A blog by Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper about Green Politics, action on Climate Change, Kirklees Council and our activity to improve the local and global environment (and also anything that I fancy talking about)
Promoted and published by A Cooper, 76 Brockholes Lane, Holmfirth HD9 7EB
At a Kirklees Council Event I attended last week tincluded in the refreshments were bottled water, single use plastic glasses, disposable paper coffee cups, single use plastic tea spoons and little single serving plastic milk cartons. Nobody was setting fire to tyres in the meeting so it wasn't a complete environmental disaster! The Council really do need to be getting the basics right on single use plastic but sadly we are not. When I asked the Kirklees Cabinet Member Councillor Naheed Mather a question about how Kirklees might address the issue of single use plastic at a recent Council meeting she talked vaguely about the possibility of influencing the use of single use plastics by Take Aways using licensing conditions. If this is possible it would be welcome but when Kirklees hasn't got its own house in order it is very difficult to ask anyone else to.improve their green credentials. The Council needs to 'walk the walk' on cutting back on plastic waste and needs to start providing tap water for events. So far all we have had is talk and no action at all. So what would an alternative to the refreshment arrangements at Kirklees meetings look like? We could have polycarbonate plastic cups which are reusable and aren't a danger if dropped like glass. Reusable mugs and metal teaspoons could be used. Using milk from milk bottles which are still being used would be a positive move. Tap water could be provided in jugs or in reusable bottles like many organisations already do. Doing the right thing is not rocket science it just requires the right choice to be made and a decision to be taken. And here from 1980 (the dawn of time) is Buggles and The Plastic Age
What have the last 4 years been like as a Kirklees Councillor?
Busy, non stop, varied and lots and lots of issues and
problems to deal with on a daily basis. It’s everything from reporting potholes,
planning issues, trying to ensure the Council has robust child protection
policies and lots more besides. It’s all about dealing with day to day local
community matters. It's great being part of a great team. Myself and the other
Green Councillors Andrew Cooper and Julie Stewart-Turner are all different
characters but we work together really well and each have our projects and
issues that we lead on.
Cllrs Andrew Cooper & Karen Allison with the New Years Day Bus
What’s frustrating about being a local Councillor?
We’re not able to solve everything and some things take longer than
you would like to solve. Top of the list has to be Newsome Mill. It is
privately owned with an overseas owner. We’re in touch with the agent acting on
his behalf and we are trying to work with a variety of agencies seeking to get
some movement but it is painfully slow.
What are the most common issues people bring to you?
Potholes and dumped rubbish. My mobile phone isn’t full of
family snaps it is all broken roads and
old fridges/sofas etc. Checking to make
sure you direct the Council to the right place is essential. We also gather
evidence and try to get flytippers prosecuted.
What is different about being a Green Councillor?
We don’t have party bosses or ‘Whips’ telling us how to
vote. Most of the time the Green Councillors vote the same way but we are free
to vote differently if we wish.Ultimately people are voting for an individual to represent them and I’d
like to think people know my views won’t be overruled by someone higher up in a
Party machine.
The other thing that is different about us is that we get ‘stuck in’
with community activities. We aren’t all about sitting in meetings. Our New
Year’s Day bus service, our clean ups, cleaning Village signs are all examples
of us not just talking about local problems but actually doing something about
them.Our support for community activity
is very practical and you’re likely to see one of us washing up or putting
tables and chairs away. When it comes to working in the community Green
Councillors walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
What do you do when you’re not ‘on duty’ as a Councillor?
I’m married with two ‘grown up’ children which keeps me
grounded. I’m also involved with local theatre companies helping with costumes
as a volunteer. I’m not a total ‘Councillorbot’7 days a week.
A proposal was due to be submitted to the Kirklees Labour Cabinet for their meeting on the 20th of March to put forward a number of sites for potential housing development across Kirklees.
These sites included the land between Mansion Gardens and Blue Bell Hill in Taylor Hill and the former Stile Common School site at Primrose Hill. They have referred to this as ‘soft market testing’.
