Paul Crossley

Great news from the USA this morning - another victory on the long march for Barack. The presedential campaign is important not just to the USA but to the world. Eight years with Al Gore in charge would have seen America fully engaged in the Global Warming agenda and in all probability no illegal invasion of Iraq.

Politics does matter and peoples votes do count - or at least they should - think back to hanging chads in Florida or more recently the sad problems with Kenya. Many people believe Bush did not win first time round and in also in Kenya that Kibaki did not win this time round. Who is President of USA is important to all of us.

Obama is in my opinion way ahead of the other Democrat contenders and I hope he gets their nomination. His South Carolina victory speach was inspiring.

The Local Government Association (LGA) does a lot of good work on behalf of Councils putting the Local case in front of Government ministers. There is still more that needs doing though. As part of the LGA they have boards that mirror the Government ministries. I am a Liberal Democrat member of the Culture, Tourism and Sport Board. At our latest meeting we discussed the 2012 games, Cultural Improvement, Creative Economy, Sports England, Tourism and our work plan. The Government seems to be going down a line of supporting elitism and moving away from mass participation. This process is under way in sport and seems to be going that way in art as well. We are trying to halt this drift and keep public committment to participation in its widest remit.

I am also a BathNES rep on the SW LGA and this week we had our latest board meeting. Gordon Brown is scrapping Regional Assemblies and strengthening the powers of the unelected RDAs. However there does seem to be room for negotiations on the roles and powers of regional LGAs post the scrapping of the Regional Assemblies. At present we seem to be discussing 'strategic bodies of leaders' and not first looking at what we want the big picture and landscape to look like. Should the new regional LGAs just be scrutiny bodies or could we perhaps bid to take over some of the many quangos that operate across the country spending public money and accountable to Westminster rather than the local communities they serve.

Welcome to Nicholas Coombes to the Blog world of keeping in contact with residents. I have added his link to my list of Bath & NESomerset links. Nich is one of our two student Councillors who got elected in May. I live in their ward and can vouch for the fact that they are really keeping in touch with residents more actively than we have experienced before.

The West of England Waste partnership is now caving in to pressure from Liberal Democrats around the sub region and the Friends of the Earth groups who all firmly said NO to mass burn incineration options. Here in Bath and NESomerset we have been asking questions for several months and have suggested that we should pull out of the partnership if it chose such a flawed route as Mass Burn financed by any method but especially if it was, as suggested, with the dreaded PFI. Now we have to get on and increase our recycling rates but more importantly actually reduce the amount of waste we create.

Locally the Conservative cabinet is looking at some unpalatable cuts and price hikes. The hikes in parking are particularly large. Parking charges and residents parking are only being looked at in Bath and not elsewhere. The residents parking principle is that the charges should cover the costs and not been seen as a generator of income. The new Conservative administration seems set on turning all forms of parking and traffic control in Bath into a cash cow. Watch this space I think.

On Tuesday I did my first Audit Commission Consistancy panel day. I have been working with the Audit Commission on CPA for several years now and have done a total of 4 inspections. This was my first consistancy panel though. The purpose of the consistancy stage is to try ensure that the various teams are producing reports and scores that marry well with other inspections. On the panel day I was involved in the review of 2 Councils. I think independent external inspection is a good process and the Audit Commission tries to be both rigorous and fair in its approach.

Firstly my ClimateCare certificate came through for my latest offset payment. Climate_Care_certificate_Jan08.pdf

On Monday I was asked to give a lecture to a group of Austrian business men staying in Bath to improve their English Language skills. The course was being held at the Dukes Hotel in Pulteney Street and had 15 participants from a range of business and mangement levels.

The talk was about explaining the diversity that is local government in the UK and the roles and responsibilities that we have with an extra emphasis on education. There were a range of questions when we got to the section on waste management and recycling. Readers of this blog will know where I stand on incineration and so when asked the question I gave my usual answer and my policy of zero waste. The gentleman asking the question was a manager of the local incinerator and he said that in Austria they have a lots of incinerators. The purpose of the talk was to explain local government and not engage in polemic so I simply said we would have to agree to disagree and moved to the next question on governance. Interestingly in Austria they take their children to school in a free school bus system. Something we should be looking at here as well I think.

Anyway they were all having a great time in Bath enjoying the pubs and the hotel restaurant which serves excellant food.

