The Manifesto is calling for fairly funded higher education, sustainable and affordable transport and better student housing. They are also concerned about the creation of job opportunities for Norwich graduates and the building of a sustainable future.

Green Party General Election candidate Adrian Ramsay is the first candidate to sign up to the Norwich Student Manifesto, after a meeting with UEA Sabbatical Officers and the Student Union President of Norwich University College of the Arts.

Mr. Ramsay said:

"I’m proud and delighted to be the first to sign up to the Norwich Student Manifesto. All of its points are key to Green Party policies and are things that I will pursue if elected as MP for Norwich South.

"Most important is to ensure that we have a fairly funded higher education system - the Green Party wants to scrap tuition fees and bring back a grants system. I fought against the introduction of tuition fees when Charles Clarke was Education Secretary and will continue to if I replace him as Norwich South MP."

Current Norwich South MP Charles Clarke introduced top-up fees in 2004 and has recently given evidence to the Browne enquiry on the effectiveness of the fees system. Students are facing mounting pressures, with the average UEA student now graduating with £23,194 of debt. Meanwhile, class sizes are likely to get bigger, courses cut and talented staff lost as universities face £900m cuts in Government funding.

The Student Union representatives are calling on prospective Parliamentary candidates to set out their policies regarding students and higher education. They are meeting with all the candidates who have a good chance of winning the Norwich South seat in the approaching General Election.

The student representatives also asked Mr. Ramsay what he will do to improve housing and transport for students.

In response, Councillor Ramsay said:

"We need stronger legislation to ensure that landlords provide better quality and well maintained housing for students. We also need to re-regulate the buses so that we have cheaper and more reliable bus services for students and everyone in Norwich to use."

The winning politician will be responsible for representing the thousands of students who live in Norwich South - on UEA campus and around the city.

Photo opportunity: Adrian Ramsay and Janet Bearman will be working on the hedge with local residents from 10am.

The hedge is a vital wildlife corridor, rich in variety of species and providing nesting spots for birds. It is also of historical significance, having been in existence for around 200 years and featuring twenty mature oaks within its boundaries. There are further concerns over the safety of leaving the hedge to grow unchecked, as it is close to pavements and also the A140, a busy main road. Finally, local residents argue that the hedge forms a useful barrier between the Ipswich Rd houses and the main road , filtering out some of the pollutants and drowning some of the noise.

The Green Party support the proposals of the Norwich Wildlife Services report, which ask that the hedge is properly managed, with cutting taking place every three years, regular checks for litter and fly-tipping and planting of native trees and shrubs to fill gaps in the hedge.

Adrian Ramsay said, “It's really important that this hedge is properly maintained. This is an historic and much loved feature of the Ipswich Road. I'm glad that the Council is now working with residents to tidy it up and do more planting.”

"I'm pleased to be working with residents on the action day to improve the hedge for the benefit of local people and wildlife."

In November, Norwich City Council issued a section 215 notice to the private owners of the car park, Relay Arch, to carry out the repairs by 8th February - or the Council would carry out the work itself and bill the company for the cost. Residents want the Council to follow up this legal notice and urgently resurface the front car park to fill in the many large potholes and deal with the flooding problem.

Green Party Councillors have been pressing the private owners of the site to carry out this work for two years. They believe that it's now time for the City Council to step in. 829 residents have signed a Green Party petition calling for the Council to make the car park safe and clean.

Photo opportunity: Green Councillors and local residents gather with their petition in the Earlham House car park at 2pm on Friday (5th February). After the demonstration Adrian Ramsay will present the petition to the Council. We can put journalists in touch with residents willing to give a comment on this.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party MP candidate for Norwich South and local councillor for the area, said: “It is essential that the Council does the work to clean up the car park and invoices the private company. We've been waiting for years now for the company to fill in pot holes and deal with drainage problem. Given that the company has not done the work, the Council should carry out its enforcement notice and make the park safe and clean for local residents.”

Former BP boss Lord Browne is chairing an enquiry into the effectiveness of the fees system which Charles Clarke fought to introduce in 2004. Many fear it will result in fees being raised again. Mr Clarke has told the enquiry that he believed inflexibility on the part of some universities meant his system wasn’t working properly.

The Green Party deputy leader and General Election candidate in Norwich South, Adrian Ramsay, will be making his own written submission to the Browne enquiry. He led a campaign at the University of East Anglia against the introduction of the top up fees system at the time. In a meeting at the UEA with student leaders on Thursday he was the first candidate to sign up to the new Norwich Student Manifesto which calls for fair funding in higher education with no fees increase in the next Parliament.

