Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scottish Greens North-East candidate calls for move to decommissioning

Maggie Chapman, Green Party and Neil Clapperton, CEO for Grampian Housing Association. (Picture: Jim Irvine)
Maggie Chapman, Green Party and Neil Clapperton, CEO for Grampian Housing Association. (Picture: Jim Irvine)

The co-convener of the Scottish Greens has said she believes only her party can bring the “radical and transformative” change needed to eradicate inequality across the country.

Maggie Chapman, candidate for the North East, has made providing more affordable accommodation for people as one of her key priorities, and yesterday met with housing charities to discuss the current housing crisis in the region.

Mrs Chapman met representatives from Scarf, Grampian Housing Association and the Cyrenians in Aberdeen to discuss ways to tackle the issue.

The 36-year-old, who is rector of Aberdeen University, said: “We know that Aberdeen and elsewhere in the north-east suffer from the lack of affordable housing and we’re wanting bold new changes in Holyrood to make sure we have better regulation, that we actually use the rent control powers that the Greens pushed for in the last session, so that people have the bed rock of society in warm, affordable housing.

“Talking about fuel poverty, that’s a significant issue for many people, there’s over 2,000 cold homes in the north-east of Scotland.

“Really with the wealth of this country that’s a pretty damning indictment of the system we have.”

Addressing the North Sea oil and gas crisis, Mrs Chapman renewed the party’s call for the north-east begin the process of moving away from its reliance on the offshore industry.

The list candidate said: “We need to move into renewables, we need to focus jobs in decommissioning our oil and gas infrastructure because we don’t want our oil and gas workers to be in the same situation as our coal miners were in the 80s with no industry left and no plan for their future.

“It’s about investing now to ensure that we have jobs in renewables, in the energy sector generally in the north-east.”

Last night, Aberdeen Donside candidate Mark McDonald said a move to decommissioning would be a “disaster” for the region’s economy.

He said: “The very last thing that the industry and those who work in it need is for politicians to talk about shutting it down, particularly to speak about early decommissioning which would be an absolute disaster for the local economy.”

A poll, carried out by Survation, yesterday predicted the Greens could win 12 seats.