Oxford City Manifesto - Power to People

Power to People

In a democracy, people should have power to shape their own lives - simply voting for politicians every few years is not enough. Greens want to see people have a real say in their communities, rather than a council thinking that it alone can make decisions that affect us all.
The current council administration has taken powers and funding away from people, giving the most important decisions about the future of our city to just a handful of councillors. The Greens will push for people to have more say in decisions that affect their communities – including shaping plans and sharing out money – to make those decisions more transparent and better represent people’s interests.

Green successes:

• Moved the original motion to set up Area Committees and to give them influence and an allocation of money to spend locally.
• Actively involved residents’ groups in decision-making and planning decisions.
• Hosted a vast range of consultative events on issues such as Controlled Parking Zones and policing on the Cowley Road.
• Organised People’s Budget events to allocate Green Councillor allowances fairly to groups in the community.
• Launched a vast range of initiatives and responses to local community demands such as support for the Cowley Road Carnival, solar lighting on Manzil Way, helping the East Oxford Farmers’ Market – and hundreds more over ten years of real democracy.
• Green Councillors, as founding members of the Cowley Road Carnival, continue to support the Carnival despite inconsistent support from the Council.

Greens will:

• Re-establish the Area Committees with full powers over planning, local devolved decisionmaking and with adequate financial resources
• Improve the Council’s very poor record on consultation. e.g. their lack of acknowledgement of public support for retaining Temple Cowley Pools.
• Reintroduce the Committee System of decision making so that all councillors have a say and stop the concentration of power with a few individuals.
• Introduce a Charter of Citizens’ Rights to give people more of a say in decision making.
• Help more local groups with grants, to contribute to the community.
• Introduce residents’ discount cards, and support the Oxford Pound initiative, that will encourage local communities to be more stable and financially viable.
• Do all we can to promote Credit Unions amongst local communities to combat the influence of loan sharks.
• Continue to oppose the Public Space Protection Orders.
• Support Healthwatch, trade unions and staff in the NHS and related campaigning groups.
• Continue to campaign for full accountability of Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership using our online petition which can be found at www.change.org

This summary contains on party of the Green Party's vision for Oxford. Return to the full version of this manifesto for more options.