Monday 22 May 2017

My Appeal To Conservative Voters: Lend Me Your Vote This Time

It may seem strange to some that a Green candidate should be asking Conservative voters to lend me your votes this time. However I know that many Conservative voters have serious concerns about overdevelopment of the countryside around Colchester, the need to help small businesses, Theresa May's proposed 'dementia tax' and crime. Many will not feel comfortable voting Labour or Lib Dem, however lend me your vote on June 8th and I will get things done for Colchester.

Protecting Our Countryside from Overdevelopment

Many people are rightly worried about overdevelopment and the huge new towns planned for West Tey and near to Wivenhoe. In 2012 the Conservative led coalition government introduced a National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which created a presumption in favour of development. It is a developers' charter which skews the planning system in favour of developers and prevents local people from stopping unwanted urban sprawl. It is the current Conservative government that is imposing unreasonable development targets on local councils such as Colchester and Tendring.
The Green Party Manifesto 2017 pledges to:
- repeal the National Planning Policy Framework completely
- end the presumption in favour of development
- put planning back in the hands of local people
- provide strong protection for the Green Belt
- stop fracking
- abolish HS2 and spend the money on existing rail lines
- introduce a Clean Air Act and an Environmental Protection Act

Locally I will continue to oppose the developments at West Tey and Wivenhoe.

Stopping the Dementia Tax

People work hard throughout their lives to pay off their mortgages and build a home. Most people with children hope to leave most of what they have worked for to their children and grandchildren, including the family home. Currently over 75% of over 65s in the UK are home owners and the average price of a home is £280,000.
The Conservative Party's new proposals on social care funding open up every person's primary property to seizure upon death to cover care costs, even if the care was provided in the property and not in a residential home.
The Conservative manifesto proposals will only protect  £100,000 for you to leave to your children or grandchildren in such circumstances which is less than half the cost of an average family home. Make no mistake, whatever the backtracking, Theresa May wants to stop you leaving your primary property to your children if you need social care in your later years.

The Green Party will not introduce these proposals.

Small Businesses First

The Green Party believes in small local businesses and a vibrant local economy. If elected, I will campaign and lobby for:
- better and cheaper parking facilities in central Colchester
- lower business taxes for small businesses. Make the large corporations pay more.
- a Brexit deal which still enables small businesses to trade with Europe easily
- recognition and encouragement of our street traders
- lower rents for businesses in the town centre

Crime

The Conservative and coalition governments have cut police numbers by 20,000 since 2010. As Home Secretary, Theresa May broke her pledge to protect the police budget in real terms. Crime affects us all, yet very few of us can afford to live in gated communities or to hire private security firms. We need more police officers in Colchester to cope with weekend policing in particular. If elected, I would lobby and campaign for:
- increased funding for Colchester police and more officers
- a zero tolerance approach to drug dealers coming to our town from London
- increased officer patrols in central Colchester on Friday & Saturday nights

Guarantee a Home For Ex-Service Personnel

It is completely unacceptable that someone who has fought for their country should end up on the streets. Yet across the UK, one in ten of rough sleepers are ex-service personnel, 1000 in London alone. That is why I will, if elected, be lobbying and campaigning for a law to guarantee all ex-service personnel, as well as all those aged under 21, a home by law. Local councils will be forced to house them and central government forced to fund it.

If you like what you read, please lend me your vote on June 8th

HELP ME TO GET THINGS DONE








Sunday 14 May 2017

Save Our NHS

After leaving university in 1988, I worked for a year for the NHS in the finance department of Leicester Royal Infirmary. Back then the financial pressures on the NHS seemed acute, however that was nothing compared to the situation today. Our NHS is being sucked dry by PFI debt, hammered by underfunding and bit by bit privatised by stealth.

BEFORE THE NHS

However before we get too carried away with current doom and gloom, it would be sobering to have a few choice facts about life before the NHS was created by the post-war Clement Attlee government.