Adrian Ramsay said:

“Charles Clarke has admitted that his top-up fees system isn’t working. This is true. It is putting off talented students from poorer backgrounds from going to university, as was predicted at the time. It’s leaving students saddled with thousands of pounds worth of debt.

“If I replace Charles Clarke as MP I will fight for tuition fees to be replaced by a fairer funding system involving a return to grants for students so that talented young people can go to university regardless of their background. The only fair way for students to pay towards their education is through income tax after they enter employment. Higher education nurtures the talents of students for the benefit of society, so it should be paid for as a public service.”

An amendment to the Local Transport Act of 2008 which came into force this month enables local governments to create Quality Contract Schemes. Such provisions allow authorities the power to instate London style quality control over service provision including fares, timings and routes.

Councillorr Andrew Boswell, leader of the Green Party County Councillors on Norfolk County Council said:

"Greens welcome amendments to the law that allow for Quality Contract Schemes. We must make sure buses are a financially viable alternative to cars. While such provisions give local authorities a fantastic opportunity to move ahead with plans to reduce fares, the current government has done little to make buses an attractive option.”

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party General Election candidate for Norwich South, added:

"Bus fares in Norwich have risen repeatedly in recent years. Studies show that over half the population would take the bus to work if the service was more reliable and more affordable. Cutting bus fares is a positive way to ease congestion and pollution on city roads. The QCSs present a real chance to make this happen and it would be wrong for Norfolk County Council to ignore that."

Councillor Boswell has written to the leader of the Conservative controlled council, Cllr Daniel Cox, urging that this opportunity to improve local bus services should be grasped.

The Green Party is poised to take control of Norwich City Council after the local government elections this year. If Norwich City Council were also to become a unitary authority, with the kind of responsibility for bus services which now rests with the county, the Greens would have no hesitation in seeking a Quality Contract Schemes system for the city.

But supporters of the scheme have warned that local authorities must act quickly after reports surfaced that a Conservative government would repeal the part of the act that allows for Quality Contract Schemes.

A spokesperson for the Campaign for Better Transport said:

"Shadow Transport minister Stephen Hammond wants to scrap Quality Contracts. We advise that Quality Contracts should be quickly approved, and that the Department should play an active role in encouraging and supporting local transport authorities who want to use these new powers. Currently bus services in the UK receive some of the lowest funding in Europe. A better funded and attractive bus system would do a good deal to lower carbon emissions and create more pleasant city environments."

She and Peter Offord, both long-standing Green Party members, were in contention over the role, but Jessica was selected last night at a hustings and selection meeting.

Ms Goldfinch, 43, said:

"I feel so proud to represent the Green Party in Norwich North for the next General Election. I have come to know a lot passionate and wonderful people, from all walks of life through my work in the constituency. Many of these people struggle through some very difficult circumstances and I would be honoured to serve them as the Norwich North MP."

Ms Goldfinch is a single Mum of one daughter and works as a teaching assistant at a High School in Norwich North. Jess lives on Connaught Road and has been a Norwich resident for 12 years, during which time she was a City Councillor for Nelson ward from 2003 until 2006.

Ms Goldfinch will be working to build on the advances made in the Norwich North by-election last year when the Green vote more than tripled in the 2005 General Election, while the vote shares of Labour and the Lib-Dems went down.

Norwich North residents are encouraged to visit the Green Party shop on Dove Street, in the city centre, to find out more about Green policies and to discuss issues affecting their area.

A further round of selections is due to be made on February 4th, when Green Party candidates for the Broadland, Gt. Yarmouth and South Norfolk constituencies will be named. They will join Adrian Ramsay, deputy leader of the Green Party, who has already launched his campaign to unseat former New Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke in Norwich South. The Green Party has named Norwich South as one of its top three target seats in the country along with Brighton Pavilion and Lewisham Deptford.

The result gives new confidence to the Greens’ local candidate, Adrian Ramsay, that local election vote share translates to General Election votes and that he can win the Norwich South seat from Charles Clarke.

According to the ICM Research opinion poll, Green candidate Caroline Lucas, the party leader, has a significant lead in the Brighton Pavilion constituency. The results show that she has the support of 35% of voters followed by the Conservatives on 27% and Labour on 25%. What’s more, 63% of Labour and Lib Dem voters in the sample said that they would vote Green if that party was best placed to stop a Conservative win. If voters carry through their intentions at the general election, the Greens would win the seat from Labour with a majority of almost 3,500 over the Conservatives.

