Gloucester Green Party

                                       ________________________________________________________

The Gloucester Green Party campaigns locally for social and environmental justice. The basis of our manifesto is the belief that compassion and honesty should be at the core of economic, social and civil liberties policies. As ecological, resource and financial crisis arrive simultaneously, only the Green Party has an answer that will benefit all people.
  Please browse our articles, comments and letters below to see what we stand for. If the views are similar  to your own   we need you!
The Green Party is a rapidly growing party and you can make contact us       Matthew   08454 562602   e-mail   matthewsidford@gloucestergreenparty.org.uk

---

---

                              Fair is Worth Fighting for

 Gloucester should be a vibrant, multicultural city- the proud  county capital of Gloucestershire. Unfortunately the vision of the three large parties is almost identical. They value greedy, rich, powerful people; pandering to them in the hope that they will invest their incredible wealth in Britain, which they have patently not done since this policy was adopted by the three larger parties in 1978.     more
  There is an alternative, a transforming alternative and a different vision of what is of real value. Instead of unregulated capitalism with excess profits and huge bonuses for the few,  how about concern for the people of Gloucestershire?
   Instead of large retail parks and corporate led local government, how about investment and support for small and medium sized local businesses, parks, libraries, youth groups and care for our communities. Not fundamentalist individualism but a genuine desire to build a caring, fairer society living in a healthy environment.
That is worth fighting for.  See our policies here

Waste Recycling and Incineration

  Gloucestershire Green Party has done more than any other political party to oppose the giant waste incinerator at Javelin Park (M5 Junction 12 Haresfield/ Hardwicke).
Planning permission was refused unanimously by the planning meeting on 21st March.
Despite this  battle being won we don't know quite yet whether the war is over. Urbaser Balfour Beatty look likely to appeal, which means there would probably be a hearing or inquiry. However, whatever happens it will take some time. One thing is sure, we will support Glosvain and support their fight in doing  everything to prevent overturning of an overwhelmingly democratic rejection of this massively flawed project.
   We recommend that you view  Gloucestershire against incinerators here and Friends of the Earth recent  recommendations on incineration and recycling here.
Tewkesbury and Cotwolds councils have set a good  example for the rest of the county by achieving recycling rates of around 60%, doubling in just a few years by contracting to a  high tech factory to turn our waste into a valuable resource here. Even disposable nappies are now being recycled in Birmingham here.  It is not impossible to envisage close to zero landfill in the coming few decades, without the use of expensive, polluting and wasteful incineration plants.
 There is strong evidence that cancer is almost solely a disease of industrialisation and the toxins produced by incineration are certainly part of its cause. Professor Rosalie David, from Manchester University said: “In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle." source   

---

       The Facts of Economic Growth
  Annual expansion of Gross Domestic Product by  3% at compound interest on each preceding year, would make ministers smile.  But if remaining constant, it would also double the size of our economy in just 23 years. Growth, being back on track to this tune would cause us to make and consume twice as much stuff by 2034.
  Here is the most startling fact.  In that 23 year period, assuming we remain slaves to materialism, we would consume as much in resources as we had in our entire previous economic history.
 letter to Citizen

Dog-fouling of public space 
    _This is the number one complaint received by the Council.
  That’s right. Not the closing of libraries, law centres, youth centres, police stations, or of crime rates and road safety problems. But of poo-peppered pavements and parks. Do we have a solution?
  Read Matthew's letter to the citizen here

   The Railway Triangle
 
   A formal plan has already been submitted to Gloucester City Council proposing that the Railway Triangle site be used for a supermarket – Morrisons – and petrol station. A business park, a car showroom and food outlets are additional possibilities. We wondered whether those who live near the Railway Triangle would like to respond to this proposal. The key question is: do we really want another supermarket in Gloucester?
                    
           our vision statement    Also see   Stephen Langdon's view on radio Gloucester  here  

  Do We Need Another Supermarket?

