Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) has been working hard delivering its Climate Change agenda at the councils it leads, and expects national and international politicians to play their part at COP26.
Delivering on Air Quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction
R4U’s Cllr Louise Pepper, who is the Uttlesford District Council portfolio holder for the Environment, said “The COP26 Climate Change conference is a rallying call for us all to protect our planet’s future. At R4U we promised residents we’d work hard locally to deal with Climate Change, and we’ve been delivering. Our broad-ranging ‘ABC for Life’ policy programme deals with the three biggest environmental issues, Air Quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction.”
Installing Solar and Water Recycling
Louise Pepper (R4U)Planting Trees
“Planting trees helps all three ‘ABCs’. We’ve pledged to plant a tree or hedging plant for every Uttlesford resident over the next decade. Through both UDC and Saffron Walden Town Council that R4U leads, thousands have already been planted and we will continue to do more.”
Lower Carbon Vehicles and Homes
“Elsewhere at UDC and SWTC, we are replacing vehicles and equipment at the end of their lives with greener alternatives wherever sensible. We are even trialling biofuels for the bin lorries and looking at solar panels for vehicle roofs. And look out for new recycling on-street bins coming soon.”
R4U’s Cllr Louise Pepper continued “Better new homes are a focus for R4U too. With the rising costs of fuel, we want the design of UDC’s vital new council housing to be low emission and cheap for residents to run. More broadly the new planning standards that we pushed through at UDC in 2020 are starting to bear fruit. For example, developers are now including EV charging points and sustainable energy systems as part of new buildings.”
Domestic Airline and Sewage Problems
“But it isn’t all positive. We have to work harder than many districts because we have a huge private-business carbon emitter housed here – Stansted Airport. UDC took a stand to fight their planet-killing expansion. We are disappointed that the government has allowed it to happen. Even worse, in last week’s budget the government cut the tax on domestic flights – which the Office for Budget Responsibility predicts will generate 410,000 more journeys by plane inside the UK even though trains are a viable, low-carbon alternative. In spite of this, we are fully committed to working positively with the airport’s owners to encourage them to step up their environmental commitments.”
“Climate change is already affecting our weather. MPs may have failed to take action to prevent the dumping of sewage into our waterways after floods, but it is unacceptable. It happened over 150 times in Uttlesford last year. We will be pushing ECC and the water companies to deal properly with this important issue.”
Cllr Pepper concluded “R4U is working hard to play its part on Climate Change at UDC and SWTC. At COP26 residents expect their national and international politicians to also do their part.”