Inside contents: Page 2: Assault on local democracy No more Nuclear! Save Temple Cowley Pool The Labour-controlled Oxford City Council A Green Lord Mayor has abolished local Area Committees and Page 3: introduced a system whereby individual County Attacks Disabled Stop the Cuts! Labour councillors make decisions without Low Carbon East Oxford Revenge of the Westgate reference to cross-party committees. Page 4: The new system introduced Planning will now be dealt with has been imposed even though by two central planning Save the NHS it was overwhelmingly rejected committees that have inbuilt Keith vs Air-ppollution by respondents in the formal Labour majorities. St. Clements car park consultation. Your local councillors will have Cut the tax on recycling The Green Party moved very little input. What really causes riots? motions in Council to save The Labour administration is local democracy but were also abandoning committees of voted down by Labour and the all councillors in favour of Lib Dems. Area Committees, decision making by individual Empty offices which used to have powers Labour leaders. The so called over planning decisions and ‘strong leader’ model has been Oxford Liberal Democrats Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party, and a Green certain local powers, exercised adopted where the leader of are in some confusion over Party MP for Brighton, joins front-lline NHS workers in a with officer support, have been council appoints ALL the office the Northern Gateway, the demonstration against cuts to public services. proposed new business park replaced by occasional ‘Area holders and can fire them too. in North Oxford. The Forums’. The forums have no The new ‘Supreme Leader’ is Labour have thrown local scheme was originally The Labour-run City Council devolved finance to fund local Councillor Bob Price, leader of democracy in the dustbin and promoted by a Liberal have ignored voters and Democrat administration community initiatives and the Labour group. Oxford with it your local voice. but it has been criticized by cannot make decisions as to • Abolished area Green Party introduced the However, the Greens will not business leaders who say what to do. Their role will be committees Area Committees and all party let localism die and intend to that the first priority should to give people the chance to • Removed local planning decision making with Lib Dem keep the spirit of local be to fill up existing express their anger at the powers support in 2001. influence alive, encouraging business parks some of antics of the Labour controlled • Introduced one member These local meetings were people at least to attend the which are half empty rather council. If history is any guide, committees very popular. They were a Area Forums and voice their than take away recreational no matter what local people • Centralised decision- genuine devolution of power to real concerns about how our green space. say, Labour will not be taking making and more... local communities. city is mismanaged. any notice. £5 mill hold-up at City council Lib Dem betrayal Oxford City Council are now sitting on more than £5.2 The Liberal Democrats have betrayed the million in reserves, three people who voted for them by abandoning times the amount they need. The alternative Green crucial policies they said they supported. budget (which would have Nearly half a million meant no cuts in services) Lib Dem failures include: • Lib Dems now want nuclear • Talk of ending people attended the ‘March for the was voted down by Labour • Their commitment to power - their Energy Minister expensive wars in Alternative’, on 26th protect public services was has announced eight new the Middle East in February 2011. Clearly March 2011. Labour make cuts because the first to go with massive nuclear power stations. have merely led Photo above by: they want to not because cuts in local government, • Their commitment to to more killing in Wheelzwheeler they have to. education, health and protect the NHS from Afghanistan and Left: Lewisham welfare. Cuts that hit the privatisation has been yet another Dreamer Below: C. G. P. Grey poorest and most vulnerable shattered as Nick Clegg gave expensive war hardest. his support to the Tory about who Uni hits back • The pledge to abolish tuition health cuts and new controls oil in Oxford University academics fees has been turned into a destructive legislation.. Libya. have hit back at the coalition trebling of tuition fees. government’s education • Their pre-election policy to The Lib Dems have supported the Tories’ failing policies by passing a historic expand the Education vote of no confidence in the Maintenance Allowance has economic policies and done nothing to control minister pushing the changes. flipped: it’s abolished. the bankers who caused many of the problems. Join the Green Party - The REAL opposition in Oxford Green policies are common sense for People & Planet Greens oppose dangerous nuclear power The Green Party believes that We should tackle the Lib Dem minister switching to nuclear energy is economic crisis and the energy Chris Huhne, unacceptable and should not crisis together, by creating who once called be taken seriously for several many thousands of much- reasons. Nuclear power has needed jobs in renewable nuclear power always been the most energies and public transport a scientific expensive way of producing re-building, insulating cul-de-sac, has energy and renewables are now buildings, and working for a now agreed to far cheaper. massive shift from road to rail. There is no way of disposing This would improve the quality go ahead with safely of the waste from of life for people in the UK, The Japanese people led the Labour and Tory nuclear energy production, and which is an island surrounded world in a wave of anti- plans for a new radioactive waste is a growing by wind and waves. We have nuclear protests. generation of major problem with the solutions to many of our unquantified costs attached to problems on our own shores. nuclear power it. With