11 September 2020
Chair of Climate Change Member Advisory Board
Medway Council
ME4 4TR
Ref: The Sustainable Development Goals | Date of Submission: 11th September 2020
Dear Councillor Doe,
Medway Green Party would like to thank Medway Council for its initiatives regarding Medway’s Urban Green Spaces forum (MUGS) and for linking this work up with the Recycle it right 2020 campaign.
As you are aware, Medway Green Party held an open forum on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in August 2020. The SDGs are a route map to reduce global emissions by 2030. We have ten short years to make this a reality.
This concept is dove tailed with Medway Council’s own commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and as such, Medway Green Party would like to make the following requests in relation to the UN’s SDGs and how they fit in with the Medway Towns.
Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy - Genecoe Waste Service in the West Country, works with local water services and the Local Authority to change waste in to energy/ fuel. Excess waste is put on farms as food. It has become a Green Service provider. We would like to work with Medway Council to make further enquires with this organisation, to identify learning that could be applied at a local level to the benefit of both the Council and its citizens.
Goal 3 - Good Health & Well-being - Friends of the Earth state that: “The emissions from diesel cars are quite literally killing our constituents”. A recent video produced by Medway resident, Jonathan Brind, discusses Medway’s air pollution problem in detail.
Medway Green Party would therefore like to propose a number of solutions to this life altering problem:
Dundee Council are leading the way in sustainable town Management. Using their progressive template, we would like to ask that Medway Council champions an: all-electric taxi fleet, working with local taxi firms to decarbonise their businesses and in the process, reduce both their overheads and the attack on the atmosphere.
Turns waste in to clean bio-fuel for diesel engines for use in council owned vehicles and Arriva owned buses. This could dramatically reduce the emissions in Medway and clean up our air exponentially. We would like to work with you and Medway businesses to make this happen.
Many highly congested towns across the country are directly tackling their rush hour induced - particulate filled - atmosphere by reducing speed limits. This year Faversham Council reduced their speed limit across their entire town to 20mph. The scheme has been funded by the Department for Transport’s Emergency ActiveTravel Fund. Lower speed limits are often seen as a deterrent to vehicle usage and it is anticipated that this will increase the number of cyclists and pedestrians and subsequently reduce the overall number of cars on the road.
Finally, Goal 17 looks at Partnership working. Medway Green Party are observers of your Climate Change Members Advisory Board meetings and we are: “Aghast that the SDGs, are omitted from the climate change debate”. Medway Council and its citizens cannot afford to be left behind! The climate affects all of us, every single Medway resident!!!! Medway Green Party is an important and knowledgeable voice that is sorely needed within Medway Council’s environmental planning. We implore you to acknowledge the role that we can take, to aid you in achieving the ambitious goals of nil carbon emissions by 2030 to the benefit of all of Medway’s residents.
We eagerly anticipate your response.
Yours sincerely,
Sonia Hyner - Climate Change Leader
Medway Green Party
RESPONSE RECEIVED ON 19.09.20
Dear Sonia
Thank you for your emails and I am pleased you have noted the work so far of the climate change advisory board. This work is firmly based on steady and sustained improvement with a realistic plan and that forum is more than capable of assessing the best ways to implement climate policy within Medway.
We are, however, mindful of the Sustainable Development Goals and believe that the work the Group and Council are doing is already in keeping with those goals, bearing in mind the financial restraints within which the Council is having to operate at the present time.
Kind regards
Howard
Howard Doe, FRSA, FCIS, FInstAM, FFA
Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Housing & Community Services, Medway Council
Councillor for Rainham South Ward
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