A by-election in the city that voted Green long before it was cool
A new councillor for Castle ward on Lancaster City Council will be elected this week
Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
As a city where students play such a significant role, it is perhaps unsurprising that Lancaster was among the first cities in the UK to have serious Green Party representation.
And on the surface, you would perhaps expect to see the resignation of one Green Party councillor who came to the city for Lancaster University yield the result of another Green councillor.
But these are not straightforward times whatsoever and politics has become increasingly more difficult predict. Reform UK lead the polls, Labour’s vote share for anyone not named Andy Burnham is poor and while the Green Party is more popular than ever - it is also doing so with a leader who is focusing on issues not necessarily always prioritised by the party.
This week sees conversations with people in Lancaster to gauge how they are feeling politically.
Lancashire briefing
🏅 A meeting that could finally have put Lancashire on the road to getting an elected mayor was cancelled last week – for the second time in as many months. It is understood that the plug was pulled on the crunch gathering – between local authority leaders and the government – which had been due to take place in Whitehall on 12th May. It was called off because the State Opening of Parliament had subsequently been scheduled for the following day. But political turmoil would have torpedoed the talks in any case after the government minister who was set to lead them resigned hours before they were due to begin. Devolution minister Miatta Fahnbulleh quit on the morning the meeting had been planned, as she became the first member of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s team to walk out over his leadership. Her departure means Lancashire has lost the key government contact with whom it has been negotiating the next steps on its devolution journey since last September – a period during which there have been substantial developments, including a demand for a guaranteed £1bn investment package for Lancashire over the next three decades to go with any mayor. Last week’s meeting had been scheduled to enable the leaders and chief executives of the county’s three top-tier local authorities – Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council – to discuss with Ms. Fahnbulleh how Lancashire might move towards the creation of an Andy-Burnham type figurehead.
🍺 A Morecambe pub’s bid for later outdoor drinking has sparked objections from some neighbours, claiming their lives are being ruined by customer noise and loud music. Objectors say The Tide and Tap, in Bare, was supposed to be a micro-pub but has grown too big, with customers sitting and standing outside, and ‘spilling’ onto the pavement. Pub bosses want permission from Lancaster City Council to use the area in front of the venue for customer drinking until 10pm, in keeping with the serving hours inside. Currently, the outdoor space can only be used until 8pm. Some neighbours have sent objections to the council, which will consider the bar’s application to vary it premises licence this week.
🚮 The problems that have beset bin collections in Preston in recent weeks are partly due to a delay in the delivery of the new vehicles needed to pick up food waste, the leader of the city council has said. Matthew Brown has issued a lengthy statement apologising to the “small minority of residents” affected by disruption to all types of rubbish collection since changes introduced last month following the biggest overhaul of Preston’s waste service in 14 years. The wider shake-up coincided with the start of weekly food waste collections in the city on 20 April, as part of a national rollout required by government legislation. The authority took the opportunity to revamp the rest of its waste removal arrangements at the same time – but the move has seen households in several parts of the city left with their bins unemptied when they were due to have been collected. Cllr Brown said the late arrival of the specialist new lorries was beyond the authority’s control – and that they were now expected “imminently”. He added that other “short-term issues” had resulted from the scale of the changes being implemented.
A by-election in the city that voted Green long before it was cool
By Robbie Macdonald
Four candidates will battle it out for a place on Lancaster City Council tomorrow (21 May).
The Castle ward is set for a poll after the resignation of Green city councillor Isabella Metcalfe-Riener, who was also a Lancaster University student. She was elected two years ago but is moving away having found a new job. Currently, the ward’s two other city councillors are both Greens.
There are 61 councillors at Lancaster City Council and the authority is operating under a Green-led minority - they are just about the biggest party with Labour just behind and then a mixture of Lib Dems, the Conservative party, and various Independents.
Lancaster is an intriguing area for the Green Party. Along with Bristol (until recently the biggest collection of Green councillors in the country) and Mid Suffolk, the city was early in electing a councillor. The first five were elected in 1999 - for comparison, Preston and Chorley have this year elected their first ever Green councillors.
That means that while the Green Party is surging currently under Zack Polanski - although some way behind Reform UK in polls - the party is nothing new for Lancaster.
Reform UK and the Green Party’s rise; city centre shops and jobs; night-time safety and students active in politics were among the big issues for people in Lancaster when asked about politics.
The Labour Party recently claimed residents ‘deserve a full-time councillor’. But the Greens said Isabella made a valuable contribution including representing young people. University students and staff have been elected as city councillors over the years for different parties, building a tradition of university representation at the council.
The Greens, Labour, Lib Dems and Reform UK are all standing for the one vacant seat – but the Conservatives are sitting it out.
Anne Bell said: “I think city centre shopping is a key issue. We’ve got TK Maxx, Next and Primark but not much else. There’s not a lot of choice. However, I like Lancaster, it’s nice in the day, and I think public transport is good. I usually get the bus but sometimes use my car. But the roads are full of potholes.
“I come into the city centre now and again at night – but I don’t feel particularly safe at night. Last time, there were too many people who seemed to be drug addicts or have other problems. It was not a positive experience. But they probably don’t have the basics like housing and help. There’s definitely a different vibe at night. But young people probably don’t notice it.”
On housing, she said: “I think rents charged by landlords are extortionate. High rents stop people from saving for a mortgage. And I don’t think there’s enough social housing. We bought our house 40 years ago for £23,000. But over the years, wages have flat-lined and house prices have gone right up.”