- Before the NHS, the only system in place was that created by Lloyd-George's National Insurance Act 1911. Premiums were high because they were charged at a flat rate, the Lord and the labourer paid the same.
- The uninsured were only treated in hospital if they had TB (Tuberculosis). Everyone else could sling their hook.
- One in twenty children died before their first birthday.
- Thousands of people died in England every year from treatable diseases such as pneumonia, polio and meningitis.
- Those who could not afford 'to call the Doctor out' had to resort to home remedies such as bread poultices and blackberry vinegar. Or alternatively they could kick the bucket.

This was the reality of 1930s Britain.

Fortunately we now have the NHS, the largest employer in the UK, providing jobs for 1.7 million people. It treats over 3 million people per week in England alone and the NHS budget for 2012-2013 was £109 billion.
However the very scope of the NHS is what makes it attractive to those who want to buy into its services to run them for a profit.

PFI, OUTSOURCING AND DEBT: THE THREE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Government politicians love to say that they are spending record amounts on the NHS. In raw terms this may be true. But what they never tell you is that these increases are more than wiped out by the rising cost of drugs and increasing demand due to the rising UK population. Spending per patient is going down while the big drug companies are allowed to charge extortionate rates for their products.
In the 1990s the John Major and New Labour governments came up with the worst idea ever inflicted on UK public services. PFI Deals (Public Finance Initiative). Put simply they got private firms to build new hospitals and then leased the buildings from them at extortionate rates of interest. Here are some astounding statistics:

- The NHS has PFI debt of £80 billion for hospitals which only cost £11.5 billion to build.
- The total PFI debt for all UK public services is £300 billion for projects worth only £55 billion.

The stupidity behind this whole idea beggars belief and yet these rip-off deals keep going on with student accommodation being the latest racket. Meanwhile our so-called 'failing hospitals' are deemed financial failures because they are saddled with years of debt.

The result is endless reorganisations, cuts and outsourcing of services to private firms who bid for contracts at the cheapest rate, often at the expense of quality of service. Some further statistics:

- Between 2005-2009, New Labour blew £780 million on 70 reorganisations in 4 years.
- The current Conservative government has spent £17.6 million on management consultants briefed to draw up plans to cut £22 million from the NHS budget by 2020.
- In January 2017 there were 18,000 trolley waits due to not enough beds.
- Extra funding does not all go to the NHS. In winter 2016-17 £2 million went to private providers eg Richard Branson's Virgin Healthcare.
- Private firms now carry out 17% of hip replacements, treat 10% of all trauma patients and 6% of all gall bladder removals.

Private providers bid for services by offering to run them on the cheap, undercutting the NHS. The Tory government have changed the law in order to insist that the private sector has to be given equal access to bid for services and the imposed cuts create a situation where cheapest wins. Cheapest also often means low paid staff, job losses and a bog-standard or inadequate service for the public.

- In 2013 a Freedom of Information request found that 52 NHS staff had been paid £2 million in gagging orders to stop them speaking out about what was happening to quality of provision.

THE HINCHINGBROOKE SCANDAL

In 2011 Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire became the second UK hospital to be given to a private company, called Circle,  to run for supposedly 'failing'. Failing that is in the context of being saddled with £40 million PFI related debt thanks to Mr Blair and being situated in a county with a huge rising population. As a result:

- Circle's debt reduction plan included £311 million worth of job cuts and streamlining A&E services leading to increasingly long waiting times before being seen
- In October 2013 the Childrens' Ward failed to meet national standards of care.
- In 2014 the Care Quality Commission found severe issues with patient care including people lying for hours in their own faeces.
- Circle pulled out in 2015 claiming that the hospital was not financially viable , meaning in other words that even with all of its 'efficiency savings' the lack of funding and crippling PFI debts were too much.







