This comes after the Welsh government announced on Wednesday that it is freezing new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency – and has appointed an external panel to review all proposed schemes.

Of the £875 million allocated as part of the West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund, £660 million is allocated to road building

programmes compared to just under £20 million to building railway stations – just a single new station across the county in Elland.

Leading these calls is Councillor Matt Edwards, who was elected to Bradford Council in May representing the Tong Ward in Bradford.

Tong Ward has two of the largest schemes being funded by WYCA, South East Bradford Access Road (often called the Tong Valley Road) and widening of A650 at Tong Street.

Councillor Edwards said, “New roads create new traffic. That’s a fact that Tracy Brabin and our Councils in West Yorkshire can’t escape.

“More traffic not only means more environment wrecking emissions being pumped into the air – it has a disastrous effect on the health of people living near these roads.

“The streets close to Tong Street are statistically ranked as some of the most unhealthy in our district largely due to air pollution and this vast amount of money needs to be invested in schemes which will deliver cleaner air and benefit our environment.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, a councillor from Kirklees (Newsome Ward) who was also the Green Party candidate for West Yorkshire Mayor added,

“The Labour-led Welsh government is showing real leadership with their announcement earlier this week and they are showing they understand the level of commitment needed if we want to tackle the climate emergency.

“I hope Tracy Brabin will take heed of the science and reverse West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s fixation with spending hundreds of millions on environment-wrecking schemes.”

The post Greens call for road building pause following similar move in Wales appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

Andrew Cooper, Green Party candidate for Mayor of West Yorkshire has branded the figure – £105,000 a year as “excessive” and has pledge to only accept the average West Yorkshire wage of £26,000 a year if he is elected in 6th May.

Andrew said: “At a time when we know the economy is not going to be doing well and many people across our region are worried about their jobs it seems in poor taste for our Councils in to agree to such an excessive pay package for the first mayor of West Yorkshire.

“If I am elected, I would be too embarrassed to accept such a salary so I pledge to donate the remaining £79,000 to schemes that help community organizations that are suffering financial hardship and can’t find help from any other source”.

The figure agreed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is significantly more than metro mayors in other regions – The mayor Sheffield City Region is paid £79,000 a year, while Liverpool City Region’s metro mayor is paid £80,631.

Andrew added,

“I believe strongly that the Mayor’s salary ought to be linked to the fortunes of the people they seek to represent. I commit to using my position to help organisations and individuals thrive across the region and could not possibly accept such a large salary while others are struggling in the wake of the pandemic”.

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Rishi Sunak has been accused of “putting his party first” after the council in his own affluent constituency was given top priority in the allocation of a new £4.8bn ‘Levelling Up Fund’ – ahead of Kirklees and Calderdale.Councillor Andrew Cooper, the Green Party’s candidate in this year’s West Yorkshire Mayoral election has said,
“This is the latest in a long list of instances where this government has acted in the interest of its donors and supporters rather than the country as a whole.

“Richmondshire is in the top 25% most wealthy parts of the country so I am absolutely baffled by the logic in prioritising it ahead of Kirklees and Calderdale. Our councils have seen a substantial decrease in budgets over the last ten years and could easily be described as places in most need of ‘leveling up’.

“This is a really staggering conflict of interest how the Chancellor is so blatantly putting his own constituency ahead of areas that need investment much more.”

The other three council’s in West Yorkshire – Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield – were also ranked in the top priority category with Richmondshire District Council.

Other affluent councils in North Yorkshire such as York, Harrogate, Craven and Hambledon were placed in the lowest priority category.

The post Kirklees and Calderdale miss out on funding as Chancellor is “putting his party first” with new ‘Levelling Up Fund’. appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

This was one of Yorkshire’s most controversial planning applications in decades due to the negative environmental damage airport expansion would cause.

Planning officers had recommended approving the application despite a significant amount of opposition from across West Yorkshire.

Nine Leeds councillors voted to approve the plans and five including Green councillor, David Blackburn (Farnley & Wortley Ward), voted against.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, Green Party Candidate for Mayor of West Yorkshire Mayor and a Kirklees Councillor, said

“This is incredibly disappointing news and takes us backwards in our response to the climate crisis.

“This ruling today just makes a mockery of how our councils here in West Yorkshire are responding to their climate commitments. There is simply no room for airport expansion in a climate emergency. It just does not make sense when the UK as a whole has to reduce its carbon emissions as quickly as possible.

“This has been a real ‘David and Goliath’ story as, on the one side is a large global pension fund who own the airport, and on the other is a crowd-funded campaign and lots of hard work by ordinary but committed people, including many Green Party members.

