North Lancashire Green Party surpasses 1,000 members in landmark moment for Lancaster district

This marks a huge moment for the Greens in Lancaster district and across Wyre.

This landmark achievement reflects a momentous time for the party nationally.

Before Zack Polanski was elected leader of the Green Party in England and Wales in September last year, membership was 70,000.

With his promise of 'bold politics' and call to 'make hope normal again’, membership has surged, now surpassing 200,000 members nationally and continuing to climb.

In a seismic result, Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer recently won the Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester.

This is the Green Party's first ever by-election victory, overturning a Labour majority of more than 13,000 to become the Greens’ first ever MP in the north and the fifth Green MP in Parliament.

National membership has passed 200,000 – and the Green Party website crashed under the weight of people wanting to join!

In north Lancashire, the Green Party will hope to draw huge inspiration from Hannah's victory and emulate this success as they build towards selecting candidates for Lancaster and Wyre and Morecambe and Lunesdale, showing that the Green surge is very much alive in the north west.

At a busy February meeting, new members of the North Lancashire Green Party gathered to celebrate local achievements and plan how to build on this incredible growth.

Topics included the successes of the Green-led Lancaster City Council to ambitious national policies like a wealth tax on multi-millionaires to reinvest in local communities, defending the NHS, building more social housing, and restoring public ownership of water to clean up our rivers.

Membership Secretary David Mottram highlighted the breadth of support across the area, saying: "New members are from across the whole age range, and in every part of the Lancaster and Wyre districts.

"The energy in the room was amazing. One new member said to me: 'I've joined, my husband has joined, and so have my daughter and son. It's a moment, isn't it?'"

Coun Gina Dowding, deputy leader of the Green group and former MEP for the north west, said: "The Green Party works hard all year round, not just at election time, and I think people really feel this in north Lancashire, we're really visible, whether it's community clean-ups and litter picks, or fighting for nature and biodiversity in the council chamber.

"Greens are here to represent people who love their community and are against division.

"Across the country, and right here at home, people are telling us that after years of Conservative austerity and incompetence and then feeling completely let down by Labour, they are looking for a genuine and hopeful alternative to the old parties establishment politics and they are finding it with us.

"More and more people are choosing hope over hate and real change over broken promises."

New member Will Farley, who studied at Lancaster University and now works at a restaurant in Lancaster, joined this month.

He said: "I've never believed any of the major parties represented me. I joined the Green Party because I believe that the two party system as we know it is about to break down, which offers a massive opportunity for a party to finally make changes which will help ordinary people, and reverse the decades of economic damage that has impacted all of us.

"With Zack Polanski as the leader, the Green Party feels as though it has a firm direction, and knows what it stands for, which is something which has been severely lacking in politics for decades. I think only the Green Party can regain public trust, and rebuild faith in British institutions by doing what needs to be done."

While there are no local elections in the area this year, the local Green group will soon be selecting Parliamentary candidates to stand in Lancaster and Wyre, and in Morecambe and Lunesdale, at the next General Election.

They will also be considering candidates for the new councils after local government reorganisation planned for 2028.