Recently retired bioscientist Fiona Shenton has been elected co-ordinator of County Durham Green Party.
She will serve for a year and is being supported by former co-ordinators and county councillor Jonathan Elmer.
In her letter introducing herself to members she paid tribute to retiring co-ordinator Rupert Friederichsen.
“Rupert has done an excellent job in the role over the past year making it much easier for me to follow on as everything is so well ordered and documented. I will do my best to continue his good work.
“I have just retired from a career in bioscience and I am now keen to become more involved in Green Party activities.
“My research areas were varied, primarily molecular biology but I also have experience in tropical medicine and most recently I oversaw a research network whose aim was to control disease transmitting mosquitoes through improvements to people’s homes and good environmental management.
“I am old enough to be able to see with my own eyes the damage we are doing to our beautiful planet.
“I am optimistic that humans are clever enough and creative enough to come up with solutions to restore the balance and reverse the harm, but for this to happen we MUST wake up to the fact that we can only survive by protecting the whole planet. We have to change our priorities away from the toxic drive to exploit and consume. The Green Party appears to me to be the only one that does NOT have its head in the sand regarding this emergency.
“With increasing numbers of Green councillors, we are well placed to work with local communities to press for changes across County Durham, to restore and improve the environment for the benefit of all.”