“Leeds Council have sent a clear message that commercial interests are more important than the views of local people, the protection of our environment and the wellbeing of future generations.”

Bradford Council in particular came under fire after it told Leeds City Council that it has ‘no objection’ to the airport’s planning application. Campaigners have accused the Labour-run authority of ignoring its own Climate Emergency declaration.

The post Greens react to Leeds Bradford Airport approval appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

It has been revealed that under the Green Homes Grant only 5% of the allocated £1.5bn budget for householders has been awarded. The scheme was launched in September and has already been extended to March 2022 as a consequence of the lack of takeup.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, who worked in the energy efficiency sector for nearly 20 years, said,

“There are serious questions that need to be answered about how the Green Homes Grants scheme can have been administered so poorly with a mix of snails pace administration and a severe lack of approved installers.

“I directed a householder in the ward I represent to the scheme when it was launched months ago and she still hasn’t got the go ahead despite all the necessary information being provided.”

The grants were intended to help 600,000 householders to make their homes more energy efficient and less CO2 intensive. The scheme offered vouchers up to the value of £5000 for private householders wanting to install solar panels, heat pumps and a wide range of insulation measures.

Councillor Cooper has proposed a new future for the Green Homes Grant under the new Mayoral Combined Authority,

“The West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority has responsibility for skills and training and is taking a leading role in action to address climate change. It makes perfect sense to let West Yorkshire manage its share of the Green Homes Grant itself.

“We have a real opportunity to grow the skills to deliver renewable technology and insulation fitting right here in West Yorkshire ourselves. To do that it needs a sustained programme of support for training and development for local installers.

“This is a perfect example of where centralised control is failing and where a devolution could make a real difference.”

The post Green Party Mayoral Candidate calls for failing Green Homes scheme to be brought under Regional control appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, who is also a councillor from Huddersfield has called for the local authorities to look at what other areas are doing to try and reduce the issue.

January is regarded as the worst month of the year for fly tipping with the first Friday of the year dubbed as “Fly-tipping Friday” because it is regarded to be Britain’s worst day for illegal dumping of unwanted goods and discarded rubbish.

Councillor Cooper said, “Councils across West Yorkshire consistently feature at the top of the fly tipping rankings and we really need to try new ideas.”

“Fly tipping is a scourge on our local communities and we have to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the people who dump rubbish in our local environment. We’ve got to be clear that this is not a victimless crime.

“We are seeing increasing evidence the fly tipping is a cross council issue with rogue traders crossing the council boundaries to dump waste. This is a problem we need to work on together.

One example, is the ‘Shop a tipper’ campaign launched by Wolverhampton Council which encourages residents who spot fly tippers to report the offender to the council for a £100 reward following the payment of a Fixed Penalty Notice or a successful prosecution.

Councillor Cooper added, “In other parts of the country they are trying new ideas and I would like to see more of them trialled here in Yorkshire.

“If this incentive makes more people look out for the number plates of those chucking rubbish out of cars vans and trucks then it is worth every penny.”

“The new position of West Yorkshire mayor is an opportunity to encourage much more collaboration between our local authorities.”

The post Green Party mayoral candidate calls for new ideas to tackle fly-tipping epidemic appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

Bradford Community Energy has been established to help groups install renewable energy technologies on their buildings to save money on their energy bills and do their part to tackle our climate crisis.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, who is also the party’s energy spokesperson, has visited the Park Lane Centre in Little Horton which is one of the first buildings the society is looking to help benefit from greener and more affordable electricity and heat.

Councillor Cooper has said,

“It is really exciting to visit such an ambitious community energy project right here in the centre of Bradford. It is literally power to the people.

“Community energy is right at the heart of what the Green Party stand for. It helps community groups be more self-sufficient, it’s better for the environment and means that profits savings can be reinvested back into the local community.

”If we want to tackle climate change, we need to embrace people owned power projects like this and I hope they are able to meet wish them every success in reaching their funding requirements targets to take the scheme forward.”

Carlton Smith, one of the directors of Bradford Community Energy said:

“Over the last twelve months, we have seen growing support for radical action to tackle climate change and we are giving people a way we can do this and support community projects at the same time.

“Anyone who invests in Bradford Community Energy will not only receive a return on their investment, but they will be helping fund community projects relating to fuel poverty and low carbon lifestyles.

