August’s elections signalled a shift in the political landscape of South Jesmond, with Dr. Sarah Peters of the Green Party ending a political duopoly that has spanned over two and a half decades within the ward.

Two months on from a historic victory, which saw her become the first elected councillor outside of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, JesmondLocal sat down with her to discuss plans for the future of the ward.

For Peters, the motivation to enter politics was deeply personal, stemming directly from her professional life. As a junior doctor currently working in intensive care, she grew increasingly aware of the link between public health, environmental decay and political failure.

“The reason people are getting sick in the first place is often because of things like housing being really poor,” she said. “Then obviously working in a health service that’s extremely underfunded you see the sort of real life impact for patients and staff.”

After spending a long time involved in environmental pressure groups, she felt the Green Party provided a necessary platform. “The Green Party offered a bit of a vehicle to have a kind of much broader conversation about system change,” she said. Joining the party three years ago, she campaigned across the city until the South Jesmond by-elections presented an opportunity to bring that broad vision directly to her local community.

Translating those Green core values into actions, however, starts not with policy for Peters, but with process. She is focused on empowering residents, believing that “people are experts in their own communities.”

“I think that often you find people who feel like they can’t have a say about certain things because they don’t have the expertise,” she explained. “If you live somewhere or work somewhere, then that gives you expertise to talk about that issue if it affects you and your community.”

Tackling Jesmond’s biggest logistical challenges is a key focus for her. Concerns over traffic, parking, litter and bins are among her priorities. In particular, Peters is pushing for a more positive approach to active travel, aiming to avoid the community division caused by last year’s low traffic neighbourhood debate.

“It really felt like [the LTN debate] it had really harmed community cohesion,” she said. “We need to talk about active travel, but we need to do it in a positive way where the community feels like they’re gaining something and something positive is happening, not that things are being taken away.”

The most concrete forward plan is the implementation of new active travel infrastructure, specifically targeting small parades of shops in areas where bike racks are limited or non existent, making it easier for residents to cycle.

This philosophy of bridging divides is nowhere more crucial than in addressing South Jesmond’s most complex and persistent challenge: the tension between its large student population and long term residents.

“It comes up on the doorstep a lot,” Peters noted, acknowledging the wide range of opinions on the student demographic. While many residents recognise the positive contributions students bring, there are deeper issues around waste management, noise and anti social behaviour.

Peters attributes the core problem to underlying infrastructure strain, rather than just individual behaviour. The way that the Jesmond infrastructure was designed was not to support the amount of people that it currently does,” noting that the high number of HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupancy) contributes to the issue.

The population density heightens problems like littering, fly-tipping and, specifically, glass bottles being smashed. “Lots of dogs and children also live in South Jesmond, and that’s dangerous for them especially,” she added.

For Peters, the ultimate goal is fostering a sense of “one community.” To move beyond the current cycle of confrontation, she is planning a forward thinking, collaborative approach focused on education and accountability.

“I want to start thinking about a sort of restorative justice model,” she said. Her aim is to bring together non-student and student neighbours after disputes to foster dialogue: “How can we bring people together and actually say, ‘This is my perspective, this is my perspective.’ How can we co-exist together and move forward?”

As an immediate step toward achieving this community cohesion, Peters attended a meeting on October 30th at Jesmond Cricket Club, which brought together local residents, police and representatives from both universities. She is actively pushing to get more students involved in the conversation, saying it is “absolutely not all students” causing issues and that all perspectives must be heard.

This approach to local issues is achieved whilst navigating a council chamber where she is one of only three Green councillors out of 78, working in the ward alongside two Labour colleagues.

While acknowledging the inherit difficulty of being a minority party member, Peters reports a largely positive experience collaborating across party lines. “The truth is that all of the people on the council have been voted by their communities.” She stressed that collaboration is a core Green value and ultimately “residents want things to work, and they want people to work together. They don’t really care and don’t want us to be divided.”

The future of her role, however, is uncertain and short lived. Due to upcoming boundary changes in May 2026, Peters only has seven months left representing the current South Jesmond ward. It is set to be split, with a portion joining Ouseburn and the larger two thirds joining North Jesmond.

“It is difficult,” she admitted, as the changes will fundamentally alter the ward’s dynamics. She has yet to decide which of the new areas she will campaign in, but confirms that the Green Party will have strong activists standing on both parts of the former South Jesmond ward, giving residents the opportunity to continue voting Green.

In terms of immediate action, she remains focused on delivering tangible change within her remaining months. Beyond the active travel infrastructure, she is “excited about” pushing for cleaner streets and better kept bin collections. Ultimately, she said her long term goal is simple: “The key thing for me is just that people feel heard, feel like they can get in touch with me and that when they are getting in touch, I’m on their side.”

Updated 12:20pm, 4th November: This post was updated to better clarify Peters’ involvement with the Jesmond Cricket Club meeting on 30th October.