Following representations by Green Councillors the item has been withdrawn and will be deferred to a future Cabinet meeting. probably after the Local Elections in May.
Councillor Karen Allison said “The land off Mansion Gardens is a valued amenity space and we opposed its inclusion in the Local Plan and so we opposed it being put forward for potential development now.”
Councillor Andrew Cooper has previously liaised with residents at Malvern Rise and Plane Street over the future of the Stile Common School site. He said, “ I am quite clear that we had an agreement with Kirklees that no further action would occur before there had been consultation with residents over any proposals.
“I would include this ‘soft market testing exercise’ in that agreement. We will continue to keep a close eye on this issue”.
Green Councillors have submitted their objections to the proposals and will keep local people informed of developments.
How we handled differences of opinion before elections
We don't have Civil Wars in the UK anymore and neither do we have Robber Barons exerting their will over the populace through terror. Instead of all that we will be having Local Elections in May. So though we have a 'sort of' democratic alternative to war and bloodshed that isn't to say that feelings still don't run high during these local contests. It can all get pretty tribal and sometimes just a bit petty. The dodgy graphs, the dubious 'polls', the gamesmanship on the doorstep all plays its part in raising the tensions. In the last Local Elections my principal opponent was telling people on the doorstep that I had 'given up' in the election which certainly raised my hackles. When I confronted this with him he said to me " You have given up I can see the defeat in your eyes". I gave him what I felt was an appropriate response but I have to confess it wasn't really but it did feel right at the time. I behaved better towards him at the Count and didn't say the things I could have said.
So we are now entering 'Election Fever' time when perspectives can become distorted and wnen some regard winning as the objective and how they get there of secondary importance. Political parties I guess are like human beings as a whole. From our viewpoint we are the heroes of our own tales. Our mistakes are understandable and are excusable to us but our opponents errors are heinous crimes. This is the way it is in the world of Political Tribalism.
So far for me its been pretty tame stuff. An overenthusiastic opposition Tweeter who thinks that sending me pictures of dumped fridges and assorted rubbish is some sort of reflection of how good or not I and my colleagues are at doing our jobs. A Councillor who thinks me missing my train to the HRI trip to Westminister due to snowy weather is some sort of failing by me as opposed to just bad luck and implies as such on social media. Annoying? Yes. Petty? Certainly but all pretty minor stuff really so far.
So any conclusions? I guess keeping a cool head over the next few weeks. Do the work that is necessary, enjoy the contest and try to exhibit wisdom and dignity at all times. Unlike last time!
Green Party Cllr Karen Allison with a fridge reported for collection on Edale Avenue, Newsome
Green Councillor Karen Allison has come up with a simple initiative to place 'Reported' stickers on large dumped items such as fridges, sofas and mattresses to let people know it has been reported for collection.
Councillor Karen Allison said
"We report a good number of bulky items of waste left by the
kerbside, in verges and in the undergrowth to Kirklees. These are reported to us by
residents or we see them ourselves as we are going around the area. Due to cuts the Council can take a long time to respond quickly to the many requests we make to have these items removed so people can naturally report the same
item a number of times which can cause duplication and confusion. If people see these stickers they will know that it has been reported for collection even if it takes a bit longer than we would all like. If this inititaive in the Newsome Ward is successful we will try to get it adopted more widely across Kirklees hopefully saving time and money."
The stickers have been produced by the Green Party at no public expense.
There's a picture of me that I quite like taken by my friend Gideon Richards from a couple of years ago. I am speaking at an early Hands Off HRI Rally in Huddersfield Town Centre. Yours truly is addressing the crowd, microphones in hand with the Harold Wilson statue in the background. I have to confess however that the photo has been doctored /photoshopped. Like so many photos of me in the original a shirt flap is hanging out. Somehow or other for years and years belts haven't really worked for me. Too tight, too loose. Either shirt hanging out or the unintentional, and I'm sure unappealing, half moony that occurs from time to time. This was just an occupational hazard of being me.
