--- election_year: 2008 party_id: green party_name: Green Party party_leader: Siân Berry political_spectrum: left victory: false government_outcome: opposition sections: - economy - taxation - health - education - housing - immigration - defence - foreign-policy - environment - transport - law-and-order - welfare - democracy-and-constitution - agriculture - energy - devolution - science-and-technology - local-government --- # Green Party London Mayoral Manifesto 2008 VOTE FOR THE GREEN PARTY www.sianformayor.org.uk Green Party CHANGE LONDON FOR GOOD ## INTRODUCTION ## A green affordable London Life is a struggle for ordinary people in London. If it’s not chaos on our transport network, it’s the high cost of living, the daily battle to make a living wage, or crazy levels of rent and mortgages. Most Londoners work too hard, pay too much and earn too little to enjoy our city properly. Our policies for London will make London greener and also make life for the people of our city more affordable. For the Greens, these things go hand in hand. Our homes are leaking cash as well as carbon with some of the worst insulation rates in the country and more than 1 in 20 families living in fuel poverty. By providing free insula-tion for all homes we can help both homeowners and tenants save money on their bills and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time. Instead of building new nuclear power stations, whose waste has to travel past Londoners’ backyards, we can generate electricity and heat locally, and use more of our natural renew-able resources to make London more self-sufficient and more secure in its energy supply. Rather than a new motorway bridge in East London, we need a public transport system that is cheaper and better run, so that people can choose to leave their cars behind. And we need to redesign our city so that local shops and services are within an easy walk for all and cre-ate streets that are as friendly to cyclists as those in Copenhagen. Too many Londoners struggle on the minimum wage, while research shows that a real, liv-ing wage of £7.20 is currently needed to get by in our city. We would make sure public em-ployees all receive this amount and step up efforts to force all employers to follow our lead. We have a different vision of a more secure and resilient basis for London’s economy: one that will last beyond high oil prices and which will also provide good jobs and the local shops and services we need for a healthy city. Locally-produced food, locally-owned small businesses and new green industries will all be helped to flourish by the Greens. Greens on the London Assembly have taken the lead in promoting a quality of life agenda for London, to begin to realise the modern, high-quality, sustainable transport, public serv-ices, housing and vibrant local communities we all deserve. Our vision is clear: a city arranged and run on a human scale that enriches the lives of every-one and leaves no-one on the edges. A greener city, a healthier society, a more secure future and more affordable lives for ordinary Londoners. Help us bring this vision closer by voting Green in the Mayor and Assembly elections on May 1 2008. Siân Berry, Mayor of London candidate for the Green Party ## Key green policies for London: * Free insulation for every home that needs it. * Cut bus and tube fares. * Insist all employers pay a London Living Wage * More affordable housing - 60% of all new homes * Affordable premises for small shops and businesses * No airport expansion * Rail and tube franchises back under public control * Public transport not new roadbuilding * Solar energy on 100,000 roofs * 20mph speed limit on all residential roads * Safer Neighbourhood policing around the clock ## CLIMATE CHANGE ### Walking the walk From Stern to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN, one authoritative report after another warns of the certainty of man-made climate change and the danger of delay or prevarication. Global temperatures are rising, leading to extreme weather conditions, species extinction, higher sea levels, and loss of livelihoods for millions of farmers worldwide. Greens in the London Assembly have ensured a dramatic boost in the resources available for tackling climate change in the previous four years. Greens have used their influence over the Mayor’s budget to deliver a comprehensive Green Homes Service to provide advice and practical support to all Londoners wanting to make their homes greener, to provide cut-price insulation for Londoners and major investment in cycling and walking. Greens pledge to build on these achievements in the next term. The Green Party’s plan for a low-carbon London: * Extend the free home insulation scheme to everyone who needs it. * Solar electricity and heating on 100,000 roofs in Greater London by 2015. * Ensure all new developments that the Mayor has direct control over are carbon neutral. * Use planning powers to introduce a ‘renewables escalator’ for new buildings - requiring progressively higher proportions of locally-produced renewable energy. * Low cost loans and paperwork help for householders who want to install renewable energy. * Cut emissions from buildings by introducing a street-by-street programme across the whole of London to deliver energy improvements. * Follow Green Homes Service with Green Schools Service to provide advice, expertise and support for emissions reduction in London’s schools. * Step-up the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan