I’m Linda Churnside and I have lived in Wealden for 37 years, most recently for 10 years in Buxted.

Full statement

I recently rejoined the Green Party after working as a teacher in Forest Row, then as the Head Teacher of a Special School in Sussex, for 35 years.

I hope to be elected as a County Councillor so that I can bring my experience in education, and especially in SEND, to help the County Council best implement the Government’s proposed reforms and changes to education for children and young people and to ensure that children with SEND do not have their legal rights and needs neglected in favour of cost-cutting.

Since East Sussex County Council has had Green Party Councillors, re-energising policies after years of stagnation, the emphasis has been on reviewing old ways of doing things and examining more modern approaches to protecting nature, holding water companies to account and protecting local people and organisations from businesses making excessive profits from Council contracts.

When the new Unitary Authority is formed in 2028, only one Council will cover all local services - from roads to planning, education, social services, refuse collection and all local government. This new Council needs to reflect all political views, not just one perspective, to rightly spend the taxes of our whole East Sussex community. Greens, Liberals, Labour, Conservatives and Reform need to come together in the interests of our whole County, not to score political points but to organise East Sussex for the good of its people, especially its children.

Greens in power for a fairer, greener and more caring East Sussex

• We will divest from companies involved in fossil fuels and genocide
• We will apply conditions for climate adaptation in the Council and Pension Fund
• We will push for honesty and decency in public life so that those working as councillors and officers are not put in danger or bullied by misinformation and extremism.
• We will support local food economies and promote regenerative farming techniques
• We will promote better public transport and safer active travel routes
• We will bring greater transparency to the process of governance