Green councillors have called for central government funding for more council houses to be built, after the Government asked councils at short notice to commit to providing more houses for migrant families in 2025.

Stroud District Council unanimously agreed at the full council meeting on December 14 to allocate at least two homes for occupation by migrants.

The meeting heard that the council was being put in the difficult position of being told to find housing for migrants despite there already being nearly 4,000 people on the housing waiting list in the district.

Many councillors – across all parties – expressed dissatisfaction with the short timescale of the government demand. The request was received only two weeks before the deadline imposed by the government for responses.

The scheme is supposedly designed to ensure councils do not take more refugees than public services and communities can cope with – but in practice the government will use the aggregate number of pledges as a cap to limit migration. Many councillors felt that the government should be helping councils to build more houses, instead of treating as a cap the number of houses that councils can pledge at this stage.

Cllr Beki Aldam (Brimscombe & Thrupp) told the meeting: “We’re being manipulated to produce ridiculously low figures so they can hold it up as a hard limit.”

She said the language used by the Government – including “cost” and “burden” –  and its recent anti-immigrant legislation were “abominably cruel”.

“This government has still not cleared the backlog of asylum claims and it can take years to process claims. Only 1% of asylum seekers received a decision on their application in the past 12 months. In the meantime, asylum seekers awaiting a decision are not allowed to work and have to survive on £5.84 per day.

“These are statistics of limbo, inertia and despair, with a tragic, human dimension. The government also shows a profound lack of respect for the rule of law, by insisting that Rwanda is treated as a safe place despite clear evidence that it is not.”

She pointed out that migrants have contributed financially to this country, during a time when the UK has run an overall budget deficit. “Immigrants from outside the EU countries paid into the system about 3% more than they took out and they’re 43% less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits. In contrast, super-rich people in the UK registered as having non-domicile status are being legally allowed to avoid paying more than £3.2 billion of tax.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Aldam added, hostile and inflammatory government and media rhetoric on migration are escalating far-right anti-migrant and racist hate crime. “The language and the actions of our government undermine the core British values of democracy, liberty, respect, the rule of law and tolerance,” said Cllr Aldam. “We’re facing down the little guys, and ignoring the giant wastemen. We’re being cruel but impractical, inhumane yet wasteful, we’re lacking common sense but not replacing it with decency.”

Green councillor Chris Jockel (Chalford) told the meeting: “We’re between a rock and a hard place with two equally undesirable decisions. Additional funding should come with this requirement, and it’s cruel and absurd that it’s absent. We need to tell central government that in the absence of funding we should be free to use the money we do have in an intelligent, joined-up way.”

Cllr Chloe Turner (Green, Minchinhampton) said she was “disgusted” by the anti-migrant rhetoric used by Government. “I will vote for this proposal but only because the alternative is worse. I will go home tonight and make a significant donation to GARAS [Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, which supports people arriving in the county from overseas on behalf of the council] to make myself feel better.”

Cllr Tricia Watson (Chalford) said: “I’m shocked that there’s no central government funding for this when we already have a massive waiting list.”

Lucas Schoemaker, Vice-Chair of the Housing committee, commented later: “We have a proud history of welcoming people to the Stroud District and we want the government to take responsibility and fund proper housing for those who need it, both for our local communities and for those fleeing persecution.”

Cllr Catherine Braun, Leader of Stroud District Council, said afterwards: “There is a shortage of affordable housing options in Stroud district, with an increasing number of homeless applications to the Council. This situation urgently needs to be addressed with national funding to tackle the housing crisis. Alongside this action, we need a compassionate and rational migration policy that is properly planned and funded, unlike this appalling scheme from the Conservative Government. We must avoid the tragedy of refugees putting their lives in danger because the Government places ever-greater restrictions on safe and legal routes to reach the UK.”

The background to the debate can be seen at Item 9A on the meeting agenda: https://stroud.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=143&MId=1422&Ver=4

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Local Green councillors Lucas Schoemaker and Sue Fenton this week went out litter picking in between meetings and collected a big haul of rubbish from roads, pavements, verges and hedges.

They were joined by Stroud Greens co-coordinator Lynn Haanen and work experience student Pippa, who is spending a week shadowing Green councillors and activists at meetings and activities to find out how local political parties operate.

During an hour-long outing on Wednesday visiting four nearby roads, they collected two bin bags full of rubbish. (By coincidence, Wednesday was International Waste Pickers Day, which celebrates people who make a living from collecting, sorting, recycling, and selling discarded materials!)

Sue, one of Stroud Trinity ward’s three Green town councillors, who often pops out at lunchtimes with a bag and litter picking stick, said: “It’s amazing how much rubbish can be collected in an hour – I usually end up with a whole rubbish bag full.”

Lucas, who is district and town councillor for Trinity, added: “Though some of it has probably blown into verges and hedgerows from people’s bins, a lot appears to have been deliberately dropped, especially vape boxes and drinks cans and bottles. The more litter there is, the more it makes further littering seem acceptable, so it’s good to keep on top of it with regular litter picks if possible.”

Lucas has found that litter-picking is also a good way to engage with local residents. “When they see councillors out and about like this, people feel confident to come up and chat to us, which they might not if they had to contact us through more formal channels.

“Two people thanked us for helping to keep the area tidy and one took the opportunity to complain about litter in another part of Stroud – which we’ve notified the relevant ward councillors about. We chatted to a small child who seemed fascinated with what we were doing, and his mum said he’d like to do some litter picking himself! And another resident approached us to talk about an issue with his housing, which we’ll be raising with district council officers.”

If anyone would like to join their local councillors on a litter pick (it’s a great way to get exercise and do something useful at the same time), do get in touch and we’ll let you know when the next one will be in your ward.

Or register to take part in the Great British Spring Clean and Great Big School Clean, which will take place from 17 March to 2 April.

Pictured are Lucas, Sue and Pippa part-way through their litter picking excursion.

The post <strong>Litter-picking councillors collect two bin bags of rubbish in just one hour</strong> appeared first on Stroud District Green Party.

Encouraging active travel and getting more people to cycle to work and for leisure is to be applauded. This is good cheer indeed for walkers and cyclists, as exercise is so important to physical and mental health in these challenging times.

Lucas Schoemaker

Stroud Trinity Town councillor

Original story here.

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