Decentralised Public Services

Coventry is broken down into 18 wards, and Earlsdon has 8 areas (all the DCs and DAs) where people have polling booths ... why don't we have a city where there are 18 x 8 depots for recycling glass? I had problems with my right knee between late August and March, and I was able to have community physiotherapy at the Govind clinic on Moor Street.

Other NHS and government services need to be decentralised to the community level (mental health care, eldercare for the NHS; the city council is planning for a bus, equipped with service information, to visit communities).

What Those Funny DC, DB and DA codes mean

On your electoral card, the one where it tells you your polling station, etc:

Each of the 18 wards in Coventry get assigned a letter. In Earlsdon's case, it's "D", and then, the ward is split into smaller geographic areas, "DA", "DB", etc.

DA, DB, and DC are near the high street of Earlsdon, DD, DE and DF are in Stivichall, DG and DH are on the other side of Canley overland (DG is Canley Road and DH is along Broad Lane).

So, that's what DC 1002 means.

Personally, I have no idea why the ward is shaped this way. People who live north of the railway bridge on Earlsdon Avenue North consider themselves in Earlsdon, but they aren't. People along Broad Lane probably would self-define as being in Whoberley.

Perhaps it would make more sense, instead of having 54 councilors for 18 wards, to have 54 councillors for 27 wards, to make them more geographically-defined by community.

Tories and the Environment

A poll for the BBC's Daily Politics show revealed that 62% think David Cameron was only talking about the environment because he thinks it will make people more positive about his party, not because he really cares about it.

Caroline Jackson, chair of the European Parliament's Environment Ctee for 5 years and a Tory MEP, has said:

"I think from the point of view of the Conservative party pursuing the green line is all talk and no action at the moment ... It's part of the current process in the Conservative party of giving green issues prominence and taking up some pretty strange positions on some things I think ... When push comes to shove in the general election I suspect we will roll back from some of this."

What does Earlsdon need? The real Green Party, or blue wolves in green clothes?

Iran and Coventry Stop The War

A productive meeting last night at Coventry Stop The War.

The focus was on military families' protests against UK action, as well as the possibility of strikes against Iran and any planned response to it.

The US was fine in the 1970's with extensive Iranian plans for nuclear power generation, but that was when Iran had a leader allied with the West and buying Western arms.

Here's a great article by Michael Klare who points out that it probably isn't oil that the West wants with Iran, it's natural gas.

According to Oil and Gas Journal, Iran has an estimated 940 trillion cubic feet of gas, or approximately 16% of total world reserves. (Only Russia, with 1,680 trillion cubic feet, has a larger supply.) As it takes approximately 6,000 cubic feet of gas to equal the energy content of 1 barrel of oil, Iran's gas reserves represent the equivalent of about 155 billion barrels of oil. This, in turn, means that its combined hydrocarbon reserves are the equivalent of some 280 billion barrels of oil, just slightly behind Saudi Arabia's combined supply. At present, Iran is producing only a small share of its gas reserves, about 2.7 trillion cubic feet per year. This means that Iran is one of the few countries capable of supplying much larger amounts of natural gas in the future. What all this means is that Iran will play a critical role in the world's future energy equation.

This is especially true because the global demand for natural gas is growing faster than that for any other source of energy, including oil. While the world currently consumes more oil than gas, the supply of petroleum is expected to contract in the not-too-distant future as global production approaches its peak sustainable level -- perhaps as soon as 2010 -- and then begins a gradual but irreversible decline. The production of natural gas, on the other hand, is not likely to peak until several decades from now, and so is expected to take up much of the slack when oil supplies become less abundant. Natural gas is also considered a more attractive fuel than oil in many applications, especially because when consumed it releases less carbon dioxide (a major contributor to the greenhouse effect).

Cherie Blair's Hair

Tonic, Grants and Robert Carl need to target a new client. Cherie Blair spent over £7000 during the last national election on hairdressing. A Labour spokesperson, when the figure was put to her, said, and you can't make this up, "So what? ... We won the election."

Seattle's city government has a series of interesting tips on how to save energy in the home.

Small Business and the High Street

- Independent shops are vital in Coventry. You can walk to them, and you meet people you know in them. Local shops sponsor and promote community events.
- People drive to out-of-town retail parks, and people drive to huge supermarkets, but people can walk/cycle to their local high street
- The Green Party favours abolishing council tax and replacing it with a Land Value Tax (a yearly assessment of rental value). In the meantime, Coventry tax rates should encourage investment by small businesses in environmental improvements (rebates for insulation, use of renewable energy).
- Coventry City Council should use its planning powers more effectively to safeguard local post offices and pharmacies by refusing planning permission for these services to large retailers
- Improved public transport will encourage shoppers back to high streets

In terms of beautifying the high street, Transport 2000 has promoted the use of Community Street Audits:

"On a street audit, small groups of local people examine the street in detail and their findings are written up into a report. Problems identified include broken pavements, redundant guard rails, a lack of trees, illegal parking, traffic speeds and poor lighting for pedestrians. These problems are fed into the redesign of the road to ensure they are resolved as far as possible and previous mistakes are not repeated in the new design. Community street audits have already been carried out in Bradford, Bakewell, Evesham, Hull and Southwark and have received enthusiastic support from local people."

Amnesty International on Arms Trade/Executions

In the cinemas, I still haven't seen this ad for Teleshop.

Amnesty International also has a new report out today on the use of the death penalty. In 2005, at least 2,148 people were executed in 22 countries, 94 percent of them in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Reminder: Coventry Stop The War meeting, 730pm tonight, upstairs at Methodist Central Hall, New Union Street.

Deepening Democracy in Coventry

If society is apathetic and depoliticised, it gives more scope for corruption and exploitation of the system, as well as creating more room for extreme parties.

