Siân and the Giant Peach

Observer Backs Greens

From today's Observer Editorial

There is a stronger case to be made for casting 'first preference' votes for Siân Berry, the Green candidate. The party has already used its toehold on the London Assembly to wring green concessions worth millions of pounds out of the mayoral budget. A respectable score for Ms Berry, an intelligent and articulate advocate of her cause, would send a clear signal to whoever wins the mayoralty that London cares about environmental policy.

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Tags greenparty

Green Tory Tactical Voting Tip

Did you know that a vote cast for the Tory Party in the London-wide List is a wasted vote? This is because the Tory Party will inevitably win more than their fair share of constituency members, so none of their list will get elected.

This means that Tory voters can vote both Blue and Green in the same election, by voting Tory in the constituency and voting for the Green Party in the London-wide list.

Meanwhile Real Greens in Sutton should vote Green Party in the London list and for Green Party candidate Shasha Khan in the constituency vote.

London Election Broadcast

National Election Broadcast

Green Party Manifesto for London

Key Green policies include:

* 20p off all bus and off-peak tube fares - cancel £500 million east London roadbuilding scheme and invest in public transport instead
* Free insulation available to everyone;
* Insist all employers pay a Living Wage of least £7.20 an hour
* More affordable housing with a 60% target for all new homes
* Cheap loans for renewable energy generation
* Support for small business, against big retailers, with 50% of space in new developments to be small units for local businesses, at affordable rents
* People-friendly speed limits - 20 mph everywhere except a small number of major routes
* Tube PPPs and rail services in London brought back into public control
* No airport expansion
Download the full manifesto (pdf)

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Tags sutton, greenparty

Green waste- where we stand

Copy of letter sent to local media:

The level of debate on the current spat over garden waste collections has been disappointingly negative and perhaps over-simplistic.

The Green party agrees with Councillor Hall that ‘free’ waste collections are nothing of the sort, and that it’s a good idea to encourage people to take more responsibility for their own waste where possible. It might not be politically popular but global events should make it clear to us that we cannot rely on politicians to deliver everything for us- people have to take a lead too. He’s also right to remind us that throwing rubbish in landfill sites is not just wasteful but very expensive. We are producing a lot more waste these days and it makes sense to refuse excess packaging, and and re-use whatever we can, before we recycle, or put material into the waste stream. Composting is easy and makes good sense, returning organic matter to the soil system. There may be a risk of increased fly-tipping but the last time Sutton Council dabbled with home composting they made a terrible hash of it, delivering unwanted bins - most of which themselves went to waste, to everyone. The relatively small charge for green waste collections this time might encourage people to think more positively about composting.

Sutton Council haven’t made their task of selling this scheme any easier by the huge salary hikes for senior officers – that’s a policy I would not like to defend. Also as an active composter myself I do have some concerns about the woody waste from shrubs and trees which don’t compost easily. This one needs more thinking about perhaps. We do however need some more imaginative thinking on waste- and encouraging more home composting is part of that thinking.

Sutton - The Sustainable Suburb of the Future

A trailblazing initiative to create the UK’s first zero-carbon sustainable suburb was launched on 25 February in Hackbridge, located in the north of Sutton borough.

“Hackbridge Week” from 25 February to 1 March comprised a series of workshops involving people who live and work in the area (including BedZED residents and BioRegional), Council Officers and Councillors, architects and developers getting together to discuss ideas on how to design the sustainable suburb of the future.

The overall objective is for Hackbridge, and ultimately Sutton, to become the UK’s first ‘sustainable suburb’ - creating a vibrant community where people want to live and work, that protects the local environment and meets the needs of local residents both now and in the future.

Hackbridge Week followed on from a "Visioning" day (held in April last year) when the initial ideas were discussed. As a resident, I attended on that day – and had been looking forward with great anticipation of what was to follow.

