Duncan Moore for Peverell

29/04/2023

A piece I wrote for The Socialist this week,
Councils must act on climate change.

Whatever local authority area you live in, it is overwhelmingly likely that it will have declared a "climate emergency".

23/04/2023

The number of rough sleepers in this city is appalling. I don’t remember it ever being this bad growing up here. On a freezing day in January this year I stopped to try to help a woman who was sleeping rough and called the council’s rough sleeping support service; the support worker I spoke to explained they only had two staff working that day and simply didn’t have the resources to come and help rough sleepers, and that the best I could do was call an ambulance if she became hypothermic. The people at the one stop shop try their best but they simply don’t have the staff or the resources to begin to tackle this issue.

How have we allowed essential Council services to get the stage where people are dying on street for want of support? How can we allow this to carry on? Enough excuses from the other parties saying we don’t have the money because of cuts. We are in a social emergency NOW.

Plymouth council has borrowing powers and reserves which can be used for an emergency programme of measures against poverty, cold and homelessness – if the will to fight the government was there.

18/04/2023

I also support bringing back the 31 route for people in Peverell; but we should go further, expanding the network and having more regular buses. Traffic jams and lack of parking space is a big problem in Peverell and having a better bus service would help alleviate some of the issues.

Unlike Labour, I also stand for bringing all the services back into public ownership. It isn’t right that Stagecoach and city bus make big profits, while drivers are low paid and the travelling public get such a poor service. The council should bring the bus service back in house, with decent trade union rates of pay for drivers. I support a £15 ph minimum wage.

Some cities in Europe now have free public transport; this should be brought in in Plymouth to ease the burden on residents during the cost of living crisis and help us meet our net zero carbon emissions target.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/plymouth-bus-service-cuts-could-8192701?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button -wrapper