Environment
questionsEnvironment
questions
A comprehensive database of members' questions is now available on the official GLA website. You'll need to cut and paste the following details into your browser, as party rules forbid active links - www.london.gov.uk/mqt/member-question-list.do?member=Mike+Tuffrey&recordsPerSlice=25&slice=1&order=DESC&orderBy=SEQ_ID
Here are the answers to questions asked in 2004 and earlier, posted before the official database was compiled.
Mike Tuffrey
Given that Manchester and Birmingham will have city-wide battery recycling campaigns in 2005, what have you done - or will you now do - to help set up a pan-London battery recycling scheme?
The Mayor: I was not aware of these campaigns; neither is Birmingham City Council nor the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. What we have found out is that the Local Government Association (LGA) have developed a virtual project for battery recycling, which initially includes Birmingham and Greater Manchester, as well as Merseyside, Cheshire, Shropshire and Lancashire. This project is looking at how to provide best practice information in advance of the proposed European Union battery directive on how a scheme could be set up. It aims to create partnerships between the retailers, local authorities and waste industry to resolve and inform any issues relating to the transposition of the directive to UK legislation. The funding for the implementation for this project is being sought, but has not been secured so far and there is no start date. I would be very interested in the outcome of this project, and any opportunities for possibly replicating it in London. We are a little farther back than perhaps the question implied.
Mike Tuffrey (AM): The question was not implying that Manchester and Birmingham and these others have this problem sorted. The question is saying quite clearly that they are moving ahead and you are not. If you compare the UK position with every other country in Europe, you will see that in Belgium they recycle 60% of batteries sold; in the Netherlands, a third; in Sweden, 55%. In the UK, it is barely 5%. Is it not utterly deplorable that in your fifth year in office, you have done nothing to recycle one of the most toxic elements of the waste stream?
The Mayor: I am not the waste authority for London. There are 32 local authorities. Some have their own independent waste authorities; others are banded together. This is a borough council responsibility and has been since the abolition of the GLC. You are absolutely right. It is a damned disgrace that no Labour, Tory or Liberal council in London has done anything about it. We will now proceed to try to do so.
The first thing: a good idea would be to open a plant that will process them. As I understand it, the closest plant is Paris. You are right. It is an absolute disgrace, but I frankly do not think it is my fault. I am the new kid on the block. What have all these Liberal councils been doing? What has Sutton been doing with its batteries for all these years?
Mike Tuffrey (AM): You are absolutely right that the boroughs are the waste collection authorities. You put your finger on it: there needs to be the recycling facilities. We cannot have 33 recycling facilities for batteries. There is the need for some leadership in this area. This is a very specific thing. You have taken action on other aspects of waste. You aspire to a greater role for waste disposal, yet on this, five years in - not the new kid on the block - there is no action. That is the charge.
The Mayor: Firstly, we found a firm - London Remade - to start to put in London the recycling plant that we do not have. They have progressed. I am now in discussions with London Remade because the next priority is a plant to recycle plastics. Batteries will be right behind that. No one is recycling plastic in this city. We do not have a machine that can sort the plastic at a central plant. We are in discussions with London Remade. It will cost millions if not tens of millions of pounds to establish but, starting from way back, plastics is much more important at the moment than batteries, but you are right; batteries will be next, as soon as we have a plant to recycle plastics.
Mike Tuffrey (AM): Plastics are welcome, but they are harder to collect whereas batteries, because they are small and portable, can be collected much more easily. Can I ask you a specific question? When the infrastructure is in place, will you use your powers, where you do have powers, for example in TfL, to allow the setting up of collection points so that people can simply deposit the little batteries in some sort of receptacle that is security proof?
The Mayor: That is certainly something that I would like to do, but it has revived interest in having a single waste authority for London that would be the GLA. I met with Anthony Mayer earlier this week to discuss taking this forward. We think there is an increasing level of receptivity, and a private meeting of borough council chief executives virtually unanimously agreed that the present system does not work and that a single waste authority for London is now inevitable. Whether they had clearance from their political masters is another matter.
Mike Tuffrey
How successful have you been in reducing the number of pigeons in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square? Please provide details of any assessments carried out. How much has been spent to date on achieving this goal?
The pigeon reduction programme on Trafalgar Square has been extremely successful. Pigeon numbers have been reduced from up to 5000 in 2000 to as low as 100 in 2004.
Currently it is estimated that there are approximately 150 resident birds on the Square however the numbers rise and fall subject to conditions. There are extensive monitoring records maintained by the GLA based on periodic observations undertaken by the biodiversity team.
The success of the project has also attracted significant international interest with enquires coming from around the world.
In 2003/2004 financial year £106,000 was spent on pigeon control through the use of a hawk on the Square. This has been reduced to £25,000 in 2004/05 financial year. In association with the Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeon Group a scientific study was undertaken to determine the impact of the project on the welfare of the birds, the study concluded that the birds were not being harmed. The cost of the study was £30,000. A controlled feed reduction programme to ensure the welfare of the birds was introduced in conjunction with Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeon Group. This controlled feeding programme will cost approximately £4,000 in the current financial year.
The investment in this activity has enabled Trafalgar Square to host a wide range of activities and events that would not have previously been possible including the Summer in the Square programme attracting thousands of visitors. Trafalgar Square is now also being extensively used for filming, photo shoots and media, the result has been an increase in bookings revenue by over 50% in the current financial year As a result of the programme major cleaning many of the assets on the Square have been not been required and have been undertaken on an operational level. It is also anticipated that such a major clean costing in excess of £250,000 will take place at much less frequent intervals.
