20mph zones consultation

A quick reminder that the Council's discussion forum about the proposed 20mph zones is closing in a couple of days time. There is still time to get your view heard and I would encourage you to do so, especially about details about which roads should be included and how the zones should be signed.

Two pilot zones are currently planned - one in St Pauls and Easton and one in Bedminster and Southville. Sadly there was no open discussion about which areas would be considered (this was under the old Labour administration), so I didn't get the chance to advocate for Cotham.

Full details about the pilots are available on the Council website.

Line it, scrape it, lock it!

The Council has recently introduced green corn-starch liner bags for the brown recycling bins and I've been trying them out.

I know that some people are very uneasy about the idea of making something just to throw it away. The idea behind the bags is that they avoid the mess and smells that food waste recycling can create and therefore encourage less dedicated recyclers to get involved. In particular, we are currently giving them out free to people in areas with low recycling rates in order to convince people to start. Initial responses are very positive.

I picked up one free roll of green bags to see how they worked and I have to say that they are great! I have always used newspaper to wrap my food waste and I will be going back to doing this once I have finished my roll... though not being a newspaper reader, I have to scavenge for mine! However, for those people who are sceptical or who are worried about smells, the green bags are a perfect way of getting into food waste recycling.

The Council website has all the info you need about home recycling, including a list of shops that sell brown box liners. (While looking for these links, I also found a frankly rather bizarre recycling game on the Council website.)

Update from conference - commitment to 10:10 campaign

I'm away at Lib Dem conference for the week and I have just sat through a couple of hours of debate on climate change. As a voting rep, I was very happy in particular to vote against a modest nuclear power proposal and in favour of signing up as a party to the 10:10 campaign for a 10% cut in carbon emissions during 2010. One of the criticisms of the government and international targets on climate change is that they are so far in the future that no-one feels compelled to act now. The 10:10 campaign aims to address this.

With my Assistant Executive Member hat on, I am also going to have to give thought to how we can make progress on this as a city in 2010. As I have discussed before, Bristol's carbon footprint (as with all cities) is highly reliant on national government, especially on decarbonising electricity production. Nevertheless, there must be things that we can do now to make a difference, especially in regard to the Council's own property stock and vehicle fleet.

Off now to a fringe meeting as part of the Climate Clinic here, on councils and carbon... maybe I'll get some ideas of how we hit 10:10!

New approach needed on drugs

I have long believed that we, as a nation (and probably worldwide), need to take a different approach to drugs based on reducing crime and minimising harm. At least half of all crime is thought to be drug-related, especially at the more violent end.

A very interesting article then from the BBC today about how a trial project with heroin users seems to have worked very well. The trial operated in London, Darlington and Brighton. It found that by providing heroin to addicts in supervised clinics they radically reduced the harm to the individuals (by taking them off unsafe street heroin) and cut crime in the area - 1,731 offences in a month down to 547 in six months! They also worked to help solve some of the personal issues that had led the people to drugs in the first place.

I know that this sort of approach will stick in the craw of many people, especially those with a more reactionary view of drugs and an over-optimistic opinion of the Police's ability to prevent supply. This isn't an easy problem and we haven't got it right up to now. Maybe this sort of approach - a liberal approach - is the right way forwards. I'd certainly like to see Bristol give it a go. On top of everything else, it is cheaper to the public purse.

Local students off to Nepal

Also at last night's Neighbourhood Partnership meeting, I was approached by a group of young people from Redland Green School who are planning a trip to Nepal - part expedition and part charitable undertaking.

I am strong believer in purposeful travel as a vehicle for stimulating global citizenship (pretentious academic speak for "travelling helps us understand other people and be nicer"), so happy to do my little bit to help them on their way.

The group are obviously doing lots of fundraising to make their trip happen and the flyer to the left shows some of the events that they have lined up - click on it to make it larger.

As a starting point, they are currently collecting old and unwanted clothes and fabrics. If you have stuff to donate, drop them a line on nepal2010@me.com and they will come and pick it up from you. I'm going to take this opportunity to have a clearout in my wardrobe!

In the zone - cracking down on burglary

At the Neighbourhood Partnership meeting last night, the Police gave a presentation to update people on their progress towards cutting burglary rates in Cotham, Redland and Bishopston. The area has traditionally been a hotspot within Bristol, largely due to the concentration of affluent houses and multiple-occupancy houses - both of which offer rich pickings.

The Police have made solid progress and cut burglaries by a quarter in the last two years, which is clearly very good news. They want to get them down by half at the end of their five year campaign.

As part of this, they are running an awareness raising campaign called Are You In The Zone?, plus offering FREE services to local people in order to make their homes more secure. This includes a visit from a police carpenter to assess doors and windows and to make necessary improvements on a completely free basis. You can ask for a visit online.

Get serious about CO2

The Friends of the Earth nationally launched their Get Serious about CO2 campaign a little while back to highlight the need of councils to act on climate change, most specifically by working towards a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2020.

The local Bristol branch of FoE have put together an excellent short video about what the Council could and should be doing, with support from local people and national government. It runs for just over 5 minutes and it's really well put together. You can watch it below :



As a member of Friends of the Earth myself, I have submitted a motion for the meeting of Full Council on 15th September calling on my colleagues of all parties to adopt the main points on the FoE campaign. I'm told by my FoE contacts that they are now using my drafting as something of a model for other parts of the country, which is quite flattering! When I have a little more time and have finalised the wording, I'll put it up here on my blog.

One of the key things to remember is that neither Bristol nor its council can go it alone. We can only reduce our own carbon footprint as a city by 40% if national government makes big steps forward itself to, for example, decarbon electricity production (by increasing the use of renewables) or promote alternative means of powering cars.