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I will work hard all year round for Pilton and Yeo Valley and the wider town. Howard Porter for barnstaple town council

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The Green Party had a disappointing result in Torridge as Reform UK took the Bideford East seat on Devon County Council.

However, wins elsewhere in Devon mean the Greens have gone from two county councillors to now having six – and could hold the balance of power as no other party has a majority.

The Greens had hoped to win in Bideford East but came third, just 17 votes behind the Conservatives.

Party activists also said they’d been cheered by the support they received on doorsteps when canvassing for candidate Huw Thomas, who is already a councillor on Torridge District Council.

Reform won in Bideford East with 1,117 votes, with the Tories on 637 and the Greens on 620. 

Reflecting on the results, Huw said: “The Green Party is now the clear choice for voters who are turned off by the divisive, backward-looking policies of Reform and the Tories, and who want a better future for people and the planet. The fight-back starts here.”

He added: “Other parties tried to use this election as a re-run of last year’s general election, but Greens kept the focus on Bideford and north Devon, and on the things a county councillor can actually do. People rightly don’t trust politicians who promise what they can’t deliver.”

One of Councillor Thomas’s main election pledges was to be a strong voice for the area ahead of the Westminster government’s planned reorganisation of local government in England.

“Labour want to sweep away existing district and county councils and would leave northern Devon run from Exeter by a new unitary authority responsible for half a million people,” he said. “But it’s not too late to argue against that. We need to fight to make sure Bideford and Torridge aren’t forgotten about.

“We also need to turn the microscope on Reform. Their candidate never said what he’d do if elected. Let’s find out what they’re going to do for the people of Bideford East and other parts of Devon. Will they make a difference or just continue to blame others?”

The post The fight-back starts here appeared first on Torridge Green Party.

• Action against climate change
• Public ownership and control of essential services
• Building partnerships with community groups.

Many public services save money by reducing social and
health problems. If you want a fairer, more equal society
that puts people and planet first.

VOTE FOR THE GREEN PARTY

District council by-Election 17th April

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Green councillors from across Devon have written an open letter to our council leaders and MPs calling for them to pull together or see the county divided up by Whitehall:

OPEN LETTER

Government has made it very clear that the local government reorganisation in Devon is inevitable, and we intend to engage with this in a positive way to ensure the needs of our communities and environment come first.

We are deeply concerned that conflicting plans are being developed behind numerous closed doors, each rushing to meet the Government’s March deadline for initial proposals. The breakdown of previous cooperation between the current Local Authorities in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay and the proposals for ‘mega councils’ is a recipe for disaster and risks spending too much of our Councils’ precious funds on consultants, while our communities are facing rising council tax bills and being kept in the dark about the future of Council services.

The Government has set a minimum figure of 500,000 people for each new local authority. We are concerned this number is not justified by evidence nor does it recognise the challenges of delivering good and financially viable services over large geographical areas such as Devon. With over a decade of austerity and significant debts our Councils are already on the back foot – something which, with the best will in the world, reorganisation won’t be able to fix.

We believe we should keep services local and reorganisation simple, rather than spending huge amounts of money on complicated reorganisation arrangements. We ask you to ensure that the ‘local’ remains in Local Authorities. We want to ensure our communities, voluntary and community organisations and businesses can be connected to local democracy and decisions taken by local Councillors who understand their communities and local environment. Decisions should be taken at the lowest level of decision-making possible – a mega Council for Devon or vast Unitary Authorities will be detached from reality and the residents they represent.

This means a real recognition of the vital role of Parish and Town Councils, involving them now in these negotiations. All proposals should include clear commitments for their development (including establishing them where there are none, e.g. Exeter) and ongoing support and relationship with the new authorities. Parish, Town and Community councils can work closely alongside our residents, and voluntary and business sectors to ensure effective delivery of services and support for local initiatives.

We ask Leaders that you put differences aside to go back again to learn from current cooperation and use this as a model for future operations across authorities. For example South Hams, West Devon have already been successfully delivering shared services; Strata, joint company is owned by and delivers IT services for Exeter, East Devon & Teignbridge; and Torridge and North Devon have a joint Local Plan and joint Building Control Service. Smaller unitary authorities across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay will still have the opportunity to work in this way. Models can be developed to set standards for services across authorities and enable local councils to deliver effectively.

We call on you to develop proposals which truthfully set out to Government the funding required to deliver for our communities and environment – recognising the ‘rural premium’, the urgent need for more investment in adult social care and childrens’ services and the current debts our Councils hold. We recognise that the digital delivery of services will create considerable savings and these can work well at scale; however there are still important services from adult social care to waste & recycling collections that need proper investment in people on the ground. Those funds cannot come from our communities, some of which are on low incomes, others experiencing rural or urban deprivation and more and more living precariously as a result of cost of living pressures.