Friday 12 May 2017

My Personal Appeal To UKIP Voters in Colchester

UKIP have decided not to field a candidate in Colchester for the general election on June 8th. They have chosen to disenfranchise you by denying you the opportunity to vote for them again, as 5870 people chose to do in the 2015 election. By doing so they have let you down. This comes after they lost all of their county councillors in the recent local elections in Essex. They are a party in terminal decline.
I know that many people chose to vote UKIP because the other parties seem like an out of touch elite who talk from a script, don't do what they say they'll do and generally talk down their noses at people. But it doesn't have to be like this. As someone from a working class background who has only been doing this for four years I know that career politicians are often out of touch and live in their own world. I won't let that happen to me. In Colchester I am the only anti-establishment candidate standing. The Conservatives want to slash £12 billion from our public services and to privatise the NHS bit by bit. Labour in Colchester represent the Tony Blair faction of the party that have caused so much damage to our country.

Lend me your vote this time and I will get things done. 

My priorities include:

- Getting more investment into our hospital and NHS
- Campaigning for a guarantee of a home by law for all ex-service personnel and under 21s
- Creating over 2 million jobs nationally in renewable energy
- Campaigning loudly against the overdevelopment of our town and the huge new towns planned for us.
- Campaigning for a huge investment in social care for older people
- Putting small businesses before the large corporations. Less tax for the small businesses, more for the corporations.
- Investing in equipment for our armed forces so they are not sent into conflicts ill-equipped
- More police and zero tolerance of drug dealers coming to Colchester from London

If you like the sound of this then please lend me your vote on June 8th and let's get things done.

Mark Goacher





Thursday 11 May 2017

My Top Ten Environmental Policy Prioities for Colchester


The grey parties are wilfully ignoring the environment as an issue in this general election. Environmental issues are getting barely a mention in the media but what sets the Green Party apart from the others is that we place environmental issues at the heart of our campaigning. Joint leader Caroline Lucas states:
"The need for the Green Party is greater than ever. Unless we have got a vocal Green Party then the environment is allowed to fall off the agenda".

Here are my top ten environmental priorities for Colchester:

1) Improving Air Quality: Some areas of central Colchester suffer from high pollution. Brook Street, East Hill and North Station Road all spring immediately to mind. As MP I would put pressure on our local councils to monitor the air quality of the town and around its major roads more rigorously and campaign for cleaner buses as opposed to bus companies using old polluting vehicles as a cheap option.

2) Promoting Solar Energy: There is much roof space above our major retail outlets and public buildings that could be utilised for solar panels. As MP I would set up meetings between representatives from businesses, local councils and solar power providers to facilitate greater use of this space.

3) Defending Our Green Spaces: As MP I would have a platform and the oxygen of publicity to really challenge the developers and central government over the huge overdevelopment planned for the Colchester area. I would rigorously campaign and lobby against unreasonable housing targets, weakening of the planning laws, encroaching on the green belt and more specifically West Tey and the concreting over of Middlewick Ranges.

4) Saving Our Wildlife: I would campaign for and vote for the Green Party's proposed Environmental Protection Act designed to protect the natural world in the wake of Brexit and the loss of the EU wildlife and birds directives. The act would set up a new environmental regulator and court.

5) Tackling Habitat Loss: The 2013 The State of Nature Report, launched by Sir David Attenborough, revealed that 60% of the species studied have declined over recent decades. More than one in ten of all the species assessed are under threat of disappearing from our shores altogether. As MP I would work with national organisations such as Friends of the Earth to lobby for the State of Nature report to inform all government decisions involving the environment as well as for the promotion of conservation work to reverse this decline to be a top government priority.

6) No To Fracking, Yes to renewables.  The current government's cuts to the subsidies provided for renewables should be completely reversed. As MP I would campaign for our government to learn from Germany and Scandinavia and put renewable energy first in order to tackle climate change, create jobs and avoid pollution. I would campaign for the creation of 2.5 million green energy jobs by 2030.

7) A Ban on Glyphosates: Glyphosate herbicides are over-used on our crops, paths and in Castle Park. I would use my position as MP to put pressure on the Borough Council to end this use locally and on central government for a national ban.

8) No to Foxhunting: Engaging in animal cruelty as a sport should remain illegal.

9) Subsidies For Farmers Who Promote Wildlife: Farmers who set aside land for nature or create wildlife meadows, ponds and other habitats should receive generous subsidies from central government. I would lobby hard for this.

