With much local finance directed by central government and with the leaders of the three main parties falling over themselves to talk tough about "savage" spending cuts it was a forgone conclusion that local authorities would eventually face the axe, regardless of who wins the General Election next year.

The challenge locally will be to protect the most vulnerable – especially services for older people, young people and disabled people. But I hope the council will look as well at imaginative ways to raise money, such as from European sources, as well as dropping harebrained schemes like the doomed Stayton plan.

Kirklees must preserve schemes which create jobs and skills in our area – such as the Warmzone, originally proposed by Green Party councillors. This has multiple benefits of cutting costs, reducing carbon output and creating local jobs for smaller business.

Keeping these businesses going will do more for sustainable, skilled, local employment than any number of national high street stores councillors are trying to attract to Pioneer House.

Council jobs also keep money in our town – so defending jobs from redundancies (not a cheap option in itself), and getting Labour to follow up on Shahid Malik's promise to bring council posts to Empire House, will be vital. One option could be a reduction in the working week for council staff rather than lose staff outright.

The government poured billions into the pockets of bankers last year – who were still allowed to pay themselves more than £7 billion in bonuses in the last year in spite of their disastrous performance.

None of the three party leaders have called for any concrete action to recover our money. Nor have any parties other than the Greens called on the Government to take this opportunity to convert the state-owned banks into not-for-profit community banks (like the traditional mutual building societies).

The Green Party's "Green New Deal" would put money into real jobs, training people to work in publicly funded schemes to develop and implement alternative energy and transport so that we can combine creating real wealth and work with reducing our carbon footprint and our reliance on increasingly unreliable foreign fuel.

We would spend more, not less, funding it from higher taxes on the very rich and on big business, by not replacing Trident and by not spending the planned £20 billion on identity cards. We need local action, but national change.

ADRIAN CRUDEN
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Dewsbury Constituency
Edge Lane
Thornhill
DEWSBURY