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Worcestershire
Green Party
County
Council Manifesto 2005
The
Green Party is 30 years old. They now have seven MPs
in the Scottish Parliament, two MEPs in the European
Parliament, are represented in the House of Lords,
and have over 60 Principal Authority Councillors on
over thirty local authorities across the country, as
well as many Parish and Town Councillors.
Here in Worcestershire, the
Greens have been contesting elections since 1976,
and were first elected to Malvern Hills District
Council in 1987, since when they have had five
District Councillors, holding the balance of power
from 1995-98 and 2003-04. Green Party Councillor
John Raine has been Chairman of the Council’s Best
Value and Planning Committees, and is Portfolio
holder with responsibility for Planning and
Sustainability, driving forward the authority’s
recycling and waste minimisation strategy. The Green
Party has had five Malvern Town Councillors, and
Greens also sit on Evesham Town Council, Pershore
Town Council, Malvern Wells Parish Council and West
Malvern Parish Council.
In last year’s European
elections, two British Green MEPs were re-elected
with increased majorities, and over a million
Britons voted Green. In last year’s local
elections, the Greens increased their seats by 17%,
and in Worcestershire we have seen the rejuvenation
of Worcester
Green Party, now holding regular street stalls in
Worcester High Street and having
launched the ‘Green Gossip’ e-mail notice
board for environmental and social justice groups
and businesses.
Worcestershire Green Party has
been at the forefront of the campaign for a GM-Free
county, presenting a 1,000-signature petition to the
County Council last year. Over 10,000 people in
Worcestershire voted for the Green Party in last
year’s European elections. And at this year’s
County Council elections in May, they will be
fielding their highest-ever number of candidates,
enabling every elector in Worcester and Malvern
Districts, and many more in Bromsgrove, Droitwich,
Evesham, Kidderminster and Redditch to vote Green.
The other Parties all pretend to
be Green, but fail to deliver. Sustainability has
become just a buzzword. Worcestershire’s ten year
community strategy is a step in the right direction
which the Greens applaud, but the targets are not
bold enough, nor the resources adequate, to make
real progress. Green Party Councillors across the
country are getting on with the job and making a
real difference to their local Councils and to local
people’s lives. The Green Party Members on Malvern
Hills District Council have had a significant impact
on greening that Council’s policies, and a Green
presence on the County Council will empower the
preservation of Worcestershire.
Policies
Any policies MUST
be seen in the context of central government control
of over 50% of County Council budgets! Over the
small part of its revenue that it controls, the
Green Party Councillors will seek to improve
Worcestershire in the following ways:
Waste
Introduction
Did you know that Worcestershire
County Council (and Herefordshire Unitary Authority) are tied into a 25-year contract with two related Spanish
firms, FocaSA and UrbaSA, to process ALL of
Worcestershire’s waste, trading under the name of
Severn Waste, with which a contract was signed in
1998. Landfill
taxes incurred by the ratepayer amount to over £6 million to date. We
pay for their failures to develop more significantly recycling as an
alternative to land-fill.
The vast amount of waste
generated by our over-consuming society is a
scandalously inefficient use of resources. It is
environmentally damaging, unsustainable and
unnecessary. If everyone in the world lived like the
average Worcestershire resident then we would need three
extra planets to support the current global
population. National legislation (e.g. taxes on
packaging and non-recyclable materials) would be the
most effective way to tackle the root causes of the
problem, however, much more can be done locally to
encourage the reduction of waste and the reuse and
recycling of materials. It is highly significant
that commercial enterprises are outside the
recycling effort
The Greens believe that the
current emphasis by the County on recycling is not
sufficient in itself to reduce resource use. There
are lessons to be learned by looking at other parts
of Europe where recycling rates are generally much
higher than in the UK.
Thus recycling and re-use alone
do not seem to be able to contain the rises in
primary resource use. One reason is increased energy
demand. Recycling and re-use require energy inputs -
usually fossil fuel derived. Though these are
usually less than that required to process virgin
materials, they can still be significant.
Zero
Waste
The Greens believe that
Worcestershire should adopt a bold target to reduce
waste - a so-called Zero Waste strategy. The attempt
to build an incinerator in Worcestershire, which
would have burnt valuable resources, and generated
more pollution, was rejected, due to massive public
opposition. The Greens remain wary of the subsequent
‘consultations’. The Green Party, which led the
successful campaign to close down the
highly-polluting incinerator at Hanley Swan, near
Malvern, and opposed incineration schemes elsewhere
in the County, welcomes the abandonment of this
outdated approach, and the adoption of autoclaving
technology in Herefordshire and Worcestershire which
will process waste to make fibre board for the
building industry, and return just 10% of the input
to the end-waste stream.