There are interesting similarities between Brighton Pavilion and Norwich South. In both cities, the Green Party has thirteen city councillors. In the European elections last year the Green Party came top in the voting across the area corresponding to the respective parliamentary constituencies.

Adrian Ramsay, who is deputy leader of the Green Party, already knows that if people in Norwich South vote the same way in the General Election as they have in local elections over the past three years, he will win the seat, a victory which, on current trends, would mean the first two Green Party MPs going to Westminster.

References:

• www.greenparty.org.uk/news/icm-poll-puts-greens-ahead-in-target-westminster-seat.html
• news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2007/councils/html/ml.stm
• www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/bhcc/Results_for_website.pdf
• www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/poll-surge-suggests-greens-on-course-for-first-commons-seat-1863895.html

On Monday, Cameron claimed that a child’s life chances were completely unrelated to their parents’ level of wealth and that Sure Start would face £200million worth of cuts under the Conservatives, as well as part-privatisation.

For Norwich’s Thorpe Hamlet Sure Start Centre, this is all too familiar. In 2007 the Conservative controlled County Council threatened to close its nursery on Wolfe Road, but was saved by a petition collected by parents and local Green Councillors and their supporters.

Adrian Ramsay, Deputy Leader of the Green Party and General Election Candidate for Norwich South, who helped save the nursery, will be visiting the Thorpe Hamlet Sure Start this Friday to pledge his commitment to support the continued operation and funding of all seven Norwich Sure Start Centres if he is elected as the local MP.

Councillor Ramsay said:

"Sure Start Centres like the one in Thorpe Hamlet are hugely important to local families and help ensure all children get a good start in life. The support, advice and sense of community for local parents is invaluable. Crucial to the success of the Sure Start Centres is the outreach workers, who ensure that parents know about and benefit from the service. Any proposals to cut the outreach workers or other aspects of Sure Start must be resisted. If elected as MP I will continue to fight for the Sure Start Centres and oppose any attempt to cut their funding."

Adrian Ramsay will be attending a drop in session at the centre to talk to parents and staff about the scheme’s services and facilities.

It is little surprise that British companies and workers have lost out. A lack of Government investment in the renewables sector over the years has led to our supply firms being out-competed and slow market growth pushing companies elsewhere.

The Government could learn a lesson or two from Germany’s Renewable Energy Law (2000), which has presided over an explosion in the renewable energy sector. Not only must all electrical utilities buy from renewable sources, but investment is actively encouraged by making renewable energy generation financially lucrative through fixed rates. Ordinary people can sell their renewable energy to the grid, while smaller facilities are subsidised to encourage the development of diverse, decentralised power production.

An urgent review of pavement gritting was held at county hall today (Wednesday) after complaints that too many have been left in a slippery state during the current cold snap.

At the suggestion of Councillor Andrew Boswell, leader of the Green Party group on Norfolk County Council it was agreed at today's meeting that the system for keeping grit boxes replenished should be improved. This could involve the creation of a database for the location of gritboxes across the county, and the recruitment of volunteer gritbox wardens at parish level to report to the county council when boxes in their own neighbourhoods need refilling.

Today’s meeting of the Planning, Transportation, Environment and Waste Overview and Scrutiny Panel heard that there had been shortcomings in the council’s arrangements for keeping gritboxes filled so that residents could treat pavements in their own areas. The problems had been especially noticeable in Norwich and some of the market towns. Fears had been expressed that the priority currently given to keeping roads clear during winter weather meant that pavements and walkways were not always safe to use.

Andrew Boswell commented:

"We will carefully scrutinise how the ruling Conservatives respond to our calls. Pavement gritting needs to be taken much more seriously. Grit boxes need to be better maintained and more are needed in many areas in order for residents to be able to grit the paths near where they live. We need an urgent response to this problem to make our roads and paths safer for people to get round in these difficult weather conditions."

In order to demonstrate the continuing need for better treatment of icy pavements, Green Party volunteers, including the Greens’ General Election candidate for Norwich South, Cllr Adrian Ramsay, will be out with their shovels and brushes at 1000 on Friday morning (January 8th) when, for the benefit of some of the most vulnerable pedestrians, they’ll be doing some clearing and gritting of pavements in the area where Mrs Hardman fell and broke her leg. Meet at the junction of Rosary Road and St. Leonard's Road.

