One of my first tweets of the new decade was about the unveiling of Brent’s first rainbow crossing, which now takes pride of place outside Brent Civic Centre just a stone’s throw from Wembley Stadium.

Along with council colleagues and Brent residents, I was delighted to be celebrating our LGBT+ communities as outward signs of an inclusive environment are important for people who continue to face discrimination and prejudice. I was delighted by the positive response to the crossing including in the local paper, who are not always our main cheerleaders, but was shocked and saddened by the number of negative replies to my tweet. Several people argued that the crossing was just a ‘PR stunt’ and a ‘vanity project’ and that we would be better off spending more money on pavement repairs (we already are by the way) or on rubbish collections.