Kirklees Elections 2019 - Newsome Campaign reflections

Councillor Sue Lee-Richards and team at the count

Obviously I'm really pleased that Sue Lee-Richards our new Green Party Candidate for Newsome Ward won big this year. She was defending Julie Stewart-Turner's seat and you always wonder how a new candidate will fare with the electorate. The  result saw our largest majority since 2000, our vote share rose to 63%. Lots of factors played in our favour. Our solid year round work and some very tangible successes were always going to play well which has seen us through 18 election wins on the trot. We were further helped by the frustration of electors with Labour and the Conservatives over the way they have handled the Brexit shambles as were Greens Independents and Lib Dems around the country.

The Labour Campaign this year was quite different  from last years. Then the Labour campaign was misleading, unpleasant and went down badly with electors. The new Labour candidate decided to focus his whole campaign on saving Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and made no mention was made of other more local issues at all. A lot of the Labour literature was unintelligible to anyone other than a committed Health Campaigner and even then it vastly overstated the influence a Council has over NHS decisions. The headline on their leaflet said "Hands of HRI" I think they meant "Hands Off HRI"

We again had the intervention in the election from the local developer who dug up the Newsome Bowling Green and said he was supporting Labour this year because he had been "victimised" by Green Councillors and me in particular. Lots I could say about this but think I'll give it a miss on this occasion.

The day before the election a large number of Green Party posterboards were removed from lamp posts overnight and taken away by persons unknown. Though Labour boards were left untouched I'm confident the Labour Party didn't remove them.

During our campaign we focused on issues of concern to local people and promoted our strong record of action in the community. Sue won BIG with our largest majority for 19 years with 2455 votes.

We never assume in elections that we will win and always contest them vigorously and were really pleased with the enthusiastic support and encouragement we received from local people.

An Interview with Sue Lee-Richards, 2019 Newsome Green Party Candidate

Sue Lee-Richards

New Laithe Hill resident and Newsome Community Forum Treasurer and volunteer Sue Lee Richards will be standing for the Green Party at the next Local Elections on Thursday May 2nd as Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner will be standing down after 17 years as a local Councillor.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I will admit that I was born in Lancashire, but I have made Yorkshire my home for the last 27 years.  I am married to Gideon and have been a teacher for 22 years and worked for a local green business based in Huddersfield. I am currently working as supply teacher on a part time basis to allow me to focus on community issues.

What do you like the best about living in Huddersfield?

I have enjoyed living here for the last 13 years. It is a really friendly place and I have made lots of good friends and feel part of the community.

I like living here because there are green spaces to walk and enjoy the views but also access to the town for eating out, entertainment and shopping.

What do we need to do to improve the local area?

Outgoing Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner with Sue

It’s all about doing the best for our community, providing better access to the town for walkers and cyclists so that people feel safer; it would also encourage people to improve their health and wellbeing along with better public transport. As well as having the added benefit of improving air quality.  Hopefully you’ll meet me on the free Green Party bus over the Christmas holiday period. I’d love to see Newsome free of fly-tipping, litter and graffiti.

I am keen to see area along our local rivers a new park area come to fruition. There are some really active organisations like River Holme Connection and Greenstreams that I will be working alongside in the coming months. Oh and World Peace and an end to pot holes!

Why do you want to be a councillor?

I think Huddersfield is a great place to live, it has real character and while it has its issues like many towns, such as empty shops on the High Street there are some potentially helpful plans in the pipeline to give the town a new lease of life.  If I become a councillor I look forward to being fully engaged in making those plans a reality. That, and of course ensuring that the community maintains effective healthcare services. We have to save Huddersfield Royal Infirmary including the vital Accident and Emergency services.

Cllrs Andrew Cooper and Karen Allison with Sue.

Why the Green Party?

The Green Party is the one that encourages its members to work for a fairer society that is more community focused. They most closely match my belief in local democracy that works with and for its residents.

What do you do when you’re not involved in the community campaigning?

In my spare time I enjoy going to the local events, gardening and reading crime fiction. I am aspiring to create a bee friendly garden, but this is still in the development stage.

