In this issue

Please vote Green in the City Council elections
Manifesto and election video
Did you know…
Making good use of allotments
New OAP bus passes
Phone mast for West Norwich Hospital
Recycling for flats
Council to engage with young people
Save Bowthorpe Road Post Office!
Next Safer Neighbourhoods meeting
News in brief

Please vote Green in the City Council elections

Ruth Makoff (pictured left) is your Green Party Candidate for Wensum Ward in the City Council elections on Thursday 1st May. Ruth, who lives on Dereham Road, has been an active member of the Wensum Ward Green Party team for two years.

Ruth Makoff and your Green Party Councillors have been delivering newsletters, visiting residents and taking up local concerns all year round. Recently they have been campaigning to save the Bowthorpe Road Post Office, conducting a traffic survey around Jex Road and fighting a phone mast application for West Norwich Hospital. Help build a Greener Norwich: please elect Ruth Makoff on Thursday 1st May.

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Manifesto and election video

Norwich Green Party's full Manifesto for the 1st May City Council elections is now available online. If you would like a paper copy please call us on (01603) 611909. We will provide a summary in our next leaflet.

Or… watch our election video here!

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Did you know…

The Green Party holds all three City Council seats for your area (Wensum Ward). The ten Green Councillors provide a constructive opposition to the Labour administration at City Hall. On Thursday 1st May please elect Ruth Makoff as your Green representative for a strong Green team at City Hall.

Wensum result 2007
(now 10 City Councillors and two County Councillors):

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Making good use of allotments

The City Council has adopted a Green Party motion to make better use of the city's allotments. The motion highlighted that many plots are overgrown or unused and that there are long waiting lists for city allotments.

The Council agreed that:

• there should be greater use of allotments by schools and community groups;
• potential new allotment holders should be offered a plot suitable to their needs and given support from experienced allotment holders.

The Council's Scrutiny Committee will investigate the issue later in the year to see what impact this new approach is having and what further changes are needed.

Green Councillors believe that allotments bring many benefits, from local food production to education and exercise, and would like more people to benefit from them.

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New OAP bus passes

The new England-wide bus passes for free bus travel for the over 60s came into effect on 1st April. However, as reported in the local press, many residents are still without their passes.

Council officers are emphasising that residents can continue to use their old passes for free bus travel within Norfolk, while they wait for their new ones for free travel within the rest of England.

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Phone mast for West Norwich Hospital

Green Party campaigners Councillor Rupert Read and Ruth Makoff recently helped local residents oppose plans for another phone mast at West Norwich Hospital. Despite these objections, councillors on the City Council Planning Committee approved the application by a majority vote.

Councillor Read said: "Network coverage in Norwich is perfectly adequate. The Council should put a hold on new masts until the concerns about their impact on health have been more thoroughly investigated."

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Recycling for flats

Residents living in flats in various parts of Wensum Ward have been asking when they will be given local recycling facilities. The Green Councillors have consistently argued that flats must not be forgotten as the new recycling facilities are rolled out across the city. Some flats in Wensum have already been provided with communal bins for recycling paper, tins, plastic bottles and glass. City Council officers have produced a programme for more flats to be provided with facilities but have not yet confirmed the timescales. The Green Councillors believe that all flats need to be given these facilities as soon as possible.

In the longer term the Green Councillors would also like to see local recycling collections for food waste, batteries, different types of plastic and tetrapaks in addition to the materials listed above.

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Council to engage with young people

Norwich City Council is to improve the way that it consults and engages with younger people in the city, following a successful Green Party motion to last month's full Council meeting. The Council's Scrutiny Committee will talk to young people from different parts of the city about how it can best give them a say in the Council's work. Options to be discussed include setting up a Youth Council.

This proposal is part of the Green Party's campaign for Norwich City Council to be more open, democratic and inclusive in the way it operates and the way it consults residents. For more information on Green Party policies for an Open Council please see the party's Manifesto.

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Save Bowthorpe Road Post Office!

Councillor Tom Llewellyn (left) and Ruth Makoff
with the Postmaster of the Bowthorpe Road Post Office.

The Green Party is campaigning against plans for the closure of local Post Offices. The National Post Office is currently conducting a consultation on its proposals to close 51 of Norfolk's 316 Post Office branches, including three in the City Council area. One of these three is the branch on Bowthorpe Road by Field View.

Ruth Makoff, Green Party Wensum Ward Campaigner, recently visited the Postmaster to ask what the Green Party could do to help the campaign to keep the branch open. He said we should encourage people to respond to the consultation to let the national Post Office know their views. In responding to the consultation, it is helpful for residents to highlight that: many of the Post Office users are elderly and would find it difficult to travel to another branch; and that the branch is located in an area with a dense and growing population.

Councillor Adrian Ramsay, Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, said: "Post Offices are important local services that people need to be able to access easily. The Government should reverse its policy of large-scale closure of local Post Offices."

Other branches in and near Wensum Ward are not recommended for closure (Larkman Lane, Earlham Green Lane Co-op, Dereham Road Co-op, Earlham House, New Costessey, UEA).

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Next Safer Neighbourhoods meeting

The next meeting of the Central West Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel (which covers the part of Wensum Ward inside the ring road) is on Monday 12th May, 7pm at the City Church on Nelson Street. Residents can come along and make suggestions for the community policing priorities for the area.

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News in brief

An application for 25 housing units between Dereham and Waterworks Road was recently approved by the City Council Planning Committee. Local residents were concerned about the density of the development but pleased that the committee kept it to two stories.

Among the local issues that Green Councillors have recently helped resolve for local residents is that the potholes in the lane between Merton Road and Bond Street have been filled in. Wensum Green Councillors continue to take up a variety of new local issues on behalf of residents each week.

Ruth Makoff and your Green Councillors recently conducted a traffic survey in the Jex Road area, asking residents for their views on local traffic problems. There was not an overall majority of respondents in favour of closing Jex Road but there was clear support for traffic calming measures. Councillor Rupert Read is now pursuing residents' suggestions at City Hall.

Residents in the Woodhill Rise area have contacted Green Councillors about cracks in the walls of some of the flats, asking whether there could be a subsidence problem. Green Councillors have taken this issue up with Council officers and asked for an investigation into potential causes of the cracks before a decision is made on the best course of action.

The long-awaited new Skateboard and BMX park is to be built in Eaton Park this summer. Keen Norwich skateboarders have been waiting for this for years. Green Councillors are disappointed by the delay but pleased that this important recreational facility will soon be available.

Plans for improving and re-opening the Memorial Gardens between the market and City Hall are now a step closer. The long-awaited planning application is set to be submitted this summer, with the work to take place between 2009 and 2011.

The Green Party and many local retailers supported the recent plastic bag free day in Norwich. The day was an opportunity to highlight the importance of re-using plastic bags, or using alternatives. This is because of the environmental problems caused by plastic bags relating to litter, landfill and harm to wildlife. Green Councillors are now pressing for more long-lasting action on the issue.

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Published by Tom Dylan, 123 St Leonard's Road, Norwich, NR1 4JN
on behalf of Ruth Makoff, 152a Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 3AB