District leaders' sounding board: climate change and Peak Oil need to be central to approach

Last year the inaugural district leaders' sounding board was held. It is a group to promote issues relating to district councils. It is made up of various councillors - sadly no Green party councillor has a place so I wrote a while back to the chair and SW representatives calling for green issues to be taken more seriously.

Photos: Standish Woods a week ago - this weekend it is clear the Bluebells are fading fast

I got a reply but sadly lost all emails in a computer blip a while back. Only now have I managed to catch up. Here is my email to them:

Apologies for delay in responding to the replies to my initial email last year. I had a number of computer problems and lost all email contacts and emails. I would like to urge that the most important areas for the Sounding Board to address are how to tackle climate change and deal with Peak Oil.

Climate change I welcome news that the LGA has set up a "climate change commission". This will hopefully help local authorities - many councils are what could be described as "carbon criminals". I do not use the word 'criminal' lightly: the average Somali is about 100 times more likely to die from events caused by climate change than the average American, despite emitting roughly 16,000 times less carbon. We must cut emissions. Here are some key issues:
- bypasses are a big problem: costing vast amounts and increasing CO2 emissions
- airports. Councils often support airports (e.g. Liverpool) and Manchester owns its airport. Councils have to be far clearer in taking on the role of saying "enough is enough" (Uttlesford DC has just done this for Stanstead) whereas Cornwall despite having Beacon status in Sustainable energy plans to invest over £21 million on Newquay Airport.
- councils are usually very bad at green travel plans (shifting staff travel to walk/cycle/bus)
- councils are bad at planning (PPG13 and traffic generation). There is still very little car-free housing
- councils are missing the point on procurement. Procurement is getting more centralised and the main pressure is to cut the cost of purchases.
- councils with some honourable exceptions are not doing the carbon counting or eco-auditing that should be done to reduce carbon

The Nottingham Declaration is an important start but does not go far enough. Many Councils are now developing strategies and policies. My own Council for example, Stroud District Council has recently launched it's Environment Strategy which we hope will lead to significant changes. It calls for example for at least a 3% cut in emissions year on year in Council activities and accepts the need to review the policies each year. Other Councils like Kirklees and Woking have clearly gone much further.

Peak Oil Portland, Oregon became the first governmental body in the US to not only acknowledge that imminent peak oil is a reality, but also to publish a plan as to what the city should be doing to cope. The Portland Peak Oil Task Force have produced a succinct, outstanding report that should be read by every local official everywhere. While there will naturally be many local variations, Portland’s approach to the problem contains much that seems universally applicable. See: http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=145732

It is vital Councils start to address Peak Oil. I welcome news that the Leader of Stroud District Council has planned a talk on this to start to explore what needs to be done.

I look forward to hearing more about how the Sounding Board develops and would welcome your views on these issues. Cllr Philip Booth, Coordinator of Green Group on Stroud District Council, Stroud District Green party.