• I WOULD like to join those who have congratulated the New Journal on being awarded the title of the UK’s best weekly newspaper. It is hard-earnt and well deserved.

Your journalists have done a fantastic job in uncovering the stories that really matter in Camden. Our borough is a better place because of your efforts. But the job is never over.

Labour’s excellent May 3 result was something I worked hard to help achieve. The party is now a very powerful force with 43 councillors, compared with the Tories (seven) Lib Dems (three) and Greens (one).

Keeping up the standards of local government will require careful scrutiny. Some will be provided by the opposition, some by the scrutiny panels inside the council, but there is a major role for the media.

Here is where you will have to continue holding the council to account. I have no doubt that this is exactly what you intend to do and I welcome this – even – as a Labour member if I find some of your coverage uncomfortable, if not downright infuriating.

My only request is that you reflect all sides in the internal debates within Labour, and don’t favour one over another.

As for the New Journal itself, what needs to be done to build on this success? I would argue the format of the newspaper is old-fashioned and tired. It really needs a renewal and a redesign.

This may be beyond the paper’s resources and if you decide that the status quo is good enough, then so be it. But in the long-run I think it would be an investment well worth making. Good luck with the year ahead.

MARTIN PLAUT
NW5