Environment Retrospective

As it is now six months since the local elections, I thought I would look back on what has been achieved in the Environment portfolio. I would divide things into stuff that has happened as a result of Labour winning the election, stuff that would have happened anyway, and problems that needed to be sorted that the Lib Dems and Tories were ignoring.

The two big projects that are now underway are the waste management strategy and the emissions based parking permits. The Tories have shown complete hostility to the alternate weekly collections that are at the heart of the policy. The Liberal Democrats adopted the legal minimum target of 40% and made no effort during their time in office to raise the recycling rate beyond the current 28%. We are aiming at 60%, so I think that is a pretty big gap between the parties. This is a much bigger deal than our support for free bulky waste collections, and the Liberal Democrats' extraordinary support for keeping the £25 charge, although that got far more attention in the campaign. The emissions based parking permits are something the Liberal Democrats spoke about, but did not have the courage to deliver. Had they been re-elected, I suspect that would have continued being in favour in theory but not in practice. Now, of course, they are simply throwing rocks at a policy that most of them probably believe in. I also believe that the new administration has a much greater committment to becoming a FairTrade Borough, as 17 other London Boroughs already are. I hope shortly, that we will have another big project in further reducing carbon emissions.

On the stuff that would have happened anyway, the Local Development Framework Core Strategy has been passed. That unexciting sentence conceals the importance of getting it passed. The strategy significantly improves things like the environmental performance of new housing so it is very important in influencing the environmental performance of the Borough as a whole. I would also highlight the forthcoming Placemaking guide (formerly called the Urban Design Guide). I also suspect that, had they formed a majority, the Liberal Democrats would probably have voted through the Moving Traffic Offences that they supported in principle in 2009, but again did not have the courage to implement.

What I think of problems that need to be dealt with includes several planning matters that are coming up. The imminent demise of Dollis Hill House may be sad, but it will cease a drain on the Council in terms of both officer times and money. It will also end the blight on the "pleasure grounds" part of Gladstone Park. Forthcoming changes to the Planning Committee procedures should cut costs slightly, but also improve the amount of time given to genuinely strategic issues rather than lots of domestic extensions. Finally, I am hoping to agree some changes in planning enforcement to prevent overload which was a potential threat even before the new Con Dem government imposed its cuts, but which the previous administration ducked.

Of course, we have been doing all this at the same time as dealing with the Tory / Lib Dem government's in-year cuts and preparing for the worse local government settlement anyone can remember.

All in all, I think it is fair to say that there has been more progress over the past six months than during the whole of the previous Tory / Lib Dem administration.