While it has taken 10 months for the follow-up event, I did feel that the “Hackbridge Week” events were very good. Very well structured and with a feeling of real, meaningful consultation (although this could well have been improved by local residents having been given more notice of the events).

Consultative workshops were held on several topics, including:

Planning and Design of New Build
Natural Habitats and Wildlife
Culture and Heritage
Zero Waste
Sustainable Transport
Local and Sustainable Materials
Community Planning
Local Business Involvement
Zero Carbon
Sustainable Water
Equity and Fair Trade
Increasing Civic Awareness
Health and Happiness
Local and Sustainable Food.

and ending with a feedback event on the final day

Sutton Council Leader Cllr Sean Brennan said, “People living and working in the area are true champions of the environment and it is their ideas, their energy and their enthusiasm that will help transform Hackbridge and ultimately Sutton, into the UK’s first zero-carbon sustainable suburb.”
“With the BedZed development, this area has long been a showcase for green living and Hackbridge Week is an opportunity for the community to decide how we make Hackbridge a better place for everyone. We intend to be blaze a trail of sustainable living for others to follow.”


The findings from the different events and workshops will form the basis of a Sustainable Action Plan for Hackbridge. The plan will clearly lay out:

what the goals are
who will be involved
what the short, medium and long term actions are
how One Planet Living in Hackbridge will be achieved.

The Council; say that everything in the plan will be based on what people have told them at the events – and invite more ideas by logging onto the One Planet Living website at: www.oneplanetsutton.org/login

George Dow

Paddick makes up policies as he goes along

London Green Assembly members have written an open letter to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg urging him to support the Greens in the London mayoral election! Listening to some of Paddick's policy pronouncements and comparing them with supposed LibDem policy, you'd be hard to find a pair in your hand (nothing new ther ethen!?) anyway here's the letter:-

27th Mar 2008

Open letter to Nick Clegg MP

Greens urge Clegg to back Berry as Paddick rips up Lib Dem policy

Green Assembly Members Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson have delivered this letter to Liberal Democrat headquarters in Westminster.

Dear Nick,

We are writing this open letter because we are concerned that your voters are about to go into a London election with no Liberal Democrat candidate.

Although we do not always agree with the Liberal Democrats, we believe that very many people vote Lib Dem because they are concerned about the environment, and Lib Dems have clearly applied greater effort than the two larger parties to this issue in recent years. That is absolutely to your credit.

But in an entirely understandable effort to break into the top two in London, your party has chosen to nominate a celebrity candidate from outside the party, Brian Paddick. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Mr Paddick does not share the environmental concerns of your voters, and the party appears powerless to stop him tearing up years of Lib Dem policy in London in pursuit of Conservative votes.

Mr Paddick has pledged to scrap the Low Emissions Zone, a policy that was supported by Lib Dem AMs and is vital to cut the 1,000 premature deaths caused annually in London by air pollution.

He would cancel the higher-rate Congestion Charge for gas-guzzling Band G vehicles, a policy championed both by our Mayoral candidate Siân Berry and your MP Lynne Featherstone, then a London Assembly Member.

And he plans to privatise the Tube network to place management entirely in the hands of a single firm. You will remember that Lib Dem candidates appeared on the 2000 ballot paper as "Liberal Democrats: Against Tube Sell-off."

While Siân Berry is by no means a Liberal Democrat, it is clear that she represents the concerns and aspirations of Liberal Democrats far better than your increasingly estranged official candidate.

The Liberal Democrats' hard-won reputation as a party with concern for London's environment is at grave risk though the promotion of this high-profile and clearly anti-environment Mayoral candidate.

Liberal Democrat voters are practical, not tribal. In our view, the Lib Dem thing to do in this situation is to ignore the colour of the rosette, and vote for the progressive polices for London transport and the environment, many of which you have fought for over the last eight years. We therefore urge you, your party and your supporters to back instead the only candidate that now represents your hopes for our capital: Siân Berry.

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Jones AM Darren Johnson AM