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Paul Keene

Parliamentary Candidate

Lewes Constituency

I’ve lived in Newhaven since 2016, and I work in Research Computing in a Sussex-based university and I’m a member of the University and College Union (UCU). I’m married with one young daughter.

I’m a Lewes District Councillor, and I have three main roles on the Council: Chair of the Southern Water Scrutiny Panel, Deputy Chair of the Planning Committee, and member of the Sussex Police and Crime Panel.

I’m a co-founding member of Newhaven Green Centre; I’m also an active member in numerous local groups including Protect the People and Environment Newhaven (PEN), Lewes District Anti-Racism Alliance, Creative Newhaven, and Friends of Meeching Hall. In my spare time, I am a musician, playing and composing as and when I can.

I’ve always been interested in fairness, and environmental protection, and I’m proud to work and volunteer alongside people who really care and who work hard to make things better for our community, and the natural world we share and depend on.

As a District councillor, I’m part of a group of 16 Greens – the largest party on the Council – and we co-run the District Council in alliance with the group of 7 Labour councillors.

Greens on the Council have achieved a lot so far:

  • we’ve led in the developing and building of scores of units of affordable housing in Newhaven, Lewes and around the district, with the latest energy-efficient technologies, often designed and built by local businesses, so that we keep our community wealth circulating locally;
  • we’ve invested in making council homes low- or zero-carbon and helped cut tenants’ fuel bills;
  • developed facilities and services for fishers in Newhaven;
  • helped improve services for rural residents;
  • worked with residents in Seaford to improve community services;
  • supported food banks around the district by providing emergency funding;
  • worked to restore and refurbish Ringmer and Newhaven swimming pools;
  • revamped playgrounds all around the district;
  • contributed to the local Lottery Community Fund;
  • launched projects to mitigate flood risk and support nature and green spaces in Ringmer and Lewes;
  • secured levelling-up funding from the government to be spent on regenerating Newhaven;
  • introduced new measures to address domestic abuse in council housing;
  • electrified our fleet of waste collection vehicles in Lewes district;
  • worked towards better road safety after too many accidents in Offham;
  • highlighted problems with government-backed housing development in Newick;
  • and provided funding for local business start-ups.

As for myself, as Chair of the Southern Water Scrutiny Panel, I have invited many stakeholders, including Southern Water themselves, in to speak on issues around the sewage pollution of our waterways and seas. I have also with Panel colleagues visited several waste treatment facilities all over Lewes District to talk with local Southern Water workers and observe first-hand waste treatment facilities. I’ve worked alongside my colleagues at the Police and Crime Panel to hold the Commissioner to account, most recently around the extraordinary hike in the portion of our Council Tax bills that goes to Sussex Police.

I’ve also worked with colleagues on the Planning Committee to fairly and pragmatically find ways to protect our precious Sussex landscapes from grotesque development, whilst making sure we still get the housing we need. My council work on housing includes working with various local homeless people to find safe places to live.

With the community in Newhaven, as a co-founder of the group Protect the People and Environment Newhaven, we’ve been putting tarmac plant operators FM Conway under pressure about their production of noxious smells and suspected pollution and permit violation at their site. And I’ve been lobbying for months to get South East Water to repair a leak in the A259 near the centre of Newhaven, as well as pressing East Sussex Highways to do something about it.

Around the Lewes Constituency, I led with Green Party colleagues and the wider community, the successful local campaign against Southern Rail ticket office removal.

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