Caring for Your Area

I chaired the last Environment Committee meeting of this council yesterday afternoon but it certainly wasn't an easy or gentle end to the committee's year.  The new committee will be appointed by the full council at its annual meeting on May 25th but to avoid a long hiatus in the process of looking for best value for money out of council services this meeting prepared the ground for the new committee.  The service area to be looked at is the one everyone knows, even if you don't know what it's called.  Care for your Area teams are responsible for collecting waste and recyclable materials from our kerbsides, gritting the roads, filling the grit bins, cutting the grass, planting and weeding the flower beds, keeping our parks tidy, looking after the cemeteries, digging the graves, sweeping the streets, cleaning the public toilets, installing play equipment, filling potholes and so on and on.  Mostly, they're very labour intensive jobs and it's hard to see how much of that labour can be saved - they already use machines where possible to do jobs like sweeping and grass cutting.
No doubt there will be some opportunities for making sure that the work is carried out more efficiently.  This is the chance to look into those accusations which councillors hear from time to time of workers arriving late, leaving early and having several tea breaks in the middle.  But I think that finding a £1m saving from the annual budget is going to be very difficult and the new committee will end up making some very unpopular decisions before making its recommendations to the new cabinet.  Which of all those many services will most people feel aren't necessary or can be reduced?
This year's committee spent a long time discussing the information that would be needed in order to make those decisions and the need for a fresh look at some of the policies of the council on how services are delivered.  Council officers now have until June to prepare detailed papers on costs, staffing levels and levels of complaints and compliments before the new committee meets for the first time.  Good luck to all concerned!
One of the complaints for the last few days which we've had from residents and seen for ourselves is the standard of the grass cutting.  The complaints are all being looked into to see whether more training is needed for the seasonal staff who are taken on each year to do this work.
The last item on the agenda yesterday was an overview of work carried out over the last 4 years, including wastes management, cemeteries, carbon management, dog fouling and animal welfare.  They're all big issues for the borough and the results of the reviews are still being monitored.  Overall, the committee did feel that some differences had been made for the better though there are still some disappointments - the level of dog fouling hasn't reduced despite increased and higher profile efforts by dog wardens.  Why do some dog owners think that pavements, grass verges and play areas are provided as open air toilets for their dogs?  Thank you to the hundreds of dog owners who don't think that way and who use the bins provided for cleaning up after their pets.

Another consultation

Stockton Council is consulting on the Environment Development Plan Document over the next 6 weeks till March 14th. This is the document which will incorporate policies on green spaces and conservation areas, among other things.  For people in Eaglescliffe, fighting against developments that ruin the character of the historic areas, it's going to be a very important document and needs to have all the safeguards we can get in there.  So, go to Stockton Council's website and have your say.  It might make a lasting difference to Eaglescliffe.
In the meantime the debate about the Yarm & Eaglescliffe Area Action Plan is on the agenda again at Western Area Partnership next week.  Let's hope we can reach an agreement on the way forward.

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??

Carbon Management

This afternoon's Environment committee produced some interesting facts but also raised some serious questions. For example, to produce a really top notch, carbon neutral school building might cost something like 7% more than to produce one that just scrapes through the new building regulations. It'll save lots more energy, but over a long period of time. Should we spend the extra £1m on that building, thus perhaps not being able to do something else? If so - what do we cut? Or do we settle for just getting by?
We had the usual problem of council officers who are immersed in their subject not being able to explain it in layman's terms but in the end came to an agreement about what information they can provide and how they'll do that. What we'll make of it remains to be seen. This review is proving very interesting but also very difficult to manage. Unfortunately money doesn't grow on trees - I'm sure Gordon Brown wishes it did.
The council's PR department did manage to work with the technical people to produce an interesting and useful press release. I hope the local press pick it up but in case they don't I reproduce the relevant parts below. Do read, learn and inwardly digest as my English teacher used to say.

SAVE THE WEIGHT OF AN ELEPHANT - ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND LOW CARBON LIFESTYLE TIPS

All week Stockton Borough Council is offering advice and top tips on how to make a small change in your life to help make a big difference to the environment.

And of course, saving energy also saves money.

Each home in the UK produces approximately six tonnes of Carbon Dioxide each year. That’s practically the weight of a whole elephant!

