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Opposing fire cuts in York

Green councillors in York are calling upon the new Labour Cabinet running the City of York Council to halt the sale of council land at Kent Street to North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, in a bid to protect fire cover for the historic city centre. The first meeting of the council's new cabinet is due to decide on the sale at its first meeting on Jun 21st, the day before N Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is due to consider the latest compromise option of having a 'roving' fire tender during daylight hours after the current city centre facility is closed. Currently the historic core has three tenders within minutes of the centre, including an aerial ladder, which the fire authority plan to relocate to the outer ring road.

Fishergate confirmed as 'the Green ward'!

Thanks to all Fishergate voters who supported the Greens on Thursday securing both seats for the Green Party for a third term of 4 years.   Name	Votes
BLENKHARN, Kristina Anne (Labour)	963
D'AGORNE, Andy (Green Party)	1632
KNAPPER, Dean (Liberal Democrat)	257
MORRIS, Judith Mary (UKIP)	263
SIDLEY, Daniel Nathan (Labour)	765
TAYLOR, Dave (Green Party)	1422
WHITESIDE, James (Liberal Democrat)	222

 

A real vote of confidence in the face of strong campaigning in the ward from a resurgent Labour Party who have swept to overall control in York -  including in the process removing the Leader and former Lib Dem leader from their council seats. Unfortunately the growth of the Labour vote meant we failed to gain any further seats in York, coming close again in Micklegate. However nationally the big news for the Greens was taking control of Brighton and Hove council with 23 councillors - Britains first major authority Green council. We have also become the largest party in Norwich. Although we no longer have a no overall control situation and the Conservatives have pushed Lib Dems into third place, there is now also an Independent, and a former Green who stood for Labour on a '20s plenty' campaign mission! Could be interesting....  

 

V Day!

Today is the day for making decisions about the voting system itself, and who represents you on your local council. We cant reverse all the cuts, but we can determine a programme that will make things better or worse for the future of our city and our planet. Please make your choices not on who is most likely to win, but who represents the policies you want to see in place. Of course a fairer voting system would help, and thats why I'll be voting Yes to AV even though it is by no means the best, I think it is better than what we have got! Polls close at 10pm (no voting allowed after 10, so 9.30 is about the latest you can leave it, but early in the day is better for us party campaigners!)

In York we aim to retain our two councillors in Fishergate and gain one or more seats in Micklegate, Heslington, Guildhall and/or Clifton. In the rest of the wards we will be aiming to increase our vote to move towards being a major force next time!

Election choices in York

Labour are making a big play of 'taking control of the council' if everyone votes for them. This could well happen, just by the Lib Dems losing seats to Tories as to Labour.  However what they fail to point out is that the only Labour votes that 'count' in this respect of them outnumbering Lib Dems and Tories combined are those that keep their existing seats or take seats from Lib Dem or Tory councillors. Attacking the Greens in Fishergate will do nothing to change the balance of power at the Guildhall. Fishergate residents need to vote for the party and councillors that they want to represent them at ward level, not some kind of referendum on the Lib Dem administration. A Labour administration without Green opposition on issues like the waste incinerator, rapid expansion onto the Green Belt and tackling sustainability issues will be a less democratic council than what we have now with two Green councillors.   

Election fun begins

Nominations for the local elections closed at Monday lunchtime and the biggest surprise was not the 42 out of 47 seats being contested by the Greens but the 15 'lost' Conservative candidates, leaving them contesting only 32 seats! For several days afterwards the local website proudly displayed all 47 hopefuls, but the elections office nomination record shows that several forms submitted were invalid and others simply failed to be handed in before the deadline. And this is the party that's running the country... This means that there will be no Conservative on the ballot paper in Fishergate or Heslington and one less than the full complement of three in Micklegate. Our lead candidate for Micklegate Andy Chase and our hopeful in Heslington Caleb Wooding now have a much better chance of making it onto the council in a few weeks time if they can win over a few Tory voters who are very unlikely to vote Labour instead.  

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