Weekending

Apart from a spot of leafleting in Goldsmid earlier this evening, I am taking it easy this weekend after a rather epic week. The predominant theme was trying to catch up on council work following the Euros. Here's a bit of a round-up:

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On Monday, I had a meeting at the Phoenix with fellow Trustees and senior council officers to discuss plans to refurbish the building.

I've got a soft spot for this modernist landmark, but it's urgently in need of an upgrade and a makeover, not least because there are real problems with solar gain in parts of the building.

RH Partnership are the architects for the project, and they've done an excellent job with the initial design concept:

The design's moved on somewhat since the image above was produced, but this should give you a flavour of the proposals. It's all very exciting, not least because Phoenix are aiming to self-fund the project. I'm hoping pre-application discussions with the Planning officers will happen over the next couple of months.

On Monday evening we had a Group meeting, which included a presentation by CityClean officers regarding the new Waste Strategy for Brighton & Hove. Obviously Greens are always going to be hard to satisfy when it comes to the way in which the city currently manages its refuse and recycling, but there are some surprisingly good proposals in the emerging document.

Sadly nothing as yet regarding taking action on the plastic containers and cutlery used by food retailers on the seafront and throughout the city, but I'm going to keep pushing on this. If we can introduce compulsory biodegradable / compostable vessels and cutlery at events in Brighton & Hove, it will be easier to make the case to local businesses I hope.

And the Supermarket Summit is back on! Apparently.

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Tuesday was devoted to ploughing through my groaning Inbox and dealing with emails, and on Wednesday I had a Planning Committee meeting, preceded by a meeting (wearing my Deputy Convenor hat) with Cllr Brian Oxley in which he outlined his aims as Chair of the Governance Committee over the next municipal year, and asked for feedback from the Green Group on his proposals (guys, if you're reading this, I'll be typing up the notes on Monday).

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On Thursday morning I met with a senior CityParks officer to discuss a request from residents on Preston Park Avenue for an access ramp into the park at the northern-most end of the street. This is an ongoing campaign, and I'll be posting more about this soon.

I had a cultural lunchtime, and then went up to the local party office to stuff envelopes for the Goldsmid campaign with Ben and our friend Alison. After a quick dash home to eat and see Mr K, it was back out for a local party bash at Moksha, to celebrate our success in the Euros.

Dr Caroline Lucas MEP & Cllr Keith Taylor

The lovely Moksha people had made us little cupcakes with green icing :) and a jolly good time was had by all.

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I had meetings throughout Friday morning, with Tourism officers, and then with Planning & Enforcement officers regarding sites adjacent to London Road station. Again, the latter concerns an ongoing campaign, and I'll have more to say on this over coming weeks.

After lunch and a whizz through some emails, it was back to the local party office for yet more envelope stuffing with Jason, Phelim and local party Chair Simon. Four thousand envelopes later, we were finished by 10pm - and retired to the pub.

*phew*

I should be singing from the rooftops

The European election results have now been fully announced. We held both our European seats; nationally, we increased our vote by 44% - an awesome gain.

In Brighton & Hove, the Greens came first across the whole city with 31.3%, beating the Tories by 6,000 votes and taking more than twice as many as Labour.

We also topped the poll in Oxford and Norwich, putting us well on track for electoral success in the General Election in our target constituencies.

And I am really pleased about all of this, honestly I am.

But I can't help feeling very disappointed that we missed out so narrowly on a second seat in the South East, and also that (despite a huge amount of hard work) we fell short in other parts of the UK by a very small margin.

So after all that effort, and despite a massively increased voteshare, we still have only 2 Green MEPs - fewer per votes cast than any other party.*

Yes, the proportional representation system used in the Euro ballot is fairer than the wretched first past the post system we endure for Westminster, but the d'Hondt method still favours larger parties; which is perhaps why it was chosen in the first place.

Ben Duncan, Jim Jay, and plenty of other people have blogged very eloquently about our results in recent hours, so I'll end my contribution here...

...with a final thought that perhaps the main reason why I don't feel like singing from the rooftops today is because I am utterly, utterly ashamed to be Northern right now.



*Votes cast per MEP elected in England and Wales in the 2009 European Elections:
Plaid Cymru 126,702
Con 167,191
UKIP 187,726
Lib Dem 195,358
Lab 195,628
BNP 458,212
Green 611,652

Gutted

BNP gain the North West :(

South East Euro Results - Greens hold seat

Well, we won overall in Brighton & Hove, and Caroline Lucas held her seat, beating Labour into a miserable 5th place in the South East.

Many congratulations to Caroline, and many commiserations to our Euro No. 2 Cllr Keith Taylor, both of whom fought a hard campaign for the Green Euro vote in South East England.