The average resident in Stockton each has a carbon footprint which is equivalent to 4.3 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide - the weight of two rhinos.

Insulating your home is by far the best way to make your home more energy efficient. Cavity wall and loft insulation, which can cost as little as £99 each, can start you off saving on your heating bills straight away.

While some people may see this as a cost, it’s really a very reasonable investment as the price can often be recovered in just one year. If you are on certain benefits, or over 70 years old, you can have cavity wall and loft insulation installed free of charge.

To find out more visit the Small Change Big Difference road show or log onto www.stockton.gov.uk.

The road shows, which runs from 10am – 2pm, will be at the town centres of Billingham on Monday, Stockton on Wednesday and Thornaby on Thursday.

Top Tips for Energy Saving

• Wash wise – try to wash a full load in dishwashers and washing machines – two half loads use more energy and water than a full load.

• Wash at 30°C - today’s washing detergents are designed to work best at lower temperatures.

• Give your oven the day off – slow cookers use the same amount of energy as a light bulb. A microwave uses 10 minutes of energy for every 40 minutes used by a conventional oven.

• A fridge can use 20 per cent of the energy used in your home – make sure it is well maintained and running efficiently. Replacing your old freezer with a new energy efficient model will save you money. A new ‘A’ rated energy efficient model uses nearly a third of the energy of a 10 year old model.

• Computers – when replacing consider a laptop which uses 70 per cent less energy than a desktop computer. Not changing yet? Why not invest in an energy saving mains controller or ‘powerdown’ unit which automatically switches off the monitor, printer, scanner etc when the computer is switched off.

Anyone in the Stockton Borough who wants to find out about how much energy they are using can borrow an energy meter for one month from their local library. Part of our ‘Watt’s Going Down’ scheme to encourage lower energy usage, the meter simply connects to the electricity meter in the home and provides a read out of the cost of energy used.

Dog Fouling, Animal Welfare & Crematoria

What do they have in common? They're all on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the Environment Select Committee. The review of Dog Fouling and Animal Welfare is drawing to a close and the recommendations and report should be finalised tomorrow afternoon. We'll also be following up on previous reviews into cemeteries and memorials.
The meeting is being held in Nightingale House, also known as the Register Office, where the new Bereavement Suite will be open for us to see beforehand. We'll be able to see the selection of receptacles for cremated remains which are on display to help people make their choice, as well as some of the less traditional coffins. We didn't realise that Fairtrade coffins exist until too late to get one in for display but who knows what might come in the future? The Bereavement suite is the latest improvement in such services for the people of Stockton and while it might be a taboo subject to some, death is the only certainty in life for all of us and needs to be planned for in the same way as all the other significant events.
Meanwhile, my preparation consists of reading several reports before tomorrow's meeting! And if anyone wants to see even more photos of the Go Bananas for Fairtrade events in the Tees Valley go to Flickr and enjoy.

Budgets, budgets

Hardly a glimmer of good news today. First of all a sombre discussion about the pressures that are looming on the Council's budget. How to continue to fund the extras that Stockton Council and other local authorities provide on the free bus pass for over 60s, the pass introduced by the government with a great fanfare but only designed to work after 9.30 in the morning. That's a fat lot of use if your hospital appointment is at 9 or even 10 unless you live very near to the hospital on a direct bus route. And of course that's only one example of when older people need to use a bus before 9.30. So Stockton and other Tees Valley councils decided to put money into providing a pass which works all day, every day But that costs money and these days with rising electricity and gas bills and falling interest rates the Council is in the same position as many households - it's belt tightening time. So what should we cut back on? Bus passes for older citizens? Social workers for vulnerable children? Road mending? Pavement sweeping? Street lights? Litter bins? Difficult decisions lie ahead and whatever is decided will hurt someone.
That was followed by a meeting of the Environment Select committee at which we had a presentation of a seemingly very good action plan to reduce the numbers of rats and pigeons infesting the borough - not a huge problem in most parts of the borough but visible and irritating in some parts. The action plan sounded great till we realised that it could only be implemented if there was a bit of spare cash to fund it - not likely in the present economic climate. So the chances are that it's going to be a tinkering with the problem because we can't afford the full blown action plan.
However, there's always someone worse off than me, as my mother would tell me. So, as the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights approaches (10th December for those who like to know these dates) I encourage you to support the campaign to help retired Gurkhas to have the same rights as the people they served alongside in conflict zones around the world. It's something that Liberal Democrats have been supporting for over a year now and it was heartening to see the High Court give a boost to the campaign last month. Let's get it sorted out by Christmas!

