ONLY THE GREENS CAN BEAT LABOUR IN STOKE NEWINGTON

Matt Hanley - your candidate

Matt Hanley is 29, and lives on Somerford Grove in Stoke Newington.  He is the Green candidate in the by-election for the Stoke Newington Central ward, following the resignation of Labour's James Carswell.

Matt was active in the shop workers' union USDAW and fought hard for better working conditions during his 5 1/2 years at the Piccadilly HMV and countless years in the low-waged service industry in Liverpool and London. He now works for gay and human rights activist Peter Tatchell and is an ardent anti-fascist, being a long time member of the anti-BNP campaign group Unite Against Fascism.

Matt also has extensive campaigning experience, having worked on Green Party anti-war policies, helping to create a new universal human rights index, and promoting local renewable energy and energy efficiency campaigns.

Two years ago in the council elections, the Greens were Labour's closest challengers, with the Liberal Democrats a distant third.  In the GLA and Mayoral elections in May 2008, the Green vote across Stoke Newington Central rose to 28%, consolidating our position as the only challenger to Labour, with the Liberal Democrats on just 11%.  Only the Greens can beat Labour in Stoke Newington Central on January 29th.

As your councillor, Matt will fight for:

• Supporting renewable energy and insulation measures
  

Free insulation

Free insulation for every home that needs it, paid for out of energy companies' profits, and renewable energy generation that will reduce homeowners' fuel bills , like Greens have already done in Yorkshire.

With rising fuel prices and recession affecting many the time has come for this kind of scheme.  Providing universally free insulation to all homes that need it will not only put thousands of pounds back into peoples' pockets and out of the hands of the energy companies, it will keep homes warm while lowering domestic energy bills, while also creating local jobs and saving carbon emissions.

RE-Charge

Another policy that the Green Party have been successful in introducing in Yorkshire is the RE-Charge scheme: a revolutionary new scheme that lets people install renewable energy in their home and pay for it when they sell their property. There are no up front costs so you can get the benefit of solar panels and other clean energy technology immediately without having to pay monthly repayments or interest charges. As energy prices continue to rise so will the value of the renewable energy you generate.

Visit the Kirklees Green Party to read more about the policies.

• Providing an effective opposition - Greens can and do hold Labour to account
  

Electing  a Green councillor for Stoke Newington Central ward will make a real difference - electing another Labour councillor  won’t make any difference at all.  Doubling the number of Green councillors will help to hold the current administration to account and provide a stronger voice for community concerns.

• Promoting community safety for everyone

The Greens support the work of valuable, volunteer-run community resources like  Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground, and are campaigning to get more youth facilities up and running.  We are also working with the local Safer Neighbourhoods police teams and local residents to increase community safety and combat anti-social behaviour.

• Supporting local shops and businesses

The Greens are the only party with a track record of supporting local shops and businesses. We are pushing to use planning measures and the 2007 Sustainable Communities Act to preserve Stoke Newington's distinctive identity before the area is swallowed up by large supermarkets and chain stores.  With every supermarket that opens in an area, money and jobs flow out of the local economy and high streets are decimated.  Supporting local shops and businesses is vital to recycling money in the local economy and preserving our communities.

• Pushing for more recycling facilities for estates 

Hackney Labour Party boasts about its recycling rate, but at 25%, and as anyone's maths will tell them, that's just two and a half out of ten!  Recycling is a basic council service, and the Labour council can't even get that right.  The national average is 35% for local councils: despite its boastful rhetoric, the Labour council is failing.

• Free school meals for all Hackney pupils

Hackney Green Party want to provide every primary and secondary state school child, regardless of income, with free, locally produced, healthy school meals.  When every child is given healthy school meals every day, exam and test results improve, attainment levels rise, behaviour inside and outside school improves and local jobs are created growing and supplying each community school.  Green councillors will investigate the potential of a free schools policy in Hackney.

Soon after the Green Party adopted a universal free school meals policy across the country, the Government announced plans to introduce a limited program of free school meals to just 2 areas in England.  Hackney Greens will ensure that Hackney is entered in the bidding to make the borough a pilot area.

• A living wage - £7.45 an hour or more -  for all Hackney workers

Working for £5.73 an hour (national minium wage) is bad enough, but working for that amount in London, where everyday grocery and travel prices are higher than the national average, is unfair and impossible to live on.  According to the London Living Wage campaign, 'many service sector workers - including cleaners, security guards and catering staff - experience low pay and difficult, sometimes exploitataive circumstances.  It is estimated that in London alone 400,000 people fall into this working poverty trap.'  As a worker of many years in the service industry, Matt knows all about the difficult conditions imposed on hard working but low paid employees.

Hackney's Labour mayor, Jules Pipe, merely encourages Hackney's low waged employees to make sure they're receiving the bare minimum wage.  Hackney Greens believe all workers are entitled to work for a higher, fairer, livable London wage.  We will campaign to make sure Hackney council adopt a progressive program to combat wage poverty throughout the borough.