This year the Green Party stood a record number of candidates in the local elections in the Northwest, as well as two Mayoral candidates. 

Congratulations to Sarah Jennings for holding her seat on Liverpool City Council in St Michael's ward with 54% of the vote!
In six other wards Liverpool Greens came second.

Unfortunately Pat Cleary narrowly missed out (again!) on gaining a seat in Birkenhead & Tranmere ward in Wirral, but he closed the gap even further, gaining a whopping 41% of the votes in that ward.  Labour held the seat by a slim majority of 259 votes. If we could have persuaded just 130 more people to switch from Labour to Green, we would have won it.  We need to think about how to mobilize more NW members to help in the places where we can win in future - there were very few people helping with canvassing in Birkenhead, including on our regional action day. So here's an extra BIG THANK YOU to everyone who did help!

We also came second in St Aidans ward (Carlisle) and in South Swinton ward (Salford) - well done to the candidates John Reardon and Joe O'Neill.

There were six seconds in Manchester, one in Warrington, and one in Trafford.

We came 4^th in the Liverpool Mayoral Election (out of 12 candidates), with the seat being won by Labour. Our vote share was 5.25%, beating the Conservatives and far-right parties, and saving our deposit. Well done John Coyne!

In the Salford mayoral elections we did less well, with 2.84% of the vote, coming 9^th out of 10 candidates.  Thanks to Joe O'Neill for flying the Green flag there. Labour won it, which was no great surprise.

In the London mayoral elections, Green candidate Jenny Jones came a very satisfying 3^rd out of 7 candidates. She gained 4.48% of first preference votes, squeezed in a close-run contest between Ken and Boris (Boris won, but only just).

Across England and Wales we gained 4 Council seats overall (18 holds, 8 gains and 4 losses), bringing our total to something like 134 councillors on 44 councils.

For more details about gains/holds/losses see the national Green Party website http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/LE12HGLtableforweb.pdf

In Scotland we now have 14 Green Councillors, including  5 Greens in Glasgow (more than the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats combined).

We did really well on overall candidate numbers this year, fielding a total of 943 candidates (up 13% since last equivalent elections), with at least 1 candidate in 74% of all eligible boroughs (up 6% since last time). So things are moving in the right direction for getting more media coverage and public awareness of our policies.

Thanks to everyone who stood as a candidate in the NW  - this should stand us in good stead for the 2014 European Elections.

Next year there will be County Council elections in Lancashire and Cumbria, but no scheduled elections in other areas (as far as I'm aware). However, we need all local parties to keep up the activity with leafletting and door-knocking in at least one target ward all year round, so that we will have a good chance of winning more seats in 2014 (as well as more 2^nd places so that we can win those in 2015).  It's a bit of a long slog, but places like Lancaster and Liverpool have shown that it CAN be done, and the benefits of having elected Greens are huge. If any local party would like to request some training from an experienced Green councillor/campaign manager on how to ‘target to win' Council seats, just ask!

Emily Heath

Find here the results for each town (click on the name for more detail):

Blackburn (1 candidate)

Blackpool (1 candidate)

Bolton (11 candidates)

Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (4 candidates)
Share of the votes: 6.3%. Best performance was in Vivary Bridge, where Leah Jamieson got 7.5% of the votes. 

Bury (2 candidates)
In North Manor Glyn Heath got 355 votes (10.75%), and in St Mary's Andrew McKee got 196 votes (7%)

Carlisle (11 candidates)
John Reardon got 276 votes (21%) in St. Aidans. Another excellent result in Stanwix Urban, where Helen Davison got 288 votes (11.4%). Total share of the vote: 7.3%.