It appears that currently nobody is prepared to put up the ‘big money’ necessary for something like a new railway station or a new stadium. Housing is a poor option: the fact that the site is ‘trapped’ between railway lines would make the housing environment unattractive. We do not need another supermarket. It seems probable that the main reason for choosing a supermarket is that it will not cost the public a great deal of money.
 Many new supermarkets have appeared in recent years, and more Tesco, Morrison and Asda expansions are planned.  Their is hard evidence for the  decimating the UK's independent retail sector, with thousands of shops going to the wall each year. whats wrong with supermarkets    letter to Citizen
 
 

 The Citizen's Martin Kirby says long range weather forecasts by the met office disprove climate change.

In his long running campaign to discredit  the findings of climate scientists, columnist Martin Kirby gives more weight to long range forecasts, mistaken publishers and ignorance than facts.
  He Says
    "The met office has warned that snow is likely to arrive in Gloucestershire next month. That'll be global warming, then. The news comes at the same time as publishers of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, Harper Collins, was forced to apologise for its incorrect information which suggested 15 per cent of Greenland's ice - an area the size of the UK and Ireland combined - had melted. "
 
As Matthew Sidford notes "Martin Kirby seems to argue that global warming cannot be happening, because snow is predicted for October. By reasoning thus he presumably now feels utterly assured, in this record heat wave, that the world is in fact warming again."   letter to Citizen
    Scientists call Times World Atlas Greenland claims "incorrect and misleading"

Is Gloucester Cheerless?
 Many of radio Gloucester's callers thought so.

  Radio Gloucester's Chris Baxter was  in conversation with Chris Oldershaw of the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company  discussing plans for the Kings Square area and the railway triangle. Many of the  people phoning in to give their view of  the regeneration so far, were of the opinion that Gloucester was  gloomy and needed brightening up with flowers, greenery or water features. Some said they shopped in Cheltenham because it was prettier.
  Instead of the more retail development we believe Kings Square is well placed  to be a meditative area with grass. shrubs and water features for shoppers and the people of Gloucester to relax, the shrubs  extending into Kings Walk, the Bus Station and the surrounding streets. This would, we believe, uplift the whole area, make people happier, and  more inclined to visit and shop in Gloucester. It would be fair to expect  the retail trade to help maintain it as it would be of  benefit to them.   letter to citizen

        Gloucester Green Party  takes the lead in
      '20s plenty for us'   campaign in Gloucester

Although we have some 20 mph areas in Gloucester, our current default limit of 30 mph is too high in residential areas, where vulnerable road users are at greatest risk. Like a bad habit, 30 mph residential limits remain commonplace nationwide. Yet government public attitude surveys find that over 70% support 20 mph for residential roads.

 In Portsmouth the 20 mph zone led to

    child accidents falling  by 67%
    a 22% reduction in casualties
    50% fewer elderly driver casualties
    an average increase in journey time of less than 40 seconds
 
What are we waiting for?  letter to councillor                20's plenty         letter to Citizen
 
Children – even while supervised - continue to be knocked down by vehicles in Gloucester
Vehicles doing 20mph are – surprisingly - seven times safer to all road users than ones doing 30 mph. Pedestrians and cyclists are much less likely to get hit, and even if they are, the chances of surviving with little injury increase dramatically.
That’s why a new campaign group – 20s Plenty for Gloucester – has started up, to focus on making 20mph the default limit on all the city’s roads. more

---

Greens join Gloucestershire Pride march

    Philip Booth, a Stroud District Councillor, said, "Greens have joined the Gloucestershire Pride every time since it began in 2006. It was a great atmosphere on the parade and even bigger than previous years.

---

 
Pride is all about promoting acceptance of our diverse
community,  celebrating our differences and putting an
end to the discrimination like homophobic bullying in our
    workplaces and schools. Recent research found a
shocking 92% of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils in
British Schools face verbal abuse and some 41% had
been physically assaulted. This is unacceptable."

---

Green Party propose railway triangle to be country park and wildlife reserve

The Railway Triangle. Lets turn the whole site into a County Park and wildlife reserve. With the right investment the Triangle could be turned into a huge resource for Gloucester, providing a healthy amenity for local people, educational opportunities for the city's schoolchildren, and perhaps even a a magnet for tourists.
 letter to citizen

 A link between the Nigerian elections and a Gloucestershire?

