As part of the Tyne Crossings Alliance, we fought the second road Tyne Tunnel and succeeded in getting a public enquiry contrary to all predictions. We got a high court hearing and managed to delay the tunnel by 5 years.
The campaign against the Ghost Ships coming to Hartlepool to be scrapped gained national and international coverage, as did a legal challenge to the recent arrival of the French aircraft carrier ‘Clemenceau’. The Green Party fully backs those local people who don’t want their home town turned into the toxic dustbin of the world but whose views are being ignored.
Our number three candidate, Councillor Nic Best, set up the regional Farmers Markets network (NE England Farmers Markets) and founded and chairs the Northumberland Credit Union.
Campaign Objectives
Historically one of the less active regions in the country, North East Greens are now fully behind the European election campaign and participating in dozens of public meetings and media invitations. We hope all of this activity will encourage supporters to join the Green Party, and to enable the creation of new local parties. Above all we’d like to inspire our members to get behind long-term Target To Win election campaigns in order to win much-needed representation on Councils such as Newcastle upon Tyne and South Tyneside. Our target is to increase our vote to at least 5%. However if we want to be sure of beating the BNP, we will have to do better than that.
Lead Candidate: Shirley Ford
Shirley lives in South Shields, with her husband and nine year old son. She works in a local primary school, supporting parents to improve attendance, and organises the recycling, composting and a gardening club there. Previously she has worked in human rights and anti-poverty campaigning. A long standing activist in Women in Black against War, she was a leading campaigner to have rape recognised as a war crime, during the wars in former Yugoslavia.
She is chair of South Tyneside Green Party and North East Regional Co-ordinator. Shirley is also the parliamentary candidate for South Shields, where the current MP is David Miliband, Foreign Secretary.
Number Two: Iris Ryder
Iris lives in Hartlepool and is very active in the voluntary sector. As well as being the Resident Representative for Seaton Carew, she is vice chair of the South Neighbourhood Forum, on council Scrutiny committees, the Environment Partnership and the Hartlepool Partnership. A founder member of Hartlepool Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Free Future and Friends of Hartlepool, she has campaigned against council building on public recreation areas, seizing of publicly owned land, a nuclear waste incinerator, a second nuclear power station at Hartlepool, toxic and radioactive waste disposal and the Ghost Fleet. Iris stood for the Green Party in parliamentary elections in Hartlepool in 2004 and 2007. Hartlepool Greens also hope to contest the 2009 Mayoral election.
Platform on which our candidates will be standing:
The region needs to respond to the economic downturn by moving towards a lower carbon economy. We will be pushing for a Green New Deal for the North East – green jobs in renewable energy, home insulation, recycling and public transport.
“No!” to the Ghost Ships and “No!” to a new nuclear power station in Hartlepool. Keeping the Tyne and Wear Metro in public ownership.
If you’d like to find out more or help the campaign in the North East Region contact: Shirley Ford, NE Regional Co-ordinator, 214 Mowbray Road, South Shields NE33 3BE; tel: 0191 456 5464 (home), 0771 440 1466 (mobile); or email: shirley.ford@stgreens.org.uk.