Above all many thanks to all the candidates, and activists in Brighton & Hove and the South East (and friends from beyond), for putting in such a massive amount of graft over the past few months on the Euro trail - the results speak for themselves, and we're now in an unprecedented position to win Brighton Pavilion and elect Caroline Lucas as Westminster's first Green MP.

Well done all!

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Commiserations too to Cllr Rupert Read (Eastern Region), and Cllr Ricky Knight (South West Region) for narrow misses. Am waiting on tenterhooks now for Peter Cranie's result in the North West...

London result in - Greens hold seat

Jean came 4th, beating UKIP into 5th place.

Voteshare 11%, up 3% :D

Joy!

But sadly...

...the BNP have won their first Euro seat, thanks to the good folk of the Yorkshire & Humber region :(

B&H Euro Results just in - Greens top the poll!

Voteshare:

Green 19,727
Conservative 13,891
Labour 9,113
UKIP 7,570
Lib Dem 6,410

What an amazing result! Brighton Pavilion here we come!

Polling has closed...

Preston Park, 8.30pm

...and now we wait for the results. Having told (telled? - been a teller) at the portacabin polling station in the park for the local elections in May 2007, I can report that the turnout was unusually high here, for the 6-10pm evening period especially.

What this means overall, I couldn't say. Certainly the council officers staffing the station (from 6.45am 'til 10.15pm with a 20 minute break - hmm) were surprised, especially as the Euros have a low turnout traditionally.

So roll on Sunday/Monday, when the waiting will be over. As somebody once said, "I can handle the despair - it's the hope that's killing me". I've got everything crossed for Caroline, Keith, Jean, Peter, and all our candidates in target constituencies.

Thank you if you voted Green today.

Thank you if you even bothered to vote!*

*(but not for the BNP obv.)

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Eagle-eyed readers will spot what is wrong with the above picture (OK, no clever answers here please ;))... the polling portacabin was powered by a stinky diesel generator. There were complaints from tellers, polling station officers, and voters alike, particularly those who found themselves downwind of the fumes. Yuk :(

A few lightbulbs and sockets don't need much power; why can't we use portable micro-renewables for future temporary polling stations, instead of noxious fossil fuel guzzlers?

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My best ever Telling Story is from last May when I went up to Lewisham to help out with their local/AM elections on a dank and damp Spring afternoon.

I was stationed at an infant school near Sue Luxton's house, nervously eyeing up the clouds and the fact that there was no shelter in the playground should it start to rain.

Well, of course, the heavens opened, and there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide - the school porch was off-limits thanks to campaigning rules, and as I scanned the playground in panic, I spotted a very small wendy house...





















Yes reader, in desperation I ended up cowering in that teeny-tiny wendy house, rolling a [soggy] fag with my knees up to my chin, and the rain pummelling my temporary accommodation, thinking "yes, all my life and all my career I've been working up to this. Oh, the GLAMOUR."

WRONG doesn't even begin to cover it...

Still undecided? Think again before you vote tomorrow

A good deed shines in a naughty world

I've been out and about in the ward over recent days doing some last-minute leafleting for the European Elections this coming Thursday, 4th June.

Plenty of other people have blogged at length about our prospects for this ballot, so I'm not going to jam up any more bandwidth with my hopes and fears for Thursday, but suffice to say I've never met so many people on the doorstep and in the street who say they're voting Green for the first time.

It's incredibly heartening and very exciting - people really do seem hungry for change, and the progressive vote seems to be going our way, not least because our Green MEPs have a track record in making their expenditure transparent, and in speaking out against the "Euro Gravytrain".

Sunday seems like a long time to have to wait for the results... I've got everything crossed, obviously for all our candidates, but particularly for our existing MEPs Caroline Lucas & Jean Lambert, and also for my friend and colleague Cllr Keith Taylor, and for Peter Cranie in my motherland of the North West.

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However, for all the good Green deeds afoot in Brighton and beyond today, the naughty light below was shining in the avenue next to Preston Park at 2.15pm this afternoon, on the hottest and sunniest day we've had so far this year:



You can bet I'll be reporting this, but to whom? Unless I'm reading it wrong, the council website seems to be saying that it's all EDF's fault, but, erm, they won't be doing anything about it:

Why is my street light on during the day?

Modern streetlights are switched on and off by a sensor that knows when it is getting dark. Older lights were switched on and off by area using a network of cables that are owned by the Electricity Utility EDF. These cables are very old and are beginning to fail. EDF when they discover a fault do not have to repair this switching facility and make the cable permanently live or on. This results in day burning columns.

So that's OK then, is it? (hmm) One to add to the list of things to do tomorrow.