With Birmingham City Council’s Climate Change Festival taking place next week, Strategic Director of Environment & Culture Sharon Lea talks about the campaign to get women to recycle their bras at the Festival on June 5.
If you want to find out more about what is happening on the day, then you can visit http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/climatechangefestival
Midland Metro
Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans for a £6 billion cut in spending and this may put the Midland Metro extension at risk.
George Osborne
In March, the former Labour government proposed to put forward £81m to the extension and £127m to replace the 19-tram fleet. Personally I do not see the point in extending the Metro from Snow Hill to New Street since Snow Hill Station is just a five minute walk from New Street and spending over £80m would not be worth it.
If the extension was to be scrapped then I would be in favour of it. Simply because I do not understand the logic as to why you would want to create a link from Snow Hill to New Street. Would you not be better off creating links to towns like Dudley or even to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. I mentioned in my previous blog (Midland Metro Extension) that there are buses that do go to Merry Hill but it just takes too long and there are not any direct trains/trams that go to Merry Hill. Maybe creating a tram line that goes to Merry Hill would be something that should be considered.
If you are going to spend money well then why can’t you for example revamp train stations. This is exactly what will be happening at stations on the Chase Line in the West Midlands, Black Country and Staffordshire. £1.6m has been contributed towards this and redeveloping stations will mean improvements on better seating, CCTV and lighting as well as new ticketing machines.
I’m sure people would rather see the money spent on improving rail stations rather than extending the Metro from Snow Hill when New Street is just a five minute walk away. Just hope sense prevails.
Centro will expect a decision to be made in Autumn regarding whether the Metro will be given the green light to be expanded.
Hi all! It is fair to say that I have not been blogged for some time and I apologise for this. Just that I have had other commitments.
In The Guardian this weekend, news broke out that only 62% of Britons are concerned about climate change which is down from 80% in 2006 according to YouGov. Is this a concern for you? What have the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition got to do in order to tackle climate change?
The failure to reach an agreement on fresh emissions in last year’s Copenhagen climate summit and the cold weather may have been some of the reasons why the interest on climate change has decreased. The progress made about dealing with climate change has been minimal and something needs to be done.
The agreements that were made in the summit fell way short of what Britain and many other countries were seeking. African and vulnerable countries in particular were hoping for deeper emission cuts but the biggest surprise was the decision to drop the 2050 aim of trying to reduce worldwide CO2 emissions by 80%. To be honest I was bamboozled by this announcement.
So should climate change be one of the main issues that should be tackled by the new British coalition government?
Finally I have managed to do my first podcast for Birmingham Recycled! I admit the quality is not great but I got there in the end. Lakhjit Lotay who is also in the Energy and Technology team also took part in the podcast. Fingers crossed this will be the first of many.
The podcast covers:
To keep up to date with the latest environmental news in Birmingham/West Midlands then click here. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
To listen to the latest podcast for Birmingham Recycled click here: Birmingham Recycled Podcast
One topic that was not discussed in the historic General Election Live Debate last Thursday (15/04/2010), was how important green issues are as well as the environment. The following day during ‘Morning’s with Joanne Malin on BBC WM one of the topics discussed was ‘do green issues have a part in today’s economy?’ You can listen to the show by clicking here. You only have until 23/04/2010 to listen to the show on BBC IPlayer.
Downing Street
Green and environmental issues appear not to be one of the top priorities for the main three parties. Are they important?
These are some of the promises that are featured in the manifesto’s in terms of the ‘Environment’
Labour
Conservatives
Liberal Democrats
On the show there were three guests. Joe Peacock from the Birmingham Friends of The Earth, Steve Lines from Transitions and Stuart Bowles from Northfield Eco Centre.
Some of the topics discussed were:
Listening to the show, I thought to myself maybe these issues should be at the forefront and that they do have a major role in today’s economy. One point I thought was interesting was the fact that the Northfield Eco Centre have Tetra Recycling facilities for Tetra packs, batteries etc. The government only recycle certain things that are found on the doorstep. The Eco Centre aim to help the local community as well as those living in the South Birmingham area.
