Thinking local is behind growing Green Party success in Yorkshire - Andy Brown

Whilst it currently only has one MP, it is one who is widely respected for her honesty and integrity.

Caroline Lucas continues to punch well above her weight. It is, however, on local councils where in recent years the Green Party has begun to break through in significant numbers.

It now has 563 people sitting in council chambers across the country with around half of them only having won their seat in the last two years. In large parts of Yorkshire the party has moved from being a fringe choice to regularly winning seats.

Greens are sharing power in Sheffield and in York and have significant numbers of councillors in places like Bradford where there are four, Leeds three and Kirklees also with three. In rural North Yorkshire it gained five seats on the largest council in the country in the May elections - primarily in previously Conservatives areas.

Part of the reason for the success has been the way that the party has focused on doing the simple things well on behalf of a local community. It has concentrated on fielding candidates that are rooted in their local area and are actually interested in listening when people have problems that a councillor can solve and then working hard to try and get a resolution.

It has also helped that causes which the Greens have been championing for many years are starting to look increasingly far-sighted. The cost of living crisis would be a lot less intimidating if the country had invested in better insulated homes and in using more roofs to feed cheap solar power into the grid.

Protecting the local environment, helping local wildlife, ending plastic pollution, and keeping rivers free of routine sewage releases are causes that more and more people now identify with.

This summer saw temperatures in England reach 40 degrees. Climate change is already causing increasingly chaotic weather. The world has seen more wildfires, high winds, droughts and floods.

Yorkshire has experienced its own share of the damage and the issue is only just starting to hit home.

It may seem strange that representatives of a party which has such a strong interest in global issues like climate change and protecting the environment find it so easy to get wrapped up in dealing with very local issues like the bins or planning.

In actuality it is a reflection of one of the oldest principles of green politics. Most environmentalists are steeped in the concept that it is best to think globally but to act locally and issues like managing waste or making sure that housing is built in the right places to high environmental standards are exactly the kind of things that motivate them.

All this local success now leaves the party with a bit of a dilemma. Election to office comes with responsibility and Greens can only expect to continue to make progress if they are taken seriously as people who can be trusted to take on significant jobs and control waste of financial resources every bit as effectively as they seek to control waste in the environment. Yet the party wants and needs to retain its radical cutting edge and be recognised as standing for something significantly different to business as usual.

The people the party has elected to lead it through this challenge are not well known on the national stage. There aren’t too many people who would come up with the names of Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay as co-leaders of the party or of Zack Polanski as the Deputy.

Yet their election marked a significant turning point in the party’s fortunes. All three have successfully won council seats in their own local area and they have a clear focus on steadily and effectively expanding the significant contribution that the party makes to British political life.

They are people who are quietly efficient rather than flamboyant and that works well with the more charismatic presence of Caroline Lucas the current MP.

If she is to become rather less lonely in the next Parliament then the party is going to need all that efficiency. It will be working hard to concentrate its efforts in areas where it has gained local recognition and to use that local reputation for honesty to help convince an increasingly cynical electorate to place its trust in a small party that is motivated by sincere convictions.

This weekend’s party conference in Harrogate will play a big part in determining whether it succeeds.

If the party can strike the right balance between radical ambitions and practical delivery then it looks to have a bright future.

Andy Brown is a Craven District Councillor representing Aire Valley with Lothersdale and the North Yorkshire Councillor for Aire Valley.