Stroud District Green Party says the decision dangerously conflates direct action with terrorism, and that the Government put MPs in an impossible position during the vote, by lumping Palestine Action together with two extremist organisations which do clearly fall under the definition of terrorist groups.

SDGP coordinator Adrian Oldman said: “Unlike the other two groups, Palestine Action falls far short of the rightly high bar for the definition of a terrorist organisation. But MPs were given the choice of banning all three or none at all.

“Only 26 MPs, including the four Greens, took the courageous step of voting against the blanket ban – and the Greens are furious that in doing so they were forced to vote against proscribing two clearly terrorist groups.”

He added: “We certainly don’t support everything Palestine Action do or say, but the group should not have been banned, a completely disproportionate response. Individual protestors can be sanctioned under existing criminal law if they commit a crime, while maintaining the right to non-violent direct action as a legitimate form of protest in this country.”

He pointed out the hypocrisy of Keir Starmer, who was one of the defence lawyers for the Fairford 5, who broke into a military base in 2004 because of their opposition to the Iraq war. “And we saw Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stand alongside other female MPs to celebrate the suffragettes this week,” Adrian said, “yet they are another group who could have found themselves proscribed as a terrorist organisation under this Government’s heavy-handed approach.”

“We believe the Government has overstepped the line by ignoring the long-held and much-cherished fundamental principle in our country of civil disobedience as a form of political protest. Had the Government merely wanted to deal with the damage caused by Palestine Action at the air base, they could have done so through existing criminal law by bringing charges such as those for criminal damage, violent disorder or aggravated burglary. Clearly they wanted much more than this: to shut down protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“Once again this Labour Government has cynically, dangerously and wrongly used anti-terrorism law to shut down legitimate dissent.

“The complicity of the British state in the ongoing atrocities in Gaza needs to be exposed. This issue will not go away; Government will not stop the growing groundswell of anger and outrage about the plight of the Palestinians.”

[The picture is a stock photo from a pro-Palestine demo in Stroud earlier this year.]

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The world has changed dramatically since Donald Trump became U.S. President.
Britain now faces a shifting global landscape shaped by the war in Ukraine, tensions over Israel and Palestine, and the rapid rise of the Reform Party at home.
These developments raise important questions. How should we respond? Who can we trust? Are there new allies to turn to – and is there a path back to Europe without losing face?

We have an outstanding panel of expert speakers:
• Richard Kirkpatrick, campaigns manager at the European Movement UK, which aims to rebuild the UK’s relationship with the EU.
• Mick Fealty, Stroud-based founder and editor of award-winning news and opinion portal Slugger O’Toole, which focuses on politics in Ireland and Britain
• Baroness Natalie Bennett, Green Party Peer in the House of Lords
Everyone is welcome and it’s free to attend.
Following the presentations there will be time for audience questions and discussion – we welcome everyone and the session is free.
Can’t join us on the night? Register anyway and we’ll send you the recording.

Register here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/new-world-order-how-will-britain-face-the-challenge?source=direct_link&

The post Online debate July 9: the new world order: how will Britain face the challenge? appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

Dear Minister

On June 24, you announced that the Government intends to abolish the committee system within local government, and force those councils currently operating this model (including Stroud District Council) to transition to the ‘leader and cabinet’ model.

Councils like Stroud District that use the committee system model (and those keen to change to it from the cabinet model) favour it because it is more collaborative, transparent and democratic. The committee system has been used at Stroud District Council for over a decade, supported by Labour, Lib Dem and Green councillors over those years. By giving SDC councillors across all political groups a say in decision-making, the system fosters cross-party collaboration, something we know our communities support and have benefited from as a result.

Your proposals, introduced without consultation, mean that decisions affecting communities in our district – and all those impacted by this announcement – will no longer be taken by cross-party committees of elected councillors debating in a public forum. Instead, the leader and just a handful of councillors will make key decisions on behalf of residents, often behind closed doors.

This is the latest in a series of decisions and proposals from this Labour Government that have been made without consultation, and that strip away the ability of local government to ensure public services deliver for the communities they are intended to serve. This has been a theme of central government decision-making since and including the English Devolution White Paper published last December. Every one of these undermines local democracy, through reducing the power and funding of councils, and taking democratic decisions away from the most local level.

Other examples include the proposal to remove the powers of planning committees to decide many local planning applications, the withdrawal of funding for neighbourhood planning, and the decision to move responsibilities away from the district and county council level to new strategic authorities covering a much wider area, including powers for housing, planning, transport, and skills. These strategic authorities across England are each to be led by one mayor, elected under the first past the post voting system, who will control vast amounts of public money and be subject to less scrutiny and weaker governance structures than current local authorities. 

