Winchester Green Party
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Winchester Green Party is campaigning on a range of social, economic and environmental issues - click a title to find out more...

Action – not hot air – on climate change

Winchester Green Party is actively influencing both Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council policies and strategies on climate change. We are campaigning for:

  • the implementation of (not just feasibility studies for) a Winchester District Heating Scheme, to provide heating from low-carbon energy for all the large institutions in central Winchester, and beyond;
  • the swift and efficient implementation of a strategic programme of home insulation and photovoltaics (PV – solar panels) across both Councils’ estates; we are also actively supporting wind energy planning applications;
  • greater public engagement in the Hampshire-wide public-sector-organisations’ Vision and Strategy, see http://www3.hants.gov.uk/9_dec_outcomes_reportc.pdf.

 

The protection of public services and transport from cuts

We are campaigning against the Coalition government's public sector cuts which are hitting the poorest, youngest, and most vulnerable members of society hardest. Winchester Green Party joined Unison at their demonstration in Winchester against the cuts on 24th February.

The Green Party recognises that the country has a severe debt problem and that public accounts must be put in order. But the problem was created by the recklessness and greed of bankers and financiers, and they are not shouldering their share of the solution. In 2008, the country spent £850 billion bailing out the banks, but in 2010 the Chancellor announced that the banks would pay a 'special levy' of merely £2.5bn a year from 2012. At that rate it will take them 340 years to repay their debt to us, without any interest. In the meantime, while bankers' bonuses continue, the public sector is being drastically cut back.

We especially condemn:

  • the broken promises of the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition in allowing the perpetuation of bankers' greed and bonuses;
  • the closure of 28 children's centres, including Sure Start, in Hampshire, and cuts to care home nursing staff;
  • cuts to local bus services.

Winchester’s environment is ruined by excessive car traffic, which is dangerous, polluting and noisy. We are lobbying for:

  • the sale of some of the WCC city centre car parks with reinvestment in local public transport;
  • a city-wide 20mph speed limit, starting in residential areas;
  • more safe cycle routes – for example, linking the new southern Park & Ride site to the city centre, with free parking for those taking their bikes on or in their cars.

 

Local green jobs for local people

We believe our economy should be based less on financial services and more on the manufacturing and agricultural sector. We need to move away from an oil-based economy towards one run on renewable energy. We want to see new ‘green-tech’ and ‘clean-tech’ companies based in Hampshire, and our institutions training people for those jobs of the future.

For example, we are challenging Hampshire County Council to align the work of their Environment Department on climate change with conflicting work done by their Economic Development Office.

 

Planning decisions against Barton Farm and over-development

Unlike local Liberal Democrats, Winchester Green Party is opposed to the Barton Farm development and is actively campaigning against it. Cala Homes' proposal for 2000 houses on the last surviving 'green wedge' of land into Winchester would change the city's environment forever, increasing local traffic by up to 20 per cent.

We are dismayed that such a plan is even being considered when scores of homes stand empty across Winchester District, and we are lobbying Winchester City Council to use its powers to bring them back into use. We are investigating how many second homes could be made available for hard-pressed families with real housing needs.

The Winchester District is in danger of over-development and becoming like the M27/A27 corridor (Hedge End, Fareham, Portsmouth). We argue that if the environment is destroyed, economic and social degradation is the inevitable consequence. We are fighting to protect the beauty and special qualities of the Winchester District. We entirely reject the notion that the south-east of England has to take more than its share of economic development and therefore housing. We are:

  • opposing all new housing development on greenfield sites;
  • challenging Winchester City Council to publish its methodology in the official estimates of ‘housing need’ (often confused with housing demand);
  • pushing for a new WCC Empty Homes Strategy (the last one lapsed in 2008).

Equality and fairness

Our vision is of a District that meets everyone’s needs, and is not distorted by huge differences in people’s income and assets.

For example, a disparity between salaries and house prices occurs throughout the south east region but is at its most extreme in the Winchester District. As the Council’s Housing Strategy (2008/9-2012/13) observes:

...house prices [in the District] are 10.5 times lower quartile incomes, making affordability amongst the worst in the South East … A household income of £50,000 is needed to purchase a lower quartile priced property. With mean household incomes at less than £40,000 this makes such a purchase unaffordable for 74 per cent of households.

The impacts on society of extremes of inequality are clearly set out in, for example, The Spirit Level, a remarkable book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009). It shows that the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the world, along with the USA, Singapore, and Portugal. In Britain the income of the richest ten per cent is one hundred times greater than the income of the poorest ten per cent.

The research shows that in countries in which there is the greatest inequality, rates of mental illness, obesity, addictions including alcohol abuse, imprisonment rates, murder, and teenage pregnancy all tend to be higher than in more equal countries. Life expectancy and levels of social mobility tend to be lower.

Winchester Green Party is taking every opportunity to raise awareness of this effect in the Winchester District. 

 

If you have an issue you think we would be interested in - or you want to get involved in these campaigns - please contact us.