On 10 October 2024, residents in the South Acton ward will take part in a by-election to vote for a new ward councillor.
EALING.NEWS has asked all candidates standing 7 questions about who they are, what they hope to deliver and why they want residents to vote for them.
Lucas Davies Herbst standing for the Workers Party in South Acton answers the 7 questions:
Tell us a bit about yourself, your priorities for the ward and why you want to be councillor for South Acton?
First off, I’m not a politician by trade, I’m just a concerned resident. I saw an opportunity in this by-election to put into effect some practical and workable solutions to the problems crippling South Acton, and the Borough as a whole.
If I win, my first priority is to get young men away from gangs. To this end I support the proper funding of youth clubs, but more importantly I endorse the opening of boxing gyms, with Council-subsidised membership to make it as easy as possible to get young men off the streets, to channel their energy & frustration into something productive. Too many young men & boys are dying, the Police can only do so much and (let’s face it) can’t fix the problem at its root: it’s the Council’s job, and the Council isn’t doing nearly enough.
This is connected with my other primary task which is to tackle child poverty — we have 40% child poverty in many areas of South Acton. This is a complete outrage in a modern, developed country, and a problem that the Council needs to address. Other than that, It’s the independent traders & small businesses that I want to empower and help prosper.
What motivates you?
I’m motivated by the power of individuals to make and shape their own futures. I’m motivated by the power of the intellect and the capacity for every person to prosper and to bring themselves up, so long as they aren’t hampered or impeded by poverty or by unnecessary hurdles — again, this is a problem of governance. South Acton has immense potential, and the principal impediment to this potential is bad governance, is this One-Party State we’re living under.
Think about it: we’ve got a Labour council, Labour MP, Labour Mayor, and now a Labour Prime Minister: there’s not a single reason for the Labour Party to give anything, anything at all, to the people of South Acton, because the Labour Party face no tangible opposition. I’m saying we need to stand up to that. It’s the creative potential of everyone which will make South Acton, and the Borough, move again.
We’ve got a chance here to raise ourselves up, but the first step is for people to take a risk, to break with what seems familiar. Taking risks, standing up to an established order, the individual shaping their own destiny; this is what motivates me.
What is your own personal connection to either South Acton or any other part of the borough?
I don’t live in the ward, I live a few stops up on the E3, towards South Ealing. I’m standing in South Acton because South Acton is where the real change needs to happen. All the wards are connected, it’s one borough, so change has to be implemented in the areas with the most desperation, the most injustice.
Changing South Acton will cause a knock-on effect that’ll improve the borough as a whole. I don’t think in terms of compartmentalised or isolated areas; I’m thinking about the borough as a whole, and South Acton in particular. I’ve seen firsthand the screw-ups of our Labour-dominated council, whether its the Meath Hill Estate or the South Acton Estate demolition, or the increasing knife and drug crime, gang-related crime, the preponderance of mentally ill individuals walking up and down the high street screaming at people, or screaming at nothing, or whatever; seeing children having to walk to school, walking past either a junkie or a gangster or a mentally ill person who really ought to be institutionalised… It’s South Acton that needs real change, I didn’t see anyone else trying to address these issues, so I put myself forward here.
What do you consider to be your 3 top political, work or personal achievements and what impact have they had?
As I’ve said, I’m not a politician by trade, but I have worked closely with a few political campaigns here and there — one of my proudest moments was being part of an effort up in Rochdale, Greater Manchester to bring together the Muslim community and the white working class, who’ve historically been at each other’s throats in the wake of the grooming scandal.
For me, mediating these kinds of disputes and getting people to recognise their common tasks rather than their superficial disagreements is what politics is actually for, regardless of what party you’re in or what colour tie you’re wearing.
People who used to despise each other, people that would curse each other’s names in years gone by, came together up there, and to be a leading organiser on that was something truly special. I’m very proud of the work I did up there.
As for other achievements, in my six years of bartending I was able to effectively push against the pub owner’s desire for gentrification, and stood up for the regulars and the old boys to keep the pub from transforming into something they wouldn’t recognise. It might seem a small thing to some, but I think maintaining the heart and soul of a community is deeply important.
What do you consider to be the top 3 challenges South Acton faces and how will you as a councillor address them?
It’s child poverty, gang-related crime, and impediments for independent traders and entrepreneurs from prospering — council tax goes up, and quality of life goes down, and these three issues get worse and worse.
As I’ve said above, I want the council to invest in boxing gyms and youth clubs to get young men away from gangs. Regarding child poverty, if elected I will lobby the council to employ measures like rent controls in our most hard-hit areas, make a drive at increasing employment for parents of at-risk children, and get the council to make regular and thorough surveys of child poverty in the area, to set out a plan to eradicate it by the end of the decade. We’ve seen it happen in other places, even other parts of our own borough. We can make it happen here too.
What do you love about South Acton and the borough of Ealing?
What I love is its potential. I’m not gonna praise the council for the facelift they’ve given it — as one resident described in an interview for ‘My London’ a while back, the council’s efforts have done little more than make the area “a very attractive ghetto”. That really sums it up. The area has immense potential, it’s got beautiful architecture, it’s got history, it’s incredibly well-connected transport-wise, but I really am serious when I say this potential is being bottlenecked by the domination of a single party over the area.
As for the rest of Ealing, if we improve South Acton then the borough in general will be raised up as well. We can’t think of our areas as disconnected from each other; it’s all one Borough, and improvements in one area raise up others, just as the drawbacks and the failings of a given area drag down the rest.
How accessible will you be to South Acton residents and how can they get in contact with you now and if elected how will you ensure you are accessible to them in the future?
Residents can email me at l.dh@live.com, I’m always happy for a chat, or to come round for a coffee and talk face to face.
If I am elected then I’ll make my office available and fully open to the public, and have a publicly accessible phone number for residents to contact me whenever, wherever. I’m doing this to make South Acton democratic again, so I’ll be at your service 24/7.
Click here for all Ealing Central and Acton candidates standing.
