Welcome to the web page for South Tyneside Green Party. Members of South Tyneside Greens have long been involved in campaigns to green South Tyneside, through direct campaign actions and recently through the important local planning structures, the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Local Development Framework. Greens are opposing the possible plans by South Tyneside Council to reintroduce domestic waste incineration.
23rd May 2009
The summer South Tyneside Green Party newsletter is now out and is available for download here (pdf).
20th May 2009
"We are faced with the deepest recession in generations, with rising unemployment and cuts in public services. The Green Party offers a real alternative."
Shirley Ford, the Greens' lead Eurocandidate, was spelling out how the Green New Deal would tackle both the recession and climate change by creating jobs that would bring about a low carbon economy. more...
18th May 2009
Shirley Ford, lead Green Eurocandidate for North East England, will be among candidates from several parties at hustings organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Durham on Tuesday 19th May more...
15th April 2009
We don't think we should make too much of this but out of the twelve parties standing for the EU elections in the North East, only two have women as their lead candidates.
Ten out of the total of 35 candidates are women, with just two parties having two women candidates. Only the Green Party has women - Shirley Ford and Iris Ryder - as both first and second candidates. more...
27th April 2009
The South Tyneside branch of the Keep Metro Public group campaigned in South Shields town centre on Saturday 25th April, asking people to sign postcards to send to their local MP, local councillors and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, to demand that the Metro remains in the public's hands.
There are plans to privatise some functions of the successful Metro by allowing private consortiums to bid for work on the system, including track and train maintenance. A privatisation deal with London's Underground, known as Metronet, ended in failure and costing the taxpayer millions.
Keep Metro Public has wide public support, and is backed by several local figures including Sunderland South MP Chris Mullin, along with several European election candidates and trade unions.
South Tyneside group co-ordinator Shirley Ford said: "We have all invested in the Metro rail system, and that we don't want it sold off behind closed doors without public consultation."
Shirley, who is also standing as Green Party candidate for North East MEP in the forthcoming European elections, continued: "The Metro is the best performing small rail system in Britain. We've seen with the failure of London Underground's 'Metronet' privatisation how privatising essential services can be costly and disastrous."
"There was a fantastic response on Saturday. We're going to continue this effort right across the Metro system, to give passengers their chance to have their say on these changes."
[edit]: coverage in the Shields Gazette here.
24th April 2009
The Chronicle came back after Alastair Darling's speech - and asked Shirley Ford what she thought of the budget - and this is what she said: more...
23rd April 2009
Shirley Ford - our lead Euro candidate - was interviewed by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle on her hopes for the budget. This is what she said: more...
21st April 2009
South Tyneside Green Party has criticised Labour's plans for 'scrappage' scheme, where car purchasers may be paid by the government up to £2000 [edit] to trade in an older car for a new one.
Bryan Atkinson, the Green Party's Parliamentary candidate for Jarrow in the next General Election, has hit out at the policy as a flawed and cynical token gesture that will end up costing the taxpayer with no benefit.
"This scheme will only benefit those who can afford to buy a new car and the motor industry.
"The industry has had thirty years to clean up it's act and now the taxpayer is footing the bill to bail them out. The scrappage scheme would not create jobs, and will not help reduce the UK's CO2 emissions.
"This is giving the motor industry cash and green credibility when it deserves neither." more...
20th April 2009
NE England Green Party are calling on Alastair Darling to give the North East a ‘budget for jobs’, but specifically jobs in ‘green’ industries which will set the region and the country on course for a low carbon economy.
Shirley Ford, the Green Party lead Eurocandidate for the North East said:
"As terrible as the recession is - climate change is a bigger threat. So, we are looking for a ‘Green New Deal' which not only kick-starts the economic recovery - but sets us on the way towards a low carbon economy.
"We estimate that our proposals for a Green New Deal could create nearly 43,000 jobs in the North East."
"For a start, 3,500 jobs could be created in waste management if we started treating our waste as a resource to be used rather than something to be buried or burnt." more...
16th April 2009
As expected, list of sites announced yesterday for possible deployment by 2025 includes Hartlepool. Public consultation lasts just 1 month, and there is bound to be widespread doubt that any level of public response will change any decisions. And, the new national planning regime which will take decision making away from local communities and hand it over to the Infrastructure Planning Commission(IPC).
Shirley Ford, the Green Party lead Eurocandidate for the North East said:
"We are dismayed that concentration on nuclear power by the Labour Government will take available investment and infrastructure away from renewables. A new generation of nuclear power stations would use valuable coastal high-capacity connectors to the grid, connectors which would otherwise be used for offshore wind, wave and tidal, making it more likely that the UK will miss legal commitments on renewables for 2020.
"And, we are dismayed that the huge opportunity for jobs in renewables in the North East will be squandered, if the money goes to nuclear instead and the party will be writing to object to the proposed sites and encouraging many others to do the same. Offshore wind energy in particular has been identified by One NorthEast has having huge potential for creating jobs in the region."... more...
28th January 2009
South Tyneside Green Party member Brian Paget last week sent a response to this innacurate and misleading article in the Gazette, which claimed that:
"A CALL to expand Newcastle Airport has been given cross-party support by all South Tyneside's political groups"
The letter was published today, but is reproduced in full here as the Gazette editorial team edited the letter so severely that much of the context has been mangled:
I challenge the Gazette's inaccurate and misleading claim that "all South Tyneside's political groups" (Gazette, 19th January) support expansion at Newcastle Airport. South Tyneside Green Party would not support an irresponsible policy of encouraging growth in aviation at a time when CO2 emissions should be reduced, not actively encouraged.
Passenger growth means more flights which inevitably means more CO2 emissions, which is contrary to the claimed intentions of our government and council. An increase in flights would mean more lives blighted by aircraft noise and particulate emissions. Aviation growth is environmentally unsustainable.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Labour and the Tories kneel together before corporate self-interest and lobbyists at the expense of people and the environment. Their support for airport expansion is a startling example of economic and environmental incompetence. The casual disregard which South Tyneside councillors show towards those living under the flight path is contemptible.
Any claims that they give a stuff about climate change are the same as their aviation policy - pie in the sky.
Brian Paget
On behalf of South Tyneside Green Party
The Greens believe that solutions to regional, national and global problems start at the local level, and that can only happen when people take politics out of the politicians' hands. A healthy society is based on voluntary co-operation between empowered individuals in a democratic society, free from discrimination or prejudice.
Greens practise 'people first' policies, whilst recognising that we also depend on the diversity of the natural world for our existence. The Earth's physical resources are finite. We threaten our future if we try to live beyond those means, so we must build a sustainable society that guarantees our long-term future, for us and our children. Every person, in this and future generations, should be entitled to basic material security as of right.
Copyright © 2007-2009 South Tyneside Green Party
Promoted by Shirley Ford of 214 Mowbray Road South Shields NE33 3BE, on behalf of South Tyneside Green Party of 32 Percy Street, Jarrow, NE32 3AX.