Renewable Energy

That was the subject of tonight's Environment Partnership meeting, and very interesting it was too. This particular partnership is one of very committed people, some of them appointed by the council and others from organisations large and small with an interest in the environment. So there are residents alongside representatives of industry and not-for-profit organisations, charities and council officers along with just two councillors - the cabinet member for the environment and me as chair of the Environment committee.
Everything discussed is very practical so tonight we heard about efforts being made by the council to reduce energy use as well as to use more renewables - simple things like putting draught excluder round windows and turning the thermostat down a degree in council buildings. Bigger things like having street lights that dim in the middle of the night so that energy is reduced while still keeping the borough's streets safe. Exciting things like assessing whether solar thermal panels can contribute to heating the swimming pools in the borough, whether the heat generated by cooling the ice rink can be used to warm the water in the swimming pool or heat the theatre in the Forum. Projects that have already happened like fitting a ground source heat pump into Conyers school as part of building a new extension and incorporating them into new primary schools. But we also heard of insoluble problems - the new primary school which can't put in such a pump because of the web of utilities running under the site, and the grey water recovery system which was installed in two schools in County Durham and still doesn't work. It's assumed there's a design fault but we can't keep a school on hold until it's resolved so we aren't installing one. I can't help but feel that there's something wrong here - over 50 years ago a relative in rural Eire built a new house and because there was no piped water on the farm he put a collection tank on the kitchen roof and collected rainwater to flush the toilet and wash floors etc. No fancy pumping mechanisms, just simple systems, and it worked for many years. It meant that only one trip a day was needed to the well to collect drinking water. If he could do it then surely it's not beyond present day developers?
Wind turbines occupied part of the discussion, with the consensus being now that only turbines of 100KW or greater are worth erecting for electricity production. Anything smaller is really an educational tool which sometimes produces a bit of power. We have a school in the borough which got planning permission over a year ago to erect a large turbine but then found that the only company which manufactures them at the price we had been quoted only sell them in blocks of 10 or more! Sadly, 10 turbines would leave no room at all for playing fields or the school building, so a big rethink is going on!!
We heard about the efforts of a private sector business to move toward renewable energy which needs a very long term view in a time of economic downturn. How does one persuade the shareholders to look at the 50 year life span of a building when they're used to thinking in terms of a 2 year maximum for a return on investment?
There was much discussion about ways in which people could work together, ways in which the council could offer a lead and a very positive feel at the end of the meeting that there were ways forward.
Just the sort of meeting that I enjoy being part of - a common aim and a determination to share ideas on how to get to the goal.

Back in Harness

Conference is over and the queues for the terminals provided by Microsoft proved just too much of a barrier to blogging while there. Standing in a queue in order to stand at a terminal was not my idea of relaxation so it was a case of doing a quick check of emails and then handing over to the next person.
Suffice to say that the debates were very high quality, as they always are at our conference. Knowing that conference is setting the policy of the party makes sure that everyone takes the debates very seriously. On top of that there were some really good fringe meetings enabling us to discuss everything from nuclear power to economics to child welfare and fairtrade. I took part in a really interesting discussion on Islam and how it's perceived by some to be a threat to this country. It was a privilege to hear Islamic scholars debating the issue and to be able to join in the discussion. And of course Bournemouth is a lovely place with a beautiful walk from where I was staying to the Conference centre. The early morning sun on the sea was an inspiring sight.
Of course the world economic situation was never far from the front of discussions in the conference hall and the bars. Vince Cable seemed to gain in stature every day as other parties grappled to say something sensible about it. I don't pretend to understand the markets but I do know that Vince was warning of problems over a year ago and sadly, his warnings have been shown to be valid. I just hope that the measures being taken in London and New York settle nerves and get things back onto an even keel. Everyone needs the markets to be more stable than they have been recently for the sake of pensions, housing and everything else that's affected.
Meanwhile yesterday was a day of meetings - planning the scrutiny review of dog fouling and animal welfare, Environment Partnership response to a government consultation on renewable energy production and then the Parish Council. Today having just one meeting, all be it in Gateshead, seemed like a rest!

