Council elections 2021: Greens want traffic banned outside schools

The Green Party is hoping to get its first councillors on Norfolk County Council in four years - claiming it is the only party with the ambition to drive carbon reduction.

All 86 seats at County Hall are up for grabs when Norfolk goes to the polls on May 6 and the Greens say the county council would be "richer" for having their party in the chamber.

Among its proposals are for the council to help create new jobs, through retrofitting of homes to cut carbon emissions and to ban traffic around schools.

The party has also pledged to resist road-building, including the Norwich Western Link, the controversial £153m road which would connect the Northern Distributor Road to the A47.

The Greens would also target making the county carbon zero by 2030, push for the introduction of a universal basic income, prevent any of the county's waste being burned and put more money into funding social services support for drug and mental health issues.

Ben Price, a Green city councillor who is standing for the Thorpe Hamlet seat at County Hall, said: "The council would be richer for the Greens being there.

"Whereas other parties tinker around the edges to varying degrees, climate change is at the front and centre of our policies."

Mr Price said his party would push for the council to help retrain and reskill people in green jobs, such as retrofitting homes.

And he said Norfolk should be at the forefront of harnessing the potential for hydrogen power from the North Sea.

On the proposals to create traffic-free zones outside the county's schools at peak times, he said: "So many schools are on busy, main roads, but there's clear evidence linking air quality with poor health and death.

"We need a proper assessment across Norfolk and to work with schools to get a long-term programme in place."

Mr Price said the Greens' opposition to road-building and, in particular the Western Link, was based on the disruption it would cause to eco-systems and on traffic modelling.

Norfolk County Council's political make-up is Conservatives 52, Labour 16, Liberal Democrats nine, Independent three, Independent (non-aligned) one, non-aligned one and two vacancies.