Stone Establishes a Green Voice

14 July 2018

The local group branched out to the community of Stone and the surrounding areas to get real opinions on what really matters to the community and ask what the Greens can do to help.

Whether your priorities are cleaner public spaces, better public transport, safer cycle routes for school children, or if you want to focus on the broader political issues we felt like it was best to hear it from the people themselves.

It was great to see so many people engaging and showing that they care about what happens in their town.

Greens will always work for the people and our councillors even offer guarentee on the basis of working differently!

Some examples of different thinking include:

Tackling the housing crisis head-on through proposals to:

• bring empty properties back into use at genuinely affordable rents
• provide better, safer management of existing properties
• demand better regulation of private developments
• build more genuinely affordable and social housing
• end right-to-buy and lift council borrowing caps

And in winter we wouldn’t fine street dwellers: we’d use empty buildings to open more cold weather shelters.

Pushing for effective local plans to identify and end dangerous and illegal air pollution in our streets and communities.

Standing up to local and national governments:

• On cuts to school budgets
• On cuts to essential care services
• On fracking.

Challenging the NHS crisis by fighting for better local care services, better funding, more responsible health planning and an end to privatisation.

Continuing to argue for Europe and for a people’s #FinalSay referendum on the Brexit deal.

Confronting the plastics crisis properly through schemes to:

• reduce plastic usage, particularly of single-use plastics
• ban single-use plastics in public buildings and local procurement
• introduce water refill stations
• stop plastic waste incineration
• improve plastics recycling.

Opposing the destruction of healthy trees, unless dangerous, and instead making proposals for councils to achieve the national target (at least) of planting 11 million trees by 2020.

Tackling the causes of climate change in local communities through:

• supporting development of community heat and power schemes
• supporting small, local business and localisation of the economy
• supporting better public transport, walking and cycling routes
• setting carbon budgets with annual CO2 reduction targets.

Defending urban green spaces to allow our towns and cities – and people – to breathe more healthily.

Ensuring safer streets through lower traffic speeds and better transport planning, with the vision that every child can walk, cycle or scoot safely to school, and play outside in clean air, away from harm.

 

 

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