Many thanks to Simeon for translating these campaign videos and to Martin Dobson for production.

A Vision For Transport

John presents his vision for transports in a modern, generous, sharing, and environmentally responsible city.

Liverpool, A City We Are Proud To Share!

John explains why he is standing at the Liverpool Mayoral elections.

Simeon Hart lives in Liverpool since 2001. He is standing to be elected Councillor because he wants to deliver the needs of people and communities. He has a strong track record as a campaigner for Deaf & Disabled people to get fair and equal access not only to employment, apprenticeships and education but in everyday life in the society. Including politics! In Liverpool Central ward, vote for Simeon on the third of May 2012.

Click on the “videos” tab to watch.

St Michaels ward saw a rise in unemployment of over 10% last year. Because of this, the ward has qualified for funding from the Community Development Foundation. We have established a panel that includes members of the ward’s residents associations and community groups, an RSL, and council officers, who will assess bids from ward-based groups who would like to offer a service or project that would benefit the ward. Whatever the group can offer, the panel will match fund – this could be in cash, or labour. The maximum bid from each group is £2,500. If you belong to an organisation that has a project that needs funding, please contact Sarah Jennings in the first instance: sarah.jennings@liverpool.gov.uk or on 07969 257420, or follow the link to download an application form.

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.

In response to the news that further central government restrictions will cap any council tax rise in the Liverpool to 1.85%, Green councillors are proposing an amendment that will let Liverpool residents make a decision on their council tax for the coming year.

The Greens are calling for a referendum to let the people of the city, rather than Conservative minister Eric Pickles, decide whether we can protect services that will otherwise be reduced or lost due to central government cuts. In an amendment to Labour’s budget, the Greens have proposed a city wide referendum on a 4% council tax rise.

Sarah Jennings, leader of the Green Group on the council, said:”The people of Liverpool should decide whether we should use the only power left to us to defend local services, through an increase in council tax. This is the only way we can realistically protect vital services for vulnerable people in our city.”

John Coyne, Mayoral candidate for the Greens added: “This Conservative and Liberal Democrat government is on a damaging path of centralised cuts. These are damaging our city and our communities. The people of Liverpool deserve the chance to vote to protect services that will otherwise be lost. I urge the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Liberal groups to back our amendment and let the people decide.”

AMENDMENT

The Green Party group recognises the extreme pressures faced in drawing
up a budget for 2012/13 and planning for subsequent years.  Therefore
any criticism of the administration's budget will be fair.  We welcome
the change of mind on three issues which were part of a previous Green
Party amendment to the January interim budget meeting: retaining Bulky
Bobs as a free service, protecting school uniform grants and restoring
some funding for child and adolescent mental health services.

The council must set a legal, balanced budget and there are no easy
choices.   This amendment does not and cannot change the nature of the
choices that need to be made.  Instead it seeks to reduce the scale of
future service cuts mainly by increasing the only tax which the city
council controls - the council tax.  Our disagreement with the
administration is not on what kind of cuts will need to be made, but on
how many and how deep.

One capital investment, in particular, should be welcomed and that is
the plan to deal with the problem of the dangerous unadopted roads near
Sefton Park.  The £6m cost over two years would be planned to be
financed by unsupported borrowing.  We welcome this long overdue
improvement however we do not wish to see the future spending cuts
caused by servicing and repaying a new debt of that size.  We propose
instead to apply the effect of a 4% increase in council tax to reduce
and repay that borrowing.

The government has recently imposed a "cap within a cap" for Liverpool
which limits our ability to ask citizens for more than a 1.85% rise in
council tax without having to hold a referendum.  We believe that the
future finances of the council and its ability to cope with a worsening
funding crisis cannot be managed without breaking out of this government
stranglehold.  Previously we had planned to move a 3.5% council tax
increase believing that this would not have triggered a referendum.  The
increase to 4% allows for the cost of a referendum and of some slippage
if the budget decision is delayed.

The time has come for the people of Liverpool to be asked to reject the
government's perverse micro management of this local authority's
finances.  Having won a referendum once, the council would be likely win
again if the government tried to reject the democratic wishes of the
people to protect vital services for vulnerable people in future years.

This amendment also proposes the following savings which would also be
used to reduce and repay unsupported borrowing.  Costs of financing such
borrowing have to be found from future council budgets, adding pressure
for further and deeper spending cuts.

(1) Save at least £60,000 p.a. by removing the right of councillors to
have free car parking and by removing the right of councillors to
reclaim mileage or any travel expenses incurred within the city
boundary.  Councillors would, instead, absorb those travel costs from
within their basic allowances.

(2) Council gives up its policy of refusing to allow mobile phone
antennae on council-owned buildings, except for school buildings.  That
policy, having been ineffective in preventing the spread of mobile
telephony, serves no purpose other than sometimes to displace antennae
onto less suitable locations.  Potential income from rental of
council-owned antennae sites is hard to estimate but may be of the order
of £25,000 p.a.

(3) Discontinue City Magazine with a saving of £111,000 p.a.

ENDS.

With the end of the pantomime season we are no longer able to suspend disbelief over the “real soon now” prospect of re-opening of the Festival Gardens.

But maybe it really is on its way this time.  The Land Trust think so and they should know because they will be responsible for running the reopened ornamental gardens and, ultimately, the entire riverside park.

You could be forgiven for seeing the Gardens as accident-prone and there have been a number of setbacks, causing slippage amounting to a whole calendar year. But I believe the Land Trust when they say we are very close to “practical completion” and handover from Langtree.  Public access around Easter looks like it is on the cards and that would be wonderful.

The latest setback was the collapse of the intended managing agents Groundwork Merseyside, due to the deterioration in the funding climate for charitable and environmental organisations.  It now looks like Land Trust are willing to create some temporary directly-employed posts to make sure the Gardens can open while a permanent managing agent is being found.

The opening up (or not) of a major piece of open space is something which has been scrutinised at the Environment and Climate Change Select Committee, which I chair.  It meets again on Wednesday 15th March and members of the public are invited to lodge written questions. Environment and Climate Change Select Committee 15/03 or attend on the night.

John Coyne

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.

Liverpool Green Party is opening up another Fringe Meeting to members of the public.  At 12.30 on Monday 27th Feb, Green councillor John Coyne will lead a discussion on policies for “core cities” such as Liverpool.

We will look at the challenge and opportunity created by the direct election of city mayors and we will hear from guest speaker Liam Fogarty on the constitutional issues of having a directly elected mayor.  Liam is a long standing, principled campaigner on that issue and he is a declared candidate for the election here on 3rd May.  (No endorsement is implied in either direction between the Greens and Liam Fogarty.)

The Fringe takes place in the Derby Room at the Adelphi Hotel.  Please use the entrance on Mount Pleasant and refer to this invitation.