Green Party launches council election campaign

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Eight candidates to stand in Hounslow wards

Hounslow Green Party has announced its candidates in eight of Hounslow's 20 wards.

Candidates for local wards are John Hunt for Brentford and Tom Beaton for Osterley and Spring Grove.

The candidates are promoting the Green Party objectives of improving local neighbourhoods, enhancing local services, promoting health and protecting the wider environment.

A healthy local environment
* Tackling climate change with renewable energy and energy efficiency, not nuclear power -- helping to build 2 million solar roof systems over the next five years and scrapping the £30 billion road building programme - putting the money into public transport and safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians
* Protecting our parks and wildlife - no more building on open spaces that are important for people and biodiversity
* Less waste, more recycling - trebling our recycling rates to bring us into line with Germany and the Netherlands

Decent local services
* A clampdown on more new supermarkets - supporting local shops instead
* Vital local services within walking distance for everyone - protecting schools, libraries and other local services from cuts, closures and privatisation
* Delivering safe healthy school meals - switching to organic food, local produce and fresh ingredients

A strong local voice
* Standing up for the local community, providing proper value for money and listening to local people not big business
* Giving local neighbourhoods more of a direct say in the decisions that affect them - devolving powers to neighbourhood forums and parish councils
* Taking your complaints seriously - Ensuring graffiti and fly-tipping is removed within 24 hours of it being reported. Council house repairs will be dealt with swiftly and empty properties brought back into use.

John Hunt the Green parliamentary candidate for Brentford and Isleworth in 2005, is currently a co-chair of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum for the West Middlesex Hospital. "Following a recent report by the Forum, the Trust's management have agreed to review maintenance of the new PFI building", he said, "and details of improvements related to cleanliness and poor heating are expected imminently". But he added that while there are clearly severe financial problems in the NHS at the moment one of the areas he would seek to expand as a member of the Borough Council was public health. "A year ago, at the General Election, there was a flicker of interest about healthy school meals, but what has changed since? Calls 25 years ago for better sex education haven't worked, given our appalling rate of unintended teenage pregnancies and abortions. The causes of drug-use, self-harm, and obesity need to be addressed effectively, improved support for people experiencing mental illness is required, discrimination against older or disabled job-seekers must cease, and older people should wherever possible be enabled to continue living in their own homes. Jobs, housing, and social deprivation are, of course, often contributory factors."

Carl Fletcher (Hounslow Central) said that the Green Party will continue to oppose the incineration of residual waste - a process which releases lethal by-products into the air we breathe. "We will make sure that West London Waste (the 6-borough waste-disposal consortium that Hounslow belongs to) does not enter into long-term waste incineration contracts. Clearly we cannot go on land filling but the answer lies in being much more proactive in reducing waste and increasing recycling rates. We will encourage shops - and their customers - to reduce the use of unnecessary packaging, and we will improve the recycling service to commercial organisations

Tom Beaton (Osterley and Spring Grove) said that one of the main thrusts for this campaign was to let people know that the Green Party is not just about cycling and recycling. "We are a radical left-of-centre party with policies on the whole range of political issues. But we are driven by certain principles and the primary one, sustainability, means making sure that we leave a world that our grandchildren - and their grandchildren - would want to inherit." He added that Greens care deeply about civil liberties and were horrified at the remorseless erosion of our freedoms under the most authoritarian government of modern times. "I'm sure previous governments would have liked these powers" he said, "The difference now is that the current House of Commons is filled with spineless yes-men and women."

April 13, 2006