reduction target to 85% by 2025. * Bring in investment to fund the creation of a decentralised energy network across London. This could operate on a similar basis to the funding of transport infrastructure, where the Mayor can raise capital for major work through issuing bonds. * Lead by example by working to ensure the GLA Group, including transport, * police and fire services becomes a zero-carbon public body. * Skills training for Londoners to manufacture, install and maintain green energy systems. * Switch to cleaner vehicles, reduce traffic and promote massive increase in walking and cycling. * Protection for green space and increased tree planting. * Make it easier for householders to gain planning permission for small-scale renewables. * Oppose airport expansion and promote reduction in flying. ## WASTE Two-thirds of London’s waste is currently sent to landfill in the surrounding regions. If London’s waste authorities fail to divert a significantly higher proportion of waste from landfill, they could face fines of up to £2.4 billion by 2020 under the EU Landfill Directive. These current arrangements are clearly unsustainable and ineffective. Greens support the establishment of a single Waste Authority for London. This would enable London to manage its own waste problem, improve strategic planning, increase accountability, and achieve greater efficiencies. The Green Party will: * Adopt a London Zero Waste strategy, to minimize waste and maximize recycling, with targets for completing key stages. * Work to end incineration in London and invest in new sustainable waste technology to create renewable energy. * Encourage retailers and manufacturers to reduce packaging and use recycled, recyclable materials. * Support the recycling industry, including paper-recycling mills, electronics recycling, plastics recycling plants, and re-use/refurbishment plants - all creating new green jobs. * Ensure all London households get comprehensive weekly doorstep recycling and composting collections. * Produce a public information campaign on the benefits of re-using materials. * Support legislation to eliminate the use of free, throwaway carrier bags. * Start a “money-back” scheme for containers returned to retailers. * Promote business recycling, including for pubs and clubs. * Campaign to end the scandal of nuclear waste transport through London. ## LOCAL ECONOMY ### Putting people before profit London’s economy is increasingly dependent on large, multinational financial institutions at the expense of locally produced goods and services. Large corporations can relocate globally to wherever labour costs are lowest. The results for Londoners are lack of job security, greater income inequalities and high house prices. The Green vision is for a London where each area benefits from a strong local economy and local services. The Green strategy will create 100,000 new jobs in transport and the environment sectors and include: ### JOBS * “Jobs for Londoners” initiative, to develop training and secure jobs, especially for unemployed people. * Provide 10,000 places on training courses in home energy assessment installation of insulation and green energy measures. * New jobs in creative industries, manufacturing and local public services. ### WAGES * Work to end poverty pay and get all private and public employers in the whole of London to pay the London Living Wage as a minimum. * Major public information campaign to encourage greater take-up of benefits to boost London’s poorest local economies and tackle poverty. * Pension fund reform, linking pensions to public finance, not dependence on the stock market. * Tackle the exploitation of low-paid migrant workers. ### LOCAL EMPOWERMENT * Farmers’ markets expanded to sell other local goods and produce. London’s historic markets promoted and re-established. Local delivery and “shop local” schemes promoted. * A site-here-to-sell here policy. To encourage local production for local needs, local authorities and businesses will be encouraged to source their goods locally and only go outside the London economy if absolutely necessary. * A London Co-operatives Unit to support, develop and help establish workers co-operatives in London. * Work with local communities to develop local credit unions, local exchange * trading systems (LETS), community banks and time banks. * Push for local authority control over business rates and preferential rates for small businesses. * Encourage government procurement to favour local providers and use ethical criteria. * Encourage more companies to have ethical audits, calling for stronger social and environmental reporting for large corporations. ## FOOD ### Healthy and local London’s food supply is currently highly unsustainable and does not provide healthy food for the people who need it most. Around eighty per cent of London’s food supply is imported from abroad and one third of all household waste is food-related. At the same time, four out of every ten London children live below the poverty line and are unlikely to have access to nutritious food. **The Green strategy for healthy food for all Londoners:** * Campaigning for a GM-free London, and a ban on all GM in school meals. * Organic, vegetarian and vegan options in schools, hospitals and other public services. * All junk food and drinks vending machines removed from schools. * Action to improve access to affordable, healthy, nutritious food in poorer areas. * Work to make London