The impact of all these decisions is to allow the central government agenda to be delivered more quickly, with less local oversight, challenge and scrutiny. This is clearly demonstrated through this announcement, as no evidence has been offered to support the abolition of the committee system, and no consultation has been conducted with those affected. In no way can these moves be seen to be about empowering local communities and pushing power out of Whitehall and into the hands of local leaders, which you claim is your aim.

Most importantly, these unwelcome changes will not solve the big problems that local authorities and residents face: tackling social and health inequalities, delivering social housing, building and maintaining public trust, the challenges in special educational provision and social care, and in responding and adapting to a rapidly changing climate. Furthermore, none of your changes meet the urgent need for proper investment in our communities which, as Greens, we feel could easily be funded through taxing wealth fairly.

If this proposed change goes ahead, the Government will further damage democracy and public trust at the local level, reducing transparency, accountability and opportunities for resident engagement in places like Stroud district.

We call on you to reverse this unwelcome, under-informed and dictatorial meddling and let local councils get on with the job. We currently have the freedom to choose what’s right for our communities, which we have been elected to do, and Stroud has benefited from the collaborative and transparent approach to local democracy it has created as a result.

This letter is being copied to Dr Simon Opher, MP for Stroud, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for North Cotswolds and Dr Roz Savage, MP for South Cotswolds.

Signed: The Stroud District Council Green group

Cllr Beki Aldam, Cllr Martin Baxendale, Cllr James Boyle, Cllr Catherine Braun, Cllr Martin Brown, Cllr Sarah Canning, Cllr Jonathan Edmunds, Cllr Helen Fenton, Cllr Marisa Godfrey, Cllr Steve Hyndside, Cllr Cate James-Hodges, Cllr Carol Kambites, Cllr Kate Kay, Cllr Pete Kennedy, Cllr Gareth Kitchen, Cllr Gary Luff, Cllr Martin Pearcy, Cllr Natalie Rothwell-Warn, Cllr Matthew Sargeant, Cllr Lucas Schoemaker, Cllr Moya Shannon, Cllr Gill Thomas, Cllr Chloe Turner, Cllr Tricia Watson

(Pictured: the SDC Green/Labour/Lib Dem cooperative alliance members celebrating 10 years of the alliance in 2022. The sort of collaborative, cross-party working demonstrated by the committee system has played an important role in Stroud District for many years.)

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A £3.5 billion government fund that paid for energy efficiency work at public buildings across the country – including three in Stroud District – has been axed as part of Labour’s spending review.

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funded the installation of air source heat pumps, when the old gas boilers needed replacing in 2023 at the Council’s Active Lifestyles leisure centre and Museum in the Park in Stratford Park, Stroud and at the Active Lifestyles Pulse centre in Dursley (formerly known as The Pulse).

The cutting-edge green technology extracts heat from the outside air and uses it to heat the building (including recycled heat from the swimming pools and changing rooms at the leisure centres). Additional rooftop solar panels help reduce the electricity usage.

The upgrades, which have made these buildings significantly more energy efficient, enabled Stroud District Council to meet the requirement of the then government to decarbonise all public buildings by 2035.

Thanks to a grant of £4.69million secured by the council from this energy efficiency fund, the council only had to contribute £700,000 towards the work.

Cllr Chloe Turner, Leader of SDC’s Green group, said: “I’m grateful that Stroud District Council officers were able to secure such a huge grant while the money was available, which has enabled us to modernise our heating systems and reduce our environmental impact in our most energy-intensive buildings. But this fund was a vital source of local government funding for climate action across the country, and culling it with no suggestion of replacement is an extremely frustrating decision from a government that likes to call itself ‘the greenest ever’.”

Projects that have already been awarded money will go ahead but there will be no further money available. Cllr Turner commented: “Many councils will have assumed that there would be a furtherfunding round – so this disappointing news has significant implications for low carbon and energy efficiency projects around the country. It will stop councils investing in modern, efficient, environmentally efficient systems for their high-energy buildings and could put net zero targets into question.”

She added: “The government claims it remains committed to building on the existing Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and is ‘looking at ways to incentivise the public sector as a whole to take steps to decarbonise’. But this seems meaningless, when the vital funding has been withdrawn.”

The PSDS was launched in 2020 to support public sector organisations in England to install low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures in their buildings, such as leisure centres and hospitals. These measures helped councils and other organisations to reduce their carbon emissions and their energy bills.

