What We Stand For - North Lancashire Green Party

6 KEY THEMES

1. Urgent action on the climate emergency

2. Cosy and affordable homes – in the right places!

3. Supporting local communities and vulnerable people

4. Green spaces for people, wildlife and food growing

5. Enabling small businesses, tourism and culture to thrive

6. A transport system for clean air and liveable streets

1. URGENT ACTION ON THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Green Vision

Urgent action is needed to avoid large-scale human suffering and the loss of many more species. We can only avoid catastrophic climate and ecological breakdown by leaving fossil fuels in the ground and rapidly moving towards net zero carbon emissions. Politicians, businesses and the public must work together to make the big changes that are needed – e.g. to how we travel, produce food, generate electricity, keep warm, and use precious resources. Greens argue that low-carbon living will make people happier, healthier and more secure.

Green Priorities

Continue to decarbonise the Council’s activities, while supporting people to take action in their homes, schools, workplaces and communities.

Ensure that the Council is prepared to adapt to the local and global impacts of climate breakdown – e.g. extreme weather, flooding, displacement of people and disruption to supply chains.

Localise renewable energy production, e.g. more solar and wind farms.

Get Council caterers to offer more plant-based food, and push for other local institutions and event organisers to do the same.

Improve the household recycling collection system (e.g. better containers, more materials, more education and enforcement, resume food waste collections) to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

2. COSY AND AFFORDABLE HOMES – IN THE RIGHT PLACES!

Green Vision

We want to encourage balanced communities with diverse housing types and tenures, including much more social and affordable housing, and more homes that are suitable for our ageing population.

Well-designed or retrofitted housing will minimise carbon emissions, household energy bills and illnesses caused by living cold and damp homes.

Good planning should enable most people to live no more than a 15-20 minute walk from public transport hubs, shops, workplaces and community facilities.

Green Priorities

Scale down the development plans for the countryside between Lancaster and Galgate (‘Bailrigg Garden Village’). It should be designed to meet genuine local housing needs – not a massive, car-dependent new town, whose size is determined by repaying the cost of major new road-building.

Apply the highest possible standards for sustainability of new homes (e.g. insulation, renewable energy, water efficiency, etc), and find ways to roll-out retrofitting of older homes, street-by-street.

Pursue all options available for Lancaster City Council to:

provide more social and council housing
bring long-term empty homes back into use
take action against irresponsible landlords
tackle the over-concentration of student houses in some parts of Lancaster
ensure that the Eden-led regeneration of Morecambe does notresult in local people being priced out of housing by holiday rentals and second homes.

3. SUPPORTING LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE

Green Vision

Everyone should be able to live (and eventually die) with dignity, and access social activities and excellent support services throughout their lives.

Homelessness and dependence on food banks are scandals that need to end. Nobody should have to sleep rough, choose between heating and eating, or be stigmatised by poverty, disabilities or mental ill health.

City Councillors cannot solve these deep social problems on their own, but they can make a difference – e.g. by listening to people with lived experience of social exclusion, advocating for better Government policies, and supporting the local voluntary sector to access funding and other resources.

Green Priorities

Ensure that Lancaster City Council:

Supports organisations that help people to access accommodation and other services to overcome problems that can lead to homelessness.

Supports community centres, rural parish halls and sports and arts organisations, which provide vital activities for young and older people.

Responds to the crisis in mental health, e.g. by partnering with voluntary sector organisations who are working to address this.

Stands up for refugees and asylum seekers, supporting and welcoming them to our district, in partnership with groups such as Communities Together, City of Sanctuary, Stand Up to Racism and Global Link.

Sign up to the ‘Age Friendly Community’ process to become a district where all people are able to live healthy and active later lives.

4. GREEN SPACES FOR PEOPLE, WILDLIFE AND FOOD GROWING

Green Vision

We want everyone to live within easy walking distance of at least one high-quality public green space, for relaxing, playing and growing food. Parks and other recreation spaces have positive effects on mental and physical health; investment in them will reduce strain on the NHS.

We must also halt the loss of biodiversity, including plants and insects – both for their own sake and for the services they provide (e.g. pollination of crops).

Much more fruit and veg can be grown locally, and many more people should be able to be involved in food growing (with land, time and skills to do so).

Green Priorities

Continue to improve Council-owned parks, play areas and open spaces, keeping them clean, green and safe, with space for wildlife to thrive.

Ensure that all new developments include plenty of high-quality and well-connected green spaces, including trees and wildflower areas.

Encourage more local food-growing initiatives such as allotments, urban farms, school growing plots and community gardens.

Help to set up a ‘Friends of Winchester Fields’ group in Bowerham, and other ‘Friends of’ groups to care for neglected green spaces.

5. ENABLING SMALL BUSINESSES, TOURISM AND CULTURE TO THRIVE

Green Vision

We need a fair and sustainable local economy where wealth is shared equitably, with meaningful work and opportunities for everyone.

The arts, tourism and independent shops are all strengths of our district and must be supported.

We want to see real public participation in the design of major regeneration schemes, to ensure that they are shaped by the needs of the local community, not the greed of big corporations.

Green Priorities

Support small businesses, market traders and co-operatives to create local wealth and jobs, e.g. through providing affordable spaces for them.

Develop the skills of local people to decarbonise our local economy and housing stock, in partnership with local training providers.

Continue to push for the redevelopment of the Canal Quarter to provide better facilities for arts organisations and small businesses.

Ensure that the redevelopment of Morecambe (including Eden and the former Frontierland site) benefits local small businesses and residents.

Deliver Lancaster City Council’s Culture and Heritage Strategy.

Find cost effective ways to support local museums, arts venues and visitor information services.

6. A TRANSPORT SYSTEM FOR CLEAN AIR AND LIVEABLE STREETS

Green Vision

Essential services (shops, schools, GPs, etc) should be a short walk away from where people live, reducing the need to travel. We also need to make much more efficient use of our limited road space. Everyone will benefit
from cleaner air, fewer road deaths and injuries, and more pleasant streets.

We want safe walking and cycling routes integrated with high quality, electric-powered public transport that is affordable for everyone – including free or very cheap buses. Taxis and community car-share schemes can help to reduce the amount of space taken up by parked cars.

Green Priorities

Transport is not in the direct control of Lancaster City Council, but we can exert some influence – e.g. through the planning system, management of Council-owned car parks, and liaising with the County Council (which is responsible for highways, footpaths and bus services).

Incentivise visitors to Eden Morecambe to use sustainable transport, e.g. park & ride, electric and pedal-powered taxis, priority for buses and bikes on Marine Road. Carefully manage the limited parking in town.

Keep pressuring the County Council to:

protect and improve urban and rural bus services, including frequent faster buses between Lancaster University and Morecambe/Heysham.
reduce traffic and air pollution by allocating more space to bikes and buses, including a redesign of the City Centre’s one-way system.
provide more and better cycle lanes – ideally segregated from traffic.
implement schemes to help children get to school by bike, foot or bus.
ensure that potholes are quickly repaired.