Last but not least – we ask that you be open with our communities about what’s happening with these changes, the impact they might have and engage them in a meaningful way in the plans for our future. We need to build confidence, so that on the first day of operation of the unitaries, our communities relate to the place and value the people who look to serve in these new authorities on our behalf.

Reorganisation needs to promote an economic model across Devon which is built on resilience – strengthening local economies by investing in our market and coastal towns. Continuing to rely on a perception of Exeter and Plymouth as the only ‘engines of growth’ will continue to suck the economic life out of our rural and coastal areas and not tackle areas of urban deprivation.

The leaked ‘1-5-4 model’ (Plymouth plus some of the South Hams; Torbay plus West Devon, Teignbridge, the rest of South Hams; Exeter and East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon and Torridge) has only 3 unitary authorities – too few to create meaningful authorities connected to our local people. A model of fewer than six unitary authorities across Devon, Torbay and Plymouth would fail to provide the much needed democratic accountability to local areas.

Please pull together so that we are not divided up by Whitehall.

Signed

Cllr Diana Moore, Exeter City Council

Cllr Jane Elliott, West Devon District Council

Cllr Anna Presswell, South Hams District Council,

Cllr Georgina Allen, South Hams District Council,

Cllr Sara Wilson, North Devon District Council

Cllr Ricky Knight North Devon District Council

Cllr Mark Haworth-Booth, North Devon Council

Cllr Gill Westcott, Mid Devon District Council

Cllr Carol Bennett, Exeter City Council

Cllr Tess Read, Exeter City Council

Cllr James Banyard, Exeter City Council

Cllr Catherine Rees, Exeter City Council

Cllr Lynn Wetenhall, Exeter City Council

Cllr Paula Fernley, East Devon District Council

Cllr Huw Thomas, Torridge District Council

Cllr Peter Hames, Torridge District Council

Cllr Henry Gent, Devon County Council

Cllr Lauren McLay, Plymouth City Council

Cllr Ian Poyser, Plymouth City Council

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson, Devon County Council

Cllr Andy Ketchin Exeter City Council

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We know that Reform’s policies are rooted in racism and the scapegoating of migrants. But the party is fast gaining support beyond its traditional far-right base, with voters often citing the failure of Labour and the Conservatives to improve living standards for them and their families. To quote from a recent post on the Facebook page of Reform UK Torridge & Tavistock: “I’m not a silly old sod rightwing extremist! Just a worried dad and granddad, hoping that Reform UK will get the chance to put right the car crash this country has become.”

In reality, of course, Reform would govern solely in the interests of its billionaire, Trump-supporting backers, slashing not only the corporate taxes that fund public services but also the regulations intended to protect workers and the environment. On climate, the party has pledged to scrap net zero targets and end subsidies to the renewables industry, which it claims is “ripping off” taxpayers. The effect of this would be to make energy bills soar for households and businesses in a Britain ever more reliant on expensive – and planet-devastating – oil and gas imports.

A Reform government is not some hypothetical nightmare. Our first-past-the-post voting system can deliver a majority government with a minority of votes, as we now see in Parliament, where Labour has a majority of 174 after winning only 33.8% of the overall vote. 

So how should we as Greens navigate this seemingly bleak political landscape? That’s the question discussed by Caroline Lucas and Rupert Read in an article recently published in the New Statesman, in which they call for “a common-sense platform of climate populism” – putting the focus on protecting communities against climate catastrophe and helping people to understand the practical benefits of taking action for themselves and their families.  As Lucas and Read note: “There is no adequate way forward on climate without consensus. While today’s populists have made progress by fomenting polarisation, a successful climate popularism must behave differently. If we turn [climate change] adaptation into another culture war, then we guarantee that the climate question remains insoluble.”

The post The new politics: a Green response to the rise of the far right appeared first on Torridge Green Party.

Quite rightly, this has got large numbers of people highly alarmed, especially as ministers are also proposing to scrap district councils in a shake-up of local government, meaning decisions affecting our area could be made by a new unitary authority miles away in Exeter.

There are three particular concerns. One is the rate at which green fields are being gobbled up by new homes. Two is a fear that most of these houses won’t be affordable for locals. Three is that our existing infrastructure – roads, health services, schools, sewers etc – can’t cope as it is.

Councils cannot turn down planning applications based on these concerns. When an application comes before a council, the presumption is it will be approved unless there are grounds to refuse it. Legally, those grounds do not include potholes in the local roads, overloaded sewers or a lack of dentists.

And if councils turn down planning applications for the wrong reasons, developers can take them to court. If councils lose, they (i.e. the council tax payers) have to fork out for all the legal costs.

Even before last year’s General Election, Torridge and North Devon were obliged to allocate land for hundreds of new houses. If they hadn’t, it would have been even easier for developers to build wherever they wanted.
Now, the Labour government has increased those housing targets. Figures from the BBC show that over the next few years, Torridge is going to have to allocate space for 526 new houses per year (up from 306). North Devon’s target is 806 (up from 522).

