Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanksi visited Ramsgate on March 23 to help the Thanet Green Party launch its county council election campaign.

Thanet Green Party, along with representatives from Dover and Deal Green Party, welcomed Zack to their launch at Ellington Park.

An energised positive campaign

“We’re running an energised, positive campaign across Thanet, aiming to get the first Green County Councillors elected in Thanet.

“People we’ve already spoken to on the doorstep are telling us that they’re tired of the old two party system that’s made little difference to their lives over the last few years and they want councillors who work hard all year, who listen to residents and who will prioritise what’s best for their communities.”

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Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski (right) with Thanet Green Party councillor and KCC candidate Mike Garner

In an interview on BBC 5 Live, ahead of the Spring statement tomorrow, Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski said: “The government are looking to cut £5-6bn from disability benefits… they’re also talking today about taking infant school meals off the table.”

“So why are they looking to protect the wealth of multi-millionaires and billionaires at the same time as targeting or cutting money from those people who really desperately need it, or where there’s very clear evidence that this enriches and improves people’s lives?

“This is ultimately about political choices. And at every single possibility, it feels like this Labour government is taking the wrong political choices.” 

Follow Zack on Instagram @greenpartyzack

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I’m delighted to announce that I will be the Green Party’s candidate in my home town of Broadstairs for the KCC elections on Thursday May 1st.

I’ve been a hard-working District & Town Councillor in Broadstairs since 2019 & this year have also been Chair of the Town Council and the town’s Mayor and believe I’m well placed to best represent my hometown on Kent County Council. 

Among my priorities are:

Education – During the last year, I’ve visited many of the town’s schools and am familiar with many of the issues they face due, in part, to continued cuts in their budgets. I will be campaigning to make sure spending is both protected and increased.

Road Safety – As the number of serious accidents on the streets of Broadstairs increases, improving road safety is also a high priority for me.

Sarah Thorne Theatre – Another key issue for me is to stop KCC’s plans to sell the only theatre in Broadstairs, the Sarah Thorne. It’s a multi-use venue that, as well as attracting touring companies from around the country, enables local theatre and music groups to put on performances and cannot be sold for development.

If you have any questions for me or want to help the campaign your welcome to stop me if you see me in town, drop me an email at greenmikegarner@gmail.com or contact me via messenger. #getgreenselected #broadstairs #kentcountycouncil

I am happy and proud to announce that I will be standing in my Ramsgate, alongside Thea Barrett, as a Green Party candidate for the KCC elections on Thursday May 1st. Together we are a fabulous mix of experience and youth. 

I have already been working hard as a District & Town Councillor since 2019 and so will be a strong ‘voice’ representing residents in Ramsgate and Thanet as we move towards an East Kent unitary authority. 

Key priorities at county level include:

Key Services – Saving and expanding services, we cannot allow children’s, youth, health and care services to be cut. Every effort for example, must be made to keep the Pie Factory Youth Centre open and ensure GP provision increases. 

Road Safety – Making our roads safer, especially for pedestrians. Expanding 20mph zones, increasing safe crossing places and slowing traffic around schools and ‘accident hotspots’ is essential given our high crash data. 

Recycling, waste and rubbish – Improving access to waste and recycling for those without transport as well as the removal of rubbish along our highways. 

Economic Growth – Greater focus on small, medium size businesses and our town centres as they face great change, while increasing opportunities for our young to benefit from employment, further education or training. 

Environment – Seek ways to enhance our open spaces, verges and streets as well as seek and implement alternatives to the use of weedkiller containing glyphosate in our communities. 

If you would like further information or to discuss any issue, then please contact me via: greenbeckywing@gmail.com or via messenger.

The post SAVE THE DAY! KCC ELECTIONS 1ST MAY – OUR CANDIDATES appeared first on Thanet Green Party.

Recognising and celebrating the voluntary sector

From the Isle of Thanet News:

Thanet council’s Cabinet members have accepted a report by a working group of councillors aimed at improving the authority’s relationship with the isle’s many and varied voluntary and community organisations.

The report was produced by a working party chaired by Green Party Councillor Tricia Austin.

Its original job was to look at how the council could help groups bring more grant funding into Thanet; however, during discussions with officials, voluntary sector representatives and other bodies, the group found it needed to go wider than this.

The report outlined both good and bad feedback from voluntary sector leaders on working with the council. It concluded with 12 recommendations on how the council could improve its relationship with the sector, plus five further areas for future consideration.

Immediate recommendations included setting up a voluntary sector forum, simplifying language and paperwork, recognising and making best use of skills and knowledge in the sector and identifying a lead officer contact for VCS groups.

