Today the Green Party officialy launched the campaign to #GetGreensElected in the upcoming elections on Thursday 4 May. In Arun, a total of 18 Greens will stand across 13 wards. Sue Wallsgrove and Steve McAuliffe will defend their seats in Barnham and Arundel & Walberton respectively. Joining them to contest all three available seats in each of those wards are Anita Lawrence, Paul Ayling, Carol Birch and Mel Penycate.
Candidates standing in a further 11 wards are: Adam Bell (Aldwick East), Tony Coates (Aldwick West), Helen Justice (Angmering and Findon), Deborah O'Reilly (Courtwick with Toddington), Liz Hammond (East Preston), Linda Lancaster (Felpham West), Kerstin Sonnemann (Ferring), Liam Warren (Middleton), John Erskine and Paul Wyatt (Pevensey), Lilias Cheyne (River) and Faye Mackenzie-Faithful (Rustington West).
Local party spokesperson and Green Councillor for the past four years, Isabel Thurston, said: "I'm delighted to unveil our team of fantastic Green Party candidates ready to diligently represent communities across Arun in the elections on Thursday 4 May. It is crucial for more Greens to have seats at ADC, so that they can continue to stand up for social justice and environmental issues across the council's work."
The Green Party currently has 563 councillors on 172 principal authority councils in England and Wales. It will be defending 281 seats in this year's local elections in May and will be looking to make further gains across the country.
One key area that affects everyone is the cost, quality and availability of housing. Arun Area Greens are calling for Arun District Council and the government to sign up to a new Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter to beat the housing crisis and ensure green spaces are protected. Greens have already made a difference in Mid Suffolk where developers are now expected to provide EV points, not connect to the gas grid and provide heat pumps as standard.
Carol Birch, social housing expert and Green candidate for Arundel & Walberton, said:
"We need councils and national government to work together to deliver the homes people need and can afford to rent and buy. Residents in Barnham and Walberton in particular are facing the same problems as much of the rest of the country: developers being allowed to ride roughshod over the needs of communities and the environment in order to build houses local people often can't afford to buy or rent and failing to ensure local services like buses and GP surgeries get the investment they need. Everyone deserves a place that they can call home. The Green Party's Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would deliver the change we want to see across the housing sector and create fairer, greener communities."
The Greens’ Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter would:
- End the housing crisis by creating enough affordable homes – including 100,000 new council homes a year built to the Passivhaus or equivalent standard
- Empower local authorities to bring empty homes back into use
- Transform the planning system to:
- Incentivise renovation and improvement of existing buildings to reduce the environmental impact of new construction
- Incentivise local authorities to spread small developments across their areas, where appropriate, rather than building huge new estates
- Protect valuable green space for communities
- Require new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local services, such as providing extra school and GP places and better bus services
- Transform building regulations to ensure:
- all new private and public sector housing meets Passivhaus or equivalent standards
- house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes.
- Ensure all new developments will be located and designed to ensure that residents do not need cars to live a full life
- Introduce rent controls
- End no-fault evictions