Norwich City Council Elections, Thursday 1 May 2008

Manifesto - Introduction

The Green Party is a large opposition group at City Hall, with ten councillors. Labour is the biggest party and as such is in charge of the day-to-day running of the Council. However, the Council is in no overall control so the Green Councillors are in a position of influence and we are able to get some of our ideas adopted - when they are not blocked by Labour and LibDem Councillors voting together, as often happens! Policies that Green Councillors have successfully influenced in the last year include:

• Some Green Party proposals for the Council's new procurement policy have been adopted, meaning that environmental factors and social factors (such as whether products are fairly traded) are considered when the Council is buying goods and services.
• Our proposals for making better use of the city's allotments have been adopted and later this year the Scrutiny Committee will be making suggestions about how more people and organisations can grow food on local allotments.
• Green Councillors have also been involved in campaigns in local wards across the city, such as the successful but ongoing campaign to stop Tesco building a store on Unthank Road and the campaign to stop the County Council closing the Sure Start daycare nursery on Wolfe Road.

Our main opportunity for influence is in the Council's annual budget process. On 19th February the following Green amendments to the City Council budget were adopted:

• £690,000 over two years put aside for improving energy efficiency in housing. This would be enough to install solar panels on the 150 new council houses being built in Norwich, and would contribute towards bringing down the price of renewable energy for future council house building. The Green Party had already got the Council to agree a policy of requiring renewable energy in all private developments in future so it makes absolute sense for Council homes to be built to the same standard to help tackle fuel poverty and climate change.
• Increasing staff time spent on cycling initiatives.
• City Council proposals for 20mph speed limits in residential streets to be a priority for the transport department for the next year.
• Setting aside a fund of £35,000 for helping to meet the Council's carbon reduction targets.
• All Council departments to recognise in their service plans the role they need to play in meeting the Council's carbon reduction targets.

The Council's other opposition groups (the LibDems and Conservatives) did not succeed in influencing the budget.

Green Councillors will continue to play the role of a constructive opposition at City Hall: opposing the ruling party where we disagree but taking the opportunities to influence Council policies for the better wherever we can. It is clear that if we gain more seats and more influence at this year's elections there will be much more we can do to help introduce Greener policies for the city.

Please see the different sections of this manifesto for information on Green Party policies for the City Council.

At the 2007 local elections the Green Party was just one vote in one ward away from becoming the second party on the Council! This year, on 1st May, you can make a difference by voting Green and electing more Green Councillors to help build a Greener city.

Unitary status

Transport, waste disposal, education, social services and other important services are currently under the control of the County Council. The Green Party supports unitary status for Norwich so that decisions about these services are taken by councillors who are elected by Norwich residents and not the rural Conservatives who run County Hall. The Boundary Committee is currently considering options for patterns of unitary councils across Norfolk and Suffolk. There will be a public consultation on the options over the summer, which the Green Party believes should be as wide-ranging as possible. The Government has made it clear that unitary status is very likely to be introduced in Norfolk and that a unitary council for Norwich is very likely. However, the exact boundary of the Norwich council is a very important issue (we believe that it should not be too large: covering all of but only the urban area) and the boundaries for the rest of the city are also very important (we believe that the councils should not be too large and should cover a geographically coherent area, such as North Norfolk, South Norfolk and West Norfolk).

The new unitary councils are likely to start in 2010. This election is therefore likely to be the last one to the current City Council. Green City and County Councillors will work to ensure that the principles outlined in this manifesto are built into the development of the new unitary council from the outset.

Results

Manifesto

Candidates