Luton and Bedfordshire Green Party

The following letter was published on 21st Oct 2007 in Bedfordshire on Sunday

Plastic bag alert is right
Sir - Bryan Eglington believes there is no need for Cllr Whitehead's call for public consultation on the use of plastic bags and states in his letter last week that climate change is a 'perfectly natural event' to which mankind's contribution has been 'so insignificant it can be dismissed'.

Mr Eglington is obviously out of step with mainstream scientific opinion if he truly believes this.

Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change did not win the Nobel Peace Prize last week for nothing.

While there is no point, at this stage, in debating with him the reality or not of unnaturally rapid climate change and our responsibility for it, it is worth stating a few facts about plastic carrier bags that Cllr Whitehead may have had in mind: They create a visible problem in terms of litter and are a danger to marine life.

Being made from oil, they are unsustainable in being used once, or perhaps twice.

Shoppers pay for them in the price of the goods they purchase, whether they like it or not.

The only sustainable long term answer is strong reusable bags, made of cotton or string, for example.

Lucy Bywater
Green Party Howbury Street,Bedford

Bedford Green Party fought the elections on these main issues:

Housebuilding and Countryside

• We oppose Government plans for tens of thousands of new houses in Bedfordshire. The houses aren't needed, because there are already more empty homes than homeless people.
• As part of our way to deal with this, we would bring empty properties back into use quickly, taking quicker action to identify owners and sort out the nuisance.
• A Green council would make it easier to get planning permssion to convert empty offices and upper floors of shops into flats.

A strong local voice

• Standing up for the local community is crucial to local Greens, providing proper value for money and listening to local people not big business * Giving local neighbourhoods more of a direct say in the decisions that affect them - devolving powers to neighbourhood forums and parish councils
• Taking your complaints seriously - Ensuring graffiti and fly tipping is removed within 24 hours of it being reported.

Decent local services

• No new supermarkets, and no enlargement of existing supermarkets. Local shops need our support, not to be undermined.
• Vital local services within walking distance for everyone - protecting local services from cuts, closures and privatisation

A healthy local environment

• Bedford Greens want less waste, more recycling.
• Greens would bring in kerbside collections of glass, bring back weekly orange bag collections, and work with local industry to cut down the amount of waste they produce.

Energy

• Local Greens put their support behind measures for energy conservation, and support solar power, wind power and other forms of genuinely renewable power generation, as the best ways of combating climate change.
• There is a lot the council can do to ensure that improvements to insulation and thermal efficiency are a key part of the requirements to gain planning permission, and we would seek to maximise the amount of solar generation for every application. We would look to the example of the Kirklees Solar Village in Huddersfield, where Green Councillors are getting the highest concentration of domestic solar power in the UK.
• We would increase the number of people checking that builders really are meeting the energy efficiency standards they claim. New houses shouldn't be draughty!

No to NIRAH

• This aquarium will bring endangered species into captivity, not for conservation, but for public amusement and to help drugs companies increase their profits.
• Greens are concerned that this development will bring large numbers of day-trippers along the M1 from London and Birmingham, bringing traffic congestion and pollution but no benefit to Bedfordshire.
• The Green Party opposes the animal experiments that will take place on the site, and the experiments that will take place elsewhere to help drugs companies to develop any drugs that start life there.
• The Green Party opposes zoos and aquariums that put animals on display for public amusement, rather than really working for conservation.
• Greens argue that the best way to work to conserve a species is to conserve its native habitat.