11th April 2024

Jemma Joy has been selected a second time (previously in 2019) as the Liberal Democrat PPC for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Jemma was brought up in Cleveland, and she works full time as a Clinical Account Specialist for a Pharmaceutical company, raising two teenage daughters with my husband. She is also current Chair of the North East Region for the Lib Dems, she is a Lib Dem Borough Councillor for Hutton Ward, Redcar and Cleveland Council - and if that wasn't enough she Chairs the Climate and Environment Scrutiny Committee on her council.

"Locally, we are sandwiched between the North Yorkshire Moors and heavy industry on the side of the River Tees and a historic heritage of heavy industry like steel making and petrochemicals. I am a keen supporter of wind energy and encouraging green businesses to invest locally. Redoubling nature in the natural environment such as the North Yorkshire Moors with peat bogs etc, and doubling things like sea kelp fields in the North Sea here would support our aims to work toward Net Zero while encouraging the replacement of heavy industry to adopt cleaner and greener working practices such as harnessing wind energy using the Dogger Bank wind turbine installation."

A Local Success Story 

A particular focal point of her attention is local Biodiversity strategy, recently this work has resulted in successfully presenting and moving a motion to council which would ban the use of Glyphosate weed killer in public areas accross the Borough. The motion comes after local group Kids Against Weedkiller campaigned with Cllr Jemma Joy, and following this action, the usage of the weedkiller will be scaled back by 25% by the end of 2024, and reducing further over the next 3 years. Read in The Northern Echo here. 

Growing scientific evidence suggests the chemical weedkiller is harmful for human health, being linked to illnesses such as cancer, and the destruction of local wildlife populations, including bees which would impact the health of ecosystems as well. The young activists said they were unable to enjoy their local parks out of fear of becoming ill and in one case a resident dog fell seriously ill where this had been sprayed. The motion suggested the use of natural, safe and more cost-effective solutions. Read on BBC here.

Empowering the Community 

Jemma is also the Co-Founder,  alongside Fred Page, of the Guisborough Eco Group, this community group meets monthly to learn, discuss and campaign. The group gathers together to work on understanding recycling rates and to engage with the council to provide advocacy, publishing a directory of local sustainable businesses and recycling points to make it easier to recycle as well as linking with students from our local college to provide work experience opportunities. Jemma has also been working with this group to encourage composting at home locally to cut down on bin collections and adopt a more natural way to manage domestic refuse. 

Making Change Happen

Jemma Joy is a key member of the Liberal Democrats team which can, together, make environmental change happen in Parliament, so we'll be doing all we can to help get her elected. Will you join us?

For more Green Heroes go to the Green Heroes front page here >>> https://greenlibdems.org.uk/en/page/green-heroes