Climate Change and Other Things

I heard a snatch of a radio programme that I don't usually listen to today and found myself laughing aloud. The comedian said (not a verbatim quote so forgive me if you heard the original) "We've put so much effort into causing global warming and what do we get? Cold, wet miserable July". He went on to suggest that we all find another appliance to turn on and warm the world up a bit more! Warped humour, I know, but it suited my mood at the time. I'd managed to find a little dry slot to go out and pick the raspberries which desperately needed to be picked but my legs were wet and cold from the wet foliage rubbing on them. On days like this it's good to remember that global warming doesn't turn us into Stockton on the Riviera, but has disastrous consequences for some of those who can least cope with them. Our wet miserable July is a small problem in comparison.
Today the formal letter came out giving notice of when the appeal will be heard against the refusal of permission for 14 apartments at 690 Yarm Rd. The hearing will take place at 10:00 on 27th August at Stockton Town Hall. I hope for the sake of the residents of the road behind the site that we win the appeal. I'll certainly do my best on the day.

World Environment Day

If you're one of those who's not sure about climate change or not sure what to do next, have a look at this site, and be prepared to laugh. There's a drawback of course - you've got to sign up to do something first, but that's painless and they do offer advice on how to keep your pledge.
On the other hand, if you really want to see how much Carbon Dioxide your home and lifestyle is responsible for, there's a very handy and easy to use calculator here. Just make sure you've got your gas and electricity consumption figures handy before you start. Like all these things it's a rather blunt tool. For example, it doesn't allow the chance to say that one door has draught-proofing but the other doesn't. It suggests that I should install underfloor insulation, which might be a tad difficult in a house with a concrete floor. But at least it gives some idea of where I stand in relation to the national average and some sensible ideas on what to do next to lower my emissions. I have to confess that the biggest single contributor to my carbon footprint is visiting my daughter on the other side of the world and since I'm not going to give that up if I can help it, I'll just have to carry on with contributing to carbon offsetting programmes which sound as if they'll help. Not a cure, but a treatment which delays matters until the cure is implemented.
One of the things I'd really like is someone to work out and publish in an easily understood form, the relative costs in carbon and money of keeping a fairly elderly but still functional appliance or scrapping it and buying a new energy efficient one. It goes against the grain to scrap something that still works but if I could be absolutely sure that the carbon footprint of scrap and replace is really less than that of keep going till it drops then perhaps I'd do it.
I know that these calculations have been done on housing stock - demolition and disposal of the debris from our old housing stock followed by rebuilding with more energy efficient stock means that the new houses have to last over 50 years before they start saving carbon! That's something which I'll be factoring in to my considerations of planning applications in future.

Inspiring our communities...

...to act on Climate Change.
That was the title of a regional conference today which I attended with Stockton Council's Environmental Policy Manager. There were some very interesting presentations and some very challenging facts from public opinion surveys. There's a great deal of confusion in people's minds about whether climate change is important or even real. Even amongst people who think it's important there's confusion over what to do about it. "Saving the planet" has become a catch-all phrase and people don't distinguish between what they can do to save precious resources (like recycling glass and metals and paper) and what they can do to prevent serious climate change (like using low energy light bulbs and driving the car less frequently). People really don't trust the idea of environmental taxes because they think the government is just making an excuse to get more money out of motorists or whoever is being targetted. All the studies show that people look for fairmess -they want to feel that whatever is being asked of them everyone else is going to be asked to make the same sacrifices.
The big challenge for us as councillors is how we lead our community forward to combat climate change in Stockton, given this desire for fairness and this lack of understanding of all the complex issues. Real food for thought and we hadn't come to any conclusions at the end of the journey home. We did agree that, difficult though the problems are, Stockton has already made a good start by doing the relatively easy things and that the biggest challenges are left to meet. Watch this space!
From South Shields and climate change to Kirklevington and Renaissance. Stockton's Local Strategic Partnership had a unique session this evening to consider itself, how it works and how it can improve. There was a lot of discussion about the fact that most people outside the partnership probably don't know it exists or what it does, and yet it's a very important part of life in the borough. It brings together the council, big voluntary sector organisations, small community groups, major bodies like police, fire and NHS alongside business links to try to join up the way services are delivered to people. Possibly the fact that people don't know about it means it's working extremely well? Whatever the reason, there's to be a lot more thought put into exactly how it operates and how it tells people about its work.
And finally, almost 12 hours after leaving home this morning, time to return to domestic matters!

