Last Thursday the voters of Bothel and Wharrels went to the polls and chose a representative for the new (shadow) Unitary Authority of Cumberland. In a historic move they chose me, their Green Party candidate. Bothel and Wharrels has traditionally been a safe Conservative seat and the result shows two things. The first is that the voters are tired of the Government and their casual attitude to facts, morality and truth. But the second is perhaps even more significant. The voters are tired of being taken for granted and want someone who has shown they can work hard for the area.
The Green Team has worked tirelessly for eight months around the villages of Bothel and Wharrels, from Bothel itself, to Portinscale and the Newlands Valley, from Embleton to Mockerkin and places in between. We have asked for views, we have worked on issues, we have explained what we have been doing, we have talked to people. Now the Green Team will be working imaginatively to propose solutions to the problems we have identified, and hope for support from the rest of the Council to deliver. Fortunately there is one other Green Councillor, Helen Davison in Carlisle, and allies with other parties, I’m sure.
This victory did not come solely because of voters taking Green issues more seriously, all of a sudden, although the national picture shows that too. It came because voters believed we would try our best to do what is needed.
We have policies that can tackle the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis at the same time. Rural areas suffer because many houses are old and leak heat through walls, windows and roofs, because rural public transport has been decimated and fuel has become inordinately expensive. Meanwhile cars cause their own problems inside the National Park and outside – speed, noise, danger, congestion, illicit parking. Young people leave their home villages because they can’t afford to live there, then schools close for lack of numbers and young families don’t want to move to a village with no school.
To add to this each village has its own issues. Bothel and Wharrels is a huge ward and I can see that the hard work is just beginning. Therefore I have resigned from paid work from the end of the month and will proudly take up the challenge offered by being the first Green councillor in our area.
Cllr. Jill Perry
