6th May 2007

I read with interest the exchange in your pages between Cllrs Liz Peters(Conservative) and Philip Booth (Green) regarding Cllr Peters'  claim that all parties are now Green.

As a former Green councillor in Stroud living in Shrewsbury for the timebeing, I found this claim somewhat ironic. As Cllr Booth says, the Conservative-led District Council's enviornmental strategy at Ebley Mill is to be praised highly.

Here in Shrewsbury, however, things are somewhat different. The Conservative-led Borough and District councils areenthusiastically championing the construction of a "relief road" which would slice through some of the most beautiful countryside inShropshire, including many Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

This is being driven along with some underhand use of statistics. Forinstance, Shropshire County Council claims that the new road will reduce CO2emissions by 2%. In fact, their own report shows that the new road will seean increase of 13%, whereas without the road projected emissions rises are of 15%.

I suspect that most of your readers will share my opinion that this is not very "green" behaviour. Indeed when I was recently introduced to the leaderof Shrewsbury Borough Council as local Green Party secretary, his reply was"I try to be Green, but I'm not really".

Perhaps then the slogan "Vote blue go green" only applies to areas where there is a strong Green political voice, such as Stroud, since here inShrewsbury we have as yet no Green councillors. This is why a Green vote is so valuable, and why Cllr Peters' views deserve to be put right.

Yours faithfully,

Toby Green
Former Stroud District Councillor (Green Party)
Shrewsbury
Shropshire SY1  2HT