Is it time for change in city’s council elections?
Local elections are on Thursday – and the Green Party is hoping to get on the scoresheet in more North East councils, as DANIEL HOLLAND reports
THE Green Party is bidding to make history in Newcastle next week by getting its first councillor elected in the city.
After winning seats around the North East over recent years, the party has its sights firmly set on capturing the sought-after West Fenham ward as its long-awaited first success in Newcastle.
Well-known campaigner Tay Pitman says she is “becoming more optimistic by the day” of claiming victory – and toppling one of Labour’s big hitters in the process, deputy city council leader Karen Kilgour.
Newcastle’s political prognosticators have pinpointed the West End seat as a key battleground to watch out for come election night on Thursday, after watching polls narrow there over recent years and opposition parties mount increasingly serious challenges.
As well as the Greens, former councillor PJ Morrissey is making a push for the Liberal Democrats – he finished third in the West Fenham ward in 2021, 60 votes behind Ms Pitman. Tory candidate Raja Khan, a local taxi driver, is also hoping for a strong showing, while a new name on the ballot is the Northern Independence Party’s Andrew Ehala.
Ms Pitman is standing in West Fenham for the third election running, having more than doubled her share of the vote previously from 11% in 2019 to 23% in 2021, and believes this is her best shot at victory yet in what she calls a “neglected” area of the city.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It seems like people want a change. In comparison to last year we are certainly polling higher across the ward, from our data, so I am cautiously optimistic.”
Newcastle is one of the last major urban areas in England without any Green councillors, but the party has enjoyed success in South Tyneside, Sunderland, County Durham and Northumberland over recent years. Ms Pitman, who is advocating for investment in new cycle lanes and community facilities in West Fenham, says she would hold the local authority to account on
its environmental pledges, including the ambitious target of having Newcastle reach Net Zero by 2030. She added: “Labour have woken up to the environmental crisis in the last couple of years, with a lot of pushing I might add, but it seems to me that it is still a lot of talk and no action from the council. They have set targets but don’t have anything measurable, they are not implementing things that they announce.
“I think there needs to be someone else on the council who has the environment at their core to actually push the council on this.”
Coun Kilgour, who has been second in command for Labour in Newcastle since last year, has sat on the council since 2014 and defended her “strong track record” against what she has branded “negative campaigning”.
Of the hotly-contested battle in West Fenham, she said: “It is good for the democratic process to have people engaged and to have credible opposition. We do not take this area for granted and we do not take people’s support for granted.”
Coun Kilgour is seen as a key ally of new Labour leader Nick Kemp, who was chosen to replace the outgoing Nick Forbes last month and has promised a wholesale review of council services and a shift in focus away from the city centre. After a dramatic few months for Labour in Newcastle that saw the long-serving council leader ousted and a tight race to replace him, Coun Kilgour says now is the “right time for a reset”.
She added: “Things change and I think the timing is right and a shift in focus towards our neighbourhoods is absolutely the right one. As a group, we are united behind a really good manifesto and our new leader.”