The Bristol Liberal Democrats have opened an on-line petition site against the proposed mass burn incinerators that our local West of England Authorities are planning.  Please check it out and sign up against another of these monstrosities.  Burning waste sends out all the wrong messages. Its a cop out and stops real environmental progress and improvement.

dew

There have been two very interesting debates over the last two days. Factory Farmed Eggs and Organ Donation for human transplant.

Let us start with Organ Donation. There is no doubt that there is a large waiting list for organs. There is no doubt that organ donation saves lives. There is no doubt that we need to encourage more citizens to donate and that more sympathetic counselling and care can be done with grieving relatives to encourage donation as a gift of life from sadness. However to change the basis of our medical approach from informed consent to presumed consent is not tenable. A body belongs to a person and not to the state. The state and health services should not, in my view, move into the position of being body-snatchers. We must put our efforts into getting people signed up for voluntary donation and better counselling when working with grieving families.

And now to factory farming. This is not the fault of farmers but rather the pressure from consumers for the cheapest possible food. I think the quest for cheap food is one of the factors leading to our current obesity epidemic. Another is the industrialisation of food. The government is absolutely right to put a strict time limit on the phasing out of battery chicken production. Let us reconnect our food to the land. The egg and bacon may cost more individually but if the bacon is proper food then we need also re-educating to the fact that one rasher of good bacon is much better than a plate with 6 rashers of trash on it. Therefore food cost per plate will also reduce and portion size will return to healthy levels. We get healthier, eat better food and most importantly our chickens and other farm animals have a proper life quality. Eating less meat will also mean eating more fruit and veg - which will also improve our diet and our environment.

A cluster of subjects todayl

The Transition Movement is starting to grow rapidly now with Transition Towns, Cities, Villages and Communities springing up all over the place. Transition is all about life on earth after Peak Oil. Peak Oil is roughly now and transition makes the assumption that society must start adjusting now to a future where oil is scarce and expensive and so we will need to order ourselves differently and change many of our working assumptions about how society co-exists and developes. Transition Bath started in the autumn last year. The stearing group is meeting monthly and we hope to start moving away from debate into action soon. The web site will be launched soon, we have set up a Facebook friend called Transition Bath and are considering setting up a facebook group. We are developing our logo and our mission statement and are learning about the Transition 12 step programme. We have already put on talks and debates at BRLSI.

Two Tunnels is one of the most exciting parts of the Sustrans Connect2 £50M lottery win. The Two Tunnels will be part of a cycle route going from Bath Western Riverside out under Bath to Midford and beyond. Now that it is through its main planning hurdle I am joining the committe. In fact I could have joined earlier because when it came to the planning committee I decided that my interest in the scheme would be deemed prejudicial and so could not take part in the debate or vote. We are a partnership of Two Tunnels, Council and Sustrans and the next stage is where we start work on delivering the dream. Hopefully during the year will be some working parties and we have decided on how we are going to phase the project but first we have to go through all the legal bits and pieces. Exciting times. All cyclists and long distance walkers should keep an eye on this and put it in your plans for 2010/11. You could walk down the Cotswold Way - under Bath and then out into the lovely countryside going south to Radstock for instance. The Tunnels willl be well lit and safe.

One of the roles of a Councillor is to be on outside bodies. I am now on two boards Bath Tourism Plus and Bath Plus. The former is a well established tourist body promoting Bath and NE Somerset as a holiday destination. The latter is a new board set up by the new administration to forge a public-private partnership to manage the City Centre of Bath. At the BTP meeting we had some interesting feedback from the Bath Christmas Market and started mapping out the promotions for the coming year. While for Bath Plus it was the first meeting of the full committee following the ratification of the Cabinet decision to procede with its formation. First job - advertise the City Centre Manager job. It will be advertised in the next edition of City Centre Managers Journal. The news last night reported the sales decline of M&S, Bristol Broadmead opens next year and the new Southgate follows later. So Bath has a challenging couple of years ahead as Britol opens up, the country has a recession and our centre is a building site. Luckily the Bath Spa is prooving very popular and is bringing large numbers of extra people to shop, stay and visit Bath as well as experience our Spa.