a fair-trade city. * An updated Food Strategy to promote carbon reduction measures. * Decent living wages and conditions for those working in the food sector. * Extend free-range poultry policy across public sector and at public events. * Promotion of organic and locally-grown food. * A plan to help at least 30 per cent of London farmers go organic by 2012. * 1,000 new allotment plots by 2012 and protection of existing ones. * Work to increase number of farmers’ markets, to at least two per borough London-wide. * Support for food co-ops and community food initiatives. * Active support for people to grow food and compost at home. # TRANSPORT ## Greens will get you places We continue to waste millions of hours waiting for buses, tubes and trains, or putting up with wrong information or traffic going nowhere reliably. Privatisation has lowered standards, making public transport less safe, less reliable and more expensive. Private profits are being put before passenger safety and the public good. Often, flying is cheaper than taking the train. Achieving a major cultural shift from driving to cycling, walking and public transport is central to the development of London as a sustainable, thriving and liveable city. The Green programme for transport in London includes: ### PUBLIC TRANSPORT - TRAINS, BUSES & FARES * Work to ensure all tube services and London rail services are brought back into public ownership and run directly by TfL. * Protection from station closures and proper staffing of stations - working alongside the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation. * All new tube/rail/DLR stations and all major refurbishments to be zero-carbon. * All electricity for tube/rail/DLR to be from renewable sources, with the aim of sourcing all that energy from within London by 2025. * Investment in new tramways and orbital rail routes for outer London. * All new buses to be electric hybrids from 2009 onwards. A continuation of the project to shift buses and coaches to hydrogen fuel from renewable sources. * Put speed limiters on all London buses and TfL vehicles, along with the majority of black cabs and mini-cabs. Work in partnership with public and private sector to install them on other vehicles. * No TfL or Met Police vehicles to use bio-fuels unless it comes from certified sources which meet strict criteria. * Affordable fares: Freeze peak tube fares and cut bus fares and off-peak tube fares. * Permit transferable travelcard within low income households. * An end to travel discrimination against disabled people. Seamless bus/rail/tube transfers for the disabled, with at least 50 per cent accessibility by 2015 and full access by 2020. ### TAMING THE CAR - CONGESTION & ROADS * Maintain the new higher congestion charge for the most polluting vehicles. * Develop more sophisticated road pricing to target the most congested streets in London. * Reduce traffic 20% by 2012 in every town centre in London through a package approach to smarter travel measures, with travel plans for all schools and large businesses, personalised travel advice and car clubs. * 20mph default speed limit across London with named exceptions for key main roads. * Take all illegal drivers off London’s roads and set up a special investigation team to both prosecute drivers who are repeat offenders and pursue all hit and run drivers. * All new black cabs to be low emission vehicles. * Drop the Thames Gateway Motorway Bridge proposal for a new six lane road and spend the money on sustainable transport instead. * Extend the Low Emission Zone to all light goods vehicles to protect the health of Londoners by meeting our European Union targets for improving air quality. * Abolish all the big one-way systems in London by 2020, beginning with a dozen of the worst. * All new developments in London to be virtually car free (parking for disabled people and car club vehicles only) except where there are minimal public transport links. * Action to get freight off roads and onto rail and water, making full use of London’s canal network. * A “Road Safety Unit” of at least three police officers in every borough. ### HUMAN SCALE - CYCLING & WALKING * A concentrated package of new facilities and other measures to treble cycling around town centres by 2012. * Increase cycling from 2% to 20% by 2025. * Ensure the budget for the completion of the London Cycle Network Plus (LCN+) to a high standard in all 33 boroughs with effective removal of all barriers and strong network links between boroughs. * New cycle parking for 500,000 bikes by 2012, with new facilities at work, near shops and in London’s schools/colleges. * Greater provision for transporting cycles on trains and taxis, to help improve integrated public transport and seamless low-impact travel. * Create a Paris-style mass cycle hire scheme by 2009 and include all Olympic venues by 2012. * Deliver free on-road cycle training for London’s children, subsidised training for adults of all abilities and compulsory cycle training for highway engineers and transport planners. * Continue the London Freewheel as an annual event, but also organise a similar mass participation, London-wide “cycle to work and school” day. * Display cycling maps, including family-friendly routes, at key locations such as stations and town centres as prominently as bus maps. * Deliver the Legible London project throughout London. This creates a set of pan-London pedestrian maps/signs, on the street and on the web, to promote