Pictured is Cllr Chloe Turner next to the air source heat pumps at the Active Lifestyles leisure centre in Stratford Park, Stroud, which were largely paid for by the now-axed government fund.

Background notes

The work at the three SDC buildings, funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, was delivered by Salix Finance and SDC and carried out by Stonehouse-based Cotswold Energy Group.

The council’s Ebley Mill HQ and Brimscombe Port Mill have both been heated by water source heat pumps since 2022.

An air source heat pump system is estimated to last for at least 20 years and these three installations will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 14,652 tonnes over that time.

The post Stroud Greens frustrated at axing of government energy efficiency fund appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

The Severn ward by-election yesterday (June 11) saw Moya Shannon becoming the 24^th Green Party councillor on Stroud District Council.

Moya won with 439 votes, ahead of the nearest rival, the Conservative candidate, who got 425 votes. The other candidates were from Reform (421), Labour (177), the Liberal Democrats (112) and UKIP (5).

Moya will take the seat previously occupied by Labour councillor Richard Maisey, whose death in April sadly triggered the by-election.

Moya said: “I am very grateful to the voters of this ward for putting their faith in me and the Green Party to represent them and I look forward to working for the best interests of the many voices in our community.

“I come to this job with my own particular set of values and goals. The healthy and sustainable use of our local environment and the agricultural, business, wildlife, and living spaces within it, are all very important to me, as are local transport solutions and community energy production. I hope to support people and make a positive difference in these important aspects of our lives.”

She added: “Having lived in this ward and raised my family here I have a deep connection to the place and the people, and it is both for the place and for the people that I intend to work. 

“Many people have approached me with their ideas and with issues that need resolving and I aim to listen to and work on the concerns that have been brought up during this campaign. I will expect to hear many more and I will do whatever I can within my role to address these for all the people of the Severn ward.”

Cllr Chloe Turner, leader of the SDC Green group, said: “We’re delighted with this result, which reflects the strength of Moya as a local candidate and champion for her community, and wider support for our Green administration at Stroud District Council.

“We were always in a strong position, given feedback from residents showing that there was a local appetite for the Green ethos of fairer, greener politics. Richard Maisey was a very popular councillor and the people of Severn clearly wanted a community focused, green-thinking and warm person to replace him.

“I look forward to working with Moya as part of the newly enlarged Green group; she will be an asset to our friendly, dedicated and collaborative team.”

The official results can be seen here:

Read more about Moya here:

The post Stroud Greens delighted by Severn ward by-election win appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

Thankfully, there are people who care about and monitor the air pollution in towns, cities and countryside – people prepared to stand up to big industry and government and call out bad practice, often with consequences for their actions.

The speakers are at our latest Cloud Cafe event on Wednesday June 11 will be:

 Dr Gary Fuller from Imperial College. Gary has been a leading light in the UK Research and Innovation Clean Air Programme. He led the development of the London Air Quality Network, is a member of the Medical Research Council Centre for Environment and Health, Defra’s Air Quality Expert Group and a project reviewer and steering group member for the Irish EPA.

Tom Jarman is co-founder of Community R4C, a community-owned organisation advocating for lower-cost, environmentally sustainable waste management. He will share their legal struggle against the installation of the incinerator and the latest research on the true costs of the incinerator (the most expensive in the country), current progress on legal advice and auditor complaint – and how this leads to a way forward which can mean less incineration of household waste, less pollution and lower costs.

Ruth Kettle-Frisby is co- founder of Clear the Air in Havering – a group connected to Mum for Lungs, a Quaker organisation whose purpose is to raise awareness about air pollution, tackle misinformation and champion the right to clean air for everyone. Ruth has taken Havering Council to court via a judicial review as a desperate last resort to challenge their recent decision not to designate land as contaminated. If they are successful, Havering Council and the Environment Agency will have to clean up the site once and for all.

Come and join us for an evening of discussion and debate with guest speakers. Everyone is welcome and the event is free. Can’t join us on the night? Register anyway and you will be sent the recording.

Register here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/the-health-of-our-planet-the-air-we-breathe/

The post Online discussion about air pollution: June 11 appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

Green councillor Chloe Turner is the new Leader of Stroud District Council, following last night’s annual general meeting.

She takes over from Green councillor Catherine Braun, who now becomes her deputy.

Councillors of all political parties voted overwhelmingly to appoint Cllrs Turner and Braun to their new roles, with just two abstentions.

Cllr Braun had been Group leader for four years and Leader of the Council for almost three years and has stepped into the role of Deputy Leader to find a better balance with her day job. She also continues as a councillor for Wotton-under-Edge, North Nibley and Stinchcombe.