our changing and For more information please stations. increasingly unpredictable visit: www.cnduk.org climate a nuclear accident such Stencil art by Giome, France as Chernobyl and Fukushima becomes more likely (it can happen to us!) plus the sources New Green Lord Mayor of uranium are few and finite. Councillor Elise Benjamin The German Government is the first Green Lord has announced the Mayor of Oxford. phasing out of nuclear The Green Party is proud of her power by 2022 on the basis very long public service to the that renewables are people of Oxford and the hard cheaper, safer and easily work she is putting into installed. Most European Sushila Dhall says Fukushima reactor No. 4 representing the City and raising governments have future renewable energy is melt-ddown. The radiation money for charities. Well done non-nuclear power plans. cheaper, safer and more was detected at Harwell five Elise! sustainable than nuclear days after the explosion Greens fight to retain Temple Cowley Pools Labour controlled Oxford City Council has been pushing for the replacement of the Temple Cowley Pools and the Blackbird Leys pool with a new pool in Advertisement Blackbird Leys. The ‘Save Temple Cowley Pools’ campaign with the support of Oxford Green Party has been opposing the destruction of the Temple Cowley Pools leisure centre and would like to see money Green activists, Kevin Meaney and Hafiz Lidell, made available for a proper join protestors outside the pools maintenance program. Temple Cowley is the most popular They are easily accessible to The Labour council would have pool in Oxford and provides a large numbers of people by you believe that the new pool wide range of leisure services. walking or cycling and have at Blackbird Leys is certain and Its closure would be a massive good public transport links that the current facilities will blow to East Oxford. with bus stops for many be closed. The Save Temple The cost of the new pool is different routes nearby. Cowley Pool campaign is alive set at £9.2 million whilst the Temple Cowley is the most and well. cost of refurbishment of the energy efficient wet/dry leisure You can follow the campaign current Temple Cowley Pools centre in Oxford. The City on twitter at @SaveTCP. You and leisure centre and the Council misrepresents the can contact the Save Temple Blackbird Leys pool is issue of energy efficiency by Cowley Pools campaign by estimated at £3m. including the energy use of the email at [email protected] Temple Cowley Pools and sauna at Temple Cowley. If this or visit their website at: leisure centre are the really is their concern then http://savetemplecowleypools. environmentally friendly they would be recommending webs.com option. the closure of just the sauna. 2 For people and the planet - The Green Party - www.greenparty.org.uk Visit our website: http://oxford.greenparty.org.uk Greens fight disability cuts Advertisement Many people in Oxford, including Green councillors Beth Tichborne, Green and party members, have been campaigning campaigner in Holywell, said ‘The impact the cuts will have against the cuts to social care, Disability Living on disabled people is Allowance [DLA], housing benefits and the frightening. Our society seems privatisation of the NHS. All of these cuts and to be going back in time; this 'reforms' will hit disabled people first and hardest, government's policies will result in people being isolated from but their voices are hardly heard in media coverage. society and struggling to look after themselves. Why should disabled people pay for the Advertisement mistakes of bankers and Beth Tichborne politicians? Years of de- speaks out for regulation and greed caused the disabled people crisis; it was not caused by providing social care to people Bus success who need it.’ The Green Party My Life My Choice worked campaign for cross- with Oxford Save Our Services ticketing on our local to stage a ‘March of the buses after ten years Uninvisible People’ on 23rd July. of campaigning will They hope that Oxfordshire eventually be County Council chief Keith implemented by local Mitchell will take note that the bus companies in Disability Groups Outside County Hall Protesting apparently 'invisible' victims of August this year. The the cuts that his Council are campaign for rapid enacting are real people, who introduction of more electric hybrid non- will not be silenced and ignored. polluting buses See: http://oxfordsos.org.uk and continues. www.mylifemychoice.org.uk Mall-ignant Westgate Labour are trying to revive the disastrous plans for the Westgate Centre. Through incompetence the last attempt was a historic massive waste of council taxpayer’s money that has left a large area of the City centre blighted for years. The latest plans have ignored Green suggestions for more inner city housing, community space and small business units and suggest there should be a cinema instead. All the old issues of congestion, flooding risks and pollution have all come back with the new plan. If Labour’s plans go ahead we will never get the ‘March of the Uninvisible People’ Photos: Chris Honeywell affordable homes that the City desperately needs Advertisement Advertisement

Edited by David Williams Published by David Williams, 320 London Road, Oxford (Tel 01865 765 852) Promoted by Oxfordshire Green Party c/o Sid Phelps 85 East Avenue Oxford OX4 1XR. Printed by Cumbrian Newsprint, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Carlisle CA2 5UA, on paper from sustainably managed sources. Low Carbon East Oxford relaunched Former Green Councillor Craig Simmons has stepped in to help re-launch Low Carbon East Oxford, a group he founded in 2009. The community environmental group has been pushing for low carbon initiatives in East Oxford. Craig says, ‘There is a huge amount of interest in reducing East Oxford’s carbon footprint and community groups like LCEO are an essential part of moving things forward. Members of LCEO actively exchange practical information on living a greener lifestyle and have also helped put residents in touch with a local company installing rooftop solar panels and organised a ‘Giveway Day’ where residents can swap unwanted items.’ If you live in East Oxford - and want to know more - please contact Craig: [email protected]

