The Green Party is celebrating having cemented their position as the fourth most popular party in England after yesterday's elections.
At the time of writing, with results in from more than half of England's councils, and against a strong popular swing towards Labour, they have increased their total number of councillors by four, and their average share of the vote by one point to 9%.
The party contested 943 seats in 119 councils and was defending 22 seats it already held.
Its candidate for the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark, Jonathan Bartley, claimed that the results showed his party was gaining wide appeal. “This is clearly not a single issue party any longer,” he said.
Nuneaton gained its first Green councillor in the person of Keith Kondakor, and so did Dudley where Dr Will Duckworth gained a seat.
Three seats taken in the West Midlands from the Conservatives were done so with large swings.
In Norwich, the party held all six seats with increased percentage counts, keeping its record of never losing a single seat at the ballot box.
A Labour majority in Sewell Ward was reduced by 290 votes by the Green Party candidate Howard Jago.
In Bradford, where the Respect Party took the Leader's seat, the Green Party retained the three seats it already had, but increased its support in the Shipley ward where Martin Love obtained a majority of 1,461, the highest ever Green majority in a ward.
However, they lost their only seat on Cambridge Council after their candidate Adam Pogonowski defected to Labour just before polls opened, claiming that he wanted to be part of “a bigger party that has real power to make a difference to people”.
The results in Cardiff are eagerly awaited where the party fielded 37 candidates.
The Green Party issued a statement calling yesterday's local elections "a day of steady progress for Green politics".
Councillor Andrew Cooper, Chair Association of Green Councillors, said the results showed the party was gaining wider appeal and that where Greens have been elected and stand on their record, voters approve their performance and re-elect them.
"This is a party coming of age, which is showing that when it gets stuck into local issues like housing, it can actually make gains and then hold on to them despite the swings of the big three parties."
More results are expected later today followed by the count for the London Mayor and Greater London Assembly with the result expected this evening.
Jenny Jones is the Green candidate for London mayor.
Perhaps the media will start giving the party more attention from now on.
Showing posts with label Green Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Party. Show all posts
Friday, May 04, 2012
Friday, May 07, 2010
Will a hung Parliament be good for the environment?
Now that we know there is to be a hung Parliament, the stage is set for much horse trading on environmental issues between the three main parties.
And, now that Caroline Lucas has become the first Green Party MP since Cynog Dafis won his seat in the '90s on a joint Green-Plaid Cymru ticket, it will be fascinating to see if she succeeds in raising the profile of environmental issues.
She deserves huge congratulations, as she has won this on the back of many years of dedication and hard work as a Green MEP.
On the whole, the Liberal Democrats hold the greenest of policies amongst the main three, but if, as seems likely, they attempt to forge an alliance with the Conservatives, then it will be very interesting to see how a party that is against nuclear power and for onshore wind can get on with one that opposes these policies.
Let's take one topic and see what could happen: planning and housing.
Where both Tories and LibDems agree, and differ from Labour, is in a promise to abolish regional planning, including regional spatial strategies.
Although the Liberal Democrat Policies for the Environment election document had little to say about spatial planning it did pledge to abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and return planning, including housing targets to "local people", something the Tories might agree with.
A Conservative government would pay councils to release land for housing by matching pound-for-pound the council tax receipts they receive from new housing, and the LibDems could support that.
But the Tories have no target for housing on brownfield land to protect greenspace, unlike the Labour Government, which set one at 75%.
Labour promised to maintain the 60% brownfield and minimum density targets for housing in its election document A Green Future for All, and was the only main party to say it would enforce greenfield land releases, according to its Plan for Housing.
Labour also promised promise to end so-called "garden grabbing" by defining them as greenfield sites in "planning law" so they cannot be so easily built over.
The Tory document, Modern Conservatism: Our Quality of Life Agenda launched during the campaign represented a very pale green version of John Gummer's 2007 quality of life commission document which promoted a wide range of radical Smart Growth policies.
One thing seems certain: the prospect of a hung Parliament will act as a brake on the deregulatory excesses of the right that historically have not boded well for the environment - which, naturally, does not have a vote.
And, now that Caroline Lucas has become the first Green Party MP since Cynog Dafis won his seat in the '90s on a joint Green-Plaid Cymru ticket, it will be fascinating to see if she succeeds in raising the profile of environmental issues.
She deserves huge congratulations, as she has won this on the back of many years of dedication and hard work as a Green MEP.
On the whole, the Liberal Democrats hold the greenest of policies amongst the main three, but if, as seems likely, they attempt to forge an alliance with the Conservatives, then it will be very interesting to see how a party that is against nuclear power and for onshore wind can get on with one that opposes these policies.
Let's take one topic and see what could happen: planning and housing.
Where both Tories and LibDems agree, and differ from Labour, is in a promise to abolish regional planning, including regional spatial strategies.
Although the Liberal Democrat Policies for the Environment election document had little to say about spatial planning it did pledge to abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and return planning, including housing targets to "local people", something the Tories might agree with.
A Conservative government would pay councils to release land for housing by matching pound-for-pound the council tax receipts they receive from new housing, and the LibDems could support that.
But the Tories have no target for housing on brownfield land to protect greenspace, unlike the Labour Government, which set one at 75%.
Labour promised to maintain the 60% brownfield and minimum density targets for housing in its election document A Green Future for All, and was the only main party to say it would enforce greenfield land releases, according to its Plan for Housing.
Labour also promised promise to end so-called "garden grabbing" by defining them as greenfield sites in "planning law" so they cannot be so easily built over.
The Tory document, Modern Conservatism: Our Quality of Life Agenda launched during the campaign represented a very pale green version of John Gummer's 2007 quality of life commission document which promoted a wide range of radical Smart Growth policies.
One thing seems certain: the prospect of a hung Parliament will act as a brake on the deregulatory excesses of the right that historically have not boded well for the environment - which, naturally, does not have a vote.
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