Green Travel & Green living

This afternoon's meeting of the Environment Partnership heard an update on the electric car charging points to be installed round the borough - not as many as we'd first thought because the grant funding doesn't stretch to laying in lots of extra cable so having a point in Preston Park won't happen just yet but we will get them in several other places where the power is more accessible.
The CO2 savings are quite impressive though the financial cost is still rather high until such time as economies of scale kick in.
Then we heard about the new Stockton Active Travel Centre, The Hub. When it was first proposed I confess I was a little cynical about whether there'd be much take up for its services but it seems there is - people are using the place to find out about cycling and walking, to join in guided walks and cycle rides, to learn how to maintain their own bike in good condition, to borrow a bike, to have lessons in cycling and much much more. The council officers are so enthusiastic that I can almost visualise me cycling along the riverside path with one of them , till reality hits!
And then on to the Feed In Tariffs for small scale generation of electricity. One of the good things the last Labour government did was to listen to the consultation responses on these and change them to make it really worthwhile installing microgeneration systems. The council is planning to install some and to encourage far more householders to install them at home. The new coalition government is committed to continuing the FITs so it's definitely worth installing them now!
So just the sort of meeting I really enjoy, hearing the good news about what's going on in the borough and being able to ask questions and raise issues to get the next step underway. Why can't they all be as positive as that??