Labour’s challenger to the embattled Mayor of Tower Hamlets at next month’s elections has launched a campaign to “clean up” the streets of London’s East End.
John Biggs, the London Assembly’s budget chairman who is party candidate to challenge Lutfur Rahman at the polls, opened his campaign last night in Brick Lane—the heart of the independent mayor’s stronghold.
Street rubbish collections have reduced by a third since the mayor brought in bulk waste charges in 2012, while householders report 25,000 bins have gone uncollected since 2010, Biggs maintains.
“The mayor is bogged down in questions about his behaviour and honesty,” he said. “But I will roll my sleeves up and focus on what’s important and what matters for people—cleaning up the East End.”
He pledged to scrap bulk refuge charges Labour says has led to dumping in the streets of mattresses and other large items and would reform recycling in tower blocks—if he wins at the polls.
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