walking. * All **green man** pedestrian crossings to meet national standards on crossing times. Installation of **green man** crossings at all signalised junctions which are likely to be used regularly by pedestrians. * Create a Central London Pedestrian Zone to link Regent’s Park to the North, Hyde Park to the West, Battersea Park to the South, and St Paul’s to the East. This would include, widening pavements, enforcing 20mph, marking the zone on new pedestrian wayfinding maps, restricting vehicle access, clearing street clutter, and improving disabled access. * Encourage local authorities to adopt the ‘Naked Streets’ approach on streets with high pedestrian use, by removing barriers that encourage the prioritisation of vehicles - and to redefine our sense of collective responsibility, especially towards disabled people. ### AVIATION Air travel is subsidised to the tune of £9 billion per year, yet is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. #### Green Party policies include: * Close City Airport and turn it into an eco-housing village and Green Industries Park to provide sustainable employment for East London. * Continue to fight expansion of Heathrow and Stansted. * A congestion charge for air traffic and action to make rail travel cheaper and more convenient than flying. * A ban on night flights. ## PUBLIC SERVICES ### Public ownership and accountability A decent quality of life for all Londoners requires good quality and accessible public services. Public services need to be efficient, effective and well-resourced. They also need higher levels of public funding - from central government and from local public funding sources. More public services should be provided locally, and be free at the point of use. Greens will always fight to save threatened local services across London - such as health centres, nurseries, schools, libraries, post offices and advice centres. We campaign against privatisation, which puts profit before the public service ethos, undermines local, public control and threatens local jobs. Quality public services cannot be provided if staff are poorly paid or have insecure terms and conditions. Investing in public services must also mean investing in public sector staff, with secure employment and a living wage. We will work with trade unions to defend, maintain and improve public services in London. Key elements of the Green commitment to high quality public services for Londoners: ### PUBLIC OWNERSHIP * Ensure decent high-quality public services and amenities are within walking distance for everyone. * More free health services. * Invest in local libraries, to provide an improved stock and services to meet diverse local needs. * Re-introduce free, easily accessible public toilets, with attendants, across London. * Protect waterways and all green open spaces - parks, playing fields and nature reserves. * Action to bring the Royal Parks under the democratic control of the Greater London Authority. ### ACCOUNTABILITY * A London-wide Youth Investment Fund to deliver training, leisure and support projects for young people. * An action plan for more affordable, high quality childcare. * An action plan to improve public services for older people. * A comprehensive advice and benefit service for older and vulnerable citizens. * A GLA strategy to improve services and service-access for disabled people - drawn up with the full involvement of London’s disability groups. * A quarterly GLA Community Groups Forum on Public Services, so all of London’s community and minority groups can give their views. * A London Public Services Standard - to ensure decent standards of local public services for all. * Introduction of a new Capital Standard Programme to ensure that all litter and fly-tipping is removed within 24 hours of being reported. ### EDUCATION Though the Mayor and Assembly do not have overall responsibility for schools policy, Greens are opposed to the development and expansion of City Academies. They are contrary to our policy on non-selective publicly-funded education accountable to local control. We are against the establishment of Trust schools, which potentially give external interests undue weight in state education by allowing business, religious and other parties to take positions on school boards. Education is lifelong. Further, adult and higher education should be open and affordable to people throughout their lives, supported via a system of grants. Elected governors representing communities, students and teaching unions should manage all sectors of education. On faith schools, Greens argue that schools should provide education about other cultures and religions in order to help children to understand the way that other people live and to respect others’ choices. We are not in favour of public funding for schools run by religious groups. ## HOUSING ### Green, affordable homes Everyone should be able to live in an affordable, secure and decent home - but London’s unbalanced economy and housing market make this impossible for a great many Londoners. At the same time, current economic and planning policies fuel the overheating of London’s economy at the expense of other regions, causing unmanageable housing pressure on London and population loss in other regions. We advocate a more balanced approach to regional development, which will relieve housing pressure on London. The housing crisis is largely due to Labour failing to replace the 1.5 million homes, a large proportion of them