Meeting Shockat Adam MP about the Climate Plan

As part of our work on the Big Climate Plan campaign, we met Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, to ask him to demonstrate his commitment to fair climate action. 

We explained that the government's new climate plan must set out how we will meet the UK's international commitment to cut carbon emissions by over two thirds by 2030. We're currently dangerously off track so we need to take urgent action. The plan therefore needs to be ambitious but we think it also needs to make sure that everyone can have lower energy bills, warm homes, clean air, better public transport and well paid green jobs. 

Many of the people hit hardest by the impacts of climate change, in the UK and worldwide, are those who have done the least to cause the problem. Fair climate action can bring benefits for everyone, not only those who can afford to buy a Tesla. With the backlash against net-zero in some quarters, it's vital that the government's plan is fair and seen to be fair. If it isn't, it risks being weaponised by climate sceptics and those seeking to delay climate action.

This week, Friends of the Earth published a new fairness focussed research report, highlighting the impact of climate policies on ordinary people. We gave Shockat a copy of the report and the petition that we had collected showing local support for fair climate action: 160 postcards and 227 digital signatures. We also presented him with the brainstorm of ideas for climate action, which people have been contributing to at our recent stalls. 

We discussed how fair climate action could make a difference locally, in improving cold and mouldy homes, reducing air pollution that affects the most deprived parts of Leicester most severely and in improving everyone's access to public transport. Shockat has agreed to present our petition to the Prime Minister and also to write to him to express his support for fair climate action. We were gratified to hear that he is very interested in these issues. 

Now all we can do is to wait and see what the new climate plan will bring! As this effectively marked the end of our work on this campaign, we went to the Phoenix for dinner to celebrate. Local groups across the UK are talking to their MPs about the need for fair climate action; we hope that together we will make a difference.

Cruise ships

 

Cruising volumes are going up rapidly but it comes at a large environmental cost, a fact that cruising companies are keen to greenwash.

This article from the Which makes interesting and worrying reading, but how often do you hear about this level of pollution in the press?  The article has an error in the table in the section marked “The carbon footprint of cruise holidays vs flying” but the general concept is obvious: cruising is the worst way of having a foreign holiday.

This isn’t just about CO2 either.  The heavy fuel oil that ships burn isn’t the same as the diesel fuel we put in our cars.  The article makes clear it has 100 times as much sulphur as the diesel we normally know.  The last time we took a cross-channel ferry the smoke coming out of the funnel was purple!

Cruise ship operators will talk about scrubbing the sulphur out of their exhausts using sea water, but that’s just transferring the sulphur from the air to the sea, along with other pollutants, a practice that is increasingly banned in ports.  It’s slightly ironic that people living near a port may think they’re getting fresh sea air when in reality they are probably suffering worse air and water pollution than people living inland. When added to the sewage in our rivers and seas you wonder what sea swimmers are actually swimming in...

When it comes to the impact on places cruise ships visit there is another problem, one that places like Barcelona and Venice are already grappling with.  The sudden arrival of thousands of tourists in a short period.  On a recent holiday to Orkney we are were given a listing of cruise ships, how many passengers they are capable of carrying and when they were to arrive and depart.  The reason?  When a 3,500-passenger cruise ship arrives at Orkney a fleet of buses appears to clog up the roads and any place of interest you want to visit is swamped with people – it’s best to hunker down somewhere.  These cruise ships are giving all tourists a bad name.

So, are you considering going on a cruise?  Do you know somebody who is going on a cruise?  Have you made them aware of the environmental damage they are doing? Have cruise ship passengers heard about the climate emergency?

Leicestershire CC Waste Consultation

Leicestershire CC are running a consultation about waste, which appears to be primarily focused on residents, not groups, see Leicestershire's Resources and Waste Strategy 2022-2050 | Leicestershire County Council.  The consultation closes on the 25^th April and it would be good if county residents at least would respond.

