Local and National Policy

In Sheffield, we are part of the decentralised  national Green Party and aim to create a just, equitable and sustainable local community throughout the City. We focus our efforts primarily, though not exclusively, through the electoral system. If you want to learn more, then take a visit to the about us pages. 

Our Principles

The Green Party has Ten Core Values, and a longer explanation, called the Philosophical Basis, of the underlying thinking and motives behind our policies. 

Local Policies

This is the summary of our mini manifesto for the 2010 Elections. The full mini manifesto is a pdf which can be downloaded here. 

We believe strongly in:

Investing in green jobs, with fair wages and incomes; Fairness for all in housing, education, health and transport; Helping communities work together to become closer, stronger and safer; Tackling action that harms others or our planet 

Jobs, the economy and equality

We are in favour of investing for a more equal society, creating jobs, increasing pensions and child benefits, and making the tax system fair. In Sheffield we would invest over £10million from the Council to create hundreds of jobs by insulating, and installing renewable energy in, houses and council buildings across the city. We actively support policies favouring local and independent businesses and organisations, instead of national and multinational chains. 

Everyday life and public services

We argue for the investment needed for high-quality housing, education, health and other public services. We are against cuts in jobs, the privatisation of public services, mindless performance targets, and wasteful Private Finance Initiative deals. 

Communities and the environment

We believe each community in Sheffield should have easy access to important local facilities, including shops, schools and post office services. We are pressing for safer and more harmonious streets and neighbourhoods, via crime prevention measures and action to address noise nuisance. We are pushing hard for 20mph speed limits on all residential streets in Sheffield, other than main routes, so as to improve road safety. We would spend more on walking, cycling and public transport in Sheffield, through measures including an extra £1m on more pedestrian crossings, cycle schemes and secure bike parking, and re-regulating bus services. We argue that reducing how much is wasted should be the priority of any waste management strategy, then dealing with waste by re-use, repair and recycling using local business and social enterprise. A pdf of this mini manifesto leaflet can be downloaded and printed off here. In 2006 we published a much more detailed manifesto,which was updated in 2007 and  is available here. 

National Policies

The election manifesto for the 2010 General Election is here. A good summary of our national policies can be found here. The National Green Party has a library of A5 documents called policy pointers which are intended both as introductions to GP policies and as downloadable leaflets which can be used by activists for campaigning. Policies For a Sustainable Society contains all the policies agreed at successive Green Party conferences. These are our main detailed policies which are elucidated and illustrated from time to time in news releases, topical comment, reports etc. There is a large library of national Green Party reports on many different issues here. You can download a ‘zipped’ version of the whole PfSS (about 340KB) as a set of HTML pages. You will need WinZip, a similar program or a recent version of Windows to decompress the file. Use ‘Save file to disk’ to place the file mfss.zip in an empty folder. Double click on it to unzip in that folder and open the file index.html to view the list of contents. 

Can’t find what you’re looking for?

Please check the sections of the Manifesto for a Sustainable Society closest to your subject of interest. You might also find what you’re looking for on a given subject under articles, archives, elections, isues, letters and news. 

If you can’t find the policy you want or have a more detailed question, please contact the Green Party Policy Coordinator: Eamonn Ward

If you would like to suggest ways that would make it easier to find specific policy, then please email us at Sheffield Green Party