Apart from universal concerns about the flawed HS2 'Groundhog Day' route through Camden. Other issues are mostly related to roads, policing, housing matters and especially concerns about the massive 8.1% rent increase by Camden this April. That and caretaker service reductions, being brought in under the Rader!
Camden council is imposing from next week a 58% price hike to all visitor parking permits with the exception to the elderly and disabled drivers.
And for all Camden residents wishing to be green and have purchased at considerable expense an electric car (I myself am investigating viability of a new hybrid car design for my own family), Labour have decided to remove the free parking scheme incentives. So where have Camden's Green credentials gone?
With the Eco Champion Alexis Rowell who also used to be a Liberal Democrat last year moving to the Greens and now sadly not in office we have lost a visionary voice for Camden. We need another visionary soon!
I have during the past 6 years been working gently and quietly behind the glare of self publicity to ensure and facilitate that a large estate is as energy efficient as was possible to achieve and that vital fuel monitoring equipment was provided at zero cost to residents by Camden. I lobbied and won the day, saving up to £1000 per leaseholder. And getting the project therefore accepted more readily by the community. It is now helping to save residents energy, by raising awareness.
I have also been active in trying to bring about change with use of low energy lighting on council estates.
In 2006 I took the drastic step to completely have my own property re-wired and equipped exclusively with low energy lighting. My already energy efficient fridge now consumes more than all my lighting switched on! A lower energy fridge is next on my wish list.
Where possible I have also replaced all my office servers and computers with lower energy utilisation replacements. It was not cheap to do. But I have demonstrated that with a £4000 investment I was able to reduce my already impressive CO2 footprint by around another 50%
I accept that the payback to cover the high implementation cost will take several years more to recover.
But if we all do this and can do this with help of more local schemes. We will save the equivalent of up to one power station worth of energy production taken over a large metropolitan area.
So as your prospective councillor and if elected to office by you. I fully intend to expand into fulfilling the now much needed Eco warrior role for Camden, especially as Labour appears hell-bent on removing what few green credentials Camden did have.
I have noticed that a scheme to campaign for Fireworks on Primrose Hill again. Although we all love fireworks and my Daughter especially so. I would just like to remind you that fireworks do add to atmospheric CO2 production gases and therefore are not environmentally friendly.
Photo below was taken by me shortly before decommissioning of the old Southbank CO2 emitter which you will better know as Tate Modern today!
