Thank you to people for voting Green and giving us another large increase in our vote.
We came within 37 votes of getting our first councillor elected in Westmoreland ward, and achieved excellent results throughout the authority.
Had the elections been held under proportional representation, we would certainly have got many councillors elected, but we will continue to campaign to ensure that the Tories and Lib Dems put into place the green rhetoric they used as promises in their leaflets.
We Greens are happy that other politicians put our policies into action and will be pleased to help the new council with ideas and expertise, and hope it will take up this offer.
It now has the opportunity to turn Bath into a green beacon in the fight against global warming. The opportunity to do this has been wasted for the past four years, and we hope it will grasp it now before it becomes too late.
Don Grimes
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Friday, 4 May 2007
Greens celebrate large increase in votes across Bath & North East Somerset
Bath Greens are celebrating a substantial gain in votes at yesterday's local elections after securing up to 20% of the votes in some wards within the city.
Overall in the 16 wards in which Green candidates stood throughout Bath & North East Somerset, the party achieved an average share of 11% of the votes.
In Bathavon North, Green candidate Justin Temblett-Wood secured 512 votes, overtaking both Lib Dem and Labour candidates.
The Green vote was just as strong in Westmoreland ward where candidate Jon Lucas got 427 votes ahead of Conservative and Labour candidates - he was just 37 votes behind Liberal Democrat Lynda Hedges who won a seat.
Nick Hales, Green candidate in Walcot, received 475 votes and nearly 14% of the vote and in Lambridge, the Green vote was high too with Anna Gillespie achieving 484 votes - more than 12% of the total votes.
Together Green candidates Eric Lucas and Gavin Withers secured over 20% of the votes cast in Kingsmead ward.
Don Grimes and Sebastian Buckley attracted 16.2% of the vote in Lyncombe ward while Sue Bradley and Thelma Grimes in Widcombe ward pushed Labour into last place with 14.8% of the vote.
In this election the Green Party stood a record 19 candidates and have increased our vote substantially across the district.
With very strong results in Westmoreland and other wards in the city, it puts the Green Party in a very strong position to take seats in four years' time.
For the full results see Bath Chronicle
Overall in the 16 wards in which Green candidates stood throughout Bath & North East Somerset, the party achieved an average share of 11% of the votes.
In Bathavon North, Green candidate Justin Temblett-Wood secured 512 votes, overtaking both Lib Dem and Labour candidates.
The Green vote was just as strong in Westmoreland ward where candidate Jon Lucas got 427 votes ahead of Conservative and Labour candidates - he was just 37 votes behind Liberal Democrat Lynda Hedges who won a seat.
Nick Hales, Green candidate in Walcot, received 475 votes and nearly 14% of the vote and in Lambridge, the Green vote was high too with Anna Gillespie achieving 484 votes - more than 12% of the total votes.
Together Green candidates Eric Lucas and Gavin Withers secured over 20% of the votes cast in Kingsmead ward.
Don Grimes and Sebastian Buckley attracted 16.2% of the vote in Lyncombe ward while Sue Bradley and Thelma Grimes in Widcombe ward pushed Labour into last place with 14.8% of the vote.
In this election the Green Party stood a record 19 candidates and have increased our vote substantially across the district.
With very strong results in Westmoreland and other wards in the city, it puts the Green Party in a very strong position to take seats in four years' time.
For the full results see Bath Chronicle
Monday, 30 April 2007
Green councillors blossom when elected!
Bath & North East Somerset awaits its first Green councillors.
To judge how the other major parties might act again in office one can study their track record in recent years.
To see how Green councillors might serve the community, simply examine the performance record of councils with Green members elsewhere; they have been galvanised into really significant, environmental and social achievement in such major areas as housing, recycling and transport by taking a long-term view.
The imagination of Ashfield Cllr Mark Harrison presents an excellent example in a small but significant way.
Utilising the Environmental Improvement budget, so often used to Tarmac back lanes etc, he procured a traditional variety apple tree for every household that wanted one.
The offer proved popular and demand was high. The heavy blossom on these varieties is a joy to behold and this simple, relatively inexpensive scheme offers the benefits of healthy, locally grown organic food, saving English apple varieties, improving the local environment, encouraging biodiversity and helping to combat climate change.
Green candidates look forward to the chance to use our imagination to dramatically improve the quality of life in Bath & North East Somerset through well considered area-wide policies and effective local initiatives.
Sebastian Buckley
Green Party candidate, Lyncombe Ward
To judge how the other major parties might act again in office one can study their track record in recent years.
To see how Green councillors might serve the community, simply examine the performance record of councils with Green members elsewhere; they have been galvanised into really significant, environmental and social achievement in such major areas as housing, recycling and transport by taking a long-term view.
