In the run up to the General Election on May 6, the Enfield Independent is featuring profiles on the candidates vying for your votes. Today we feature the Green candidates for Enfield North, Enfield Southgate and Edmonton.

Bill Linton, Enfield North

Retired IT consultant Bill Linton, 63, is an Oxford graduate and originally from Sunderland, but has lived in Palmers Green for 35 years.

His main objectives are to provide grants for loft and cavity wall insulation, limit traffic to 20 miles per hour on residential roads, reduce the use of private investment in the NHS, and improve local consultation on important issues.

Mr Linton said: “Locally, the main issue is jobs. We need to create a lot of new green jobs and jobs to tackle climate change, so I would be promoting that as the way to regenerate Enfield.

“On things like insulation for houses, we would give 100 per cent grants to make sure that people are warm, heating bills are kept down and our CO2 emissions at the same time. It is a win-win situation.

“The environment is the obvious difference between the Green Party and other parties. They pay lip service to it, but actually don’t do very much about it. We are very serious about getting a sustainable planet to live on because if we don’t do something about it, pretty quickly the human race is going to be in big trouble.”

Mr Linton has stood in three previous council elections, and is heavily involved in the Enfield Fairtrade Campaign and Enfield Civil Society Forum.

Peter Krakowiak, Enfield Southgate

Peter Krakowiak is originally from Crouch End and has lived in Winchmore Hill for the past seven years.

He is active in UNISON and a member of the national campaign, Defend Council Housing.

Mr Krakowiak said: “I work for a London-based housing charity and help manage a homelessness prevention project, so housing is a big issue for me. I feel it is the one issue which hasn’t been discussed, particularly the provision of affordable homes.

“We have 7,000 people in Enfield currently on the housing waiting list and if you are a young family and want to put down roots in the area, you can’t rely on private housing contracts which need to be renewed every six or 12 months. It doesn’t provide the stability people need.”

Mr Krakowiak has also emphasised local decision making during his campaign, speaking out against the “downgrading” of the Accident and Emergency department at Chase Farm Hospital and the move of Palmers Green library to rented premises.

He added: “I am a very keen cyclist and I am keen to see cycling facilities improve across Enfield.”

Jack Johnson, Edmonton

Jack Johnson has certainly had an unusual run-up to the election campaign as he took time out to get married just a few weeks ago, on April 10.

The 29-year-old, who works for the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, has lived in London all his life and now resides in Palmers Green.

Mr Johnson said: “Edmonton has been much neglected within Enfield. I want to see local people actually having a say over the Edmonton area.

“I would like to promote more decision making within the area by people from Edmonton. At the moment, they are very distant from the decision making process.

“I also believe in the Green New Deal, investing in renewable forms of energy as a way of dealing with employment, particularly in areas like Edmonton.” Mr Johnson studied at London Metropolitan University and London College of Communication and previously worked as a researcher at news agency Foresight News.