De Beauvoir by-election: Labour hopeful promises to be a ‘strong advocate for local people’

Labour by-election candidate Joe Walker. Photograph: Julia Gregory

A would-be councillor wants to do a walk around De Beauvoir with the police as a priority if he wins a seat in the upcoming De Beauvoir by-election.

Candidates are campaigning hard following the resignation of newly elected Tom Dewey just two weeks after May’s local elections.

Joe Walker last stood for Labour in Springfield ward in 2018, where he lost out despite winning 1,584 votes.

He said the cost of living is troubling many of De Beauvoir’s residents.

His experience as a director at both community organisation Clapton Commons, which aims to bring neighbours together, and local venue the Round Chapel, makes him determined to help alleviate food poverty.

Working with different community groups would help him “be a strong advocate for local people”, he said, and “push the council on issues that we know are really important”.

He added: “The crisis of the pandemic and lockdowns has reshaped the relationship between the council and the voluntary sector.

“I bring a real understanding from the grassroots for the key issues that we know are impacting De Beauvoir.”

Walker has worked in international development, focusing on children’s rights and street children in Africa, and for charities including Oxfam. He co-founded the charity Street Action and served as an adviser on children’s rights and global education to former prime minister Gordon Brown.

On the campaign trail, people have raised concerns about crime, and Walker said it is essential to build relationships with the police and community safety teams.

It follows the Child Q scandal, when it was revealed a Black teenager was strip-searched by police in her Hackney school.

Walker said: “Sometimes there are difficult conversations we must not shy away from having.”

He said Hackney Council’s recent anti-racism conference gave people a chance to get together and discuss the problem and ways to tackle it.

“What I want to do on day one, if I am elected as councillor, is walk around with the police and the community safety team,” he said. “I have learnt what people want on the doorstep and have a strong sense of what the issues are.”

He is also backing the campaign for a new School Street on Enfield Road. The scheme sees roads near schools shut to motor vehicles at the start and end of school days to cut air pollution and encourage families and staff to walk or cycle to school.

“School Streets have been really successful and really embraced by the local community,” Walker explained. “It’s very much part of tackling the climate crisis in Hackney.”

Walker is a trustee of Hackney Winter Night Shelter and said voters have raised concerns about housing in De Beauvoir and what’s happening about repairs on the estates.

He said the council has pledged to deal with 80 per cent of its repairs backlog by July, and added: ” I do recognise that some of the systems are not working for everybody.”

The 2020 cyber attack hit council services but Walker said it is important not to use it as an excuse.

He is also campaigning on the Labour administration’s pledge to build new council homes.

The full list of candidates for the De Beauvoir by-election on Thursday 7 July is: Kristal Bayliss, Women’s Equality Party; Oliver Hall, Conservative party; Thrusie Maurseth-Cahill, Liberal Democrats; Kelly Reid, Independent Network; Tyrone Scott, Green party; Joe Walker, Labour party.