At last night’s meeting, Greens were unanimously confirmed in leadership roles for the following roles:

Chair and Vice Chair of Council – Cllr Kate Kay / Cllr Matthew Sargeant

Chair and Vice Chair of Strategy & Resources Committee – Cllr Chloe Turner / Cllr Catherine Braun

Chair and Vice Chair of Environment Committee – Cllr Martin Pearcy / Cllr Tricia Watson

Chair and Vice Chair of Community Services & Licensing Committee – Cllr Martin Brown / Cllr Beki Aldam

Chair and Vice Chair of Housing Committee – Cllr Gary Luff / Cllr Lucas Schoemaker

Chair and Vice Chair of Development Control Committee – Cllr Martin Baxendale / Cllr Helen Fenton

The Audit and Standards Committee cannot be chaired by a member of the administration group, and so Labour councillors Bob Hughes and John Callinan were confirmed as Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

Cllr Braun thanked council officers, Green colleagues and the leaders of the other political groups for their help during her time as Leader. “We have agreed on most things across all political groups, which reflects our culture of collaborative working. I’m particularly proud of the work we have done together on the council’s priorities in the new Council Plan, which stand us in good stead for the years ahead.”

She said she fully supported Cllr Turner in the new role. “Chloe brings a wide range of leadership and engagement skills to the Council Leader role, as well as extensive experience as both a district and county councillor, so she’s very well placed to lead us through the next chapter of the council’s work and local government reorganisation. Most importantly, Chloe brings a real passion for the people and places of Stroud district.”

Cllr Turner said she had learned a lot from Cllr Braun, calling her “a source of stability and collaboration, with a generous and open style of leadership”.

Previously, Cllr Turner had taken over as Leader of the Green group from Cllr Braun (who becomes her deputy in that role too).

Cllr Kate Kay (Green), unanimously re-elected as Chair of the council, pointed out that, following the selection of a new Leader of the Labour group, the leaders of all the political groups on SDC are now women.

Green: Cllr Chloe Turner;

Labour: Cllr Katy Hofmann;

Liberal Democrat: Cllr Linda Cohen;

Conservative: Cllr Lindsey Green.

Cllr Turner said after the meeting: “I’m excited to be taking on this new challenge, and grateful for the support of fellow members of all parties in taking up this role. I’ve admired Catherine’s leadership enormously, and she leaves this council in excellent shape, with an ambitious Council Plan for better services for our communities and benefits for climate and nature. I’m looking forward to overseeing delivery of our Plan, and continuing to stand up for Stroud District’s communities, local services and our environment in the ongoing path towards local government reorganisation.”

The post Another Green councillor becomes Leader of Stroud District Council appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

Growing up in rural Essex in the 1940s gave John Marjoram an enduring love of nature, while dinner-table debates with his staunch Labour father and Conservative-voting mother gave him an early interest in politics.

Other formative influences were two uncles, one a conscientious objector during World War 1, and the other who did take part in the fighting but talked to John about the horrors he’d seen. Young John vowed that he would never use a weapon or kill anyone. He retained anti-war and pacifist beliefs throughout his life.

These childhood influences were a natural precursor to his subsequent involvement in Green politics – John was to become one of the first Greens in the country to be elected to office and holds a record as the longest continuously serving Green councillor.

Born in 1939, an only child, John left school at 15 and worked in factories, offices, farms and building sites. He was briefly a member of the Communist Party and was sacked from a factory job for trying to start a trade union.

In 1959 he was called up for national service but declared himself a conscientious objector. “Christ said ‘thou shalt not kill’; it was that simple,” said John, a practising Quaker, many years later. While the rest of his intake went to Malaysia to fight the Communists, he remained in England working in an administrative role.

About that time, he got involved with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Peace Pledge Union, and took part in the second Aldermaston March during leave from national service in 1961.

He was twice arrested and jailed for using a plough to break into American military bases. He subsequently attended numerous anti-war rallies and organised hundreds of coaches to go to national protests. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, John was involved in numerous local actions and vigils.

In 1968 John moved to Stroud with his young family, drawn here by his affiliation with the Quakers, who had a strong presence in the town.

He helped to set up the Home Farm Trust in 1970, turning 10 acres of agricultural land into a space for local residents to learn gardening and farming skills. He saw this work as a way of balancing his political work with practical caring for the land, animals and people.

In 1972 John went back to college to study for a diploma in youth and social work, going on to run a youth club in Stonehouse.

In 1975 he co-founded a local branch of the People Party (later to become the Ecology Party and then the Green Party). He was inspired after reading the Club of Rome’s report “Limits to Growth”, which explained how fast the finite resources of the planet were being consumed.

