Herefordshire Green Party focus on social and environmental justice, policies that improve the environment and wellbeing for everyone, and of course electing councillors that can make this happen!

Get in touch to be part of a team that works for change across Herefordshire, and makes sure we’re always well fed too 🙂

Pictured – some of the core team of the local Green Party.

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If you’re interested in helping out with local campaigns around buses – or campaigns in your area – please get in touch.

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Ellie is calling for:

• Regular preventive drain clearance and repair
• All new housing and infrastructure to take flood risk into account
• Greater investment in natural flood management.

Tackling river pollution is also one of Ellie’s key priorities. She has raised the issue repeatedly in Parliament, and has set up a new ‘All Party Parliamentary Group on Water Pollution’, which has 58 members already, to coordinate cross-party work on the issue.

Key issues for Ellie include:

• Amending the Water (Special Measures) Bill
• Pressing for the Water Commission to address agricultural pollution
• Continuing the campaign for a Water Protection Zone for the River Wye.

“Climate change is making flooding worse, increasing frequency and severity. We need government support for those affected – and we need investment to reduce the impact of future flooding.“

More of Ellie’s updates here

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Many farmers are already operating on tight margins, and without a comprehensive strategy to address market challenges, such as supermarket power and fluctuating costs, the future of family farming is at risk.

From supporting nature-friendly practices, to ensuring fair returns for farmers, there is much the Government needs to do to secure a sustainable future for this vital sector.

The full text of my letter is on my website:

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Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful support and positive energy through-out the campaign. You can read about Rebecca and Ellie’s reaction to the result here.

“I’m delighted and excited to be carrying on Ellie’s great work in Bishop’s Frome and Cradley. It’s been great to get to know the area even better over the last few weeks and hear so much from everyone about what they appreciate, and what they want me to get on with. I’m really looking forward to representing everyone and getting stuck in.” – Rebecca

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Decisions taken in the atrium of Plough Lane on Friday include maintaining a 100% discount on council tax for hard up households and providing a further £1.7m targeted to support people in financial difficulties. Approval was also given to a new flexibility to charge double council tax on second homes and empty properties.

Opposition groups provided no alternative budget proposals and made no suggestions for altering or improving the £380m budget for 2023-24, and their members repeatedly demonstrated their lack of understanding of the council’s finances through the comments made during the four hour debate.

Opposition members clearly felt themselves on firmer ground arguing over how a small amount of additional funding through the Rural Services Grant should best be used and the debate on this 0.2% of the overall budget consumed close to a third of the meeting.

Pollution from agriculture and water companies dumping sewage is having a devastating effect on the River Wye. Herefordshire’s home-grown building industry in the north of the county has been at a standstill for 40 months as a consequence of the pollution crisis, and the county loses £12m every month the ban on development continues.

Independents and Greens proposed to use the funding windfall to accelerate ongoing work to address the pollution and lift the moratorium on development in the River Lugg catchment before it extends to cover the entire Wye catchment – which covers more than 90% of the county area.

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Bob Matthews’ breakaway Indies wanted the money spent on potholes in rural roads. John Harrington, cabinet member for Transport, argued that the money was maybe sufficient to resurface a couple of rural roads and suggested Conservatives would do better to lobby their local MPs and government in Westminster to properly fund all councils to maintain the road network.

‘The government is failing all local authorities, but particularly rural ones like Herefordshire, by cutting the historical grant needed to maintain over 2,000 miles of rural road network. Just like it is failing in its duties to prevent the ruin of our river systems, rivers which are the remit of a chronically underfunded Environment Agency’ said Cllr Harrington. ‘Our Highways network is £315 million behind in terms of optimal maintenance after 13 years of austerity’. Speaking after the meeting Cllr. Harrington, Leader of the Independents for Herefordshire,  noted that Conservative-controlled Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Shropshire Councils were all proposing Council Tax rises of 4.99% and wondered why Herefordshire Conservatives proposed a 0% increase without any explanation of how to manage record inflation and cuts from central government. ‘I like my fellow Cllrs across the room but I wouldn’t vote them in on their business plan – they have not been paying enough attention to basic economics and to holding our MPs to account for voting to cut hundreds of millions from Herefordshire Council’s budgets over the last decade plus’, he said.