Mike Tuffrey
The Environment Agency estimates that £4billion will need to spent on defending the Thames Gateway from flood risks over the next 30 years. Where is this money going to come from?
The Environment Agency £4 billion cost estimate was made in 1996 and applied to the entire Thames Estuary, which is much wider than the Thames Gateway Growth Area and includes large areas of land that is already developed, such as parts of central London. In 2003 the Environment Agency estimated that the additional flood management costs directly attributable to the Thames Gateway as being between £150 million and £450 million. These cost estimates are being reviewed as part of a long term study being conducted by the Environment Agency called the Thames Estuary 2100 Project.
The Greater London Authority and the London Development Agency are working closely with the Environment Agency, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Thames Gateway London Partnership to ensure that flood risk issues are dealt with and funded as part of the ongoing strategic planning for the Thames Gateway.
Mike Tuffrey
Do you consider ozone levels in London to be a serious problem?
Ground level ozone is not currently a serious problem in London. This pollutant has been shown to affect health but concentrations are generally lower in London than in rural areas. This is because it is 'used up' in the conversion of nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide. Higher levels generally occur in outer London and sites far away from busy roads.
In recent years peak concentrations of ozone have fallen as emissions of hydrocarbons (so called "precursors") in the UK, and throughout the rest of Europe, have reduced towards levels set by the EU National Emission Ceiling Directive. National Governments are required to take action and I have lobbied Defra to strive to exceed the Directive level. However, peak concentrations are greatly affected by the weather and this can be seen from the data collected by the London Air Quality Network. Very few monitoring sites exceed the EU objective in some years but the hot, dry weather last year meant that 26 sites out of 27 exceeded. Concentrations for 2004 are expected to be lower than last year.
Even though peak levels are lower, evidence indicates that background levels of ozone are gradually increasing in the northern hemisphere and this may have implications for Londoners' health. We need to do all we can and some of the proposals in my Air Quality Strategy also help to reduce emissions of ozone precursors.
Mike Tuffrey
Has the Water Resources Working Group held its first meeting? If so, when was this, did it consider the issue of water system leakages and what were its conclusions?
The first meeting was held on 2nd July and a substantial part of it considered water system leakages. Both Thames Water and Three Valleys Water have substantial renewals programmes in process. Transport for London are working actively with the companies to co-ordinate work on London's major roads. My role was agreed as the exchange of information, co-ordination and helping resolve conflicts, where possible.
I want to support the industry and play a role in lobbying, but need a measured view to be able to do so. For example, there will always be a conflict between the necessity to dig up roads to carry out renewals, and the inevitable congestion which this causes. Another problem occurs when TfL encourage work on major roads to be carried out before 6 am and after 8 pm or at weekends - the water companies then run into problems of noise and disturbance, particularly in residential areas.
Mike Tuffrey
Energy Minister, Stephen Timms, recently suggested that wind farms could be used to provide energy to the 120,000 planned residences in the Thames Gateway area. Do you agree with him?
My Energy Strategy contains challenging targets for the reduction of carbon dioxide and generation of energy from renewable sources, including at least 6 large-scale wind turbines by 2010. To meet this target all feasible options for wind turbines in London need to be pursued. Through my London Plan, I require major developments to show how the development would generate a proportion of the site's electricity needs from renewables, which includes the option of wind turbines. The development in the Thames Gateway is a major opportunity for the implementation of a range of renewable energy technologies, including wind, and I will work to ensure that this opportunity is exploited to the full.
Mike Tuffrey
When will the taxi emissions strategy be finalised?
The Public Carriage Office is seeking to identify the best means of reducing harmful emissions from taxis, and to consult over the timetable for implementation together with the methods of funding the proposal. The details of the emissions strategy have yet to be finalised and are being taken forwards within the context of the low emission zone project. It is likely that the taxi emissions strategy will be resolved as part of the timetable set for the introduction of the low emission zone.
Mike Tuffrey
In the interests of reducing the demands on public transport, what measures are being considered by those planning regeneration for the Thames Gateway to minimize the distance residents there will have to travel to work? Will you actively encourage sustainability by making it possible for people to walk or cycle to work, or to occupy live/work units?
The development of sustainable communities in London Thames Gateway relies on giving people access to public services and opportunities for work and leisure. We are committed to developing new homes which are spatially integrated with these other facilities, avoiding at all costs the creation of lifeless 'dormitories'. The London Plan makes it clear that I support mixed-use development as a vital tool in this, minimising distance - and therefore travel time - between residential and non-residential areas wherever it is appropriate.
In line with the London Plan and my Transport Strategy, spatial planning in the Thames Gateway will also ensure that walking and cycling are encouraged by the physical environment, and that the experience of people choosing these methods of transport is as safe and pleasant as possible. The Green Grid project being developed with Thames Gateway boroughs takes this as one of its aims
Notwithstanding this, it is important to remember that London is a world city and that this is reflected in its social, economic and spatial character. One feature of such a city is that people travel to work, often some miles from their home - this will be as true of London Thames Gateway as it is of the whole of London now. As part of this, we must plan not only for Thames Gateway residents travelling to work elsewhere in London, but also for those who will travel from all over the capital to take advantage of new opportunities in the Gateway; in other words, the development of Thames Gateway is an integral part of the sustainable development of London as a whole.
It is because of this that transport infrastructure is at the heart of our development and investment planning in the Thames Gateway. No amount of mixed-use development will act as a substitute for investment in transport. Our ambitions for the area cannot be realised without large-scale investment in the transport network.