Worcester's Greens cap off impressive rise with two big victories

A huge win for Steve Cockeram in previous Tory stronghold St Peter’s and a massive 948-vote win for Tom Piotrowski in Battenhall on Thursday (May 5) saw the Green Party increase its number of representatives on Worcester City Council to six.

The party has come a long way in the last five years from having not long gained its second councillor and could now be playing a significant role in how the council is run.

The council’s Green group leader Louis Stephen said the victory for the party in the St Peter’s ward showed there were no longer any safe Conservative seats in the city.

He said: “It is a fantastic result.

“St Peter’s was a good result because it was a very safe Conservative seat and by us winning that, it shows that there are no longer any safe Conservative wards in Worcester.

“The reason why were able to win in St Peter’s was because we don’t just start campaigning six weeks before a election, we tend to talk to people all year round.

“That builds up a lot of trust and a lot of rapport and that is what we got rewarded with.”

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The party did have a hold of both seats in the Battenhall ward with Louise Griffiths securing victory in 2019 before she quit the party and joined the Conservatives a little over a year later and came close in last year’s county council election in St Peter’s with Tom Piotrowski coming close to toppling Tory Steve Mackay by just 32 votes.

The Greens also picked up a significant win in last year’s city council elections with Karen Lewing defeating long-standing Labour councillor and former parliamentary candidate Joy Squires in the Arboretum ward and joins Greens’ Neil Laurenson and Marjory Bisset who both represent the St Stephen ward.