10) Litter: Litter blights central Colchester far too often. I would use my position as MP to lobby the Council to ensure regular cleaning as well as set up local community volunteer teams. Bag it and bin it and that way we'll win it.

Saturday 6 May 2017

Getting Up Close & Personal: Who is Mark Goacher?

Most interviews during an election period concentrate just on the politics. Which often begs the question of how much you really know about the people standing and asking for your votes. So here is my attempt at a more personal kind of interview.

Q: So what do you do outside of politics?

Well I'm a full time teacher at Colchester Sixth Form College and have been for 27 years so that takes up a great deal of my time. I've just finished marking the A level coursework and mock exams and now it's full on revision lessons and trying to encourage the students to do as much graft as possible in the run up to exams. I'm the NUT rep at the college.

Q: Yes but what else besides work?

I volunteer regularly at Outhouse East, Colchester's LGBT charity, and am on the board of trustees. I am an avid reader of history and fiction; I have just finished John Guy's book on Thomas Becket. Late medieval history, particularly the Wars of the Roses, is a particular interest of mine and I grew up not far from the site of the Battle of Bosworth.  I'm also an avid fan of cult tv/sci fi from the 60s and 70s : Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Survivors to name but a few.

Q: But isn't sci-fi is geeky and shouldn't you play down your involvement with a gay charity?

No and no and I'd find anyone asking such questions to be amusingly anachronistic. I fail to see why an interest in Doctor Who is any more geeky or nerdy than the guy who collects car magazines or the bloke into war gaming or football. As far as the LGBT angle is concerned I doubt there are many voters who still think that politicians can only be heterosexual males with a wife and two children in 2017 .

Q: So where did you grow up?

I was born in Leicester and grew up in Leicestershire near Hinckley and Bosworth. As I said it was not far from the site of the Battle of Bosworth where Richard III was killed. I was extremely pleased when Richard's remains were discovered and reinterred in Leicester Cathedral. It was a great moment for the city and has brought over £45 million of investment into Leicester. I used to work at Leicester Royal Infirmary as a trainee accountant.

As Leicestershire lad 1979


Q: How do you think your background has shaped you?

Well I've lived in various social worlds in my life which I think gives me an understanding of a range of different people. I never have and never would want to live in an echo chamber which seems far too common among the politician set. My parents didn't live together and my mother worked in a boot and shoe factory and my dad, who lived with his parents in Hinckley, was a linesman fixing electric wires. So that's a pretty working class start. I went to comprehensive schools Heathfield High School and then Earl Shilton Community College. Both are now one single academy which makes me shudder as they served me well. Teachers like Mr Clarke, Mr Chitty and Miss Mclintock inspired my love of History. There were some brilliant teachers in those schools and I made it through sixth form and got into Lancaster University in 1985, the first of my family to go to university. Going to university meant something to me, it was not something I took for granted. I think too many people involved in politics are not only distanced from the majority of people but also look down on them, often unconsciously.


At Lancaster University 1988


Q: So when did you move to Colchester?

In 1990 when I came to work at the Sixth Form College. I'd has a job as a trainee accountant at Leicester Royal Infirmary which I didn't enjoy one bit. Hardly surprising as I've no interest in numbers or figures. I applied as quick as I could for teacher training, which I did at Nottingham University's school of education. Then came to Colchester. I've been here for nearly 27 years and I was 23 when I arrived so that's most of my life. So I may not be an Essex native but I think I've earned the right to call myself a Colchestrian. I know that Colchester people value its Sixth Form College and I'm proud to have been part of a History department that has offered such a wide range of subjects and options over the years.


Q: Why did you get into politics?