During the mid-1970s, John was a founding member of the successful Stroud Campaign Against the Ringroad (SCAR), and as a member of Stroud District Council planning committee prevented many unsightly developments from happening locally. He was pivotal in preventing the Hill Paul building being demolished, saving Uplands Post Office and enabling the Town Council’s purchase of Lansdown Hall.

1985 saw the creation of Stroud Green Party and John was among the six people who turned up to the first meeting. Not long after that, the subject of the 1986 local elections came up and, as John later recalled: “All eyes turned to me.”

John was the obvious choice to be the Green candidate, as he had been a school governor for several years and had been involved in local campaigns. His campaign was boosted by growing public concern about the environment following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

John won the Trinity ward seat on the District Council, becoming the first Green Party councillor to be elected in the UK. He later remembered his young daughter rushing across the room with tears in her eyes and flinging her arms around him shouting ‘Dad, you’ve won!’

John was assigned to sit on the planning committee because of his interest in architecture, and he served on it as a member or deputy chair for 31 years. He recently recalled mammoth committee meetings lasting up to 12 hours, during which councillors would deal with every planning application themselves. He was saddened by the fact that most decision-making over planning applications had since shifted to officers.

John was one of the first councillors elected to Stroud Town Council when it was formed in 1990. John had lobbied for the creation of a town council so that local people would have more say in hyper-local issues.

John served as mayor for 10 civic years, and deputy mayor for seven. He was the UK’s first Green Party mayor. He introduced the concept of the ‘Mayor’s Bench’, a particular bench in the town centre where he would sit every Friday so that residents could come and talk to him. He recommended the open-air surgery concept to other councillors, joking: “If you invite people to your house you never get them out again!”

In 1993 he co-founded the Association of Green Councillors, which now has hundreds of members.

In 2012, while Mayor, John was prosecuted for refusing to fill in his census form because of his beliefs as aQuaker. He said he “couldn’t live with myself” if he “collaborated” with a military corporation (the census was run by Lockheed Martin UK).
He pleaded not guilty and the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case. At the time John said: “I am disappointed not to have been given the opportunity to give evidence in my defence and to ask some pertinent questions about why the case was brought against me in the first place.”

In 2018, committed Remainer John seconded a Green/Labour motion at Stroud District Council calling for a People’s Vote on the final terms of any Brexit deal. He pointed out that 55% of Stroud District voted to remain in the EU and that Brexit would have a profound effect on the health and wellbeing of local residents and therefore had significant implications for the work of Stroud District Council.

In 2020, John supported the Black Lives Matter movement and was concerned that Covid-19 disproportionately affected Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people. John was among the local Green councillors who demanded an independent public inquiry into this. They said Covid-19 treatments and vaccines should be made available without profit to poor countries, rather than boosting the profits of the big pharmaceutical companies. John said at the time: “We can’t go back [after Covid] to the “business as usual” that created such huge safety and health inequalities in our society.”

In 2023, John received the title of Stroud’s first Honorary Freeman in recognition of his services to the community. He stepped down from politics in 2021, having been a district councillor for Trinity ward in Stroud since 1986 and Mayor 10 times.

John’s beliefs

Electoral reform: He was a long-time campaigner for Proportional Representation, a voting system that would lead to fairer distribution of parliamentary seats than the First Past the Post system. He was an active supporter of the Make Votes Matter campaign.

War and peace: John maintained that ‘defence’ should never mean attacking other countries, citing recent military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and Syria as immoral and the First World War as an Imperial power struggle to get control of oil from the Middle East.

“We never seem to remember the implications of war. We repeat our pattern time after time. Lacking the capacity to move on we invent ever more lethal weapons, nearing ourselves to world annihilation with nuclear weapons.

“It is naïve to believe you can defeat terrorism by bombing: all you do in these situations is create further misery, hatefulness and a desire for revenge. Exactly what terrorist organisations breed on.”

John believed it was “repulsive” that the UK funded wars rather than helping homeless people, many of whom were ex-soldiers.

John distributed white poppies on behalf of the Peace Pledge Union every November and during his terms as Mayor he refused to take part in the mayoral tradition of laying red poppy wreaths on the war memorial on Remembrance Sunday, opting for white poppies instead. 

Nuclear weapons: John considered these weapons to be “abominable” and that the money spent on them should be used instead to benefit society. He was cynical about the huge cost of keeping weapons of mass destruction controlled by the US while so many people were living in poverty, with mental health services on a knife edge, and while cuts to council funding meant councils couldn’t build social housing.

