New council

The local election results are available on the Camden website. Liberal Democrats took all six seats in our two wards: Fortune Green and West Hampstead. Your new councillors are:

Fortune Green: Flick Rea, Jane Schopflin and Russell Eagling
West Hampstead: Keith Moffitt, John Bryant and Duncan Greenland

What is more, Keith Moffitt - who leads the Liberal Democrats in Camden - looks like he will also be the new council leader. For the first time in 35 years, Labour has lost over-all control of Camden. The Liberal Democrats emerge as the biggest party and are likely to be calling the shots - unless, as is theoretically possible but hard to imagine, the Conservatives go into coalition with Labour.

The contest in our neighbourhood didn't quite turn out to be the two-way fight between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that I had predicted. While Labour came second to the Lib Dems in West Hampstead, they were pushed into third place by the Conservatives in Fortune Green. The Greens, who stood candidates but did not campaign in the area, came fourth in both wards.

So what does the change of control at the town hall mean? While media analysis this morning has portrayed Labour's loss of Camden as a function of the party's national problems, it's worth remembering that there were local issues at work too. Camden has a reputation as one of the most authoritarian enforcers of parking controls and there were at least three campaigns running in the borough critical of Labour's handling of this issue. The Liberal Democrats, in a pre-election survey, picked up that people wanted a more sensitive, more listening council. They emphasised both these themes - together with cutting local bureaucracy and care for the local environment - in their answers to questions put by Northwest 6 at the start of the campaign. Another of their themes was the need for a new secondary school west of the Finchley Road.

More resident-friendly parking controls, a more listening council and sufficient school places for families living in West Hampstead. You know what the Lib Dems have promised. Now watch to see if the new largest party on the council can deliver without over-all control.