Ellie says… 

Dear friends,

Today I handed in my resignation as a Councillor for Forest Gate North.

It has been a very hard decision, and I feel very emotional about it – it has been an absolute honour representing Forest Gate.

Over the past year I have had the privilege of working for Sadiq Khan and following the excellent election result a few weeks ago I have been offered the opportunity to work for him as his Senior Advisor at City Hall. This will be a great opportunity to help deliver everything we campaigned for – affordable housing, a fares freeze, cleaner air and much more. However, the role is politically restricted which means I am no longer legally allowed to continue as a local councillor.

I have really enjoyed being a councillor for the last six years, in the area where I grew up and still live. That’s over 100 surgeries, thousands of pieces of case work, and too much leafleting and door knocking to calculate. I personally am most proud of the creation of Newham’s one stop service for domestic violence victims, including the first Female Genital Mutilation prevention service of its kind. Locally it has been great to play a very small part in the first play street in the borough, the market and community garden, the CrossRail improvements and the governing body at Forest Gate School as well as tackling tough issues such as parking, antisocial behaviour and flytipping. Thank you to everyone who has been positive, motivated and passionate about making Forest Gate great!

I’ll end with a bit of politics – I have worked with lots of incredible Labour councillors and activists who believe in the power of democracy. They believe that persuading, listening and talking to people wins elections, and winning elections is what gives you the mandate and resource to change the world. Ultimately, if we didn’t have a Labour Council we in Newham wouldn’t be cracking down on bad landlords (we had the first licensing scheme in the country), we wouldn’t have free school meals for all our kids (and music lessons, and theatre tickets), we wouldn’t have agreed plans earlier this year to build 800 homes for homeless families and we wouldn’t have MoneyWorks (affordable credit and advice for those in financial difficulty). To name but a few things. Equally, if we didn’t have a Conservative government we wouldn’t have the cuts to welfare, cuts to public services and a dangerous lack of house building. Politics matters and I encourage you to get involved.

I will continue to support our local area in every way I can and be Newham’s biggest cheerleader.

Lots of love, E 

P.S. If you want to get in touch I am on 07709786731 and e.clarkerobinson@gmail.com – I am not going anywhere!