In the Green Party's 2010 budget amendment, Cllr Mischa Borris proposed the £600,000 "free insulation for every home that needs it" scheme. The programme would be part council revenue funded, with the additional investment levered in from energy utilities as part of their obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The programme would be prioritised towards vulnerable and low-income households, regardless of their means-tested status.

The scheme, similar to the successful progamme introduced by the Green Party on Kirklees council, could reduce fuel bills for the poorest by an average of £150 a year per home and would make an enormous dent in fuel poverty. The scheme would also create green-collared jobs in the borough, helping to tackle Hackney's above national average unemployment levels.

Cllr Borris said:

"It is scandalous that, in 2010, over 5% of families in Hackney live in fuel poverty. Our Green Party budget proposal, to create a Hackney-wide innovative free insulation scheme, would rip into the heart of this devastating problem.

"Home insulation would make a real difference to residents. It is one of the easiest things people can do to combat spiraling energy prices and make their homes warmer so that they have to spend less on fuel.

"This scheme is about making it as easy as possible for everyone to install insulation, including those that just sit just above the means-tested threshold that currently exclude families from receiving free insulation. Directly approaching all residents on the lowest incomes instead of waiting for them to come to you, and not means-testing, are big parts of that.

Cllr. Borris proposed that the council revenue for the programme would be funded by a £16 a year increase in parking charges for the most polluting cars.

"A slight increase in parking charges for the most gas-guzzling cars is a fair way of funding a scheme that will benefit those without cars and living in fuel poverty.

"Councils should be creating ways of helping the most vulnerable residents. Using money from energy companies and those with larger cars will benefit thousands of people who are struggling to keep their homes warm."

Other measures proposed by Cllr Borris included a Hackney Community Youth Games, as well as a project to refurbish bikes for teenagers and another helping people get household items repaired rather than having to scrap them and buy new.

Cllr Borris concluded, "Both those schemes would also benefit less well off people, and reduce our land fill tax. Joined up thinking from the Green Party".

A long standing and passionate campaigner for peace and justice in the Middle East, the South East Green MEP, who is also Vice Chair of the Parliament's delegation to Palestine and spoke on the Goldstone Report in plenary last month, said:

"I am delighted that colleagues in the Parliament have voted for a strong position on the Goldstone Report. When I visited Gaza last February, I saw first hand the damage caused by Operation Cast Lead and the everyday consequences of the Israeli blockade.

"The Goldstone report asks the EU to support an independent committee of experts on international law and criminal investigations to monitor and assess the effectiveness and genuineness of the domestic investigations carried out by the parties to the conflict.

"Green MEPs have fully backed this from the beginning, and also endorse the other recommendations of the Goldstone report which focus on the ongoing serious violations of international law on both sides.

"Given its contractual relations with Israel and its position as main donor to the Palestinians, the EU and its Member States have the particular responsibility to ensure full respect for the international human rights and humanitarian law by neighbouring partner countries."

She continued: "I welcome the agreement on key points such as the High Representative and the EU Member States actively monitoring the implementation of recommendations included in the Goldstone Report by means of consultation of EU external missions and NGOs.

"I and my Green Party colleagues will continue to oppose the illegal occupation of Palestine and will fight to ensure that international law is upheld - including holding Palestinians to account for indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel. Only then can we achieve peace and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis."

 
The only problem with his analysis was that, as a Conservative, Cllr Coggins failed to point out a crucial fact. Labour has managed to create such a mess by continuing the failed politics of the free market that were first pushed forward by the Tories. All three establishment parties are wedded to an economic model which has increased inequality, undermined our communities, and continued to destroy our environment.
 
In contrast, the Green Party argues for progressive taxation, an end to the deployment of our troops in Afghanistan, and the scrapping of Trident, ID cards and other expensive New Labour supported projects. That money must be invested into decent, affordable housing, a stronger benefits safety net, and measures that ensure equality for all, such as a London Living Wage. Now is not the time to cut services, but to invest in them, creating jobs in the process. Cllr Coggins cannot argue for that, because his party is still wedded to the ideology that caused the problem in the first place.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Matt Sellwood
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate
Hackney North & Stoke Newington

"It is widely acknowledged that the consequences of climate change will affect the poorest in Britain the most. With the chronic levels of poverty suffered by Hackney's residents, you would think that their MP would be in the vanguard in the fight to cut dangerous carbon emissions and tackle climate change.

"What use is an MP who will talk the talk, but when it really matters just won't walk the walk?

"An Emissions Performance Standard is a vital component in the fight against climate change. Despite expressing her support in words, Diane didn't use her vote to back up her rhetoric.


ENDS

To contact Matt Sellwood, please call 07974 745 529.

Some of the party’s members enjoy growing seasonal organic food on its own ‘back-garden’ allotment.

Green council candidate Pippa Lane said, “Many Hackney people don’t want the commitment of a whole allotment - they just want to grow food near to where they live. The council needs to be far more imaginative in its attitude to public land and how food can be grown locally, providing small, deep-bed sites and insisting that developers include food growing space in their proposals.”

