• I WAS tickled to see the CNJ’s Richard Osley tweet how Camden Labour seemingly copied their election slogan from Camden Conservatives.

Their “Safer, Cleaner, Fairer” slogan is almost identical to the slogan “A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Camden” that Camden Conservatives have used for the past four years.

But Labour have made one change, though: to remove “greener”. I suspect that this is deliberate, not just so Labour aren’t copying the Conservatives identically but because their platform really isn’t that green.

I advise councils worldwide on how to use technology to decarbonise and tackle climate change. So I particularly note that one of their banner “green” policies is to install an unambitious, paltry 400 public electric vehicle (EV) charge points over the next four years.

While this sounds like a lot, it’s a woefully inadequate response to levels of demand and a tiny fraction of the numbers installed by other boroughs.

In the last year alone Conservative-run Westminster Council installed 501 EV chargers. That’s more in one year than Labour want Camden to install in the next four years. And Labour only installed a pathetic 15 EV chargers in Camden last year.

On top of that the standard charging points we already have don’t even work: in South Hampstead 90 per cent are out of order.

I’ve seen desperate residents dangling extension cables over pavements to make their own makeshift chargers, and notes from neighbours begging for a parking space next to the last few working chargers. The demand is undoubtedly there, and Labour is failing to meet it.

I guess we should be grateful for any commitment. But installing one charger for every 7,000 households is not a serious response to the challenges of climate change.

It shows a huge lack of ambition. Perhaps that’s why Labour felt too ashamed to include the word “greener”.

CALVIN PO
Conservative Candidate for South Hampstead