It’s a crazy system. I agree we probably need new houses. But they should meet local needs and be affordable for local people. Building houses for the sake of meeting arbitrary targets might keep big developers happy but it won’t solve any of our problems. We need to tackle infrastructure first. We need to stop ripping up our countryside. We need homes that are affordable on the average (low) wages being paid in northern Devon.

And, crucially, we need to build homes that are future-proofed against climate change and that people can afford to run.

The post Green Party Cllr Huw Thomas (East-the-Water) on the housing crisis in Torridge appeared first on Torridge Green Party.

Abolishing one tier of local government, as Westminster is seeking to do, may present opportunities to simplify and to improve efficiency. However, if streamlining is done merely to reduce costs, it will not lead to better services. In fact, services are likely to get worse, particularly in areas of lower population density.

Elected mayors may increase engagement in urban areas with a distinct identity but will have little impact in large, predominantly rural areas where public transport is minimal and many communities are well over an hour’s drive from the centre of decision-making. Exeter is as far from parts of north Devon as London is from Cambridge.

The current Government has a large majority of parliamentary seats but was elected with only 33.7% of the votes cast (from a turnout of 59.7%). Reorganising local government was not included in its election manifesto; Labour does not have a specific mandate. There are many more important issues – not least climate change but also housing and social care – that should be addressed first.

For the above reasons, Torridge Green Party believes that:

1. Removing one tier of councils will not automatically improve democracy, accountability or public engagement in decision-making.

2. If any reorganisation is to take place, it should only happen following extensive consultation. We suggest a minimum period of two years.

3. The county council elections scheduled for 2025 must go ahead as planned to help provide a democratic mandate for any decisions on the future of the county.

4. Any proposals should include merging Torridge and North Devon councils, recognising the distinct identity, existing economic relationships, socio-economic problems and infrastructure challenges faced by this area.

5. If reorganisation is imposed and district councils are abolished, safeguards to protect all communities must be built into any new system and resources allocated by need, not simply population numbers. For example, local levels of deprivation, educational achievement and average pay should be used to create a funding formula so that areas remote from decision-making hubs do not continue to deteriorate.

6. Elections for any new local authorities should be carried out under a system of proportional representation to increase public engagement and ensure a truly democratic mandate.

The post English devolution and Labour’s planned reform of local government  appeared first on Torridge Green Party.

Torridge Green Party welcomes the thoughtful discussion that followed when the proposal was put to a meeting of the council’s community and resources committee. Nonetheless we are disappointed at levels of hostility among some councillors present, one of whom claimed that to go ahead with the plan would suggest “that we [the council] stand against our entire countryside and the economic activity … relating to it”. Another said they were fed up with all the talk about carbon emissions.

Our Green Party councillors, in common with other members of the council’s climate working group, support small meat and dairy farmers in Torridge and recognise the challenges they face at a time of unprecedented upheaval for farming. We know that many are working hard to produce food in a more sustainable way, and the Green Party in its 2024 manifesto called for significant increases in financial support – including for meat and dairy farms – to speed up the transition to low-carbon and nature-friendly farming.

At the same time, meat and dairy production on an industrial scale, not just nationally but worldwide, is a major source of carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. The government’s official Committee on Climate Change has called for a reduction in meat and dairy consumption by at least 20% to help meet the UK’s legally binding target of net zero by 2050.

The climate crisis is already disrupting food production in Britain, and threatening the future of small farms, with farmers in Devon this year battling some of the wettest February/March weather on record.

It is against this background that Torridge district council was asked to consider a modest change to its catering as a way of opening up discussion of the climate and biodiversity issues around livestock farming. Along with the rest of Britain, Torridge cannot ignore global changes, and the children of today’s farmers will not thank us for doing nothing when faced with clear evidence of human-induced climate breakdown.

The post Our position on food, farming and climate breakdown. appeared first on Torridge Green Party.

Judy is current Coordinator of West Devon Green Party. She lives in Bere Alston in the Tamar Valley where she serves on Bere Ferrers Parish Council. She has been a member of the Green Party for more than 40 years, serving on its governing bodies.

Judy says: “I’m delighted to have been selected to represent the Green Party at the next general election. With the natural world in such a precarious situation the Green Party’s policies have never been more vital. Whether it’s concern for a much-loved variety of butterfly or extreme weather events, we’re all affected by climate change and its impact on communities.

“Meanwhile, the rising cost of living and housing shortages are all the result of poor choices made by successive governments over many years. We need to make better choices that enable us all to live fulfilled lives in harmony with each other and with nature. I am convinced that only the Green Party offers those choices”.

Torridge and Tavistock is just one of 22 constituencies in the South West region that has chosen a Green candidate for the next General Election. This means around 1.5 million more people in the area will have the opportunity to vote Green in 2024.

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