Elliott Tong is is a Young Green Councillor for Abbey ward in Cambridge. He is currently standing to be a County Councillor at this years local elections in May.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
“I’m Cambridge born and bred, I’m 26 now, so I’ve lived in Cambridge most of my life. I studied Film and Literature for my undergrad and then I went on to do my postgrad in Early Modern Literature at York and I really wanted to get into teaching. I have Applied for a few PhD scholarships to do more early modern literature stuff before never quite got a scholarship.
I’m on the City Council at the moment, I won in 2023 and I’m currently going for a County Council seat.”
How did you get involved in the Green Party?
“I got into SCN education, special educational needs, mostly specialising in autistic children and deaf children. My mum is deaf, and I found it very frustrating, the lack of support for children with special educational needs in school. So, I was like, ‘We gotta fix that’. I got involved in politics and thought ‘What political party?- ah the Greens, they’re pretty cool!’.
I joined the Greens as a kind of New Year’s resolution thing at the end of 2021. I went in with the kind of vision of me getting really, really involved. I don’t take many half-measures and I was like, ‘If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it properly’.
I got invited to do some leafletting and then I got invited to an action day.And from there I started coming out every week because I really enjoyed campaigning. Then I got asked if I’d be co-campaign manager in Abbey [Ward]. Eventually, I got so familiar with the seat, when one of the councillors couldn’t stand, I was asked if I’d consider standing and I’d only been in the party for about 6 months.
I was very active and very engaged at the time which put me in a good position to run. I think just having time and energy is an incredibly useful asset.
In Cambridge Greens, we’re kind of a tertiary group on the on the City Council where we’re kind of small, but we’re growing, and I’ve had a really good time fighting to make sure we grow because I honestly think we could run the City Council.
I think demographically Cambridge is perfect. We don’t have any county councillors at the moment, I hope to be one of the first.”
How has your experience as a councillor been so far?
“I love being a councillor, I think it’s really really rewarding. I really appreciate the chance to give back to my community. The thing of being a councillor, it’s not a particularly romantic job…it’s dealing with standard issues that impact people day-to-day. But these issues make a massive difference in people’s lives, and it blows my mind that people recognise me all over the city. Now if I knock on a random door in my ward, most people know who I am. And to me, that’s absolutely crazy, I think that’s the best thing.
I think the biggest, I guess, challenge I have found is… explaining to the local party that creating the most foolproof amazing policy ever is not what wins elections. It’s mainly campaigning and it’s mainly building that sense of trust and report and I feel that’s something the Young Greens recognise. I’m the only young councillor [in Cambridge] and I’m taking a bit of a different approach.
For a councillor to be a champion for their community and to be someone that people trust to put the community’s interest first, it means so much. It’s genuinely touching. And I’ve had a couple of really good conversations on the door recently with people saying like ‘You’re the only local politician who is actually focusing on the struggles that people are going through in Cambridge’, that’s the reputation that I want to build for the Greens. It’s about building a sense of trust with people and the Green Party brand; it’s about associating the Green brand with quality work.”
If elected in this election, what are your aims as a councillor?
“I think a lot of people’s goals change slightly when they get elected based on their understanding of the Council and their knowledge of the Council’s finances and the funding given by the national government. So, I feel that I’m probably gonna end up being a lot more focused in the end, but some of the stuff I want to do sort of immediately is on better school provision in my ward. As I said, education is my background, it’s something I’d love to go back to one day. And there isn’t a secondary school in my ward, no secondary school at all. So, pushing forward, better school provision, more funding, more support for special educational needs students.
Also, social care. A lot of councils are falling short on their statutory duty for social care, and I believe Cambridge County Council is included in that, so to try and make sure we’re looking after residents, that’s important to me.
A lot of stuff to do with active travel is really important to me, particularly pedestrianism. I’m not much of a cyclist, I’m mainly a walker, and to make walkable trails so that people can get around.
Potholes are definitely the most important issue to every single person in Cambridge so fixing up the roads is a key one. I think everyone wants to do that and everyone falls short of that. But to at least act as more of a voice on these issues because I feel at the moment there is a lot of dishonesty with the state of our roads , so even if it’s something I can’t directly influence being in a position where I can be an honest spokesperson for the community is also really important.”
Have you experienced a difference between standing to be a City and County Councillor?
“I think to me they’ve been very, very similar. County has surprisingly been slightly easier because the ward is slightly smaller. In most places that isn’t the case but my county division is smaller than the city ward. No one really understands the difference between a City Council and a County Council so I’m having the same conversations no matter what, basically.
Nothing has really changed, and I think thankfully some of the hot-button issues that people cared about a couple of years ago are no longer as relevant.”
How would you like to see the Green Party supporting young candidates?
“I think the Green Party has a bit of a diversity problem not just in terms of young candidates but also ethnic diversity, gender diversity, diversity of sexuality.
When you’re dealing with people, some of whom are like highly trained professionals, it’s really easy to get pushed into believing that your views can’t add any value to the discussion. I know it’s something the national party is cognizant of but I do think it needs to do more to support young candidates and help local parties cultivate a better environment for young people because older people tend to have more time on their hands and more time to do political stuff so that can lead to unfortunate things where young people get sidelined.”
What advice would you give to parties to help get young people involved in the party?
“I feel so much more confident than I was 3 years ago, I’m a completely different person now…I can be more articulate, but it is a skill itself that you need to refine over time that requires practice. So, I think the advice I would give, and I think the Young Greens do really good work on this with 30 under 30, is to improve people’s confidence, make sure they recognise that they have a valuable perspective to add because that makes the party stronger as a whole. It also means you can talk and address a more diverse array of issues.
We are seeing a real big push amongst younger members to reform the local party at the moment, so I think the key thing is allowing there to be spaces for young people to talk and communicate.”
How do you think this year’s local elections will influence the Green Party and the Young Greens going forward?
“I think a lot of people would probably focus on results and net-gaining councillors. Some stuff I would like to see, and I think a lot of Young Greens have been this way, is for the party to get a bit more sharp with its messaging. I have found talking to a lot of Reform voters, as many people have, that these people are just looking for some change and will go to whatever is presented with them. And I do think honestly the Green Party could take a lot of that attention from Reform.
So I would really like it if we could strengthen our messaging, perhaps lay a bit of groundwork for some future general election campaigns, and put up a good fight against reform, that’s what I’d like to see from this local election.”
Is there anything else you would like to say?
“I think the Young Greens do a really good job of empowering people. I think there just needs to be a bit more of a bridge between the national party and what young people are doing. I think the Young Greens are really on it with a whole bunch of stuff they do such as social media, we have so many really good candidates who are some of the best speakers in the party.”
If you have any questions for Elliot or want to find out more about his role as Councillor, you can contact him via: [email protected]
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