2019 Green Party Election Broadcast featuring yours truly!

Select Andrew Cooper as Lead Green Candidate for Yorkshire & Humber in the 2019 European Elections

If there was an apprenticeship scheme to be an MEP then I’ve spent the last 4 years on it. In 2015 I was appointed to the EU Committee of the Regions as part of the UK’s delegation of 24 local and regionally elected representatives.  It has 350 representatives from the EU’s 28 member states and provides opinions on how EU policy impacts at the local levels. It considers many of the same issues as the European Parliament. I have directly influenced EU policy and successfully proposed that support be provided to EU states to achieve EU Climate Change targets

I was an active member of the EU Delegation to the last 4 UN Climate Talks. I proposed a new concept to address climate change by empowering Local and Regional Authorities to set their own targets with plans to achieve them. This was supported by the European Parliament and the body representing Local and Regional Government around the world. Though the UN did not accept the proposal, agreement was reached on National Governments having to consult with Local Government on their plans.

At the Peoples Vote march

Talking Brexit with Barnier

I’ve been a Green Party Councillor on Kirklees Council for 20 years and have been elected and re-elected 6 times. In my time as a Kirklees Councillor we have used our influence to initiate a £21 million scheme offering free insulation to every household. Hundreds of council tenants have solar panels as a result of a Green Party initiative and more recently we have passed a policy ensuring that any Fracking Planning Application has to demonstrate how it has ‘Net Zero impact on Climate Change’

Please support me as your Lead Candidate in the 2019 European Elections and be clear that a Green vote is a vote for a Peoples vote with the option of remaining in the EU.

Huddersfield Town Centre Regeneration - Ideas from Bilbao

I was lucky enough to be in Bilbao, Spain this week I was speaking at a conference on Sustainable Development but had 24 hours to explore this fascinating city. One of the things that struck me again and again was how some of the things that make Bilbao special could be applied to Huddersfield.

Bilbao has had the major attraction of the Guggenheim Art Gallery for over 20 years. It is an absolutely amazing modern building that has been a big feature of the regeneration story of Bilbao. I won't feature pictures of the Guggenheim here but feel free to tap on the link to see it. I want to focus instead on some of the features in the streetscape that adds to the experience of people visiting the city.


Street art and sculpture is a big feature. There is
usually something to look at to delight the eye. A statue, a large mural or an eye catching art installation. I've seen it as a feature in many European Countries. I remember a 30 foot tall Pinnochio on a roundabout in Sweden which was hard to miss. Street art makes a visit to a town or City Centre a cultural experience not just a shopping one. It gives a place character and though some installations may not to be everyones taste they can't be ignored. It wasn't just on the main streets but also in the back streets where you would see a mural bringing an otherwise boring wall to life.

Another thing I noticed was the number of play areas in the city centre, At a number of budget meetings at Kirklees we have proposed a play area outside Huddersfield Bus Station and it has always been turned down. One Councillor even suggested that we were proposing to make the whole of the Town Centre into a play area. We weren't but what a great idea! The point is that it makes a place family friendly. It is more than just a space where people go to shop it is a place where there is something for people of all ages to enjoy.

Drinking fountains are everywhere but not just boring functional ones but ornate ones and ones like a lions head. People can be

refreshed for free. In this part of Spain you can definitely drink the water!

There are a lot of trees and greenery about the place adding to the quality of the place. Even the tram lines went across a lawned area (they do this in Manchester too).

So I hope some bold and risky ideas are coming out of the Huddersfield Town Centre Masterplanning process that are challenging and broaden the offer to people. One test may be to see if they are initially controversial enough to create opposition. Can you imagine proposing a 20 foot spider statue on New Street? Scroll down for more pics

Kirklees Locan Plan - Extraordinary Council Meeting - Cllr Andrew Cooper Green Group Leader speech

Councillors Cooper, Allison and Stewart-Turner examine the Local Plan

Many years ago, shortly after primordial life fell gasping onto the shores of the virgin earth Kirklees began the Local Plan process. Of course it wasn't known as the Local Plan back then. It was known as the Local Development Framework. Looking back at the documents, in the original Latin, you realise how naive we were back in those more innocent times. We somehow believed that we had control of our own destiny, that we could decide the numbers of housing that we felt comfortable with and just tell the Government in Londoinium where we were prepared to allocate for development and no more. I remember well how our now Chief Executive used all her persuasive skills on the bloke from the Planning Inspectorate to accept our housing offering. It was to no avail and under the pretext of failing to consult with neighbouring authorities, to which there was no guidance on how to do so, we were told to go back to the drawing board and start again and so we began the Local Plan process.