The report also proposed key actions with no staffing or financial implications, centred on the council’s attitude and approach, such as building equal partnerships and committing to openness and transparency

Report author Cllr Tricia Austin said: “I’m delighted that Cabinet has supported our recommendations and recognised the need for us to learn from our mistakes as well as our successes.

“We are particularly pleased that a voluntary sector forum and a named contact officer for the VCS will be established immediately.

“We all rely heavily on the hard work of our voluntary sector to provide support to our most vulnerable citizens and to enhance our quality of life in Thanet – so it is vital that as a council we do everything we can to facilitate, recognise and celebrate their work and be a reliable, strong and supportive partner.”

The report can be found at: External Grant Funding Review Working Party Report Final Version .docx – Google Docs

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Poll finds majority want to prosecute polluters

Nobody really wants to swim through sewage so the result of a new poll is not a big surprise. But the huge majority of 83% in favour of legal action against polluting water companies shows the power of public feeling.

More than 8 in 10 Britons support the  setting of legally binding targets to reduce the amount of sewage spilled into waterways according to the latest Ipsos poll for the Financial Times.

More and more people are realising the scale of the of the sewage scandal, of how the privatised water companies looted the water industry, sinking the water companies under huge debts, paying out vast dividends while allowing vital infrastructure to collapse. In 2023 there were 464,056 sewage spills , according to the Environment Agency, a 54% increase on the previous year.

Since the industry was privatised in thre Tory fire sale of public assets more than 30 years ago investors have withdrawn £85.2bn from 10 water and sewage firms in England and Wales, analysis by the University of Greenwich suggests. That is £85.2 that has gone into investors ‘pockets’ rather being invested in the water industry we all  depend on.

Public services owned by the public for the public

The Green Party is the only party to pledge to return the water industry to public ownership. as Green Party candidate Steve Roberts put it, “Privatisation has failed. Dividends are paid to shareholders while infrastructure is run into the ground, we all know how privatisation of the water companies worked out. The Green Party is committed to the public ownership of public services, so they are run to serve us all, rather than to increase the wealth of shareholders.”

vote hope. vote change. vote green.

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Steve Roberts lives in Broadstairs where he is a town councillor.  He began his career as a nurse and now works as a trainer in social care.

why you should vote for steve

“I’m Steve. I’ve lived in Broadstairs for over 9 years. I love Thanet, the beaches, the character and resilience of the community.  It’s a wonderful place but has many challenges. As your MP I’d work hard to address those and fight for what matters to Thanet and the country.

As a longstanding health and social care professional, I’m passionate about rebuilding an NHS free at point of delivery, defending it from creeping privatisation and joining it up properly with social care. The Green Party has just released its policy on the NHS and it’s transformational.

The Green Party believes should be public services in public hands – so I’d work to bring privatised companies back into public ownership, so profits can go into infrastructure and better services and not into shareholders’ pockets. This would stop water companies dumping sewage in our seas and only the Greens have the courage to commit to this.

I’d push for affordable, secure and comfortable homes for everyone – and it’s Green Party policy to insulate all new builds and retrofit insulation to older homes so we can keep bills down and reduce carbon emissions.

Fourteen years of Tory austerity have left this country in a parlous state, everything is in disrepair from health to education to the potholes in the roads. Greens oppose austerity as it only creates a declining spiral. We believe we must invest to thrive. We’d make corporations pay their fair share of tax, levy a 1% wealth tax on billionaires and tax unearned income from assets at the same rate as income tax.

Now isn’t the time for compromise. For real hope and real change vote Green.”

VOTE HOPE. VOTE CHANGE. VOTE GREEN.

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The ‘Stop Burning Trees Coalition’ took to the streets this week (5th March) outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to demand an end to government funding for electricity generation by tree burning polluters.

Biomass energy generation has been touted as a green way of generating electricity from waste wood products. In practice it is anything but sustainable. Some years ago, an Ofgem Audit found that Discovery Park Commercial Biomass was burning wood harvested from old growth forests in Latvia and Estonia.

A recent Panorama programme has exposed this behaviour in the commercial biomass industry. Drax, which runs Britain’s biggest power station and  receives billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from UK taxpayers, is cutting down environmentally-important forests to produce wood pellets which are then classed as renewable. The BBC discovered that some of the wood comes from primary forests in Canada that have taken thousands of years to develop.

Absolutely insane

Ecologist Michelle Connolly said “It’s really a shame that British taxpayers are funding this destruction with their money. Logging natural forests and converting them into pellets to be burned for electricity, that is absolutely insane”.

