General Policies
The other Parties all pretend to be Green, but fail to deliver. Sustainability has become just a buzzword. Worcestershire's ten year community strategy is a step in the right direction which the Greens applaud, but the targets are not bold enough, nor the resources adequate, to make real progress.

Green Party Councillors across the country are getting on with the job and making a real difference to their local Councils and to local people's lives. The Green Party Members on Malvern Hills District Council have had a significant impact on greening that Council's policies, and a Green presence on the County Council will empower the preservation of Worcestershire. 

In this year's County Council elections in May, the Greens will be fielding their highest-ever number of candidates, enabling every elector in Worcester, Malvern Districts, Bromsgrove, Evesham, Kidderminster and Stourport to vote Green. 

Waste
Did you know that Worcestershire County Council (and Herefordshire Unitary Authority) are tied into a 25-year contract with two related Spanish firms, FocaSA and UrbaSA, to process ALL of Worcestershire's waste, trading under the name of Severn Waste, with which a contract was signed in 1998.  Landfill taxes incurred by the ratepayer amount to over £6 million to date. We pay for their failures to develop more significantly recycling as an alternative to land-fill.

The Greens believe that the current emphasis by the County on recycling is not sufficient in itself to reduce resource use. One reason is increased energy demand. Recycling and re-use require energy inputs - usually fossil fuel derived. Though these are usually less than that required to process virgin materials, they can still be significant.

Zero Waste is a philosophy which goes beyond recycling and takes a whole system approach to the management of resources through the economy. Underpinning Zero Waste is a move towards a more service-based economy, which maximizes recycling, minimises waste, and reduces consumption.

Zero Waste
A Green Council will approach Zero Waste: 

• Encourage the potential of new waste technologies as a genuine growth industry towards Zero Waste.
• Draw up a Zero Waste strategy with a view to eliminating all landfill by 2015, the expected life of Hill & Moor site at Throckmorton. This will require a massive consultation and research effort involving all key producers and handlers of waste. External funding should be sought with a view to promoting Worcestershire as pilot Zero waste region.
• he Council will build on current efforts and set an example by reducing the amount of materials it uses and introducing a purchasing policy to ensure all materials are obtained from sustainable suppliers.
• Undertake a 'mass-balance' study of Worcestershire to identify the key resources used, where they originate from and where they end up (in landfill, recycled, reused and so on).

The Greens readily accept that in some cases, there are currently no practical alternatives to the private car. However we aim to invigorate the local economy: schools, shops, facilities, by compiling policies:

• Policies for Pedestrians
• Policies for Cycling
• Policies for Buses
• Railways and Trains
• Policies for cars

(For updated detail Main Green Party

One out of four people who are treated under compulsion of the 1983 Mental Health Act have previously been denied access to treatment. The emphasis needs to be less on compulsion and more on the right of access to suitable treatment.

The Green Party, therefore, supports opposition to the proposed new Mental Health Bill, which would increase compulsion and decrease community support. 

Asylum Seekers - The Green Party recognizes the great trauma that genuine asylum seekers have suffered and would therefore enlist the help of other organizations, both statutory and voluntary, to provide support, and to help them to integrate into the local community.

Local Economy
A local economy that is locally based, built on a diverse range of employment and geared to meeting people's genuine needs, will serve the people of Malvern better. It will also mean that more of the people who make the business decisions that affect our community and will have to live with the consequences of their decisions.

The County Council should be using its influence with its smallholding tenants to promote organic agriculture and should be working with the local smallholding and farming community to develop the market for local foods.

The Green Party opposes major new out- or edge-of-town shopping and leisure developments. We support local facilities, which can be reached more easily. Economic pressures have closed many small shops. Village and neighbourhood shops are vital centres for rural and urban communities alike, and must be supported by local authorities with subsidies and provision of premises on favourable terms.

Arts and Recreation
Recreation and the arts should not be seen as luxuries; they are essential parts of a full and satisfying life for the individual and the community. The temptation to make cuts in funding to these areas when economies are called for should be resisted. The needs of all residents must be considered and a balance struck between the provision of formal recreational facilities and the enhancing of the recreational value of open space and peaceful landscape where people can make their own entertainment. A Green Council will:

• Encourage a good mix of recreation and leisure facilities across all areas of the county in preference to concentrating particular types of facility in particular areas.
• Ensure that facilities meet the needs of people of all ages, incomes and abilities.
• Promote community facilities and activities through funding and encouraging community use of existing school facilities.
• The people of Worcestershire value their museums and public libraries and have been deeply concerned at the cuts which have been forced upon the services by spending cuts. Year-on-year reductions in the budget for newspapers and periodicals have hit particularly hard. The Green Party would give high priority to restoring the funding for both the book and periodicals budgets.

