Hansard written answers Wednesday 23rd Jan 2008

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.

Bin Tax gets the go ahead - What a load of rubbish.

Local councils have been given the go ahead to TAX YOU MORE. Pilot schemes are to be introduced throughout the country which will allow your council to charge you for the amount of rubbish you generate. This could be seen as a tax on families because they are the ones who are generating the most waste (it's a matter of numbers). Also this will be another tax on the working members of our society. Will those who do not pay council tax pay for any extra waste they produce? I doubt it very much. So I think we can safely say that if you are working and married (or cohabiting) with kids then this is a tax aimed at you.

There is so much that could be done before resorting to taxing us into submission. Manufacturers could be forced to improve the way they package their produce, we could go back to using milk bottles, we could ban plastic bags in supermarkets, we could improve recycling facilities, we could better educate the population on what can and can't be recycled, if packaging is labelled as recyclable, it must be easily recyclable (a lot of items aren't), more energy from waste facilities need to be built (in accordance with the Kyoto protocol). The ways to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill are numerous and increasing our tax bill should be seen as a last resort. But of course taxing us is a no-brainer.