I occasionally wonder what future generations will think of the values and choices of our daily lives when they are coping with the world we will leave them. Whilst we've shut our eyes and ears, global carbon emissions have kept of rising as you can see in the latest report from the International Energy Agency http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/24/co2-iea-idUKL5E8GO6B520120524
Not widely reported in our papers, but like the rat caught in the trap we haven't even noticed the door limiting increases to 2 percent slamming shut. A 6 degree rise seems unimaginable, it is unimaginable, but that is the trajectory we are all now on.
However radical action on cutting carbon no longer seems to be trendy for international, national or even local governments it impairs growth we are told. So the answer to our grandchildren seems to be sorry we knew what we were doing but saving you from the full force of unchecked climate change catastrophe just seemed a little dull so we went shopping instead.
Monday, 28 May 2012
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Greenwash anyone?
You have to feel sorry for Bolosver Council’s PR team. Tasked
with explaining to staff why the Council is moving to Clowne they recite the
mantra that the Council faces cuts, something has to be done, and moving to
Clowne is something, so we are going to do it. Never mind the other, easier, “somethings”
such as cutting members allowances.
The second line of defence is the wonderland logic
that says Sherwood Lodge is too big so the Council is moving to a site that is
larger. I’m trying not to be disrespectful to the Council so I have nothing to
say about this.
When both these justification fails the PR team get
all eco-conscious and say the Council cares so much for the environment that they are
moving to a building that is more energy efficient. Given that Bolsover’s current climate change strategy expired last year,
their climate change office group has been suspended, the Cabinet appears to have given up on providing
PV panels on council houses and the Council thinks nothing of uprooting a few mature
trees to make way for a Morrison’s filling station, this claim seemed to
warrant closer inspection.
Fortunately all public sector buildings are required to
declare their energy efficiency. The
Council’s current HQ, Sherwood Lodge, was grade G, the lowest grade possible,
in 2009. In 2010 it improved so much it just squeezed into grade E, but in 2011
it fell back to grade F. Clowne Campus has two certificates one for the main
building and the other for the engineering block. The former is grade C but the
later shares the same energy efficiency as Sherwood Lodge, it is grade F, indeed
its precise rating is worse that of Sherwood Lodge.
Given that the Council was able to improve from grade G to
grade E in just one year it would surely be more environmentally sustainable to
have continued to invest in energy efficiency in Sherwood Lodge and let someone
else, another college perhaps? use the main site at Clowne.
Monday, 7 May 2012
Follow the money
It used to be said that only three people ever understood how Council housing was funded and one of them was dead. But it matters to tenants, enormously.
One of the "bright ideas" of the last Labour Government was to get Council's to borrow a shed load of money to keep the rents from the Council houses that everyone thought they already owned. In the case of Bolsover the amount needed to be borrowed is some £94M. Unsurprisingly when the coalition took over they rather liked this idea as it raised a big wedge of money so it has already been implemented.
So when Bolsover Council officers drew-up the Housing budget and rent increase in early March they had to guess how much it would cost them to borrow £94M later that month. They took a prudent view and one of the consequences was a huge average increase of over 9% in the rent which was then approved by the Labour controlled Council.
At the April Council meeting I asked them what the difference was between the budgeted cost for borrowing in early March and the actual costs in late March and what the rent increase would have been if they had got the guess right. The answer was that the rent increase could have been 6% instead of 9% as the cost of borrowing had been £1.4M below the budget provision.
The next obvious step is to pay this money back to the tenants it was taken from..........but don't hold your breadth.
One of the "bright ideas" of the last Labour Government was to get Council's to borrow a shed load of money to keep the rents from the Council houses that everyone thought they already owned. In the case of Bolsover the amount needed to be borrowed is some £94M. Unsurprisingly when the coalition took over they rather liked this idea as it raised a big wedge of money so it has already been implemented.
So when Bolsover Council officers drew-up the Housing budget and rent increase in early March they had to guess how much it would cost them to borrow £94M later that month. They took a prudent view and one of the consequences was a huge average increase of over 9% in the rent which was then approved by the Labour controlled Council.
At the April Council meeting I asked them what the difference was between the budgeted cost for borrowing in early March and the actual costs in late March and what the rent increase would have been if they had got the guess right. The answer was that the rent increase could have been 6% instead of 9% as the cost of borrowing had been £1.4M below the budget provision.
The next obvious step is to pay this money back to the tenants it was taken from..........but don't hold your breadth.
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