in London, that were part of the housing stock of local authorities through the right to buy legislation. As a result there are approximately 1.5 million people registered on the waiting lists of local authorities. Greens will press Government to fundamentally reform the Right to Buy system - to end discounts for Right to Buy and ensure all receipts are used to build new social housing on a “one sold - one built” basis. Urgent action is needed to improve housing for Londoners - including greater re-use and renovation of unused buildings and the building of sustainable new homes which meet Londoners’ needs, not the interests of property developers. Greater action is also required to tackle London’s chronic homelessness problem and to provide appropriate shelter for people sleeping rough in the capital. These problems can only properly be addressed by a co-ordinated, London-level approach. The Green Party advocates: ### PROVISION * Use the Mayor’s strategic housing powers to ensure the provision of high quality, truly affordable homes for Londoners in order to * set targets to end homelessness. * make full use of empty buildings. * oversee the renovation of substandard estates and housing. * ensure sufficient new home-building to tackle the housing crisis, subject to protection of green spaces. * enable those who wish to move across London to take up available social housing. * Supporting retention and expansion of council housing, by restoring the grant to local government and putting a stop to privatisation and the loss of social homes through “right to buy”. * Higher targets for more sheltered and accessible housing. * Borough-level targets to match supply with need across the full range of tenures and household sizes. ### SUSTAINABILITY * Extend the free insulation scheme to everyone in London to encourage energy efficiency. * A London strategy to end fuel poverty, with targets for fuel poverty reduction and monitoring. * New requirements for all new housing developments to say they must * include at least 60 per cent truly affordable housing, even in small-scale sites have secure parking for bicycles. * Ambitious targets for car-free housing, giving more space to house people, less for car-parks. ## HEALTH ### Healthy people, strong NHS Health is the cornerstone of a decent quality of life. London’s huge health inequalities are a reflection of its scandalous divide between rich and poor. It has been said that for each station we travel East on the Jubilee line between Westminster and Canning town, the inhabitants have one year lost from their life expectancy. Many Londoners are not receiving adequate health service provision and do not get enough exercise for a good standard of health. Green policies seek to reduce these imbalances. In addition, a Green Mayor would campaign strongly alongside trade unions against the closure of vital local services. It is not good enough to treat people when they are unwell. We also believe that preventing illness by helping Londoners live healthier lives is central to the role of the Mayor’s Health Equality Agenda. Greens will continue to defend, and take every step to restore, an NHS that is publicly-owned and free to all at the point of use. We see access to healthcare as a basic human right, not a commodity to be bought or sold. ### The Green Party’s plan for a healthier London: **COMMITTED TO** * Ensuring the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy addresses all the factors causing poor health among Londoners. * Better, publicly-funded health services, with more services free at the point of use - including prescriptions, eye-tests and dental treatment, and better access to contraception and family planning services. * Greater action on the social factors leading to poor health, including unemployment and poor education and housing. * Specific measures to ensure health services meet the needs of disabled people. * Better treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS with action to help reduce social exclusion. * Tougher action to tackle London’s poor air quality - a major cause of respiratory illness. * Promotion of the benefits of regular exercise, especially walking and cycling. ### LOCAL PROVISION * Increased local provision and local access to services. * Community health centres to help bring more healthcare provision out into local areas but avoiding the involvement of profit-making corporations. * Healthcare workers, patients, carers, and local residents involved in setting health priorities through local decision-making bodies. ### CAMPAIGNING * Outright opposition to the Private finance initiative (PFI) and Foundation hospitals. Both will lead to an uneven service and threaten the quality of local hospitals. They will undermine public provision and public accountability only to increase public debt. * Hospital cleanliness has deteriorated since private firms were given the task of cleaning them. We would step-up in-house cleaning of hospitals to drastically reduce rates of hospital-acquired infections, such as MRSA. * Patient fora were a good method of accountability for NHS trusts. We would work to keep remaining forums alive and campaign for the reinstatement of those that were closed down. ### DARZI PLAN AND POLYCLINICS. Change is important if the NHS is to be responsive to the needs of local people and London’s growing population. Polyclinics are an idea whose time has come - as another tier in healthcare, not as a replacement for