For us as Newsome Ward Councillors we have had some real successes. The land below Castle Hill at New Laithe Hill has been added to the Green Belt protecting the aspect of Huddersfield's most iconic feature, the back gardens of householders at Taylor Hill Road that the Council had allocated for development in a draft of the Local Plan were dropped and Highfields Community Orchard, a source of some disagreement between myself and the former Council Leader Mehboob Khan, was allocated Urban Greenspace status. We have also been keen to promote development where appropriate, at the Newsome Mill site for example. There are still areas where we disagree with development  both in the ward we represent and in other parts of Kirklees and the housing numbers indicated in the plan far exceed what has ever been built in past years. Government has set the rules of the game and we have to provide housing on sites we wouldn't wish to develop. So I'm sure the Tories will refer to this as Labour's Local Plan but really its Labour's Local Plan using rules provided for it by the then Lib Dem/Conservative Government.

This is a plan that does not really address housing need. It will not provide the secure, social rented homes so many people need. When I hear people talk about the local plan as a way of addressing homelessness or giving people on low income a home, this plan falls short. Developers make money on 3 or 4 bedroom properties for owner occupation. Developers donate millions to the Conservative Party. This plan and every other plan around the country is for developers not for the people of Kirklees and its needs.


In this plan we are pleased that our amendment, that ensures that any fracking company would have to demonstrate how it has net zero impact on climate change has been adopted in the plan. Now I know Councillor Donald Firth will say that you can't do Fracking in Kirklees due to the extent of the Bowland shale but there are some places (in former coal mining areas) where unconventional gas extraction such as fracking and coal bed methane extraction are still possible so we still need a policy to protect ourselves from fracking and other forms of fossil fuel extraction. We should be proud this policy has national significance and sets a useful precedent for other Councils and is consistent with our Declaration of a Climate Emergency.

So what to do. I'm genuinely conflicted and because we don't operate a Party Whip I'm free to be conflicted. Nethertheless its a dilemma.

We need a Local Plan. If we don't have one then rapacious developers will have free rein  to build where they will. There will be limited protection for all green spaces without a designation like green belt

In many ways this is not our choice the rules of the game were set in the National Planning Policy Framework. Thanks to the Coalition Government. Thanks former Lib Dem MP Andrew Stunnell in the a Minister in DCLG.  As a result many areas which should not be developed on because they are valued green space are in this plan.

We don't have the ability or freedom to produce a plan that we want and the Conservatives and the Lib Dems would be in exactly the same position as the Labour Party is now if they were running the Council. It is important to be honest about that.

So what next. Once the Plan is adopted we have the opportunity to introduce Supplementary Planning Guidance to set our own energy efficiency standards in new build properties. It should be where feasible to Passivhaus standards not simply because it will reduce carbon emissions, or even because householders will have energy bills 75% less than a standard new build but because of the high standard of building delivered through a quality assurance process. Sadly we would not be the first Council to be pushing strongly on the Passivhaus standard. We need to catch up.

So we have reached the end of a 10 year + epoch with the Kirklees Local Plan. I get the feeling that we are reaching the end of a number of epochs. Brexit, the Local Plan, the end of another Municipal Year. We need to recognise that things are in flux and that opportunities to shape the future are in our hands if we choose to take those opportunities.

Lets be bold, lets be positive, lets ensure that homes are built to the very best energy efficiency standards in Kirklees over the next 15 years. Let's show the rest of the country how things could be.

Crowdfunder - Help Huddersfield Greens win in Newsome Ward again in 2019