This consultation needs to be seen as part of the wider picture, for instance:

·         Peat.  One of the excuses for continued peat use is the lack of volume of the alternatives.  With District Councils in the county charging up to £55/year for green waste collection we have a disincentive for people to treat their green waste responsibly and a great incentive to add it to the black (general waste) bin.  What we really need is for councils to stop charging for green waste and proactively seek it out to turn it into compost as a peat replacement and exploit the commercial opportunity, if people don't have a home compost heap.  This aspect gets little attention in the consultation.

·         Air pollution. Landfill sites emit methane as materials rot down.  Methane is a greenhouse gas over 20 times as harmful as CO2, so allowing landfill sites to emit it is increasing climate change. With the current issues with fossil fuel prices we need to be capturing methane and using it, a win-win commercially and environmentally.  At its worst, methane leakage can affect nearby buildings, Huncote Leisure centre being a local example of how to get it wrong, see Huncote Leisure Centre to stay shut for longer over methane risk - BBC News

·         Zero emission waste trucks. While we all want to see less HGVs on our roads, we are going to be stuck with refuse trucks for the foreseeable future.  A commitment to explore more environmentally friendly refuse collection trucks would be welcome, as is already happening in Aberdeen, see Aberdeen City Council adds UK's first hydrogen fuel cell waste truck to the fleet | Aberdeen City Council which would reduce emissions and costs, long term.

With all these things we need the council to be innovative and live up to the old phrase “where there’s muck there’s brass”, because we have plenty of muck to make brass from. 

Please respond to the consultation and encourage Leicestershire to think about where waste services fit in the bigger picture.

Who pays for parking?

Many organisations in Leicester provide free car parking for their employees. Most do not provide a benefit of the same value for employees who do not drive to work (e.g., a free bus pass), so they effectively subsidise travel costs only for the car drivers[1]. The lowest-paid in any organisation are the least likely to own a car and benefit from this subsidy. One organisation I used to work for provided car parking spaces for the CEO and directors (who were of course paid the most) and everyone else had to choose another form of transport or pay for street parking. This just compounded the inequality created by free parking. And any incentive to drive has a cost for everyone in terms of air pollution and carbon emissions. 

There is a way to address this issue and it was introduced in Nottingham several years ago. Local authorities can charge a workplace parking levy (WPL) so that organisations have to pay for every parking space they provide. The levy is charged to employers but most pass it on to the employees who use the car parking spaces. The money generated can then be used to fund sustainable transport initiatives that benefit everyone. In Nottingham, it goes towards their tram system[2]. 

Leicester City Council are now considering introducing a WPL. They are meeting employers and working with De Montfort University to gauge whether it would work in Leicester. They are hoping to launch the public consultation later this year. If it goes ahead, they would have continuous funding for transport improvement works, instead of relying on government funding schemes as they do at the moment. 

The way that the government forces local authorities to bid for funding has always seemed ridiculous to me. Council officers spend enormous amounts of time preparing bids for specific funding schemes, in competition with other councils, only to be unsuccessful and have to shelve their plans on a regular basis. If the government funded local authorities properly, councillors and officers would be able to look at their area, decide what is most needed and make it happen. Instead, they are dependent on the vagaries of whatever the government feels like funding that week. This is just another way for the government to take away local control. Although the government has provided funding for various sustainable transport initiatives over the past few years (e.g., cycle lanes and electric buses), it is always piecemeal and never allows local authorities to confidently plan an ongoing strategy. The WPL could change all of that. 

In a pre-consultation meeting we had with Leicester City Council recently, they explained that they are planning to link all revenue to work on climate change action, with three investment priorities:

·       Rail station transformation - to allow for increased capacity

·       Rapid mass transit network - electric tram quality buses

·       Active travel everywhere - expanding the walking and cycling network

These all have the potential to make it easier for people to choose sustainable transport. 

In Nottingham, the WPL has also given the council an excuse to talk to employers about travel demand. These conversations have led to the adjustment of bus routes to better serve employment locations and created a scheme where employers can bulk buy bus season tickets at a discount. Along with the disincentive of paying for parking, these schemes will help to discourage people from driving to work. 

Although we will want to look at the details carefully, to make sure the proposals do not unfairly disadvantage the lowest-paid (as the current situation does), it is clear to me that environmental groups should support the introduction of a WPL in Leicester. We are looking forward to the consultation.

