The campaigner who successfully led the fight to scrap the Bristol mayor is running to be the Green candidate for the West of England mayor. In May next year voters across the region will decide who should be the next politician to lead the West of England Combined Authority.
Mary Page is hoping the Green Party will select her as their candidate for the upcoming elections. In the last West of England elections in 2021, the Greens came third with 22 per cent of the vote, behind the Conservatives with 29 per cent and Labour with 33 per cent.
Ms Page led the It’s Our City Bristol campaign, which ended up in a referendum in 2022 when voters decided to scrap the role of a directly elected mayor running Bristol City Council. The campaigner said that was the “first leg of a journey to transform our local and regional democratic systems”.
She said: “We need sustainable transport, upskilling and job transition opportunities, the right housing in the right place at the right price, and we should do this by taking back more powers for our communities from the government. Our local manufacturers lead the world economy, and our world-class research centres are innovating the way we, and the rest of the world’s population live.
“Yet we could do so much more in promoting a just transition, on the journey to net zero. We have a huge opportunity in the Portbury, Avonmouth and Severnside economic area with the renewables sector. Yet accumulation of energy-from-waste there and other industrial activity needs not to be at the detriment of the residents.”
The West of England mayor has different powers to the former Bristol mayor, and is responsible for regional transport, housing and skills. The current Labour mayor, Dan Norris, has faced controversies with bus cuts and rows with council leaders over where to build new homes.
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Ms Page added: “We have Bath Spa world heritage site, iconic cultural and creative arts, music and entertainment venues to rival anywhere — except an arena. Our communities include people who come from all over the globe, speak over a hundred different languages, and who bring a richness and wealth of contribution to our society.
“Yet we are still in the worst funded English region per capita for transport. Our bus services are not fit for purpose nor the people who use them. Our poor public transport reinforces inequality, restricting access to work, and contributing to pollution and carbon emissions. The current mayor failed to even deliver bus franchising, let alone any form of multi-modal transport plan.”
It’s unclear if the Green Party has accepted nomination papers for any other candidate, but the deadline to submit papers has been extended to Sunday, October 27. If another hopeful gets accepted, party members will vote next week on who should be selected to stand.
Ms Page said her priorities would be “putting our environment first”; creating a passenger transport executive; demanding more power and money from the government; and boosting renewable energy. A former Liberal Democrat, she joined the Green Party last year. Her professional background is in journalism and public relations.
She added: “This role isn’t about pontificating from the podium or telling people what to do. It’s about standing or sitting beside people, listening more than you speak, promoting their achievements and telling their stories not mine. It’s time we stopped looking for the strong leader model forcing their one-sided vision upon us and doing stuff to us.
“Having done work in and with disabled communities, we often talk about no decision about us, without us. There isn’t unlimited time in anyone’s diary, but the WECA mayor should be a leader who will enable us all, foster and promote collaboration, and allow room for everyone to have their seat at the democratic table. No one can change the fate of the region single-handedly, but it’s my promise to you that together we can.”