Soapbox: Suffolk energy and waste issues

Hazel Blears – Expenses Disgrace

2009-05-13T20:25:00Z

Not exactly Energy and Waste related but waste of a different kind.

It seems that the current Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, has become another MP in Disgrace following the publication of her expenses. The former Secretary of State, who had the final word on the Snoasis development following the Public Enquiry, has been reported as claiming on 3 different ‘2^nd Homes’ in the space of a year. Her expense claims are said to include £850 per month mortgage expenses for a flat in London which she later sold for a £45,000 profit. However, she got round paying capital gains tax on the sale by ‘flipping’ her second home to another address prior to the sale.

She then bought another flat claiming £5000 to furnish it including over £900 on a TV and over £800 on bed linen and bath towels. Perhaps if she’d concentrated on the Enquiry as diligently as she obviously did her expense account then she may have taken a different view, who knows.

Our whole Parliamentary system appears to be fiddling the books and the recent events over MP’s expenses only goes to add to the deep mistrust the bulk of the UK public have of them and the system of Government. I wonder how many extra Hospital beds or Emergency service personnel could have been paid for by the money wasted by the people that are supposed to be responsible to us. How many Care Homes or Post Offices could have been kept open? It beggars belief it really does and I personally think it is time the whole system of Government was examined and not just its’ expense accounts.

Any person elected to serve in Government, be it Parliament or Local Government/ Councils needs to be someone we can trust. They need to have their community’s interests as their top and only priority. Most of all they need to be able to function without being controlled by having to tow the Party line when asked. This is especially important when it comes to Local Government. Councils need to look after their own people without the distractions of Party Politics. This is where independent groups such as Suffolk Together come in and why we the voting public need to start the change by getting more Suffolk Together Candidates elected. There are no ulterior motives involved just a desire to seek the best for the community as a whole.

Time to ditch the soap dispensers and go back to real soap to reduce packaging?

2009-05-06T15:48:00Z

Just thinking of the kinds of products we all love to buy these days - I am a guilty as the rest when it comes to being won over by convinience and great marketing.

One of the most recent trends in our soap purchasing habits - Has anyone considered how we have all moved away from normal old Soap to Gel Soap Dispensers which are made from plastic?

Have any of us considered the effects of every household in the UK using a soap dispenser and throwing one once a month?

Now we all know that plastic is recycled yeah? Or is it? Well, this will depend on if there is a value in recycled plastic and if new plastic prices are low then our recycled soap dispenser is worthless and will probably end up in Landfill or heaven forbid, being breathed into your childrens lungs as they walk to school under the shadow of the local Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator.

These are the kinds of thoughts we need to start thinking - we need to think of the consequenses in terms of waste of everything we consume before it is too late and Councilor Alcock and his colleagues have wasted our hard earned council tax money on unnecessary Incinerators to pollute our precious suffolk sky.

We all have to start genuinely re-evaluating what is important in our lives - is it time to bring back the old fashioned soap dish and asking soap manufacturers to give old fashioned soap a modern day make over? I would suggest that soap should be made to smell equally as good at the gel counterparts and leave hands feeling loved - come on innovative soap makers - lets have a soap box revolution!

National Government tells Suffolk to deal with 10% of Boris Johnson's London Waste

2009-05-01T13:25:00Z

It is not a well publicised fact that the County of Suffolk and other Counties Surrounding London have to provide disposal for 10% of London's Waste. As a County we have no control on this - it is a national decision that has been made on our behalf. What do you think of our Rural County being deemed a receptacle for the waste mountain of London? Do you feel that by transporting thousands of tonnes of waste by road to counties outside London, such as ours, that it creates a dis-incentive for Boris Johnson and his highly paid colleagues to actually do something to tackle their own problem and provide a sustainable solution for the problem themselves. It is a fundamental fact that we cannot vote in London's Mayoral elections yet we are directly being affected by the policies & decisions of who ever is in office due the national policy that currently exists. We have no power or voice in how London deals with its waste and the policies it choses to implement but we suffer the consequences of any in-action to deal with the problem. What do you think?

Waste - a major headache for Suffolk

2009-03-04T17:40:00Z

The Government has acknowledged that the single most important issue we faced as a global community is climate change - that is before the credit crunch. The government has targeted reducing carbon emissions by 29% by 2020, but it has not grasped the essential need to reduce the consumption of fuel. Recycling and buying locally permit people to acknowledge, like the government, the viability of climate change. But if the quality of their life is challenged, as it would be by a demand to reduce fuel consumption, any changes would be opposed. If the public will not support policies that challenge their lifestyles then government will not dare to impose them. Any changes need to ensure compatibility with our modern industrial technology - this means we need to decarbonise our modern economy. The present economy is based on allowing us to consume as much as our incomes allow. There is no incentive for people to make a change.

At present policies to reduce fuel consumption are targeted on the individual homeowner. Can we realistically reduce our domestic consumption by 25%?

Councils have been warned not to expect a profit from recycling household waste this year and the expectation is that the councils themselves will be carrying the transportation costs involved. Suffolk has received assurances from Viridor, the company responsible for processing and marketing most of the material recovered for recycling in Suffolk that there are no plans to stockpile or otherwise dispose of recyling materials. The Suffolk Waste Partnership has noted that residents have significantly reduced the amount of residual waste that is landfilled in Suffolk. Suffolk has achieved a recycling and composting rate of 50%+ and notes that to reach its own target of 60% continued public support is a key in achieving this. If the waste is not recycled does it make sense to burn it to produce energy? This is the plan for waste incineration (EFW) in Suffolk.

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Suffolk Together plan to develop and implement waste minimisation, re-use and recycling initiatives. We aim to reduce both domestic and commercial waste.

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As soon as Suffolk Together announce a waste management strategy it is followed by the Government going to a low-carbon economy. The details should be interesting to read.

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Two interesting pieces in the EADT, from today and yesterday. Eddy Alcock has committed to increasing recycling and composting. He also aims to reach a 60% level for recycling. Karen Cannard took part in St Edmundsbury's zero waste challenge and achieved zero family waste in her bins. Time for some joined up thinking Mr Alcock. Suffolk Together will promote this joined up thinking in a bid to reduce our landfill and recyclable waste. There will then be no need for incineration to deal with waste in Suffolk.

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"Suffolk to be the Greenest County" is the latest aspiration from Endeavour House. It is difficult to reconcile this with the proposal to build EFW plants which will burn plastics deemed to be not worth recycling, domestic waste and as a result produce large amounts of carbon dioxide.

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Suffolk Preservation Society has said that the County Council should not consult on sites until the method has been consulted upon. It also says that it appears that the county council have already made EfW incineration its choice.

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There is much media interest in the Government selection of new nuclear sites. What is not quite so high profile is the potential energy gap that the nuclear construction will fill in the long term. There is a potential for a short term shortage of energy in 2012+ until the nuclear power is available in 2020. The EfW incineration plans of SCC would appear to help fill this gap. Until you realise that EfW will generate, nationally, only 1% of the electricity we will need. Bearing in mind the cost of construction, even with PFI finance, can EfW be seriously be promoted as a solution to the potential shortage of energy we face?

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There has to be a solution to this problem. Suffolk Together has got one.

We will work with both local and national government to reduce the amount of material that is both "packaged" and is liable to become "waste".

We will work towards the efficient separation of all recyclable waste. A recycling target in excess of 90% is attainable.

Any remaining waste that cannot be recycled will be treated in small, local biological treatment facilities.

Compare what we are offering with the nightmare solution offered by the County Council, both enviromentally and economically.