Last year Green councillor Mischa Borris asked the council to support the Edible Estates initiative giving public housing residents the right to grow food in the land around their block.  Sadly, the deputy mayor dismissed the idea, saying that Hackney Homes would not take a lead on it.

The premises, which have been empty since 2005 and are only now reopening, became infested with vermin.  Residents in neighbouring buildings reported seeing rats in the area. The basements of the shops, which were previously dry enough to store paper, can no longer be used unless they are re-sealed at huge cost to council tax payers.

Green Party council candidate Peter Jones said, “At a time when the council is demanding extra chargesfrom the nearby Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground, this is a gross waste of public money and a prime example of local Labour neglect.” 

Not satisfied with increasing public transport fares in 2009, London’s Conservative Mayor has now introduced further massive fare increases for 2010.  This includes an 18% rise on many single tube fares outside Zone One, and a 20% increase in the cost of one-off bus journeys using Oyster ‘Pay As You Go’ and weekly bus passes.  

In less than two years since the Mayor was elected, the price of a single bus fare has already risen by a third, hitting Hackney residents, who are more reliant on buses, particularly hard.

Johnson’s fare increases have a disproportionate impact on the least well-off, and the Green Party’s London Assembly members are making budget proposals designed to reverse them immediately. 

Darren Johnson, Green London Assembly member, commented: “The Green Group will seek to reverse this year’s bus fare rises in our amendment to the mayor’s budget. I want to see the Mayor protecting the poorer Londoners by freezing bus fares and making those who pollute more, pay more. This fare increase is caused by decisions such as abandoning the western extension of the congestion charge, and dropping plans to levy a higher charge on the most polluting vehicles.”

Which is strange for a council and government that appears to be promoting cycling. Hackney currently has the highest numebr of cyclists in London, and with bus prices on the up, this is set to rise even further.

Yet the council is not making it easy. Cycle theft remains prevalent, and safe parking is imperative to keeping it down. Street railings are often well-placed and unobtrusive, and where removing them can have many benefits, the consequential loss of cycle parking needs to be seriously addressed.

The problem affects more than the shoppers searching for convenient parking spots: on streets and estates, residents are finding it hard to find accessible and safe spaces to keep their bikes, and the council seems to be doing little to change that.

Thanks to Hackney Homes' borough-wide fire risk assessment, bicycles chained to railings on estates are being removed, often without warning, because they could cause an obstruction in the case of fire. A well-used bike shed at Heatherly Court is being demolished by Hackney Homes, who site servicing the drains as the reason. In both of these cases, it's hard ot see how bikes would impede access or servicing of drains. Funding for secure bike lokers is uncertain and in some places won't be provided until 2011. What those cyclists are to do in the meantime is anyone's guess.

Hackney's Green Party Councillor Mischa Borris says "I do not see how a bike, chained neatly in a vertical position, would be an impediment to escape. There is no room in the flats to keep bikes; an alternative would be to take it into the block and chain it to the stair railings, where it would be far more in the way and an impediment in a fire. Hackney Homes creates room for car parking, yet seems unwilling to do anything for bike owners. We all know that childhood and adult obesity is a particular problem in Hackney, which can be countered by cycling. It is unfair to enforce a policy without taking measures to mitigate negative effects on residents"

Cycling in Hackney makes sense for so many reasons: it's cheaper, more convenient and often quicker than other forms of transport, and the health and environmental benefits speak for themselves. The council needs to be consistent in its support of cycling, and not leave us out in the cold.

 
ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS
 
[1] Matt Sellwood served as a Green Party city councillor in Oxford from 2004 to 2008. From 2005 to 2008 he sat on the council's ruling Executive Board, representing the Green Group.
 
[2] http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6508389
 
[3] Full details on Green Party housing policy can be found at http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/mfss/mfssho.html
 
[4] For a fuller biography of Matt Sellwood, please see http://hackney.greenparty.org.uk/localsites/hackney/people/matt-sellwood-clissold.html

Cllr Borris said

"I was surprised that the Mayor should dismiss a question concerning civil liberties out of hand. From abolitionist William Morley to the 18th Century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Hackney people have a fine tradition over the centuries of standing up for our rights and liberties. ID cards are another assault on those.  It's not a trivial issue but will affect everyone in a fundamental way.

"My question asked for an assurance that the Council would not work with the government in implementing this unpopular and unnecessary scheme.  The government does not have a great track record in safeguarding personal information; that worries lots of people, as well as the cost, and the intrusion of having to keep government informed every time they move.

Cllr Borris added

"There is little or no practical benefit for young people in having the card over other current forms of ID - shops, bars and other premises just don’t have biometric scanners. Even more worrying than wasting the upfront £30 is that once on the National Identity Register, young people will not be able to get off it. They will have to keep the register up to date with their personal details for life. Not doing so could lead to a fine of up to £1000.

