Candidates
People who are Green candidates in any election
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South Lanarkshire Council removal of play park ‘unlawful’
South Lanarkshire Council acted unlawfully when it removed Hazelhead Play Park. They should have applied for planning permission to make this material change to land. When they acted without consultation, they also ignored their own planning guidance which states that communities should be involved in the management of their open spaces. These are the conclusions of the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (https://www.ercs.scot) who have looked into the Hazelhead Park case. We have now submitted a formal complaint to SLC raising these points, as follows: Stage one complaint Removal of Hazelhead play park equipment I wish to make a stage one complaint as per the Council’s complaints procedure regarding the…
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Green MSP Gillian Mackay takes Space to Play Campaign to Parliament
A South Lanarkshire campaign group is calling on the Council to recognise the importance of play for children’s’ wellbeing and to take action to improve play opportunities in local communities. The Space to Play campaign is asking South Lanarkshire Council to prepare a play strategy, to open up Multi Use Games Areas (MUGA) out-with school hours and to renew all local play parks. The group has been backed by Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay who recently raised a motion in parliament. The Central Scotland MSP believes that implementing these actions will help ensure that South Lanarkshire upholds the rights of children to play and be heard, as enshrined in the United…
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Kirsten Robb Selected To Represent the Scottish Green Party in East Kilbride
Local campaigner, Kirsten Robb, has been selected to run as a Scottish Green Party Candidate in the forthcoming local elections, in the East Kilbride East Ward where she has lived with her family for the last 14 years. Kirsten said; “I am delighted to be selected as the candidate in my local ward. Helping people in my own community makes my day, and I’d love the chance to help more as a councillor. If elected, I will build on the work I’ve done for the area to date. Together, I feel we can make our community one we can all take pride in.” Kirsten has previously been a community councillor for…
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Greens secure reopening of multi-use games areas after ‘Space to Play’ campaign
Campaigners are celebrating the re-opening of community facilities, some of which have been closed to the public for many years. In January, Kirsten Robb from the Scottish Greens and The Space to Play campaign wrote to South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) to highlight that in and around one council ward, 4 of the 7 multi-use games areas (MUGAs) attached to new primary schools were closed. This is despite the intention for these MUGAs to be open out of school hours for community use and only to be closed for a short period if there were vandalism issues. After several emails and meetings between SLC and the campaign, another 3 MUGA’s were…
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Space to Play
Many local people told Green activists that one of their top concerns is a lack of things for young people to do. Since then, local resident and Green campaigner, Kirsten Robb, has been investigating local play spaces and working with the community to get improvements.
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Greens help tackle housing emergency
Local Green activist, Kirsten Robb, who was contacted by a desperate resident, has highlighted the poor state of some council flats and now the council is now taking action.Kirsten was sent a video by a resident of a block of flats in Westwood. These image above shows the extent of the disrepair in their communal hallway. Kirsten passed the videos and photos on to council, emphasising how unsafe this was for residents and visitors to the flat. She followed this up with phone calls to the Housing Department and to a local newspaper to highlight the issue. The council acknowledged that this is an emergency, apologised and then fixed it within…
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Can South Lanarkshire Council use resources better?
We sent a letter to the Chief Executive with our thoughts on how the council can improve. Earlier in the year, South Lanarkshire Council put forward a series of potential cuts to services and asked for comment. At the time the South Lanarkshire Greens wrote a letter to the council making a number of points. Part of the letter is reproduced below, let’s see if any of the points are addressed over the next year… N.B. The consultation is now closed, though you too can still make suggestions on how the council can save money and do more with their resources if you’ve got any thoughts on the matter. Excerpt…
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Stewartfield Way dualling- will never be Green
Central Scotland Lead candidate for the Scottish Greens, Gillian McKay commented on the SLC decision last week to approve the revised business “The latest version of the Stewartfield Way dualling project tries to dress up the project in green clothes but the Greens are not fooled. The project’s aim is to provide more space for road traffic and so open up more greenfield sites for private development, which may not even happen. It will destroy more greenbelt and create more climate busting emissions. I am urging Holyrood, South Lanarkshire Council and the City Deal to scrap this project and commit to a truly green recovery from covid instead.” Local Green…