Unfortunately we missed out on other hoped-for wins in Lancaster South East and Skerton – but Jane Fletcher and Ian Chamberlain both came within 300 votes of winning.

The Conservatives now have a big majority on the County Council (51 out of 84 seats), with Labour on 16, Lib Dems on 10, Independents 3, Greens 2, Idle Toad 1, BNP 1 (in Padiham & Burnley West). Overall turnout was 38%.
Results for Lancashire County elections can be viewed at http://www.lancashire.gov.uk

Gregson Centre Moor Lane Lancaster

7.30 Mon 22 June

He explained, “I get the basic allowance which each County Councillor receives. This is essentially a part-time wage to cover the time I spend at meetings and on sorting out problems for local residents, which takes up about three days each week. The only expenses I claim are the occasional train fare for meetings not held at County Hall; these amount to only £44.13 in total over four years.”

Money received by all Councillors for allowances and expenses are available on the Lancashire County Council & Lancaster City Council websites. As the relevant pages are not always easy to find, North Lancashire Green Councillors have decided to publish their own figures on an annual basis

A list of allowances and expense claims for all Lancashire County Councillors for 2008/2009 can be seen here.

For information on the Green Party campaign in the North West see: http://northwest.greenparty.org.uk or http://petercranie.blogspot.com

The report includes suggestions for a County wide Green Skills Network, help to improve energy efficiency in the areas housing stock and help for those in fuel poverty as well as measures to support local business.

The local report is based on the national document published last year by the New Economic Foundation.

Following a few words from the Mayor the crowds followed St George and his Dragon in a short procession along the Quayside pathway along to Lancaster Maritime Museum where the Mayor gave a toast to England and St George with a cup of English tea. In the evening on April 23rd 20 people heard a talk in the Maritime museum by Dr Sam Riches entitled “An English Saint for English People? – The reinvention of St George.”

At the weekend there were further activities all along the Quay with Morris dancers, a brass band, family craft workshops at the Museum and folk music in the Three Mariners and Wagon and Horses pubs.

Councillor Coates, who leads the 12 strong Green group on the Council, has served on the City Council for the six years and was elected on to Lancashire County Council in 2005. Chris is a time-served carpenter who now works as a freelance project manager on community based construction projects.

This is part of wider St Georges Day celebrations taking place on the Quay on the day and over the weekend. In the evening on April 23rd there will be a talk in the Maritime museum by Dr Sam Riches entitled “An English Saint for English People? – The reinvention of St George.”

At the weekend there will be Family Craft workshops in the Maritime Museum on sunday afternoon 26th April 11am -1pm & 2-4pm.
And in the evening on the Sunday there is Live folk music in the Quayside pubs.

Aurora Trujillo, one of the protestors, said “We’ve been acquitted, but we’ve still got the real battle ahead, to stop Centros turning Lancaster into one more Clone Town.”

All four had been involved in the formal planning process and the Carnival of Culture, but felt increasingly disempowered. The protesters were being prosecuted under a law introduced in 1994 as part of the Criminal Justice Act, which was directed at stopping various forms of direct action, such as hunt sabotage and anti-roads protesting. Since then, even more laws have been introduced to control and define protest.

Green Cllr Chris Coates was due to speak in court in defence of the protestors, but the case was dismissed before he was called to give evidence.

For more info on the trial, go to http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/

Liverpool-based Peter Cranie is the candidate set to thwart the electoral dream of BNP leader Nick Griffin. In regional list elections, the big three parties usually take most of the seats, and the highest-polling candidate from a smaller party the last seat. In the North West - where the far right seeks to build on the fears and insecurities of the recession - the race for the last seat will almost certainly be between the Greens and the BNP.

In his opening speech to conference, Peter Cranie spoke passionately about the need to support migrants living in Britain against a political party “that doesn’t even allow Black British or Asian British people to join it.”

He described the complete failure of Britain’s handful of BNP councillors who, having use “the politics of hate” to win votes from desperate, disaffected people, had never done anything in office to help anybody, but had simply abused Britain’s electoral system “to peddle the politics of hate.”