Green candidates have vowed that a vote for them would not be ‘wasted’ — as they promised to fight to ‘change the path’ that the country is currently on.
Michael Ackroyd is the Green Party candidate for Newark and Sheila Greatrex-White will stand in the Sherwood Forest constituency.
Both are standing on a platform of supporting local issues while fighting the threat of climate change and environmental decline.
Mr Ackroyd has lived and worked in Nottinghamshire his whole life and believes that the green agenda is more important today than ever before.
He said: “The local community and more broadly our nation is facing a climate tipping point, and we have the chance to repair the damage to the environment.
“The world is looking at a climate emergency, and it is too greater challenge for a single person to repair.
“We need to work together to change the direction of the current government.
“I feel the ‘vested interests’ of the current government have not served our local community nor the environment well.
“We need to move toward a more sustainable society, I am aware this is not something which can happen overnight and will take us all working together to achieve this.”
He believes in taking a sustainable approach to housing and increasing the use of renewable energy as a means of reducing the nation’s reliance on global markets and in turn bringing prices down for residents.
He recognised the need for new housing in a growing society, but argued it should not be built on the green belt — and advocates for the protection of green spaces as places important to society.
“We have a chance to change the path we are currently on, and in my opinion the only party who is totally focused on this challenge is The Green Party,” said Mr Ackroyd.
“A vote for the Green Party is not a wasted vote nor would it be a protest vote, we need to show that the government needs to listen to our local opinion.”
Ms Greatrex-White got into politics after she grew tired of the current state of the politics in the UK.
She said: “Over the last several years, I have become increasingly disillusioned by the torrent of sleaze and hypocrisy in politics, which has seemingly become the norm.
“I was dismayed to learn that I was unable to vote for the Green Party at elections in my area, not least because there was no Green Party in Newark and Sherwood.
“I chose to act and have been instrumental in re-establishing the Newark and Sherwood Green Party; we are growing in number.”
She said she wanted to see a government that takes seriously the growth of a green economy, supports the NHS, backs farming communities and wants the development of a sustainable, bio-diverse environment, and end pollution of rivers and waterways.
Issues facing residents in the constituency — such as poor roads, the Great North Road Solar Park, and plans for an incinerator at Bilsthorpe — were all things that she said would be addressed if elected.
Ms Greatrex-White has experience working in the NHS and in higher education, and says the Green Party will put a stop to the ‘progressive erosion’ of these services
She added: “I am well aware of the hackneyed mantra ‘a vote for a party other than Labour or Conservative is a wasted vote’; I am standing for election in the hope of laying this mantra to rest.
“A Green vote is a vote for the prosperity of constituency and country and importantly, a vote to save our planet — it is my aim to help put the Green Party definitively on the map.
“Our country and our planet needs a Green revolution and I for one am acting, not just for now, but for the future of our children and grandchildren.
The UK General Election is scheduled to take place on July 4. The candidates so-far confirmed for the Newark constituency are (listed alphabetically):
• Michael Ackroyd - Green Party
• Saj Ahmad - Labour
• Adrian Amer - Independent
• Robert Hall-Palmer - Reform UK
• Robert Jenrick - Conservative
• Collan Siddique - Workers Party of Britain
• David Watts - Liberal Democrats
The candidates so far confirmed for the Sherwood Forest constituency are (listed alphabetically):
• David Dobbie - Liberal Democrats
• Sheila Greatrex-White - Green Party
• Helen Rose O'Hare - Reform UK
• Mark Spencer - Conservative
• Lee Waters - Independent
• Michelle Welsh -Labour