That’s why:

- At 16, you can get married, pay taxes and join the army. The Green Party supports the campaign to lower the voting age to 16.
- We would bring in “Citizen Initiatives” – a petition from 20% of the electors in a council ward could place a proposition on the ballot for the coming year
- If elected, I would voluntarily subject myself to recall, that is, if 40% of Earlsdon ward would sign a petition calling for my recall, I would resign to fight a by-election
- I would send updates six times per year to all dwellings in the Earlsdon ward on recent city council decisions
- With local election turnout so low, the Greens would push to get as many people as possible on the electoral roll

Peugeot Closing Plant At Ryton

Workers shouldn’t find out they have been sacked through the media, end of. But what bothers me about cases like Ryton is that local Labour MPs start clamouring for mass retraining packages, “just as we did for Rover,” as Mike O’Brien (Labour, North Warwickshire) has said.

Britain needs a far better retraining/reskilling system, 52 weeks a year, not just when a Ryton or a Longbridge happens.

Take Denmark:

- an unemployment rate of 5%
- for the first four years after being fired, your unemployment benefit can be as high as 90% of your current wage, plus extra training
- however, you risk losing your benefit if you refuse a job within two hours' travel from home … and on the first day after you are fired, you have to register with an employment office

How does Denmark do it? Income taxes as high as 60%.

It works so well that “when the centre-right government tried to cut unemployment benefits for highly skilled workers, it was employers who protested that the plan would upset the social balance that keeps Denmark competitive. So it was quietly shelved.”

Britain has emphasised flexibility and a lower-wage economy … at the expense of security for workers. That’s what leads to Rytons and Longbridges.

Oh, and the number of Danes employed, both directly and indirectly, in wind turbine manufacture increased from 2 900 in 1991 to 21 000 by 2002.

Coventry was the leader in watch making, in bicycle making, then in car manufacture. Why haven’t we become part of the next manufacturing revolution?

Until We Get Plastic Recycling in Earlsdon ...

Here are some neat ideas for reusing plastic bottles in your garden.

Other tips on how to reuse plastic:

- Take a reusable shopping bag to the supermarket or corner shop, or re-use the bags you were given last time. Don't accept a bag if you don't need one.
- Use plastic yoghurt pots to grow seedlings.
- Buy products that are refillable.
- Don't add extra packaging -- do grapefruits and bananas (which already have natural packaging) need a separate plastic bag from the dispensers in the produce section?

Road Building and the Conservatives

Chris Grayling is the Tory Shadow Environment Secretary. Whilst loading his party conference speech in Manchester this year with rhetoric, he also said that he wanted to get "rid of the bottlenecks that snarl up our roads" and "I want us to continue to champion the freedom of the motorist."

David Cameron, Mr. Wind Turbine on my house, Mr. Arctic Circle trip to see a glacier later this week, has dismissed the Climate Change Levy (an extra tax on greenhouse emissions of big business) as "red tape." In his first speech as party leader, he declared, "I want to build more roads ... we need a concerted programme of road building."

In February 2006, the Department of Transport published statistics showing that road traffic has risen 11% since 1997 in England. And the Conservatives want even more? And they're environmental?

What we need, at the city level, are strategies for year-on-year traffic reduction. Less traffic on the roads means less congestion and safer walks to school for children.

Easter and Recycling

Recycle for Warwickshire is calling on people to remember to think of the environment when disposing of the packaging from Easter eggs. 80 million chocolate eggs will be sold in the UK this year, generating around 4,370 tonnes of card and 160 tonnes of foil waste. An average 200g chocolate egg comes with 54g card and 2g of foil – both of which can be recycled.

Coventry and Health

In the West Midlands:

- 23% of men and 29% of women are obese. A further 43% of men and 31% of women are overweight.
- Eating at least five portions of fruit and veg per day is recommended, but less than a quarter of men and women meet this recommendation. On average, men in the West Midlands eat only 3.2 portions per day and women 3.4 portions.
- Only 40% of people are moderately physically active (equivalent to brisk walking) for at least 30 minutes, five days a week.

A Green group on Coventry City Council would lobby for more public education campaigns on healthy eating and exercise. Last September, the Lady Godiva Half Marathon was a great event. We would also expand fruit and veg programmes in local schools.

Green Policies on Schools

When schools, in this case, or libraries, or other public buildings in Coventry, undergo renovations, this is the kind of modification that we need to put into place. Moseley Primary School in Coundon has been rebuilt with a sedum roof (a green, grass-type plant, which will provide a habitat for local insects and birds, whilst absorbing rainwater), as well as harvesting rainwater for flushing the school toilets.

As well, Stoke Park Secondary was part of a project for cycle safety training, traffic calming, and a new set of bike sheds, designed by local artist Jon Ford. Ford worked with the pupils to design the sheds (capacity for 80 bikes). Notably, the sheds were made possible through funding from the Government's Cycle Projects Fund, Cyclic, the New Opportunities Fund, and the City Council. The public sector has to take the initiative to spur this kind of change onwards.

Parliamentary Committee Says No to Nuclear

The all-party Environment Audit Committee has released a new report, Keeping the Lights On: Nuclear, Renewables and Climate Change, that states:

"Over the next 10 years, nuclear power cannot contribute either to the need for more generating capacity or to carbon reductions as it simply could not be built in time ... Nuclear power raises a variety of issues which would need to be satisfactorily resolved before any decision to go ahead is taken."

It highlights problems such as: terrorism, nuclear proliferation risks, safety, public acceptability, long-term waste disposal, and the availability of uranium.

At present, coal and nuclear supplies about 60 percent of Britain's electricity. We need to flip that around, i.e. 60% decentarlised renewables, and Coventry could be a lead council in that process.