Raising Expectations

A few months ago the Environment Select committee which I chair produced its report on managing cemeteries and memorials. While carrying out the scrutiny we asked lots of people visiting the cemeteries for their opinion of what we currently do and how it should change. At the end of the review we wrote to everyone who'd given us their address telling them what had been decided. Unfortunately we didn't put in the letter that it would take months to draw up an action plan and then a long time to implement it because so much needed doing! As a result I've had a lady contact me now, complaining that she'd read the letter and the article in the press and acted accordingly, removing things from her husband's grave but the family with the next grave along haven't. As a result her husband's grave is suffering from the effects of some of the artefacts on this over-embellished plot. Why haven't we done what we said we were going to do and enforced our new policy? The explanation that it takes so much time to set the enforcement in place sounded like a feeble excuse to her, and I can't blame her. At times the council is like a huge tanker at sea - it takes an awful long time between deciding to change course and seeing it happen. Meanwhile people get frustrated and think we've forgotten or they're being mis-led. Fortunately the officers who worked with us on producing the new policy are among the best in the council and one of them is going to speak to the lady concerned and see what can be done in the short term until we've got the enforcement system up and running.
On a much brighter note a happy coincidence of timing of a visit and weather meant that instead of just collecting some Fairtrade goodies from a friend and dashing off again we sat out in the garden and had coffee (before dashing off to our respective next jobs). The birds were singing, the flowers were beautiful and just for half an hour the world seemed to be at peace.

Gordon doesn't get it

Listening to the on-going debate on whether fuel tax should be increased this year as planned, now that fuel is expensive, and whether the VED on older cars should be increased as planned, now that Labour isn't popular, I do wonder whether Gordon and his troops will ever get it where Green Taxes are concerned. (Mixing green and red produces the colour of mud - is that relevant?)
The whole point of raising fuel tax was to make people think about whether to use the car for every journey. It's meant to put the price of motoring up - get it? OK, there's been a shift of balance in the price of petrol and diesel and perhaps the Treasury needs to do some adjustment in the balance of the taxes so that buses and lorries aren't unduly disadvantaged, but that's not the same as changing direction totally. Flexibility is good, backtracking is not!
As for VED on older cars - since when was taxation in this country introduced retrospectively? Most people don't own older cars because they dislike new ones. They own them because that's what they can afford. People on lower incomes who can't get to work on public transport often want/need to be able to get to work in wet weather clean and dry enough to start work. Maybe they need to drop the kids at school on the way! If they could afford a shiny new, less polluting vehicle they'd probably jump at the chance. So what does the "labour" party do - penalise them. What happened to Gordon's favourite "hard working families"? How can it be fair to introduce this tax increase without providing the infrastructure to allow choice?
When it comes to public transport and sustainable development language takes on a whole new meaning. A bus service every half hour to one of the two centres near a proposed new development becomes "good public transport links". A walk of 1km along a busy road which only has a footway along part of it becomes "easily accessible". When will central government put its money where its mouth is, stop wasting money on ridiculous projects like ID cards and going to war in countries we've no right to be in, and start funding high quality rail and bus links as well as research and development funding for newer forms of transport. Sadly, not in my lifetime if the present regime continues, and as for the chances of my grand-children enjoying a decent quality of life .....
Come the revolution!

Earth Hour

Yesterday, 29th March, residents and businesses in 28 cities did what Sydney did in 2007 - turned off the lights for an hour at 8pm. Earth Hour started as a statement about one of the biggest contributors to global warming -coal fired electricity. Although turning the lights off for an hour won't save the world it does make the participants and observers think, and that's important. It helps people to make the little changes which will add up to the big difference.
You can sign up now for 2009, or check out your personal carbon footprint (on a much simplified 1 minute questionnaire) and then think about how to reduce it over the next few weeks or months. Personally, I rather like the occasional candle lit dinner to save electricity (though I haven't calculated how much carbon dioxide the candles produce!).
Seriously - why not give it a go. If enough Eaglescliffe residents want to join in we could register Eaglescliffe as a participating area for 2009.

