Will you do your bit to achieve a greener Bournemouth?

A new annual report on the sustainability of the Council’s operations - click here – shows what we are doing to save energy, reduce waste and cut costs for everyone in Bournemouth. Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole have been jointly selected by the Government to enter its Local Carbon Frameworks national pilots programme. We have spent our first instalment of £50K on three local projects - investigating energy from waste, designing a low carbon food supply system and stepping up our production of renewable energy.

There is a lot now riding on our bid to fund up to a further 12, equally innovative projects - ranging from electric car charging pillars through to a funding plan for local district heating schemes. I am convinced that a sustainable low carbon Bournemouth is achievable, attractive and affordable. How we intend to get there is in the Go Green Bournemouth plan – click here. It sets out how the town can really ‘go green’. We are leading the way, and I want us to stay there. My question to you - are you doing your bit?

On Thursday, together with colleagues, I had the honour of meeting His Royal Highness Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex, who visited Bournemouth to officially open Pavilion Dance.

During the afternoon visit, The Earl met many of the people behind Pavilion Dance, including representatives from Bournemouth Borough Council, Dance South West, Arts Council England, and BH Live (the trust that runs the Pavilion on behalf of the Council). The Earl took a tour of the backstage facilities, and was treated to an exclusive dance performance in the renovated Ocean Room as well as dropping in on rehearsals by Avant Garde – a fantastic hip hop group preparing for the Pavilion Dance Gala on 7 November.

It was wonderful to see young people engaged in such rewarding activities, which were so vigorous they most certainly double-up as exercise! But remember, Pavilion Dance really does have something for all ages – if you haven’t already, pop in and see them in this new facility, in which the Council has invested over £3m. I was very pleased to hear the public thanks given to Cllr Bob Chapman who has worked tirelessly from the outset of this proposal and to Ian Kendall, Project Manager, who brought the scheme in on time and on budget. My own additional thanks to you both.

It is of course not lost on me that there are some ‘hot topics’ on the horizon. Whether to accept ASR’s proposed technical solution to improve the performance of the surf reef and, if so, whether and when part or all of the retained £150,000 is released. That £150,000 belongs to the contractor provided they achieve the outcome required. I have said before and I am happy to say again now – any improvements will not cost the taxpayer a penny more than has already been committed.

Whether to enter into an incremental partnership with Mouchel, that, according to the business case (online here) would see four services delivered at a saving of 5.9% of the 2010/11 revenue budget, alongside improvements on existing service standards. The business case also demonstrates that a transformation programme for the whole council offers the potential to deliver a 40% budget reduction over the next decade. In addition, the guarantee of 350 new jobs in the town, also underpinned by financial guarantees, and other added value measures that the Council could not achieve by itself, leads the Executive Officers to recommend to us that this represents a financial win for the council, economic growth for the town and better services for local people.

Both these issues will be the subject of detailed and extensive debate by Members over the coming weeks, with recommendations to Cabinet on 10th and 17th November respectively. I will be reserving my judgement on both topics until I have seen and engaged in the debates, been presented with the facts, heard the views of other Elected Members and weighed all of these up for myself. My priority is for informed debate and decisions based on the best interests of this town, and I will be watching closely to make sure these two factors are prevalent in the minds of all those concerned over the coming weeks.

Until next week, Peter Charon

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here