A passionate supporter of CND, John was among those involved in the production of a seven-mile-long knitted pink scarf. This was used to connect two nuclear bomb factories in Berkshire and then to wrap around Parliament and the MOD in London, to draw attention to the decision to replace Trident.

Racism: John often called for solidarity with the people in occupied Palestine. He was also a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement but said the movement was “nothing more than words” without an end to the systemic, institutionalised racism that affects people of colour. “No-one in our community should be discriminated against in any way,” he said at the time.

Environment: John never had a driving licence, believing that the fewer cars there are on the road the better for the planet. He walked or cycled everywhere, and never flew on an aeroplane until he was 50 and had to go to Germany to represent Stroud District in a long-standing twinning arrangement.

He was a trustee of Stroud Valleys Project until 1996, and he was a long-term volunteer with SVP’s allotment group.

Climate change: In 2014 the SNJ published a letter from John, pointing out that UKIP was the only local party that hadn’t committed to taking more action on climate change. “Regrettably it is indicative of many far right wing parties right across the world, who are climate change deniers. This is in the face of actual destruction and erratic weather patterns now happening everywhere at an alarming rate.”

He pointed out that by ignoring climate change the far right would have to face up to millions of environmental immigrants coming here as their own lands would no longer be able to produce food.

Brexit: A vocal Remainer, John was active in the campaign to demand a second public referendum about Brexit. John later said that residents of Stroud’s German twinning partner, Gottingen, were “distraught” at the outcome of the referendum. “They simply couldn’t understand why we’d done it – and neither could I.”

Technology: John was well known within the local Party for his antipathy to modern technology, believing it was “ruining civilisation” and insisting during his time as a councillor on receiving agenda papers in paper form. He once replied to a request from the party press officer asking for him to email a photo by saying “I can’t tell you how I hate computers; my wife says I am a Luddite!”

He was opposed to the rollout of 5G technology, criticising the speed and lack of consultation. “In a democratic world, communities should have the freedom to opt out of such a big technological transformation, rather than having it imposed on them. Technology should benefit society, and there is no evidence whatsoever that 5G does benefit society, though it will certainly benefit telecommunications companies.”

Covid: John courted controversy through his opposition to the Covid vaccination programme and his participation in anti-lockdown demos. “In taking advantage of the pandemic to erode our freedoms, Governments don’t have the interests of the people at heart,” he said. “Governments and their cronies and big corporations are the ones benefiting. They have to be resisted.”

John’s achievements

He wasa founding member of the successful Stroud Campaign Against the Ringroad (aka SCAR 1974-1978), as a member of the SDC planning committee preventing many unsightly developments happening locally.

He was pivotal in preventing one of Stroud’s most iconic landmarks, a former cloth factory called Hill Paul, from demolition. The town’s tallest building, it was due to be demolished in 2001. The wrecking balls were already on site to start work in the morning when John – who was Mayor at the time – phoned the owner at 1am, begging for a reprieve. The owner agreed to meet him at 10am, and by then there were protestors on the roof of the building, stopping the demolition from proceeding.
Hill Paul was eventually saved by members of the public, including some of the protesters, buying shares to fund the building’s conversion to a residential block.

Another iconic building saved from demolition thanks to John was Woodchester Mansion, then an unfinished and crumbling Victorian mansion near Stroud. John won by just two votes a motion calling on the then Tory-run council to purchase the building so that it could be refurbished, transferred to a trust and opened to the public.

Also high on his list of achievements was halting county council plans to route an A-road through the town centre. A march from Stroud to Gloucester to protest outside Shire Hall generated a lot of publicity and ultimately the road was diverted and now runs around the outskirts of the town centre.

John was also involved with the successful campaign to keep Uplands post office open, and the high-profile Save our Trees demo to stop trees from being cut down to facilitate a road-widening scheme and make way for a new Tesco store.

He helped to buy Lansdown Hall for the community and to rescue Stroud maternity hospital, which was facing closure for lack of government funding.

Asked a couple of years ago if he was proud of his achievements, John said: “Pleased is a better word; I’m not the sort of person to bang a drum and say ‘look what I’ve done!’; none of these successes were down to me alone.”

Indeed, he failed to stop the building of the brutalistic-style police station in Stroud. “It’s a hideous eyesore; I don’t know what the architect was thinking of,” he said. “I do wish we could have stopped it.”

John always wanted to see Stroud continue to live up to its progressive past with new and different ideas in town planning and ways of living. So he was proud of Stroud’s nickname of ‘the People’s Republic’. “I know the phrase was coined as a joke, but there’s an element of truth in it,” he said.

