About Us – celebrating 50 years in Coventry
The Green Party of England & Wales was founded here in Coventry city, first as the PEOPLE Party, and then as the Ecology Party.
The first public meeting was held on 24 February 1973 in an estate agency showroom in Broadgate.
The Ecology Party changed its name to The Green Party in 1985.
By 1990 we had sprouted into three national parties: The Green Party of England & Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Green Party of Northern Ireland.
The Green Party of England and Wales is growing fast
As well as two members of the House of Lords and one member of the House of Commons, we now represent the British people on a record number of local county councils, city councils, parish councils – especially here in the West Midlands.
After 50 years of campaigning here in Coventry with party members working in our communities, we now have 2 elected councillors in the chamber.
Our first ever Green councillors, Stephen Gray and Esther Reeves are now able to bring that much needed voice of challenge into the City Council chamber, to address critical issues which the traditional older parties are not even discussing.
We’re working progressively on local issues: to improve the lives of all people in Coventry, and to improve our local environment.
As part of the Green Party of England & Wales, we all share a deep concern for social and environmental justice, expressed through our national policies, we believe are worth fighting for.
We rely on people power, rather than corporate finance in all that we do, so we need your help.
Get involved with us today so that we can achieve so much more for Coventry.
Contact us now to join the movement of change.
Caroline Lucas MP tells the Coventry story
In the early 1970s, Lesley Whittaker and her late husband, Tony, were solicitors in Coventry and part of an environmental discussion group called the ‘Club of Thirteen’ which had been meeting since 13 October 1972.
By November the Whittakers, with their colleagues Freda Sanders and Michael Benfield agreed to take action and formed ‘PEOPLE‘ as a new political party to challenge the UK political establishment.
“We arranged a public meeting to gauge interest for 22 February 1973. We put an advertisement in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, promoted it to the environmental lobby, set out some chairs, bought some biscuits, and waited. Some 40 people came that evening, all excited and curious. Several were local but others came from further away such as Clive Lord from Leeds. We collected names and addresses, some phone numbers (no mobiles then) and sat in the dark afterwards, beginning to realise what we had done.”
Read more about our 50th Anniversary
Coventry is a city where fresh politics is constantly evolving. Be part of that wind of change!
The 1983 Election Manifesto of the Ecology Party displaying the slogan ‘Politics for Life’ illustrated by the Sunflower imagery (which forms the basis of the Green Party of England and Wales logo)