Category Archives: Uncategorized

Whoops! Short notice! Sorry! Lots going on! Derbyshire Green Party Quarterly Meeting will be held on Wednesday 18th September at 7:30pm in the Rectory (pub), Chesterfield, S40 1SF, handy for both the railway and bus stations (5 mins walk from either). Agenda items should go to coordinator Neil Jackson, details under Contacts here! Agenda will be posted here ASAP. See you there :-)Post car share offers or needs to me, johngreengreenparty@gmail.com

A busy old week for the Green Party across Derbyshire! The Dales Greens Campaign Group are holding a Hustings Evening to kick off the voting for their Prosepective Parliamentary Candidate! Be in the back room of the Remarkable Hare, Matlock, DE4 3LT, Thursday 12th September @ 19:00 to hear the nominees present their case to a rapt audience and answer questions (I think…). And the day before, Derby City Greens are meeting too (see post below!)

The Greens in Derby City will be meeting at 19:30 on 11th September in the parlour of The Brunswick Inn, 1 Railway Terrace, Derby DE1 2RU with a full and fun packed agenda which can be viewed here! Get along if you can! Elections pending and exciting times!! The venue is five minutes walk from Derby Railway Station and is (fairly) well served by buses too. The food is good and the beer is too 🙂

The Derbyshire Dales Green Party Group will be meeting in the Remarkable Hare DE4 3LT on Wednesday 28th August at 19:00. All welcome. Agenda and reports can be seen here

A super day out at the Wild Justice Hen Harrier Day at Carsington. A great buzz around the stall, lots of interest, the raffle was a great success and we sold some stuff too! Huge thanks to all our volunteers 🙂

Derbyshire Green Party will be present at the Wild Justice Hen Harrier Day at Carsington Water on Sunday 11th August  with our stall, eye catching flags and banners and absurdly expensive T-shirts and other regalia for sale! The day is FREE but you should REGISTER first and Wild Justice will ask for an entirely voluntary donation at that point. Car sharing offers are also on that site as there are no buses to Carsington Water on a Sunday (grrrr!) The event runs 12:00-17:00 with a star studded cast of speakers including Chris Packham.  So come along, say Hi, blow your life savings on a t-shirt, convince people to join the Green Party and generally feel good about helping nature! See you there 🙂

Photo courtesy & copyright of Geoff Harries stuartpics.co.uk

The Derbyshire Dales Green Party Group will be holding a Selection Process meeting (with some other items) at the Remarkable Hare, Matlock, DE4 3LT on Wednesday 31st July 2019, gather 18:30 for a 19:00 start. The venue is five minutes walk from Matlock train and bus stations and car parking is available around the back (pay and display) and there are things to lock your bicycles to as well. All welcome, as ever, but the business is mainly Derbyshire Dales constituency related. The agenda is available here. 

Green Party In Derby City are meeting in the back room of the Brunswick Pub, Derby, DE1 2RU on Wednesday 17th July at 19:30. It’s 5 minutes walk from the station and well worth a visit anyway if you enjoy decent food and interesting historic industrial architecture!

There was a good turnout overall for the Climate Emergency Lobby at County Hall Matlock this afternoon and plenty of Derbyshire Greens among them. Councillors were lobbied on entry and on the steps, councillors announced their recent Derbyshire Climate and Carbon Reduction manifesto (all of 4 hours old) which whilst welcome, I think you’ll agree it’s simply NOT ENOUGH ! https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/environment/climate-change/carbon-reduction-manifesto/derbyshire-climate-and-carbon-reduction-manifesto.aspx

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Congratulations to our newly elected District Councillors.

Matt Buckler was elected as District Councillor for Stanton ward.

Neil Buttle was elected as District Councillor for Tideswell.

(Matt Buckler was also elected to Matlock Town Council for the Starkholmes and Riber ward).

And of course many thanks to all those who voted for Green Party candidates across Derbyshire, put up signs, posters, knocked on doors and posted leaflets. Well done everyone.

Across the East Midlands as a whole the Green Party have more than quadrupled our presence on district councils. Let’s try to make sure the trend continues!

Derbyshire Green Party have the following candidates standing in the council elections of May 2nd 2019.

Chesterfield Borough Council:
Walton – Dave Wadsworth

Derby City Council:
Spondon – Vic Wood

Derbyshire Dales District Council:
Ashbourne South – John Hill
Calver – Rob Scott
Darley Dale – Emma Hickling
Hartington and Taddington – John Youatt
Masson – John Green
Stanton – Matt Buckler
Tideswell – Neil Buttle

North East Derbyshire District Council:
Clay Cross South – Yvonne Rowse
Dronfield South – Neil Jackson
Eckington and South Renishaw – Dave Kesteven
Wingerworth – Frank Adlington-Stringer

High Peak and Amber Valley Green Party groups maintain their own web sites, details can be found here:

Amber Valley Green Party https://ambervalley.greenparty.org.uk/
High Peak Green Party https://www.highpeakgreenparty.org.uk

Ian Sleeman

My name is Ian Sleeman and I am the Green Party candidate for Alvaston Ward. I was brought up in Devon but have since made Derby City my home. I work at in the Aerospace Division of Rolls-Royce managing a team of Design Engineers. I am a strong believer in listening and collaborating to get the best results.  Sustainability is my key overarching aim in politics; sustainability in terms of our environment, our economy and our society.

