In the run up to the General, Borough and Town Council elections on May 7th we will be publishing brief interviews with each of the candidates that respond to our request.
To read the interviews with other candidates click on the tags at the bottom of the article. For example, pieces on the other candidates for the Wilmslow East Ward will all be tagged 'Wilmslow East Ward' and 'Borough Elections'. Candidates representing the same party or group will also be connected via the tags.
Jessica Binks is a Green Party candidate for the Wilmslow East Ward for Cheshire East Borough Council.
Jessica is 34 years old, married with a young son and one pet cat from Wilmslow Animal Sanctuary. She grew up in the north west and has lived in Wilmslow for 3 years.
Before moving to Wilmslow Jessica spent eight years working in local government in London, on sustainability issues from energy efficiency to waste and recycling. She now works on delivering the Energy Company Obligation, which is providing energy efficiency improvements to households across the UK.
Speaking about why she decided to stand for election, Jessica told me "Firstly, to give people the choice to vote Green. I've supported the Green Party for a long time and when I heard there was a possibility there would be no candidate locally I decided to stand myself.
"Secondly, if I am elected I will have chance to represent the environment at a local level. We're at a critical point for tackling climate change: the fossil fuel industry has five times more fuels on its books than we can afford to burn if we are to stay within a 2 degree C temperature rise (beyond which we would face catastrophic change). I wanted people to be able to show that they support taking action. As the saying goes – "think global, act local". There are plenty of things we can do at a local level to reduce our impact on the environment, whilst also providing opportunities for green growth and development of a more equal society."
I asked Jessica about the most important issues facing Wilmslow, she replied "Protecting the green belt, which will always be under pressure from development. Support for local businesses and traders – I've seen a lot of businesses come and go since I moved to Wilmslow. We have a lot of retail space in Wilmslow and I would encourage people to shop locally which would be good both for local business as well as the environment. Finally, when I'm out with my son in his pushchair, I do really notice the state of the pavements and dropped kerbs so I think more could be done to make Wilmslow an inviting place for pedestrians."
She added "I would like to get Wilmslow on the path to becoming a carbon neutral community. We should look at what's being done in other parts of the country - places like Ashton Hayes in Cheshire and see how we can translate what they are doing that into actions that will make Wilmslow become a real example of a sustainable community.
"Wilmslow is great place to live, with plenty of green space and nature. It's somewhere people enjoy to live and take a real pride in. I would like to harness that feeling we have for our local area and encourage people to think about how we can collectively take action to protect our environment at a national and even global level."
Jessica would like people to vote for her "To show that they care about protecting our local and global environment and that they support taking serious action to tackle climate change."