In a seasonal boost to his General Election campaign, the Green Party’s Adrian Ramsay has revealed that ten former Norwich councillors from Labour and the Lib-Dems are switching their support to him.

The latest to make the change is former Norwich city Labour councillor Graeme Gee.

Adrian Ramsay said:

“I am delighted to have Graeme Gee as the tenth former councillor of another party backing my campaign. This shows that we are getting more support from former Labour and Lib-Dem supporters all the time. They want a fresh voice for Norwich and I’m pleased to have their help in my campaign to defeat Charles Clarke and get a Green MP for Norwich South.

“I know that many people who’ve become dissatisfied with the direction that politics has taken are finding a new home in the Green Party.”

Graeme Gee said:

"I left the Labour Party because it had lost its soul, direction, principles and energy. Years later it was the dynamics of the Green Party that expressed these and that’s why I joined them. It’s also why I look forward to working with them, hopefully to get a Green MP in Norwich South and a Green Council."

Others now backing Adrian Ramsay’s Green Party campaign in Norwich South are former Norwich Labour councillors Andy Pearmain, Bryan Heading, Susan Curran, Derek Pardey and Andy Panes. Former Norwich Lib-Dem councillors giving active support are Paul McAlenan, Vicky Hopkins, Simon Richardson and Dawn Castle-Green. All ten live in the Norwich South constituency.

In his New Year message, Mr Clarke has warned again that Labour’s chances of remaining in power beyond the election hinge upon the removal of Gordon Brown as leader.

But today Adrian Ramsay, who will challenge Mr Clarke at the General Election, said a change of leader cannot solve Labour’s problems on its own because the real problem lies in the direction that Labour Party has taken. He agrees that Mr Clarke has cause for concern, especially in his own constituency of Norwich South. Cllr Ramsay explains:

“Under Labour we are seeing the closure of Post Offices and day-care centres. The gap between rich and poor has been widening. There’s been a failure to create new jobs in green industries. It's the direction of the Labour Party that's the problem here.

“Charles Clarke has very good reason to be concerned because his own seat is under threat. But it’s the Greens who have the best chance of beating him because we have taken first place in the last three local elections in the constituency. If people vote the same way in the General Election, Charles Clarke will lose his seat and there’ll be a Green voice in Parliament to call for the change of direction that the country needs.”

It’s a further recognition by the Green Party of the importance of new media in reaching an electorate widely disenchanted with the prevailing political system. Internet videos played a significant part in US President Barack Obama’s election campaign.

The film uses animation and graphics, plus a short direct message from the candidate, Adrian Ramsay, a Norwich City Councillor and Deputy Leader of the Green Party nationally. It recognises that the battle for who runs the country will be between Labour and the Conservatives, but maintains that each individual constituency is a separate, unique contest and Norwich South will provide one of the most interesting battles.

It suggests that the Greens provide the strongest challenge to the sitting MP, New Labour’s former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, having beaten all the other parties in local elections across the constituency in 2007, 2008 and 2009. If people vote the same way at the General Election Mr. Clarke will lose his seat to the Greens.

The film concludes that one more Labour, Conservative or Lib-Dem MP will hardly be noticed in the House of Commons, but electing a Green MP for Norwich would provide the fresh, distinctive voice that the city, and Parliament, so desperately need.

The Norwich South film will be seen on Adrian Ramsay's Youtube page from 1st January: http://www.youtube.com/user/AdrianRamsayForMP . It will also be available on Adrian's own website at www.adrianramsay.org.uk . Links to the video will be provided in future election literature. Viewers are specifically encouraged to share the video with others.

Adrian Ramsay said: "Any successful election campaign in the 21st century has to use a variety of methods. We are leafleting and door-knocking as always but I think this video will provide another useful way for us to communicate with Norwich residents.

"I'm very pleased with the video. I think it's visually very impressive. I hope it is shared and watched by Norwich residents repeatedly between now and the General Election."

The Green Party says the plan for the future growth of the Norwich area being worked out by a consortium of local councils isn’t “up to scratch”.

Norwich City Council, Broadland District Council and South Norfolk District Council are working with Norfolk County Council to produce a strategy for managing future growth, to be submitted to government soon. It’s supposed to set out where new housing may be located, how opportunities for jobs may be created and what new infrastructure and facilities are required.

In a detailed consultation response, the Greens say the plan as currently proposed is unsound because it envisages large scale development in the countryside, based around road transport.