Full detail of the community share offer area available at www.bcel.org

The post Our mayoral candidate visits Bradford project looking to harness ‘people power’ appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

Andrew Cooper, the leader of the Green Group on Kirklees Council was selected as the candidate following an internal poll of members with 58% of the vote.

In what is thought to be a first for a metro mayor election, Councillor Cooper has asked runner-up Hawarun Hussain, a former Deputy Lord Mayor from Bradford to be the Green Party nominee for Deputy Mayor and his running mate.

Councillor Cooper has said, “I am delighted to have been selected by Green Party members in our region to be the candidate in next year’s mayoral elections.

“The Greens want to see more democracy and more decisions made in our region but the government in Westminster has forced this flawed mayoral system without offering us the option of a Regional Assembly elected by Proportional Representation.

“I have asked Hawarun to be my running mate so the voters in our region know who they are going to get. All too often metro mayors simply appoint one of their cronies to the position.”

The Deputy Mayor for Greater Manchester, Beverley Hughes, a former Labour MP receives a salary of £77,000 a year after being appointed by Mayor Andy Burnham.

Hawarun Hussain said: “Climate change is on the public agenda like never before. Last year, it was reported that a majority of the public now recognise the climate crisis as an “emergency” and say politicians from the mainstream parties are failing to tackle the problem.

“Andrew and I will show that that the Green Party offer a genuine alternative to the same old politics of the other parties.

Councillor Cooper and Ms Hussain launched their bid in the Tong and Fulneck Valley between Leeds and Bradford where Bradford Council is planning to spend £64m of money from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to build a link road through one of the last areas of greenbelt between the two cities.

Councillor Cooper added, “Communities like those in the south of Bradford have been let down by a system where decisions are being made with no regards for the people living there.

“Of the £875m transport fund for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, a whopping £660m is allocated to road building programmes compared to only £20m on building railway stations.

“If we want to tackle the climate crisis, we need to do things differently – especially when it comes to transport. Far from trying to address these problems, our Labour-run councils and WYCA are still obsessed with building new roads.”

The post Green Party select candidates for West Yorkshire Mayoral Election appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

The court of appeal has ruled that plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport are illegal because ministers have failed to adequately take into account their own commitments to tackle climate change.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, leader of the Green Party on Kirklees Council has urged West Yorkshire Combined Authority to not use public money to help the multi-million pound expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport.

He said: “Today’s Heathrow judgement has serious implications for West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the councils here in Yorkshire that have supported airport expansion.

“The courts have said that climate change can no longer be ignored in policy decisions.

“West Yorkshire council leaders and councillors from the three main parties will have to stop paying lip service to our environment – one minute saying we need to do something about climate change and the next supporting projects we know will have catastrophic impact on increasing carbon emission.

“I am calling on West Yorkshire Combined Authority to meet and review their decision in light of this legal judgement.”

Green Party transport spokesperson Caroline Russell, who was at the court for the ruling, said:

“This decision shows business as usual has no place in a climate emergency. Of course we cannot expand aviation in the middle of a climate crisis.

“We are pleased the courts have upheld the will of Parliament on the need to tackle the climate emergency.

“It’s fantastic this is the first time in the world the Paris Agreement has been used as the basis for a ruling and we hope it opens the door for more challenges to allow the people to take power back from big business and protect our planet.

“Greens across the country will continue to fight off expansion at airports across the country.”

The post Green Party councillor calls for rethink of Leeds-Bradford Airport expansion following Heathrow verdict appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

Earlier this month, all of the Green Party councillors from across the council areas covered by WYCA signed a letter (included below) demanding more action by the authority.

Councillor Andrew Cooper from Kirklees Council has said

“My colleagues in here in Kirklees, Bradford, York, and Leeds have all been instrumental in encouraging their local councils to take bold action to reduce their contribution to the climate crisis and it’s great that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has also listened to our call.

“We want to see meaningful change in our region so we can start doing more to avoid climate catastrophe.

“We are especially interested to see how WYCA can justify spending the hundreds of millions of pounds on road building schemes such as the Leeds-Bradford Airport Link Road or the newly proposed South East Bradford Access Road through the Tong Valley.

“Currently we have not been shown any meaningful assessment of the environmental impact of the schemes the authority is funding and we want WYCA to go back and review the environmental impact of these schemes

“My colleagues and I say, and the state of the planet demands, that a full climate impact assessment should be produced for each project before decisions are made to proceed with them or not.”

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that we have only 11 years to bring our greenhouse gas emissions down to levels that will keep the global temperature rise to a survivable 1.5%.

The post Climate Emergency declared across West Yorkshire following pressure by Green councillors. appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.