GPs or to act as a cloak allowing creeping private involvement. Community health centres, providing some care traditionally provided in hospitals in a setting that is closer to home, should complement existing local services rather than replace them. These must be created through public finance and run by the NHS, rather than given to private companies to manage with less concern for health than for returning profits to their shareholders. ## EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY ### A fairer London London’s great diversity of people and culture should be celebrated. At the same time, a decent quality of life for all requires greater equality between Londoners. Everyone should have the right to be treated equally and fairly - regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, belief, sexual orientation, disability or other status. A lot more needs to be done to tackle racism, discrimination and inequality - and to ensure greater respect for human rights. Greens want the following action on **human rights and equalities:** * Establish a London Youth Assembly and support similar initiatives in each borough. * More resources to end child poverty and pensioner poverty in London. * Recognise the enthusiasm, expertise and energy of older people and provide those who receive their first Freedom Passes with a pack giving information on opportunities for voluntary work in the community. * To ensure all London policies meet the demands of the Disabled People’s Manifesto for London, and full, regular consultation with disability groups. * Improved provision of translation and advice services and English literacy and numeracy for all citizens. * Arts funding should benefit all Londoners, and not just a privileged few. That means supporting the greatest possible diversity of art and cultural projects and initiatives. * Funding for a non-profit community arts centre in every local area, equipped with affordable space for performances, rehearsals and meetings, as well as a low-cost café. Offering a service to all sectors of the community would be a condition of funding ### Tackling racism and hate crimes. London has benefited from its great ethnic diversity for centuries. It is one of London’s greatest qualities - yet racism still needs tackling. Greens want: * Tougher action on racist crime and religiously-motivated and homophobic violence. * Work with local communities and anti-racism groups against racism at work and in all our institutions. * Support for ethnic minority projects and initiatives which strengthen local economies. ### Protecting Asylum Seekers As one of the world’s richest cities, London should offer its support to people fleeing persecution and oppression. Asylum seekers are victims, and not to blame for the problems they have fled from. Greens campaign to ensure that they feel welcome, have their rights respected and their needs met. Greens will work for: * Greater public understanding of the plight of asylum seekers. * Proper national funding for boroughs to meet the needs of asylum seekers. * Schemes which draw on asylum seekers’ skills to enhance community contact and understanding. * Global justice, and opposition to arms trading and war - which lead people to flee their homes. ## DEMOCRACY AND OPEN-NESS ### Holding the Mayor to account The current set-up at City Hall places too much power in the hands of one person. Greens will push for additional powers for the Assembly in holding the Mayor to account. These include: * Giving the elected Assembly the power to amend the Mayor’s strategies. * Enhancing the Assembly’s powers to amend the budget. * Giving the Assembly “call-in” powers over mayoral decisions, as in local authorities. * Ensuring LDA and planning decision meetings are held in public. * Press Government for further powers to be devolved from Central Government to the GLA. * Lobby for the GLA to be given powers to raise funds through income tax, on the model of the Scottish Parliament, and eco-taxes - rather than be dependent on raising Council Tax. POLICING AND DRUGS ## Crime and security Fear of crime is common among Londoners today - and sometimes fear of terrorism. Recorded crime is declining, yet fear of crime remains high. Greens seek both to minimise risk and address the underlying causes of crime and violence. London’s extreme rich-poor divide and social exclusion may contribute to the conditions in which anti-social behaviour can prevail or serious lawlessness fester. Police racism has not been properly addressed, leaving many Londoners suspicious of the police and poorly protected from crime. The police will only gain the trust of the community if they become representative, accountable and approachable. **The Green Party’s strategy for policing includes:** ### COMMUNITY-BASED POLICING * A police force which is genuinely responsive to the concerns of all London’s communities. * Deliver effective community policing with Safer Neighbourhoods Teams on duty around the clock, not just at certain times of the day. * Ensure effective Safer Neighbourhoods Panels in every neighbourhood to provide proper accountability over local policing. * Ensure continued funding for independent Community Consultative Groups. * Open more local police stations. * Shifting 20 per cent of all police officers out of patrol cars and onto bicycles, for closer access to the streets. The uptake of police cycling is an initiative in which Greens played a key role. ### SAFETY * Designing out