John Coyne selected as Green Party candidate for Liverpool elected mayor
THE GREEN Party has chosen its longest serving councillor in Liverpool to run for elected mayor.
John Coyne, who has been a councillor since 2002, was unveiled as the party's candidate at their spring conference which is being held at the Adelphi Hotel until Monday.
Cllr Coyne said his campaign will focus on ending fuel poverty and stopping the demolition of houses under the failed Housing Market Renewal Initiative.
His campaign will also concentrate on creating and saving jobs to sustain the city's future.
Cllr Coyne was first elected as a Liberal Democrat in 2002, but defected to the Greens in 2006 in protest at the demolition at the council's use of compulsory purchase orders to take people's homes in the Welsh Streets (which even now sit empty and derelict, but under the threat of demolition).
John Coyne was re-elected as a Green in St Michaels ward in 2007, and re-elected in 2011.
Cllr Sarah Jennings, who is now the party's leader in Liverpool, was elected in the same ward in 2008.
The party said it was still putting together its manifesto, but that the first two key proposals to emerge are the the following:
1 Action to end Fuel Poverty
A Green mayor will use the council's own purchasing power to negotiate better deals from gas and electricity suppliers which can be passed on to vulnerable householders in Liverpool. The city council will investigate becoming a billing company itself and also a generator of electricity using local renewable sources.
The council will provide or commission a major campaign to improve insulation, particularly in old houses. It will assemble multi-skilled teams to deal with damp, thermal insulation, room alterations and redecorating on a room-by-room basis so that householders have minimum disruption and don't have to move out while work is done. Finance for the work will be secured by a charge on the property and repaid gradually from savings in fuel bills.
2 Alternatives to Demolition
A Green mayor will look for smarter solutions to the crisis left over by the failed Housing Market Renewal ideology which tried to "restructure" the housing market, labelling terraced houses as "obsolete". The mayor will lift the blight in demolition zones and invite individuals and community groups to buy houses for refurbishment and to buy to gap sites for rebuilding. We will test the market for these houses before spending money just to knock them down.
In some cases we would re-partition empty terraces, increasing the number of bedrooms for some houses and creating ground-floor flats suitable for people with disabilities - tackling the waiting list for accessible dwellings.
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David Bartlett
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Well there is Joe Anderson. I recall that the first thing he did when in office was to double his salary on the grounds that he would be working full time as leader and had no time for another job. Now I believe he wants to be mayor and leader which kind of goes against the full time in one job arguement. Mayor salary, leader salary, heading up various committess allowances, we are looking at over 200 grand a year. Too much about what I will be taking out I think so a no here.
The other labour guy, about to be retired fron Cumbria on no doubt a very impressive pension. He signed a petition against the changes to the health service but there again didn't we all. Been in the Labour party for 40 years but done what while in there. Not afraid of changes. his example was cutting hospital beds. So maybe not.
This guy I dont know but if someone leaves a party at a time when re-elction without a party backing is an unlikely event has to be someone with some sort of principles. Tends to put him above the other two and could be a goer I reckon.
I'll be voting for John Coyne.
I don't know if he'll be as good as Joe Anderson at wining and dining in Shanghai and London but there you go. We all have strengths and weaknesses.
Good to see there is at least one credible opposition candidate with the strength to keep Uncle Joe on his toes.
John Coyne proved he is a man of principle in 2006 when he resigned from the Lib Dems in protest at their brutal eviction and demolition policies.
Equally impressively, he has built a green stronghold in St. Michaels ward, based on his councillors' personal standing with voters there.
A green alternative to the frightening prospect of one-party rule for generations - that's got to be good for democracy, whoever you support.
Good to see there is at least one credible opposition candidate with the strength to keep Uncle Joe on his toes.
John Coyne proved he is a man of principle in 2006 when he resigned from the Lib Dems in protest at their brutal eviction and demolition policies.
Equally impressively, he has built a green stronghold in St. Michaels ward, based on his councillors' personal standing with voters there.
A green alternative to the frightening prospect of one-party rule for generations - that's got to be good for democracy, whoever you support.
I too will be voting for john