A few months ago I went to a friends 50th birthday party and the dress code was 'Northern Soul'. A bit of research revealed that one way you could achieve 'the look' was by wearing braces which I duly did. Since then I have started wearing them as standard which has been a bit of a revelation in terms of keeping my trousers up and obviously so much so that I have thought it worthy of a blogpost (my blog description does include the words 'and anything else I fancy talking about'.).
Leo Sayer - braces wearer
Its been suggested to me that braces are 'a bitTory'. I guess the thinking behind that is all those City traders in their red braces who busily mucked up the economy for us all. For me I always think of my Grandad, who was a South Yorkshire miner who on occasions wore braces. So maybe braces are classless, maybe we can all wear them and have our own take.
Here's Madness with 'Our House' where some people are wearing braces
Dodging Police with Gaby Naptali at Kirby Misperton
I'm not going to Green Party Spring Conference in Bournemouth this year. The truth is I'm too busy really and I need to be concentrating on local things. I could say however that I'm not going because I'm too embarassed at not having been arrested yet as there are so many Greens who have. Most famously our own Caroline Lucas MP was arrested at Balcombe on a Fracking protest or more recently Green Cllr Alison Teal was arrested and later acquitted for one of her tree protests in Sheffield or what about Green Baroness Jenny Jones who was identified as a 'domestic extremist' by the Metropolitan Police. All women as it happens.
The front line of Non Violent Direct Action at the moment are the Fracking sites around the country. And today's Suffragettes are the Anti Fracking Nannas like Tina Rothery and some of us blokes who turn up as well. At Kirby Misperton Fracking Site I've been jostled and kettled by North Yorkshire Police but not actually arrested yet. Of course there are risks in getting arrested you could be found guilty and fined or even imprisoned but then that's all part of what you sign up for as a 'Protector'. Protectors is a much more positive term than 'Protestor'. Protectors are seeking to protect our environment they are acting for a better world as well as protesting against the threat to it.
I continued talking over the megaphone as we were pushed away by the Police from the entrance to the Fracking Site to allow the HGVs carrying equipment to gain access. We slowed things up a bit, the Police and ourselves were engaged in the usual game of cat and mouse at the entrance. Chatting with the Police you can tell they don't really want to be there. They have had some Public Relations disasters at Kirby Misperton most famously in harrassing a the 'Tea lady' pensioner in a video that went viral right round the world. Now we hear that some Fracking equipment is being removed from the site as costs for Policing continue to mount and the future of Fracking at the site is beginning to be in doubt. Victory may be in sight.
It is in this context that this week as a nation we have been noting the Centenary of the moment some women first got the vote in our country. We are celebrating the actions of law breakers, women who were persecuted, demonised by the press, imprisoned and force fed by the state. It is in that context that todays anti fracking protestors should be viewed.
So where is the new front line of Non Violent Direct Action? It could be back to the voting system. For years majority Governments have been elected by a minority of voters in the UK. Millions of peoples votes are effectively disregarded by the electoral system. It suits the larger parties but is archaic and most European countries have abandoned this bizarre unfair voting system in favour of some form of Proportional Representation. Arguments against it are often bogus and self serving and make our claim to be the mother of democracies very hollow indeed. It was in that context that 410 people around the country had a 24 hour fast this week (including yours truly) for fair votes to 'Make votes matter'. Some participants called it a 'hunger strike' which I felt was inappropriate given the real hunger strikes that suffragettes held at considerable risk. Given the way the campaign for fair votes has been ridiculed by the powerful people and parties who benefit from the status quo then I can't see the electoral system being changed anytime soon.
The 24 hour fast was a first step. We need to up the anti if we are to ensure that democracy means anything to the millions of voters it ignores. Anyone fancy handcuffing themselves to First Past the Post Fan Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn or our own Barry Sheerman MP?