crime - with people-friendly streets and estates, better lighting, prompt repairs, with more caretakers and staff on estates and railway stations, and attendants in parks. * Invest in high-visibility policing instead of more CCTV or helicopters. * Action on gun crime - cutting off gun supply and improving witness protection. * Stop the current trial of tasers for the Territorial Support Group. * More restorative justice initiatives, which rehabilitate offenders and give greater victim support. ### LIBERTY * Tougher action on domestic violence, racist and homophobic crime, and corporate crime. * Tough action on human traffickers and support for the victims. * Ensuring that big commercial events and large sporting events pay their own policing costs. * Combat police racism and discrimination with a more diverse police force. * A call for full independent enquiries into deaths in custody and police shooting of civilians. * Protection of civil liberties and repeal of the draconian Serious Organised Crime and Policing Act (Socpa). * An end to arbitrary ‘Stop and Search’ * Appointment of the Police Commissioner by the MPA, not by the Home Secretary. ### STOP AND SEARCH Police statistics demonstrate that the black population in London are four times more likely to be stopped than the white population, with no corresponding difference in the arrest rate per category. (MPA, 2005) Greens call for an end to the permanent state of emergency: anti-terrorist Section 44 ‘stop and search’ powers may only be invoked in specific places and times where specific intelligence justifies, rather than round the clock since 7/11. Independent oversight over Section 60 ‘stop and search’ (non-terrorist) powers where there is fear of “serious violence” giving the reasons for their use. ### SHOOT-TO-KILL Lessons must be learned from the fatal Stockwell shooting of an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, by armed officers in 2005. In 2003, the Metropolitan Police adopted rules of engagement, known as Kratos, that would enable an officer to shoot-to-kill solely on the basis of a remote command (Stockwell One, 2007). Greens call upon the Met to discontinue the shoot-to-kill option under Kratos. Lethal force may remain an option outside *Kratos*, but only under the legal protections afforded by the European Convention of Human Rights. ## Drugs ### AFTER PROHIBITION, CONTROL AND REGULATION Drug use, and the consequences of their prohibition on London’s culture, economy and crime rate are undeniable. Green policies aim to minimise the harm to those who use drugs and reduce the harm to society at large resulting from, in particular, drug-related crime. 57 per cent of all crime and 80 per cent of burglary in the UK is to feed a heroin or crack drug habit. A green drug policy will lead to a large drop in crime. Whilst the reclassification of cannabis has led to a drop in arrests for possession, it still leaves the supply in criminal hands. Prohibition ensures that the drug trade, worth £8 billion in the UK each year, stays in criminal hands. There is no access to the small claims courts, so disputes are often settled with violence and weapons. This has led to an influx of guns and knives into urban communities. The Green approach to drugs would be to move cannabis dealers off the streets and into licensed premises, with clear rules on age limits and information on potency. We would lobby for a drug commission to decide on regulation, and treat heroin addiction as a medical issue, rather than allowing it to become a crime problem. **The Green approach includes:** * Regulation and control over the sale of cannabis for medical and recreational use. * A local democratic tax on cannabis sale, where the purchaser chooses a local project to receive a percentage of the profits. * Licensed cannabis supply based on the Dutch coffee shop model. * Decriminalising recreational drugs such as ecstasy and psychotropic mushrooms. * Providing heroin on prescription as a route into a range of other consensual treatments. * Improving information and health education relating to all drugs. * A ban on advertising and sponsorship of tobacco, cannabis or other currently illegal drugs. ## ENVIRONMENT ### Turning London green It is impossible for Londoners to have a decent quality of life if the environment is polluted, noisy, poorly maintained and under threat locally and globally. The Green Party strategy for London's environment includes: * New development on "brown-field" land only - subject to biodiversity audit. * Strong enforcement of a veto on new out-of-town retail developments and the introduction of a presumption against private parking for new retail developments. * Affordable premises for small shops and businesses in new retail developments, amounting to fifty per cent of total retail floor space. * Use of planning powers to ensure provision of local sports and leisure facilities. * Preservation of threatened, important historical, architectural and community buildings. * All the Mayor’s planning meetings to be held in public. Objectors will have the same right to present their case as developers. * No to airport expansion, which causes noise, pollution, climate change and destruction of the green belt. * Defence and expansion of London’s green spaces - by opposing environmentally damaging planning proposals and employing well-trained managers to improve biodiversity. * A major tree-planting scheme to ensure street trees in every street. * Work