The Greens' concern has been heightened by the announcement yesterday that the Government will provide £67.5m to allow a new road to be built from Postwick to the airport, approximately half of the proposed Northern Distributor Road. The Green Party believes that this will increase gridlock in the north east of the city because it is a partial route that will ensure new development is road based. The money could make a huge difference in improving public transport, both in the existing city area and in ensuring that any new development has first class public transport from the outset.

The Green Party also maintains that the Joint Core Strategy falls short in

• ensuring jobs and services such as education will be available locally to new housing developments to reduce the need for travel
• ensuring high quality public transport links, which will be more affordable if new development is not too widely dispersed
• protecting green spaces by taking a new look at higher density housing to avoid urban sprawl
• improving the efficiency of energy and water use in existing properties so new development doesn’t strain resources
• taking account of future flood risk by not building homes on low-lying land.

Commenting on the Green Party response, Adrian Ramsay, the General Election candidate for Norwich South, said:

“Any development that does go ahead must be of the highest environmental standard. That means not just the quality of buildings but minimising intrusion into countryside. It must offer good services and jobs locally and high quality public transport. Otherwise there will be even more gridlock on our roads."

"Dispersed development must be avoided because it results in sprawl into the countryside and puts pressure on existing services across the county. The current plan simply is not up to scratch.”

Referring to increased closures of Norwich’s pubs, Green Party Deputy Leader and General Election Candidate for Norwich South Adrian Ramsay said:

“It is a real shame that Norwich communities may lose two more local pubs. Pubs can be the heart of a community and are hugely important to many people. Unfortunately, the closure of Norwich pubs has become a regular occurrence recently. It’s a real loss to local communities when large companies choose to sell up for a quick profit, rather than keeping the investment in the local area and securing local publicans to run the pubs”.

Following recent reports in the Evening News about the fight to save The Lord Nelson and The Grove pubs, Green Councillor Ruth Makoff has continued to press the two pub companies- Admiral Taverns (based in Chester) and Enterprise Inns (based in the West Midlands), to ensure that local people’s wishes are considered. So far, the wishes of local people seem to have fallen on deaf ears, and the companies have been less than transparent.

Melissa Morgan of Enterprise Inns reiterated on several occasions that they were still looking for a landlord for The Grove, in North Earlham. Finally it was admitted that they were considering other options, stating:

“We have already received enquiries from a number of applicants considering a variety of uses, including public house, retail, educational and other community related uses”

The other pub, The Lord Nelson on Dereham Road, has been up for sale since Admiral Taverns refused to pay for further renovations, despite them having committed tenants.

Councillor Makoff said:

"It's a great disappointment that the concerns of local residents were not properly taken on board by either pub company to reopen the pubs. I am particularly unhappy that Enterprise Inns were not clearer with me when I enquired about their future plans for the Grove Pub. I just hope that the site is bought for use as a pub, since this was the last one on the estate, or at least for another community facility"

Most people in the Marlpit area of Norwich have welcomed the new 20mph speed limit which the city council has introduced there.

In a survey for the Green Party, carried out by local member and former NOP pollster Andy Panes, 53% of respondents were happy with the scheme. Of those who thought it needed improving, the largest number called for better enforcement of the new limit by police officers or safety cameras. Fewer thought that traffic calming measures were needed and fewer still thought that more speed limit signs would be helpful. Only a small minority, 6%, were still against the new limit on principle.

Green Party councillors were instrumental in pushing for the 20mph limit in residential areas of Norwich on the grounds that pollution would be reduced and safety increased. Their enthusiasm for the lower limit has been vindicated by research published in the British Medical Journal last week which showed that road injuries in London’s 20mph zones have been substantially reduced. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine compared accident data from the zones with similar areas outside the zones. They found that the number of children killed or seriously injured within the zones was reduced by half. Casualties as a whole dropped by 41.9%.

Of the Norwich survey, Cllr Rupert Read, Green Party spokesman on Norwich City Council for Planning, Transport and Economic Development, said:

“The majority of people in the Marlpit area are happy with the new scheme as it is, and that’s against Home Office expectations in the past that these schemes wouldn’t really work without back-up measures. But the number of people who think the scheme needs extra measures is not insubstantial and we will endeavour to act on that.

“It is also interesting to note that there has been something of a swing away from traffic calming solutions, which have been popular in the past. The great thing about the 20mph limits, potentially, is that they can make a difference without costing anything like as much as traffic calming, and without damaging vehicular suspensions.”

