The Green Party has published its manifesto for the Stroud District Council elections in May.

The Greens will be standing in all 51 council seats in each of the 27 district wards and the party has announced the names of its candidates; 53% of the candidates are women; 47% are men.

The party aims to become the majority group and retain its leadership of the council after May 2.

With 14 councillors currently, the Greens have been part of the ruling alliance on the council since 2012 and have led the alliance since 2022.

The Greens say the manifesto is a vision of positive change for communities, the shared environment and local economy. It builds on the 13 years that Green councillors have been part of running the council and working to serve the whole of the Stroud district.

The manifesto contains five key points, which are summarised below.

Stroud District Greens are running a crowdfunder campaign towards funding of election newsletters to help make their manifesto ambitions become reality.

Unlike other parties, the Greens are not claiming to be able to achieve goals not under the district council's control, such as road improvements, health service improvements and high-speed broadband. They say all the ambitions in the manifesto are achievable if the council remains Green led.

1.Warm and affordable homes

Stroud District Council has one of the largest council housing stocks in Gloucestershire. The Greens plans include building more council homes to the highest standards, ensuring that as many new homes as possible are affordable and requiring developers to meet high energy efficiency standards.

2. A clean and green district

Stroud District Council was the first council in Europe to be carbon neutral. The Greens will continue to put social justice, nature, biodiversity and the climate crisis at the heart of everything it does, increasing reuse and recycling, increasing use of renewable energy sources, continuing to reduce flood risk and work for affordable and healthy sustainable transport

3. Thriving market towns and villages

The Greens aim to transform our towns and create thriving destinations by championing local businesses, promoting local attractions and events and improving public spaces.

4. Public services that work

Despite over a decade of Conservative cuts, the council has kept a healthy bank balance while running leisure and community services well. The Greens will bring Stratford Park leisure centre under council control so it can be run to the same high standards as The Pulse in Dursley; invest more into community hubs and make sure the least well off pay no council tax, put more money into play areas and continue to support the Neighbourhood Warden Scheme to respond quickly to anti-social behaviour and other issues.

5. Restoring trust in politics

Despite frequent political scandals in the other parties nationally, local Greens are showing there is a positive, progressive, and professional way to do politics. They promise to work collaboratively with other parties on Stroud District Council, as they have done for the past 13 years, make the best decisions for our communities, and include residents in important decision-making.