For a REAL Cleaner Greener Oxford - The Green Party 3 Join the Green Party - The REAL opposition in Oxford What really causes riots? David Cameron, Ed Miliband Save our NHS and Nick Clegg have all put the riots down to Oxfordshire Green party is delighted with the petition criminality, moral decline presented by Oxford Save our Services and Oxfordshire Keep Green County Councillor and a 'sick society' - Larry Sanders (left) with anything that avoids the Our NHS Public against the Health and Social Care Bill which City Councillors Dick Wolfe reality that many of the and Elise Benjamin underlying causes relate to is limping through parliament. their policies. Only the Green Party are totally Looting and violence should No-one is fooled by the Lancaster University estimates against privatisation of Health. be condemned and the full cosmetic changes that have it will take approximately Labour are as guilty as the Lib rigour of the law applied to recently been announced for seven years for most NHS Dems and the Tories for they those who are guilty. Riots the bill. The legislation is provision to be in private started the whole process. achieve nothing and destroy effectively the same and if it is hands under the terms of the For more information see; communities but let us not passed it would lead to large bill. Every £1 in profit made Green City Councillor David www.keepournhspublic.org.uk forget that there are scale privatisation of the NHS. from NHS provision by a Williams joins the protest and http://oxfordsos.org.uk/ underlying causes. We have The bill will not just allow private company is £1 less on had a massive increase in the private companies to take over clinical care. If the bill goes cost of living, especially food. sections of the NHS it will through the NHS will soon be This hits the poorest hardest. St. Clements car park closure Housing benefit, family actively encourage it. nothing but a brand, a name allowance, and welfare benefit Once these services are under which thousands of cuts have hit vulnerable privatised there is no going will be a disaster for traders confused fragmented families. Cuts in local back and they enter the enterprises seek to make as Green councillors are trying to halt plans to develop government have badly hit international financial markets. much as they can out of student flats on St. Clements car park, plans that services for young people taxpayers. such as the Youth Service and could mean financial disaster for local traders. job creation schemes. Britain’s youth unemployment Chris Brewer, St. The development Our MEP Keith Taylor fights is at a record high but the Clements Green is too large. It Government have abolished activist, explains will block the the Education Maintenance air pollution in Oxford the Green Party light and view of Allowance which helped position: ‘We are residents in people stay in school or not in principle Anchor Court, further education. opposed to the Alan Bullock For years under Labour and development of Close and St. Conservative governments the urban car parks if Clements. The gap between rich and poor has been steadily growing. the proposal is suggested Poor areas have been left to appropriate to the alternative rot whilst the rich have parking at site and will not trebled their wealth. There is Marston Road for adversely affect the Chris Brewer a sense of alienation and local community. use during the disrespect for authority by But we believe the application construction phase is both too many people who feel society by Watkins Jones Group for St. small and too far away. It has done very little for them. Clements car park is not would be best for St. Clements They have been neglected and acceptable. This was also residents and local traders if abandoned by leaders who overwhelmingly the view of the the application was now only seem to respond to the over five hundred respondents withdrawn’. For more see: rich and powerful. to the council’s consultation. www.save-sst-cclements.co.uk Keith Taylor (front right), the area’s Green European Member of Parliament, has Craig says dump the recycle tax launched a campaign to stop air pollution in Oxford and In May, the Labour-run city council started Former City other Cities in the South to charge for collecting garden waste, a and County Volunteers clean up after the riots East. The Green campaigner service that had previously been a free part Councillor in Tottenham, August 3rd 2011 is calling on local authorities Craig Simmons Photo: BDC to do more to remove air of Oxford’s kerbside recycling scheme. pollutants such as carbon If you are one of the few It disproportionately In a related monoxide from city black households that have the space affects those on move, the County spots. A report by the UK for a third wheelie bin, then the lower incomes and Council has government to be published charge is £35 per year. But for will lead to more threatened to in September will show that many smaller households dumping and lower reduce the opening the UK has failed to meet air managing another large wheelie rates of recycling. hours of Redbridge pollution improvement bin is impractical. For these, the The Greens voted Recycling Centre targets set by the EU almost only option is a costly £2.50 against this change off Abingdon Road. a decade ago. For more charge per bag – too much for to Oxford’s doorstep This is a move many to afford. This new ‘tax’ on recycling scheme. We want to which Oxfordshire’s Green information please visist recycling impacts most on encourage high levels of county councillors opposed in Keith’s website: smaller households and deters recycling, not penalise people for their alternative county council www.keithtaylormep.org.uk people from recycling. doing their bit to reduce waste. budget. Fair is worth fighting for!