ENDS

1. Original story here 

ENDS

Notes to editors

    1)    It is expected that £75m will be raised from the 2010 increase in bus fares.
    2)    Comparatively, in the next financial year, the Mayor is losing approx £25m in cancelling the Western extension of the congestion charge, £2.2m in replacing three more bendy bus routes,
    3)    It has been confirmed that two thirds of the 67m drop in passenger journeys between 2009/10 and 2010/11 is directly due to fare increases (44.6m). The remaining third is due to the economic recession. According to the Mayor's Office, the new average bus fare is 69p, which amounts to lost revenue of £30.7m.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, is backing bankers on bonuses, but doing little to tackle unemployment, despite new figures showing that another 20,000 Londoners lost their jobs in in the three months to November 2009.

Johnson has backed few causes with as much vigour as that of bankers, regularly supporting their innovations and lambasting advocates of reform in speeches, press releases and newspaper columns. But behind the widely criticised bombast lies his powers as mayor of London, with which he has done little to advance a fairer, less myopic economic vision for London.

His views have never been those of a straightforward capitalist villain. Having attacked attempts to re-regulate the free wheeling City financiers in his 2008 conference speech, he urged bankers to donate their bonuses to his campaign to end rough sleeping early the following year. In his 2009 conference speech he robustly defended "leper" bankers, but just 14 days later compared bankers to "cockroaches" who evade "the nuclear blast of public disapproval".

Most explosively, he recently claimed that the tax on bonuses would see up to 9,000 bankers flee London. He must have forgotten that office rents have jumped 10.5% in the City this year alone, winced when Harvey McGrath (the chair of his economic development agency) poured cold water on his story, and regretted it all when the newspaper he writes for reported a predicted 100,000 job boost for the sector over the next 10 years.

But never mind the delivery of his bluster, what about the delivery of his policy and powers as mayor of London? Will he help shape the City and Canary Wharf so they make stable contributions towards the economy and lives of Londoners?

In his three major strategies to shape London – planning, transport and the economy – he maintains Ken Livingstone's misguided focus on finance. He plans for the provision of office space, but accepts the continued decline of manufacturing and other skilled manual jobs. He kept Crossrail for Canary Wharf, but not the Cross River Tram from Camden to Southwark. He talks up his plans for a low-carbon, diverse economy but in the main sets up gimmicks that will only deliver a fraction of London's potential.

He has lobbied the European commission and British government to stop regulations that could protect citizens from major banking failures in the future. He pushes against fair taxation policies that are less tough than in the US and the rest of the EU.

Where is his energy for proposals that would make London a fairer city? What about London Citizens' proposals for caps on interest rates, and for a tiny slice of the bailout money to be used to recapitalise local economies? Why not put out a press release attacking energy companies for failing to cough up the cash to insulate every home in London?

He could lobby the banks and the Treasury to create more investment vehicles and tax incentives that would specifically target local economic development, low-carbon industry and other useful ends.

What of his powers as mayor of London? His Economic Recovery Action Plan contains some welcome initiatives like more apprenticeships. But most of his "plans" would be happening anyway, often as a result of central government action, and his few new initiatives are far too small scale to make much of a difference. He could go much further.

For example, why not direct the London Development Agency to investigate a means to underwrite loans to small businesses, helping them to access credit where banks – under current conditions – are reluctant? Fees for the service might offset the cost of defaults. Or even borrow money to massively expand his home energy efficiency programme, giving jobless young people work insulating our homes, until the wider economy picks up? If not on the Greater London Authority budget, lobby the government to do this nationally.

London would do better with a mayor who prioritises a fair economy above the interests of a rich elite.

The alliance has sent its manifesto to all candidates announced for the next General Election and asked them to show their support for the issues raised.

Matt Sellwood said, “The Green Party has long advocated the importance of animal protection, and with the Hackney Greens I am very pleased to be able to help push this issue onto the political agenda.”

A Vote Cruelty Free spokesperson said, “Animal protection is an issue close to the UK public’s heart but this is often not reflected in current political debate. It is fantastic that Matt, Polly and all of the Hackney Green candidates have shown that they believes in animal protection issues as much as their potential future constituents in Hackney; we are calling on the candidates of all parties to follow their lead by pledging their support for Vote Cruelty Free.”

Vote Cruelty Free comprises the BUAV, Compassion in World Farming, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), League Against Cruel Sports and Respect for Animals. It covers a broad range of animal welfare issues including wild and marine animals, animal experimentation, cruel sports, the fur trade and farming.

Vote Cruelty Free is urging all candidates to pledge their support for the initiative. Voters can track candidates who have signed up by visiting the website at www.votecrueltyfree.org.

ENDS

For more information please contact Carla Owen on 020 7619 6965 or email media@votecrueltyfree.org

Other councils have already adopted non-co-operation polices in relation to the ID card scheme and the Green Party motion calls on Hackney to do adopt a similar stance, except where doing so would breach existing contracts or be unlawful. More information about the campaign against ID cards is available at www.no2id.net, which also has a report on how local councils will be affected(2).

ENDS

Notes to Editor

1. The Home Office has confirmed that it will make identity cards available to 16- to 24-year-olds in the capital early in 2010. The offices of the Identity and Passport Service near London's Victoria Station will be open for people in the specified age range to register for a voluntary identity card. *
http://www.kable.co.uk/london-young-adults-identity-cards-johnson-22dec09*
2. http://www.no2id.net/resources/councillorsBriefing.doc
3. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/684