Our next whole group meeting is on Tuesday, 19 March , at 7.30pm, in Fountain Square Church, Tideswell.
This will be a members’ working meeting (new members are welcome) to discuss our priorities and possible questions to put to election candidates in the forthcoming General Election and the Mayoral election for the new East Midlands Combined Authority.
We want to hear the views of our members – so please join us to help create a balanced and representative set of questions to put to our local candidates.
We do not intend to produce a detailed ‘manifesto’ – but we do want to put some questions to our local candidates to demonstrate that people care about important environmental issues in our area.
Tideswell & District Environment Group is not a party political group – we welcome members of all political persuasions (or none).
But we know that many environmental issues are affected by political decisions made at a local and national level. So we want to define our environmental priorities and related questions, and then share these with all our local candidates. We will then share their responses with you to help inform your vote.
We are also working closely with other environmental organisations in our area, to maximise our impact. We need to demonstrate to candidates that environmental issues matter to many local people.
We will start our meeting on 19 March with a completely blank sheet. We want to hear what matters to you, and then develop questions around those environmental priorities. But prior to the meeting, you may be interested in some of the manifestos and plans already developed by some of our partners. Some of these documents are quite detailed! We anticipate that we will produce a more succinct and shorter document.
Hope Valley Climate Action group – Climate Action Manifesto
The Wildlife Trusts – Election 2024 – Our Priorities
Friends of the Earth – Demands for the Election 2024
As well as the the above plans, we are aware that the High Peak Biodiversity Group is developing a similar approach, and we will share their ideas with you when available.
Two Elections
We know that a General Election will be called at some point over the next 12 months – but we have no date yet. We would like to be prepared when the date is finally decided.
But the election for a Mayor of the East Midlands Combined Authority is a new role (similar to other Mayors, such as Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, and Sadiq Khan in London). The Mayor will lead a new Combined County Authority, working with existing local authorities on areas such as transport, housing, regeneration, employment and skills, economic investment and the net-zero ambition. They will have a budget of around £38 million a year over the next 30 years to help level up the East Midlands, as well as an extra £16.8 million for new homes on brownfield land.
You can read more about the new authority here . The election for this role will be on 2 May 2024.
