Open Lewisham

Lewisham will be a place where diversity and cultural heritage is recognised as a strength and is celebrated

• We will establish an Accessibility Commission led by disabled people, which will make public services more accessible and make it easier to get around our borough.
• We will work with groups giving voice to the borough’s diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) community.
• We will publish a review of the cumulative impact of Council decisions on different groups in our community.
• We will work to understand and mitigate the impact of Brexit in the borough, so we can protect jobs and opportunities for our residents where possible.
• We will strive to make the Council’s workforce more representative of our borough’s diverse population at all levels.

Hate crime will not be tolerated

• We will actively challenge all forms of discrimination, including racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, ageism, and all other forms of hatred.
• We will tackle unconscious bias and support local awareness campaigns.
• We will support events that bring our community together.
• We will work closely with the police so that perpetrators of hate crime are brought to justice.

Lewisham will be a Sanctuary Borough, welcoming those fleeing violence and persecution in their own countries and protecting the rights of all migrants, asylum seekers and refugees

• We will become a recognised Borough of Sanctuary, working with partners to develop a pledge and practical steps we will take to welcome and include refugees in our activities, and to actively seek ways of supporting them wherever we can.
• We will expand Lewisham’s refugee resettlement programme, with a target of supporting a further 100 vulnerable families from Syria and other areas of conflict.