North Herefordshire Green Party is in the process of selecting a candidate to fight the next General Election and at the time of going to press, one nomination had come forward. The ballot will take place over the next few weeks, and there will be a chance to meet and question the prospective candidate, Ellie Chowns, at the next Leominster Branch meeting in October.
We held our AGM in September and new officers were elected: Chair/coordinator – Felicity Norman; Treasurer – Peter Ellis; Elections Officer – Jenny Bartlett; Minute Secretary – Ellie Chowns; Media – Pete Blench; Other committee members elected were Roger Pugh, Anne Adams, Charlotte Millward and Rosie Winn. We are very grateful to outgoing Chair, Peter Ellis, and other officers standing down, for all the effort they have put in over the past year.
It was agreed formally to change our name to North Herefordshire Green Party, in line with the constituency name, and we will meet quarterly, ideally in different parts of the constituency. The Leominster Branch will continue to meet during the intervening months, and is in the process of putting out the latest edition of our town newsletter. We will also continue to keep in touch with South Herefordshire Green Party, especially over County and other shared matters.
Our County and town councillors continue to push for greener ways of working, to scrutinise council business and oppose the worst of the conservative initiatives, inappropriate road schemes, including the southern link road blighting our beautiful countryside and devastating ancient woodland, while neglecting measures that would make a difference , better public transport and enabling cycling and walking; while they fail to seriously address the excessive phosphates in our rivers, the risk of fracking, and the many risks to tourism in our county ( a major contributor to our economy), among other concerns. We are very sorry to have lost our youngest Leominster town councillor, Andy Gibson who has moved to work in Leeds. Good luck, Andy and our thanks to you, and all our councillors.