I know that we can’t solve the problem of climate change alone in Sutton, but local people are doing their bit to tackle what must be the biggest challenges that we will face over the next few decades.As Deputy Leader of Sutton Council I'm responsible for environmental issues. I’m leading a number of projects that aim to tackle climate change.
Transport – we are running ‘Smarter Travel Sutton’, the world’s biggest sustainable transport project with Transport for London’s support. Most people will have heard of this project by now and the STS team may have visited you too. Thousands of local people have made a commitment to use their car less, opted to use public transport, the bike or even ‘shank’s pony’ more often and more are likely to follow.
Housing – Hackbridge is home to BedZED, the world’s first zero-energy village. We are investigating how local residents can benefit from the lessons we have learned from this ground-breaking project, so that we can build more energy efficient homes in the borough. This work is in its infancy, but I am hopeful that we will attract funding from the EU and government to help.
Waste – we already have some of the best recycling rates in London and less waste goes to landfill here than in almost every other London borough. But the targets are getting tougher, so I am leading work with Merton, Kingston and Croydon that will drive down the cost of waste collection in Sutton and improve the services that local people will receive over coming years.
Sharing the good news
In September I went to Liberal Democrats’ conference in Brighton to tell Chris Huhne MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment about the things that we are doing in Sutton to cut our carbon footprint.
I’m delighted that Chris is leading the national debate on climate change, insisting that the UK must take action now to move to greener and cleaner lifestyles. The Lib Dems have set out a national vision to make Britain ‘carbon neutral’ by 2050. And the steps that we are taking here in Sutton demonstrate that this can be achieved and local people are (once again) giving the rest of the UK a lead.
You can read more about our plans to make Britain carbon neutral by following this link: http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/PP82%20Zero%20Carbon_FINAL.pdf
1 comment:
Why not do something abou t clearing the leaves in my heavy leaf-fall area SM6 9LH The council refuse will only take two bags of leaves each fortnight - I now have 9 bags of leaves awaiting disposal. My drain s get blocked. In my 70's I shouldn't have to do this.The binmen could just as easily empty the lot - they won't caome back!
John Vaughan
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