Buried in a meeting last night we agreed to bring back in house our council’s contact centre. Good to see that we are rolling back the once fashionable outsourcing of services. Many people said at the time that they were inflexible and that in the end it would cost us more money. The contact centre […]

Had the pleasure of talking to Rob George of the Worcester Observer about my standing as the Green parliamentary candidate for Worcester.

It’s a sad fact of life that good news does not sell newspapers. Last week 35 councillors representing the Green Party, Labour and Conservatives unanimously agreed the city council budget. This unanimity of cross-party working has not happened before in anyone’s memory. It’s important because it means that to a large degree we are reasonably […]

At the last Policy and Resources meeting one Green, six Labour and six Conservative councillors sat together to discuss and agree what would be put in front of the next full council meeting for a balanced budget for the next five years. We decide where council money is spent. There was cross party agreement for […]

Before I became a councillor I didn’t know much about planning. Since being elected I’ve now got almost three years of experience on the Planning Committee. Basic uncontentious decisions are taken by officers under what is known as delegated powers – this often leaves the tricky cases for the elected councillors to deliberate and vote […]

One of the great personal benefits of being a councillor is that it can create all sorts of opportunities to meet new people and learn new things. Case in point was last Friday where I was invited to the Digital Media Culture and Sport (DMCS) public announcement of £3M to support the arts led regeneration […]

In this little You Tube video Chris Boardman eloquently describes how the Dutch became a cycling nation. They were not born loving bikes they made a conscious decision in the 1970’s to make their roads safer for walking and cycling and the rest is history. If the city planners could do this in Holland – […]

On Tuesday 30th October I proposed a motion to Worcester City Council that our city should support a people’s vote on the final say on the negotiated Brexit deal. The debate lasted about an hour and the result was 16 to 18 with the three Green’s supporting, all 17 Conservative councillors voting against with 13 […]

What were you doing 23 years ago, July 1995? Like many people in the UK I was going to work and bringing up my family. I had vaguely heard on the news about what was going on in Bosnia but being busy did not get involved and did not seek out any further information. Last […]

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 […]