The imagination of Ashfield Cllr Mark Harrison presents an excellent example in a small but significant way.
Utilising the Environmental Improvement budget, so often used to Tarmac back lanes etc, he procured a traditional variety apple tree for every household that wanted one.
The offer proved popular and demand was high. The heavy blossom on these varieties is a joy to behold and this simple, relatively inexpensive scheme offers the benefits of healthy, locally grown organic food, saving English apple varieties, improving the local environment, encouraging biodiversity and helping to combat climate change.
Green candidates look forward to the chance to use our imagination to dramatically improve the quality of life in Bath & North East Somerset through well considered area-wide policies and effective local initiatives.
Sebastian Buckley
Green Party candidate, Lyncombe Ward
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Voters can spot the real Green Party from a carbon copy
As the Green Party candidate for Abbey ward, I was rather amused to see the latest election missives from the Liberal Democrats. They are suggesting to voters that they should vote for the ‘big green party that can win – the Liberal Democrats.’
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have failed to increase recycling levels within Bath & North East Somerset beyond 37% - well below the European level?
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have run Bath & North East Somerset Council for the last four years, yet the council has failed to be named among the best performing councils on green issues or among the 20 local authorities noted for their efforts towards tackling climate change in a recent survey by The Guardian?
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have run Bath & North East Somerset Council jointly with the Tories but have failed to tackle the city’s increasing traffic problems?
I would suggest that voters in Abbey ward can spot the difference between the real Green Party and a carbon copy.
Ian Martin
Green Party candidate
Abbey ward
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have failed to increase recycling levels within Bath & North East Somerset beyond 37% - well below the European level?
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have run Bath & North East Somerset Council for the last four years, yet the council has failed to be named among the best performing councils on green issues or among the 20 local authorities noted for their efforts towards tackling climate change in a recent survey by The Guardian?
Is that the same Liberal Democrats who have run Bath & North East Somerset Council jointly with the Tories but have failed to tackle the city’s increasing traffic problems?
I would suggest that voters in Abbey ward can spot the difference between the real Green Party and a carbon copy.
Ian Martin
Green Party candidate
Abbey ward
Saturday, 28 April 2007
We don't have another four years to waste
As the Green Party candidate for Walcot ward, voters have been asking me how the Greens can tackle the same old problems that still prevail since the last local elections four years ago.
The answer is that only the Greens have the political will to make difficult decisions that the other parties shy away from.
The Greens recognised long ago that climate change is the greatest challenge that faces society, and that urgent action needs to be taken to ensure its worst effects are avoided.
But as a developed economy, we still have some of the highest greenhouse emissions in the world, and locally we face appalling air pollution levels in many central parts of Bath, with traffic congestion still clogging most main roads.
So it's good to see Greens on local authorities across the country already having been successful in securing routes and local transport plans that prioritise pedestrians and cyclists over motorists.
Meanwhile other political parties have taken over 25 years to greenwash their policies, whilst continuing to contradict themselves by encouraging economic growth and consumerism that will only serve to further deplete diminishing resources for future generations.
We need to act now so as to prevent our grandchildren from getting into conflict over those resources.
Recently, the Lib Dems brought Simon Hughes MP to Bath to state 'We are the Party that argued for green policies before they became fashionable. We will go on arguing for them and we think we will get the credit for it'.
The Lib Dems know there is a growing scientific consensus on ecological issues, but have merely jumped on the green bandwagon, never having had the courage to risk their electoral position until Green issues gained popularity.
And Green Councillors today are way ahead of the game.
Just look at Green Party Councillors in Kirklees who have secured funding for solar street lighting, energy saving measures in schools and care homes, photovoltaics and solar water heating systems on the roof of a local community centre. Wind turbines are being installed on schools and a 100 dwelling 'solar village' is planned.
These are the kinds of really effective green measures being seen by the people of Huddersfield every day, and it's green policies and the commitment of Green Councillors that are driving this force for real change.
Greens on local authorities are also a consistent voice for the preservation of old and historic buildings, rather than free-for-all new developments.
And the voters can trust the Greens to do the right thing - it was a Green Councillor who had the courage to blow the whistle on Lancaster City Council allowing the local nuclear plant to get away with putting off paying its business rates at a cost of 18 thousand pounds to the local council tax payers.
Eventually it was Green MEP Caroline Lucas who sparked a European Commission legal investigation that uncovered a vast web of subsidies paid by the Labour government to dinosaur nuclear companies that cost the British people hundreds of millions of pounds each year.
That was a real victory for ordinary people over the power and corruption of governments and big business.
The other parties tend to forget that power isn't their property - they merely have it on loan from the people.
