Home > News > Meet Jane Livermore, our candidate in the Thatcham West by-elections

West Berkshire Green Party has selected Jane Livermore as its candidate in the Thatcham West by-elections for West Berkshire Council and Thatcham Town Council on 19 April.

The by-elections follow the disqualification of Conservative councillor Nick Goodes from the district council for not attending meetings. He subsequently resigned from Thatcham Town Council.

By contrast Jane, who has lived in Thatcham for 22 years, said: “I live in the ward, I care about this area and if elected I will be a dedicated councillor who will work hard for local people.”

Jane has four grown-up children who all attended Kennet School. A freelance IT consultant, she recently resigned from a senior role at a major multinational company to work from home so she could spend more time with her elderly parents. She has an allotment in Thatcham.

Jane was one of the local Green Party activists who braved a blizzard on 1 March to campaign against West Berkshire Conservatives’ new £50 green bin recycling tax.

Jane (left) with fellow Green Party protesters against the Conservatives’ £50 green bin tax

She said; “We in the Green Party want to see this recycling charge scrapped. We will help people to recycle, not encourage fly-tipping, garden bonfires and landfill.

“It’s a charge too far coming on top of a 6% increase in council tax. People are fed up of paying more to get less.”

Local Greens opposed the plan to build housing next to the Nature Discovery Centre in Lower Way, Thatcham.

Jane said: “We need more homes, especially affordable homes, but this is a damaging development in the wrong place.

“The Conservatives have ignored the wishes of local residents and the thousands of people who visit the Discovery Centre. Their housing allocation plan for West Berkshire is simply not fit for purpose and the Green Party believes we should tear it up and start again.”

Jane is also campaigning against the Conservative government’s plans to extend its failed badger cull into West Berkshire.

The Wildlife Trust has announced that it will not allow badgers to be shot on its land, which includes the Nature Discovery Centre.

Jane said: “Shooting badgers is an expensive, cruel and ineffective way to curb TB in cattle. Instead of wasting £50 million of taxpayers’ money on the cull, the government should invest in vaccinating animals which is an effective way to stop the spread of bovine TB.”

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About David Marsh

David Marsh is a Green Party councillor for Wash Common ward on West Berkshire Council and Newbury Town Council. He is a journalist and the author of a lighthearted grammar book, For Who the Bell Tolls: The Essential and Entertaining Guide to Grammar. He and his wife, Anna, have a seven-year-old son, Freddie, and a nine-year-old dog, Lupin. David is a trustee of two local charities, Friends of Wash Common Library and Eight Bells for Mental Health, and presents a monthly music show on Kennet Radio.