Labour and the environment
Labour was the first UK government to recognise the importance of a healthy and attractive environment to everyone's quality of life, and to legislate for sustainable development , striking a balance between economic growth, social justice and environmental protection.
Recognising the dangers of climate change the Labour government met its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, brought in the Climate Change Bill that requires any new policy to be checked for its impact on emissions and launched the greenhouse emissions trading scheme.
So far Conservative environment initiatives have been limited to a change of logo and posing their leader in the Norwegian snow for a photo-opportunity!
Labour's waste management progress
Waste management was an important part of Labour's programme. Recycling saves both material resources and energy and requires less landfill. It has popular support throughout the community. Labour made considerable advances. It:
- increased household
waste recycled from a national average of 7.5% in 1997 to 30.7% in 2007,
with targets of 40% by 2010 and 50% by 2020. A few councils have already
reached 50%, but the majority will have to work hard to reach these targets,
- increased the rates
of kerbside collection by 29%,
- kerbside recycling
schemes now cover 66% of all houses,
- set up the Landfill
Allowance Trading Scheme to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal
waste that local authorities can send to landfill,
- set up the Waste
and Resources Action programme (WRAP) to help stimulate markets for recycled
materials,
- included energy from waste schemes in the Renewables Obligation on electricity suppliers.
In December 2007 Surrey County Council had its waste plan approved by the government inspectors. Five sites were deemed suitable for major waste developments. In Guildford a site at Slyfield on land to the North East of the industrial estate (below right) was approved. This area is close to existing commercial buildings and should not interfere with housing built under the Slyfield Area Action Plan.
Opposition of the
public and borough council has ruled out incineration. Alternative technologies
such as such as anaerobic digestion, plasma gasification and pyrolysis
that produce few or zero emissions were considered suitable and therefore
we should expect the County Council to be pressing for further developments
here, although on past form, they will wait for proposals from waste companies.
There is likely to be some public concern about the impact of large industrial
buildings on the scenic River Wey and the Riverside Park.
(Click on the aerial photo to see a larger version)