Talking Rubbish

The final meeting of the Environment Select Committee was yesterday afternoon, with the agreement of the final report on Waste management and Recycling as the main item on the agenda. We'd agreed to start with a presentation of a summary of the rationale for the review and the evidence we'd received for all interested councillors before we went on to finalise our recommendations. Unfortunately an error in sending out the invitation meant it was timed for half an hour after the meeting was due to start so there was a very quick re-arrangement of the agenda to cover some items before other councillors arrived. We had almost an hour of presentation and questions, all good and valuable. It showed that we were right in our judgement of the importance of the issue to ward councillors and to their electors. As a result of that discussion and further discussion in the committee we slightly amended one of the draft recommendations to allay some of the worries being expressed.
Although it meant that I spent over 3 hours on the meeting and finalising the report afterwards I believe it was time well worth spending. The scrutiny committee took a lot of evidence which enabled us to make a very well informed set of recommendations to move the service up the several notches needed to achieve the demanding targets being set by government for 2010 and beyond. We listened to the public and realised that many people are willing to accept change if it's explained properly and doesn't cause them too many problems. Now we look forward to convincing Cabinet next month that this is the way forward and then seeing the changes gradually introduced.
When looking at the results of the public consultation we realised that the response rate from some areas was significantly higher than the average. I knew that Eaglescliffe residents had been encouraged to respond by us as ward councillors, and that might have accounted for some of our higher than average turnout. I discovered yesterday that in one of the other wards the same thing had happened, though neither of the ward councillors was on the committee and the ward is as different as possible from ours. I'm very grateful to those councillors for promoting the consultation as vigorously as they did in their ward, and to others who did the same but haven't mentioned it to me. I'm very pleased that so many people responded and gave such full answers.

The first meeting of the day was at 9 to discuss a number of issues with the Corporate Director of Neighbourhood Services. There was an update on the Local List, which is moving forward at long last but it's probably too little too late for some buildings. Then there was time for a quick chat about some of the possible recommendations from Environment Select, just to make sure that I wasn't going to propose something impractical or unachievable.
At 10 it was time for the meeting of the Select Committee. We had an update on the consultation - more than 3000 people had responded to the survey and the responses have been analysed by wards, age groups & ethnic groups so we've got a really comprehensive picture of public opinion. We had some animated discussion about possible recommendations and agreed that no one solution fits all areas so we'll need to look at various methods of storage and collection of material for recycling and disposal. We accepted the fact that, whatever our views on the energy from waste plant at Haverton Hill the new government performance indicators do not encourage using "waste" to make energy. We are going to have to massively improve our recycling rate and reduce the amount of rubbish we produce, and fast.
At the end of 2 hours we had 11 recommendations and 3 further points we wanted to make. We also decided to put down a marker for 2009/10 that we will want to scrutinise performance on our carbon reduction strategy when it's been in place for a year and to look at our own waste - how is the council treating things it no longer needs. Rubbish or recycling? We may also wish to look at how the council's partners are dealing with the same issues.
There was just time to do a few more jobs, write a couple of letters and deal with a host of e-mails before council tonight. Some very good questions were asked, and not all were answered but Alan Lewis asked about the council doing something to encourage owners of private car parks like the ones at Sunningdale shops and Orchard shops to enforce the proper use of disabled parking bays. He was told that thanks to his question council officers would now look into this!
Sadly, not such a positive outcome when John asked for an answer to his question about the Police Authority which he'd asked ages ago. The answer was long and read in such a way by the council's representative, Cllr Kirton, that no-one could understand what was being said and in the end the Mayor had to ask him to do it as a written answer.
Our motion on saving post offices was well proposed by Suzanne and seconded by Alan. Everyone was supportive though the Labour members for Parkfield tried to claim that it was nothing to do with the government and that Dari is working away behind the scenes to save Oxbridge post office. Crocodile tears again! In the end it was carried unanimously.
The same result followed for the motion introduced by the Labour group condemning the huge pay rise for the board members on the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation board. John spoke about the lack of transparency demonstrated by their treatment of a constituent on whose behalf John had asked a question and also pointed out that the members had accepted the jobs on the current pay scale only a year ago.
All in all, a long council meeting but not a bad one at all.

