Amanda De Ryk has spent the last 16 years as a councillor in Lewisham. She is currently the Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Performance
The Labour mayoral candidate for Lewisham says she will launch a community enforcement patrol to ensure residents feel safer across the borough and wants to establish a new youth trust that will act as a “front door” for young people.
Amanda De Ryk has been a councillor in Lewisham for the last 16 years and is currently the Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Performance. In January, the Lewisham Labour Group announced Amanda, a councillor for Blackheath Ward, as their Labour candidate for the Mayor of Lewisham.
With only days to go until the mayoral elections, Amanda spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about her top priorities for the borough, and why she is standing to become the next Mayor of Lewisham.
Amanda said: “A council is a really big complex organisation. It’s a £1.3 billion pound organisation. It serves 300,000 people, many of whom are very vulnerable.
“I’ve been a councillor for 16 years and I’ve been the Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Performance. It’s not something that you should have a go at, it takes years to understand how an organisation like a council works. If you really want to make change, you have to understand the scope and scale of what the council is doing.”
See our full guide: London elections 2026 – everything you need to know
Amanda says it’s important that Lewisham “is a borough that listens” and understands the problems people are experiencing.
She said: “I was the cabinet member responsible for emergency response during the Covid-19 pandemic, and so I have lived through probably the worst experience that we’ve all been through. The council pivoted really effectively to deliver a really comprehensive emergency response.”
She added: “We pivoted everything pretty much overnight to be there to support our residents – that was an absolutely amazing 360-degree response to the pressures that our residents were facing. And I think that’s the type of culture that I want to set.”
Asked about what her top priorities would be if she was elected as Mayor, Amanda says she would continue to tackle fly-tipping issues, create safer streets and wants to establish further opportunities for young people.
Amanda said: “We are already taking action to tackle fly-tipping but we’re going to double down on that. We have reduced the cost of bulky waste collections which I think is the still the cheapest in London.
“We’ve increased fines for fly-tipping and we’re going to trial having mobile CCTV cameras – we will crack down on people who are literally polluting our streets with rubbish.”
On creating safer streets, Amanda said: “I want my residents, I want all of us, my children and our young people, to be able to walk around the borough without fear of their safety.
“We’re going to launch a community enforcement patrol which will kind of build on the powers that we have as councils. We’ve issued a Public Space Protection Order which allows us to tackle antisocial behaviour at its source.”
She added: “It will be a visible uniformed presence particularly in the town centres but [also] in some of the wider areas [of the borough] so that residents can feel more safe in their environment.”
Amanda says she has plans to launch a new youth trust that will build on existing youth work carried out by the council, and has vowed to continue creating opportunities and providing support to young people.
She said: “The council brought our youth services back in-house last year and we’ve already increased youth provision by 100 hours in the borough, but this new youth trust will act as a front door for all our young people.
“So whether they’re seeking an after-school football club or whether they’re seeking mental health or wellbeing support, it will be a front door to them.”
Lewisham’s current political picture
Since the 2022 local elections, three councillors have defected from Labour to the Greens. A fourth, who was suspended by Labour, later joined the Greens.
Lewisham has been pretty strongly Labour-controlled, but according to analysis from pollsters More in Common, the Green Party are expected to make “considerable progress” which could lead them to significant gains in the borough, as well as in Hackney, Islington, Southwark and Newham.
Amanda said she would “relish” the prospect of working with new councillors from different political parties, such as the Greens.
Amanda referred to a quote from murdered Labour MP, Jo Cox, who said during her 2015 maiden speech “we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”.
Amanda said: “When councillors put themselves forward for a role like councillor which is absolutely a public service to our people, when that responsibility is taken seriously, we can all work together to make life better for residents.
“Challenge is healthy. We accept it. It’s important for us, it’s important for anybody. It’s important for them too to be challenged by us.”
She added: “We need our people to thrive. We want them to have opportunities. We want them to feel safe and to be excited about Lewisham. And what I hear when I go around and talk to people is that they love Lewisham.
“Our culture, our diversity, the richness of the different communities and how we live so well together, that is something that we are very proud of and that’s the kind of borough that I want to lead.”
When are the local elections?
On May 7, Lewisham residents who are eligible to vote will be participating in two local elections: one is for the next set of local councillors while the other is for the next Mayor to lead the council.
Lewisham is one of five London boroughs that has a directly-elected Mayor, with the other boroughs being Croydon, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
A directly-elected Mayor is voted in by residents. The role is different to a ceremonial mayor, and they are in charge of leading the council, directing the council’s strategy and are responsible for proposing the annual budget. They also chair the council cabinet which is made up of elected councillors.
The eight candidates who are hoping to become the next Mayor of Lewisham are:
You can see a full list of candidates for Lewisham’s wards in a separate article.
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