Candidate Interview: Chas Ball (Green, Colne Valley)

Chas Ball, Green Party candidate for Colne Valley, in Holmfirth this morning.

The Green Party’s general election candidate for Colne Valley, Chas Ball, has told Saddleworth News that the older generation “is engaged in a sort of rip off of the younger generation.” In an interview today he also called for more investment in public transport, and a a greater focus on the centres of towns and villages for both housing and shopping.

Mr Ball said it was up to older people to do what they could to help people currently in their twenties and of school age, and predicted “growing resentment” if younger people continue to find it difficult to get affordable property.

In his daily life Mr Ball works as a transport consultant, and he said he was broadly in favour of national proposals for high-speed rail, but added that more investment is needed in existing facilities such as the Penistone line. He added that high oil prices would make good transport links, and local shops, more important in the future.

I interviewed Mr Ball at a coffee shop in Holmfirth this morning. As well as transport, housing, rural shops, planning and environmental issues, we also talked about the planned cuts at Kirklees Council and the reputation of MPs and Parliament.

You can listen to the interview in full by downloading it from here.

Other candidates confirmed as standing in the constituency are Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, Jason McCartney of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat Nicola Turner, and Jackie Grunsell of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition. I intend to interview them later in the campaign.

Earlier articles about Colne Valley from Saddleworth News are available here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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