Cotham Candidate

I have the privilege of being selected to stand for Green Party in my local Cotham Ward for the council elections this coming May. Long standing candidate Geoff Collard is standing down due to other commitments and I hope to build on the good work that he has done.

As in many wards in Bristol, especially in Bristol West constituency, the Green vote in Cotham has increased year on year, so that now only the Green Party are the serious challengers to the Liberal Democrats. Last year in Cotham, the we received an impressive 23% of the votes and maintained our clear second place well ahead of both Tory and Labour parties!

If you live in Cotham you’ll be receiving my first letter out introducing myself, if not you can read it here:

Like many of you I am hugely frustrated by the attack our coalition government has made on public services, on our society and on our way of life. I am forced to stand aside as I watch plutocrats like ‘Sir’ Philip Green get away with avoiding an estimated £300m of tax just as the government raises the tax bills for the rest of us, while still cutting services.

I can only protest in vain as one by one the pledges of politicians voted into office are ignored and the coalition agreement used to put forward any policy they like regardless of manifesto promises. The banker bonuses are still in place, tuition fees are set to rise.

But what can we do?

I am standing in the local council elections as I want to make a difference. I believe it is important that people are given an alternative to the big three parties. Labour deregulated the banks in the first place, the Tories have given rich tax avoiders jobs in government and the LibDems haven’t kept their promises.

The Green Party is the only political party affiliated with the anti-cuts alliance. It’s the only party that consistently stands up to big business and supports the local community – and we can make a difference.

This is a local election though, what can a Green Party local councillor do?

The council has a smaller budget now and needs to cut spending. The budget is dictated by central government but we do have some say on how the money is spent.

Your LibDem council has wasted £363,000 on the failed World Cup bid when London only spent £61,000! Your LibDem council has also decided to sell off 40 areas of green spaces, despite large scale protests and have not let the public examine fully their reasons for doing so.

Not a good record and not the choices that a Green councillor would make. We would prefer money was spent on local services rather than large vanity projects, we would oppose selling of your land at rock bottom prices to benefit property developers – we would argue hard to make sure the people of Bristol got the best deal possible – we already have one councillor in Southville doing this, more would mean the Green party would become the real alternative.

Sounds great, but who are you?

I’ve lived in Bristol for ten years, the last five in Cotham. I run a not for profit organisation that promotes art and drawing in the local community. I believe Bristol is a unique and world class city and I want a council that reflects this.

My work means that I am more than aware of the limitations of the coalition’s Big Society aims. The expectation that the welfare state can be dismantled and replaced by volunteers seems to be a cynical attempt to leave the poor and disadvantaged stranded, as well as cutting the types of services that we all feel are worth having.

Take cuts in library services for example, Ed Vaizey, the coalition minister for libraries, said last July. “There are all sorts of ways of configuring the big society,” he enthuses, “The George and Dragon pub in North Yorkshire is now delivering a library service and a pint to the community in Hudswell. That sounds like a good partnership to me.” The library service he is referring to comprises of one shelf and sixty books, not really a like for like replacement for the vital social hub that a library provides – surely we deserve better than that