Greens believe that key decisions should be taken at the most local level possible to give the people they affect the very best chance of shaping the way those choices are made. That's why Greens want to reforge the links between local government and the community.
I would therefore urge all Bath and North East Somerset voters to seriously consider voting Green in this election where they have that option, and where they only have one Green candidate standing in their ward, to cast one of their votes in favour of that Green candidate.
We and the rest of the world simply don't have another four years to waste.
Nick Hales
Green Party Candidate for Walcot
The answer is that only the Greens have the political will to make difficult decisions that the other parties shy away from.
The Greens recognised long ago that climate change is the greatest challenge that faces society, and that urgent action needs to be taken to ensure its worst effects are avoided.
But as a developed economy, we still have some of the highest greenhouse emissions in the world, and locally we face appalling air pollution levels in many central parts of Bath, with traffic congestion still clogging most main roads.
So it's good to see Greens on local authorities across the country already having been successful in securing routes and local transport plans that prioritise pedestrians and cyclists over motorists.
Meanwhile other political parties have taken over 25 years to greenwash their policies, whilst continuing to contradict themselves by encouraging economic growth and consumerism that will only serve to further deplete diminishing resources for future generations.
We need to act now so as to prevent our grandchildren from getting into conflict over those resources.
Recently, the Lib Dems brought Simon Hughes MP to Bath to state 'We are the Party that argued for green policies before they became fashionable. We will go on arguing for them and we think we will get the credit for it'.
The Lib Dems know there is a growing scientific consensus on ecological issues, but have merely jumped on the green bandwagon, never having had the courage to risk their electoral position until Green issues gained popularity.
And Green Councillors today are way ahead of the game.
Just look at Green Party Councillors in Kirklees who have secured funding for solar street lighting, energy saving measures in schools and care homes, photovoltaics and solar water heating systems on the roof of a local community centre. Wind turbines are being installed on schools and a 100 dwelling 'solar village' is planned.
These are the kinds of really effective green measures being seen by the people of Huddersfield every day, and it's green policies and the commitment of Green Councillors that are driving this force for real change.
Greens on local authorities are also a consistent voice for the preservation of old and historic buildings, rather than free-for-all new developments.
And the voters can trust the Greens to do the right thing - it was a Green Councillor who had the courage to blow the whistle on Lancaster City Council allowing the local nuclear plant to get away with putting off paying its business rates at a cost of 18 thousand pounds to the local council tax payers.
Eventually it was Green MEP Caroline Lucas who sparked a European Commission legal investigation that uncovered a vast web of subsidies paid by the Labour government to dinosaur nuclear companies that cost the British people hundreds of millions of pounds each year.
That was a real victory for ordinary people over the power and corruption of governments and big business.
The other parties tend to forget that power isn't their property - they merely have it on loan from the people.
Greens believe that key decisions should be taken at the most local level possible to give the people they affect the very best chance of shaping the way those choices are made. That's why Greens want to reforge the links between local government and the community.
I would therefore urge all Bath and North East Somerset voters to seriously consider voting Green in this election where they have that option, and where they only have one Green candidate standing in their ward, to cast one of their votes in favour of that Green candidate.
We and the rest of the world simply don't have another four years to waste.
Nick Hales
Green Party Candidate for Walcot
Saturday, 7 April 2007
Planning versus the people
There seems to be no end to the discontent with, and mistrust of our current elected councillors in terms of key planning and redevelopment decisions that they have taken on our behalf over recent years.
Decisions on schemes such as Southgate, Western Riverside and Churchill House, and many smaller local schemes, seem time and again to result in conflict and a sense of loss, as we perceive the new proposed buildings failing to harmonise with the existing built environment and disturbing the sense of place.
We need to take a long hard look at planning and consultation processes with the public in order to restore some semblance of consensus between 'us' and 'them' because a very real sense of disaffection with the poor quality of our planning department prevails, along with a feeling that individuals who submit objections are being largely ignored.
Meanwhile, perhaps a look at Green Party principles in relation to local planning and the built environment might be appreciated.
The Green Party believes that new buildings should encourage the use of ecologically sustainable building practices, particularly by recyling original materials wherever possible.
Greens are concerned that many modern design developments prove to be uneconomic on grounds not always immediately apparent, for instance, relying on imported components, high levels of maintenance, high running costs and not being adaptable for alternative use in later years.
Consequently we are seeing a lack of standardisation in that traditional building was, contrary to popular belief, highly standardised and dimensionally coordinated.
Greens believe a return to this quality of standardisation would cut down on much of the waste that is taken for granted in present building systems.
And surely it's wrong that the present zero rate of VAT for new construction makes it relatively more attractive and cheaper to put up a new building than repair or alter an existing one. This only encourages the unnecessary waste of precious natural
resources, and energy.
