We spoke to Cllr Mark Shearer, one of three councillors representing St James's ward at Westminster City Council, to hear the latest local news for people living and working in SW1. Mark explains,

"Hi everyone. My name is Mark Shearer. I'm a Councillor at St James's ward in Westminster, along with Tim Mitchell and Louise Hyams. Firstly I just want to say a big Happy New Year.

"I hope everyone had a great Christmas break and they've had a good start to 2025. A quick video update, as we often do here to let you know what we're up to.

"So the first thing is, we're delighted that we've got 13 new CCTV cameras into Leicester Square. These are going to be monitored 24/7. We’re very worried about the crime going on there. So this should make a big difference.

"Secondly, we’ve been working with a number of our housing associations, because we feel they're failing in keeping their residents warm, dry, safe, etc. The buildings are really crumbling and they need to improve the way they're looking after their buildings and managing them.

"Thirdly, homelessness, with the cold weather, people are very worried, obviously, about the homeless population. We have a severe weather emergency protocol in place. There are 150 extra beds. But what's really worrying is that there were more homeless on our streets at the end of last year than there's ever been.

"So we are really keen to see some action from the council to bring that down. A couple of things that we could engage you with.

"Firstly, we've got a meeting later this month on the anti-social behaviour in Great Peter Street. It's in St Matthew's church. Please come along. It's on the last Monday of the month, 27 January.

"Secondly, please sign our post office petition at www.westm.news/SavePostOffices.

"And then thirdly, there are going to be questions at Council for residents. This has been going on for about a year or so. Please do sign up, if you want to ask the Labour Council questions. Please sign up at www.westm.news/ask by Wednesday.

"Thank you."