Chorley (3 candidates)

Liverpool (30 candidates and 1 mayoral candidate)
Sarah Jennings holds St Michael's ward with 54% vote share! Greens beat Tories in both mayoral race and citywide council elections 

Manchester (32 candidates)
Greens in 2nd place in 6 wards and beat the Tories city-wide.   Best results: Deyika Nzeribe (Hulme), 27.8%, David Mottram (Levenshulme), 19.7%   Total vote share 8.3%   

Oldham and Saddleworth (1 candidate)

Preston (3 candidates)

Salford (6 candidates and 1 mayoral candidate)

Sefton (8 candidates)
Share of the vote: 3.9%. Best performance was in Church, with Julia Thorne getting 7% of the votes

St. Helens (16 candidates)
Share of the vote 8%. Best performance was in Windle, where Andy Donnelly got 15.5% of the votes

Stockport (6 candidates)

South Lakeland/Ulverston (6 candidates)
Share of the vote: 10%, with 16% in Ulverston North for Chris Loynes. The Greens beat the LibDems in four of the six wards!

South Lakeland/Kendal (7 candidates)
Share of the vote is 5.7%. Best performance in Staveley in Westmoreland, where Rachael Millings got 8.9% of the votes. 

Tameside (19 candidates)

Trafford (21 candidates)
Share of the vote 7.5% (up from 6.9% last year). Best performance in Longford Ward, where Margaret Westbrook got 13% of the vote, and in Clifford where Anne Power came second wity 11.1% of the vote. Full results here

Warrington (6 candidates)
Share of the vote: 8.4%. Best performance was in Fairfield and Howley, where Lyndsay McAteer got 12.4% of the votes, beating the LibDems.

West Lancashire (7 candidates) 
Share of the vote in the wards where Green Party candidates stood: 9.4%. Best performance in Wrightington, with 12.8% for Julie Hotchkiss. 

Wigan and Leigh (2 candidates)
In Orrell Donald McQueen got 280 votes (8%), and in Winstanley Steven Heyes got 237 votes (9%)

Wirral (22 candidates)
Pat Cleary got 41% of the votes, sadly just 245 votes short of winning the seat. 

Peter Cranie, who topped the list in 2009, and Gina Dowding, a former Lancaster City councillor, will be leading the strongest ever Green campaign in the region, with the clear aim of gaining their first ever MEP.

Peter, a former member of the Green Party's National Executive, an anti-racism campaigner and a branch environmental rep for UCU said:

"In the last election in 2009, the Green Party increased their share of the vote by nearly 40% and were less than 5,000 votes from winning a seat . With 5 million electors in the North West, that is an incredibly narrow margin. We are absolutely determined to succeed this time and elect a Green Euro MP to represent our region.

Voters are disillusioned with the red, yellow and blue parties who share a consensus about further cuts to public services. The Greens are the only national party left arguing for social justice instead of cuts to essential services. Our Green New Deal proposes a real way out of the economic mess we are currently in."

Gina added:

"We've got a tremendous amount of work to do. We'll need the biggest and best financed campaign we've ever put together. But we go into this election with a 50% increase in membership and many more active local parties across the North West. The prospects are good and with the efforts of everyone in the North West we will succeed."

The North West Greens will be holding a conference in the summer where key issues will be discussed and manifesto development will take place.

The BNP leader Nick Griffin took the last seat in the North West in 2009. If the Greens gain a seat in 2014 it is likely to be at the expense of the BNP

"High Speed [Rail] 2" (HS2), a new high speed rail link from Euston to Birmingham then to Manchester and Leeds and ultimately Scotland has been approved by the UK Government.

North West Green Party oppose HS2

Professor John Whitelegg, former Lancaster councillor and Green Party (England & Wales) spokesperson on sustainable development, said

"The decision to approve HS2 is a mistake and is based on deeply flawed assumptions that have not been subjected to rigorous, independent audit. On both economic and environmental factors it simply does not add up.

• High speed rail is not a "get out of jail" free card for carbon emissions and cannot justified on the back of very large increases in all modes of transport and increases in energy use.
• Time savings on train journeys leading to job creation is not supported by the evidence. 
• Train journeys are not "wasted", with zero productivityas is assumed in the report

Passenger behaviour contradicts these theories and inspection of passenger behaviour on any inter city train will show. There have been impressive developments of sophisticated teleconferencing, videoconferences and on-the-move IT solutions. Improving IT infrastructure and teleconferencing pervasiveness will solve many "needs to travel"

Does a successful economy really need 20,000 people a day leaving Manchester to go to London and another 20,000 leaving London to go to Manchester? 

