Edmund Frondigoun takes his seat after arriving more than an hour into the hustings

LABOUR latecomers left the stage free on Monday night for an alliance of left-wingers to fire away at the council. Sarah Friday, who is standing for the Camden’s People Alliance, had almost a free run at hustings at the Somers Town Community Association to lay out her views on the need for a change at the Town Hall.

She told the hall that Labour councillors cared more about party politics than their constituents, that local authority services let out to profit-seeking contractors should be brought in-house, the pay dispute with teaching assistants in the borough’s schools should be resolved and that council housing had been left to crumble so it could be demolished.

“Housing is a key area – we want to look at what housing there is in this borough,” said Ms Friday. “Theare a scandalous amount of voids, empty properties. We also need to set up a proactive of programme of maintenance in council properties, because they are being allowed to fall into rack and ruin.”

She argued the Labour government should be providing investment, but she also questioned whether there was money in Camden already. “We are the third richest borough in the country – let that sink in when we are constantly told we don’t have the money,” Ms Friday said. “If we need to set a budget that goes into council reserves – well, that might be necessary.”

The three Labour ward councillors – Edmund Frondigoun, Shah Miah and Samata Khatoon – eventually arrived more than an hour into the debate and the hustings was told that they had told organisers of an existing diary commitment that they all had to go to.

Cllr Frondigoun was asked what they had done for the area since first getting elected in 2022. “Everything we said we’d do, we have achieved,” he said. Cllr Frondigoun said one example would be securing millions of pounds in funding from the British Library as it plans to develop the rear of the building.

“Originally they weren’t going to give us anything,” he said. “That’s a contribution for the area that we have secured. Every one of our surgeries and pretty much our entire email bag is people saying they have housing pressures. “I make no apology that our stance is to increase the supply of social and intermediate housing, and we have a local lettings policy so that families in Somers Town can access it.”

Sarah Friday from the Camden People’s Alliance

At one stage, a woman shouted at him that they didn’t believe they engaged with residents as much as he said – as she had a Ring doorbell camera and they had never knocked. Cllr Frondigoun said the party had pledges to spend more on community safety and more green spaces, although before he had arrived residents had been complaining that the new area in Polygon Road was already tarnished by litter which they claimed they had to pick up themselves.

“We’ve paid money to hire 20 more community enforcement officers,” he said, adding that safer neighbourhood teams were out on later patrols. St Pancras and Somers Town has traditionally been one of Labour’s safest wards at election time, but the CPA believe it could cause a surprise. It has seen how a large number of people voted for the independent candidate Andrew Feinstein against Sir Keir Starmer in the ward at the last general election.

The CPA also have candidates in King’s Cross and in both areas the Greens are not standing to avoid a conflict. Some Labour supporters privately questioned whether the event had been set up as a bear pit of obvious opponents to the party – rather than residents from the ward. The Conservatives sent Paul Tavares, their candidate in Primrose Hill to speak at the meeting.

Ms Friday said: “We’ve had the cronies of Keir Starmer here, a strong word but I don’t think there is any other better descriptive word for it. We have councillors at Camden Council who just want to be MP, so they don’t want to rock the boat. They want to climb that slippery pole.

“So we have a duty with Keir Starmer being our MP – the rest of the country will be sending Keir Starmer a strong message on May 7 that ‘you’re not wanted’, and we need to reinforce that message because that will have resonance around the country if they see the Labour Party doing badly even in Starmer’s backyard.”

She added: “The councillors have done nothing but back up Starmer. Why have they stayed silence over Gaza? Why they have they sat on their hands?”

Luxury flats tower looms over estates

Protests during the construction of Grand Central Apartments

CAMDEN People’s Alliance candidate Sarah Friday said the tower of luxury private homes built on green space Coopers Lane estate haunted the area.

The Town Hall allowed the development to raise money for improvements to the area including the refurbishment of Edith Neville Primary School.

But opponents argued at the time that such works should have been funded by direct investment.

“Hardly any of those flats are people buying to live in the community,” she said. “People invested in them like stocks, like investing in gold. They see homes as investments.”

A one bedroom flat in the ‘Grand Central Apartments’ at Brill Place can be rented for £3,250 per month – roughly £755 per week.