To the surprise of Green Councillors, Labour Councillor Phil Black resigned his leadership of Lancaster City Council at the full council meeting on Wednesday 13 November 2024. He effectively ended the alliance agreement between Labour, Greens and Lib Dems who have jointly been running the Council since May 2023. 

Leader of the Green Group, Councillor Caroline Jackson said: 

“We were disappointed that Councillor Black and the Labour group should have chosen this abrupt and emotional way of ending the current administration, and announce that they have chosen to be in opposition. Cllr Black could and should have given advance notice so that a new leader could have been elected at the meeting. The effect of this action in the middle of the budget process is to halt essential work and ultimately delay decision-making. 

“Cllr Black misrepresented the perfectly civil negotiations between the Labour and Green leaders and deputy leaders in recent weeks.

“It is a fact that Labour has lost three seats and become the smaller political group. Back in May 2023, Cllr Black insisted that he should be leader of the Council because Labour had more councillors than Greens.

“Cllr Black has been unwilling or unable to negotiate with us to create a smooth transition to a Green leadership at this point, and he had not even committed to doing so in May when the current arrangement was due to end. For the record, our offer in the negotiations was to reduce Cabinet from 10 places to 9, with Greens and Labour having 4 places each but transferring the leadership to Greens, and the Lib Dems keeping one place. 

“I personally would like to commend all the members of the Liberal-Democrat, Green and Labour cross-party administration that has just been terminated. It has been hard working, co-operative, and broadly successful.”

Deputy leader of the Green Group, Gina Dowding added: 

“From the outset Labour did not follow through on the draft agreement that was created in May 2023 – in some haste – between the three political groups. One of that agreement’s underpinning principles was ‘Further details to be addressed via a working agreement.’

“Having secured the leadership, Cllr Black refused to have any further conversations to complete what was, and still is, a draft agreement. 

“We were also taken aback that nine months in he announced, without prior discussion and via email, a re-shuffle of the Cabinet places. This was despite the administration agreement establishing which portfolio areas each group would have.  Cllr Black expressly reminded us that the Council administration was a hierarchical organisation and ‘the Greens might not like that, but they better get used to it.’  He made policy announcements which did not meet our joint commitment to ‘no surprises’. 

“Despite all this, I do agree with the sentiments that Cllr Black expressed at Full Council that much has been achieved by the cross-party administration, which makes is all the more surprising that they would choose to withdraw from it. We would really like the Labour group to reconsider the position it took on Wednesday night and resume the cabinet posts it held, under Green leadership.”

Based on the respective numbers of councillors in each party, the administration had consisted of 5 Labour Cabinet members (including the leader), 4 Greens and 1 Lib Dem. Cllr Black’s announcement followed two negotiation meetings between the Greens and Labour about the way forward for the shared administration. In two recent by-elections caused by Labour City Councillors resigning from the council – in the University and Scotforth East wards – there had been significant increase in support for the Green Party, who won both seats. Labour had also lost a third councillor due to an internal group fall out.

Out of 61 Council seats, the Greens now have 23 (up from 21), Labour 21 (down from 24), while Lib Dems have 7, Conservatives 5, Morecambe Bay Independents 3, and two non-aligned Independents.

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Join us for Green Christmas Fair at the Friends Meeting House, next to Lancaster Railway Station,on Meeting House Lane, LA1 1TX on Saturday the 23rd of November.

Admission is £2, or £1 for concessions, free for children.

Locally-made crafts and gifts, tasty homemade food, live music all day, Father Christmas.

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Cllr Mills welcomed over 30 people to the event in the council chamber to celebrate the successes of the Bus Users’ Group in the ten years since she together with County Cllr Gina Dowding organised an initial meeting in response to residents’ concerns about bus provision in the district.

Mayor Abi said: “Over the last decade the Bus Users’ Group has grown as a recognised strong voice in lobbying for new, better and more joined up services in our district. It has also provided informed and comprehensive feedback to a range of public transport planning bodes about how bus services could be better provided.”

Cllr Mills publicly recognised the work of all of the members of the group but gave specific thanks to Jim Davies, a former bus services manager for a county council in the Midlands. Mr Davies had recently retired to Lancaster when the Bus Users’ Group was formed.

Abi added: “We are so lucky to have Jim’s expertise, and grateful to him for taking on the role of Chair.”

Pictured: Jim Davies and Cllr Abi Mills, cutting the 10^th Birthday cake

Jim Davies gave a presentation of more than a dozen significant achievements of the Group
which included:

• Developing a website that contains maps and timetables for every bus route in theLancaster District as well as advance information of forthcoming changes.
• Publishing two maps of bus services showing all operators’ buses in a single document.
• Securing the future of the number of bus services: the number 18 bus to Williamson Park / Moorlands / Standen Gate areas; the number 33 bus (now the 6B/6C) linking Morecambe,Branksome and Bare following a proposal to withdraw it in 2016; and the reinstatement and improvement of bus services in the Lune Valley to Kirkby Lonsdale.

