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• Democratically accountable planning and an end to destructive ‘development’
• A joined-up approach to health and wellbeing
• Public transport that’s regular, affordable and reliable.
• Housing policies that address local needs
• A Green recovery that supports local businesses and jobs
• Protecting climate, nature and biodiversity

In all, 71 candidates will be standing as Greens on 6 May, many of whom are already
parish and town councillors. The party’s co-coordinator, Matt Valler, who is also the
candidate for Falmouth Trescobeas and Budock, said:

“This election is a game-changer for the Green Party in Cornwall. We’re fielding more
candidates than at all the three previous Cornwall Council elections put together, and
the fact that so many people have stepped forward to stand reflects a real appetite for
positive change and a determination to create it.

“Greens offer a different kind of politics – we’re not about business as usual. We stand
up for what we believe in, and we work hard with local people to get things done for our
communities.

“At the last set of local elections elsewhere in the country, Greens more than doubled
our number of council seats. And On 6 May people in Cornwall will have a chance to
make sure that Green voices are in the rooms where decisions are made that affect
their everyday lives.”

Karen La Borde, who is standing for the Green Party in Threemilestone and Chacewater,
worked hard to persuade Cornwall Council and numerous town and parish councils to
declare a climate emergency in 2019. Since then, as a parish councillor, she’s helped put
flesh on the bones of Cornwall Council’s climate emergency plan, as well as working to
make sure that developers are not allowed to ride roughshod over local needs and the
natural environment.

Karen said: “For me, a properly functioning local democracy is at the heart of healthy
local communities in Cornwall. Too often, key decisions are made behind closed doors
without the needs and wishes of local people being heard.

“I know that people in my community strongly value our beautiful natural environment
and are horrified by developments that mainly benefit the big developers rather than
delivering real benefits to local people, such as genuinely affordable housing and
amenities they can get to without having to drive.”

Steve Slade, standing for the Greens in Newquay Central and Pentire, has been involved
with residents’ campaigns to address issues facing Newquay for 15 years, and in 2013 he
became the town’s first Green councillor. Since then, he’s worked hard to improve local
amenities and open spaces, and to protect the natural environment in and around the
town. Steve said:

“For me, the environment isn’t just about nature – it’s about people’s quality of life, and
making sure that local people have the resources they need to enjoy life to the full. That
means reliable and affordable public transport, for instance, and investing in Cornwall’s
economy in ways that help provide good, sustainable jobs and move us towards zero
carbon as quickly as possible.”

Local teacher Tamsyn Widdon is standing in Penryn, where she has been an energetic
town councillor for the last three years. As well as helping to set up a ‘library of things’
to give Penryn residents low-cost access to shared power tools and other equipment,
she’s persuaded the council to switch to green energy sources and save money in the
process. Tamsyn said:

“Penryn is a fantastic place to live, but like so many communities in Cornwall it faces a
range of problems – not least, many families facing real hardship that’s been made even
worse by the pandemic. Now that the end of that crisis is in sight, I think there’s a real
desire to build back better – and that has to start in our local communities.

“I decided to run for Cornwall Council because I’ve seen how decisions made there can
make a real difference to people’s lives. I want to make sure that the people of Penryn
have a representative who genuinely listens, who they can trust to stand up for their
interests, and who has the imagination to see how things that matter to them can be
changed for the better.”

Katharine Lewis, the Green Party’s candidate for Helston North was instrumental in
getting her town council to declare a climate emergency and to declare Helston an Earth
Protector Town – the first town in Cornwall to do this. She is one of the co-authors of
the Helston Climate Action Plan which has been used as a model for communities across
Cornwall, and has worked hard to help get key projects off the ground that are already
bringing real benefits to her local community, including a repair café and community
growing project.

“I’m standing because it’s important that those of us that can, step up now. There are
many changes ahead but I believe that we can work together to make Helston a place
where people and nature can thrive

“There’s been much good work has been done here in Cornwall to address the climate
and ecological emergency, but there’s so much more still to do. The impacts of this crisis
are already affecting us here in Cornwall. We need to go further and faster, and do
much more to reach out and engage with our communities, to take them with us and
make sure no one is left behind.”

