Centre after the count. Left-to-right: Ratip al Sulaiman (Enfield Lock), Sarah Jons (Enfield Lock), Laura Davenport (New Southgate), Madeline Church (New Southgate), Aziz Yildiz (Ponders End) (Photo:Kim Rickwood)

After last week's elections left no party with an overall majority on Enfield Council, talks between the three groups which now have elected councillors are under way with the aim of agreeing a solution that will make it possible to elect a leader and form an administration.

The factor which brought about this novel situation was the election of five Green Party candidates.

Voters elected 31 Conservative party candidates, one less than needed for a majority, while Labour's representation on the council is now reduced to 27. This means that some sort of agreement with the five Greens will be needed before either the Conservatives or Labour can form an administration. There are several possibilities, some of which are explored in a report on the Enfield Dispatch website. Dispatch editor James Cracknell writes that he “understands” the most likely outcome to be a minority Conservative administration, with Greens supporting particular policies but without a formal coalition.

In a statement issued after the election results were confirmed, co-chair David Flint outlined the Greens' priorities:

“Enfield Green Party is keen to get to work for the people of Enfield, delivering on the principles and manifesto commitments on which its councillors were elected: protecting green spaces, cleaning up our streets, improving air quality, and defending the local services residents depend on.”

New town, LTNs, cycle lanes... where does this leave us?

For residents of Palmers Green, an important question remains unanswered: will the large low-traffic neighbourhood in the Fox Lane area be removed, in line with the Tories' pre-election pledge, or will it remain in force, in line with the policy of the other two parties?

Looking at the levels of support for the three main parties in Palmers Green ward, we see that votes for the parties in favour of retaining the LTNs predominate. While, south of the North Circular Road, voters in New Southgate ward, which includes the larger half of the Bowes LTN, elected two Green candidates. And if we add up votes across the whole borough for Labour and the Greens, there is no sign of the voters providing a mandate to remove the two low-traffic zones.

While LTNs are an issue locally, if we look at the whole of the western part of the borough a major point of contention with the policies of the outgoing Labour administration has been the proposed “Crews Hill and Chase Park New Town”, to be built on green belt land in the north west. Here the alignment between the three parties on the council is different: Greens side with the Conservatives in opposing the scheme, which is supported by Labour.

In their manifesto, the Enfield Tories pledged to “immediately withdraw from the New Town process” and promised a shift in planning policy “from high-rise tower blocks to high-quality family homes, preserving the suburban character that makes Enfield unique”. But how much help will the “high-quality suburban homes” be to the huge number of homeless people in the borough or poverty-stricken families living in unhealthily overcrowded conditions in the east of the borough, for whom these houses could be nothing but a pipe dream? You will search in vain in the manifesto to find any mention of the dire housing problems afflicting the borough, mainly, but by no means exclusively in the east.

In any case, the new town is now a central government proposal - though one where the detail and supporting evidence have so far been withheld - and Enfield Council may not be able to block it. But there is nothing to indicate that the new town would be of much help in solving the housing crisis in the east of the borough, and in recent years the Labour administration's record with regard to housing is particularly poor. To quote a recent post on the Better Homes Enfield website, “For 15 years, Enfield Council has made big promises on housing, regeneration, jobs and parks. But too often the results have gone the other way. Homes have not been built at the scale promised. Social rent homes have been lost. Homelessness is among the worst in the country.”

On another issue - cycle lanes - the alignment reverts to Labour plus Greens versus Tories. The Conservatives promised to "rip out" the cycle lanes that run along the A1010 through Edmonton towards Waltham Cross. If the Tories form the administration, will the Greens be able to prevent removal of this infrastructure, designed to save lives and tackle the climate emergency?

An interesting time ahead?

Whether or not we see a change of council leader from Labour to Conservative, for the next four years the council administration will be much more constrained than in recent times, no longer able to take councillors' votes in favour of their policies for granted and now having to take into account the views of individual members of their own party and the views of the five Green councillors. It will be an interesting time!