At a time of great turbulence, it is important that we all work together to create a better society, a just economy, and a healthy environment. Here are some of the policies that the Green Party is putting forward to achieve this.
Our environment
* Make the UK a world leader in the next generation of technology - low carbon business
* Subsidise home insulation to cut bills and cut emissions
* Promote the use of renewable energy such as solar not fracking for fossil fuel
* Support research into innovative products like ultra-efficient graphene heaters and better batteries
* Control the consumption and production of large quantities of indestructible waste
* Protect the natural environment in Yorkshire and our biodiversity
Housing
* Build for need and protect local green fields from endless development for profit
* Scrap the wasteful ‘Help to Buy’ scheme and use the £ billion a year saving as deposit money to enable councils and housing associations to borrow and build
* Ensure every new housing development generates as much electricity as it uses through modern technology such as solar power or heat exchange units
* Encourage the use of more sustainable building materials and imaginative planning and design
* Equip every new home with an electric vehicle charging point
Transport
* Get the railways back under one single coherent public ownership
* Coordinate rail and bus services to create one efficient network across the north of England and beyond * Open practical new local rail lines like the Skipton to Colne link
* Invest in reliable local bus services and develop integrated public transport with the rail system
* Reject proposals to push a new motorway past Skipton from the M65 to the A1(M)
* Promote electric vehicles to protect our children from breathing in toxic fumes.
Education
* Set teachers free to teach and children free to learn by abolishing the national curriculum, frequent tests and examinations, and the league table culture
* Ensure the Arts (music, dance, art, literature and drama) are all properly included in the curriculum rather than treated as optional extras
* Stop government funding of new religiously segregated ‘free’ schools
* Restore democratic control over education by giving local authorities responsibility for academies and ‘free’ schools
* Provide healthy local seasonal food for our children in their school meals.
Pollution
* Stop the construction of new waste incinerators such as the Aire Valley Incinerator
* Fund local authorities to recycle more and burn and bury less
* Install food waste recycling facilities in Craven by building an anaerobic digestor in the new Engine Shed Lane waste facility
* Radically reduce the production of plastics and move beyond relying solely on consumer pressure to limit the mountain of unnecessary waste. Ban cling film and single use plastics
The economy
* Re-balance Britain’s economy away from fragile financial speculation and towards sustainable local business
* Encourage businesses to move out of London and the southeast: invest in science and technology parks in the north of England
* Invest more in regional public transport to re-balance the advantage of 3 to 1 per head spending that London currently enjoys
* Rethink the work of the Bank of England so that it invests for the future instead of wasting £400 billion on quantitative easing to help banks
* Replace zero hours contracts and false self-employment with work for a living wage
* Save our High Streets by taxing on line retailers fairly
Europe
* Ensure local farmers have tariff free access to European markets
* Protect farmers and consumers from imports of mass-produced food from the States that has been soaked in chemicals, and produced by subjecting cows and pigs to battery farming techniques
* Help neglected regions by replacing the European Social Fund with effective regional support
* Protect jobs in industry by ensuring free movement of goods over European borders
* Protect UK sovereignty by rejecting new free trade deals policed by undemocratic international arbitration courts
* The country deserves a right to express its opinion on facts via a Second Referendum instead of only being asked what we think about unrealistic promises
* Staying in a reformed EU is better than being exposed to the full force of global competition
Like what you read and hear? The local Green Party puts up candidates for public office who are rooted in the local community and are keen to fight for the needs of local people. Why not use your vote to support a positive vision of change for our locality, for our country and our planet.