Are your local streets clean? They should absolutely spotless. Last year in England alone we spent £1.83m every single day of the year to sweep the streets and dispose of those sweepings. The following is from Hansard:
Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost was to local authorities in England of (a) collecting and (b) disposing of road sweepings in the latest period for which figures are available.
Joan Ruddock: My Department does not hold specific data relating to the cost of the collection or disposal of road sweepings.
Local authorities are required to make revenue outturn returns to the Department for Communities and Local Government. This includes their expenditure and income on street cleansing (not chargeable to the Highways Department). In 2006-07, the net total cost of street cleansing to local authorities in England was £667 million. These figures are not available broken down into collection and disposal costs.
Next we look at the question of the building of Nuclear Power Stations in the UK:
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on the planning process for applications to build a new nuclear power station in Scotland.
David Cairns: I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on a wide range of issues, including energy matters. However, responsibility for the planning process is devolved to Scottish Ministers.
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what recent discussions he has had with the First Minister on new nuclear power stations in Scotland.
David Cairns: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland has had no such recent discussions. The decision to grant consent to construct or operate any power station, including nuclear, with a capacity in excess of 50 MW in Scotland lies with the Scottish Ministers.
Guess were all the Nuclear Power Stations are going to be built. I'll give you a clue: It starts with E and ends in D.
4 comments:
Enfield?
Close Tony - but no cigar this time.
Some poor town is going to get dumped with a nuclear power station on their doorstep and they ain't gonna be happy about it!
Two interesting questions...
On the first (street cleaning) I acn state that all our streets here in Medway are cleaned very regularly -- then, just a few minutes later, some litter lout messes it up again, and then another, and another.
This has been observed by our Councillors in particular areas (thankfully we don't have a significant problem in my ward) on many occasions. we try fines and other initiatives, education and encouragement -- but there are always a few, aren't there?
On the nuclear power stations issue: we have recently been what are termed a "statutory consultee" in respect of a planning application (to be decided by the Government, not by us) for a replacement coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth -- you might recognise the name as it has been in the wider media.
Local objections were about five or six, but an orchestrated campaign by outside organisations such as Greenpeace resulted in a flood of objections from outsiders.
Interestingly, I have twice sent Greenpeace my own thoughts on how they could actively participate in lobbying for new and better technologies, and even pointed to an obvious (Einsteinian) one with a zero-pollution possibility.
They have never even acknowledged my emails...
Post a Comment