North West Green Party solution

Capacity problems on the West Coast Main Line can be solved by more trains, longer trains, passing loops and intelligent city regional planning.

Our cities desperately require the kind of reliable, affordable, sophisticated public transport systems we can find in Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna. The economic, social and environmental gains from spending £3 billion in each of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham far outweigh the gains claimed for HS2.

It is a disaster that we will spend so much money on a single project during the UK's current fiscial situation that for the same money we could improve most of the UK's cities.

The Committee had been due to discuss a planning application relating to a controversial new industry  - shale gas ‘fracking’ - which could affect many residents in Lancashire over the coming years. Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, involves pumping water and chemicals deep into the ground to fracture a layer of shale and force out natural gas which would otherwise remain trapped within the rock. The process was initially developed in the USA, where its environmental and health impacts have generated a great deal of public concern and anger.  The impacts including chemical contamination of groundwater (a source of drinking water), and air pollution leading to respiratory problems in communities living close to the drilling sites.

Cuadrilla Resources has already begun exploratory drilling and fracking of the Bowland Shale which lies beneath large parts of Lancashire, and the UK Government looks set to issue licenses for more shale gas extraction across the UK. The French Government is concerned enough to have imposed a ban, and many people are now calling for the UK Government to do the same.

 Discussion of the planning application lodged by Cuadrilla Resources was deferred until the next meeting of this committee, on 14^th September 2011.

County Councillor Chris Coates, who took part in the demonstration, commented: “I was really pleased to hear about the decision to defer this matter. Cuadrilla have suspended fracking at Weeton (near Kirkham), pending further investigation of recent earthquakes which may have been caused by their operations, and it is important that councillors who sit on this committee have the fullest information about what this company is intending to do before any agreement is made to their request for a 12-month extension to exploratory drilling at the site.” 

County Councillor Sam Riches, who was also present in the demonstration, added: “Further planning applications for drilling and fracking in other locations in Lancashire are expected in the future, and it is really important that people across the county are fully aware of the risks which seem to be associated with this technology. We need residents to talk to their county councillors about the issue and ensure that decisions are taken which really represent residents' wishes.”

Philip Mitchell of Blackpool & Fylde Green Party, who is a leading UK campaigner against onshore and unconventional gas, said: “We are approaching all the county councillors who sit on this committee, to make sure that they do not make any decisions 'on the nod' but are fully informed about this issue. Even excuding the risk of it triggering further earthquakes, fracking has too much potential to do harm to  communities and the countryside across large parts of Lancashire. We all need to ensure that we do not start off on a path towards a future we won't want.”

For further information contact:

County Cllr Sam Riches email:   phone:  07909 001432

Philip Mitchell  email:  phone:    07715 363587

A suspected unlicensed dog breeding operation in an agricultural building off Ashton Road in Lancaster has been closed down by the Police and RSPCA, after concerns were raised by local Green Party Councillors, as well as by many members of the public.

Councillor Melanie Forrest raised her concerns at a local ‘Police And Communities Together’ meeting in early July. The issue was taken up by a Police Community Support Officer, Amy Knott, who arranged an unannounced visit to the site with the RSPCA and a vet.

They found 37 dogs in total, mostly pugs and shitsus, lurchers and spaniels, including 2-3 week-old puppies. All had some sort of health problems (such as skin conditions, conjunctivitis and overgrown nails). The owner of the dogs was nowhere to be seen.

Cllr Forrest said: “I would like to thank our PCSO and the RSPCA for their swift action to protect animal welfare. It is very distressing to think that dogs are being kept in large numbers indoors, presumably so that somebody can make money from breeding and selling them.”

