Dudley’s Green Party is aiming high in the borough’s local elections with an almost full slate of candidates.
The Greens are fielding 24 election hopefuls, just one short of the maximum possible, but they are under no illusions about the challenge of winning seats in the council chamber when voters go to the polls on May 7.
Stephen Price, co-chair of Dudley Green Party, is standing in the Norton ward in Stourbridge on a platform of community co-operation.
Mr Price said: “We are expecting to have some decent success in these elections, people can see Greens can win everywhere, almost everyone in Dudley will have the option to vote Green.”
“You have got to be realistic about what we are doing here, in terms of our expectations we are not expecting to win in the majority of those elections.
“Our focus is local and tempered by what a small group of councillors can realistically achieve.
“We are running a real campaign in Norton and think we have got a good chance of winning there.”
The only seat where there will not be a Green candidate on the ballot paper is Brockmoor and Pensnett where the party stepped aside in support of the candidate from the Black Country Party.
The Greens in Dudley are committed to community politics and point to the Stourbridge Community Land Trust as an example of how issues like housing can be managed sustainably.
Mr Price said: “We have a concrete example in Stourbridge of how community-led housing is working; pulling members of the community together onto a board with a membership open to anyone.
“We need the council to support that model, if you are looking at The Green Party and The Black Country Party, both parties are behind scaling up that model, it makes it easier to acquire land and planning permission for developments that are clearly good developments.”
The Greens sit on the left of the political spectrum which is similar to Black Country Party territory but Mr Price says he is willing to work with anyone, even right-leaning Reform UK.
He said: “We will see what candidates stand, how committed they are and how easy they are to work with but my approach is to find common ground at all times.
“I am effective at finding ways to work with people, what I don’t enjoy is negative campaigning, it’s not helpful, we need to find ways to come together and be positive about our area
“You can’t transform anything unless you take people with you so the idea of working together is central to what we are trying to do in Dudley.”
Despite his collaborative stance Mr Price does not support the idea of deals to prioritise spending in wards where the Greens have strong support.
He said: “You are there to represent the residents in the ward where you are elected but taking opportunities to concentrate funds into a particular ward, which is not necessarily the ward with the greatest need, doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.”
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