Council Election 2018 - Green Party pledges and candidates
5 April 2018
Green Party Councillors will hold the Council to account
The Conservatives have a big majority on Solihull Council and will likely continue to do so after the election. Our Councillors’ job as the largest opposition group will be to hold Solihull Council to account.
Electing Green Party Councillors guarantees voices to:
- Provide constructive opposition and scrutiny of the Council’s decisions on its services and how it spends money raised from council tax payers. Councils with one dominant party tend to spend money less wisely and have poorer services than those under close scrutiny.
- Speak out against inappropriate cuts, which are now cutting deep. With rises in crime, pot holes filling our streets, cuts to street maintenance like grass cutting, and adult social care reduced to the legal bare minimum, Green Councillors will put pressure on the Council for more sensible decision making.
- Tackle inequality in Solihull. Solihull is economically successful but the scandalous gap in life expectancy between the wealthiest and less well off areas of the Borough requires urgent action via a more inclusive economy.
- Protect our green spaces such as opposing excessive loss of green land around Shirley in the Conservatives’ Local Plan for house building.
- Support our local schools. Solihull teachers tell us the Government’s cuts to our local schools are hurting, yet local Conservatives won’t make representation to their Government.
- Promote affordable housing in the right places. Too much land is being given to developers to build executive homes, while young people in Solihull are being priced out of the area due to the lack of affordable housing and lack of new social housing.
- Support the voluntary sector. We can be proud of our Borough’s volunteer-led organisations but the Council’s cuts make life harder for people who give up their time to make such a different to our communities, particularly to the youngest and oldest people in Solihull.
- Pay council staff fairly. Solihull Council has a track record of paying some top executives excessive pay while not paying the real living wage to all front line staff.
Solihull Council already has 31 Conservative Councillors. One more won’t change the direction of the Council in any way but sensible, constructive Green Party voices will hold the council to account and ensure it’s more likely to be run well.
Your council election candidates on 3rd May are:
Bickenhill - Stephen Caudwell
Blythe - Jo Hodgson
Castle Bromwich - Cheryl Buxton-Sait
Chelmsley Wood - James Burn
Dorridge and Hockley Heath - Iona McIntyre
Kingshurst and Fordbridge - Carol Linfield
Knowle - Alison Gavin
Meriden - Mark Pearson
Shirley East - Joy Aldworth
Shirley South - Andy Hodgson
Shirley West - Tim Hodgson
Silhill - Trevor Barker
Smith's Wood - Ben Groom
St. Alphege - Maggie Ryan
If you have any questions at all for any candidate, please contact us on info@solihullgreenparty.org.uk
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