I was selected as Labour candidate for the Mancroft Ward, currently the stronghold of the Green Party in the city, and deemed difficult to win by the Labour Party.
I was standing because I wanted the chance to work with people in my local community and deal with the everyday problems together and care for each other.
One of the first things I wanted to tackle was the switching off of street lights during the hours from 12 midnight and 5 am throughout Norfolk. This decision was made by the Tory lead Norfolk County Council members many of whom have no knowledge of life in a city centre.
There are an unusually large number of residents in the city centre, which also has the highest rates of crime in Norwich. The most prominent offences are drug-dealing, alcohol related anti-social behaviour, and vandalism.
Many of the residents faced walking through the city lanes in the dark on their way home from a night out, or from working an evening shift, some encountered the same on their way to work in the morning. This was as a result of Norfolk County Council’s decision to switch off street lights between the hours of midnight and 5am.
I had few ideas in how to approach this problem, and knew I couldn’t do it alone, but I needed people to take action.
The answer came when I attended training with George Gabriel from Movement for Change. My friend Cath and I went along, and both being retired thought we had been there done that, thinking we knew everything, but we were prepared listen in the hope we could get new ideas.
Well, we were blown away with the new ideas, and the different way to approaching problems, but still couldn’t think how it would help us. We had many problems to deal with in the ward, but the most pressing was the loss of light.
The answer came when George got in touch and said why don’t you light up the skies, and that he would help.
Then it started, the most frantic few weeks I’ve had since I retired, we collected names for a petition, we leafleted people to attend a community walk. One Saturday we had 21 people out knocking on doors asking local people to come out on a Friday night to “highlight” the problem. We also asked the residents to use their electricity for the to light up the sky, and surprising had many offers of help.
We were overwhelmed with the amount of interest, but saddened by some of the crime we heard about, from drug dealing to a serious sexual assault that happened only the week before. Then followed a week of ensuring every thing was in place and that everyone knew where to meet etc.
Friday the 27th August dawned bright and sunny after a week of torrential rain, we were optimistic and reckoned that we could possibly get 40 to 50 people out.
David Milliband addressed Norwich Labour Party that evening and had agreed to come along and speak at our community event.
What a sight greeted our return from the Labour Party meeting: well over a 100 people had gathered and the excitement was building. When we walked through the local underpass in darkness the place was filled with people and together they lit up the skies with their fairy lights! Even the reporter from the local paper was impressed.
The speeches went very well with cheering and clapping, and promises of support. Then the good news, together we formed a working party and wrote a letter lobbying for a meeting with Norfolk County Council to voice our concerns.
The leader of Norfolk County Council did not respond to the first letter, so I took the next letter personally to County Hall where it was recorded as being received.
Some two weeks later I received a response from the leader personally which promised that our demand would be given serious consideration and he wrote, “...it seems very likely that very few if any streets within the Norwich inner ring road will be put forward for part night lighting”
This was such a success for all the people who get together to fight the cuts and it enthused them to work as a community to campaign for a better future.
We were all ecstatic in November when the local evening paper’s headline heralded the Tory u-turn on the City Centre switch off.
I didn’t win the election for City Council but to the amazement of many including myself moved Labour from 4th to 2nd place and cut the Green majority from 800 to 140. My reward was to see how my fellow residents are helping themselves and are willing me to take the seat for Labour in the May elections.
Marion Maxwell