The RSPCA have taken the dogs into their care in centres around the NW, where they will remain until the case goes to court. The RSPCA are confident that they will be able to find new homes for all of them.

"When the history of nuclear electricity generation is finally written readers will wonder how a supposedly intelligent species could embrace a technology with such enormous destructive potential. The catalogue of disastrous consequences associated with Chernobyl and Fukushima tell their own story and point unerringly to the need to follow the German and Swiss examples and terminate nuclear electricity generation and shut down the plants.

Nuclear power is a moral and ethical issue of enormous importance. Should we embrace a technology that is used to produce electricity to boil kettles, operate lights and run domestic appliances when the consequences of human error and technical failure are so very dramatic and long lived? Should we embrace a technology that requires the transport and storage of highly dangerous nuclear materials across the country and across the world often on trains that traverse London or go though all our main population centres in the NW? The risks are too great to be tolerated and the time is long overdue when we should embrace alternative sources of electricity generation especially the so-called renewables (wind, wave, tidal, solar) that do not carry the risks associated with nuclear.

The moral and ethical issue is made considerably easier to handle because scientific analysis shows that we can shut down the nuclear option and meet our electricity demand from efficiency savings microgeneration, renewables and some gas and coal (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2009). We do not need nuclear power.

Getting rid of nuclear power brings about a large number of co-benefits in addition to the elimination of unacceptably high risks. These include large scale job creation of the kind already seen in wind energy in Denmark and photo-voltaics in Germany. The UK has considerable resources of renewable energy in its wave and tidal environment and exploiting these resources can create thousands of jobs in places that really need them including Liverpool, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Heysham, Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington. These jobs will be additional to the many thousands of jobs that will still be needed to deal with decommissioning of Sellafield, Heysham reactors and the other nuclear facilities associated with fuel fabrication in the NW.

A nuclear free future for the NW is something really worth fighting for. The region can be freed from the multiple risks of nuclear accidents and failures, it can be transformed into a shining beacon of innovation and job creation linked to renewables and the billions of pounds likely to be thrown into the nuclear option can be put to socially useful and sustainable purposes rather than increasing the likelihood of a major ecological disaster."

Reference

Stockholm Environment Institute (2009) Europe’s share of the climate challenge

http://sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/europes_share_heaps_09.pdf.pdf

Councillor Robinson is a retired software developer, now a student of horticulture at Reaseheath College and a Cheshire East Waste Reduction Volunteer. She says, “As a mother and grandmother, I have deep concerns about the state of the world, and what we are creating for our children. We need to think globally but act locally. As a Town Councillor, I will work towards increased local sustainability for Alsager.”

Cllr Andrew Kay (Lancaster, Bulk ward) has been campaigning against cuts and closures of schools, post offices and social care services.

Kay says that: "I am determined to fight cuts to local services, including those planned for Firbank children's centre, the Ridge community centre and to home care services for older people. There are alternative ways of reducing the deficit without being so destructive."

A councillor for Bulk since 2009, Andrew helped set up "Lancaster and Morecambe Against the Cuts," a 500-strong coalition of people from all walks of life who are opposed to the government's budget cuts. He also reduced the city council's budget through efficiency savings, through reducing the number of managers on top salaries.

There are 34 candidates standing for the Green Party in the Lancaster city council elections on 5th May 2011. They present a slate that will fight for properly funded public services that are accessible to everyone, regardless of income.

Andrew Kay: "We will not stand by while the rich get richer and ordinary people lose their jobs and services they depend on."

The North Lancashire Green Party continues to support the campaign to "Keep our NHS Public" and wants to reduce public sector waste and energy bills instead of reducing public services. They are also opposing the county council's planned closure to two of Lancashire's respite residential centres for young people with learning disabilities.

Such actions obviously appeal to the public. Lancaster has a strong Green following and are considered to be one of the most successful local Green Party groups in England. Greens believe that economic activity should be locally-based, with companies being locally-owned and run. The local Green campaign to save the Lancaster market gained public support and attention, as have their campaigns to gain better public transport, protect green fields, and to make the district a 20mph zone.

