A BY-ELECTION for a new Dollis Hill ward councillor will be held this month, after the death of former representative Alec Castle.
Four locals are hoping to be chosen to serve the ward at the by-election on Thursday, March 22, and here are the details of the four candidates and the local issues they are campaigning on.
Mr Castle (pictured), 66, represented local residents on Brent Council for almost ten years and was elected to Dollis Hill ward in May 2010.
Pete Murry (Green Party)
Mr Murry has lived in Dollis Hill and worked in Brent for more than 20 years as a lecturer in the College of North West London, until he took early retirement for health reasons.
He says he is busy doing work for the Green Party, is one of the London reps on the Regional Council and is secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group. Locally, Mr Murry works for the Brent Campaign Against Climate Change, Brent Fightback, an organisation against local cuts, and is a committee member of the Coalition of Resistance which hopes to co-ordinate anti-cuts campaigns across the country.
Mr Murry says he opposes Brent Council’s cuts to services, privatisation of education and ‘wasteful spending proposals to demolish a perfectly good town hall in Wembley and a perfectly good existing cultural centre in Willesden’.
Samer Ahmedali (Conservative)
Harlesden-born Mr Ahmedali, who lives in Harrow, said if he was elected he would focus on getting safer and cleaner streets as well as protecting green space in the Dollis Hill Ward and fighting to keep the council tax at lower rate.
The married father-of-two is a member of the management team at ASDA in Wembley and says working at the store for the past 12 years has given him ‘substantial experience of the local community’.
He added: “It has given me the drive and need to ensure that the future of the community as a whole is as good as possible.”
Mr Ahmedalri said he would like to be closely involved with the community in order to act upon issues of local concern representing all sections of the community.
Alison Hopkins (Liberal Democrat)
Mrs Hopkins is described by her party as ‘a local through and through’, having lived in Dollis Hill for more than 55 years. She attended Braintcroft Primary School, married her husband at St Mary and St Andrew Church, in 1974, and has a long record of campaigning in Brent.
She is the Neasden representative of the Brent SOS (Save Our Six) Libraries campaign and has been campaigning against the council’s slashing of the street cleaning budget.
She is also a founder members of the Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Regeneration, against Barnet’s plans to build a rubbish dump on the doorsteps of Dollis Hill schools.
Mrs Hopkins said: “I will stand up for local residents on the issues that really matter - the closure of our libraries, the rubbish in our streets and the preservation of our wonderful local community.”
Parvez Ahmed (Labour)
Mr Ahmed, 54, has lived in Brent for more than 25 years and for the past 15 years has lived in Dollis Hill Lane with his wife Lena and sons Nadhim and Fahim.
He owns the Shamrat of India restaurant in Kilburn which has hosted dinners for national politicians and has been involved in charity fundraising for a variety of causes.
He is campaigning on local issues and wants 20 mile an hour speed restrictions in local residential streets including Randall Avenue. He is also strongly opposed to the government’s NHS reforms.
Mr Ahmed is a director of Brent and Harrow Chamber of Commerce, a former secretary-general of the Bangladeshi Caterers’ Association and former chairman of Brent Bangladeshi Community Association. He was a founder member of the Kilburn Partnership and Kilburn Business Forum and has worked with others to fight for improvements to the Kilburn High Road.
