I had a letter in the local paper this week (below). Dave Pettener's letter got in too. Councillor Phil Thomas appears desperate about the growth of Stop The Incinerator campaign, hence his latest tactic of trying to debase our questions by calling us liars. Readers will obviously be surprised about his choice of language: answers cannot be given without letting the cat out of the bag, lets just instead call the questioner a liar.
--------------------------------------------------Dear Editor,
Regarding your story on council plans to fine those who fail to recycle, I feel the vast majority of people in Croydon want the freedom to choose how they live, and despise the 'nanny state' interfering with their personal choice. However, the council must ensure that residents in our borough are making informed decisions - education is clearly important.Equally, people in Croydon dislike the idea of new taxes. That is why I wince when I hear politicians from other political parties talking about ‘green taxes’ and ‘fines for failing to be green.’
As someone who wants to bring people around to Green Party thinking, fining people for failing to be green is only going to put people off issues relating to the environment. Therefore, rewarding people for being green, through discounts off their council tax, much like the recent cavity and loft insulation scheme here in Croydon, is an altogether better policy. Moreover, schemes such as these have an additional affect of putting money back into our pockets at a time when growth is nil.Naturally, eco taxes do have a part to play in a genuine green economy. However, they would replace existing regressive taxation, such as VAT.Yours sincerelyShasha KhanCroydon Green Party
3 comments:
That this House notes the European Parliament’s adoption by a large majority, on 24 May 2012, of a resolution on a Resource Efficient Europe, which commits to working towards a zero waste strategy and the Parliament’s call on the Commission to bring forward legislative proposals, by the end of 2014, to ban both landfill and the incineration of recyclable and compostable waste in Europe, by 2020; further
notes growing evidence of incinerator overcapacity in the UK by 2015,
which seriously risks harming recycling performance, as has already happened in some European countries; further notes UK figures showing a steady and significant decline in residual waste since the middle of the last decade – even allowing for the economic recession – and rising recycling rates; acknowledges the impact that these developments will have on the economic case for, and environmental sustainability of, mass-burn incinerators in the UK within a decade; and calls on the Secretaries of State for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change, and Communities and Local Government, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to work together to examine how government policy can positively facilitate the pursuit of zero waste strategies, and to report to Parliament on their findings as a matter of urgency,
as many local communities across the country are currently opposing their local waste authorities’ costly, environmentally damaging and unsustainable plans to build mass-burn incineration plants.
http://cleanairinlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/CAL-186-Air-quality-trends-and-issues-in-London-by-Dr-Gary-Fuller-KCL-200712.pdf
AND
most hospital admissions occur after "moderate" pollutioin levels:
http://www.londonair.org.uk/seminars/pdf/June2012/Heather_Walton_ASPIRE_the_health_impact_of_air_pollution_episodes.pdf
http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/category/item/something-in-the-air-the-forgotten-crisis-of-britain-s-poor-air-quality
Key findings of the report include:
1. in England, London has 86% of the worst areas for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 87% of the worst areas for dangerous airborne particles;
2. diesel vehicles were responsible for 91% of fine particles (PM2.5) and 95% of NO2 exhaust emissions in London in 2009;
3. more than 320,000 children (including more than 180,000 under the age of 11) in London attend 1,098 schools within 150 metres of roads carrying more than 10,000 vehicles per day on average;
4. in the worst 10% of London for PM10, 5-10 year old children are 41% more likely than the London average to be eligible for free school meals and residents are 27% more likely than the London average to be on income support;
5. in the worst 10% of London for NO2, 5-10 year old children are 47% more likely than the London average to be eligible for free school meals and residents are 26% more likely than the London average to be on income support; and
6. the Government has spent nothing on public information campaigns for air pollution.
I fully agree with the idea that people need to be educated rather than forced into a decision when it comes to keeping or becoming greener. People generally resent being told what to do, especially when it comes to changing established routines or spending money on things they have been capable of doing without. More information about the benefits of things like insulation needs to be put out there so that people can make informed decisions with all of the facts rather than being told what's good for them and punishing them if they don't comply.
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