Brighton Queen's Park By-election: Green candidate Marina Lademacher

The seat became vacant when Labour councillor Tristram Burden resigned, citing a conflict of interest in his new job as a local authority inspector at the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The candidates are Simon Charleton (Labour), Sunny Choudhury (Conservative), Rudi Dikty-Daudiyan (Liberal Democrat), Adrian Hart (Independent), Marina Lademacher (Green) and John Shepherd (Reform UK).

Each candidate has answered questions about local issues and why electors should vote for them.

Here are the responses from Green candidate Marina Lademacher, 28, a teacher and researcher who lives in Hanover and Elm Grove ward.

She is on Instagram @maz_lad and tweets @MarinaLademach1.

Why do you want to be a councillor?

I’m determined to fight for people like me in Queen’s Park who have been let down by a broken system.

People are angry that the Labour Party has betrayed them. I will not stand by while Labour makes shameful decision after shameful decision – above all, its complicity in genocide.

I am standing for election because I’m angry too. I’m furious that our streets are left dirty, that families in social housing are neglected, and that rents keep rising while the rich get richer.

As a councillor, I will always put local people first and speak up for what’s right.

Why do you want to stand in this ward?

As a teacher who lives just off Queen’s Park Road, there’s so much to love about our area: from incredible community projects in Craven Vale, Tarner, and Albion Hill to Queen’s Park itself.

But it’s clear people here have been ignored by their Labour councillors. I’m already working hard and getting things done for our community – from cleaning up our streets and park, fighting for rent controls, and listening to social housing residents neglected by Labour.

I’ve been working hard to ensure no one here is left behind, and I know I can do even more as a councillor.

What are the key issues specific to this ward?

Labour’s continuation of decades of Conservative cuts to local services is hitting Queen’s Park hard.

Locally, I want to fix the mess the Labour-run council left with bins and recycling, especially at the Pepperpot, secure funding to improve our park, and push for action to clean up our streets.

Above all, housing is critical. Rents have skyrocketed, which is why I’m fighting for rent controls.

Many social housing residents live in slum-level conditions – I’ve spoken to families with ceilings collapsing, rat and cockroach infestations, and nothing being done. People here deserve better – a visible, hard-working councillor who listens.

The number of primary and secondary age children is falling, resulting in a growing number of empty places and reduced funding for schools. What should the council do?

Any discussion of the crisis in our schools must start by recognising the damage done by decades of deliberate underfunding of schools.

Without funding, there are no easy answers – but it’s clear that locally, the council must listen to parents and teachers at St Luke’s School who do not want pupil numbers cut here.

Changes to schools have a massive impact, and it’s evident from recent big changes that the council’s approach to consultation must improve.

I want to see genuine, grassroots engagement, including the possibility of citizens’ assemblies to find solutions co-designed with parents, children, and residents.

Brighton and Hove has a housing crisis. Where should new homes be built?

We need to build more homes, and I’ll work with communities to identify sites for new, truly affordable housing.

The Freshfield industrial estate site must remain in public hands but, if used for housing, it must be council housing.

Our housing crisis goes beyond housebuilding. Labour have failed to tackle rogue housing associations and out-of-control landlords.

A third of Queen’s Park residents live in social housing. I’ve spoken to far too many with horrific stories about the situations they face.

I’m fighting not just for new housing, but for rent controls and real action to tackle unacceptable social housing conditions.

Local government is being restructured in Sussex. New councils will be expected to serve a population of at least 300,000 and possibly 500,000. Brighton and Hove has a population of about 280,000. Should Brighton and Hove expand to the east, west or both?

None of the above. These changes don’t need to happen. Labour’s “restructuring” is being done in all the wrong ways, for all the wrong reasons: a top-down approach that ignores communities here in Queen’s Park, elsewhere in Brighton and Hove and across Sussex.

Changes at local level must always mean listening to local people and involving them in decision-making.

Instead, this is yet another demonstration of how Labour are just not listening. And instead of funding councils properly, Labour have plucked numbers out of thin air – all so they can paper over the cracks of their broken system.

Who should be the first directly elected mayor of Sussex and why?

Like other Greens, I want to see genuine devolution to local communities, and I’m concerned that the executive mayor model takes power away from those communities rather than empowering them.

But that means it is vital to elect a Green mayor who would put these communities first and take genuine action on tackling the cost of living and the housing crisis, getting sewage out of our waters, taking public transport into public hands and fighting back against the disgraceful Labour government.

People are sick of more of the same – only a Green mayor offers a real alternative.

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Polling day is on Thursday 18 September, with polling stations due to be open from 7am to 10pm.

The polling stations are at

• Craven Vale Resource Centre, Craven Road
• St Luke’s Church, Queen’s Park Road
• Barnard Community Centre, St John’s Mount, Mount Pleasant
• Millwood Community Centre, Nelson Row, Carlton Hill

To vote in person at a polling station, electors must bring photo identification (ID).