Carbon Footprints

A pleasantly satisfying task at lunchtime today - attending the opening of the newly restored Victorian Winter Garden on Preston Hall. As ward councillors last year John and I had written letters in support of the Lottery application, so it was good to see the end result. The photos show David Bellamy who performed the opening, and John & Alan admiring the result of all the efforts.
Environment Select committee heard almost the final pieces of evidence today on the subject of rubbish. The consultant employed to look into the ecological impact of how we deal with our rubbish came to report on the calculations of carbon emissions for different scenarios. The results were very interesting, showing that the carbon cost of transporting materials is a very very small part of the overall carbon cost of their life-cycle. The gut reaction of most people that sending lots of vehicles around collecting recycling material is more costly to the environment than putting the material into the energy from waste plant proved to be false. If materials like plastic bottles, made from oil, can be recycled efficiently into more high grade plastic bottles then it's worth going round and collecting them. Similarly with glass and metals. So those sceptics who think recycling is just another odd idea will have to rethink.
The last evidence will be received next week when the analysis of almost 3000 questionnaires is completed and we'll know what the general public in Stockton think. Then it's up to the committee to make recommendations to cabinet. And they won't be easy to agree - just watch this space.

Talking about Rubbish

This morning I had a mid-review meeting to discuss how we're getting on with the scrutiny of waste management. The results of the questionnaire have been very good - more than 2300 sent back so far, so we're going to be over the level needed to give us the comfort of a valid consultation.
The answers are proving really interesting - it seems that people are divided over the questions about whether collection patterns should change and if so, how, but hundreds of people have put in comments about all aspects of the collection, recycling and so on. The job of analysing the results is proving challenging in the time available but I'm sure it will get done.
There's going to be a real challenge to come up with recommendations which are based on the evidence we've collected and also are achievable with the available resources. Should we extend the kerbside collection to include plastic bottles and cardboard? If we do that will we be able to reduce the frequency of collection of residual waste? If so - when? If not, how do we pay for the extra vehicles we'll need and the people to crew them? Real challenges, with no easy answers.
This afternoon was Planning Committee, with a sobering report on the financial costs of losing a recent appeal. Hearts had ruled heads at the planning committee to some extent, with people voting against the officer's recommendations on a proposed development at Ingleby Barwick. Sadly, when the developer appealed to the Secretary of State, and the inspector heard the evidence he wasn't convinced and awarded costs against the authority.

Pizza & Politics

That was the title of an evening of food and debate yesterday. Eaglescliffe Lib Dems enjoyed a sometimes heated debate on the subject "Nuclear Power - the answer to global warming or hell on earth?" I don't know whether anyone changed his or her mind as a result but there was much passion on both sides and people certainly listened and learned from each other. Inevitably the discussion ranged over the alternatives for energy production and usage and the impact each of them has on the environment as well as the dangers inherent in every form of energy production.
It was good to share ideas like that instead of always concentrating on the immediate problems, important though they might be, like potholes and streetlights.
(The pizza wasn't bad either!)

Good News Day

We heard today that the young man who was deported to DRC yesterday is safe with his family. Although nowhere in the DRC can really be described as safe for someone who sought asylum over here, that's a lot better than past experience had led us to fear.
So, no thanks to this Government, at least he's safe for the present.
This morning I had one of the regular monthly meetings which is often not very interesting and leaves me wondering why I bothered. Today's was different though - one item on the agenda sparked a discussion about the need for more trees in our town centres. They look good, provide shade in hot sun and absorb some of the pollution from the air. We decided that a meeting was needed quite urgently to make sure that tree planting is going to be incorporated into the town centre regeneration schemes that are underway. Given that it's something I've been asking for since first being on the council in 2003 I was very pleased to find others just as keen.
At the council's cabinet meeting this evening it was agreed to put a proposal to Council to start on the process of refurbishing the Forum, at long last recognising its importance and making sure it's of the standard needed for the coming decades.