Sue Morton, Walkley Green Party
The last time Sheffield had an all-out council election, it was a new start for Sheffield. The city’s first Green councillor, Jillian Creasy, was elected in 2004. This year we aim to increase our councillors and create a strong council group.
The Green Party stands up for the environment – challenging the Government and local authorities to act on the reality of climate change.
But the environment means everything around us – our families, our streets, our communities, our city. We believe in looking after it, responsibly and fairly. That’s why our councillors work hard all year round, listening to people when we knock on their doors.
We stand for better, more attractive streets to live in and a council that listens to residents, whether they want to keep their trees, park outside their own homes or have their say over local schools. We listen to what residents have to say because the best decisions are often made at a very local level, with different solutions in different streets.
As well as listening, we want answers to the questions that Sheffielders rightly ask of their council. We will open up council meetings to the public by online webcasting, like other authorities do.
We stand for good quality housing and lower bills. We will insulate homes to stop wasting energy. We will improve the state of private rented housing and deal with derelict empty homes. We will create more jobs in energy-saving measures, public transport and renewable energy – like our balanced budget proposal to install solar panels on the roofs of council housing. Our win-win policies will bring jobs and money to the city and cut fuel bills.
We will put more resources into the care of older and disabled people. This means improving the lot of care workers and reducing privatisation and zero-hours contracts.
Our practical actions improve people’s lives, whether that means sorting out parking spaces or improving air quality at a city-wide level. We promote attractive routes for walking and cycling, reopening local rail stations and getting a grip on bus services. We want a proper system of 20mph zones in residential areas across the whole city.
Our hard work improves peoples’ lives. We are standing for election in every ward in Sheffield, for a council that listens.
Sue Morton, Green Party Candidate for Walkley
What is your clear policy on the felling of mature trees in Sheffield for reasons of economy and can you stop this reckless policy?
See our issues page here. http://archive.sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/issues/streets-ahead-the-battle-for-our-street-trees/
Of course we want to stop this policy, but would only be able to do this if we win enough seats on May 5th to control the Council.
My worry is that the Amey contract is stitched up so tight that no party will be able to extract itself from it. I am waiting for a representative to make a firm promise to save the trees, complete with details on how.
Unfortunately you may be right. Until we get to see the unredacted contract we are not sure what powers we would have, even if we had a majority on the Council. But you can rest assured that Green Councillors will do everything in their power to protect our street trees and ensure they are managed sensibly. Environmental and social justice is at the heart of everything we do.
You can always renegotiate a contract. This publicity plus Edinburgh and Birmingham should be concerning Amey. Thanks for your reply.
We have held the balance of power on the Council on 3 occasions. This could happen again after the all out elections on May 5th. A much bigger opposition group could force Labour to change direction and do the right thing concerning street trees.
You have some good ideas but some I’ don’t agree with. Local Labour Party can’t be blamed for the cuts and I’m generally in sympathy with what they try to do, but there’s always a need for a constructive alternative-which you are really trying to be, so my vote in the council elections will be 2 for Labour, 1 for Green.
Police Commissioner 1. Labour. 2 Libdem.
Brightside and Hillsborough by election- I don’t rate Jeremy Corbyn. I was thinking about a vote for you but am now leaning towards LibDem who I’m starting to think stopped the Tories from doing more bad things than I gave them credit for and tim Farron is saying some encouraging things nationally even if locally they seem to be quite negative. At least you had a properly costed alternative budget with some good ideas -even if I didn’t agree with some of it. Bit disappointing there’s no leaflet from you. Current count is 5 from Labour, 2 from LibDems, 1 each from Tories and UKIP. Odd how the Labour leaflets don’t mention their leader at all. Bit disappointing as well that all the parties seem to be saying what a good man/woman their candidate is, then slag off Tory government/Labour council but say nothing at all about their own policies.
I think a lot of people will split their votes like I plan to and don’t neccessarily think they support one party 100%. I was an SDP then LibDem member, then 25 years a Labour Voter with the exception of one council and one euro-election when I voted Green. I guess I’m a centre-leftish person who wants to see something done about climate change and tax avoidance and evasion, stay in the EU, replace House of Lords with 100% elected body by PR, protect the NHS, invest more in public transport, help young people by reducing education costs but I want a modern looking party. I think society is too unequal and I don’t like snobbery, but I don’t like inverse snobbery either. I’ve no problem with people being successful as long as they are socially responsible and pay their fair share of tax.
HI Simon, Thanks for this thoughtful comment – I like your want list which is strongly aligned with our party policy and priorities.
I’m sorry there is no leaflet in the by-election. By-elections are increasingly called strategically by the party controlling them. Labour were the party who could call the election – the rest of us did not know when it would be, only that it could have been anytime between mid March and June. We were made aware of the date in late March and in the circumstances the logistics of pulling together a constituency wide leaflet in days were too disruptive in the middle of the current council election campaign where we are working tirelessly to massively increase our council group.
I’m as disappointed as you not to have a leaflet going to every household – I hope we can do more consistent campaigning within the constituency in the future. However, I’m pleased with our manifesto for the local elections which I am handing out whenever I meet people http://archive.sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/elections/council-elections/council-election-manifesto-2016/