Meet the Candidates: Lib Dems to restore Country Show – and end 20 years of Labour failure on housing, repairs, streetlights and more

In just three days the people of the borough will elect from among us the servants and caretakers of our public services, green spaces and housing. Brixton Buzz has been featuring candidates from all political parties vying for your vote.

The Liberal Democrats lead more councils than the Conservatives and Reform combined, with around 3,200 councillors nationwide and 72 MPs. They last ran Lambeth in coalition from 2002 to 2006, inheriting a £900 million debt from Labour and bringing the borough’s finances back under control.

So while this is a party with serious governmental chops – that could form a potentially cohesive coalition with the Greens – their current Achilles heel is pledges, tuition fees and Palestine.

But let’s hear from their brightest and best:

Tam Langley, Liberal Democrat candidate, Stockwell East

Langley moved to Lambeth in her twenties, renting first in Brixton Hill and then in a flat above a fish shop in the market. She met her husband in the borough, and the family stayed.

“I love that I can practice my Spanish with bi-lingual friends in Stockwell, eat Ethiopian food at Lucy First and listen to South American folk music upstairs at Van Gogh Cottage – all in one day.”

When Labour cancelled the Lambeth Country Show just before Christmas, Langley started a petition to save it.

The Liberal Democrats have since pledged in their budget to bring it back. “Music and food is what brings people together and builds understanding across communities. That’s so important today as we fight against racism.”

It is the same instinct, she says, that puts her at odds with the Government’s plan to make care workers and other legal migrants wait ten years for settled status.

Door-knocking in Stockwell with her ward colleague David Whitaker, she has met people from Iceland, Brazil and France who came here to work and started to put down roots. “They don’t feel welcome any more. It’s so sad.”

But the issue she hears most on the doorstep is housing – leaseholders charged thousands for upgrades they neither need nor can afford, and repairs that don’t get done. Lambeth, she points out, is one of the most complained-about local authorities in London.

Stockwell residents also raise fly-tipping and Labour’s plan to dim the streetlights.

“After twenty years of Labour here in Lambeth, it really is time for a change.”

– Tam Langley, Liberal Democrat candidate, Stockwell East

Chris French, Liberal Democrat candidate, Oval

French has lived and worked in Lambeth for over twenty years, much of that time focused on health, community safety and neighbourhood wellbeing.

He founded Lambeth Links, and joined the Liberal Democrats, he says, because of fairness, personal freedom and practical community politics:

“For me, local politics should be about listening, working constructively with residents and partners, and finding practical solutions that improve people’s everyday lives.”

In Oval, the two issues he hears most on the doorstep are housing and safety. Tenants and leaseholders raise poor repairs, dirty communal areas, and broken doors, lifts and entry systems.

Residents talk about antisocial behaviour, drug dealing, fly-tipping and overflowing rubbish.

“Tenants and leaseholders feeling ignored and ripped off.”

– Chris French, Liberal Democrat candidate, Oval

As a resident, French re-established the Oval Safer Neighbourhood Panel after years of absence, giving residents a route to shape local policing priorities.

If elected, his first move would be to set up regular advertised councillor surgeries, and in the first week to seek meetings with the borough’s largest housing providers – Lambeth Council included – to start dealing with repairs, safety and housing management properly.

Empty properties on the South Lambeth Estate, some unused for over a decade, would be a priority to bring back into use. “It is unacceptable when so many families are in temporary accommodation.”

French is also a renter, recently evicted under a Section 21 no-fault eviction. He welcomes the new Renters’ Rights Act protections nationally but argues local authorities still have a vital role to play.

He wants Lambeth to use the powers it already has, including selective licensing, to protect renters, raise standards and hold landlords to account.

Judy Best, Liberal Democrat candidate, Streatham Wells

Streatham has been Best’s home for over twenty-five years, and she has represented local people there before – as a Liberal Democrat councillor in 2010.

Her inspiration for joining the party was Paddy Ashdown, with whom she spent time while he was researching his book Beyond Westminster: Finding Hope in Britain. “I believe in the principles of a Liberal Democracy. Liberal Democrats like me think local schemes like road schemes and parking should be decided locally, by local people.”

Over the last ten years, she says, residents have seen Streatham Wells go downhill. Streets feel unsafe to walk down, poorly lit at night, and pavements are uneven. Cycling on roads full of potholes is treacherous, and fly-tipping is out of control.

