Greens have been growing in force in the West Midlands over the past five years since the last European elections. Increasingly organised, we have substantially increased the number of seats contested in local elections every year with several areas now recording full slates of candidates. This shows the electorate that we are active in their areas and “in the game” so to speak. Last year, we recorded a breakthrough in Solihull to gain our first Green Party Councillor on a Metropolitan Council in the West Midlands County. We also hold seats on Malvern Hills and Herefordshire Councils. Cllr John Lloyd in South Shropshire has just retired on the District Council after 14 years as a result of the abolition of the two-tier Council structure in Shropshire.
Campaign Objectives:
This year, we hope to contest around 50% of the County Council seats, up from around 20% four years ago. Let the momentum keep rolling!
Lead Candidate: Felicity Norman
Felicity has been an active member of the Green Party for 25 years and is a former agriculture spokesperson for the party. She has been a candidate in local, national and European elections. She was twice elected to Leominster District Council, serving for seven years before the current Herefordshire Unitary Authority took over.
Felicity has particular expertise in agriculture and teaching. She lives with her husband and two daughters on a smallholding in Herefordshire, where she teaches part time.
Felicity has worked with a number of voluntary organisations, including Voluntary Action, Citizens Advice Bureau and Shopmobility, where she has been a trustee for many years. She is also a director at the Robert Owen Society, a secondary school governor, and organises Leominster Apple Fair which celebrates the huge variety of different apples, and encourages support for local food and its producers and retailers. She is a supporter of several peace and justice, and environmental campaigning organisations.
Number Two: Peter Tinsley
Peter is a management consultant, retired NHS manager and lives in Birmingham. He is a member of his local Selly Oak Strategic Partnership representing voluntary and community organisations. Peter is particularly interested in developing a Green perspective on Foreign Affairs and Defence within Europe. He has been a member of the party since 1990.
Platform on which our candidates will be standing
The key issue we need to address at these elections is availability of jobs. What parties will do to stabilise the economy and guarantee jobs for the future is exactly what people are looking for at the moment. With the Green New Deal, we have plenty of jobs-rich solutions to the economic problems we are facing and we are promoting this as a major theme in the campaign. Felicity Norman has been to businesses in Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Stafford, Leek and elsewhere to visit examples of the Green New Deal in already in action. Felicity has found these businesses reporting success in a time when there is so little good news about the economy.
There are many ways to get involved in the West Midlands campaign. Contact Chris Williams in the campaign office in Birmingham on 0121 554 8639 or 07811 428 682; westmidlands@greenparty.org.uk; or sign up on facebook at http://tiny.cc/felicityonfacebook.
