I am Sarah Hannan and I care about the countryside, I am a Green Party Activist in Lower Teesdale and I have been a Parish Councillor in Gainford for the last 15 years.
Successive Governments have ignored the plight of rural residents; traditional family farming has been thrown under the Brexit bus and is now being taxed into extinction. The loss of the winter fuel payment will be felt more cruelly in areas like Lower Teesdale where the winters are colder, and the housing stock is older and less well insulated.
The County Council Elections offer the first opportunity for the rural community to protest in a way that will hurt the Government, at the ballot box.
Green Party Policy supports farming
1. Financial Support for farmers would be almost tripled to support a transition to a transition to nature friendly farming.
2. Farm payments would be linked to reduced use of costly pesticides and agro-chemicals.
3. Farmers would be encouraged to diversify helping the wider rural economy
4. The stranglehold that the major supermarkets have on producers in this country would be broken and farmers would be paid a price for the food they produce that takes into account the cost of production.
5. School children would receive a free school meal and local produce would be used.
6. Policies would ensure that good quality surplus food is not wasted.
7. Green Policy would only allow food imports that are produced to the same standards as British grown food, no chlorinated chicken here.
8. Green Party Policy is to have a universal basic income, this would give farmers cashflow throughout the year.
We have seen what the multinationals and big investors have done to the water industry we do not want this to happen to farming.
The Green Party Supports Communities
1. The Green Party does not support the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment for Pensioners, it is cruel and has not given them the chance to budget for this winter.
2. The Green party would support people to insulate their homes and install more efficient heating systems that are cheaper to run
3. The Green Party supports clean renewable energy, produced locally reducing the need for pylons across our countryside, imported fossil fuels and destructive open cast mining