Colin Green Liberal Democrat Campaigner

Welcome

Colin is the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak. He campaigns on behalf of the residents of Selly Oak, Bournville, Brandwood and Billesley on matters of local concern.

If there is a local issue you would like to discuss with him or with Selly Oak Liberal Democrats, please get in touch and we'll do the best we can to help.

You can help Colin's campaigns by:

volunteering your time or making a donation to the local party
joining the Liberal Democrats
or or simply registering to vote

News

Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak

Selly Oak Liberal Democrats have selected local campaigner Colin Green as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak at the next General Election.

Commenting, Colin Green said: "I'm delighted to have been selected as the prospective Liberal Democrat MP for Selly Oak. I look forward to the opportunity of highlighting the Lib Dem's coalition successes in sticking up for ordinary people.

"Despite the difficult financial situation the country faces and being the junior partner in coalition, I welcome the fact that the Liberal Democrats have seen a number of our progressive policies achieved in government:

- Raising the tax threshold, taking the lowest paid out of income tax

- Creating millions of new jobs and apprenticeships

- Helping disadvantaged school children with our Pupil Premium

- Reforming the state pension with our triple lock to protect the value of pensions against prices and average earnings

- and now giving free school meals for all 5 to 7 year olds, boosting attainment levels for primary school children.

"It's these achievements and more that I want to help the Lib Dems build on in the next parliament."

Help Save Tiverton Road Pool

Help save Tiverton Road pool by signing our petition here:

Birmingham's Labour run council has recently voted to close a raft of community buildings in Birmingham, including our nearest swimming pool on Tiverton Road. They have a long history of this kind of thing, they closed Bournville Lane Baths 25 years ago and it is still a blight in the centre of Stirchley.

Part of the reason they want to make cuts to our local services is because they want to spend £62 million on switching to wheelie bins. But the cuts are not necessary. Labour scrapped the Lib Dem's plan to recycle food waste, much cheaper way to improve refuse collections. Instead, they chose the much more expensive wheelie bin option and now they have to cut swimming pools and other services to pay for it.

We need to collect as much evidence as possible about why Tiverton Road Pool is important to you and other residents. You can help our campaign to save this important local service with a few simple actions:

1) Complete our online petition at sellyoaklibdems.nationbuilder.com

2) Tell us why the pool is important to you facebook.com/SaveTivertonPool

3) Ask your friends and neighbours to join in.

We need to build this campaign to make a real difference. A few minutes of your time could really help.

Free School Meals for Infants

The Lib Dems recently announced the introduction of free school meals for all infant school pupils from September 2014.

Trials of the scheme show that learning increased by about 4 week's worth per year by giving free school meals to all pupils in infant schools...

Children concentrate more and are better behaved once they've had a healthy meal. It means teachers spend more time teaching instead of dealing with behaviour, so children spend more of their time learning.

Read more here

Labour's Green Waste Tax

Birmingham's Labour council want to charge you £35 to collect your green waste - a service currently paid for by council tax.

Lib Dem spokesman Colin Green said: "While the Lib Dems in government are cutting taxes for working people, Labour want you to pay more to recycle garden waste."

"They were given an extra £28 million to keep weekly bin collections. Labour want to charge us £35 on top of that. We used to fund all refuse collections out of council tax."

Read more here

Schools get extra £1300 for each child on Free School Meals

Local Schools are getting more money thanks to the Lib Dem's Pupil Premium. This year, Schools will get an extra £1300 for each child on free school meals.

The Lib Dems believe that no-one's chances in life should be limited by their background. That's why we're giving schools more money to help close the gap in attainment between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.

Read more here

Bournville opposes wheelie bins

Bournville residents have responded angrily to the new wheelie bin proposal by Birmingham's Labour council.

With almost a thousand replies, the massive response to our survey is clear. People opposing wheelie bins outnumber those in favour by more than 2 to 1. Local Lib Dem Steve Haynes said: "We asked people in Bournville what they wanted and we've listened to them. People don't know where they'll keep three wheelie bins and they're worried about them being an eyesore. The Lib Dems' plans for food waste recycling would stop the problem with pests ripping open bags but Labour scrapped this cheaper and simpler scheme.

Parliamentary spokesman Colin Green added "Labour are imposing wheelie bins despite massive opposition from local residents. They're just not listening to people. They were given £28 million by government to keep weekly bin collections and they're spending it on something that people just don't want. And they want to charge us all £35 a year for green waste collections that used to be paid for by our council tax. This green waste tax could still be avoided if Labour change their minds on their expensive and unpopular wheelie bins."

A Million Jobs

Lib Dems in Government have helped businesses create over 1 million private sector jobs, including...

Jobs for young people, jobs in manufacturing, jobs across the UK and jobs building Britain. Now we're campaigning to create A Million More...

Read more here

Potholes in Bournville

The winter weather has taken its toll on some of our roads and there has been an outbreak of potholes. The Lib Dem team are taking note of these as they walk around the ward are reporting them to the council for repair.

As the new Liberal Democrat campaigner for Bournville ward, I've asked the council to make the necessary repairs. I think it is important to look after our city and I'm keen to get involved. If there's anything I can help with, from road repairs to fly tipping and missed refuse collections, please email me at colin@colingreen.org.uk or phone and leave a message on 0121 589 1608. I'll try to get the problem solved as soon as I can.

Birmingham Labour's Council Tax Benefit Cut

Birmingham's Labour run council have decided to cut Council Tax Benefit by 20%. This means thousands of low income and unemployed households will now have to pay council tax.

Labour put this to January's council meeting where they voted down a Lib Dem amendment which would have left council tax benefit unchanged.

Read more here

The Case for the Living Wage

The Living Wage is in the news again after a new figures for 2012 have been published. It's not a new idea. Liberal MP Mark Oldroyd wrote about it in 1894 and the Living Wage foundation has been promoting it for over 10 years. The new figure is £7.45 per hour and is higher than the current minimum wage of £6.19. So what is the Living Wage for and why is it important?

Read more here