Politics of Hackney

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Hackney Town Hall was built in the 1930s for the old Metropolitan Borough. (October 2005)

The London Borough of Hackney is a Labour Party governed inner London borough with an overwhelming majority, increased from the 2006 local election following the defection of the Liberal Democrat representative of Cazenove ward Councillor Joeseph Stauber in 2008 to thirty-three. The fifty-seven seats representing the nineteen wards of the Borough are divided up between the Labour Prty with forty-five, the Conservative Party with twelve, Liberal Democrats two, and the Green Party with one.^[1]^[2]

1 Current Structure
2 2006 Elections
3 History
4 Borough Wards
5 Links
6 References

[edit] Current Structure

Unlike most other English local authorities, the Borough is now governed by a directly-elected Mayor who is also the political leader of the council. The Mayor elected for a second term in office and representing the Labour Party, is Jules Pipe CBE and is supported by a Cabinet, Councillors and a Speaker, currently for 2008-2009 Councillor Ian Rathbone, whom fulfils the civic and ceremonial duties previously undertaken by the (non-political) mayor^[3].

The Borough is divided in to nineteen electoral wards, each returning three Councillors in a first three past the post system of elections. The Mayor of Hackney selects approximately nine Councillors to make up a Cabinet^[4] whom take responsibility of the governance of the Borough's civil service, and represent the Mayor and Council on strategic bodies such as Team Hackney^[5], the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) Hackney Homes^[6] which governs the Borough's estate, and the Learning Trust^[7], governing the provision of education within the Borough.

The quasi-judicial functions of the Council called Regulatory, are carried out by exclusively back-bench Councillors. The Planning Sub-Committee^[8] and the Licensing Committee^[9] make independent decisions that oversee both the private and public sector and decide upon a wide range of petitions for permission to build, demolish or otherwise transform the built environment and upon requests for license for the public display of wild animals thru public entertainment to the transport of hazardous waste. The other committees that make up Regulatory are the Standards Committee, Regulatory Committee, Pensions Sub-Committee, and Audit Sub-Committee.

The Mayor, Cabinet, and Regulatory are all held to account by the system of Overview and Scrutiny (O&S). This is formed into an Overview and Scrutiny Board, chaired normally by the leader of the opposition but currently by a Councillor nominated by the Conservative Party group, and the Scrutiny Commissions, the five sub-committees of the Board^[10].

[edit] 2006 Elections

Main article: Hackney Council election 2006

At the 4 May, 2006 Hackney Council local elections the Labour Party were returned with forty-four Councillors, winning one seat and losing one. The Conservative Party formed the largest opposition party in the Council with nine Councillors, the Liberal Democrats won threeseats, and for only the second time a candidate from the Green Party was elected^[11].

[edit] History

The borough was formed in 1965 from the area of the former metropolitan boroughs of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington. For most of that time it has been a Labour run authority, although there was a period of Conservative administration from 1968 to 1972 and a non-Labour coalition in the 1990s.

[edit] Borough Wards

The nineteen wards in that make up the Borough are mostly made up of four polling districts, the exception being Dalston ward with five. Most are named after geographical locations or features with the exceptions of Chatham and Stoke Newington Central centred on Stoke Newington High Street, part of the Roman Ermine Street, the Central part both separating the surrounding parts of Stoke Newington that are parts of neighbouring wards and also apeing Hackney Central. The only ward named after street is Clissold for Clissold Crescent and not Clissold Park located in neighbouring Lordship ward. Most are named for the hamlets originally found there, Haggerston, Hoxton, and Wick, country estates between the hamlets, Brownswood after Brownswood Park and Lordship after Lordship Park, or the planned developments themselves, Cazenove, De Beauvoir, and Kings Park. Three are named after parks, Hackney Downs, Springfield Park, Hackney, and Victoria Park, East London although after a boundary change there no longer is any part of Victoria Park within the Borough. Two are named after bridges the first of the River Lea and the other Queensbridge after a bridge over the Regents Canal. Finally two are named after the two railway stations Hackney Central railway station and Dalston Junction.