All three guests believed that the Liberal Democrats are closest in terms of what we should be achieving to cut down emissions. A Green Investment Bank has been proposed by both the Conservatives and the Labour parties. The Chancellor Alistair Darling announced he would put £2 bllion towards it but Peacock from Birmingham Friends of The Earh stated that more money needs to be put forward.
Let me know what you think. Should green issues be a top priority for the main political parties?
I’m already aware that so many articles have been written about the Midland Metro being extended from Birmingham Snow Hill to Birmingham New Street. This is what my take is on the whole situation.
The Metro
The one thing I am totally confused by is why extend the Metro line from Snow Hill to New Street Station? New Street is only a five minute walk to Snow Hill and yet more than £120 million is being put forward if this proposal does go ahead. I still cannot get my head around this. The £120 million could be used on something else that is worthwhile e.g. Improving the roads in Birmingham etc.
Almost 1,300 jobs would be created if the plan is approved which is a positive for those who are still unemployed and a boost for the city of Birmingham. However extending the line from Snow Hill to New Street! I’m not a fan of that and I think you would be better off creating a link from Wednesbury to Dudley/Merry Hill. What exactly would the benefits be. The Bull Ring is literally a five minute walk from Snow Hill.
If a link was created from Wednesbury to Dudley/Merry Hill, then people will not necessarily have to catch the bus all the time. If new links were set up, then I’m sure people would use the tram more often rather than catch the bus. It will be less time consuming and it will also cause less hassle. I remember that it almost took me an hour to get from West Bromwich to Merry Hill in the Bus with no traffic. That is insane! It usually takes me 20 minutes to get to Merry Hill in the car. That is a huge time difference.
Again if new links were made, then these will have more benefits then the current Metro extension proposed. Give us a route that the people of the West Midlands want.
This may sound stupid but I actually quite enjoyed writing up my latest article despite people not getting in touch with me. I managed to get some decent quotes and the Liberal Democrat Councillor literally got in contact with me immediately once I had sent him an e-mail.
My source of inspiration for my article came from an article that was published in the Birmingham Post. The people that were mentioned in this article were those who I tried to get in contact with. I did leave messages on voicemail but not many got back to me. This was pretty frustrating because I wanted a wider range of views on the topic. But what can you do!
However both Chris Crean and Cllr Jon Hunt were very co-operative and gave me some useful information about their views on Alistair Darling’s plan to lauch a Green Investment Bank. They also seemed to be knowledgable about this which showed through the way they communicated. The fact that Hunt said the plan of setting up a Green Investment Bank could have setbacks did not surprise me to be honest. Since he is a Liberal Democrat and the Labour party are currently in power, there are bound to be contrasting views.
My latest article is on a survey that was carried out by the West Midlands Regional Observatory Group. Bearing in my mind I was struggling for ideas at the beginning of the week, I managed to find a couple of stories that I could chase up. I may even be able to squeak another story in before the final assignment deadline.
My next idea is based on the fact that Advantage West Midlands have announced that they will be investing £19.5 million in a new Low Carbon Vehicles Technology (LCVT) programme that is estimated will create between 3,000 and 11,500 jobs in the UK by 2020. The programme will fund technological advances in areas such as batteries, motors and aerodynamics. The campaign has been supported by a number of players including Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, Zytek and Ricardo.
It is hoped the funding will boost the Midlands’ status as the place to do business when looking to develop and produce low carbon vehicles and related technologies.
This is great news for the Midlands! What are your thoughts? Is the Midlands starting to step up to the plate?
Click here to access to my article
Hiya all!
I am struggling to come up with ideas for my next article for Birmingham Recycled. One of the topics that were discussed in the podcast that our group (Technology) did on Monday was buses and that double deckers should only be used in the rush hour in both the mornings and evening. This is something I might follow up on. Anybody got any thoughts?
The Mitsubishi Wind Turbine story has gone down the pan! I had high hopes that I could do this but the people I have spoken to have not heard about it. Looks like I will not be covering this. Does anybody have any contacts who know anything about wind farms/turbines? If you do then could you let me know asap.