Mr Davies said: “In addition to the impact we have had, the Bus Users’ group has grown its membership year on year, and we have developed good working relationships with Stagecoach and the County Council.”

Known as LBUG, with their own logo – the Group produced a Bus Service Improvement Plan for Lancaster in 2021, elements of which were adopted by Lancashire County Council in its own plan later the same year.

LBUG has since been accepted as a member of the Stakeholder Forum overseeing the implementation of the Bus Service Improvement Plan.

Margaret Colling, Heysham-based committee member, who is also a life-long bus user and member of the People’s Jury on Climate Change said: “Good bus services are essential for so many people to get to work, college, and shop. But I know from experience that for more elderly people the buses are quite simply a life-line – necessary for socialising and staying healthy.”

Cllr Gina Dowding said at the end of the event: “I want to express my thanks to all the Bus Users’ Group committee members past and present. Not only has the group been successful in practical ways – like getting improvements made to various bus stops and shelters throughout the District and getting additional bus stops on the number 11 Marsh service, it is now well-respected by Bus Operators and the County Council for its collaborative approach to strategic planning of bus services.

I am disappointed that the Chancellor in her budget this week has decided to keep the discount on the cost of driving, while giving everyone that relies on buses an increase, by raising the £2 bus fare cap to £3.”

The Bus User Group has a number of priorities over the next year including working with the city council to make improvements to Lancaster Bus Station, and working with local councillors to secure a bus service for New Quay Road residents.

The post Lancaster Bus Users’ Group Celebrates 10th Anniversary appeared first on North Lancashire Green Party.

Andrew Otway won a Lancaster City Council by-election in Scotforth East on 3 October, that had been triggered by the resignation of a Labour councillor. 

The turnout was 30.8 % and the results were:

• Andrew Robert Otway (Green Party) – 623 (57.7%) ELECTED
• Mark Andrew Jarnell (Labour Party) – 241  (22.3%)
• Timothy Wood (Conservative Party) – 148 (13.7%)
• Malcolm Martin (Liberal Democrats) 66(6.1%)

Andrew’s win confirms the Green Party as the biggest group on Lancaster City Council, with 23 out of 61 seats. Labour have 21, Liberal Democrats 7, Conservatives 5, Morecambe Bay Independents 3 and non-aligned Independents 2.

It also makes us the joint second biggest group of elected Greens in the UK, along with Mid-Suffolk who also have 23 Green Councillors. Only Bristol has an even bigger elected Green Group, with 34.

Andrew is a Scotforth resident who worked at Lancaster Central Library for 30 years before his recent retirement. He said:

“Thank you to all the voters of Scotforth East and to everyone who took the time to chat to about local issues. I have lots of ideas and casework to follow up, and am looking forward to making a difference as one of the councillors for this lovely, friendly part of Lancaster.”

You can read more about Andrew here.

Cllr Caroline Jackson, Leader of the Green Group and Deputy Leader of the Council said:

“Congratulations to Andrew – I’m delighted to welcome him to our hard-working team of Green Councillors.  I’m now looking forward to discussions with our current partners in the successful joint administration (Green, Labour and Lib Dem) about the consequences for the next two and half years.”

The post Greens confirmed as biggest group on Lancaster City Council after By-election win in Scotforth East appeared first on North Lancashire Green Party.

It is a matter of public record that the Greens unanimously voted against the proposal to enter in to the ‘Collaboration Agreement’ with Lancashire County Council in August 2021.

Two years later in June 2023 the Conservative-led Lancashire County Council itself withdrew from the £140m funding agreement with government which would have enabled the ‘South Lancaster Growth Catalyst.’

Tim said: “It is deeply concerning that residents in Scotforth East who are unfamiliar with the detail may take the Conservatives’ claim at face value. I appreciate that Tim Wood, the by-election candidate, has now discussed the content of the leaflet with me, and I asked him to publicly retract the assertion given it is a lie.  It is important that the public know that when it came to the key vote the Labour group did support the Collaboration Agreement; and the Greens did not. 

Green candidate in Scotforth East, Andrew Otway, added: “This is not the way to conduct politics. If there is no regard for truth in what candidates say in their leaflets, it chips away at faith in the whole political process. I hope that the Conservative candidate will publicly retract that falsehood.”

Photo of the Conservative election material shown below.

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A HUGE thankyou to everyone who voted Green.

Here in North Lancashire our results were:

Lancaster & Wyre:5236 votes – 12.2%
Morecambe & Lunesdale: 2089 votes – 4.3%

This was not the results we had hoped for. As always our vote was squeezed by tactical voting under the unfair first-past-the-post voting system. Even so, we tripled our vote share in Lancaster & Wyre (compared to 2019), and laid a good foundation to build on next time, and in both Constituencies the vote share was higher than 2015, our previous best.

Meanwhile, across the country the Green Party had its best ever General Election result, winning over 1.8 million votes. 

