April 11 2007
Today Leicester Greens launched their campaign for the May Council Elections. They are standing 30 candidates in Leicester and one in Oadby and Wigston.
Top of their target list is Castle Ward, where in 2003 the Green Party's Bob Ball dead-heated with Labour's Patrick Kitterick for the third council seat in this ward. After four recounts, the Labour candidate's name was drawn from a polling box.
Bob Ball, now a candidate in Stoneygate, said: "While canvassing in 2003 I found many people who, although disillusioned with the three main parties, felt that under our first-past-the-post system a vote for a smaller party wouldn't make any difference. Some of them must have kicked themselves afterwards. As this result showed, change is possible and every vote counts. One vote can make all the difference. I urge everyone in Castle to vote for Matt Follett, Tricia Jessiman and Phil Gordon."
Matt Follett, now the Green Party's lead candidate for Castle Ward, said: "This time we intend to complete the job and make history as Leicester's first Green councillors."
He added: "We must make Leicester a true Environment City. In some ways things have gone backwards in recent years. Leicester has been assessed as the second highest city C02 emitter in the country. We have seen an increase in new car parking spaces, with more trees chopped down and not replaced. We are one of the most traffic-congested cities, with high levels of childhood asthma.
"We must also protect the character of our local communities. A Green Council would not have given the go-ahead to the expansion of Jackson's in Clarendon Park, which will threaten the survival of many small businesses. Look to South Wigston to see how much a development like Tesco adds to the loss of community (once a thriving little town, it now has a mass of boarded up graffiti-covered shop fronts)."
He concluded: "Labour betrayed its natural supporters over Iraq and Trident and is unhealthily close to big business. The Lib-Dem/Tory administration has shown itself to be no better. Markets by themselves cannot deliver a sustainable future. We only have one world, and now more than ever we need bold, principled and far-sighted solutions."
Campaigning issues include the following:
Protect the public sector
- Keep local post offices
- Keep our health service public - resist the imposition of PFI
- Accelerate the installation of solar energy systems in all council-owned buildings, and use this policy to jump-start a solar industry in Leicester.
- Extend door-to-door recycling collections to include separate collection of all plastics, electrical and electronic waste, and biowaste (food waste) for composting.
- Make it easier for local people to appeal against major planning decisions, including regional developments, that affect their lives and damage the environment.
- Oppose large costly developments and new superstore expansions.
- Invest in our community and voluntary sector, ensuring that our diverse communities thrive, have hope and are safeguarded against crime.
- Invest in effective alternatives so people do not have to rely on their cars.
- Pedestrianise the city centre.
- Link the bus services to the train station.
- Build more safe cycleways.
- In the longer term, take back public ownership of public transport so it can be regulated for the needs of our citizens rather than shareholders.
Promoted by Leicester Green Party at 89a Winchester Avenue, Leicester LE3 1AY