Scottish Greens believe that local government can put power in your hands. Green Councillors will listen to community concerns, then work hard to create solutions and make councils open and accountable
Since 2017 Green Councillors have:
Empowered local communities
- Consistently stood up for local communities against big developers
- Won funding for local communities in Glasgow, including millions of pounds for new play parks, back lane improvements, tenement repairs, 20mph speed limits, local green spaces and food growing
- Stood up for migrant justice - opposing evictions, preventing deportations and fighting for decent housing
- Supported the expansion of participatory budgeting schemes in Edinburgh, such as £eith Chooses
- Sought additional support for community councils during the pandemic and pushed to accelerate the reopening of community centres after the pandemic
Championed transparency and reform
- Helped return Glasgow Council to a proportionate, democratic committee system and bring alternative voices into Council decision-making
- Won agreement to carry out a review in Edinburgh, led by the members of the BME community, of features within the city that commemorate those with close links to slavery and colonialism, to consult widely on the review outcomes and to make recommendations to rectify the glorification of slavery and colonialism
- Changed Orkney Island Council investment practices so that all decisions require discussion of Environmental, Governance and Social dimensions
Valued our council employees
- Committed Glasgow Council to the world-leading ‘Equally Safe at Work’ programme and won support across parties to secure Scotland’s first-ever local authority gender pay action plan
- Introduced best practice in Edinburgh Council’s recruitment and employment practices, ensuring that equality, diversity and ant-discrimination training is standard for all staff
Led on urgent action on the climate crisis
- Supported the school climate strikers in Edinburgh, securing authorised days of absence for pupils attending global days of strike action
- Secured a commitment in Edinburgh to ensure all new buildings in the city will be very low-carbon under the new City Plan
- Included climate and nature emergency activist groups in Glasgow in decision-making, scrapped parking perks for councillors and ended Council use of internal flights
PLANNING FOR A GREEN FUTURE
Scottish Greens will strive for a planning system that listens to people. It should be transparent, accountable and give people the power to shape their communities, resulting in development that is driven by public interest, not economic growth, and which uses the planning system to tackle the climate crisis, contribute to ending poverty, and create pleasant, people-focussed places
Green Councillors will:
- Invest in planning as a public service - empowering local groups and individuals to engage, providing meeting spaces, clear and accessible information and dedicated staff
- Ensure transparency and accountability by pushing to make the voting record for all planning and development management committee votes available promptly online and in council offices
- Ensure that planning officers and local councillors involved in planning decisions are supported with training to ensure they understand the long-term carbon impacts of development
- Campaign with our MSPs to balance the rights of communities with those of developers by giving them an equal right of appeal over planning decisions. At present, only developers have the right to appeal
- Undertake a review of planning enforcement processes to ensure that developers deliver on all conditions of their planning permission, that developer contributions are swiftly used for their intended purpose, and that planning breaches are effectively dealt with
- Expand the use of place plans and development briefs, led by local communities, in order to ‘front load’ the planning system and provide more voice to communities
- Protect wildlife sites and local greenspaces from development and seek sustainable solutions to managing public land in ways that benefit people and nature
- Prioritise development on brownfield land, seek to protect green belt and open space from development and oppose out of town retail developments
- Help local authorities deliver their Climate Change Act commitments by making carbon assessments a requirement of development proposals and transitioning Scotland away from fossil fuel extraction and consumption
- Seek to ensure the planning system plays its part in adapting to a world where climate change means more extreme weather events, ensuring our homes and businesses are resilient to flooding, working with nature wherever possible to manage flood water, and preventing developments in flood-risk areas
- Support the development of local energy companies and local heat networks
- Seek to ensure the planning system plays its part in tackling the climate emergency and ending poverty, by reducing the need to travel and creating 20-minute neighbourhoods, by encouraging highly energy efficient and nature-friendly buildings, and by ensuring the delivery of truly affordable housing where it is needed
FAIR FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
Scottish Greens believe in progressive taxation and investment in public services. The involvement of the community in financial decision-making is a cornerstone for revitalising our local democracy
Green Councillors will:
- Engage with the forthcoming Citizens Assembly on local government funding, won by Greens in Government, with the aim of ending the regressive Council Tax and replacing it with a fairer system
- Give council employees a say on how their pensions should be invested, including options to divest from fossil fuels, tobacco and weapons and invest in local housing and renewable energy
- Push councils to publish annual budget proposals early so that they can be scrutinised by councillors and communities and ensure that budgets have Equality Impact Assessments
- Support the return of the power to set the rate for 50% of the assessed value of nondomestic property. This would devolve more fiscal power to local government and help make local decisions on rates which fit local circumstances
- Support a fiscal framework for the relationship between Scottish and local government which promotes local democracy, devolved decision-making and stability for public services
- Support the continued devolution of financial powers to local authorities by developing new local tax powers like the Transient Visitor Levy
- Review the way the third sector is funded, in particular funding for core services and the need for long-term funding
- Improve conditions for frontline workers across local authorities and support piloting a four-day working week which means a 20% reduction in working hours with no reduction in pay
EMPOWERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Scotland needs a revitalised local democracy where citizens are engaged and active in the important matters affecting their communities and where voters can make real choices about the services they want and how to pay for them. Councils, and the important decisions they make, must be accountable to local people
Green Councillors will:
- Support more powers for community councils, citizens’ assemblies, street committees and other community bodies to be actively involved in making decisions about public spending, increasing the use of participatory budgeting
- Support community-led development plans and projects, including buildings, parks, sports facilities, energy and much more, financially and by sharing experience
- Continue to work with rural and urban communities on buyouts of land and assets that can transform local facilities and economies
- Ensure that communities have a lead role in tourism development, facilitating tourism that benefits local communities rather than overwhelming them
- Work to provide non-intimidating community discussion spaces. These will support a diverse array of voices and will pilot new methods for participation in council decisions, including through better use of technology
- Make it easier for those with lived/direct experience of inequality to be involved in making council policy and directly fund equalities and anti-poverty groups where their expertise is needed to support the development or implementation of council policy
- Make it easier to find out and understand what is happening in your council, standardise the live webcasting of council meetings, record councillor’s votes on all committees and open up to public scrutiny
- Remove barriers to elected office for under-represented groups and ensure that council business is conducted in an accessible and inclusive manner
- Oppose top-down centralisation of services. We are open to collaboration between local authorities where this would enable better service provision for all.