His Green colleagues say it was his passion and determination that directly led to the influence the local party now has. There are now more than 400 paid-up members; Greens are part of the ruling alliance on SDC with 23 councillors; they have also been the majority on Stroud Town Council for many years.

What people say about John

“John was a Stroud icon who made a vast contribution to this council.”
Cllr Chloe Turner, Green Group leader and Leader of SDC

“It was John who persuaded me to stand as a paper candidate, before I was eventually elected to SDC. He was such an influential and inspirational activist, not just to us here in Stroud District but across the whole Green movement.
John was referred to as the ‘father of the house’, a reference to him being the longest-serving councillor on SDC. He needs his own page in the history of protest and activism in Stroud. We have lost someone special.”
Cllr Catherine Braun, deputy Leader of Stroud District Council

“I wouldn’t be here if John had not told me ‘you have to do this’. We shared the urge to face issues head on, to try to do the impossible.”
Cllr Lucas Schoemaker, John’s successor as district councillor for Trinity ward

“John had a way of persuading people to do things; he’s the reason my husband and I joined the Green Party, and he recruited me to work for the Green Group (back when there were just six Green councillors). He was a great man and we will miss him.”
Lynn Haanen, former coordinator, Stroud District Green Party

“John was inspirational to so many of us in Stroud in the Greens, the peace movement and so many other causes. John was instrumental in getting me to join the Green Party and then to becoming a councillor and then parliamentary candidate. A friend, confidant and inspirational leader. We will miss him.”
Martin Whiteside, former leader of the SDC Green group of councillors

“John’s first election leaflet for Stroud District Council in the 1980s inspired me. I read it, phoned him, and within half an hour he was on my doorstep talking me into joining the Green Party and standing for election to work alongside him.
“I remember going to the coast with John and him sitting on the beach reading council papers! We shared a passion for the peace movement and a mutual revulsion for Thatcher. Sometimes he was too much – he was impulsive and unpredictable. But we should be grateful for politicians like him who are more than what people need; we see so many politicians who are much less than what people need.”
Cllr Martin Baxendale, district councillor for Stroud Valley ward

“John was the godfather of Green politics, not just in Stroud but nationally. He did more in his lifetime than most of us do in three or four lifetimes. He lived his principles and lived a Green lifestyle before anyone else was talking about it. John was an amazing man who inspired so many people into the Green Party and peace movement. He was so passionate about politics but also cared deeply for all people and the planet. He could get into heated debates but he never held grudges – he listened.
A real maverick, they certainly don’t make them like John anymore! Stroud will be a lot quieter without him. John has left a great legacy and it is for all of us to continue his work. RIP Mr Stroud!”
Cllr Jonathan Edmunds, district councillor for Randwick, Whitehill and Ruscombe

“I first met John in the 1970s at a CND meeting. He was a lynchpin of what became the local Green Party. He became central to Stroud; everyone knew him. Stroud would be a different place if he had not been around. He cared about people and he was a man of principle.”
Cllr Carol Kambites, Green district councillor for Stonehouse

“John was really supportive when I first stood for election in 2010 and was always there for advice and guidance. Such verve and passionate commitment is rare.”
Cllr Richard Dean, county councillor for Dursley

“I was John Marjoram’s lodger for a while and I liked the green way that he lived, such as cycling to work and cooking organic vegetables that he’d grown. I recall him gently rebuking me for wastefully keeping the tap running. We Greens owe John so much.”
Barbara Imrie, Stroud District Green Party coordinating committee chair

Politicians of other parties also paid tribute to John, during the Stroud District Council meeting on May 22.

“John was a character. To have a political career spanning that length of time is testament to what he did for the community.”
Cllr Lindsey Green, Conservative Group leader, SDC

“I first met him in the 1970s when he knew my dad and my uncle. They were pacifists like John and they would get into conversations about peace. I remember having lots of fun with him on the minibus when we went on trips for the Development Control Committee.”
Cllr Steve Robinson, Labour councillor for Nailsworth

“He was passionate about the impact that Brexit would have. He was a real idealist, dreaming impossible dreams, but he was always very practical too.”
Cllr Elizabeth Stanley, Labour councillor for Cainscross

The post Stroud Greens’ tribute to John Marjoram (1939-2025) appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

John was 86. He had been ill for some time and had stepped down from active politics in 2021.

A committed pacifist, environmentalist, internationalist, Quaker and anti-racist, John had lived in Stroud since 1968.

He played an active part in many campaigns, including opposing cuts to public services, the campaign against the Gulf War, and the campaign to remain in the EU. 