Best is candid about the LTN: the Liberal Democrats are not against LTNs in principle, but the design and location of the Streatham Wells one was, in her view, terrible, and locally opposed.

If she and her running mate Simon are elected, they would start by designing road and parking schemes that work for local people.

If elected, her number one priority would be working with local police to tackle crime and disorder on Streatham High Road and other hotspots – and cancelling Labour’s plan to dim the streetlights as part of that.

“If I’m elected, I will dedicate myself full-time to listening to residents and addressing their priorities.

Liberal Democrats are about local democracy.”

– Judy Best, Liberal Democrat candidate, Streatham Wells

Stevan Cirkovic, Liberal Democrat candidate, Kennington

Cirkovic has lived in Lambeth for three years with his partner Paolo. Both work for the NHS.

On the doorstep in Kennington he hears that “many people feel forgotten, like their voice doesn’t matter.”

Repairs take up to eight call-outs and are then done badly; residents are still waiting on the relocation of the Lambeth Walk GP practice.His proposal is a community budget — giving residents a direct say over how millions in unspent developer funds are used.

“Let’s upgrade local democracy, stop financial waste and regenerate the borough in one go!”

A naturalised Brit of German-Serbian background, Cirkovic served as a city district councillor in Heidelberg before moving to the UK twelve years ago.

“In our party, members shape policy directly – it’s built from people’s lived experience, not handed down from above.

I think our council should work the same way.”

– Stevan Cirkovic, Liberal Democrat candidate, Kennington

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Liberal Democrat candidate, Kennington

Hyyrylainen-Trett has lived in Lambeth for twelve years, having moved here in 2014 and married his husband a year later.

He was the first openly HIV+ parliamentary candidate to stand in the UK, contesting Vauxhall, and has since come out as non-binary. He stood in the 2015 Princes by-election and the 2018 Waterloo locals.

He joined the Liberal Democrats, he says, because the party leads on internationalism and equality. He speaks French and Italian, took a degree in languages, and runs his own equalities consultancy.

If elected, his number one priority would be tackling the lack of financial transparency and wider mismanagement that he says blights the council’s reputation.

In Kennington he hears most about an unresponsive council and rising anti-social behaviour.

“We must make consultation meaningful, and not impose policies on the community without proper engagement and recognition of residents’ points of view.

Transparency, openness and a change of attitude is crucial for Kennington residents to regain confidence in the Council.”

– Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Liberal Democrat candidate, Kennington

Tobias Ikegbunam, Liberal Democrat candidate, Streatham Hill East

Ikegbunam was born and bred in Lambeth, living in Stockwell for the first twelve years of his life.

Streatham has been home since 2012. Brexit and Labour infighting drew him to the Liberal Democrats; in 2018, aged eighteen, he stood in Streatham Wells.

In Streatham Hill East he hears most about anti-social behaviour around the betting shops, and housing failures – leaks, ceilings caving in, faulty doors, contractors paid for shoddy work.

His proposal: only pay contractors once residents sign off the repair. His top priority is tackling anti-social behaviour.

“Residents have told us they are sick of feeling unsafe, especially when you factor in Lambeth Labour’s plan of dimming streetlights.”

– Tobias Ikegbunam, Liberal Democrat candidate, Streatham Hill East

That plan, he says, must be cancelled for good.

Elin Kingston, Liberal Democrat candidate, Waterloo and South Bank

Kingston, the Lib Dems’ youngest candidate at twenty-four, first moved to Waterloo as a King’s College London student in 2019 and has stayed in Lambeth ever since.

The party’s principles of equality, liberty and community resonated with her, but the turning point was a major leak in her council estate flat that went on for eleven months. “I was appalled at the despair I felt interacting with the council.” She joined the Liberal Democrats a few months later.

In Waterloo and South Bank, she hears most about Labour’s failure to keep streets safe — fly-tipping, dim lighting at night — and the value for money residents are getting from council tax, with spiralling debt and cuts to local services.

Her first priority would be a case of black mould on the Tanswell estate that a resident and her young son have lived with for six years.

Beyond that:

“to make sure that no resident of my ward is ever left feeling hopeless when they most need the council’s help. That starts with meeting a lot of people, knocking on a lot of doors, and answering a lot of emails.”

– Elin Kingston, Liberal Democrat candidate, Waterloo and South Bank

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Lambeth Borough Council Elections – Thursday 7 May 2026