Green Party Selects Parliamentary Candidate for Witham Constituency

Green Party members voting by postal ballot have selected James Abbott to be the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for the new Witham Constituency.

James has been a Green Party Councillor on Braintree District Council for 9 years representing Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall and has stood in the Braintree Constituency (now to be altered following boundary changes) at every General Election since 1992.

James is married with 3 childen. He runs a small business, is a primary school governor and chairs the local parish council.

James Abbott said:

"I am very pleased to have been selected to contest the new Witham Constituency for the Green Party. Residents of Witham and nearby villages have voted Green in council elections in higher numbers than anywhere else in Essex. There is a strong community sprit in the area with wide interests in green, countryside and social issues.

At the next General Election, for the first time in history it is likely that Greens will be elected to parliament. And in the next few years on a number of councils, including in this region, Greens are for the first time poised to become the major opposition party. Increasingly, Green Councillors are also being elected for the first time on to councils - and I hope Colchester will be one of those in May this year.

The Green agenda has never been more important than now. The other parties have undoubtedly started to recognise the huge issues facing us all. The problem is that they have then cynically done next to nothing about it. So for example whilst the Labour Government talks of its concern for climate change, it is actively supporting a second runway at Stansted and is dictating top-down massive unsustainable building targets across the county. And whilst the Tories want us to believe they have morphed from blue to green, in Essex, the Tory County Council is a big backer of major new roads across the countryside and building a waste incinerator.

More runways, roads, urbanisation and waste burning all add to climate change, all destroy more countryside and hit people's quality of life. Rather than burning waste we should be aiming for the highest recycling levels possible and campaigning to get manufacturers and retailers to phase out wasteful plastic packaging. Rather then build a £400 million new A120 through open countryside, we should be improving the existing road, relieving the villages on it and making it safer whilst minimising environmental damage.

At the next General Election Greens will challenge the other parties on their record on public services. Voters are paying high taxes, but many feel cheated across a range of services - post offices, buses, hospitals, local affordable housing, mental health care and many more. The Green Party strongly supports a much more locally based delivery of services, in the interests of the public, not private companies.

There will be hundreds of Green Party candidates across the UK at the General Election, offering a genuine and credible alternative to the "established" parties. We will be working hard in Witham constituency to get the highest Green vote possible and very much look forward to the challenge."

Further information:
Cllr. James Abbott 01376 584576 M 07951 923073
Green Party Agent for Witham Constituency: Cllr. Philip Hughes 01376 510186

Notes:
The new Witham Constituency consists of the following council wards:

• Braintree District Council
  Black Notley and Terling, Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall, Coggeshall and North Feering, Hatfield Peverel, Kelvedon, Witham Chipping Hill and Central, Witham North, Witham South, and Witham West.
• Maldon District Council
  Great Totham, Tollesbury, Tolleshunt d\u2019Arcy, and Wickham Bishops and Woodham.
• Colchester Borough Council
  Birch and Winstree, Copford and West Stanway, Marks Tey, Stanway and Tiptree.