The photos accompanying the story were taken last Friday by a photographer pal of mine who’d offered to take a few shots of me in campaign garb. I met her outside the Dome, and struck by the stunning design of the new Ravensbourne College building, she took a few pictures with that as a backdrop. Ravensbourne’s move to the Peninsula should hopefully liven up the rather soulless scene around the O2 at the moment, and add a creative spark to the area.

Until we got stopped by a security guard. Because of – you guessed it – “terrorism“. We had to get permission from “the owners of the O2″.

I asked what exactly he’d do when Ravensbourne College opened up and the place would be full of people taking pictures and shooting video and whatever.

“That’ll be alright, because they’ll all be wearing permits.”

I wished him luck with that. And I’m sure Ravensbourne’s students will be delighted they’ll be working under the watchful eyes of “the owners of the O2″. Moving Ravensbourne College to the Dome site should help promote Greenwich as a destination for the creative industries – but if they’re going to be harrassed by security guards, that’s not exactly going to entice them.

The clash involved with private firms being in charge of public space is similar at Lovell’s Wharf, where “regenerating” the Greenwich waterfront has seen us trust a developer not to screw up the riverside path. As you can see, it hasn’t worked. Up at the Dome, we’re constantly told by Greenwich Council how wonderful the place is – indeed, it sometimes obediently flogs tickets for “the owners of the O2″. The council has a box in the O2 arena, too. Nice work if you can get it.

What the row over the Thames Path has shown is how Greenwich Council gets caught unawares by these issues – and suffers from a basic inability to communicate important issues to people (while still spending £600,000 a year on a weekly newspaper to promote its Labour leadership). Current Peninsula councillor Mary Mills has, to her credit, written something on her blog in response to the row – but it really shouldn’t have taken a row for us to discover the Lovell’s Wharf footpath won’t be open until 2012. And the council should have got its act together with diversion signs sooner – even some temporary ones would be better than nothing at all.

This comes down to part of the reason why we’re standing – the current leadership of Greenwich Council simply can’t be bothered to communicate with its residents properly. And it doesn’t approve of Labour councillors speaking openly to residents – for fear that they’ll go off-message, even when it’d be more elegant to say “sorry, we screwed up this time”. Even the good Labour councillors have to keep schtum, and let the leadership they follow speak for them in Greenwich Time.

The closure of the riverside path is a big issue as it is, but the simple courtesy of erecting a few signs might have defused some of the anger. It’s a hoary old cliche – but we actually mean it this time – if elected, the Greens would take the effort to communicate with residents with newsletters. Issues like the closure of the Thames Path should not suddenly come up one day and surprise us.

And most importantly, we’d fight to defend access to the river. There’s difficult issues like ownership to get around, but the Thames Path is one of Greenwich’s best-loved features, and it’s a disgrace that the current council gives the appearance of taking it for granted. Greenwich deserves so much better.

The Green Party has launched its general election broadcast, with a nifty new website. As well as watching the broadcast, you can personalise it and e-mail it to your friends – so if they’re concerned about unemployment, transport or anti-social behaviour, or trying to get onto the property ladder, they can see a version tailor-made to them.

You can also see key Green policies, and take a Policy Matchmaker test to see how close to the Green Party you are. Take a look – www.onlygreen.org.uk.

Where its tubthumbing has really stuck out has been on the Olympics. With councillors due to meet tonight to approve or reject the controversial plans for equestrian events in Greenwich Park, the authority has to act in an even-handed, judicial role while the decision is being taken.

Unfortunately, like a greedy kid gazing at a bowl of sweets, Greenwich Council couldn’t help itself. This is the centre-spread of this week’s Greenwich Time:

Now, I don’t know about you, but a centre spread screaming “THE OLYMPICS! THEY’RE GREAT!” isn’t really what a responsible council should be publishing in the week it has to judge one of the biggest and most controversial planning decisions in the area for years. This isn’t a matter of being for or against the equestrian events – this is about the council acting responsibly, instead of pumping out propaganda and undermining the businesses of news organisations whose job it is to scrutinise things like this. Can we trust this bunch of Labour councillors with the Olympics? Not if they’re going to act like this.

My own view is that if the Greenwich Park application is to be approved – and Greenwich Time publishing that centre spread must now suggest it’s a done deal – then it must be monitored by an independent forum including experts and local residents to ensure the protection of the park. From what I can see of the planning officers’ recommendations, this has been taken on board – but without much of a role for residents, although this is subject to what’s decided tonight.

If elected, Green councillors will fight to ensure locals have a say. Because when councils don’t listen to people, they make bad decisions. And Labour, as Greenwich Time proves, just isn’t very good at listening. Whatever happens in the park – whether it becomes the “chill-out zone” protesters would prefer, or whether it’s at the centre of the 2012 spotlight – we all need to make sure they do listen. Because Greenwich Park is too precious to be treated any other way.

So I joined current Greenwich & Woolwich’s Labour MP Nick Raynsford and Eltham’s Lib Dem hopeful Steven O’Toole (in other words, the opponents of my colleagues Andy Hewett and Arthur Hayles) in giving the pupils an outline of what Real Live Politics is like. Since I’m only just learning myself, it was quite an experience. I stayed with one of the groups for the rest of the morning as they fleshed out their programme for a better Bluecoat – including no blazers in the uniform, training to make teachers more exciting (!) and making non-Christian pupils feel more welcome (it’s a C of E school).

