I attended the SEERA (South East England Regional Assembly) Climate Change Conference 30th March 07 in Brighton which delivered a clear message that climate change is happening and we all need to do something about it.
Their published figures of what we can expect in the SE by the 2050s are:
avg summer temperature around 3 degrees warmer
avg summer rainfall decrease by around 40%
avg winter rainfall increase by up to 20%
sea level rise by up to 40cm Read the rest of this entry »
Christian Aid is a brilliant campaigning organisation. Think back a few years – their main campaign for several years from around 1997 was ‘break the chain of 3rd world debt’.. then around 2001 they moved to ‘Trade Justice’… Read the rest of this entry »
I attended the SE Renewable Energy Conference in Nov 06 with several Wealden officers and 1 other member – Chantal Wilson. Over the 2 days there were 28 different speakers ranging from an MP and Defra officials to local primary school children who had won environmental awards for their recycling and renewables power generation projects…. Each had a 20 minute slot and a number of slides packed with information. There were also 4 break out discussion workshops ranging from expanding woodfuel generation to project financing and community involvement– it was an exhausting but enjoyable and highly informative time!
Here’s a link to the conference presentations – for Forest Row interest look particularly for the Hoathly Hill Biomass boiler funding presentation by Marion Briggs, and the other that was excellent from a ‘what are the rewewable’s options’ perspective is the Spatial Planning Technology Overview by Clare Bonham-Carter… http://www.serenewables.org.uk/Presentations.html
After some very good work by Forest Row Parish Council in their parish plan http://forestrow.gov.uk/ and particularly by Alan Potter a village resident and waste expert http://www.beyond-waste.com/whoweare/people/alanpotter/ we finally have a kerbside collection trial scheme starting in Forest Row in May 07.
The scheme will involve having recyclables’ containers that insert into the top of your wheelie bin with alternate week collections of waste and recyclables. Watch out for more information that will come via the Parish Council.
As well as providing kerbside pick up, it also encourages a reduction in the amount of rubbish to landfill. Both are very good things though it will be interesting to see how sucessful the waste pick up will be as some recyclables will still have to be taken to bring sites (for the moment glass and possibly cans). To get involved as a local Recycling Champion contact Alan on alanthewiz@btopenworld.com or mail recycling@wealden.gov.uk .
As this scheme is a trial it will be exciting to see how this unfolds and whether this proves a good model to then extend to other areas around the District and into the existing Wealden Crown kerbside scheme that operates on a slightly different basis covering 2/3rds of the District in the more built up areas: Hailsham, Crowborough, Polegate and Uckfield. http://www.wealden.gov.uk/Environment_and_Transport/Recycling/CROWN_Kerbside_Scheme/crown_expansion.aspx
Strange isn’t it that the principle reason that Forest Row has not had a kerbside collection of recyclables up to now is that Wealden DC has been ‘too sucessful’ and recycled beyond its targets… and importantly beyond that level of grant funding that pays for this kind of scheme so whereas other areas would be funded for increasing recycling, Wealden would not be.
All things come to those who wait…….
Where to start? with no budget and no central Government performance target to push any focus in this area we have started down the road to a more sustainable Wealden.
Actually, many things were already being done in many different areas – Social housing, waste and recycling in particular, but there was no overall plan or awareness of ‘Sustainability’ beyond a Council Statement that I had led a working party to develop under the Environment Committee.
So the past year has been increasingly busy. Having made a nusiance of myself around the approving of our previous Local Development Plan (passed Dec 05) and why we couldn’t we include a ‘Merton type’ rule requiring a proportion of energy used to be generated by new build houses, I was given the hat of ‘Sustainability Champion’ in May 06, to assist the Leader in exploring, pushing and seeking to raise Wealden’s game in this whole area.
Thus far, key achievements in Wealden’s journey over the past year towards a more sustainable future have been:
Wealden signed The Nottingham Declaration in January 07. This starts us on a two year plan to develop actions to control and reduce carbon emissions: http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/localauthorities/NottinghamDeclaration/
The approved budget for ‘07-08 includes a new post for a sustainability officer
We have published a range of information and links on the topic on our Wealden website: http://www.wealden.gov.uk/Environment_and_Transport/Sustainability/Index.aspx
Developing and implementing a planning application checklist for sustainable building, members and officers attending a 2 day conference on Environment and planning issues for sustainability
MOST importantly, I have witnessed a complete sea change in opinion around the council as to the importance of this whole area and the level of knowledge and understanding of those engaged in the issues and there are some exciting things in the pipeline….
