With just under a month until local council and mayoral elections take place, we’ve been gathering the manifestos of those seeking to become the Mayor of Bedford Borough. The Green Party candidate Adrian Spurrell, has launched his manifesto which he says “represents a really strong alternative” to the other candidates.
The Green Party manifesto that Adrian is championing, focuses on environmental justice, social justice, and democracy. They say it’s time to move away from tinkering at the edges and ‘to be bold – think Green, not grey – and to step up and become a net-zero borough’.
Read: Bedford Green Party announces 2023 mayoral candidate
Adrian’s mayoral manifesto focuses on three key pillars.
- Net Zero Bedford
- Social Justice
- Democracy
Each of these has its own sub-pledges which Adrian and his Green Party colleagues can help the Borough “thrive and flourish” and make Bedford “better for people and increase democracy across the Borough”.
Speaking to the Bedford Independent, Adrian believes that the Green Party is a viable alternative to the political status quo.
“I just fundamentally don’t think that it’s right, I know this is local politics not central politics, but I don’t think it’s right to be rewarding a party that has allowed its senior representatives to do what they’ve done to the country to be given the role of mayor,” says Adrian.
“So as far as I’m concerned we represent a really really strong alternative. We’ve got some really imaginative ideas, we want to do something that is actually going to help the Borough thrive and flourish and really step forward and put itself on the map.”
Net Zero Bedford
To make the Borough net zero, Adrian believes there are three ways to achieve this. Heat, energy and buildings; transport and air quality; and food, land use and nature.
Adrian says the goals here can be achieved with better council-led social housing, clean reliable public transport serving people travelling out of the town to work, just as much as services into town.
“The only thing that is vaguely reliable is the main train line into London,” says Adrian.
“We have some buses, but so many of them are infrequent and unreliable, how can you work in or around town and get to work? So, you have to have the infrastructure the only way you’re going to do that is through buses”.
And he says there needs to be more joined-up thinking between Bedford’s urban and rural areas.
“Why don’t we have a steady flow of local food coming into Bedford so that we can actually start to try and move towards a 15 minute city?” says Adrian.
When it comes to environmental matters, Adrian says the Council is doing some things, but “it just lacks ambition”.
“So often I get this sense of it’s trying to do little bits here and little bits there and we just need to do something more”, he says.
Social justice
With green money, diversity, young adults and community and cost of living, Adrian says more can be done to create great social justice across Bedford Borough.
This includes,
- Making sure all council investments are moved out of fossil fuel assets, properly following through on the motion that was proposed by the Green councillors and passed by the council.
- Building confidence in the reporting of hate crimes and ensuring all such reports are thoroughly and properly investigated.
- Increasing support and services for young adults. The Green Party wants to fight for these services in Bedford, not least the provision of high-quality and accessible mental health support for young adults.
Democracy
There is just one sub-pledge on the issue of democracy in Bedford Borough and that is abolishing the elected mayor position, which he says is “less democratic” than a full council system.
“Somebody commented it is a bit weird standing for a role that you want to abolish… one of the things that’s really important to us as the party is more democracy, increasing democracy.
“Some argue a mayoral-based system gets things done, but you’re getting things done that are not going to represent more people in the community.
“It’s about making sure we listen to as wide a range of people and we come up with the best solutions for as many people as possible, so going to a full council system is something we would try to do, like you see in so many other places.”
The manifesto for Bedford Borough’s Mayoral candidate, Adrian Spurrell, says, ‘we will support people and create a borough where everyone can easily access what they need to thrive.
‘By valuing the health and well-being of residents and our environment rather than rather than obsessing with ‘economic growth’, we will strengthen our economy and enable residents to live happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.’
You can read the manifesto in full here.
