What no Adrian?

ONE of Camden Town Hall’s nice guys appears to be ready to give up his seat on the green benches. (NB: By green benches here, I mean the colour of the seats in the chamber, not his political allegiance). Adrian Oliver, formerly the leader of Camden’s Green Party, has not been named among the group’s council election candidates in its strongest ward: Highgate. It’s unlikely that he would want to stand anywhere else.

In the 2006 council elections, while Labour was momentously driven from office, Adrian and Maya de Souza made a little bit of history of their own when they became Camden’s first ever Green councillors. The picture above caught the moment at the count in the Somers Town sports hall when they found out they had been elected. They were later joined by Alex Goodman (in the picture, at the back, to the left), who won a by-election last year. He too is not on the list of candidates this time, which sees Maya joined by Naomi Aptowitzer and Tristan Smith.

The group wants to build on what its got by fighting for more seats in May and is particularly hopeful of good results in Kentish Town, Somers Town and Bloomsbury. But Highgate remains vital for the Greens. It’s no good branching out south, if they leave its one major fortress unguarded. Labour and the Tories will be sniffing blood.