Cllr. Harrington also expressed disappointment at the decision by Cllr Matthews not to back the administration’s proposal to support the county’s building sector by adding £480k to the Phosphate Commission plan, intended to force government, legally if necessary, to back the Council’s plans to save the Wye and Lugg. ‘I thought Cllr. Matthews was the champion for local businesses, that is what he always tells us, his vote yesterday demonstrates he doesn’t understand the urgency of this need, I can no longer take him at his word.’

‘The pollution of our rivers is a tragedy that must be reversed immediately,’ said Liz Harvey as she delivered the budget, urging councillors to support additional investment in the work of the Phosphate Commission to deliver river restoration and to regulate manure use and sewage release.

‘The health of our rivers and waterways is absolutely vital to our economy and our very existence in this county,’ said cabinet member for Economy and Environment Ellie Chowns. ‘We have to take a strategic approach to spending this money.’ The Big Economic Plan for Herefordshire, developed since the council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency, relies on the waterways of Herefordshire being restored to bring the county’s economy back to life, supporting vital home-grown industries, including tourism, agriculture and hospitality that rely on the River Wye.

Speaking on the investment required for the Children’s Services budget,  Cllr Chowns said:  ‘We need to make this a county that is good for children to grow up in. It is essential we increase expenditure on Children’s Services to address the under-investment and damaging service cuts imposed by previous administrations.’

Whilst agreeing that road conditions were a key concern for residents, councillors felt wider and more immediate benefit could be achieved by allocating an additional £200k from the Rural Services Grant to fund footbridges, styles and gates to help parish footpath groups to improve rural rights of way.

Jim Kenyon made a plea for funds to repair the dire state of the Hereford athletics track, run by Halo. There was support in the room for the reinstatement of the running track but councillors questioned why Halo had not undertaken the maintenance work required under their lease which has allowed the track to fall into disrepair. Gemma Davies, cabinet member for property and contracts, gave an assurance that the council was working with local athletics interests and Halo to find a way forward.

In summing up the debate Liz Harvey, cabinet member for finance, commented: ‘This is not a budget we hoped to be presenting. However, we now have the worst economic and cost of living crisis in a generation alongside spiralling food and fuel costs. We must find a way to deliver statutory services whilst targeting financial support to hard hit households.

‘This budget includes more than £14m of planned savings and efficiencies across a range of council activities and yet we have made sure we remain able to make important investments in our community infrastructure, our transport network, our schools, our economy, our river and our care services.’

‘Council tax remains the fairest way to raise income locally as it ensures that the better off pay a greater proportion of the cost of the services which the least well off rely upon.’

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From a humble inaugural meeting on a November evening at The Saracen’s Head in Hereford, Herefordshire Greens have celebrated 40 years of political activism and success in the county.

Forty years ago Herefordshire resident Guy Woodford placed a small advertisement in the Hereford Times, rallying those who believed in political solutions to ecological problems. The extraordinary response packed a backroom of the pub with an active group establishing a Herefordshire branch of the Ecology Party, attracting well-known figures like Jonathon Porritt to the county as activists sought to establish a political wing to promote green causes. The party developed into the Green Party, which has now become a strong and effective force in Herefordshire politics. 

Baroness Jenny Jones, who chaired Herefordshire Greens in 1990 – and who is one of the two Green Party members of the House of Lords – returned for the birthday celebrations at Leominster’s Grange Court. Baroness Jones has been an outspoken campaigner for reform, initiating the Clean Air Bill, lambasting the government for its draconian Public Order Bill, and advocating for proportional representation.

Baroness Jones paid tribute to those ‘hard working members of the Green community’, who laid the foundations for today’s political success. ‘We can make a difference,’ said Baroness Jones, ‘and because of local groups like this the Green Party now has hundreds of elected local councillors all across the country – speaking up for people and planet.’

Former journalist and Green Party activist Pete Blench organised the event with his wife, long-standing Green councillor and community activist Felicity Norman. Pete warmly thanked Guy Woodford, who became the first Green councillor in Herefordshire. ‘And thanks to Vicky Murray and Felicity for putting themselves forward as the first parliamentary candidates of our movement in 1983.’

‘It’s been a long road! We’ve learned how to fight and win local elections, how to work with others and how to enter into partnership as part of the coalition administration of Herefordshire Council.’

Blench noted that despite the first past the post election system, Greens have been more and more successful in recent General Elections, and are now very well placed to challenge the Conservatives at the next election with their prospective Parliamentary candidate Ellie Chowns. 

