Bridget Petty, Green councillor for Backwell on North Somerset Council, was a studio guest on this week’s Politics West. You can find her contribution on iplayer.
Bridget told David Garmston that the finances of North Somerset Council were in a sad state because of lacking of funding and support from national government.
She also explained the problems with incinerating our waste, a policy that the Green Party has always opposed. Responding to the news that putting household rubbish in giant incinerators to make electricity is now the dirtiest way the UK generates power (BBC), Green Party Peer Baroness Jenny Jones said,
“Unless we have a complete moratorium on new incinerators and start to close down existing ones, we will not meet either of the government’s big targets. You can’t burn oil in the form of plastic and meet the target of Net Zero emissions in 2050; nor can you sign up local authorities to 20 year contracts to burn waste and expect them to recycle 65% of waste by 2030. The last government was finally waking up to the direct contradiction between environment and incineration, I hope this government will say no more incineration and put this big mistake into reverse.”
“I highlighted the issue of incineration stopping councils from recycling back in 2010 when I was on the London Assembly. This became a national issue about 10 years ago when local authorities across the country started to treat waste as a fuel, rather than a valuable source that could be reused or recycled.