Andy Read blogs: County blocks food waste to heat pool and more

Andy Read (pictured right with John Marjoram) is the Independent district councillor and former Mayor of Stroud - Greens didn't stand against him in the recent elections - a rare event indeed but Andy has demonstrated leadership on many key 'green' issues. Anyhow he has a blog sharing what he gets up to and I wanted to share it here - in particular a couple of his recent blogs....

Firstly an issue I have been meaning to write on for a while - the County Council blocking plans for an anaerobic digester that could be used to heat Stroud swimming pool. You can read his blog here - this story has a long history - the county argue they want a bigger contract with all the Districts but here is a real local solution that works out economically - we deal with our own waste and heat the pool - with rising fuel prices we must do something to tackle the costs - in the new contract for Stratford Park it looks like any rises will be shared between SDC and the new company that looks set to possibly take over from Parkwood to manage Stratford Park Leisure. At the recent Cabinet meeting I asked if, as I had requested long ago, that the new contract had a clear clause that SDC can add renewables in the future. It does.

The second item that caught my eye - had missed it in the news - was police will now travel free on Stagecoach - see here - this might save money - see Andy's blog on the £18m cuts to police here - more importantly it might lead to safer public transport and hopefully a green message to other organisations?

Third was Andy's item on Capel Mill and the canal route - see here - some will remember some years ago the Iranian artist working there - see my photos of his fantastic work here - anyway the new plans were on show at Brunel Mall a week or so ago and I went along - I have to say they are a vast improvement on previous plans. Indeed the previous plans and the sham consultation that went with them left a nasty taste - this route does seem to address most of the major concerns. Although I have to say while the canal project is moving ahead there are very real concerns about the budget - we learnt recently that the shortfall has risen from £2.3 million reported in March, to £3.38 million now.