THE Green Party’s general election candidate for the Henley constituency, Mark Stevenson, has given his answers to questions posed by ThameNews.Net about local issues.
Mark Stevenson’s replies to a series of questions sent to all the Henley candidates, are as follows:
1. Do you think that the proposed 850 new homes earmarked for Thame by the South East Core Strategy will be good for the town, or not?
A: In my view the SE Plan was put together as a top down execise, leaving the District Council in the position of having to decide where to allocate the housing development being imposed. In response to a question I asked during the consultation, challenging the need for continuing massive development, it was clearly stated that the amount of housing was linked to supporting a target of 3% economic growth annually for the SE. However the recession and the increasing concern about whether this sort of growth is actually beneficial has made a nonsense of the 3% target. Given this situation it would be little more than luck if the 850 houses allocated to Thame were in fact exactly what Thame needed. Clearly we need to reform the planning system and increase the role of local councils in decision making.
I do not know enough about Thame’s current situation to advise further, I am not against development per se and lack of affordable housing in the area is clearly a problem. We do need more homes affordable for those of us whose income is no more than the national average. If I were to be elected I would then have both the time and the resources to address the question more fully.
2. What will you do to persuade the government (if your party forms or is part of a balanced government) to do something about the economic viability of market towns?
A: This is an issue that particularly concerns me. My own local market town is Wallingford. I formed a group that created the weekly Local Producers Market, this attracts hundreds of people every week and support a wide range of local food and craft producers. Indeed there are several new small businesses whose start-up was facilitated by the market. The success of the market towns is entwined with the development of strong local economies and this means supporting and developing small scale local enterprise. This includes rural and agricultural businesses that would have their local market town as an economic hub. The Greens have a package of financial and planning measures to support small business, together with policies to reduce bureaucracy and improve adice and training. I recently set up two free training courses for local businesses around the Dorchester on Thames area to help them reduce waste and improve energy efficiency, cutting costs in the process.
3. How will you ensure that Thame Community Hospital remains as such and that the promised future development of is services will good ahead, without losing the 12 beds currently available?
A: Greens believe that services should be as accessible and local as possible, we are against increasing privatisation of the NHS. My role as your MP would be to ensure that the PCT was properly aware of both the views and needs of local people, to present the case for retaining facilities and help explore ways in which this can be achieved. Furthermore, Greens regard the NHS as a public service, not a business. Although it must be run efficiently and effectively it should be properly funded by the public purse. We would use increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco to fund overall real growth in the NHS budget (current taxation on these does not reflect the huge demands made on NHS resources by people’s use of these drugs). Responsibility should be decentralised, enabling local control and decision making under national guidelines. This increased funding and decentralisation will help us to maintain services like Thame Community Hospital.
4. Thame is trying to ‘go green’ with several groups springing up, ie Greening Thame and Transitions Towns; What will you do to ensure that Thame and other market towns can move towards becoming a sustainable community?
A: I have encouraged and supported the development of the Transition Thame and District group. I am in regular contact with them. The extension of the transition town concept to include the area around Thame is important in developing sustainability and Thame’s role as a market town for the area. I also have strong links with Sustainable Wallingford and Transition Henley, as MP I would increase my liason role between these groups. Green policy to provide funding for increasing the energy efficiency of houses and the development of micro-generation would help these groups, but our whole approach to developing strong sustainable local economies would provide the backbone.
5. Some people in Thame are concerned about decisions being taken by their local councils without consultation, i.e the transfer of the town’s swimming pool from town council control to district council control, after the people of Thame campaigned for a pool and raised thousands of pounds for it?
What will you do to increase local democracy – if of course you agree that it is a good idea!
A: I think the problem here is one of local democracy not being properly exercised. The Town Council should, as a matter of principle, have consulted at least the representatives of the group that successfully campaigned and raised funds for the pool. I believe we need to encourage greater involvement in local democracy and ensure we elect people in whom we truly have confidence to work for our communities. The Greens would start by introducing proportional representation at all levels of government. We would de-centralise power so that local councils had a greater role in deciding on local issues and raising income to support their plans. We would enable local referenda on council decisions if called for by 20% of the electorate, petitions would then have real force. We would also enable recall of MPs and other representatives if demanded by 40% of the electorate. We would ensure far better education so that young people left school confident in participating in the political process. The curriculum for Citizenship will not be determined by central government but by an independent body (such as the Politics Association). This would include experience of the democratic process through being involved in the running of their own school community as well as understanding the history of and the politics and political structures of the local area and country.
6. What is your view on the future of education in this country?
A: Our vision is that every child should be able to attend a good, local, state-funded school; that learning is life-long and education should be at the heart of our communities, promoting social and emotional well-being, equality, inclusion and responsibility. Among other measures, we would spend