Collin Harker is standing for the Greens in Fowey, Tywardreath and Par. Collin said:

“I believe we can build affordable housing for local families. We can create well-paid
jobs and apprenticeships for young people, and have thriving high streets full of local
businesses that are invested in our communities. We can avoid people having to make
that awful choice between feeding their families and heating their homes. But to
achieve these things we need a real change of direction.”

To see all the Greens standing in Cornwall on 6 May, Cornwall Green Party has created
an interactive map with details of its candidates.

You can also read our manifesto for the local elections.

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“This new road is not a ‘dualling’, which is how it was originally sold to people in Cornwall. It will destroy a wide swathe of countryside, divide rural communities, and is completely incompatible with Cornwall Council’s declaration of Climate Emergency.” – Karen La Borde, Cornwall Green Party

Cornwall Green Party is calling for an urgent reassessment of the planned new expressway between Carland Cross and Chiverton.

The road project, which was originally conceived as a “dualling” of the existing A30, has over time morphed into a major new road scheme in addition to the existing stretch of A30. Construction work is scheduled to begin this month.

Cornwall Green Party says the project is in breach of the terms of the government’s own Road Investment Strategy (RIS), which states that roads should “not divide communities, and that the associated health and wellbeing benefits of walking and cycling are felt as widely as possible”.

Karen La Borde of Cornwall Green Party said: “We have repeatedly been told by Boris Johnson’s government that this pandemic should prompt us to think about how we can ‘build back better’. We agree, and here in Cornwall this should be the cue to reassess schemes that are damaging to the natural environment and to carbon reduction targets, as well as to local communities. This new expressway is a glaring example.

“Highways England itself estimates that construction of this road will involve a massive 79,920 tonnes in carbon emissions. It claims that this will be offset by a saving in emissions from reduced congestion, but this flies in the face of experience, which is that new roads almost invariably lead over time to increased traffic volumes.

“The expressway is clearly not compatible with Cornwall Council’s goal to achieve net zero carbon by 2030. And that aspiration will never be met if we keep making the wrong planning decisions that fail to take account of the urgent need to drastically cut rather than increase emissions.

“We understand that the planning of the new road has been taken largely out of the hands of Cornwall Council by Highways England. But that in itself is a sign of central government dictating the terms of so-called ‘development’ in a way that rides roughshod over the needs of local residents as well as the paramount importance of protecting the natural environment in the context of the accelerating climate emergency.

“We urge Cornwall Council to take this matter up with Highways England, pointing out that this scheme needs to be reassessed in the light of the Council’s commitment to reduce emissions and protect Cornwall’s natural environment.”

Residents in the area through which the proposed new road will run have described their horror at the way the road-building scheme has grown far beyond the way it was originally described to them.

Pete Mewton of Nancarrow Farm – which lies in the way of the new expressway – said: ”We know that the A30 needed to be improved along this stretch, but this expressway is an entirely new road, and nothing like the dualling that was envisaged. It would take a huge amount of farmland ,as well as wild and wooded areas – an estimated 70 hectares in total.

“The route is extremely insensitive to the human environment – it divides the whole area, cutting communication roads and encroaching close to homes and businesses. People living along its route have just one place they can get on or across it. Most of us would have to go to one or other end of it to go east or west and would never have need of it.“

Lucy Trinder of local environmental protection group ‘These Fields Have Names’, said: “This new road will obliterate 75 to 90 acres of old fields and farmland with tarmac, and its embankments and verges will take many more than that, causing irreparable damage to our natural environment. Homes, fields, hedges, trees, wooded areas, wildlife all destroyed – and for what? A reduction in long-distance journey times of about eight minutes. That’s how much the drive time from Highways England HQ in Guildford to Camborne will be reduced – from 4 hours 36 minutes to 4 hours 28 minutes.”

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