Website officer.

Candidate for Manor Castle 2011

I am married with 3 grown up children and have lived in the area since 1979. I am 52 and work at Sheffield City College where I teach adults Skills for Life. I have stood in every local election since 1994. I have also been a General Election candidate, opposing Richard Caborn.

I am standing in this election because we urgently need to change our City Council. The public sector cuts , supported by both the Lib Dems and to a slightly lesser extent, Labour, are unnecessary. Like many other local people, my job is threatened by these cuts.At the last budget debate at the Town Hall only the Green Party Councillors voted against the cuts.

Climate change is already happening, yet Lib Dem and Labour councillors are doing very little about it. The floods we experienced in2007 should mean we start to change the polices in the town hall.

Graham Wroe.

In our ward we need to improve the housing stock so that our homes stay warm and dry without wasting fuel and creating more climate changing gases. Lots of us live in early 1900′s terraced housing which is not very energy efficient. The Green Party has persuaded the Council to fund South Yorkshire Energy Centre, where you can find out how you can reduce your energy bills. I have worked hard to improve my inner city house. It is now well insulated and has solar thermal and pv panels, so we make our own hot water and some of our electricity.

Park Hill is being redeveloped, but I am concerned that so few of the flats will be available for social housing, and little effort seems to have been made to make the redesign eco-friendly. A multi storey car park on the site of the old school is certainly not welcome! Where are the wind turbines and solar panels that could so easily grace such a building?

I am a friend of Sheaf Valley Park and have campaigned for better pedestrian routes down the hill to the railway station. It’s wonderful to see the plans now coming to fruition, and you can see on my blog some of the tree planting I have been involved with. It’s ironic that now  steps have been laid going down the hill to the station entrance, that route is sometimes blocked to pedestrians when they reach the station. I have been campaigning against  East Midlands trains “human barriers” which restrict access to the railway station to ticket holders only. Lots of people use the station to walk into town. The old bridge is completely inappropriate- it is impossible for wheelchair users and has a terrible reputation for muggings. It is very frightening to walk through the dark unlit tunnel. The station say they need to stop access to the station to prevent fare dodging. However it wont stop people buying a ticket for say Meadowhall, and then going much further. To stop fare dodging the best way is to employ more conductors and ticket collectors, rather than preventing pedestrians safely walking to town..

We need to regulate the bus service so that we can rely on good quality public transport. We need good local shops and services, so that we don’t need to travel so much. We need schools that are public services, not trusts that have their own agenda, be it religious or corporate. This ward is now in the crazy position that all three of its local secondary schools are controlled by christian organisations

Personally my work at City College means that I can walk to work, but sometimes I am forced to take the car to travel to other centres around the city and be in time for my next lesson. I am  proud that the college has completed its “green” rebuild which incorporates solar panels, wind turbines and a green roof, but very disappointed that the cuts now mean the closure of many of our community education centres. I have not flown since I returned from teaching in Uganda in 1990 and usually holiday in this country. I experienced the effects of climate change at first hand in Uganda and have been campaigning on it ever since.

In the past Graham campaigned strongly against Bernard Road incinerator as chair of Residents against Bernard Road Incinerator (RABID) and appeared on television during the Greenpeace “Toxic Crime” occupation. He has an election blog at http://manorcastlegreens.sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/

Cuts to vital public services, benefits and pensions are not needed if the government:

• Closes massive tax loopholes

• Gets more people into work

• Cuts Trident nuclear missiles

• Taxes the money markets

• Taxes bank profits and cuts bonuses

Greens say create 1 million new jobs by investing in renewable energy, public transport and housing. Scrap tuition fees and reinstate the Educational Maintenance Allowance.

The Green Party says NO to cuts and YES to investment in jobs.