Stuart was born in Wandsworth on December 27th, 1970. His father Tom was a local dustman while his mum, Pat, worked in Boots in the Arndale for over 20 years.

Stuart and his sister Vicki went to Allfarthing Primary School in Wandsworth: the same school their mother attended and where Stuart is now a Governor.

Stuart joined the Labour Party in 1987 and after holding several party positions was in 1998 selected as a council candidate for Tooting ward, which includes St George's Hospital.

The environment has always been Stuart's political passion and he was immediately appointed Labour's Speaker on this portfolio,which includes the state of the borough's streets, recycling and parks.

During this time Stuart worked with local residents and the borough's Labour

MPs to reverse the Tory Council's closure of Battersea Park Children's Zoo in 2004 and the Asian Community Centre in Tooting.

He built up a reputation as a hard-working local councillor in Tooting, regularly attending residents association, neighbourhood watch and Police meetings, serving on the Tooting Regeneration Board, fighting to get more investment in Tooting Library and taking up hundreds of individual complaints and concerns on his constituents' behalf.

Stuart was re-elected to the Council in 2002 and became Chief Whip of the Labour Group in addition to his environment responsibilities, then its Deputy Leader - becoming the Council's Labour Leader in 2005.

Under his leadership Stuart's Labour team campaigned for more affordable homes; an end to the council's under-funding of schools of £8 million a year;

for a new leisure card scheme to give local people cheaper access to borough fitness and recreation centres; to create a volunteer scheme for young people; and for free residents' parking permits for the first car in each household.

In Roehampton, long neglected by the Council, Stuart stood firmly against Conservative attempts to turn Richmond Park into a commuter rat-run by reopening Robin Hood Gate; pushed instead for Transport for London to improve traffic flow in Roehampton Lane and continued the work Putney's former Labour MP Tony Colman had started to get access from the Alton Estate into Richmond Park.

Nationally, the 2006 elections were Labour's worst since 1968, but Wandsworth was one of the few councils anywhere in the country where the party

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