'Greens are surging in polls with a politics of community'

THE new leader of the Green Party came to Bristol, pledged to fight hard to win more Westminster seats in the city, and defended the Green-run city council's performance since they took over 18 months ago.

- TRISTAN CORK

The East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood has been controversial - Mr Polanski says traffic has to reduce but there needs to be an ongoing conversation

Zack Polanski also called out people who put flags on lampposts, describing it as "one of the most unpatriotic things you can do'.

The Green Party leader was met with regular and rapturous applause during a speech at a rally at St George’s Hall in Bristol city centre. Tickets for the event sold out within three hours last month, and he shared a stage with Bristol Central MP and former co-leader Carla Denyer, and climate justice activist Dominique Palmer.

Before he spoke to hundreds gathered in the venue on Monday evening, Mr Polanski spoke about the city, the Greens' chances in Bristol at the next General Election, the surge in support for the party since he became leader and the controversies surrounding the way the Greens are running Bristol from City Hall.

If the Greens are hoping for a surge in votes across the country at the next General Election, as polls show people are increasingly turning away from the two main parties, in Bristol they will have to contend with something different an electorate that have already experienced four or five years living in a city where the Greens have power, and that issues like the council's record on housing, transport and contentious issues like the Liveable Neighbourhood plans may well prompt a backlash.

"I wouldn't say I'm concerned, but I am aware. I'm absolutely confident that the Green-led council will keep telling that story of austerity, which is ultimately being fiscally responsible, running the council in a balanced way that makes those decisions, but also never taking the eye off the ball, that this Labour Government should never get away with the fact that they have squeezed councils so badly that these councils have had to make those decisions.