Green Party Spring Conference 22nd - 25th March, Swansea

19 March 2007

Greens to meet with high hopes of further election wins in May.

The Green Party Spring Conference 2007 is being held at Brangwyn Hall, Guildhall Road South, Abertawe / Swansea 22nd to 25th March. Eastern Region Green Party members will be travelling to Wales for the conference with high hopes of further election wins at the forthcoming May 3rd elections.

A key message from conference will be to demonstrate the failure of the other parties to reverse the serious environmental damage being inflicted on our planet and the contradiction between their claims on wanting to tackle climate change and their actual actions. Whilst the Labour and Tory party machines churn out concern over climate change, their MPs and councillors are busying themselves at local and regional level supporting major roadbuilding schemes, airport expansion and larger container ports - all of which add to greenhouse gas emissions.

The Greens are continuing to make progress at all levels of governance in the UK and core Green issues are riding high on the political agenda. At the recent Northern Ireland Assembly elections, the Greens gained their first seat. In Scotland, the Greens are poised to gain more members of the Scottish Parliament and there are hopes of a first seat in the Welsh Assembly elections.

In the local elections, there will be a strong showing of Green candidates across the UK with a high likelyhood that the number of Green Principal Authority Councillors will pass the 100 mark for the first time in the party's history.

In Eastern Region, Greens are working hard to add to the seats they already hold on councils such as Norwich, Watford and Braintree as well as gaining their first seats in Cambridge and Colchester.

Debates and discussions at conference will include:

A series of motions on climate change and carbon reduction targets.
Localisation, with a panel including Dr Molly Scot Cato, economics spokesperson and a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff.
Education - including how education can influence how our young people will treat the environment.
Energy - looking at the future for renewable energy in Wales and beyond, including the Swansea Tidal Lagoon and the Severn Barrage.

There will be keynote speeches from the party's Principal Speakers Siân Berry and Dr Derek Wall. Siân was recently selected to be the Green's London Mayoral candidate.

Ahead of the local elections in May, another Labour councillor in Eastern Region has become the latest to decide to defend his seat under the banner of the Green Party. Ernie Goody, Borough and Town councillor for Haverhill East, has been welcomed into the Green Party, which he says better matches his constituents' interests as well as his own beliefs.

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