Zero Waste is a philosophy which
goes beyond recycling and takes a whole system
approach to the management of resources through the
economy. Underpinning Zero Waste is a move towards a
more service-based economy, which maximizes
recycling, minimises waste, and reduces consumption.
Canberra, in Australia, was the
first area to adopt a Zero Waste strategy; good
progress is being made with waste being halved to
date.
Parts of New Zealand and several
Californian Counties (Del Norte and Santa Cruz) as
well as the City of Seattle have also adopted Zero
Waste strategies. Nova Scotia in Canada has achieved
50% diversion from landfill since introducing its
own Zero Waste strategy in 1995. The new Estech
technology is expected to do even better than this
here in Worcestershire: things are at last moving in
the right direction.
Reducing resource use also has
financial benefits. Using fewer resources is less
expensive especially following the introduction of
landfill tax and the climate change levy. This is to
be followed by a tax on aggregates and, most likely,
other eco-taxes. Encouraging local businesses to do
more with fewer resources will benefit the economy
of Worcestershire as will the creation of jobs in
waste reduction industries.
General
Policies
A Green Council will:
·
Encourage the potential of new
waste technologies as a genuine growth industry
towards Zero Waste.
·
Draw up a Zero Waste strategy
with a view to eliminating all landfill by 2015, the
expected life of Hill & Moor site at
Throckmorton. This will require a massive
consultation and research effort involving all key
producers and handlers of waste. External funding
should be sought with a view to promoting
Worcestershire as pilot Zero waste region.
·
The Council will build on current
efforts and set an example by reducing the amount of
materials it uses and introducing a purchasing
policy to ensure all materials are obtained from
sustainable suppliers.
·
Undertake a 'mass-balance' study
of Worcestershire to identify the key resources
used, where they originate from and where they end
up (in landfill, recycled, reused and so on).
Initiatives which could stem from
such a Zero Waste Strategy include:
·
Offer an incentive for using real
nappies. Disposable nappies alone constitute around
5% of the volume of domestic waste.
·
Easy access facilities for the
recycling of CFC refrigerants and other hazardous
chemicals will be extended. Facilities for the
recycling of plastics will be extended.
·
Schemes such as Furniture
Renovation Projects and the Worcestershire Resource
Exchange of safe waste materials for creative and
educational purposes will be promoted.
·
Plan for the future by
establishing a purpose-built waste facility served
by rail and canal, capable of dealing with our waste
without recourse to landfill.
The
Council will encourage and subsidise new business
ventures which reuse waste materials
Neighbourhoods
will be encouraged to share and reuse “waste”
building and DIY materials (wood, piping, paint etc)
through the use of community sheds as collection
points. Groups such as Tools for Self Reliance, who
renovate and redistribute tools, will be supported.
The
Council will support the supply of cost-price
compost bins to local residents to recycle organic
materials, where possible sourcing them from local
reused waste materials. Community composting schemes
will be set up in co-operation with local allotment
associations.
The
Council will initiate and support public education
campaigns to reduce resource consumption and
increase the reuse and recycling of waste; enforce
existing anti-litter laws, improve street cleaning
and introduce on-street recycling.
Eco-efficiency
training courses to local businesses will be set up.
The Council will set up an internet-based waste
exchange service for business and community use, to
facilitate reduction and elimination of trade waste.
Transport
Introduction
The
County has considerable powers to decide local
transport policy. The County has historically used
its discretion to favour spending on supporting car
traffic to the detriment of public transport users,
pedestrians and cyclists. This has led, not
surprisingly, to ever increasing levels of car
traffic, congestion and pollution. Outside of
Worcester City Centre, traffic levels continue to
rise throughout the County. Commuters and businesses
alike are suffering as more and more traffic chokes
our roads. Traffic pollution remains the fastest
increasing source of damaging greenhouse gas
emissions, apart from air travel.
The old
‘predict and provide’ strategy of building more
roads to accommodate traffic growth is now widely
discredited. The only way forward, argue the Greens,
is to prioritise measures which both reduce the need
to travel, through sensible planning and economic
decisions, and promote policies for public
transport, pedestrians and cyclists. We applaud the
increase in bus services, but feel they are wrongly
directed and piecemeal, due to government
initiatives.
Although
the County has printed many fine words on the
subject of traffic reduction, their policy decisions
are often at odds with their stated aims
The
Greens readily accept that in certain parts of the
County, and for some people, there are currently no
practical alternatives to the private car. We aim to
invigorate the local economy: schools, shops,
facilities, in order to reduce the need to travel.
