Strong Green Advances in Norwich
The Greens in Norwich have secured energy efficient affordable housing, improvements to transport and made many other gains.
By Councillor Adrian Ramsay
In each of the three years that we have held the balance of power on Norwich City Council we have had an impact on the budget-setting process. Sometimes this has been through preventing undesirable cuts proposed by the administration but we have also secured additional spending in some of our priority areas, such as:
- a long-awaited energy officer for the council with the sole duty of improving energy efficiency in council buildings and services
- support for a Buy Local campaign and an initiative (called the ‘Norwich Lanes’) to promote independent and local businesses in part of the city
- additional staff time for supporting the needs of cyclists
- massive investment in much-needed improvements to recycling facilities.
In each of these cases we would like to go further still, and will hopefully be able to do so in future budget rounds, but we have had a significant impact on the council’s budget given the proportion of seats we hold on the council.
On Norfolk County Council we have much less influence, holding two seats out of 84. However, our County Councillors Chris Hull and Andrew Boswell have still played an active role in the budget-setting process. Most recently they proposed the establishment of a Climate Change Mitigation Fund and, although it was not adopted at the full council meeting, it has attracted a lot of positive attention from the media and other parties and we may well be able to get it through another time.
A ground-breaking Green Party climate chaos motion to Norwich City Council was adopted earlier this year. It established the need for targets to secure year-on-year reductions in carbon emissions across all council buildings and services. We will be monitoring this policy to ensure it is implemented across the board and we hope it will be adopted by other local authorities and by other organisations and businesses across the country.
An important part of our role as Green Councillors is in supporting green campaigns in our wards and in the city. Whilst the other parties often block our efforts (such as over the protection of green spaces or the prevention of airport expansion and night flights) we have helped a number of campaigns succeed:
- planning applications by Tesco to build a store in an area with lots of independent businesses have been rejected
- plans to build a private development on the largest school playing fields in the region have fallen through
- the County Council has dropped plans to build a waste incinerator locally – initially we were the only party on the City Council to oppose the building of an incinerator but one by one the others have got behind the campaign
- Norwich City Council has agreed to keep its council housing under public ownership and control
- Norwich is a Fair Trade City following a Green Party motion to Council.
A large part of our influence locally is outside the formal decision-making process. Norwich has been named as the most environmentally-friendly place in the country by www.locallife.co.uk – an organisation that surveyed the number of green businesses in different areas. We know that some of these businesses were established because our success in Norwich gave the owners confidence that they could do well here – and many such green businesses help us by advertising in our newsletters, running affinity schemes where shoppers can donate some of their bill to Norwich Green Party and by donating goods for our fundraising events.
There is also evidence that our prominence and success in Norwich has helped create a more politically engaged population. Voter turnout increases in a ward when we start actively campaigning there, and more residents are becoming more generally involved in the democratic process. On a range of issues (from ward-based casework to city-wide and international concerns) we have successfully encouraged residents to participate in council meetings, through asking questions and holding demonstrations. We also work with the wide range of green-minded campaign groups in Norwich on a variety of issues and our ability to raise issues on their behalf in the council chamber has enhanced our credibility.
Despite our success in advancing many key causes, our campaigning activity has also made it very clear that on many issues the other parties will never support us. We need to continue to make inroads in the local elections if we are to influence matters such as:
- preventing further privatisation of council services and the use of PFI deals
- redirecting money from road-building into road safety measures and public transport
- ensuring environmentally sensitive planning with no more identikit luxury flats lining the river bank
- promoting small shops and a sustainable local economy rather than more large new shopping developments.
At this year’s local elections we have three seats to defend and the potential for two further gains – which would probably make us the second party on the council. Achieving this would not only increase our influence at City Hall but also enhance our credibility in terms of challenging for the running of the council and for winning the Norwich South national party target Westminster seat.
One of the biggest factors that will influence how successful we are in the 3rd May poll is the amount of help we receive from members. Please help if you can – we can provide overnight accommodation with a couple of days’ notice and can reimburse travel fares if necessary.
GET INVOLVED
Help is needed in Norwich with leafleting, paperwork and canvassing any time between now and polling day.
Contact Tom Dylan on 07810 073428
help@norwichgreenparty.org
www.norwichgreenparty.org
