Mid Sussex Greens: We will use our local voices to stand up to government

Across the country, elected Greens are holding council colleagues to account, raising and campaigning on issues that matter to local people and standing with communities to ensure their voices are heard.

In Mid-Sussex, development is a hot topic. We believe that everyone has the right to a safe warm home and recognise the need for more homes, particularly genuinely affordable and social housing.

But huge new developments should be a last resort after empty properties have been brought back into use.

All new-build homes should be equipped with solar panels or other renewable-energy technology, and local authorities should adhere to annual carbon reduction targets.

We will hold developers and councils to account to invest in the infrastructure needed to support new homes. It’s simply not good enough that thousands of homes are built but patients can’t access local health services and children can’t access local education.

In new and existing developments, we want to ensure safer streets through lower traffic speeds and better transport planning, with the vision that every child can walk, cycle or scoot safely to school, and play outside in clean air, away from harm.

Everyone has the right to breathe clean air, so we will defend urban green spaces and push for effective local plans to identify and end dangerous air pollution in our streets.

We will support small, local business for the revival of our town centres. We will fight the destruction of community assets such as the Martlets centre and the library in Burgess Hill. We will work with other parties and the entire community for the good of the population.

On national issues, we will use our local voices to stand up to the government on cuts to school budgets, essential care services and push for better local care services and better funding for our NHS.

This piece is part of a series where all the major parties were invited to share their priorities for the district in the lead up to the Mid Sussex District Council elections.

Polling day is Thursday May 2.