I've always been 'into politics' in the sense of being interested in it. However I joined the Green Party in 2012 because I was angry about two things ; the swingeing cuts being imposed on education, public services and pensions and the huge overdevelopment of our countryside. The coalition government's tuition fee policy made me furious as the prospect of being saddled with £45,000 + worth of debts would certainly have impacted badly on me in later life. I went to university for free so why shouldn't the millenials? Then the Lib Dem controlled Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council wanted to build a huge urban sprawl estate on the countryside near to where I grew up in Leicestershire. I've always been interested in conservation and wildlife protection and I'd joined the Green Party in the 1990s as a non-active member. It was around the time of Swampy and the Newbury bypass roads protests that were in the news. I wasn't active in any way but I sympathised with green causes. Now however I decided to get more involved.

Q: Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full kind of person?

Both I think. I do think that we need to be realistic about the world and not overly, completely optimistic about everything. I wonder how far that state of mind is from being wilfully indifferent or just unimaginative. You have to recognise that there are awful things going on which are going to be very hard to reverse such as the underfunding of the NHS, the catastrophic decline in global wildlife and of course climate change. However taking a fatalistic approach to these things without any optimism at all or capacity to believe that you can do your bit to change things is just copping out.

Cleaning up the Colne







My Ten Point Action Plan For Colchester As MP

Should I be elected as Colchester's first Green MP on June 8th, my immediate priorities will be:

1) CAMPAIGNING FOR MORE NHS FUNDING FOR COLCHESTER: I will lobby vociferously for more investment in Colchester Hospital and walk-in centres to cope with the ever increasing local population. I will use my position in the House of Commons to raise the issue of creeping NHS privatisation at every single opportunity.

2) SOCIAL CARE FOR THE ELDERLY: I will use every media opportunity I get to expose the disgusting state of the social care system and the chronic cuts to local government funding which is fuelling it. The last generation to have lived through World War II deserve better.

3) FIGHTING OVERDEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRYSIDE: I will lobby continuously against the weakening of the planning laws which have made it easier for developers to build over the green belt in general and concrete over the countryside around Colchester. Local people should have real localism when it comes to planning decisions.

4) PRIVATE MEMBERS BILL ON SCRAPPING TUITION FEES: I will draft and table a private members bill as soon as possible to scrap all higher education tuition fees. Essex University students should be able to access higher education freely as older generations did.

5) HOUSING: I will lobby and campaign for most new housing to be social housing and for rent capping in the UK. Too many new developments in and around Colchester consist of huge ugly boxes at equally huge prices.

6) JOBS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY: I will lobby hard for more subsidies for wind and solar energy in order to reduce our carbon footprint and create jobs both in the Colchester area and nationally.

7) EDUCATION. I will expose the chronic underfunding of our schools and colleges at every opportunity.

8) OUR PRECIOUS WILDLIFE: With over 50% of wildlife in the UK in major decline I will use the publicity that being an MP will bring to ensure that this is not swept under the carpet or ignored.

9) THE HOMELESS: I will work with Colchester's homeless charities to lobby for greater funding from central government to tackle this increasing issue. In particular I will write to whoever is Prime Minister asking that all ex-service personnel and under 21s be guaranteed a roof over their heads by law.

10) A CIVIL WAR MUSEUM FOR COLCHESTER: I will do my best as MP to encourage, facilitate and lobby for funding for a civil war museum in Colchester and further enhancement of our town's heritage.

Monday 17 April 2017

NIMBY? Not me mate!

Whenever I raise objections to some or other huge development on greenfield land someone invariably calls me a NIMBY, usually online. "Oh you're just a NIMBY', 'People have to live somewhere' and so forth. Lets examine some facts for a minute. Firstly it may be useful to throw in a definition of NIMBY (Not in My Backyard):

....a person who objects to the siting of something perceived as unpleasant or hazardous in their own neighbourhood, especially while raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere.