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[1] This point was recently made by Professor Donald Shoup in an online lecture called, ‘The High Cost of Free Parking’, hosted by Queens University Belfast.

[2] Nick Ruxton Boyle’s article in Air Quality News has more about Nottingham’s WPL scheme: Workplace Parking Levy - the second coming - Air Quality News

Clean Air Picnic

We invited our friends and families to a ‘Clean Air Picnic’ in Jubilee Square on Sunday, to show support for action on air pollution in Leicester.

Thursday 20^th June is national Clean Air Day, which aims to give people the opportunity to find out more about air pollution and ‘help make the air cleaner and healthier for everyone’. Air pollution in Leicester is above legal limits and is known to be damaging people’s health. We recently launched an updated version of our Healthy Air Manifesto, with a list of changes that we want to see to tackle the problem. 

When we had finished our picnic, we gave out copies of the Manifesto and leaflets about air pollution to passersby. We also had an activity for children, who helped to make clean air bunting that we will use at future events.

Earth Movers award for clean air campaign

On Saturday, two members of Leicester Friends of the Earth attended Groundswell, an event organised by national Friends of the Earth in Birmingham to talk about climate change campaigning. We met four more people from Leicester and Leicestershire there and we hope they will come and join the local group! We were honoured to receive an Earth Movers award for our air pollution campaign and the Healthy Air Manifesto for Leicester that we have re-published this year. 

Launch of the Healthy Air Manifesto

We held a photo opportunity outside Leicester Town Hall, at 5.30pm, on the 2^nd of April, to launch the updated version of the Healthy Air Manifesto for Leicester. The manifesto sets out proposals for improving Leicester’s air quality.  The launch is timed to coincide with the start of the campaign for the local elections on the 2^nd of May. To highlight the extent of the problem we wore face masks, including, in some cases, proper gas masks.

Air pollution has been shown to greatly increase people’s likelihood of developing lung disease, heart disease, strokes, dementia and even depression.  It has also been shown to adversely affect lung development in growing children and to impair cognitive development.

Leicester has particular problems with air pollution due to the layout of its roads and due to lying in a bowl, which traps polluted air; and last year the World Health Organization identified Leicester as having some of the worst levels of air pollution in the UK.  Some progress in improving Leicester’s air quality has been made in recent years, but Friends of the Earth believe that much more still needs to be done.   

Malcolm Hunter, a spokesperson for Leicester Friends of the Earth said:

“Air pollution has wide ranging effects on people’s health and contributes towards hundreds of extra deaths a year, in Leicester alone.  Urgent action is needed and we are therefore calling on all candidates in the forthcoming local elections to commit to implementing those policies in this Manifesto that are within the City Council’s power to implement and to lobby central government to act on those that are not.”

Healthy Air Manifesto for Leicester

In 2015, in conjunction with other local campaign groups, we launched our first Healthy Air Manifesto for Leicester. Four years later, we have published a new list of policies that we think are necessary to reduce the levels of air pollution in Leicester. 

Healthy Air Manifesto for Leicester

Version 2: Spring 2019

Air pollution contributes to respiratory illnesses, heart disease, cancer and even Alzheimer’s disease. Half of Leicester residents are concerned about air pollution. We want to live in a city where the air is clean and does not damage anyone’s health. We welcome Leicester City Council’s action on air pollution, with the target for increasing cycling, the electric taxi charging points and road space re-allocation schemes, like that being implemented on London Road. However, with the new understanding about the scale of the environmental crisis facing our planet and the City Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, we believe there is still more that can be done.

Reducing the overall level of motor traffic is the most effective way to tackle air pollution, reduce climate change emissions and create a renewed sense of community. We are calling for the council to take the following urgent steps to protect our right to breathe clean air:

1. Create a city-county transport planning group to co-ordinate transport planning between the two councils.

Reduce pollution from public transport

2. Introduce a Class D charging Clean Air Zone in the Air Quality Management Area. 

3. Conduct a feasibility study into building a tram and/or trolleybus system in Leicester to provide pollution-free (at point of use), reliable mass transportation.