Notes:

Number of people interviewed: 432
Happy with the scheme as it is: 230 (53%)
Against the 20mph limit on principle: 27 (6%)
Think scheme needs improving/isn’t working well enough: 175 (41%)

Of these, 85 thought there needed to be police enforcement/cameras
81 thought there needed to be traffic calming measures
30 thought there needed to be more/bigger/lower speed limit signs

[Some people opted for more than one of these answers]

More on the London 20mph zones research: Click Here

The Green Party is strongly opposed to the latest Boundary Committee suggestion to government that there should be one big council running the whole of Norfolk.

The Greens continue to support unitary status for Norwich.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party General Election candidate for Norwich South, said:

“Just one council for the whole of Norfolk would be a disaster for local democracy. It would mean decisions being taken at a remote level and councillors having responsibility for areas up to seventy miles away from the people who elected them. A unitary Norfolk would serve a population similar to that of Birmingham but with a geographical area twenty times bigger. It could not be more inappropriate for Norfolk.

“Decisions should be taken at a more local level, where councillors know the areas they are responsible for and where they are accountable to local residents. A unitary council for Norwich would achieve this, with all decisions being taken by councillors elected by Norwich residents to represent Norwich. We will be pressing for a unitary Norwich and for no change elsewhere in the county.”

Between now at January 19th the government will be conducting a consultation on the recommendation of the Boundary Committee that there should be one unitary council for Norfolk. At the end of the consultation the government will have three options:

*No change

*A whole county unitary authority for Norfolk

*The original bid for a unitary authority on the existing Norwich boundaries with no change elsewhere in Norfolk.

The issue was debated as an urgent item at a group meeting of Green Party city councillors last night (Mon). The Greens will be arguing strongly for the third of these options.

Green Party councillors on Norwich City Council have chosen Councillor Claire Stephenson, a 35 year old English teacher, to be their new group leader.

She takes over from Councillor Adrian Ramsay, who has held the job since he was elected to the council in 2003. He is standing down now to focus his efforts on winning the Norwich South parliamentary seat from Charles Clarke at next year’s General Election.

The changes come at a time when Norwich could soon be making history by electing one of the first Green MPs, and, if local government boundaries remain unchanged, at the same time having the first Green – controlled city council in this country.

Councillor Stephenson, who has been deputy leader, was elected by the thirteen Green city councillors at a private meeting.

Claire says:

I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the Norwich Green group at an exciting time: Next year’s local elections could see us pull ahead of Labour to take control of the council, while Adrian Ramsay is elected as MP for Norwich South. At the same time, I am under no illusions about the challenges presented by the current economic climate and the budget constraints we shall have to grapple with.”

Claire first came to Norwich in 2001 to study for her PGCE teaching qualification at the UEA. Since then she has taught at schools in Bungay, Fakenham and currently Norwich where her specialism is English and citizenship at AS level. With a special fondness for long train journies, Claire is also a well-travelled teacher of English as a foreign language, having worked in Moscow and Jakarta. She now teaches part time so that she has enough time for council duties.

Also, MA student Samir Jeraj was elected deputy leader. Samir is a former local authority economic development officer now studying international development at the UEA.

Green Party councillors maintain a full shadow executive to monitor and scrutinise the work of the Labour administration.

Officials at Norfolk County Council have proposed the closure of the Essex Rooms (on Essex Street, off Unthank Road) and the Silver Rooms (Silver Road) as part of a review of adult social services. The council officials say that the proposals will not save money but are about the council focusing on people with dementia. However, Green Party Councillors believe that the day care centres at the Silver Rooms and the Essex Rooms are extremely valuable for all the older people who use them, whether they have dementia or not.

Stephen Little, Green Party Councillor for Town Close ward, in which the Essex Rooms facility is located, said: "I've been to visit both centres and spoken to the people who use them. The support and sense of community they provide cannot easily be replaced. The day relief they provide for carers is critical."

Adrian Ramsay, Deputy Leader of the Green Party nationally and General Election Candidate for Norwich South, added: "One lady I spoke to said that going to the Silver Rooms once a week is the only company she gets. With more people wanting to use these facilities it would be a tragedy if they shut."

The ruling Cabinet at County Hall has agreed to conduct a consultation on the future of day care facilities in Norfolk before making a decision in the new year. The petition can be signed at gopetition.com

The petition

Norfolk County Council is proposing the closure of the Essex Rooms and Silver Rooms. We believe that both day care centres are extremely valuable for the people who use them and that they should be kept open.

We, the undersigned, call on Norfolk County Council to keep the Essex Rooms and Silver Rooms Day Centres open and fully maintain the vital high quality Day Care Services they offer.