Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your important questions. Before doing so, we would like to express that the climate emergency is, for both of us, the foremost public policy challenge and it is absolutely vital that our politicians rise to the challenge, nationally and most pressingly internationally, without any further delay. It has implications not just for the survival of the planet itself, but within that devastating societal impacts - and both the causes and impacts of it are incredibly unevenly spread across the income distribution and generationally, disproportionately affecting those who are worst off. For all of these reasons we are passionate about the need to take on the climate crisis, with no room for error or delay. We are in our twenties. It is unfortunately falling to our young generation to respond to the warnings which have been sidelined for too long - but we will respond. There is no other choice.
1. Few people in the scientific community would now dispute that there is a climate crisis and that its origins are man-made. Flooding is becoming much more likely, not just in the Trent floodplain, but also in terms of run-off from higher land into residential areas. How should we deal with these issues?
In residential areas we need to encourage the retention of garden space and discourage the replacement of grasses front gardens with hard surfaces, which drain much slowly and contribute to flash flooding. We need to ensure surface drainage is adequate and that it is maintained and highways swept regularly, and we need to ensure that new residential and highway developments install adequate drainage provision to cope with the expected increase in flooding.
In addition we need to ensure developers mitigate with sufficient latitude in their slope stability assessments and ground surveys. When building anywhere but particularly on slopes.
Trees are crucial natural reducers of flood risk and as a result we need to conserve existing woodland and tree cover as well as plant new trees. New trees need to be the correct trees and in the correct places. Water is hitting the ground quicker and taking longer to drain away as trees are removed from our residential environments and front gardens are replaced with hard surfaces.
2. Traffic volumes have increased rapidly in the last 10 years, including on the A612 through the centre of Burton Joyce where school children walk daily. The Burton Joyce Climate Action Group are promoting a local campaign to reduce the speed limit in line with "20's Plenty". Do you support this?
We have watched with interest BJ Climate Action Groups partnership with UoN to monitor pollution levels along the A612 and your “20’s Plenty” campaign, both of which we support. The health of the public must come first. Pollution is a silent killer and shortens lives.
3. Much concern has been expressed locally and nationally at the dumping of raw sewage in the River Trent. What is the best way to deal with this?
We share residents horror at the practice and inaction of dumping raw sewage into our rivers and shores, including of course our own beautiful River Trent. Labour has a plan to stop this Tory Sewage Scandal and we support it. Privatised water companies must pay substantial fines if they dump sewage into our rivers. The Conservative Government’s current policy of turning a blind eye to this scandal cannot be allowed to continue. As we type this Labour have been trying to again pass a bill into law to end the sewage scandal, as the Conservatives continue to not grant Parliamentary time to end the sewage scandal. but our Conservative MP has for a second time voted against it.
4. Given the numbers of houses going up in this area, how do we move the development industry to low carbon construction (i.e. making it a legal requirement to provide solar panels, low water efficiency in design etc) and what can we do about this locally?
Planning policy in this country is chaotic. We feel the government, evidenced by the fact they have got through 15 housing ministers since 2010, is not able to provide a housing policy fit for the 21st century. Developers are allowed to build without sensible adaptations to mitigate the climate crisis, despite technology existing to do so. Private industry will not future proof the housing stock it builds without government regulates for it. Labour will treble solar power use during the first term of being elected, ban fracking and deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.
As a local authority Gedling will do whatever it is given the power to do in terms of compelling developers to meet their sustainable responsibilities. The statutory requirements of planning policy and powers are set by central government, which we do not feel is requiring anything like enough from private developers. We will campaign for a change of government and for the climate to be put at the forefront of housing policy.
5. Gedling Borough are to be commended for taking positive action by installing solar panels across many council buildings. However, most schools, health centres, large supermarkets and other businesses across Gedling do not have solar panels. How do you think the council can encourage the installation of solar panels by organisations across the Borough?
Incentives for solar panels were effectively removed when the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government reduced the feed-in tariff in 2012. Labour had introduced the feed-in tariff to subsidise and encourage solar installations. In 2010 this stood at 41.4p/kWh. The Conservatives and Lib Dem coalition government cut this substantially. By 2019 it stood at just 3.79p/kWh. The Conservatives then stopped the scheme to new entrants altogether. Compared with the first quarter of 2019 when a new 4kW solar installation could be expected to pay for itself within 13 years, that payback time is now 21 years. This is a heartbreakingly short-sighted approach. It discourages solar installation and misses the opportunity to make the UK into the green industrial powerhouse that it could be. In addition to trebling solar across the country a Labour government will double the country’s onshore wind capacity, quadruple offshore wind and invest in tidal and hydrogen power sources.
Decreasing the availability and range of incentives is detrimental to solar adoption in the private and commercial sectors, including those non-Council cases you identify. As a borough council we can encourage and provide information on any funding or tax incentives that may be available. We will again campaign for a change of government and the climate-focussed approach that would bring. The Conservatives came in in 2010 promising to be the greenest government ever. Another entirely hollow promise. We could have been well on our way to being a green energy superpower and an example of best practice on the world stage - but instead the government have cut incentives, variously promoted new coal and fracking extraction and power generation, failed to invest in the future not only of this country and the green industry it could have had, but in the planet’s future and that of the next generations which will have to suffer the consequences of this failure to act. We simply cannot afford to delay any longer.
6. What do you see as your position on raising awareness in the Borough’s population about climate concern? Would you support a Borough facilitated climate convention?
We would need to see and discuss plans for a climate convention but would be very keen to do whatever we can from our position as Borough councillors to raise awareness of the climate emergency.
7. How will you make the climate a priority when you are elected?
Being in our twenties, the climate is the foremost issue in our minds. It informs everything we would take this forward into our role as representatives of Trent Valley residents if elected. We will support a Labour-led council in putting climate action at the front of all council decision-making. We will use our position to press for a change of government to ensure that crucial climate action is taken nationally at the earliest opportunity, and that international cooperation can be instigated to enact a global response to this emergency. We will maintain and forge new alliances, both locally and with national organisations to ensure a joined-up approach and the development of best practices using the latest research at our disposal.
We hope this is helpful, and hope to win your vote on Thursday.
All the best
Richard Fletcher & Muhammad Malik
Trent Valley Labour Party