The Green Party's policy of abolishing VAT, and replacing it with a system of resource taxes would reverse this.
Such taxes could be levied on the disposal of demolition waste, as well as on the use of non-renewable materials in the construction itself. Together, these measures would ensure the optimum re-use of existing building fabric.
Green policy also states that planning decisions should always be made at the most local practical level, and that the deemed regional, national or global importance of proposed developments should be weighed alongside the needs and expressed opinions of the local communities in the areas in which they are sited.
To this end Green Councillors would want to see area committees set up in all areas across B&NES, and power devolved to them. Greens feel that such committees would help foster and develop community partnerships and be regarded as the basis for all community decisions.
As a result Greens believe that contentious issues such as planning and regeneration would have a better chance of being supported by the public from the outset, and
consequently avoid all this unecessary conflict and disappointment.
Sue Bradley
Green Party Candidate, Widcombe
Decisions on schemes such as Southgate, Western Riverside and Churchill House, and many smaller local schemes, seem time and again to result in conflict and a sense of loss, as we perceive the new proposed buildings failing to harmonise with the existing built environment and disturbing the sense of place.
We need to take a long hard look at planning and consultation processes with the public in order to restore some semblance of consensus between 'us' and 'them' because a very real sense of disaffection with the poor quality of our planning department prevails, along with a feeling that individuals who submit objections are being largely ignored.
Meanwhile, perhaps a look at Green Party principles in relation to local planning and the built environment might be appreciated.
The Green Party believes that new buildings should encourage the use of ecologically sustainable building practices, particularly by recyling original materials wherever possible.
Greens are concerned that many modern design developments prove to be uneconomic on grounds not always immediately apparent, for instance, relying on imported components, high levels of maintenance, high running costs and not being adaptable for alternative use in later years.
Consequently we are seeing a lack of standardisation in that traditional building was, contrary to popular belief, highly standardised and dimensionally coordinated.
Greens believe a return to this quality of standardisation would cut down on much of the waste that is taken for granted in present building systems.
And surely it's wrong that the present zero rate of VAT for new construction makes it relatively more attractive and cheaper to put up a new building than repair or alter an existing one. This only encourages the unnecessary waste of precious natural
resources, and energy.
The Green Party's policy of abolishing VAT, and replacing it with a system of resource taxes would reverse this.
Such taxes could be levied on the disposal of demolition waste, as well as on the use of non-renewable materials in the construction itself. Together, these measures would ensure the optimum re-use of existing building fabric.
Green policy also states that planning decisions should always be made at the most local practical level, and that the deemed regional, national or global importance of proposed developments should be weighed alongside the needs and expressed opinions of the local communities in the areas in which they are sited.
To this end Green Councillors would want to see area committees set up in all areas across B&NES, and power devolved to them. Greens feel that such committees would help foster and develop community partnerships and be regarded as the basis for all community decisions.
As a result Greens believe that contentious issues such as planning and regeneration would have a better chance of being supported by the public from the outset, and
consequently avoid all this unecessary conflict and disappointment.
Sue Bradley
Green Party Candidate, Widcombe
Friday, 6 April 2007
Lib Dems and Tories share power but do no wish to be accountable
Letter to Bath Chronicle
Roger Crouch questions the numbers I used when calling the council to task - see Bath Chronicle letters pages
We are aware that the Lib/Dems and the Tories do not individually have a majority on the council but combined they have 55 of the 65 votes.
They have agreed for the last four years to have a power sharing executive which have voted through some poor decisions, ie, the Bus Station, removal of park rangers, closing of toilets, Western Riverside tower blocks, cuts in bus services and drop in centres, building on school fields, to name but a few.
This cosy relationship means that political leaders have been paid around £125,000 each over four years by us to make decisions without due consultation as the number of protests demonstrate.
We defend our stance: Lib/Dems and Tories are responsible for our city but do not wish to be accountable.
Don Grimes
Bath Green Party Candidate for Lyncombe ward
Roger Crouch questions the numbers I used when calling the council to task - see Bath Chronicle letters pages
We are aware that the Lib/Dems and the Tories do not individually have a majority on the council but combined they have 55 of the 65 votes.
They have agreed for the last four years to have a power sharing executive which have voted through some poor decisions, ie, the Bus Station, removal of park rangers, closing of toilets, Western Riverside tower blocks, cuts in bus services and drop in centres, building on school fields, to name but a few.
This cosy relationship means that political leaders have been paid around £125,000 each over four years by us to make decisions without due consultation as the number of protests demonstrate.
We defend our stance: Lib/Dems and Tories are responsible for our city but do not wish to be accountable.
Don Grimes
Bath Green Party Candidate for Lyncombe ward
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