Green Councillors will:

• Campaign to increase free access to cultural services.
• Support IT developments which would bring together library, museum, archive and other information services and make them accessible online at many points all over the County.
• Encourage the Library and Museum Services to reach out to community-based projects, history displays in village halls, oral history projects and children's reading and story telling sessions. 

Greens believe that Worcestershire, as the Local Education Authority, has a vital role to play in promoting and managing education county-wide, but it needs to be more responsive to the needs of teachers, schools, parents, children and the community at large. A Green County Council would:

• Support an approach to education which is based on inculcating individuals with sound values as well as attainment in tests and examinations.
• Enhance the role of the teacher to deliver education. The professional knows how to approach it.
• Encourage schools to include pupils in decision-making and let them take responsibility whenever practicable.
• Oppose corporate funding opportunities.
• Maintain marginally viable schools, by sharing facilities, equipment and specialist teachers whilst opening their doors to the wider community.
• Advise Governors not to permit the placement of mobile phone masts on school buildings and on Council properties within 800 meters. The effects of microwave radiation on children are still uncertain. The Government's own Stewart Report advises caution.
• Value school staff and support their efforts to encourage an ethos of cooperation, conflict resolution and respect for others within schools.
• Increase the provision of nutritious school meals, prepared locally, to combat the social results of poor diet. The Greens support the - free fruit initiative - to distribute surplus EU fruit to schools.
• For updated list, go to Main Green Party

Privatisation of Education
Greens oppose the 'creeping privatisation' of our schools through the injection of private funds. This can lead to serious conflicts of interest and/or put undue control of education in the hands of unelected and unaccountable profit-making corporations. Such privatisation can, and does, take many forms, from the donation of 'free' computers by Tesco to the lump sum contract payment to place a few mobile phone aerials on your school hall or Cadbury sponsoring sports activity through increased chocolate consumption.   

The Greens have argued that the County should issue an ethical code of conduct for School Governors to make it clear that there are dangers in accepting funds from commercial organisations  

Public Services
The Greens believe that it is wrong to profit from the provision of public services - in effect making money at the taxpayers' expense. It is better to ensure that the public sector operates in an efficient and responsive manner - meeting the needs of service users.

The issue of privatisation of local services is inextricably linked to the globalisation agenda shared by the Conservatives, New Labour and the Liberal Democrats. They all support organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which is seeking to prohibit local authorities from supporting businesses important to the local economy.

Already local Government tenders have to be advertised at a European level and contracts awarded without reference to the locality of the bidding company. This makes our services vulnerable to predatory trans-national companies and others with no long-term interest in the region.

Environmental standards, along with staff pay and conditions, are typically the first victims of 'externalisation' followed by declining services, as profit margins are increased.

The Government has clearly not learned from the Conservative rail privatisation disaster and has pushed ahead, not only with public service privatisation, but with the sell-off of the post office, London Underground, air traffic control and much else besides. 

County Council Investments
The Green Party believes that the County Council should set an example in all that it does, including its financial investments. Local Authority pension funds should not be invested in, for instance, arms manufacture or tobacco companies. Green Councillors would instead press for investment of Council funds in ethical investments, which have proven to give a good rate of return.

Planning
The Green Party believes that the aims of the planning framework should include:

• Accentuating the importance of building a sustainable and decentralised society.
• Continuing to encourage patterns of employment, housing, services and production that satisfy people's needs as locally as possible, strengthen communities and reduce the need to travel.
• Preserving agricultural land in the interest of self-reliance.

• Preventing development that would damage nature conservation, especially on Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or archaeological or historical interest.
• Protecting Green Belt areas from development, including mineral working, and preserving green field sites within built-up areas.
• Ensuring that existing footpaths, bridleways, and rights of way are adequately maintained and signposted.
• Extending public access to private land.
• Ensuring that derelict land is developed in preference to green field areas.
• Support Green Gym, a scheme run in Malvern and across the country to help people become physically and mentally healthier by taking part in nature conservation activities, BTCV and the Duckworth Trust. 

Local Party Candidates and Contact

Bromsgrove Green Party :
 Jill Harvey 0121 453 5838    jill@lickey.plus.com  

Malvern Hills Green Party :
Malcolm Victory 01684 575156  malcolmvictory@tiscali.co.uk  

Redditch Green Party :
Richard Armstrong 01527 520475

Worcester Green Party :
Robert Wilkins 01905 352065  robert@wilkins130.freeserve.co.uk

Vale of Evesham Green Party :
Norbert Tucker 01386 45259