Ellie Chowns, who previously served as an MEP for the West Midlands and is currently Cabinet member for environment and economy and Green Group Leader at Herefordshire Council, paid tribute to the work of countless Green activists over the years. ‘We are standing on the shoulders of giants’ said Chowns, who thanked Baroness Jones for ‘continuing to be a thorn in the side of the political establishment’. She thanked the dozens of activists in the room for their work in making the Greens such an effective political force: ‘Our success in Herefordshire is thanks to the efforts of all of you here today!’

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Herefordshire needs to think strategically about its direction around food production if the county is to develop resilience to local and global challenges. 

‘Diversity is the key to healthy systems,’ said agronomist and peer Natalie Bennett, last week in Kington as Herefordshire Greens celebrate their 40^th anniversary with a discussion around agriculture and the state of county rivers.

Calling for more varied crops, Baroness Bennett said: ‘More than 50% of human calories come from just four crops, that is bad for public health and bad for food security.’

‘What we are seeing with our food systems is not what farmers want, it is what they have been pushed into. We need policy framework and incentives to make this work. We have to have a system that looks after the environment, gives people food and gives farmers an income. We know how to do this.’

Ellie Chowns, Green Party councillor with Herefordshire’s Economy and Environment portfolio, said: ‘Chemicals and fuel cost a lot of money, farmers are articulating that. What we are doing in Herefordshire is trying make economy and environment work together. We have examples of a fabulous generation of farmers in Herefordshire, like Regen Ben from Ross-on-Wye and Richard Thomas farming at Risbury Court,  who are looking to regenerative farming to get off the treadmill of debt and create food systems where people and planet can thrive together.’

Coun Chowns said: ‘Cheap food is costing us the earth and our health, but we also need to make sure food producers have an income. We need regulations that clarify things for everyone, and that work well. We need to create a level playing field – this requires systemic change. We need to build a vision of how farming and our food economy can be different.’

Planning consultant Helen Hamilton has been fighting on behalf of many communities for all consequences of intensive agriculture, particularly poultry, to be taken into account. She said one of the  ‘unintended consequences’ of developing anaerobic digesters alongside poultry units for the English Wye catchment’s 20 million chickens was the 289% increase in maize production in Herefordshire between 2016 and 2020 to facilitate manure management. Environment Agency records for the period also show a 32% decrease in permanent grassland and a 10% decrease in tree, shrub and hedgerow cover over the four year period. 

‘Driven by subsidies, this policy has led to an enormous loss of biodiversity and increase in flood risk to meet just one industry’s needs, and is undoubtedly contributing to the ecological failure of the Wye’, said Ms Hamilton. 

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North Herefordshire’s Ellie Chowns said: ‘Our country needs a leader who can be trusted to do the right thing, to tell the truth, and to stick to the rules that he asked everyone else to follow. Boris Johnson has demonstrated that he simply can’t be trusted and he can’t tell right from wrong. It’s time for him to go. Our country deserves better. We need to know if our Herefordshire MPs are prepared to defend the indefensible.’

‘Boris Johnson’s failure of leadership is not only damaging trust in public health measures, but he is also allowing other very urgent issues to spiral out of control, including the cost of living, potential war in Ukraine, and the climate crisis,’ said Chowns.

Parliamentary candidate for Herefordshire South, Diana Toynbee, said: ‘Jesse Norman and Bill Wiggin are good friends of Boris Johnson. The people of Herefordshire have the right to know how they view his behaviour. Our message to them is: If he has your full support, does it mean you are happy to leave us with a Prime Minister who is reckless, dishonest and irresponsible, at a time of national and international crisis? If he has lost your support, what was the final straw? We look forward to the answer.’

With Boris Johnson being accused of lying to Parliament over parties held in No.10 Downing Street while the country was in lockdown, the Green Party has said that it is past time for the Prime Minister to resign. Ellie Chowns warned that replacing Boris Johnson with another untrustworthy MP as Prime Minister would not solve the problem.

‘We should be under no illusion that just getting rid of Boris Johnson will fix the culture of hypocrisy and entitlement that has taken hold in our political system. I am worried that we will end up with one charlatan replacing another,’ said Chowns.

‘Whoever is our next Prime Minister should be subject to rigorous scrutiny. They should not, like Boris Johnson and his colleagues, apparently see no problem in lying to the public and to other MPs.’

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