Can the Greens win a seat on West Northamptonshire Council?
Dave Pearson is hoping the party's recent rise in popularity can help him become the first Green Party councillor on the West Northants unitary.
By Harry Relf, freelance journalist
When Dave Pearson was representing an NGO (non government organisation) at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), he could hardly have anticipated the political turbulence now facing both the country and West Northamptonshire.
After three decades at the helm of international development, Pearson’s route into local politics has not been conventional—and it may be exactly what sets him apart from the other candidates standing in West Northamptonshire Council’s Hackleton and Roade by-election on May 7.
Though now Green through and through, Pearson was for many years a Labour voter. He reflects on his time with the weary sense of a man whose values outpaced that of Labour’s.
“The challenges we face are far more serious than a centrist approach,” he says. “Middle of the road, steady-as-she-goes isn’t going to prevent catastrophe.”
It was a sentiment shared at home with his wife, Sue Pearson, as he tells NN Journal:
“We didn’t leave Labour — Labour left us.”
Having met at university and travelled through a 34-year career in international aid together, the pair now serve as co-chairs of the West Northamptonshire Green Party.
Under their leadership, the branch has been transformed. Pearson is part of a surging local alternative; alongside 1,077 members—up from just 265 a year ago—he is navigating a landscape where Reform UK has also asserted itself. While the Greens and Reform sit on opposite ends of the political spectrum, both tap into a shared frustration with the status quo, appealing to voters who feel overlooked by the main parties.
On the doorsteps of Hackleton and Roade, Pearson says responses fall into three groups: the disengaged, those focused on local concerns, and those driven by national issues. He argues that the latter is often shaped by perception, citing what he calls the “character assassination” of Green Party leader Zak Polanski.
“If people aren’t discerning about what they read, they end up believing it, which shapes their view of the party,” he says.
But Pearson makes the case for his candidacy in direct terms.
“I’ve got a track record of service,” he says, pointing to his time running church youth clubs and volunteering as a street pastor. “But I’ve also got a track record of getting results.”
He points to his role in persuading the World Bank to change its education policy, and more locally, as founder of Clean Air Northampton, pushing the council to publish an air quality action plan.
In the 13 villages of this ward, the campaign is defined by a growing sense of isolation. The looming closure of the “Ability” minibus service—which provided up to 28,000 trips a year—has turned a logistical problem into a social crisis.
Once filled with music and “banter,” the buses have reportedly fallen silent as passengers face losing what many describe as a “second family.” Pearson is campaigning to bridge this gap, arguing that a lack of funding shouldn’t leave the elderly stranded trying to find the nearest bus link.
This by-election (which is being held after Reform UK turned independent councillor Adam Smith resigned) is not his first attempt to become a councillor, he lost out in last year’s unitary elections, where he stood as a candidate in the Kingsthorpe North ward, only gaining three per cent of the vote share. If he wins election next week he will be the first Green councillor elected to WNC.
While Pearson knocks on doors, Cllr Ben Jameson, the Green Mayor of Kettering, and a councillor on North Northamptonshire Council, offers a glimpse of the party’s potential. As the town’s “First Citizen,” he is living proof the Greens have become a functioning part of the local establishment.
“People are looking for something different,” Jameson says. “They aren’t voting Green as a protest; they trust a candidate who works hard. In Kettering, we showed what localism looked like and beat Reform to keep them out of the town.”
Jameson believes small wins will send a clear message to Westminster:
“If Greens win, Keir Starmer will have to stop and think about representing that progressive voice in the country.”
The stakes for such “localism” are high however and air pollution in Northampton has been a known problem for over two decades, with areas exceeding legal limits largely due to road traffic on the M1 and A45. Despite this, the West Northamptonshire Council, led by Cllr Mark Arnull of Reform UK has struggled to deliver a consistent, overarching action plan, even as evidence links pollution to one in 20 deaths in the town.
But Pearson is used to seeing what happens when systems stall. His background in international development helped him “understand that different actors in a system have different objectives and values, often pulling in different directions.”
And recent breakthroughs have provided encouragement. In North Northamptonshire, Greens have established a visible presence with eight councillors, while the victory for Hannah Spencer in Gorton and Denton has become a symbol of possibility.
But Northampton is not Gorton and Dave Pearson is under no illusion that national momentum automatically translates into local success; he knows he has to be able to deliver.
“I listen,” he adds, “and I will represent people well.”
As the country grapples with wider political turbulence, Pearson is intent on showing that, in West Northamptonshire at least, the Greens can actually deliver.
The by-election candidates:
Maggie Clubley (Conservative), Peter French (Labour & Co-operative), Stephen Shellabear (Liberal Democrats), Laura Weston (Reform UK), Ron Johnson (Independent), Dave Pearson (Green).
You can hear from the candidates in a hustings being held by NLive Radio in Northampton tomorrow evening (May 1)at 7pm. People can attend and watch live (get tickets here) or can listen to it on the NLive Radio Politics Show on Sunday at 9am.
As this seems to be only about the Green party, how does this sit with election expenses?