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VIEW from town hall

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6 March 2009

People get into politics for all sorts of strange and complicated reasons, but in Dora Dixon-Fyle’s case it was rather more straightforward.

‘Basically my mum got me into it! I used to come home from work and she’d tell me to go and write a letter for a neighbour, sort out local problems, and so on. And you do what your mum tells you really, don’t you?

‘I then joined the Labour Party and after a while became branch secretary and then began organising bye elections. At one meeting, no-one came forward to stand, so someone suggested I do it. I stood and lost in East Street in Walworth, but that gave me a taste for it and after that I won a seat in Camberwell Green - that was back in 1998.’
Growing up in the area - she went to school in Peckham and lives in the borough - Cllr Dixon-Fyle believes a neighbourhood that has been linked with high levels of crime in the past is on the up. ‘I think the perception of crime is probably exaggerated and crime is falling.

The area is changing for the better. I’m now Chair of the Camberwell Community Council and I want to see the arts brought back to Camberwell.’ With so many art students flocking to SE5 each year, she sees no reason why it shouldn’t be one of London’s artistic hubs and is working on creating an annual arts and craft fair, as well as relaunching the local fair of years gone by.

‘We’re also going to erect a statue of local sculptress Sokari Douglas-Camp, either on Camberwell Green or by the Magistrates’ Court’ [which might be apt, with a title of ‘The eleventh commandment’ and an inscription reading ‘Treat others as you’d like to be treated’] and we’re waiting on the Mayor of London’s decision on which park will win funding - we’re hoping Camberwell Green will be the winner.’

The green - once synonymous with street drinking - is now filled with flowers, with treatment and support taking the drinkers off the streets and helping them stay off. ‘We’ve claimed back the park for local people to use, which is really pleasing’.

In one of the borough’s largest wards, transport is a big issue, with Camberwell Green being one of the major hubs in south London. ‘I don’t think we need to get rid of all the buses and cars, but we do need to make pedestrians a priority, by widening payments, making the traffic lights change a bit quicker, putting in seating areas and more greenery.’

Other pressing issues include wardens to help elderly people on the D’Eynesford Estate - ‘we had full-time wardens reduced, and now the daytime ones may be axed’ and a shortage of doctors on the sprawling Brandon Estate.

Ever one to keep herself busy, in between all her ward duties, Cllr Dixon-Fyle has spent the past twelve years running local MP Harriet Harman’s constituency office.

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