Dragon Interview: John Pletts – Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party

Published on: 31 Aug, 2016
Updated on: 1 Sep, 2016

The Green Party attracted over a million votes across the country at the last general election but only won one seat, in Brighton. But here, only 50 miles away in Guildford, it has yet to make an impact even though environmental issues have come to the fore in our local planning debates. The Guildford Dragon NEWS decided to ask John Pletts, the Green Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Guildford, what he thinks. Interview conducted by Martin Giles.

John Pletts, prospective Green Party parliamentary candidate for Guildford

The Green Party does not seem to have made serious inroads into the local political scene in Guildford. Why is that?

I think we have been hampered by being spread too thinly and having a single Surrey Green Party to cover the whole of the county. We now have the Guildford, Godalming and East Waverley Green Party which will be able to devote more time to local issues. To make an impact you need several activists to devote a large part of their time to taking up, researching and putting out the local party’s view and we now are building a nucleus of people in this area.

As a borough we are 89% green belt. Is it important to continue to protect it or should some development, as outlined in the draft Local Plan, be allowed to increase housing supply?

We must keep to the idea of the green belt. Many people might support this in principle but then find reasons why it should not apply in any individual case. I say that despite the difficulties that may arise we have to change our lifestyles and attitudes so that we can live within the current built-up areas, and leave the countryside for food production, recreation and flora and fauna. Report after report says that we are losing biodiversity.

There is little evidence of renewable energy production in Guildford or Surrey and a planning application for a “Solar Farm” at Eashing was refused by Guildford Borough Council in October (2015). Was that the right decision? Why is there so little renewable energy production in our county? Should there be more?

Rejecting the Eashing Solar Farm was the wrong decision. We really need as much renewable energy as possible but we also need to promote energy efficiency, that is better insulation of our buildings, more seriously. I believe that introducing a system of carbon rationing, which is Green Party policy, would help to concentrate people’s minds on the need to treat energy as precious.

Unfortunately the government has rejected this and is putting its faith in, for example, carbon capture and storage, an untried technology, to meet its commitments under the Climate Change Act.

The South East is the most densely populated region of England and England is one of the most, if not the most, densely populated countries in Europe. Is the government’s policy of encouraging more house building here the right thing to do environmentally?

We need to look at England and Wales as a whole. The South East is over-populated, congested, polluted and subject to periodic water shortages. Some of this will get worse with climate change. Furthermore we have many buildings that cannot be cross ventilated naturally and so are unsuitable for the coming increase in temperature. We need a system which will encourage the construction of green buildings, new and converted, in the cooler and wetter parts of the country.

But how else can we meet the demand for those who need homes here?

If the green belt is sacrosanct we have to face the likelihood that we will not meet all the demand for housing in the South East. We can build on brownfield sites but these are few and often present difficulties. We can gradually replace older, really non-energy efficient housing in Guildford with new, higher density and super efficient energy dwellings. I would also like to see measures to make it easier to let rooms in houses to single people and students. We need to consider the consequences of not meeting all the demand to live in Guildford.

Car ownership in Surrey is the highest per household in the country and in Guildford we suffer from chronic traffic congestion. Should we simply build more roads?

No, we should not simply build more roads. For some time planners have realised that building more roads leads to more cars filling up the new roads until they too are congested.

The buzz words in local government transport planning seem to be “modal shift” i.e. moving to more walking, cycling and use of public transport. This would seem to fit with Green Party thinking but is it really achievable in a sufficiently short timescale to solve our current problems?

“Modal shift” is the only game in town and has been Green Party policy for ages. Unfortunately these issues have not been faced and precious time has been lost. Leaving the car at home and walking or cycling instead makes a really substantial contribution to reducing emissions and has real health benefits as well. Again Carbon Rationing [see answer to third question above] would help to change attitudes and make it more attractive to go by bicycle or walk. Eventually this will help with our problems with the NHS, but we need action urgently.

The Green Party website says: “The privatisation of Britain’s transport network has done a huge disservice to passengers: driving up prices whilst creating a race to the bottom in service provision.” Do you agree?

Actually I need to be convinced. When I last used the train to get to work they were the old ‘slam door’ type so at least we now have much better trains. Of course there is an industrial dispute at the moment with Southern Trains but otherwise we have not had many serious disputes since privatisation. Other countries are introducing some privatisation too.

John Plett prefers his bike for short journeys around Guildford.

You are a keen cyclist, are you a car owner too? Do you use your bike for all local journeys? What contribution can cycling make to solving our transport problems?

Technically our car belongs to my wife but I do use it sometimes, particularly for collecting bulky things. I try to do all my local journeys, say up to 10 miles, on a bicycle. For longer journeys I prefer the train. Denmark and Holland have shown what an enormous contribution cycling can make to easing traffic congestion, helping the environment and improving the nation’s health. We are held back by poor infrastructure, the feeling that cycling is dangerous and the dominance of the car. I am also a member of the local ‘car club’.

Are there any specific cycling improvements you can suggest to improve things in Guildford?

Yes, we have proposed an easy improvement to the access for bicycles coming from the East of Guildford towards the station. We have received support from Anne Milton MP, herself a cyclist, but unfortunately the proposal has been rejected by SCC for not very good reasons. Up to now London and other cities have done a lot to improve cycling infrastructure but towns like Guildford are lagging behind. There is an opportunity here to make use of a little used underpass to make a much better route right into the station.

Who did you vote for in the recent Green Party leadership election and why?

I voted for Clive Lord as leader with Andrew Cooper as deputy leader. Clive is almost a founding member of the Green Party in 1973 and attaches the most importance to the original aims; he wants to see the issue of sustainability promoted above everything, which I agree with.