4. Electrify the bus fleet on a rolling programme, starting with the vehicles on the most polluted routes.

5. Adopt the same timetable as Oxford City Council to clean up taxis, with a phased approach that requires all Hackney carriage taxi drivers to have zero-emission capable vehicles by 2025 to receive a licence to operate in Leicester.  

6. Convert the Midland Mainline and CrossCountry train line to run on electricity or hydrogen. Investigate re-opening urban railway stations, like Wigston, and branch lines along heavily populated routes.

7. Follow the example of Paris in establishing a car-free day within the inner ring road every month, to encourage people to explore alternative means of transport and reduce pollution.

Reduce the number of trips by private motor vehicles

8. Re-regulate the bus companies to control ticket prices and increase patronage. Make bus travel free for children.

9. Establish a Workplace Parking Levy to charge employers who provide car parking. Re-invest any money raised through this scheme in public and active transport. 

10. Set a limit for the amount of car parking spaces available in the city centre and commit to a programme to gradually reduce that number. Require all car parks to provide secure bike storage.

11. Accelerate the process of re-allocating road space to more sustainable forms of transport, such as active and public transport, and ensure that new cycle provision is always physically segregated.  

Education

12. Run a campaign to make car drivers more aware of cyclists and improve their safety.

13. Follow the example of York City Council in introducing a campaign to stop drivers idling their engines and enforce the law with a fine.

14. Run a smarter choices travel planning programme for journeys to school across the city, to encourage parents and children to walk, cycle or take the bus and thereby reduce pollution around schools.

15. Enforce Leicester City Council’s Smoke Control Area to ensure that only smokeless fuel is burnt in domestic stoves. 

16. Raise awareness of air pollution to help vulnerable people to reduce their exposure and encourage people to change their behaviour to reduce their contribution to the problem.

Plug in the Midland Mainline

Since the Government cancelled their plans to electrify the Midland Mainline, the Lakes Line and the Great Western Mainline in July, a campaign asking them to re-think their decision has been gathering support across the country.

A petition launched by two national organisations, 10:10 and the Campaign for Better Transport, has almost 9000 signatures online and many more have been collected on paper at railway stations.  Environmental organisations, MPs and council leaders have written a joint letter to Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport, asking him not to backtrack on his promise to electrify the railways. They point out that diesel trains contribute to air pollution, which is damaging people’s health. The letter was published in The Times.

On Saturday, we took a giant electrical plug from London to Sheffield in a relay, asking the Government to ‘plug in’ our trains. Members of environmental groups, rail users groups, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats took part in the relay, supported by Labour MPs visiting stations. The event attracted a lot of attention on social media, where campaigners shared photos and videos with the hashtag #ElectrifyOurTrains. It was also covered by local television news and newspapers.

In Leicester, Peter Soulsby came to meet campaigners at the station and sign the petition. Jon Ashworth, MP for Leicester South, was among the signatories of the letter to Chris Grayling.

Electrifying our trains would reduce air pollution in our cities and help to tackle climate change. It would also make rail travel more comfortable and reliable for passengers. The government always seems to have money for public transport improvements in London but they are abandoning the rest of the country to live with dirty air. Other European countries electrified their railways years ago and we need to do the same here.

Additional information:

1. The Department for Transport’s own report, Britain’s Transport Infrastructure: Rail Electrification (July 2009), makes the case for electrification (p.7): “Electric trains have a number of significant advantages over diesel-powered trains. They have far lower running costs, far lower carbon emissions and offer better environmental performance; they can also increase capacity and reliability, and provide a better passenger experience.”  
2. The following groups support the campaign for rail electrification: Sustrans, Campaign for Better Transport, 10:10, Bedford Green Party, East Midlands Rail Campaign, Northampton Friends of the Earth, Sustainable Harborough, Leicester Friends of the Earth, Leicester Green Party, Healthy Air Leicester and Leicestershire, Derby Friends of the Earth, Derby Lib Dems, Transition Chesterfield, Chesterfield Climate Alliance, Sheffield Climate Alliance, Sheffield Friends of the Earth, Sheffield Green Party, South Lakes Action on Climate Change and Lakes Line Rail Users Group.