Sian Berry was first elected in 2014

LET me start by being clear: after nearly 10 years I would not be leaving my role as a Camden councillor unless it was necessary to put the time needed into winning Brighton Pavilion and doing justice to the legacy of Caroline Lucas MP.

Representing the people of Highgate, and being an independently minded Green voice on this council, has been the most rewarding and instructive job of my whole life.

I want to thank the many colleagues who have worked with me collegiately, even though I am not from their parties. Particularly Flick Rea from the Lib Dems, who was also a lone councillor for her party when I started and who taught me so much, and Roger Robinson from Labour who was always so supportive.

Thanks as well to the councillors from both Labour and Conservatives who took up my ongoing mission to change the focus of the Community Infrastructure Programme (CIP) from top-down demolition to bottom-up preservation and improvement of council estates.

Some of the most worthwhile things I have helped with must remain private. Individual casework – helping people facing difficult times or a council that has dropped the ball over a repair, a Blue Badge or housing application – is such a large part of this work.

Many of my early jobs were in customer service, from shops and taxis to insurance offices and call centres, and I highly recommend running for council if you enjoy problem-solving and helping people navigate tricky systems.

The feeling of helping someone get over a tough hurdle then seeing them thrive in future years is genuinely a privilege.

As a sociable person, it is also a big privilege to be able to rock up to community meetings across a whole range of issues with a ready-made excuse to introduce yourself, show solidarity and make friends, and with a position that means you can really help their cause.

I salute every person who convenes a local group in Camden to save green spaces, win better services, solve problems with planning, housing and renting, support young people, climate action or community ownership, and all the many other causes that have crossed my desk.

But it’s in the Town Hall that councillors can make the biggest difference, by changing policies to fix not just an individual case, but also the system in future for everyone.

As an opposition councillor, I have never let the chance of being outvoted stop me from pushing for change, working with data and the voices of campaigners (and sometimes the editorial pages of the CNJ) behind me. One success used evidence from the Child Poverty Action Group year after year to highlight the human impact of charging council tax to our poorest residents.

The introduction of these unfair charges was opposed by Maya de Souza as the Green councillor before me, and I know that my continual speaking up helped win the first reversal of the policy from any council, restoring a 100 per cent discount after just three years.

I am very proud this policy change still helps thousands of Camden families every year who receive a council tax bill for zero pounds. Another example was when fire safety and the shock of the Chalcots cladding failures came to the fore after the Grenfell disaster. I was able to challenge the council’s refusal to publish fire risk reports by taking the case right up to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Something only an opposition councillor could have done, and which helped residents across the borough get the information needed to press for the right works to make their homes safe.

I will end with my often-repeated views on democracy in Camden. After every election, I have been acutely aware of my responsibility not only to represent Highgate residents, but also the one in eight voters across the wider borough who put their crosses by the Greens.

As just one member from over 50 in the council chamber, I have been left sitting with my hand up too many times, effectively blocked from asking questions and even, in recent years, from sitting on the right committees to scrutinise the council’s work I have spoken up as often as possible to ask for a better approach to scrutiny, and I still hope that one day Labour will recognise they themselves are better when they listen than when they stifle dissent. However, this work will now be for my successors to finish.

In the coming by-election I cannot recommend Lorna Jane Russell more highly as a fantastic, hard-working replacement and a vital Green voice holding Labour to account, just as I aim to be in Parliament.

SIAN BERRY