Call for rethink on £3.6 billion Thames Water Super Sewer

Normally for private businesses the profit motive acts as a spur to efficiency and keeping down costs. But when it comes to Thames Water's proposed Super Sewer, current estimate £3.6 billion and rising, this does not apply. As a monopoly they would be allowed to pass the bill on to their customers. This would imply they were neutral, indifferent, about the financing. But actually it is worth than that. They would actually make money by being able to charge those of us who are their customers more than the cost. This is because they would be paying 2% interest on the loans raised but charging 4.5%. (I was interviewed about this by the BBC last week.)

The River Thames is actually getting cleaner - according to the Environment Agency it is one of the cleanest metropolitan rivers in Europe. The real stink is the financing rules. More expensive the scheme the more profit Thames Water make.

Three councils have sponsored a Thames Tunnel Commission to look into the matter. Two of the councils are Conservative (Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea) one is Labour (Southwark.) The Commission was chaired by Lord Selbourne and in its report concluded that  a smarter, cheaper option of a shorter tunnel would still meet the requirements of the EU directives and make the River Thames cleaner.

The three Council leaders response is as follows:

Cutting street lighting has not increased crime

The Sunday Telegraph reports that in a survey 98 out of 133 councils were reducing, or considering reducing, street lighting. The evidence from those that have done so already - such as Essex, Gloucestershire, Essex and Leicestershire - is that this has not resulted in an increase in crime. There could be all sorts of explanations for this although the fear of increased crime will mean cutting street lighting will remain a controversial decision for councils. But then the benefits go beyond saving money, many welcome the reduction in light pollution.

Norfolk County Council is proposing to reduce its night lighting in some areas to save £167,000 a year and cut its CO2 emissions by 10%.

What does Cllr Steven Altman, a Green Party councillor for Messum Ward on Norwich City Council, think of the plan?

Councils propose smoking bans in parks

The Daily Mail reports that some councils are planning to ban smoking in parks, public streets and cars with child passengers. This follows the smoking ban on indoor public places since 2007.

It says:

"Some councils, including Warrington in Cheshire and Stony Stratford, near Milton Keynes, are planning to outlaw smoking in cars carrying children.

Stony Stratford councillor Paul Bartlett said the campaign had the support of senior members of the town council, but would need the approval of Milton Keynes Council.

Mr Bartlett, 50, is also pushing for a new bylaw to outlaw smoking in any open place or public street in Stony Stratford."

The proposals have arisen after the ban in New York on smoking in parks and the greater powers councils will be given in the Localism Bill. Will this power also mean that councils will be able to lift the ban on smoking in pubs in their area?

Commission to probe multi-billion pound super sewer

Plans for a London-wide ‘super-sewer’ that is set to add £10 a month for life to the bills of 14 million Thames Water customers will be probed by an independent commission it was announced today.

A team of internationally renowned experts, led by Lord Selborne, will examine the case for the massive 20-mile long sewer – which will be larger than the Channel Tunnel if it is built.

Thames Water claim the tunnel is needed to avoid EU fines and clean up the River Thames but growing numbers of residents, councils and MPs are questioning whether the super sewer, which is also known as the Thames Tunnel, is the best solution.

Westminster Council faces bill of over £50,000 to clear up demo mess

Countryside Alliance marches left the streets of London cleaner than when they started. But the anti cuts demo on Saturday has left a terrible mess. Not just litter, of course, but broken glass and graffiti. The bill for Westminster Council in cleaning it up will be over £50,000. 

Ultimately this is a cost for the Council Taxpayer - a cost which is rather more of a burden proportionately for low paid worker living around Harrow Road than for the plutocrats of Mayfair and Belgravia. Westminster has the second lowest Council Tax in the country - keeping the Council Tax down is not helped by Saturday's yobbery.

Perhaps if Westminster are looking to recoup the cost they might have a look at the £218,000 a year they spend on paying staff to have time off working for trade unions.

Redditch to go ahead with heating swimming pool with energy from crematorium

Conservative-run Redditch Borough Council is proceeding with a plan to used recycled energy from its crematorium to heat a swimming pool. It means reducing its carbon footprint by 4% a year and saving £14,000 a year. The energy would otherwise have gone to waste and it is estimated that it could nearly half the energy needs of the new Abbey Stadium.

