JOHN COYNE FOR LIVERPOOL MAYOR

On May 3rd, I am asking you to elect me, Cllr John Coyne, as the first elected Mayor of Liverpool.

Election of a Green Mayor in Liverpool will herald our future as a successful modern city.

Across the country, and across the globe, Green parties are growing. In May 2010, Caroline Lucas made history by becoming the first Green Member of Parliament. I have shown I can win elections as a Green city councillor and I have the determination and the insights to give a new direction to this city.

Together we will unlock the talents and the generosity of the people of Liverpool.

We need to get more people into jobs and our way will be smarter than just building empty offices and flats.

The climate crisis and the economic crisis will be solved by cities that can adapt to using resources more wisely – sharing more and spending less.

To grow, Liverpool needs to become uniquely welcoming – a high quality environment with clean air and clean – and very safe – streets. Business, especially innovative small business, will be attracted by that quality and by the Liverpool culture of generosity and creativity.

Leadership means being able to take tough decisions and not always courting popularity. To protect vital services, council tax needs to keep pace with inflation, not be frozen year after year.

And leadership is not dictatorship. I will seek to build consensus and I will cooperate with people who disagree with me when necessary.

My guiding principle will always be to serve the interests of the people of Liverpool.

Liverpool Green Party has selected its candidate to fight the election for Liverpool’s first elected mayor on 3rd May.

Councillor John Coyne, Liverpool’s first Green councillor will now take the challenge to the Labour nominee and other candidates, declared and undeclared.

A Green manifesto for Liverpool will be developed over the next few weeks to embrace a programme of action to build on the successes of our city and show where we need to change.  The following two key points are the first proposals to emerge.

(1) Action to end Fuel Poverty.

A Green mayor will use the council’s own purchasing power to negotiate better deals from gas and electricity suppliers which can be passed on to vulnerable householders in Liverpool.  The city council will investigate becoming a billing company itself and also a generator of electricity using local renewable sources.

The council will provide or commission a major campaign to improve insulation, particularly in old houses.  It will assemble multi-skilled teams to deal with damp, thermal insulation, room alterations and redecorating on a room-by-room basis so that householders have minimum disruption and don’t have to move out while work is done.  Finance for the work will be secured by a charge on the property and repaid gradually from savings in fuel bills.

(2)  Alternatives to Demolition

A Green mayor will look for smarter solutions to the crisis left over by the failed Housing Market Renewal ideology which tried to “restructure” the housing market, labelling terraced houses as “obsolete”.  The mayor will lift the blight in demolition zones and invite individuals and community groups to buy houses for refurbishment and to buy to gap sites for rebuilding.  We will test the market for these houses before spending money just to knock them down.

In some cases we would re-partition empty terraces, increasing the number of bedrooms for some houses and creating ground-floor flats suitable for people with disabilities – tackling the waiting list for accessible dwellings.

The Greens are inviting the people of Liverpool to say what else should be in a manifesto for a thriving green city where people will want to work and live.  We will say how we will create and save the jobs that will sustain our city’s future.

Cllr Sarah Jennings will continue to lead the Green Party group in the city council and if Cllr Coyne is elected as mayor the Greens would expect to pick up several council seats in May to increase their number.

Sarah Jennings said: “There is no doubt that John Coyne has the skills and tenacity needed to lead Liverpool and lead it in the right direction.”

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Contact John Coyne 0151 727 7779, 07889 123432, john-coyne@zen.co.uk.

NOTES.
John Coyne joined the Green Party after leaving the Liberal Democrats in 2006 over an ethical issue.  He opposed using the council’s CPO powers to take away people’s homes in the Welsh Streets, L8.  Six years on, those homes lie empty and semi-derelict and there is not even a planning application yet to say what would replace them if they are demolished.

John Coyne was re-elected as a Green in St Michaels ward in 2007.  Cllr Sarah Jennings was elected in the same ward in 2008.  In 2011 John Coyne obtained more that 50% of the vote when re-elected as a Green for a second time.

Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas, the Green’s first MP announced the candidature at the national Green Party conference in Liverpool, 24th February.

Keep visiting this site for updates to our draft manifesto.