Policies for Pedestrians
A Green
Council will:
·
Plan for pedestrians in
preference to cars – we are all pedestrians but
only sometimes drivers
·
Introduce 20 mph zones in
residential streets throughout the County.
·
Enhance the quality of walking
routes with improved design, public art and
planting.
·
Encourage children to walk to
school, reducing the impact of the motorised
‘school run’ by supporting initiatives such as
provision of Safe Routes to School, Walking Buses,
etc.
Policies
for Cycling
Cycling
is the most energy efficient form of transport.
Because of far-sighted policies to promote cycling,
50% reductions in car traffic CAN be achieved.
Cyclists are rare.
A Green
Council will:
·
Draw up cycle route networks
throughout Worcestershire, both within and between
urban areas.
·
Place most cycle routes on the
major roads in urban areas and give cyclists
priority at junctions.
·
Upgrade or build cycle paths
along all major roads between towns, and work with
Sustrans to extend safe and direct off-road routes
between towns.
·
Free cycle bus and train links.
·
Provide lockable cycle stands
Policies for Buses
Since
Bus Deregulation in 1985, services in Worcestershire
have been in private control. Competing companies
run frequent services along the most popular routes
but ignore less popular ones. The result is daytime
bus congestion in Worcester and inadequate services
throughout most of the rest of County.
A Green
Council will:
·
Use existing legislation (e.g.
Road Traffic Regulation Act, 1984, Environment Act
1995) to promote buses by introducing bus lanes or
by closing streets to private traffic, and to
require operators to install low floor disabled
access and energy-efficient vehicles.
·
Campaign for re-regulation of bus
services.
·
Insist the bus companies
co-operate by, for example, increasing
cross-ticketing.
·
Extend bus lanes where possible,
especially where they will also benefit cyclists,
but not at the expense of adequate pavement width.
Taxis will be allowed in bus lanes.
·
Build on the existing Rural Bus
Challenge, the fund from central government, to
subsidise essential but uneconomic bus routes –
the Ledbury to Malvern Wells service “Ledbury Link
675” is a successful example - and consult with
Parish and District Councils on the level of
provision.
·
Ensure better placing of bus
stops, to minimise obstruction to pedestrians, and
provide adequate information for bus users.
·
Experiment with new technologies
to provide user-specific transport.
Railways
and Trains
A Green
Council will:
·
Strongly resist any attempts by
train companies or Network Rail to reduce train
services or close rail routes and stations or sell
off infrastructure.
·
Promote the opening of new
stations, for instance Worcester Parkway at Norton,
and the re-opening of disused stations such as
Henwick and Malvern Wells.
·
Welcome any interim proposals to
reopen disused lines for cycle use or walking.
·
Seek to coordinate integration of
rail and bus services and encourage local break-bulk
deliveries (where the freight from larger vehicles
is separated for transportation in smaller
vehicles).
·
Investigate the existing rail
links to provide Waste transport.
Policies
for cars
For
many people, the car has become an essential part of
daily life. The vicious circle of rising car use
leading to yet more car use has led to all the
problems we associate with modern cities: traffic
jams; noise and pollution; neighbourhoods split by
traffic danger, and children forced to stay indoors
and be ferried by parents. These problems are
increasingly spreading to rural areas.
A Green
Council will:
·
Commit to traffic reduction
targets by provision of real alternatives.
·
Abandon all proposals to build
major roads, such as by-passes, which destroy
valuable open land and permit further traffic
growth.
·
Develop the local economy thus
ensuring jobs and wealth remain within the area,
thereby reducing long distance traffic
·
Support the introduction of 50
mph speed limits on most rural roads.
·
Build no further Park & Ride
sites for Worcester, using money instead to
encourage adequate bus services to and from
surrounding population centres.
Social Services
Mental
Health
The Green Party
recognizes the particular vulnerability of people
suffering from mental health conditions. It
recognizes the unique nature of such conditions, the
significance of each individual’s experience and
the impact of a person’s environment on their
mental well-being.
The Green Party would
work to strengthen User and Carer-led groups, fund
Peer Advocacy schemes and back the right of service
users to seek alternative treatments to
conventional, and often ineffective, drug
treatments. More day centres and meeting places are
needed to provide mutual support and information.
Worcestershire also has a shortage of respite beds,
vital for keeping people out of long-stay
institutions and vital for giving carers a break.
The Green Party supports the funding of more respite
beds.
Carers save the taxpayer
many millions of pounds, but are financially
disadvantaged by the low level of allowance paid,
and the difficulty of getting back into paid
employment after a period of caring. The Green Party
would lobby the government for better pay for carers
and training in new skills to help them find
employment after a period out of the job market.