Hmmm. Let's start with the first part of that. I live in the middle of New Town, very near to Port Lane and Paxman's Diesel factory. I have never objected to the continued activity of the factory or to its location. Moreover a few years ago a large housing estate was built on part of the Paxman's site on Port Lane, Lenz Close and so forth, which I fully supported. It was an excellent use of this brownfield site and just the kind of place to put lots of new homes. Now you could argue that the new houses were not as unpleasant as the brick wall that ran down the lane previously. Fair point, however it still rather mitigates against the notion that Goacher just moans about new houses in his own backyard. Indeed the only major housing development really close to where I live is one that I supported fully. It improved the area and it is now both greener and more pleasant than what was there before. That is how utilising brownfield sites can work.
Now let's turn to the second part of the NIMBY definition. Surely no one could accuse me of not raising objections to unpleasant developments elsewhere. I don't live near West Tey, yet I object to that. I don't live near Salary Brook, yet I object strongly to concreting over that. I shouldn't be doing so if I was a proper NIMBY. I should be saying, 'yes dump all the urban sprawl out in the sticks away from me in New Town'.
Furthermore I like wind and solar farms. I wouldn't mind living near one personally, certainly preferable to a huge modern urban housing estate full of boxes and astro-turf lawns. They may change the look of a place but they don't destroy the countryside:

What a rubbish NIMBY I seem to be. For some real NIMBYism I'd suggest you look elsewhere. Here for example in today's Colchester Gazette:
A certain Cllr Young is objecting to the siting of a huge new town near to Wivenhoe, a project he previously fully supported in every Council meeting until the developers proposed moving it too close to wards occupied by councillors from Mr Young's own party. It is not just Labour councillors that behave like this. Conservative , Labour and Lib Dem councillors are all fighting to defend their patches and dump the huge urban sprawl on each other's areas, instead of uniting together in order to challenge central government and the developers. That, I suggest, is real NIMBYism for you!

As for Goacher, well I'd suggest that a better definition for me would be NIABY (Not in Anyone's Backyard). We need to develop more brownfield sites like the Port Lane site. Start with the former Odeon and get moving on that huge area of concrete near to The Range , off Cowdray Avenue. Meanwhile let's stand up to the developers who want to concrete over the countryside and green spaces.

Thursday 30 March 2017

Colchester Green Party Local Manifesto


Colchester Green Party
For the Common Good

  Our Manifesto

Colchester Green Party reflects the values, principles and policies of the national Green Party of England and Wales.

The Green Party will work for:
An economy that gives everyone their fair share
A society capable of supporting everyone's  needs
A planet protected from the threat of climate change
A more democratic political system
The Green Party is the only Party that offers a genuine alternative to the other Parties to develop the local economy, to protect the local environment and to create a new kind of democratic politics.

1. Local economy
* We will work to ensure that the growth of our town is matched by appropriate investment in infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and public transport links.
*We will support local businesses, encouraging schemes which keep money circulating within the local economy, instead of letting it be siphoned away by multinational corporations.
*We will prioritise the development of the town centre rather than out-of-town shopping centres.
*We will explore ways of reducing the overheads of small businesses in the town centre.
*We will seek to attract businesses to Colchester that focus on recycling, generating renewable energy, energy saving and home insulation. This would bring investment and new jobs to the area.
*We will promote the building and upkeep of greener homes, favouring design and build with low carbon materials and methods.
*We actively support our local food banks for as long as people are in need of them but our policy is:-
-No-one who is working should be paid less than a living wage. The National Living Wage is discriminatory in that it excludes under 25s. This section of the population are the most prone to insecure zero-hours contracts. We will push for employers in the Borough to pay their staff at least the National Living Wage regardless of age.
* We will encourage and support fairer alternative credit services such as Colchester Credit Union.

2. Our environment
The Green Party has long recognised that climate change is the worst environmental hazard facing us.
* We call for more stringent targets for reduction of global, national and local greenhouse gas emissions and for the establishment of effective enforcement mechanisms. Our local policies in areas such as transport and planning reflect this commitment.
* We are opposed to Essex County Council's use of glyphosate herbicides on our pavements.
* We will work with the Essex Wildlife Trust to promote bio-diversity.
* We believe that Colchester Council needs an in-house ecologist to advise on ecological aspects of policy.
* We will work with community groups to introduce more community wildlife gardens.
*We will improve the cleaning up of litter by identifying litter ‘hot spots’ for more regular cleaning and by ensuring that all streets are thoroughly cleaned up every two weeks.

