19 March 2024
Having Greens on Walsall Council will ensure the protection of our green belt. As a party we're wholly committed to the preservation of our environment, our green spaces and the wildlife that inhabit in those spaces.
We're concerned that the other parties are not totally committed to protecting our green belt. We've seen sections of the Conservative party trying to force housing developments on large parts of the green belt, only to be met by local residents' disapproval. It's also part of a future Labour government's mass-house building project to build on green belt land.
We're proud that local residents have so far fought and won battles against building on the green belt, but we're concerned that might not always be the case. Which is why we need Green Councillors on Walsall council to block any legislation to build on the green belt. The more Greens we get onto the council the more likely it is we can protect our green belt.
Starting with 10 councillors in 2024, we can form a large group on the council and begin to secure the future of our green belt. Going into the 2026 local elections, when all 60 council seats are up for election, we can increase that number further to a 30+ majority, which will secure the green belt, protecting it from any further threats.
The decision was made to focus our limited resources on 10 wards in Walsall in 2024 to gain Walsall's first Green Councillors at the upcoming local elections on May 2nd.
The full list of wards and candidates:
Aldridge Central and South - Guan Chan
Aldridge North and Walsall Wood - Shaun McKenzie
Birchills-Leamore - Toyin Oshaniwa
Blakenall - Andrea Maynard
Paddock - Gordon Shipley
Palfrey - Sadat Hussain
Pleck - Mary Beddows
Rushall-Shelfield - Joe Belcher
St Matthews - Ateeq Akhtar (Raja)
Streetly - Alison Walters
If you're on the electoral register in one of these wards you can vote to elect a Green Councillor on May 2nd. If you're not currently registered to vote you still have time to register. Click here to register to vote
There are 20 council seats across 20 wards, up for election this year, and at the following election in 2026, all 60 council seats will be up for election.
We don't just stand for the protection of the green belt and our environment, although these are the things we're most passionate about. We also stand for investment in our local communities, for protecting council budgets from central government cuts. Our public services are vital to our communities and we'll always legislate to protect them.
We're concerned that the Conservative government is obsessed with austerity and the privatisation of public services. They're running services into the ground through underfunding, so that private companies can step in and takeover. Private companies that seek to gain profit at the expense of service level quality and cost to you the service user.
We believe in public ownership of public services to uphold service level quality and keeping the costs down for service users. This can be achieved by removing the profit motive. Instead of profits going into private pockets, those profits can be put back into the service to uphold service level quality and keep the costs down for service users. It's not radical, it worked this way for many years before public services and utilities were sold off to private interests.
The solutions to our problems already exist, we just need councillors and politicians in parliament to implement them. That's what Greens do. Across the country more and more voters are electing Green Councillors to implement these solutions. In the last 4 years we've more than quadrupled our number of Green Councillors nationwide. We seek to do the same in Walsall.
Join us, get involved, help us to help you. Become a member today. Click here to join.
Sign up for updates
Find out more