 What is the link between the Nigerian elections and a Gloucestershire Green Party talk about public spending cuts? Jean lambert MEP had been the scheduled speaker for this event, at Gloucestershire University's Oxstalls campus on Thursday. But she was forced to cancel at late notice to be in Nigeria as an official observer of the postponed elections.
   Molly Scott Cato of Stroud, who is the Green Party's Speaker on Economics, admirably stepped in to give listeners a fascinating and intelligent critique of the austeria  sweeping the country, and proposals for a real alternative: an economy of hope and justice based on fair shares and living in balance with the planet. She argued that anti-cuts camapaigners need to focus on political solutions, to include radical banking reorganisation and economic localisation. Politicians, she argued, must regain control over global finance, and cease to allow the speculators to ruin the lives of hard-working people.
   County Councillor Sarah Lunnon shared the platform with Molly, to provide a local angle on the impact of cuts. She intrigued listeners when describing the difficulties faced by a lone Green councillor grappling with austerity decisions made by Gloucestershire County Council. There were scathing words, too, for Eric Pickles's misguided version of localism. A highly engaged audience rounded out the evening with dozens of questions for the speakers.

 Gloucestershire County Council  has opted for a multimillion pound giant waste incinerator.

 This disastrous choice will burden Gloucestershire taxpayers with a  toxic and expensive monster.                                 Letter to Citizen             Incinerator Plans a white elephant
 

Boundary changes and increase in size of wards in Gloucester?

 The Local Government Boundary Commission are recommending a reduction in the number of councillors  in the county and the wards with two councillors to be converted to single member wards. Not surprisingly the bulk of Conservatives support this.

 We are not in favour of reducing the  two-member wards to single member wards.

 In two-member wards there is a greater likelihood that the electorate are represented by more than one political party, leading  to  more  representation.

 We disagree with the reduction of the number of Gloucestershire County Councillors from 63 to 53 for a number of reasons
 
The financial savings by such a reduction will not be substantial. (The majority of County Councillors, those who do not claim special responsibilities such as ministers or scrutiny chairs, are entitled to £8,800 annually )
 
 The  wards should be no larger than can normally be managed by a person with a full time job or other obligations.The Councillor Commission reports that councillors already  feel short of time. If  electoral divisions become larger, councillors would have to compromise further, the time and attention they can offer to their ‘representees’. more

Save our Dawn Redwood

Gloucester City Council has now received planning applications for the demolition of the Technical College buildings on Brunswick Road (which will include the felling of the rare and attractive 60 year old Dawn Redwood) and for the site’s redevelopment.

When is a tree worth saving?  Letter to Citizen

---

 Cuts - Why ?

   Contrary to public belief, it is not necessary to make drastic cuts to our public services. During much of the 20th century we had nearly three times the current national debt comparative to earnings yet the NHS and over one million council houses were built. Public services like all organisations can and should be improved, but most of the proposed cuts are going to hurt the poorest in our society to the detriment of us all. No youth leaders, no libraries, neglected green spaces and general dereliction  in the more deprived areas, is socially destructive.  Far from the coalition making any attempt to construct an inclusive society, they are intent on building exclusive gated communities. more
 
 Matthew Sidford of the Gloucester Green Party writes
" It is vitally important to repudiate the government’s throttling of all public services. We denounced the government’s characterization of public services as a burden on society, and the cause of our economic ills. We wished to remind people that our economy was ruined not by public spending, but by reckless behaviour in poorly-regulated global banking. This triggered a world-wide recession from which no lessons, it seems, have been learned."  more

 Save the Forest of Dean

   We in the Gloucester Green Party are deeply opposed to the alarming proposal of the coalition government to sell our forests . Help stop the government from stealing and selling them by joining the campaign to keep our Forest of Dean in safe hands.
  letter to citizen

---

"No subsidy for Nuclear"  another LibDem lie? more

 "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in"               
- Theodore Roosevelt

Links 

 The Green Party

Gloucestershire Green Party

The Green Party

Green Blogs

Jonathan Porritt
Ruscombe Green


Green Economics

NewEconomics Foundation
Gaianeconomics

Campaigns

Gloucestershire Against Incinerators
Hands off our Forest
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries

Gloucester local government

Gloucester County Council
Gloucester City Council

 Letters and Comment

Gloucester credit union  Dull?


Peace

The Peace Museum