Jonathan Bartley: don’t let your councils be dominated by a single party Today, the Green Party launched our boldest ever local election campaign, embarking on the journey to see a Green on […]

Today, the Green Party launched our boldest ever local election campaign, embarking on the journey to see a Green on every council across Britain. I am proud to lead a party which values plurality in politics and believes that democracy is strengthened, not weakened, by having more voices in the room. This is just as true at the grassroots as it is in the Houses of Commons, and today the Green Party set out its ambition to deliver plurality for every community.

Across our countries in recent years we have seen the danger one-party state councils pose to communities. These councils have become so cosy, complacent and callous they have forgotten the communities they are meant to represent. Just one Green can hold councils to account, and provide a badly needed voice of opposition.

We see that in places like Islington, where Caroline Russell, as the Council’s lone voice of opposition, consistently stands up for residents and pushes the Labour council to tackle issues like the damp homes on the Parkview Estate.

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The danger of one-party state councils

For contrast, you only have to look at a place like Haringey to see what happens when one party builds an unchallenged claim on power, even when it’s a progressive party like Labour. Haringey lost touch with their community so much their own residents took them to the High Court. In response to their plans to turf people out of their homes, and bulldoze entire neighbourhoods, a groundswell of resistance led to the Council leader having to quit her post.

A horribly similar story is unfolding in Lambeth, where I am running for council, so we can have more greens ready to defend social housing against Labour’s wrecking-ball plans for estate demolition and community destruction.

This isn’t what people were voting for when they put a cross in the box of a Labour candidate. But without the radical vision of a Green in the room to hold these one-party councils to account – what’s to stop this backslide towards the neoliberal consensus and elite interests?

Caroline Lucas is proof of the power of having a Green in the room

As co-leader with Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s only MP, I can tell you first-hand how important it is to have a Green in the room when we’re shaping the future of this country. Too often, Caroline stands as the lone voice of dissent on the most pressing issues, especially when the opposition are weak, whipped or have just wandered off. She has spent many long, lonely nights on the opposition benches, speaking out against the Government on issues from climate change to the privatisation of the NHS and shambolic state of our train services.

It’s the same for Jenny Jones, our colleague in the House of Lords, who is currently providing much needed scrutiny of the Government’s appalling EU Withdrawal Bill. And it’s the same for countless Green councillors up and down the country, from Alison Teal in Sheffield forcing back Labour on their outrageous tree felling crusade, to Gina Dowding in Lancashire leading the fight against fracking, or David Thomas in Oxford standing up against a council fining beggars and cutting support for homeless people. When you elect a Green, the impact is huge. And nowhere is that more true than in the local council chamber.

This May, you could vote for a candidate from one of the big parties, and get yet another cardboard cut-out councillor – towing the party line and overseeing business as usual. Or you could vote Green. Every community who chooses a Green voice to represent them will get a councillor who challenges that consensus, holds the council to account, and injects real democracy into their local authority.

Green councillors will always be a bold and brave voice for their community speaking truth to power when it matters the most. And let’s be honest. One more councillor from one of the big parties won’t make much of a difference. But one Green could change everything.