A Green Future for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire

Seven Circles

As a society we are facing linked climate, nature and inequality crises, and more and more of us are struggling from day to day simply to get by. The Green Party of England and Wales has a vision for a Green Recovery that will both promote social justice and tackle the climate and ecological emergencies1. Policies to reverse inequality, climate breakdown and shrinking biodiversity are at the very heart of our thinking, not optional elements that could be sacrificed to untrammelled growth.

For real progress, we need more Green voices in Parliament and ambitious, evidence-based policies promoting both social justice and climate justice.

2024-2025 promises to be a critical year for Cambridge. It will bring major new science and technology developments (already approved and many under construction), and a consequent rapid increase in population and house building. Extreme weather events are predicted to continue, adding pressures of flooding, water shortages and heat stress.The next stage in the development of the Greater Cambridge Local Plan may be initiated. In addition, Cambridge 2050, the new and revised version of the 2040 strategy for the region, put forward by central government without consultation, may begin to take shape. This government strategy would have a huge impact on everyone in the region; Greens will robustly challenge it and support local government bodies in scrutinising it and pointing out the lack of consideration given to water supply, transport strategy and waste water treatment2. Greens will also continue to oppose the unnecessary relocation of the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant into the Green Belt.

With the above context in mind, this manifesto focuses on what Green policies could achieve here in Cambridge and in South Cambridgeshire, as the number of Green councillors continues to rise.

We currently have four Green local councillors in Cambridge, three in Abbey ward and one in Newnham. They are working tirelessly on behalf of their residents and businesses while pushing for wider change across the City and beyond.

The City Council will hold elections on 2nd May 2024 and we are campaigning to secure more Green seats so we can become an even more powerful voice for social and environmental justice.

A General election will be called at some point in 2024, when all residents of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire will have an opportunity to cast their vote for a local Green MP candidate; all such votes will contribute much-needed funds towards the Parliamentary administrative costs of those Green MPs who are elected elsewhere in the country, thus ensuring a more powerful and effective challenge to government – whoever is in charge3.

Residents in South Cambridgeshire will have their next local elections in 2025 – when the whole of the County Council is up for election – and then in 2026, when South Cambridgeshire District Council has its elections. In the meantime, we’re aware that Council decisions made within Cambridge City have an impact on the lives of people throughout the South Cambridgeshire district surrounding the city.

As a small group within the City Council, our Green Councillors’ priority is to respond to the needs of their constituents, while campaigning to make the Council’s policies and practices as green as possible, through fair solutions that make life better for all.

Here then, is our vision for Green-led Councils:

Approved – Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire Green Party Members 28/03/24.

1 https://www.greenparty.org.uk/political-programme.html
2 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f1d8edff11704896615973/The_Case_for_Cambridge_March_2024.pdf
3 Opposition parties receive funding towards Parliamentary business according to a set formula, referred to as ‘Short Money’. See https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01663/