Cotham Ward

Geoff Collard lives on Elmgrove Road, has lived in Cotham ward for over 25 years, and studied at Bristol University, so he knows the area very well indeed.  Geoff’s 4 children all went to Colstons Primary School; 3 of them are now at Cotham School, and the fourth has left Cotham and is at university.  He is a member of Cotham Park Tennis Club and Redland and Cotham Amenities Society.

Geoff trained as a nurse in Bristol and is qualified in both general and psychiatric nursing. He has nursed at most hospitals in the city, including the BRI, Southmead, and Barrow hospital (now sadly no more).

He has been a member of the Green Party throughout his life in Bristol and has represented the Green Party on many previous occasions as a candidate councillor for Cotham, and as a Green parliamentary candidate in Bristol.

Geoff’s concerns are naturally those of the Green Party: social and environmental justice.  He believes that education and health care are fundamental rights, believes passionately in fully funded public services, and is opposed to their privatisation.  Environmentally, he has been active in the so far successful campaign to save Bristol’s green spaces such as Castle Park, opposing the attempt by developers to build on the Park (originally supported by the city council). He believes we need to fund more public transport in Bristol so as to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and has been active in the campaign to save the Severn Beach railway line, pressuring the council to improve the service.

Alan Clarke has lived and worked in Bristol for 30 years, and was one of the first Green Party members in the city in the 1970s, a time when environmental issues were not taken seriously. Alan welcomes the fact that green ideas are now part of the mainstream, but feels that much more needs to be done and that only the election of more Green councillors will speed up the process.