I was born in New York and moved to the UK in the early 70s, becoming a naturalised citizen in 2012.  My parents were dedicated conservationists and ecologists, so I grew up respecting the planet and all that it contains and supports.  My career centred on healthcare and care quality improvement.  I retired from paid employment in 2015 and now work on a voluntary basis for several organisations that promote the voice of the lay person, patient and carer.  My beliefs are based on respect: respect for other people, their values and needs and respect for the wonder and complexity of nature, without which we cannot exist.

I’m standing to be your Green candidate for Darley Ward because I believe everyone has the right to affordable housing, clean streets and to be listened to. I’ve spent the last three years studying for a Politics degree at Hull University, which included an internship working for an MP at Westminster, and I aim to use my experience and expertise to bring bold and fresh ideas to Derby City Council.

Hello Green People of Derby and beyond!

We’re pleased to inform you of the candidates standing for the Green Party in Derby City on May 3rd. We’ll hopefully have additional information on the candidates in the next couple of days, but until then we’re contesting 7 wards as follows –

Abbey – Alice Joy

Allestree – Dan Holme

Alvaston – Ian Sleeman

Chellaston – John Hill

Darley – James Lanser

Mackworth – Naomi Wilds

Spondon – Vic Wood

More info coming soon, any inquiries to DGP Coordinator Dave Wadsworth – d_wadsworth@hotmail.co.uk

Derbyshire Dales District Council’s Local Plan for most of the constituency is currently being Examined in Public at the Town Hall. There are several sessions still to run, up to 23rd May. After that and after 8^th June we’ll have a result.

It is a rampantly Tory driven Plan, unrelentingly relying in part on very harmful greenfield extensions to towns and villages. It is trying to justify a target of 6500 houses against local wishes.

GPEW policy favours community led development

As planner and green activist, I’ve put forward

• reasons why the so called Objectively Assessed Need is mainly external demand, is not local need and is only a target, not a mandate
• that the target should be reduced, because half the housing area is in the Peak Park
• that there is a radical alternative for about 2000 houses – a community-led new village in the lowland south
• that heavy reliance on commercially led town and village extensions is a bad strategy

The officers are stubbornly resisting all alternatives. Liberal and independent councillors have voted against the allocations. 3 of 4 Labour councillors have, to my disappointment, voted for it.

Contact me if you want to know more.

John Youatt          john@youatt.co.uk               01629 636241

We are happy to announce the candidates for the Derbyshire Green Party in the 2017 General Election.

Chesterfield: David Wadsworth
Derby South: Ian Sleeman
Derbyshire Dales: Matthew Buckler
Mid-Derbyshire: Sue MacFarlane
North-East Derbyshire: David Kesteven
South Derbyshire: Marten Kats

We are not standing in Derby North and Bolsover. Other constituencies are covered by other local parties.

Derby Food Assembly is a not for profit food organisation, part of the wider Food Assembly network around Europe. It’s an online farmers market where customers can buy food from local producers and collect it from them directly at one location during the week. Food assemblies encourage people to buy directly from local producers, to link people to local produce and create a community around this food. If you’re in or around Derby, why not sign up- there’s no membership fee and no commitment to buy! https://foodassembly.com/en/assemblies/8002

Once you’ve ordered your food, you can pick it up on Tuesday 5pm – 7pm from the Greyhound on Friar Gate, where you’ll meet the farmers and other food producers.

The food assembly provides producers with a regular market place and allow them to harvest or produce exactly what has been ordered, reducing food waste and time. All producers are from within 30 miles (further for fish of course), reducing the carbon footprint of the food and the project champions local produce. It puts money back into the local community (rather than offshore bank accounts!). It offers a fairer deal and better experience for all.

Greens are enthusiastic supporters of initiatives like the food assembly. The current system of food production and distribution, dominated by industrial agriculture, multinational food corporations and supermarket chains is one of the biggest obstacles to fighting climate change and building a fairer world with resilient local communities. It is also extremely inefficient. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, the value of  food wasted in the world in a single year is around 750 billion pounds and the amount wasted in Europe alone (and yes, the includes the UK) would feed 200 million people!

Congratulations to Derby for having the first food assembly in the county. If anyone has the time and commitment to start one elsewhere, you’ll find some guidelines here https://foodassembly.com/en/p/open.

For a Europe of welcome and hospitality

Tomorrow, June 20th, is World Refugee Day and last week, refugees  lost a passionate advocate when Jo Cox was murdered by a man who appears to believe he was defending our country.

We cannot know yet what exactly triggered this atrocity and I truly believe that political leaders were sincerely shocked and horrified. But there’s no doubt that the referendum campaign has become poisonous – full of fear and hatred.

So, for World Refugee Day, it’s high time to stand up to the fear and hatred, and turn to our basic humanity and to call for our country to stay in Europe, to be part of a caring and compassionate response to the desperate plight of people fleeing war, economic meltdown, and environmental catastrophes (which will only get worse if we don’t work together).

We say no to:

• Participating in or sponsoring wars that bring about death and destruction, and force thousands of people to flee.
• The closure of borders and to the inhuman treatment of people who are seeking safety in our countries.
• Shameful agreements with Turkey and Libya that allow for deportation of refugees in direct violation of Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
• The senseless differentiation between war refugees and people fleeing economic and environmental catastrophes. Wars, the global economic crisis and environmental disasters have causes that are directly connected and they all rob entire populations of the possibility of survival.

We also need a responsible media that refuses to take part in spreading disinformation and unfounded alarmism about non-existent “invasions” and rising threat of terrorism from refugees. In fact, the numbers are manageable with cooperation between European states.

On World Refugee Day, let’s reject the barbed wire, fences, detention camps, and the fear of the “other”, the “different”. Let’s build a Europe of welcome and hospitality.