The new Conservative Cabinet met again this week and unfortuneately I missed it. However several of our group went. The new Conservative administration is already struggling and is adopting a hard-nose approach to life. School meal costs UP - car parking charges UP - Cleveland Pools SOLD - Cooked Food Waste colection DELAYED - same day waste collection DELAYED - busgate used as an income generator. Their justification is to blame everyone else but themselves. But worst of all is their remorseless drive to signing up to a Mass Burn Incinerator waste solution and not only that but one funded by the dreaded PFI school of finance. This is completely counter to the Council's official policy of a Zero Waste Strategy. I think their main problem is that they simply do not understand what Zero Waste is all about. Final item was to consider the future of the Radstock Hall. I am supporting the campaign to have it listed of Historical Local significance. Unfortuneately English Heritage have just decided not to list - so some more work there to try and pursuade them to change their mind.

I am a firm believer in Local Government and also in improving the working of local Government. One of the roles I do is to work for the Audit Commission on their Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspections of Councils as a peer member. I have also just signed up to do Consistancy work. This is part of the CPA and its aim is to ensure that the many CPA teams assessing a variety of Councils produce output and reports that are consistant across the board. So this week I had my consistancy training in preparation for being on the Consistancy panel for block 16 Councils.

So how has 2007 been? A mixed bag I think. But for 2008 I predict that Nick Clegg will proove a good leader for the Liberal Democrats, The David Cameron Conservatives will not advance as they expect in the May elections and that Gordon Brown will continue to struggle with his new role of Prime Minister.

First the bad bits..

Governments around the world have brutalised their people - Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burma to name but three. Electoral irregularities in Kenya have denied Raila Odinga who seems to have beaten President Kibaki. The people of Kenya have voted for change and been denied it. The European and Commonwealth movements need to move quickly to pursuade the Kenyan authorities to accept the will of the people. Nick Clegg has called for a complete recount of the votes. Sadly it is the people who are suffering in the violent aftermath.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a disaster for democracy in Pakistan and for the wider world. She was a courageous female politician known throughout the world. She deserved our respect and Pakistan needed our support to hold free and fair elections. Pakistan needed change and renewal but again the people are not being heard as the current regime cling on to power aided and supported by governments around the world.

The world nearly woke up to the threat of Global Warming in Bali but again the forces of denial lead by the American government ensured that the final text was as minimalist as possible. As we leave 2007 and enter 2008 the world can at last see some hope as we enter the final year of President Bush. Let's hope the American people have some candidates who understand that the world is more than just America and that the next President wants to work for and with the world. Lets hope that whether the next President is Republican or Democrat they at least have a positive agenda for the planet. From the current list of declared candidates my vote would be for Barack Obama. As the delegate from Papua New Guinea said to the American delegation at Bali "if you don't want to lead then please just get out of the way."

and now the good bits...

South Africa is again providing leadership for the continent showing that democratic change can occur with strong debate and acceptance of the vote. This month should see good news reporting from Africa - even if it is only football. Africa is providing so much hope for its people in many areas. Its just a shame that the only news that gets reported is bad news.

Increasing numbers of people are waking upto the planetry crises and grass roots movements are springing up everywhere.

Europe's peaceful revolution is still spreading and 2008 may even see Serbia accepting what is happening in Kosovo. Europe may even wake upto to the fact that Turkey should be allowed in.

The Japanese accepted they could not slaughter humpback whales. Perhaps one day they will stop all the slaughter of these magnificent creatures.

The resistance to GM (nightmare) food is strong and growing. People can stop big companies having it all their own way.

and in the UK - the smoking ban was not the end of civilisation as we know it. Perhaps now the drink-drive legal limit can be moved to zero so that there is no ambiguity in the message.

And finally Bath are playing some beautiful if inconsistant rugby at the moment.

So how are we doing in our household on our carbon footprint.

Cars

- mine current mileage Jan 1 2008 45255 Jun 1 mileage 43925 - distance travelled = 1330 (previous 5 mths 1664 and previous 6 months to that 1579) - BUT didnt get rid of the car in the end.

- my wife's car - curent 45786 previous 38349 - distance travelled = 7435 (previous totals 4877 and 5133)

car travel = 8738 miles = emissions from this at an assumed 32mpg are: 2.87 Tonnes of CO2 The cost to offset this CO2 will be £ £21.50

Flights = work - NONE : holiday - NONE

Therefore my carbon offset cost of travel for me and my wife for the last 7 months of 2007 are £21.50. Payment made to Climatecare.

For 2008 I will add in the gas and electricity costs for my house.