I'm Paul Keene — Green Party candidate for Ouse Valley West & Downs.

Full statement

I'm a Lewes District Councillor, a dad, a trade unionist, and the person who chaired the investigation into Southern Water, tabled the cross-party censure of the Police Commissioner, and co-founded the campaign against industrial pollution in Newhaven. I've spent years fighting for clean water, clean air, fair housing, and the right of every community in this division to be heard — whether you live in one of our downland villages, on the edge of Newhaven, or in the growing communities around Plumpton. As Deputy Chair of the Planning Committee, I've helped protect our farmland, our downland landscapes, and the character of our villages from developers who would concrete over Sussex for profit — and I've invited the National Farmers' Union to contribute to our pioneering water quality report, because the people who work this land deserve a voice in the decisions that affect it. But this division is not only its countryside: families in our towns and larger settlements face pressures of their own — stretched services, rising costs, housing they cannot afford — and I will represent them with equal commitment and energy. At County Hall I will fight just as hard for properly funded schools, adult social care, SEND provision that matches the real level of need, and the repair of county finances after years of Conservative mismanagement. I'm standing because this area deserves a county councillor who actually gets things done, who will stand up for our farmers, our families, our children, our vulnerable residents, and every community across this division — and my record proves I do. Read on for the full picture.

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I'm Paul Keene. I live in Newhaven with my wife and young daughter. I'm a Senior Research Computing Engineer at the University of Sussex, a member of UCU, and a Green Party councillor on Lewes District Council. I'm asking for your vote on 7 May.

I'm not a career politician. I'm someone who rolls up his sleeves and gets things done — and I have the record to prove it.

As Chair of the Southern Water Scrutiny Panel at Lewes District Council, I led the investigation into sewage pollution across our district. I brought Southern Water, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust, the National Farmers' Union, the Environmental Law Foundation, and local campaign groups together to give evidence. I visited waste treatment facilities across the district to see for myself what was going wrong. Our panel produced what the council called a "pioneering" report — and Southern Water's chief executive then asked to meet with me and my Green colleagues to discuss it. So we sat across the table from him and challenged him directly on blackwater flooding, sewage on our beaches, and the drainage failures blighting Denton, Barcombe, Wivelsfield, and villages across our area. I know what's broken and I know what needs to change.

As Deputy Chair of the Planning Committee, I've helped hold the line against reckless overdevelopment — protecting our precious Sussex farmland, our downland landscapes, and the character of our villages. I've fought for the right homes, in the right places, at the right price: genuinely affordable, energy-efficient housing built by local businesses, not executive estates dumped on green fields by volume housebuilders chasing profit. I've challenged the Labour government's reckless drive to impose mandatory housing targets that bypass local communities, and I opposed the Conservatives' building free-for-all before them. Reform's plans are worse still — fracking, drilling, and tearing up environmental protections. I've engaged directly with East Sussex County Council over damaging planning applications, and I will continue to stand up for communities who deserve a say in what gets built and where.

When the Police and Crime Commissioner marched with anti-migrant protesters in Crowborough and called for asylum seekers to be electronically tagged, I tabled the motion of censure. It passed cross-party — 10 votes to 4 — with Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Green members voting with me. ITV News Meridian interviewed me about it. Searchlight covered it. I don't just talk about standing up to the politics of division. I've done it.

I co-founded Protect the People and Environment Newhaven (PEN) to fight FM Conway's pollution of our air — writing to the Environment Secretary and the Deputy Prime Minister demanding an emergency halt. Around the constituency, I led the successful campaign to save our Southern Rail ticket offices — because when people told me those closures would hurt elderly residents, disabled travellers, and anyone without a smartphone, I listened, and I acted. I challenged the extraordinary police precept hike on your council tax. As Deputy-Chair of the Lewes District Anti-Racism Alliance, I've spoken at public events in Lewes and Newhaven, standing against the far right and for our community.

I'm part of the 18-strong Green group that runs Lewes District Council — the largest party — delivering affordable housing, cutting tenants' fuel bills, investing in our fishing community in Newhaven, and defending our countryside from overdevelopment.

This division deserves better than it's had. For too long, the county council seat here has meant stagnation — roads left to crumble, Southern Water left unchallenged, rural villages left to fend for themselves while the big decisions were made elsewhere. I want to change that. I'm offering a county councillor who will actually turn up, who will listen to you properly, and who will fight for what matters — whether that's a blocked drain in Piddinghoe, a dangerous road in Kingston, sewage backing up into the Ouse, or a young person in Rodmell or Ditchling who can't find a decently paid job without leaving the place they call home. I want our young people to be able to build good lives here — with proper skills, real careers, and homes they can genuinely afford — not be priced out or pushed away from the communities that raised them. That matters to me as a dad. It should matter to whoever holds this seat.

At county level, I will push hard for the services that matter most. Our children deserve an education system that puts their wellbeing and potential first — not one built around league tables and stress. I want to see East Sussex lead the way with reforms inspired by the Finnish model, where children learn at a pace that suits them, creativity is valued alongside literacy and numeracy, and every child is supported to thrive. I will work to make sure School Streets schemes are rolled out where they are needed — so that children can walk safely to school without dodging traffic — and that school places are provided where demand is greatest, not where it is most convenient for planners. I will fight for proper funding for adult social care and for SEND provision that actually matches the scale of need in our communities, because families across this division have been let down for far too long by a county council that has treated these services as an afterthought. The Conservatives have left East Sussex County Council's finances in a dire state after years of mismanagement and neglect — and I will work to repair that damage, honestly and transparently. Reform would only make it worse: a party with no experience of local government, no understanding of the budgets involved, and no plan beyond slogans. Our county's services — the schools, the care homes, the roads, the support for vulnerable children and adults — are too important to hand to people who would run them into the ground.

This election is a three-way contest: Green, Liberal Democrat, and Reform. The Conservatives are finished here, and the old tactical vote for the Liberal Democrats no longer applies. Nationally, the Lib Dems have stagnated at 14% while the Greens have surged to 19–21%, ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives. In Gorton and Denton, the Greens beat Reform by 10 points — Labour and the Lib Dems couldn't do that. We did. The Greens are the only party that defeats Reform, and I'm the only candidate in this division who has actually stood up to the politics of division, by name, in public, and won.

Let me be plain about what a Reform victory here would mean: a county councillor with no local record, no roots in this community, and a party whose national programme amounts to fracking our countryside, slashing the environmental protections our farms and landscapes depend on, and stoking the very divisions that our communities have spent years trying to heal. That is not what Ouse Valley West and Downs needs.

Whether you farm on the Downs, commute from the valley, or live on the edge of Newhaven — whether your worry is potholes on rural lanes, sewage in the Ouse, heating oil prices with no cap and no protection, or keeping our farmland and green spaces safe from developers — I have fought for these issues already, and I will take that fight to County Hall with everything I've got.

We want to bring highways maintenance back from Balfour Beatty into public control, so your money actually fixes your roads. We're calling for an Ofgem-style framework for heating oil, so the 20,000 off-grid households across East Sussex finally get the protection they deserve. And I will keep holding Southern Water to account — because nobody else has.

Both the Conservatives and Labour tried to cancel this very election — twice. We fought for your right to vote. Now please use it.

On 7 May, vote for hope, not division. Vote for a track record, not empty promises. Vote for someone who has spent years fighting for clean water, clean air, fair housing, and your right to be heard.

Vote Paul Keene — Green Party.

Find me on Instagram, BlueSky, and X: @paulkeenesussex