The 2011 Green manifesto for the Lancaster city council elections promises to:

- give homes the ability to produce their own renewable energy,

- use local recycling as a way to generate more jobs, and,

- give local businesses, public services, arts and voluntary organisations the chance to thrive, instead of being cut and forced to close.

To help the North Lancashire Green Party continue to make a constructive difference to the district, oppose harmful cuts to services, and fight for a fairer society, vote Green on 5th May.

"The oil and gas industry is seeking to exploit UK onshore gas reserves trapped in shale rock and coal beds requiring environmentally damaging and risky techniques, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

This conference condemns the Coalition Government for refusing to impose a ban, demanded by environmental groups, on shale gas, and on the related coal bed methane extraction industry, at least until the results of studies here and in the US could have been considered.

This conference expresses concern at the historic first UK use of this technology at a site of an important groundwater aquifer and notes that over 80 further applications have been applied for around the UK.

Conference instructs GPEx to publicise the issues to enable the Green Party at every level to take a firm line to protect communities, drinking water and the environment."

Prominent  Greens from the North West were leading proposers of a national Green Party motion taken at last weekend’s Cardiff conference which stated that the proposed high speed rail link (‘HS2’) would be economically and environmentally unsound.

 The conference vote was overwhelmingly against the HS2, the first stage of which is a new £16 billion, 250 mph train link between London and Birmingham. Future plans include an extension to Manchester, which would not be completed until around 2032.

Consultations on the first phase of the plans open today (28^th Feb.).

The Green Party remain committed to genuine improvements in public transport, but say that any high speed rail project would need to meet strict criteria.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP said:

"The Green Party is opposed to the current HS2 proposals. The economic case is unsound. The claims about reducing CO2 emissions are questionable to say the least. And the huge damage which would be caused to local communities and their environment would be unsustainable."

Transport expert and Lancaster councillor, Prof. John Whitelegg (pictured below proposing the motion at the conference) said:

“The proposed HS2 would burn 50% more energy mile for mile than the Eurostar and would produce more than twice the emissions of a current Intercity train.

Also HS2 will be a rich person’s railway – the business case for it assumes that a third of passengers will be on incomes of £70,000 or more. Greens are passionately committed to social justice and to the environment. The current HS2 proposals would serve neither.”

Other signatories to the motion from this region included North-West Green Party Co-ordinator Emily Heath and Chair of Manchester Green Party Brian Candeland.  

Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay described the savage cuts to public services as ‘regressive, divisive and socially destructive.’

Everyone agrees that we need to transition our economy away from carbon intensive energy usage. But can we afford Green ideals in times of austerity? The Green Party thinks we can and must invest now to build a sustainable future.

Says Howard Thorp, Chair of the Campaigns Working Group of the North West Green Party and leader of Cheshire West and Chester Greens:

For further information, contact:

The technique, known as fracking (hydraulic fracturing) has already caused pollution in parts of the United States.  There have been claims of contamination of water supplies, and New York State has already introduced a moratorium on gas exploration.  The technique is featured in the documentary film 'Gasland' which has been released today (17th Jan), promoted by the Co-operative as part of its Toxic Fuels campaign.   

Blackpool Green Party have called for a moratorium on drilling at the Bowland shales site near Blackpool.  Chair of Blackpool Green Party, Philip Mitchell, said: 

"In America there have been examples in which the well has had to be blown out and explosive liquid has spilled out onto the ground, which causes a fire hazard and pollution hazard," he said.

"The pollution has many different ways of getting into the ground, gas is dissolved in water and can find its way into the water course.  There has been little interest at any level of government in public safety and the impact on the Lancashire countryside"

Philip has written to the Department for Energy and Climate Change asking that further licences should not be granted until concerns have been addressed.  

See BBC coverage here   Picture from BBC Lancashire website

The Green Party are committed to nurturing the potential of credit unions to provide an ethical, localised alternative to the high street banks while at the same time wiping the streets clean of loan sharks, doorstep lenders and pawnbrokers.