Air quality is one of our top priorities-

Borough Council monitoring shows that air quality is now poor in many areas of the town. The central corridor, which runs from Mersea Road down to North Station, has some of the worst quality air in the Borough.

Our own monitoring in Spring 2018 revealed very high levels of pollution in several Castle Ward streets including North Station Road and East Hill.

*We will use local council powers to tackle air pollution by:-
-enforcing the law on engine idling
-aiming to reduce traffic flow at key points
-providing better alternatives to driving for local journeys such as exploring shuttle bus schemes
-curbing speeds by introducing a default 20mph speed limit in residential areas to decrease the release of air pollutants and to reduce traffic accidents
-working with bus companies to run cleaner and more reliable vehicles in Colchester
-provide more cycling infrastructure.

We recognise that overdevelopment is of major concern to Colchester residents-

* We will protect green spaces from development and utilise brownfield sites.
* We will strive to protect Salary Brook Valley and Middlewick Ranges from development. We will lobby the MOD to end the plan to sell off Middlewick Ranges for housing and campaign for the site to become a nature reserve. 
*We will strive to minimise the negative environmental impact of the new town planned for near to Wivenhoe, which we opposed.
 
Waste and Plastics-

*We will explore the introduction of heritage-based water fountains in central Colchester to reduce the consumption of bottled water. We will seek to involve local artists in this.
*We will work with local retailers to explore ways to reduce plastic food packaging. We will lobby companies to use environmentally friendly packaging to reduce waste.
*We will make sure residents know about recycling options and about methods to reduce household waste.
*We will ensure that people living in flats have equal opportunity to recycle.
*We will use existing legislation to put pressure on fast-food outlets and coffee chains to reduce litter.

3. The NHS
Our NHS is the most effective public service ever created in the UK.
The Green Party will lobby national government to end the creeping process of privatisation that is eroding it. We believe the NHS should remain a unified public service and we oppose Private Finance Initiatives.
* We will rigorously campaign to persuade national government to match growth in local population sizes with greater NHS investment.
* We will lobby to establish Community Health Centres that will provide community-based services.
* We are the only Party to consistently oppose cuts to local council services and the NHS.
* We will fight to ensure there are sufficient numbers of qualified staff.
* We will lobby national government to ensure that mental healthcare has parity with physical healthcare.
*We can reduce the cost of healthcare by building a healthier society-tackling air pollution, reducing the stress and stigma of unemployment, reducing inequality and overcrowded housing and ensuring that everyone can have access to healthy, affordable food.

4. Housing
* We all want warm, safe and secure homes. The current government have presided over the worst housing crisis in living memory. At present house building is to meet market demand, not local need. Social housing is essential to address this crisis.
* Colchester Green Party will work to build and refurbish homes to meet everyone's need for secure and comfortable housing. Council and co-operative housing will be prioritised for funding, housing associations democratised and protections for private tenants improved.
*We will lobby central government to fund the provision of new council housing and for an end to blocking local councils from increasing their stock.
*We will utilise brownfield sites for new housing rather than our countryside and ensure that such sites are not left undeveloped for many years or developed into luxury flats and PFI expensive student accommodation, which do not address the real local need.
*We will work to ensure that private landlords maintain their properties to a very good standard.
*We will push for Colchester's derelict buildings and shops to be brought back into use, including those above shops.

5. Leisure and tourism
Colchester has a rich heritage and we fully recognise the importance of this both educationally and economically.
*We will work to restore and make more accessible our heritage sites and to improve their advertising and sign-posting.
*We will work for the addition of a Civil War Museum and liaise with battle re-enactment groups with a view to staging more public events.
*We will explore ways of promoting Colchester's medieval heritage such as improving the St John's Abbey and St Botolphs Priory sites with better signage and/or visitor facilities.
*We will liaise closely with the Balkerne Tower Trust regarding the options for bringing the Jumbo water tower back into appropriate use.
*We will work to ensure that there is more publicity and improved signposting of our Roman sites such as Butt Road Church and the Roman Circus Museum.
*We will work to support the development of our community and creative spaces.
*We will protect our Library from the further selling-off of resources and the conversion of whole floors as offices. We believe that the library should remain a library rather than Council offices by another name.

