Four newly-elected Green party councillors last night installed Conservative councillor Alessandro Georgiou as leader of Enfield Council and head of a new minority Conservative administration – all without raising a hand in favour either of Georgiou or his Labour rival Ergin Erbil at the council’s annual meeting.
The council had been left under No Overall Control after the 7 May elections saw the Tories win 31 seats, one short of a majority, with Labour retaining 27, down 11, and the Greens holding the balance of power with five, one of whom did not attend last night’s meeting.
The Greens’ decision to abstain from last night’s vote for council leader guaranteed Georgiou’s win, putting an end to 16 years of Labour control of the borough.
The change has already enabled two key policy shifts, with Georgiou withdrawing support for the government’s 21,000 home New Town scheme for the Crews Hill area, and pulling out of the previous administration’s controversial plan to lease separate Green Belt land to Tottenham Hotspur FC for a women’s football training centre.
The now former council leader Erbil wasn’t impressed, accusing the Green group of entering a “cynical backroom deal” to “gift” power to the Conservatives. “Those who voted Green have every right to feel betrayed,” he said.
Labour’s own attempts since the election to woo the Greens had included offering of a number of “meaningful” roles, such as chairing the powerful backbench scrutiny committee. But ormer cabinet member Alev Cazimoglu said on X/Twitter that those overtures had been rebuffed. “They still chose the Tories,” she wrote.
The Green group did not explain their position at the meeting, but a party statement said the abstention did not signal a coalition or other formal arrangement with the Conservatives. The party would not endorse the programme of any other party, and votes would be decided “case by case”, with no other party given “a free pass” it said.
As early as election night itself, Green winners had suggested that would be their approach and giving the nod to the Conservatives was unsurprising, given the two parties’ shared commitment to protecting the Green Belt and opposing the Crews Hill and Whitewebbs developments, which the Labour administration had backed.
With the Conservatives now given a free hand on the council’s executive though, the extent to which the Greens’ independent stance can secure its pledges to “oppose Conservative cuts” and “stand firm” on issues such as active travel remains to be seen.
A key point of contention will be the pledge in the Tory manifesto to end the “war on the driver” by removing bus and cycle lanes, cancelling plans for a boroughwide 20 mph speed limit, scrapping the borough’s two Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), allowing 30 minutes of free parking on high streets and making it easier for residents to instal front garden parking spaces.
The Green manifesto, by contrast, pledged more “low-traffic and low-speed neighbourhoods” alongside a focus on “preventing” rather than policing anti-social behaviour. The Greens teaming up with Labour could blunt the Tories’ pro-car stance, but it may be what some are already calling a “NIMBY alliance” between the Greens and the Conservatives will have the widest repercussions, particularly by putting the Crews Hill New Town scheme – a government flagship proposal – under challenge.
This week, Sir Sadiq Khan declared his hand firmly in favour of new homes, going over the head of Barnet Council to approve some 1,700 on schemes in Finchley and at High Barnet station car park. He retains the option of taking over the New Town development via a mayoral development corporation, but the election outcome in favour of parties opposing the project may suggest a compromise – perhaps a reversion to previous Local Plan proposals for some 5,000 homes on the site.
Meanwhile Enfield’s new Tory administration is pledging to “utilise every legal instrument at our disposal to vigorously oppose any mandates from the Mayor of London or the Government that threaten the character or wellbeing of our borough” and the Greens have set the Tories a test of delivery, meaning “genuinely affordable homes in sustainable locations, especially social-rent housing”. Difficult choices lie ahead, with a lot at stake for those in housing need in the borough.
Follow Charles Wright on Bluesky. Photo from Enfield Council.
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