He co-founded Stroud District Green Party in 1985 and was elected to Stroud District Council the following year, winning the Trinity ward seat and becoming the equal first Green Party councillor to be elected in the UK. He always said that the unfair First Past the Post voting system meant Greens had to work twice as hard to get elected but then worked twice as hard once elected; he campaigned hard for the voting system to be changed to proportional representation.

As well as being a District Councillor, John was one of the first councillors elected to Stroud Town Council when it was formed in 1990. He later became Mayor, being the UK’s first Green Party mayor. John served as mayor for 10 civic years, and deputy mayor for seven. He introduced the concept of the ‘Mayor’s Bench’, a particular bench in the town centre where he would sit every Friday so that residents could come and talk to him. 

In 2023, John received the title of Stroud Town’s first Honorary Freeman in recognition of his services to the community. 

As a member of Stroud District Council’s planning committee he prevented many unsightly developments from happening locally. 

He was pivotal in preventing one of Stroud’s most iconic landmarks, a former cloth factory called Hill Paul, from demolition. The town’s tallest building, it was due to be demolished in 2001. Thanks to John’s intervention with the owner, Hill Paul was eventually saved by members of the public, including some of the protesters, buying shares to fund the building’s conversion to a residential block.

Another iconic building saved from demolition thanks to John was Woodchester Mansion, then an unfinished and crumbling Victorian mansion near Stroud. John won by just two votes a motion calling on the then Tory-run council to purchase the building so that it could be refurbished, transferred to a trust and opened to the public. 

John was a founding member of the successful Stroud Campaign Against the Ringroad (SCAR 1974-1978) Also high on his list of achievements was halting county council plans to route an A-road through the town centre. Ultimately the road was diverted and now runs around the outskirts of the town centre.

John was also involved with the high-profile Save our Trees campaign to stop trees from being cut down to facilitate a road-widening scheme and make way for a new Tesco store.

He helped a campaign to buy Lansdown Hall for the community and to rescue Stroud maternity hospital, which was facing closure for lack of government funding, and also the successful campaign to keep Uplands Post Office open.

Adrian Oldman, coordinator of Stroud District Green Party, said: “John represented Stroud with integrity, dedication and a genuine desire to promote the well-being of people. He was inspirational; the ultimate community activist, using the local political process to help people and improve our community.

“He was tenacious, passionate, and always supported the underdog. He was a man of principle, always had time for others and a real commitment to help those who were in trouble. 

“Our hearts go out to his wife, Laura, and his family.

“We owe him an immense debt of gratitude for his work building the party over the years and making it what it is today. Many existing and previous Green councillors stood for election because of John’s persuasion (myself included). We now have more than 400 paid-up members and run the minority administration on SDC, with 23 councillors. We have also been the majority on Stroud Town Council for many years.”

The post First Green councillor John Marjoram, ‘the ultimate community activist’, has died appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

The Green Party candidate for the Stroud District Council by-election in Severn ward on June 11 is Moya Shannon.

Moya previously stood in the ward during last year’s SDC elections and gained more than half of the number of votes gained by either of the winning candidates. She believes that at her second attempt, with the Greens riding high after the recent County Council elections, she stands a very good chance of winning.

Moya has lived in Stroud district since 1990, mainly in Eastington, where her three children attended local schools.

She worked as an administrator for her family’s long-established oak frame carpentry company. She was previously a teacher, and worked at two local secondary schools over a period of 27 years.

A lover of local heritage and historic buildings, she is involved with helping to raise money for the Eastington Church Roof Appeal. When her children were young, she was actively involved in the playgroup and Parent Teacher Association in Eastington.

If elected, Moya will campaign for small community-based electricity generation schemes and more solar on domestic, commercial and industrial roof spaces, to avoid the need for large-scale solar farms.

She will also campaign for better local transport links and cycle routes. She says: “I will also work to ensure that local developers are held to account, because building houses should be about building homes and not just about making profits. Housing needs to be affordable, sustainable, meet the needs of local people and provide a healthy environment to live in.”

She believes that local farmers need more support in order to provide food security, help them produce food in a more sustainable way and mitigate against the effects of climate change.

She adds: “Severn ward is such a beautiful area and I feel very privileged to live here. I believe strongly that we need to protect the natural environment and way of life and that will be a priority for me if I am elected.”

The by-election was called as the result of the untimely death in April of Cllr Richard Maisey, who had held the seat for Labour since May 2024. Moya says: “Richard was a popular and effective ward councillor and I hope I can prove to be an equally good councillor and be an effective voice for our community.”

The post Green Party names candidate for Stroud District Council Severn ward by-election appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.