to remove motor traffic from London’s parks. * Ensure that street lighting is directed down at the street, rather upwards, thereby making the stars invisible. * To avoid siting mobile-phone masts where there is community opposition or a health risk. * Use planning powers to promote green/living roofs. * All new waterside developments to incorporate public access to the water front, to create continuous waterside pathways, and allow cycle riding where it is safe to do so. * Greens encourage the greater use of canals for freight transport and leisure, but not where that would have an adverse impact on ecology or archaeology, or cause foreshore erosion. * All riverside developments to encourage biodiversity and enhance the riverside landscape. ### OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS London has less than four years to go before the 2012 Games. ### Key Green demands: * Promises on the environment to apply across all three stages - construction, games and legacy. * Make the games, including the legacy phase, zero carbon instead of the low-carbon aspiration in the bid. * Green space to be restored promptly after the Games or not used at all. * All workers on the Olympics (including contract workers) to be paid a living wage or better. * All Olympic merchandise to be sweat-free. * Where grassroots sports facilities are to be used ensure affordable prices at replacement facilities. * Ensure high levels of social and affordable housing in the Olympics Village after the Games. * Food served on site to be free of unnecessary packaging and, where possible, be locally produced, fair trade and organic. * No restriction on spectators bringing in their own food and drink. ### Greening the Thames Gateway * A properly funded, established and fully protected Green Grid Network of linked open spaces as part of the basic infrastructure. * A thorough assessment of flood risk for all developments. * High quality and fully integrated local public transport, with high targets for car-free housing. * Ambitious local unemployment reduction targets, geared and monitored to ensure greatest local benefit. * New pedestrian and cycle bridges across the Thames. ## ANIMALS ### Opposing cruelty Animals are capable of feeling physical pain and mental distress just like us. It is a fundamental belief of the Green Party that animals have the right to live free from suffering and harm caused by human exploitation. **Greens will champion the following:** * A GLA animal protection strategy for implementation across the capital. * A staff team for London’s animal protection officer, with a dedicated pet shops officer. * Work to get an animal protection officer in every borough. * Make catering procurement decisions that reduce the consumption of meat and dairy produce. Use of organic, free-range products would be encouraged when meat, milk or eggs were required. * Produce comprehensive information on vegetarian and vegan diets for all boroughs and authorities so that all London’s schools, hospitals and prisons can offer vegetarian and vegan options. * Promote a cruelty-free economy and cruelty-free practices - and advocate that cruel practices, such as the production of pâté de foie gras and kangaroo meat are banned. * Work to establish a free veterinary/animal health service for London. * Tough standards for pet shops, London-wide, with regular veterinary inspections. No pet fairs. * Facilitate animal blood banks. * Make London a centre for non-animal medical research. * Cruelty-free rules on GLA purchasing, including non-animal tested cleaning products. * Action to end London’s fur trade. * Humane, non-lethal control methods wherever possible where animal populations are controlled. Oppose the use of hawks to control pigeons. * Ban all animal circuses in London. * Increase the number of officers in the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit. **Siân Berry**, Green candidate for Mayor **Jenny Jones**, Green Party, London Assembly **Darren Johnson**, Green Party, London Assembly ## Green Votes Count A proportional representation voting system is used in the London election, so every vote counts. Under this system Greens consistently get elected. When elected, Greens work for far-reaching change to the political system - for real democracy. Greens were elected in London’s proportional elections to the European Parliament in 1999 and 2004 and to the London Assembly in 2000 and 2004. In the 2006 local elections, we gained council representation across six London boroughs. This space has been left blank for three policies to be decided by London’s children. **Siân Berry**, the Green Party Candidate for Mayor is supported by **Harry Bear MP**, the first bear to be elected to Parliament. **Mr Bear** is backing Siân because she has pledged to listen to the voices of children and to let them have their say in running London when she is Mayor. Find out more about **Harry Bear MP** at: www.harrybearforparliament.org.uk And, if you are a child with a good idea for London, tell Siân’s team by sending an email to info@sianformayor.org.uk This manifesto is also available from the website and from the address below in large type and on audio tape. London Green Party, 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ **london.greenparty.org.uk** Promoted by Dean Walton on behalf of Siân Berry and London Green Party, all at 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ. 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