Written for Worcester News Green Matters column… I was sceptical. What’s the point of an electric bike, are they not heavy, expensive and reduce the fitness benefits of cycling? Then I had a test ride. If you have ever thought about doing a bit more cycling to increase your fitness or to avoid queuing traffic […]

Last night I had the opportunity to visit the local policing team in Worcester. Every opportunity like this is a window into another world – I’m struck by the bravery and compassion of these men and women. We generally sleep at night with little thought about what these people do for us. The police don’t […]

When I moved to Worcester many decades ago, I was struck by the friendliness of my neighbours and how welcome I was made to feel. This should come as no surprise, as last year Worcester was named the ‘Good Neighbour’ capital of Britain in a UK poll. You can’t beat Worcester for community spirit. I […]

“Why should I vote Green? Surely with Labour now getting off the fence on renationalising the railways and stopping fracking surely the priority has to be to stop the Conservatives getting a massive majority at Westminster?” The problem is that Labour is not one party it’s two parties pulling in different directions. On the one […]

Worcester Trades Council organised a hustings that was cancelled because of the Manchester bombing atrocity. All candidates were given the questions before the hustings and the following replies would have been given if it has gone ahead. The Green Party thanks WTUC for the original invitation and offering to send this link to the guests […]

International studies have shown that trees can reduce the amount of particulate matter in the air. Little hairs on the leaves trap the dirt and when the leaves drop they bring down the dirt with them. Planting trees in a city environment is not cheap. You can actually get trees very cheaply – even for […]

Let’s be clear what the committee system is. There are different variations but basically it is a system where councillors meet to discuss and agree council policy. Committee systems are by law populated with elected members in proportion to the number of councillors that each party holds. There is normally one overall controlling committee and […]

World population is going up. How far will it go? Surely something should be done? In a free society can we compel people to have smaller families? This will seem to many a step too far to a totalitarian state akin to China’s now abandoned only one child family dictate. The fact is that the […]

Two tips to reduce the chance of being burgled: 1) Make access to the back of your property difficult. Buglers will sometimes gain access to the rear of a property where there are no other properties overlooking to then take their time to break into a property. 2) Use a timer to switch on lights […]

Local Conservatives on the County Council are proposing an inflation busting near 4% rise in council tax which they claim is for helping the most vulnerable by increasing expenditure on care. In the light of this rise in local council tax, it must be remembered that this comes after a 40% cut in central Government funding […]