The usual notions of apathetic teenagers were disproved – bus fare rises, taxes and housing came up in discussion, while one of the aims of the group I sat in one was to increase the funding for the school by persuading more pupils to go there. It was striking how inspired they still were by Barack Obama, long after older observers had adopted a more sceptical view. And they even took great interest (or at least were being polite) when I showed an old Green Party election broadcast as part of a discussion about how key phrases and visuals are so important in campaigning, comparing it with an Obama ad and some eyebrow-raising Australian ones.

It was lively stuff. I came away impressed with what I saw and heard and with plenty of food for thought – and would like to thank the hard-working team at Blackheath Bluecoat for having me along for the morning.

Things I never expected to do when I offered to be a candidate, number 2: A photocall in central London – we went up to the Millennium Bridge on Monday for the launch of the Green Party’s London council elections campaign.

The sun shone and there was a good turnout of candidates from across the capital. You may have seen it on BBC London News that night. Although it was a bit windy up on that bridge, as my fellow Peninsula candidates Marek and Dave found…

Every seat in all 32 of London’s boroughs is up for grabs on 6 May. At present, the Greens have 12 councillors in London – half of those are down the road in Lewisham. while there are also councillors in Southwark, Lambeth, Camden and Islington, where Katie Dawson represents Highbury West. She told the media:

“In councils where Greens have been elected, those Green councillors have been seen to be highly effective, punching well above their weight despite not having the backing enjoyed by councillors from the bigger parties. This is because we have the courage of our convictions and are passionate about the things we believe in. Even one Green on a council can have a big effect as I have shown in Islington.

“Green councillors are bold. We have the guts to say what we believe, and people see that as a welcome contrast to the bland rhetoric of the grey parties. Whether it’s saving a local sports centre, making roads safer by getting 20mph speed limits or getting apprenticeships to help local school leavers into work, people are seeing the difference that even a handful of Green councillors can make to London. Imagine what we could do with more!”

If you agree with Katie, and us, why not give us a hand? We’re particularly looking for people who can help us deliver leaflets over the next few weeks. Please drop us an e-mail at greenwich@greenparty.org.uk if you fancy helping us – the sun’s out, spring is in the air, it’s all good exercise!

I grew up over the road from the lovely old building, and spent as long as I could get away with in there. It nurtured my love of “finding out things” and gave me a love of reading – or at least a healthy respect for it. As I grew up, I’d go over there and devour newspapers and magazines – fuelling my desire to become a journalist. It’s heartbreaking to see it in such a bad way now.

Structurally, it’s in a rotten state, and mops are now as important as bookmarks used to be, with the basement prone to flooding.

The building was donated to the community in 1905 by philanthrapist Andrew Carnegie and served for decades as the old Greenwich metropolitan borough‘s main library. Into the 1980s it offered a huge range of books, with separate children’s and reference libraries contained in side rooms.

But in the early 1990s, it was downgraded in favour of a new library at Blackheath. Greenwich Council then planned savage cuts in the library service; with East Greenwich among those scheduled for closure. The Friends of East Greenwich Library was formed and mounted an all-night vigil in 1993. Their efforts paid off, and Greenwich Council backed away from the proposal.

However, as now, library users had to put up with restricted opening hours, and the council skimped on what would have then been relatively cheap bits of maintenance work on the building – resulting in the mess it’s in now. Nothing was done to mark the mark the library’s centenary in 2005, resulting in bad feeling from library users. Many suspect the council has always planned to run the site down and close it.

On the up side, Greenwich Community College opened the Meridian Music Centre in the rooms vacated by the slimmed-down library. Many locals won’t have seen or heard much of the music students – except for the ones smoking outside the library’s entrance. But what goes on in there is one of Greenwich’s best kept secrets. Last month, a 105th birthday party was held by the Friends group, with performances from the students. I’ll be honest – I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But there are some amazing talents among the young people taught by the team there. We came away genuinely entertained – and reminded what a precious asset the library really is.

Which is why the news of the music college’s planned closure has come as a shock – especially coming off the back of fresh rumours about the library’s closure, and an assurance that funds would be made available to patch up the building.

It’s time that Greenwich Council came clean and told us what its plans for the library are. It’s long been suspected that the library will be moved to the “Heart of East Greenwich” development – the old Greenwich District Hospital site – and the building sold. But nearly four years after the hospital’s demolition, there’s still no sign of work beginning there.

My Peninsula colleague Dave Sharman has been in touch with the Friends for some years, and has written to Labour cabinet member John Fahy to ask for an explanation. The story’s been picked up by greenwich.co.uk, together with a cheeky first response from another local politician. Unfortunately, Cllr Fahy then piled in with a load of political jibes. As of Friday morning, he hadn’t even bothered to reply to the e-mail sent on Monday.

We can’t be bothered to play Cllr Fahy’s games. He demeans his office by patronising us. We simply think the library should stay in community use. If elected, we’ll fight for it. If other parties agree with us – good. But will Labour commit to the library’s future? We’re still waiting for a response.

This is Green Greenwich, a blog from Greenwich Green Party. With elections to Greenwich Council fast approaching, and a general election also due, we’ve created this blog to explain ourselves a little bit more, and to give you an insight into what we’re about.

The main focus of this website will be the council elections on 6 May.

We’ve already announced three candidates in Peninsula ward – that’s east Greenwich and Charlton, roughly between the Naval College and The Valley – with more to come across the borough. I’m Darryl Chamberlain, I’m one of those three Peninsula candidates.

We’ve also got three candidates who will be standing in the three Greenwich borough constituencies when the general election finally comes.

If you’ve got any questions about us – please feel free to get in touch. Click “about us” at the top of the page to find out how.