Of course the arrangements for crematorium are always going to be sensitive. Will people feel put off going for a swim feeling the arrangement is morbid? Will relatives of the deceased feel affronted that the arrangement is exploitative? Unison were quick to attack Tory cuts. But the proposal has won overwhelming support of residents and all Party support of councillors.

Councils ordered less salt than last year

As the UK is blasted by snow and icy weather, the TaxPayers' Alliance has compiled a list of how much local councils have spent on road salt in the last two years.  They also reveal the total cost of purchasing emergency salt in 2009-10; buying emergency salt can be as much as three to four times as expensive per tonne.

The key findings of this research are:

- The total cost of purchasing emergency supplies of road salt in 2009-10 was £10.5 million.

- The council that spent the most on emergency road salt in 2009-10 was North Yorkshire with £533,652.

- So far, councils have ordered less salt this year (2010-11) than they did last year (2009-10). In 2009-10 councils ordered 1,509,129 tonnes and this year 1,482,730 tonnes has been ordered. While the 2010-11 total may rise, these figures show that they have not prepared adequately by buying more in advance.

- 75 out of 205 councils have not received all of this year's road salt order.- Emergency spending on road salt varied greatly between councils. For example, Newcastle spent £331,400, while neighbouring Sunderland spent £0.

- Bradford council spent £286,000 on road salt on an emergency basis while Leeds council spent £13,400.

Regional Fire Control cancelled

Gloucestershire Conservatives are celebrating an early Christmas present today, with the news that the Government has scrapped plans for regional fire control centres.  The Labour scheme would have seen Gloucester’s Fire Control centre closed and moved to a regional call centre in Taunton.  The project has so far cost taxpayers in excess of £420m – despite an original budget of only £120m – and has been consistently opposed by Gloucestershire Conservatives.

As Fire Minister, former Gloucester Labour MP, Parmjit Dhanda, who lost his seat in the general election, was responsible for pushing the project forward in the face of opposition from local residents.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, commented:

“The Government has done exactly as promised and scrapped the regional Fire Control project.  Labour’s crazy scheme would has wasted millions and would have put lives in Gloucestershire at risk – I am overjoyed it has been scrapped.  This is the outcome of months and years of campaigning for Gloucestershire’s Conservative councillors and MPs.  I would like to particularly thank Fire Minister Bob Neil and Secretary of State for Communities Eric Pickles for this excellent decision.”

New powers to clamp down on illegal sites

Councils are to be given strong new powers to tackle unauthorised development by travellers and stop planning breaches through the Localism Bill, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today. Mr Pickles wants to protect people who play by the rules by creating a fairer planning system that can put a halt to illegal developments - such as unauthorised traveller sites and homes built in secret without planning permission – that have a dramatic affect on law abiding neighbours.

The proposals are an important part of the coalition government’s planning reforms that give councils strong enforcement powers to tackle people who wilfully ignore planning law or break agreed conditions for development.

Retrospective planning permission for unauthorised traveller sites and other illegal developments will be banned whilst subject to tougher enforcement proceedings. Councils will have new powers to extend time limits on tackling people who deliberately mislead planners such as those deliberately concealing illegal building.

The Localism Bill will devolve greater powers to councils and neighbourhoods and give local communities more control over housing and planning decisions. It will help set the foundations for the Big Society by radically transforming the relationships between central government, local government, communities and individuals.

Trees from Boris are not just for Christmas

24 London boroughs are set to enjoy the leafy shoots of 4,500 new street trees this winter, thanks to funding from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. This will bring the total number of trees funded by the Mayor since he was elected to over 9,500, well on track to meet his target of planting 10,000 street trees by March 2012.

Now in its third year, the Mayor's street tree programme has already given money to plant more than 5,000 street trees across London in areas identified as being most in need of them. This year boroughs have accepted grants to plant another 4,500 street trees, leaving 500 more to be planted in order to meet the Mayor's 2012 pledge.

In addition to improving the look and feel of a neighbourhood, street trees offer a range of benefits such as attracting wildlife, providing shade, helping to improve local air quality and reducing flood risk.

This coincides with the launch  of Defra's new national programme - the Big Tree Plant - to support tree planting across the UK, in the same way the Mayor is doing in London.