Local council and European parliamentary elections are taking place on Thursday 22 May and it’s important to vote.
Lambeth Council may no longer directly manage our homes on Kennington Park Estate but the TA works closely with our councillors, they come to our meetings, take up individuals’ problems and sit on Hyde committees.
The Council’s decisions and the services it provides affect much of our lives, whether it’s emptying the bins, recycling our rubbish, filling in potholes, providing education for our children at Henry Fawcett and other local schools and nurseries, funding and supporting Kennington Park, Durning Library, Oval House Theatre, and many of our local sporting and recreational facilities, providing social care and support for our elderly, young, sick or disabled residents, backing local businesses, creating jobs and apprenticeships or deciding on local planning or licensing applications. Badly hit by central government restrictions and cutbacks, nevertheless our local Council can still be an important voice for us all (as was seen recently when they supported campaigns to keep Clapham Fire Station and Kennington Park Post Office open), and how we vote can make a real difference to our lives.
We have three local councillors for our Ward and therefore we each get three votes. Remember to use all your votes. Local democracy is important – if you don’t use it, you could lose it!
All the candidates for Oval Ward can be found here.
The European elections
The European Parliament represents people living in the 28 member countries of the European Union including the UK.
In London an electorate of more than five million people will have the opportunity to vote for their representatives in the European Parliament (called Members of the European Parliament or MEPs). Candidates backed by 17 political parties will compete for eight seats to represent the entire population of the capital.
The European Parliamentary Elections are run using a form of proportional representation. Voters have one vote only. This vote is cast for a political party and not an individual candidate on the list. Each political party submits a list of candidates in priority order.
Parties win more seats (which are then allocated to the candidates on the list in priority order) according to the overall share of the vote the party receives. As MEPs represent the whole of London everybody who is eligible to vote in the capital will be voting for the same list of parties and candidates.
London’s candidates can be found here.
Our polling station is at Henry Fawcett School. It will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 22 May.
If you have a postal vote you must return it before 10pm on 22 May, either by post or by taking it to the Town Hall during working hours or to your polling station (but remember you won’t be allowed to vote in person if you’ve already got a postal vote).
More information about the elections can be found here.
