News / Politics
Letter laying out ‘chaos’ in Bristol under Greens delivered to voters in London
A letter delivered to households in London ahead of May’s local elections lays out in detail what the Green Party has done in Bristol.
It describes the Greens scrapping plans for 2,000 new council homes, making plans to sell off 1,200 existing council homes, scrapping affordable homes targets for developers, rubbish “piled up on our streets”, suggesting the closure of museums and halving the libraries budget, and suggesting an increase of council tax by 15 per cent.
A Green councillor in Bristol, however, has said some of the claims in the letter are “absurd”.
The letter starts with the words “Dear friend” and is signed by Zak Syedomar but closer investigation shows that the letter is in fact campaign material from the Labour Party, promoted by a Labour councillor, David Oxley, “on behalf of all of the Lambeth Labour Party candidates”.
Syedomar writes about “chaos” after the Greens reorganised bin collections.
He adds: “Even when times were tough during the decade of Conservative & Lib Dem austerity, Labour was able to keep Bristol going.
“Homes got built. All our libraries remained open.
“But under the Greens in Bristol, local residents like me are paying more and more council tax every year, but getting less and less in return.
“I wish I knew then what I know now. Please, don’t make the same mistake we made – make sure you vote for your local Labour candidates on Thursday 7th May.”
Zak Syedomar’s letter – image: Labour Party
Syedomar confirmed to Bristol24/7 that he wrote the letter “and was happy for the Labour Party to distribute”.
He said via a message on X: “I am deeply committed to opposing the Green Party’s election in London, which is why I have chosen to express my views in writing and actively campaign across the city.
“I am doing this campaign. I don’t want them to destroy London the way they destroyed our great city Bristol (sic).”
Syedomar has previously been pictured with Bristol’s Labour group leader, Tom Renhard, with Syedomar described by Labour in December as a “local community leader”.
In February, Syedomar featured in a blog post by police & crime commissioner, Labour’s Clare Moody, who referred to him as the CEO of Youth Empowerment and Crime Prevention (YECP), “a grassroots organisation based in Bristol, created to tackle the root causes of youth crime, gang involvement and exploitation”.
Its public page on Companies House says that YECP was incorporated as a community interest company in December 2024 but has yet to file any annual accounts.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Zak is a Bristol resident who has been vocal of his unhappiness with the Green-led Bristol City Council and wanted to share his views with residents in London ahead of the elections there this May.”
Zak Syedomar and London mayor Sadiq Khan – photo: Zak Syedomar / X
Replying to a post on Reddit about the letter, Hotwells & Harbourside councillor Patrick McAllister called Syedomar’s letter “not an accurate description”.
In a later statement, McAllister said: “This letter from a Bristol Labour Party activist misrepresents the work of Bristol Green Party to pick up the pieces after Labour’s disastrous eight years in power.
“They claim that Labour was better for Bristol on housing, but it was Labour who left council flats covered in damp and mould while ignoring basic maintenance, leaving the Green to find tens of millions of pounds for emergency maintenance and fire safety measures.
“The fact that they have never apologised to residents is symptomatic of a deeper rot in the Labour Party, and their desperate attacks on the Greens cleaning up their mess will not hide this.
“Since our Green administration took power from Labour in May 2024, Bristol is the best social housebuilder outside of London, and has built more affordable homes in the last year than in at least a generation.
“And despite Labour’s lies about ‘the Greens selling off council homes’, we are proud to be investing in our housing, with thousands more social homes in the pipeline.”
Patrick McAllister (right) is congraullated by Martin Fodor after being declared the winner of the Hotwells & Harbourside ward in Bristol’s most recent local elections in 2024 – photo: Martin Booth
McAllister added: “While the letter also attacks Bristol City Council for reducing affordable housing quotas, it is the government’s own Planning Inspectorate that has blocked the council from enforcing these quotas, which is why we are having to find ways around this!
“The letter also misrepresents Bristol Council’s financial management under our Green administration.
“As the Council’s Finance Chair, I know the truth: Labour left the finances in a total disarray, with low savings delivery, weak financial management, and a lack of scrutiny.
“Our administration has repaired these problems, ending hiring freezes that paralysed vital services like our libraries and planning department and working hard to find funds to invest in our museums and cultural services.
“The letter closes by having the cheek to criticise the rises in council tax, when the Labour government expressly baked in five per cent annual council tax rises for the next three years into its council funding assumptions!
“While Greens know that council tax is a regressive tax that needs reform. Again, Labour force a situation onto councils and then criticise the results – Bristol’s government grants have been cut from 18 per cent of our core spending power last year to under fiver per cent this year.
“This desperate smear campaign filled with falsehoods will not impress voters in London, many of whom want councillors who truly represent them instead of Keir Starmer’s bland vision of managed decline.
“We in Bristol Green Party are proud of our record and our work to make Bristol a better place – on Thursday 7 May, voters in London and across the whole country can choose to feel that pride as well.”
Main photo: Labour Party
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