Carlisle Credit Union are currently trying to buy their premises in order to provide better ongoing facilities.  Green activists have joined the 1600 Credit Union members, including candidate John Reardon (pictured joining Credit Union with fellow Green Elaine Bromley) who increased his vote to over 20% in the recent council elections. 

 As reported in the   Cumberland News recently, 

John Reardon said: "Greens are very supportive of credit unions.  They reduce the dependency on big banks, which have been taking people for a ride.

The banks got us into this mess and are still paying big bonuses to employees.  We have this great asset [the credit union] that provides an alternative source of finance and gets money into the local economy."

John Reardon also stated it was Green Party policy to invest public sector pension funds in credit unions.

For more information see Carlisle Green Party website

Speaking on BBC's Radio Manchester Gayle said that there were a number of things consumers could do to reduce water wastage, including low-flow dual flush toilets and harvesting rainwater.  She also said it was important to conserve water on an on-going basis not just at times like these as we are experiencing changing weather patterns and this is likely to become more frequent. 

Gayle later spoke of the need for United Utilities, the North-West's water company, to do much more to tackle water leaks. 

She said "Out of every four gallons which is supposed to come out of our taps, one gallon is lost.  

They lose nearly 500million litres of water a year due to leaks(old pipes, not reacting quickly enough to tackle leaks etc). Unites Utilities is the 3rd worse company for leaks in the country despite bringing in massive profits(500 million pre-tax per yr)."  

PS:  United Utilities have been in the news recently for other matters:  see article here published in the excellent independent Manchester publication: 'The Mule'    

The big three parties each claim that the D'Hondt regional list voting system used in UK Euro-elections  is such a "lottery" that supporting them is the best way to beat the BNP (2). But the Greens are pointing to the fact that statistically the big three usually take most of the seats, and the final seat in a region almost always goes to the highest-polling of the smaller parties (3).

In North West England - where the BNP leader hopes to force an entry to the European Parliament - the battle for fourth place, and for the crucial eighth and final seat, is between the Greens and the BNP.

Recession - "BNP stokes resentment, Greens offer solution"

While the BNP seeks to make political capital out of the economic insecurities heightened by the recession, says the Green Party, the Greens are offering the antidote to both poverty and extremism - by pushing for massive investment in new green industries, and showing how Britain can afford to pay for it.

The North West Green Party's election manifesto will offer policies that between them could create well over 100,000 jobs in the region that was the birthplace of the world's first industrial revolution.

Peter Cranie told the Independent: "A Green vote is a vote for jobs."

And he warned:

"In an environment of economic fear and insecurity, the seeds are being sown – racism and intolerance – by a party that in its constitution bars any person because of the colour of their skin and the home of their ancestors."

Racism is "blot on the face of our society" and BNP "a disgrace to Britain"

Peter, a 36-year-old father of a baby boy, who works for a parenting support charity on Merseyside and is the Green Party's national spokesperson on children, schools and families, added today:

"British society is stronger for its diversity.

"British cities like Liverpool and Manchester owe part of their greatness to the migrations that have occurred over the centuries.

"People who come to live here from other countries are our colleagues and neighbours and business partners - they're part of our communities, part of what we mean when we say 'us.'

"Racism is a blot on the face of our civilised, enlightened society and the BNP are a disgrace to Britain.

"Elected Greens have a track record of defending and creating jobs and supporting their community. The BNP, when they've got councillors elected, have done nothing for local people."

He concluded:

"The 4th of June 2009 will be a historic day for Britain. The politics of hope must triumph over the politics of hate."

Notes

1. "'Best way to beat the BNP is to vote Green': Respect candidate urges public to back rival at European elections," Andrew Grice, Political Editor, Independent 4.5.09, http://www.independent.co.uk:80/news/uk/politics/best-way-to-beat-the-bnp-is-to-vote-green-1678539.html.
2. Ibid.

Watch Peter on YouTube with Green MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbzjm8VrQks