One out of four people
who are treated under compulsion of the 1983 Mental
Health Act have previously been denied access to
treatment. The emphasis needs to be less on
compulsion and more on the right of access to
suitable treatment.
The Green Party,
therefore, supports opposition to the proposed new
Mental Health Bill, which would increase compulsion
and decrease community support.
Asylum
Seekers
The council has
responsibility for housing asylum seekers. The Green
Party values this responsibility and would seek to
house further asylum seekers under the Home Office/UNHCR
scheme to resettle a tiny fraction of Africa’s
“exceptionally vulnerable” refugees, following
the example set by Sheffield City Council and Bolton
Council.
The Green Party
recognizes the great trauma that genuine asylum
seekers have suffered and would therefore enlist the
help of other organizations, both statutory and
voluntary, to provide support, and to help them to
integrate into the local community.
The Green Party opposes
detention of asylum seekers. All asylum seekers
should be supported in the community while their
cases are heard. It supports the setting up of an
independent decision making body to ensure that high
quality, accurate decisions are made. Currently one
in five initial decisions are overturned on appeal.
The Green Party believes
that asylum seekers should be allowed to work while
awaiting a decision on their application, which
would reduce the burden on the public purse. We
should make use of the skills that immigrants have
to offer. The British Medical Council recently
estimated that only 7% of all doctors who have
sought, or are seeking, asylum in the U.K. are
currently working in the U.K.
Education
Introduction
The Green Party is committed to the concept of Lifelong Learning - that
people should be provided with the opportunity to
learn throughout their lives. Such learning should
enhance our individual quality of life whilst
benefiting society as a whole. A variety of
educational opportunities should be freely available
to all.
Formal education within our schooling system has an important role to
play in achieving a learning society. Yet the
Government seems determined to turn schools into
mere job training centres. Rather than focusing on
individual improvement and social development,
schools are increasingly constrained by a National
Curriculum, often unsuited to local conditions, and
are enslaved by crude league tables. These league
tables certainly measure exam attainment but ignore
the most important aspects of education: the
instilling of good values (such as trust and respect
for others) and the welfare and nurturing of the
child. These more qualitative aspects of education
are quite as important as training in traditional
academic subjects. The league tables are only based
on the percentage of children allowed to sit an
exam, leading to a less permissive ethos in schools.
The Government makes much of increased funding for
schools but this is often misdirected. Many school
buildings are run down, play facilities are limited,
and teachers' pay and conditions of service,
especially workloads, remain a problem to
recruitment of sufficient numbers of staff.
Teachers and governors remain bogged down by Government bureaucracy that
all too often detracts from the work of education.
Ironically, much of the flexibility in curriculum and teachers' pay and
conditions that the Greens have been arguing for is
now being permitted - but only in those schools in
'Education Action Zones'. These are schools which
have attracted private investment which is then
match funded by the Government. Thus corporations
are being given the power to influence the education
system in a way which democratically elected bodies
have been denied.
Greens believe that Worcestershire, as the Local Education Authority, has
a vital role to play in promoting and managing
education county-wide, but it needs to be more
responsive to the needs of teachers, schools,
parents, children and the community at large.
However, it is the case that the powers of the LEA
have been limited by successive Governments, to the
point where they are little more than education
managers. There is little that the LEA can do to
alter the way in which education is delivered;
nevertheless, there are opportunities to promote the
sort of education system that the Greens would
prefer.
General Policy
A Green County Council would:
·
Support an approach
to education which is based on inculcating
individuals with sound values as well as attainment
in tests and examinations.
·
Enhance the role of
the teacher to deliver education. The professional
knows how to approach it.
·
Encourage schools to
include pupils in decision-making and let them take
responsibility whenever practicable.
·
Oppose corporate funding
opportunities.
·
Maintain marginally
viable schools, by sharing facilities, equipment and
specialist teachers whilst opening their doors to
the wider community.
·
Take more seriously
the broader issues posed by sustainable development.
These children will need to be educated to deal with
a ‘shrinking world’.
·
Promote adult
education in closer cooperation with the Further
Education Colleges and other community education
bodies. This will avoid duplication and make best
use of the available expertise and funding.
·
Target adult
education funding at the most needy groups.
·
Advise Governors not
to permit the placement of mobile phone masts on
school buildings and on Council properties within
800 metres. The effects of microwave radiation on
children are still uncertain. The Government's own
Stewart Report advises caution.
·
Value school staff
and support their efforts to encourage an ethos of
cooperation, conflict resolution and respect for
others within schools.
