The Green Party of England and Wales has attracted almost 800 new members since the 2023 local elections.

This year’s local elections saw the Green Party achieve its best ever results. The Greens gained 241 seats, breaking the previous record the party set in 2019.

There were no local elections in County Durham this year.

County Durham Green Party Co-ordinator Fiona Shenton said:

“Not only are people voting Green in increasing numbers but many now want to get more directly involved and help the Green Party become an even stronger force locally and nationally.

“People see this is an exciting time to join us as we gain positions of real influence on more councils and the prospect of electing more Green MPs at the next general election.”

The Green Party reached some major milestones in this year’s local elections, including taking majority control of a council for the first time. In Mid Suffolk, 24 out of the 34 councillors are now Greens.

Alongside this, the Greens became the largest party on a number of councils across England, including East Hertfordshire, East Suffolk, Lewes and Forest of Dean.

Closer to home, the number of Greens on Darlington Council jumped from two to seven and Greens are now the official opposition on South Tyneside Council.

The membership surge since the elections continues a trend that began at the start of the month, with almost 1,000 people joining the party since the start of May. In total, the Greens have seen 984 new members join in May.

If you want to be part of the movement towards a greener and fairer society, join here.

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Several high profile Greens will be speaking during the four days of action, taking place from Friday 21^st April to Monday 24^th April, which have been organised by Extinction Rebellion with the support of many leading environmental charities and civil society groups. The organisers have said the event will be peaceful and non-violent.

County Durham Green Councillor Jonathan Elmer says:

“Our climate is facing breakdown and nature is in freefall. Those in power should be taking decisive action now. The fact they aren’t is why events like these, and getting Greens elected at all levels of government, is so important.

“Our route to action is through electoral politics.

“We share the frustration at a government failing to quickly move us to net zero and instead take us in the wrong direction by granting permission for a new coal-mine, giving a green light to more oil drilling in the North Sea and investing billions in new roads.

“That’s why we desperately need more Green politicians both in parliament and running local authorities across the country, pushing for urgent action on the climate and ecological emergency.

“On May 4^th millions of people will have the opportunity in the local elections to vote for a political party that places the climate and ecological crisis front and centre stage. A vote for the Green Party is a vote for climate action.

“There are no local council elections in County Durham this year, but neighbouring areas like Darlington, Sunderland, South Tyneside and Gateshead will be holding elections and our sister Green parties will welcome any support our members can give.”

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Her morale-boosting visit was a recognition that the Party sees the North-East as a realistic target for building on past successes by winning more seats on our councils.

Although County Durham does not have local council elections this year, our members have been out and about supporting candidates in adjacent council areas.

Carla’s visit to Crawcrook and Greenside division in Gateshead made it onto BBC’s Look North programme.

The division is the prime target for the Greens to win its first ever seat on Gateshead Council.

South Tyneside already has six Green councillors and is the fastest growing Party in the borough. It is standing 18 candidates in the local elections, giving every voter in the borough a chance to vote Green.

In Darlington, hopes are high that the Greens will add to the two councillors elected in 2019. County Durham members in the south of the county have been helping out with canvassing and leaflet drops.

In Sunderland, there are Green Party candidates in all 25 wards so, as in South Tyneside, every voter has the chance to vote Green.

We look forward to making further gains in the region on 4^th May and wish our colleagues standing for election the very best of success.

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We’ve won an award!

County Durham Greens have won the ‘Working Together’ Award in the annual Green Party Regional Awards at its AGM.

A panel of judges gave us the award in recognition of our generosity in helping other local Green Party branches, particularly Sunderland, in the run up to May’s local elections.

The nomination by Sunderland Green Coordinator Auburn Langley read:

“On many of our short campaign action days we had just as many Durham members assisting with the campaign as we did Sunderland members – sometimes even more.

“Without their efforts we would not have covered the ground that we did and I am very grateful for their support. They came to our events, worked hard, followed instructions and contributed to our campaign, knowing full well we were a small team not likely to win, which makes their support even more special.

“Their actions inspired our team to work harder and brought our core campaign together, knowing that we aren’t fighting this campaign alone.”

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