Greens polled 7.2% of the votes overall – a record high for us!

Through a very targeting campaign aiming at 4 target seats, we also won 4 new MPs who will be pushing Keir Starmer’s Labour Government to be bolder, better, and greener. Sian Berry in Brighton & Hove, Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire, Adrian Ramsay in Waveney Valley, Carla Denyer in Bristol Central. 

Meanwhile, the Greens came second in at least 40 other constituencies.

Jack said:

“Well, that wasn’t the result we were hoping for, or thought we were heading for. It’s easy to lose sight of how big an achievement our result is. And I couldn’t be happier with our incredible victories in Bristol, Herefordshire, Suffolk, Brighton, and of course our local by-election in the University ward.

I’m so grateful to everyone who has helped with our campaign, and to everyone who had the courage to vote Green. Of course, congratulations are due to Cat Smith and Labour on their victory in Lancaster and Wyre, and across the country.

With love and peace, we’ll be back. “

Gina said

“To EVERYONE in Morecambe and Lunesdale a huge THANK YOU to those who sent me an email in the last few weeks – on issues ranging from more support needed for those living with chronic illnesses.. to those desperate for a better welfare system.. or wanting to give a voice for animal welfare and the future health of our fragile planet. And many more.

I sent replies to over 200 emails and apologies if you didn’t get one – I just ran out of time. I feel your frustration with how things are, and appreciate your hopes for the future.

Congratulations to Lizzi Collinge on winning in Morecambe and Lunesdale.”

A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO … voted Green, delivered leaflets, knocked on doors, displayed posters or signboards, did some printing, stuffed envelopes, donated funds, made food or gave lifts to volunteers, liked and shared our posts on social media, endorsed our candidates, or helped on polling day!

A lot of Green Party members and volunteers have worked incredibly hard over the past few weeks, successfully scaling up our leafletting and canvassing to include Skerton, Scale Hall and several Wyre wards in addition to the many Lancaster wards where we were already very active. Just a few of our wonderful volunteers are pictured here, from polling day:

Special thanks also to the coordinating team:

Jack Lenox and Gina Dowding for being such inspirational and hard-working candidates, and dealing with an avalanche of emails and media requests.

Izzy Metcalf-Riener, our new Campaign Organiser, who had only been in post for a couple of weeks before the General Election was called, and rose to the challenge admirably! Among other things she led on volunteer coordination and internal communications, managing all our electoral data, and designing some of our election literature.

Hamish Mills, who coordinated our polling day operation.

Ceri Turner who led our external communications via social media and the NLGP website.

Caroline Montague who led on outreach to Wyre members and voters.

Emily Heath who coordinated the overall strategy, budget and team meetings and devised most of the leafletting rounds for new wards.

Anne Chapman our ever-reliable Election Agent, for getting all our legal paperwork submitted on time.

Kathryn Bancroft, Steve Hoyland, Endar Kaur, Ceri Mumford, Hamish Mills, Mollie Foxall, Sam Riches and Paul Stubbins for coordinating leafletting, and James Sommerville for transporting 70,000 leaflets and newspapers to all the coordinators.

Jon Mills (plus Tim Dant and Paul Tynan) who coordinated getting ‘Vote Green’ signboards erected in nearly 100 front gardens/yards (bringing smiles to all our supporters as they travel around!). They will now organise getting them stored for re-use in next year’s County Council elections. If you have one please keep it somewhere safe until we are able to get it from you.A HUGE thankyou to everyone who voted Green.

The post General Election Results appeared first on North Lancashire Green Party.

The composition of the Council is now Labour 23, Green 22, 7 Lib Dem, 5 Conservative, 3 Morecambe Bay Independents and 1 non-aligned Independent.

The turnout for the election was very low due to the election being held after the end of university term, when most students had gone home. This did not make it easier to campaign, in addition the campaign began in exam season, there was the protest camp ( During much of the campaign Maria was based at the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on campus and invited students to come and speak to her at any time) and the local party had a General Election campaign to run at the same time!

So – we were delighted with the campaign run by Maria, Tom, and the team at the University and the result!Maria spoke to students around campus about the improvements they would like to see, and made pledges based on  5 areas of concern she has identified around the cost of living crisis, lack of mental health services, the Palestine Solidarity encampment (a protest camp against University involvement in the arms industry), student safety and Net Zero targets. She promised to make sure the voice of Lancaster University students is heard.

Maria spoke out during the campaign about how the cost of living crisis is affecting students, saying: 

“The cost of living crisis has affected us all in one way or another. In a study of over 4500 uni students, the NUS found that 96% of students are making cutbacks because of the cost of living crisis.

“More than a quarter of these are living on less than £50 a month after paying bills and rent. The university offers many different avenues of support like the supper club, community cupboards and LUSU pantry.

These are amazing programmes that have been able to support the people struggling most, but, its just not enough. As your councillor I would be able to get involved in the cost of living group, a group responsible for assessing what students need most to help them through this extremely tricky time.”

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