The Peterborough Green Party are delighted to announce Cllr Nicola Day as their Peterborough Parliamentary Candidate. Cllr Day has been leading the way on climate change and environmental issues in the city and aims to highlight the Green party’s strong agenda on issues of social justice.
Nicola says ‘ I am extremely concerned for the most vulnerable in our city right now. With the huge hike in energy bills and rising food prices many people are suffering and are worried about turning on their heating. An inadequately heated house in winter can cause misery, dampness and ill-health. The Green party wants to see a windfall tax imposed on energy companies, which will be used to make our homes warmer and lead to energy bills being set back to October 2021 levels. We want to ensure energy companies are put back into the hands of the public through public ownership. I welcome the local community hubs which have been created by the council to offer warmth, support and advice. However, energy should be a right, and there is far more the government should be doing to make sure we are not freezing in our homes.
I want to see Peterborough thrive. We have some fantastic cultural assets like the cathedral, museum, art gallery and Flag Fen. We should make the most out of these places and ensure they are accessible to everyone. Our arts and history should be cared for and cherished. All areas of the city centre should be accessible for those with disabilities. The city centre should be an inviting and safe space for families to visit at all times.
Economically Peterborough will not succeed on the old models of growth. Those models are tired and outdated. We should aspire to become one of the first cities to decarbonise and roll out a net zero carbon technology. We could do this by utilising our new university research centre and a new Green Skills Centre at the Peterborough Regional College. This would put Peterborough on the map as a manufacturing base and as a hub for net zero carbon technologies.
I am Chair of the Peterborough City Council’s ‘Climate Change and Environment Committee’, and we are already making great strides with a ‘local area energy plan ‘ which was passed at the last full council meeting. This was one of the first to be passed in the country, having only been beaten to first place by Manchester.
Now, more so than ever before, we need more Green’s at government level. We work hard and we have big hearts. We have the professionalism along with the policies in place to enable the great changes which should urgently happen. We are some of the hardest working politicians in the country, and we come from a place of love, compassion and unity. We need this approach more than ever after the recent years of austerity, covid, division and struggle.
I feel humbled and honoured to have been asked to stand as the Green party Parliamentary Candidate for Peterborough. I was raised here, live here and work and play here. I owe a lot to this city, and if elected would work hard to represent the people who live here.