Officially, councillors stay in office for a few days after the election. But I wanted to say a few thank you’s on the last ‘real’ day of my term of office. Hopefully I will still be a local councillor  after tomorrow, but that is up to the voters.

I could go on longer than an Oscar ceremony speech, but I will keep it short and sweet.

Thank you to my ward colleagues Cllr Jonathan Mitchell and Cllr Rosie Shimell who make great team members – we each play to our strengths and without them I would not get so much done for East Dulwich. But we also have a big team who help us leaflet, call people, run stalls at events, etc. But also our families that make it possible for us to devote quite so much time to councillor work. Thank you.

Big thanks to everyone who has supported our campaigns over the last four years. The bigger one’s being for a new primary school, trying to save our Police station, 20mph on Lordship Lane, new cinema, new crossings, North Cross Road market and the new secondary school. Thank you.

Beverley Olamijulo and Fiztroy Williams who run the Dulwich Community Council so well. Sadly no longer as often as we’d like. Sonia Watson and her colleagues for all her sage planning wisdom. Many officers in departments from parking Tim Walker, to waste Ian Smith, Community Safety Jonathon Toy, and so many others have been brilliant. Council Housing still feels chaotic despite the stirling efforts of people like Gabriella Usuanlele. Thank you for helping us solve so much casework over the last four years.

We’ve also had a lot of fun making positive changes happen to East Dulwich via the Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding organised so very capably by Andrea Allen and her team. Thank you.

The business group South Southwark Business Association have been good critical friends. We’ve made much progress but agree we need to do more to help if re elected. Thank you for your patience.

The local Police team led by Stewart Turnbull. Thank you for responding so positively to all our enquiries and efforts for more crime prevention. I’m sorry we’ll never be happy until crime is almost zero.

Lastly thank you to all those residents who trusted us with there votes in 2006 and 2010. I hope we’ve not disappointed you.