Hackney’s new Green mayor signals break with previous administration over ‘clinical’ use of performance targets

Hackney’s new Green mayor has challenged the old regime’s “clinical” approach to judging its successes as she urged the public to hold her administration to account.

On Thursday (28 May), at the first full meeting of the council since the Greens’ historic landslide election result, Mayor Zoë Garbett declared that she was “determined to do things differently” as her party officially took control of the council for the first time.

In her maiden speech in the chamber as Hackney’s executive leader, she encouraged residents to share ideas for how she can “fix what’s broken” and make the borough more affordable.

“We don’t want an administration clinically-delivered based on KPIs [key performance indicators]. The metric of success is what people feel and experience in their day-to-day lives,” she said, addressing residents in the chamber gallery.

“To make that possible, we need to be right there beside you as partners, mutually learning and learning together.”

The new mayor also strongly hinted she would reverse constitutional changes brought in under the previous Labour administration, arguing that this showed she welcomed accountability.

At the time, Garbett and other opposition councillors attacked the rulebook reforms, which curtailed speaking slots, council motions and placed restrictions on political statements, as a “blatant power grab” stifling scrutiny. The council said the goal was to make meetings shorter and more efficient and to ensure the elected mayor’s goals were delivered “more effectively”.

During the meeting, Mayor Garbett also confirmed her manifesto plans for a “worker-led administration” and to refresh the terms between the council and its employees following a meeting with trade unions.

Her new cabinet team has now been officially approved by Hackney’s 40 Green councillors, the vast majority of whom are first timers on the council.

The Green regime follows the party’s historic landslide at May’s local elections, which overturned Labour’s long-held control of the local authority and delivered 42 council seats for the Greens.

However, two of these remain vacant due to Garbett winning the mayoralty and another candidate being ineligible to take up his role as a councillor. To fill these seats, a double by-election for Dalston and Hackney Central wards is scheduled for 25 June.

With nine seats left in the chamber, Labour is now main opposition group. Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, who was deputy mayor under the Labour-run council, is the party’s new group leader.

She congratulated the new mayor but added that she had a “huge task now to make good” on her party’s promises to Hackney residents.

“There are tough decisions ahead,” she said. “We will be here to ensure we hold you to account. When you do well, we’ll absolutely welcome it. But when you don’t, we will be on your heels.

“Every new administration wants to make their mark, but understand: your blank canvas is built on a Labour legacy,” Cllr Bramble added.

Speaking for the Conservative Group of six councillors, Cllr Simche Steinberger said: “We’ll continue to be the opposition because the government is still Labour.”

During the meeting, Mayor Garbett reaffirmed her priorities for the borough, including improving the council’s housing repairs service and “getting the basics right”.

On May 21, the Mayor launched the ‘Who Owns Hackney’ campaign promised by the Greens’ manifesto, which will investigate how the borough’s buildings are used in the hope of reclaiming spaces for public benefit. Garbett said she would kickstart more projects “in the coming days and weeks”.

Hackney also now has a new speaker, Cllr Antoinette Fernandez, elected to perform the borough’s ceremonial and civic duties. Her deputy speaker is Cllr Nisa Sharif.

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