6. Local democracy
* Time and again decisions affecting Colchester are made by Essex County Council with no understanding of what Colchester really needs.
*Localism is central to Green Party politics. We would campaign for more powers to be devolved from County Council level to the Borough, particularly roads.
*We believe that council meetings should be as open and transparent as possible and more accessible to those most affected by decisions made in those meetings.
*We will work to increase the involvement of residents and residents' groups in council decision-making processes by holding consultations at an early stage, before decisions are made by officers.
*The National Green Party is campaigning for a change to a proportional representation electoral system, replacing the undemocratic and unfair 'first past the post' system. We would campaign for Colchester to pilot proportional representation systems for local elections.

7. Transport
*We will campaign to bring the railways back into public ownership, saving money and improving services, a policy supported by 66% of the population.
*We will campaign to return control of our roads to the Borough.
*We will work to end the traffic problems in the town centre with a combination of affordable and efficient public transport, improved cycle routes and by encouraging more walking and car sharing.
*We will work with local bus companies and provide financial incentives to facilitate cleaner, less polluting buses.
*We will lobby for more affordable fares and a proper bus station.
*We will push for a default 20mph speed limit on residential streets. 
Through these measures we would cut congestion, pollution and reduce road casualties.
*GP councillors will push for safe and properly planned cycle routes and the increased availability of cycle parking and storage facilities.

8. Community safety
*We will investigate why Colchester has a higher crime rate per person than inner city Birmingham and Liverpool. Solutions are complex but include many things that the Council can influence such as licensing, design of public spaces and youth and leisure facilities.
*We will work to halt cuts to police numbers and insist that any new development has a corresponding increase in policing resources, in the fire department and in ambulance services.

9. Defence
*Colchester is a garrison town. We would work to help veterans train and find work and provide support for those suffering from physical and psychological trauma.

10. No nuclear at Bradwell
*We are strongly opposed to the proposed new nuclear power station at Bradwell on safety, environmental and economic grounds.
*The site is low-lying and liable to flooding, storm surges and other coastal processes which will result from climate change. It lies on a fragile and shallow estuary with Marine Conservation Zone designation.
*Bradwell is already a nuclear waste site for radioactive waste from other power stations. New nuclear development would increase the amount of waste.
*There were radioactive leaks into the ground over a 14-year period to 2009 and a fire in 2011.
*Since 1952 there have been more than 17 major accidents at nuclear power stations throughout the world. Bradwell is only 9 miles from Colchester.
*A new nuclear power station would take 6 times as much cooling water from the estuary as the old one, seriously damaging the ecology of the estuary and the world-famous oyster industry.
*We advocate a tidal lagoon system which releases water at high tide, allowing water to flow out through turbines at low tide, generating electricity. Grid infrastructure formerly used at Bradwell nuclear power station could be utilised for this.

11. Education
*We will lobby central government to end tuition fees for students and replace loans with grants. Students leaving Essex University now face an average debt of £45,000.
*We will promote a comprehensive system of local schools and lobby national government to bring Academies and Free Schools under Local Authority control.
*We will campaign for increased education spending. Funding cuts and privatisation are seriously affecting Sixth Form Colleges and adult education. Colchester has a large and successful Sixth Form College.
*Many children have to travel several miles to school every day because their parents don't have confidence in their local schools or because school places aren't available. We will work to ensure that every child can attend their local school.

12. Animal Welfare
The Green Party has long recognised the need to treat animals well. Nationally the Green Party fully supports the ban on hunting with hounds.
*We will ensure that all Council run catering services provide vegetarian and vegan options.
*We will work closely with animal welfare organisations and law enforcement agencies to ensure that reported animal abuse is investigated thoroughly.
 

COLCHESTER GREEN PARTY


For the Common Good