·
Increase the
provision of nutritious school meals, prepared
locally, to combat the social results of poor diet.
The Greens support the ‘free fruit’ initiative -
to distribute surplus EU fruit to schools.
·
Encourage a diverse
and inclusive education system, which is a true
reflection of the local community. Those pupils with
disabilities, learning disorders or requiring
emotional support should be integrated into
mainstream schools wherever possible. However, it is
recognised that off-site provision, such as Pupil
Referral Units, will still play a vital role.
·
Extend early years
provision to meet increasing demand based around
social activities and play. Play groups for children
from deprived backgrounds are particularly in need
of support.
·
Advise parents that
they can legally educate their children at home
subject to conformance with appropriate conditions
and attainment criteria.
Key Election Issues:
Privatisation
of Education
"We need to change the law to allow external sponsors - from the
business and voluntary sectors and from within the
education world itself - to play a far greater role
in the management of schools" - Tony Blair
"Schools offer excellent opportunities. Not only are they a high
traffic (sales) generator, but students are some of
the best customers you could have." - An
extract from the 'operations manual' of MacDonalds
"The Government is moving towards increased private-sector
involvement in schools. From goody bags to
curriculum support, the corporate classroom is in
its infancy." - The Observer 11th Feb 2001
"Education Action Zones …[mean] that schools can now come under
the direct influence of companies such as MacDonalds,
British American Tobacco, Tate and Lyle and British
Aerospace, all of which offer partnerships to
schools." - Peace Pledge Union
For examples of the effect of such commercialisation in schools, see
Michael Moore “Stupid White Men” Chapter Four.
Greens oppose the 'creeping privatisation' of our schools through the
injection of private funds. This can lead to serious
conflicts of interest and/or put undue control of
education in the hands of unelected and
unaccountable profit-making corporations. Such
privatisation can, and does, take many forms, from
the donation of 'free' computers by Tesco to the
lump sum contract payment to place a few mobile
phone aerials on your school hall or Cadbury
sponsoring sports activity through increased
chocolate consumption.
The Government's Education Action Zones encourage just the sort of
private finance involvement that concerns the
Greens. Not only is there an issue of control; a
recent Audit Office report cast doubt on whether or
not these EAZs are even having the desired
educational benefits.
The Greens have argued that the County should issue an ethical code of
conduct for School Governors to make it clear that
there are dangers in accepting funds from commercial
organisations
Arts
and Recreation
Recreation and the arts should not be seen as luxuries;
they are essential parts of a full and satisfying
life for the individual and the community. The
temptation to make cuts in funding to these areas
when economies are called for should be resisted.
The needs of all residents must be considered and a
balance struck between the provision of formal
recreational facilities and the enhancing of the
recreational value of open space and peaceful
landscape where people can make their own
entertainment.
A
Green Council will:
·
Encourage a good mix of
recreation and leisure facilities across all areas
of the county in preference to concentrating
particular types of facility in particular areas.
·
Ensure that facilities meet the
needs of people of all ages, incomes and abilities.
·
Promote community facilities and
activities through funding and encouraging community
use of existing school facilities.
Museums and libraries perform vital cultural social and
educational roles very cost-effectively. The people
of Worcestershire value their museums and public
libraries and have been deeply concerned at the cuts
which have been forced upon the services by spending
cuts. Year-on-year reductions in the budget for
newspapers and periodicals have hit particularly
hard. The Green Party would give high priority to
restoring the funding for both the book and
periodicals budgets.
Green
Councillors will:
·
Campaign to increase free access
to cultural services.
·
Support IT developments which
would bring together library, museum, archive and
other information services and make them accessible
online at many points all over the County.
·
Encourage the Library and Museum
Services to reach out to community-based projects,
history displays in village halls, oral history
projects and children's reading and story telling
sessions.
Public
Services
The
Greens believe that it is wrong to profit from the
provision of public services - in effect making
money at the taxpayers’ expense. It is better to
ensure that the public sector operates in an
efficient and responsive manner - meeting the needs
of service users.
The issue of privatisation of local services is
inextricably linked to the globalisation agenda
shared by the Conservatives, New Labour and the
Liberal Democrats. They all support organisations
such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which is
seeking to prohibit local authorities from
supporting businesses important to the local
economy. Already local Government tenders have to be
advertised at a European level and contracts awarded
without reference to the locality of the bidding
company. This makes our services vulnerable to
predatory trans-national companies and others with
no long-term interest in the region. Environmental
standards, along with staff pay and conditions, are
typically the first victims of 'externalisation'
followed by declining services, as profit margins
are increased.
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