Southwark's car-free streets champion McAsh defects from Labour to Greens

Southwark’s cabinet member responsible for streets, road safety, active travel and air quality has resigned from Labour and joined the Greens, citing the council’s austerity policies.

James McAsh is the fourth Southwark councillor to have defected from Labour to the Greens and the seventh councillor to resign from the party since last July’s local leadership election.

At that time McAsh was voted new leader of Southwark Council, but this was overturned by the central Labour Party, alleging breaches of process in the first paper ballot. Sarah King went on to win the leadership contest in a second online  ballot, beating McAsh by two votes.

McAsh had been a Southwark Labour councillor since 2018 and was made a cabinet member in 2022. He will stand as a Green candidate in his existing ward of Goose Green in the May local elections.

In 2023 he launched the council’s Streets for People plan, which aims to discourage through-traffic from using some residential streets, freeing up more space for walking, cycling, as well as green space for residents.

Announcing his resignation on social media last month, McAsh said: “Southwark Labour is already planning for funding gaps larger than those faced in almost every year of Conservative and Liberal Democrat austerity.

“The Labour government is tragically out of touch, deeply unpopular and seemingly indifferent to the suffering their decisions cause. Despite this, I long believed that it was worth remaining in the party because of the potential to change  it from within. I am leaving because I no longer believe this change is possible.”

At last month’s School Streets South conference, McAsh, who at the time was still Southwark’s Cabinet Member for Clean Air, Streets & Waste, urged delegates to, “explain that you are going to reclaim the space for communities. Say, ‘yes,  we’re going to have fewer cars and we’re going to have less traffic’,” (LTT932).

This week McAsh told LTT: “Space is overwhelmingly allocated to motor vehicles, to parking and to motor vehicles driving around. Clearly, it’s important that motor vehicles can do that, but we need to reintroduce some balance.

“We want to take away some of the space that is currently allocated to motor vehicles and use it for all sorts of other uses. So, that means walking, cycling, public transport, but it also means for the community to come together, for children  to play in the street, for neighbours to meet one another.”

Reallocating kerbspace would support the local economy, allowing businesses to use the street outside their premises to promote their shops and cafes, as well as providing more space for sustainable urban drainage systems, trees and planting, he said. McAsh told LTT he would press for modal filters to be introduced in the borough to stop rat running. Recent consultations with residents in the London Bridge area of the borough had “overwhelmingly supported” the council’s plans to reduce motor traffic, he said.

Buses are crucial in encouraging a shift away from car use, McAsh added. “I think that for some journeys walking is simply not possible because the journey is too long. And for some people, cycling isn’t really an option, or even if it  s an option, it’s something that they aren’t ready to do yet. So, buses need to be a key part of the solution.”

As a cabinet member, McAsh said he integrated low traffic schemes with bus priority measures.