Could you tell readers about yourself, and why you’ve chosen to try and represent this ward?
I’m Howard Green. I live in Helensburgh. I am a relatively new Scot – here since end 2017. I spent my working life as a telecoms and network technologist, and have lived in Europe and the US. I started my career installing the first digital telephone exchanges, and retired in 2014 as director of an internet research group in Silicon Valley.
I am delighted to be here. The community is committed to making Helensburgh greener. People are active in caring for local woodland and street trees. There are regular and well-organised beach cleans and monitoring, and we have recently achieved plastic-free status with a high level of participation from community groups and businesses. I have been using my experience to advise the Helensburgh Community Council and to campaign for better broadband provision, and I am interested in improving the Clyde ecosystem.
I am a proud member of the Scottish Greens, and I am standing for the Helensburgh and Lomond South ward. Current events -accelerating climate change and habitat loss, energy chaos, and eye watering price increases – demonstrate how critical the green transition is, and we need councillors who can actually make things happen.
What do you think are the three key issues in the future for the ward, and how close is your relationship with it?
Helensburgh is a coastal town with many issues flowing from pollution and climate change. The Clyde is still full of plastic, and sewage is released at unacceptable levels. The shoreline and the railway are threatened by storm surges and sea level rise. Moreover, the town needs better buses, a more reliable train service, and completion of the endlessly delayed cycle path to Dumbarton. We need to ensure that proposed new housing development makes progress towards net zero, avoids damage to forest and peat, strengthens public transport and active travel, and avoids new traffic congestion. We also need more affordable housing for rent, and more space for growing (allotments and community gardens)
Currently Argyll and Bute Council is run by TALIG – the Argyll, Lomond and the Islands Group, a coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some independent councillors. If elected, would you join this group?
As Greens, we believe in collaborative politics, and will engage with a broad range of people to get things done. Argyll and Bute is certainly a challenging local authority, but the current council has done a poor job. It does not communicate with local people, services are unreliable, and the councillors have been mostly invisible. For that reason, I would not join TALIG, and I hope that the council will soon have new leadership which we can work with.
Currently the council is considering a ‘collectives’ system, which would see several schools share a headteacher and management team. Do you support this policy?
The current education initiative (“Empowering Educators”) is a good example of poor council practice. The scheme has been sprung on schools and parents, and shows no sign of adequate thought. It does not take account of different conditions in different parts of A&B, would hinder the recruitment of good teachers, and has been nearly universally rejected by local organisations. A responsible council would have paused for thought before spending significant public money on promotional videos and materials.