On the surface, the Greens shouldn’t be competitive in the seat of Altrincham and Sale West. Altrincham has largely been an economically conservative region which clashes with the Green Party’s more progressive ideologies – resulting in the Greens getting 2.9% of the vote in 2019 compared to 48% for Sir Graham Brady of the Conservative Party and 36.8% for, now Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston, Andy Western. But with an election surely looming this year: is it right that they’ve been counted out? 

 

In a seat that by now resembles Political Twister, there’s one more spin: the Greens have dominated Altrincham in the local elections and going into Thursday’s local elections are heavy favourites to keep their clean sweep of the region. This week then, to try and understand what they are standing for and the level of their support, I asked some questions to the Green candidate and councillor in Altrincham: Geraldine Coggins.  

 

How do you rate your chances of claiming the Green Party's 2nd ever seat? 

“We talk to a lot of people on the doorsteps who are feeling let down by the old parties. In Bowdon, Bridget Green came very close to winning a seat from the Conservatives last year. This year, it looks absolutely neck and neck. We hear from people who’ve voted Conservative all their lives but now are making the change to vote Green.”  

“We’ve seen similar patterns across Hale and Altrincham in recent years, which now have 3 Green councillors each. And we’ve seen similar results all around the country.” 

“People have seen the benefits of having Green councillors and they want more of that. We also know that more and more people are deeply concerned about the climate crisis. We talk to lots of young people who vote Green as they know that we are the only ones who consistently put this at the top of the agenda. But we also talk to a lot of older people who are concerned about the impacts it will have on their children and grandchildren and are making the switch.” 

 

If elected, what changes would you implement? 

“If elected, I would continue the work of working for a fairer society and protecting our environment. I would be pushing for insulation to give us warm, cosy homes while reducing our reliance on imported oil and gas. We need to put water companies back in public hands, so we can clean our rivers and protect our local area. And we need to make it cheap, safe and easy to get around by bus, bike and train - easing our traffic problems, saving us all money and keeping our air clean.” 

 

Do you have any wishes for the next Mayor of Greater Manchester? 

We want to see serious climate action - a proper insulation scheme to give us warm homes that are cheap to live in. And more and faster action on solving our transport problems - cleaning our duty air and cutting emissions.