It's hard to see what the future holds. While there's a lot of stuff to be frightened of - because it IS frightening - there's also a huge amount of opportunity. Many of these opportunities can be taken locally.
Local elections for Cheltenham and Gloucestershire are taking place on Thursday 6th May. These elections are significant this time around because they're the first chance since 2019 for the British public to take action on the causes in democracy that matter to them. And it's a chance to take a new direction, and build back better through the pandemic.
Borough Council is responsible for planning applications, rubbish collection and recycling, Council tax collections, housing, and parks and gardens.
The County Council covers causes like education, local transport including roadways, cyclepaths and buses, fire and public safety, social care for the elderly and vulnerable, libraries, waste management, and trading standards.
So it's definitely a good opportunity to have someone advocating on your behalf who can make a positive difference and be a voice for change!
Cheltenham Green Party are running candidates in all wards this May, and we all have some really good ideas about work we'd like to do.
- We want to make sure that new housing developments are future-proofed and focused around walkable communities.
- We could create local community energy projects using solar and wind power that would be cheaper for people to use.
- We could test out a basic income so that people can reach their potential without needing to fight for their own survival.
- Roll out a retrofitting scheme to make warmer homes.
- Create bee corridors and rewilded areas across town and in the countryside.
- We could create training programs to help people get jobs in a new green economy, and we can create worker protections so that human happiness is prioritised before just profit.
- We can create better local food networks so that there's less food waste, and our supply chains are more resilient.
- We can find better ways to prevent and mitigate flooding so there's less damage done by unpredictable weather.
If you're feeling excited about these ideas, please consider voting Green!
We're pushing to elect Tabi Joy in St Pauls and Swindon Village wards, so if you live there or know someone who does, it can make a massive difference. Just one Keen Green on the council can bring new ideas and energy to the way things are run.