Drax has already received £6bn in green energy subsidies, and is to receive even more to build a carbon capture and sequestration plant. If these sums had been instead used to build solar and wind farms these would have produced far more electricity for much less CO2 generation, and in the process reduce our electricity bills and improve our energy security.

The case for small scale biomass

Small scale biomass clearly has its place on farms, where extracting excess wood through good woodland management can both increase biodiversity of woodland, extract quality timber and use the remaining wood for biomass. Even better is to leave the remaining wood to decompose and add to the soil biome and mycorrhizal life of the woodland,  creating life for a diverse range of species in wood habitat piles.

Farmers with woodland could actually gain by using additional wood cuttings to create biochar (a charcoal-like wood product). Crumbled and put into the soil biochar increases soil carbon sequestration and improves soil structure and vitality.

The Green response

The Green Party supports and encourages practices like these that look at the whole solution for the benefit of people, biodiversity and the planet’s health, rather than provide public money to industries hiding behind the fig-leaf of greenwashing.

Steve Roberts, Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Thanet East commented that ‘It is shocking that timber from old growth forest is not only being burned to create energy, it is being shipped to Kent and burned on our doorstep. It is disgraceful that this practice has been funded by the UK government’.

When will the three main parties finally admit their support of Commercial Biomass was wrong?

The post Stop Burning Trees! Why burning wood to generate electricity is not sustainable. appeared first on Thanet Green Party.

Green campaigner Sarah Jarman is standing in the by-election on 14th March for a seat on Westgate Town Council.

“I was born and bred in Westgate,” says Sarah, “I love living here and want to see the town and its vibrant community realise their full potential.”

“I believe, and have always believed, that Westgate is a wonderful town, but there is always room for improvement.”

“If I’m elected these areas would be my focus:

• Expanding the work that Cllr Mike Garner, Cllr Abi Smith and other Green colleagues have been doing with the Westgate & Garlinge Action Group and others to fight indiscriminate building on greenfield sites around the town.
• Supporting Westgate Library and Community Centre and fighting any proposals to reduce the vital services they provide our community.
• Building up our sense of community in Westgate, and particularly working to find opportunities for different generations to meet and share their ideas.
• Helping to hold Southern Water to account for their shockingly poor service and their continuing pollution of our seas.
• Reducing the amount of litter and dog poo on our pavements!

Community roots

“I left Westgate when I was 18 and after a brief period living abroad, returned over 30 years ago to raise my children here by the sea. Westgate is where they all grew up, attended local schools and I now also have a grandchild who is about to start at the same school in September.

Until recently I was my elderly Mum’s carer, but since she died last year I’ve been determined to put my time to good use. I’m now in the process of becoming an Age UK volunteer and, with your support, hoping to become a Town Councillor.”

Contact Sarah

“I have listed my priorities but what are yours? What are you passionate about for Westgate? If you have ideas and opinions about ways we can improve our town, I’d be keen to hear from you. You can contact me at greensarahjarman@gmail.com

The post Local Green campaigner Sarah to stand for Westgate Town council. appeared first on Thanet Green Party.

Greens are ‘in the room’ in 38 councils across England and Wales including, in the South East, Ashford, Folkestone and Hythe, Rother, Lewes and Swale.

A Green in the room means someone fighting for better public services, better transport, better housing and fairer, greener communities.

In Thanet…

In Thanet our six local councillors have been tackling the issues that really matter in our community, focusing on housing, plastic pollution and protecting the natural environment.

The post Greens in Power in 38 Councils. appeared first on Thanet Green Party.

Overflowing bins are an all too common sight around our beaches. Single use plastic water bottles are a significant part of the problem. Thanet Green Councillors are working to introduce an alternative: water refill stations.

Thousands fewer bottles

Our initial estimates are that each refill station reduces the number of single use bottles purchased by between 25 and 35 thousand.

Some of you will have used the station already installed in Margate. This spring we will be installing at least one in Broadstairs , and we will be bidding for funding to install one in Ramsgate over the summer

The stations give everyone access to free drinking water. Councils are also promoting the use of Refill an app which shows cafe’s, shops and other places offering free water refill. You can find the app here https://www.refill.org.uk/

Jessica Rose, Plastic Free Thanet lead for Thanet District Council said: “Supporting a culture of reuse and refill over use once and throw away is what Plastic Free Thanet is all about. We’re excited to see this spreading across Thanet with free drinking water fountains. We’re hoping this will make a big difference to the number of single-use plastic bottles finding their way on to our streets and beaches this summer.”

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