Tag Archives: Environment

‘Give Back to the Earth’ this Compost Awareness Week

The twelfth annual international Compost Awareness Week (CAW) will be held from Sunday 6th to Saturday 12th May 2012. The Warwickshire Waste Partnership is encouraging residents to “Give Back to the Earth” in line with this year’s theme to promote the making and use of compost at home.

During the week, the partnership plans to stage a series of compost sales around the county and promote the benefits of composting.

Green waste collected from households is delivered to large scale composting facilities, which, once composted down, results in a nutrient rich soil improver ideal for enriching flower and vegetable borders or using as part of a potting mix.

Warwick District Council and SITA UK are offering bags of locally produced compost, made from the County’s green bin collections, for just £2.50 per 20kg bag. The offer is for Warwick District residents who visit SITA’s depot at 10 Blick Road, Heathcote Industrial Estate, Warwick, CV34 6TA between 9am and 12noon from Tuesday 8th May – Saturday 12th May to make a cash purchase.

40 litre bags of compost will also be on sale at the following re-use shops at Warwickshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres;

Age UK at Hunters Lane Recycling Centre in Rugby – £2.99 per bag or 10 bags for £25.

  • The Shakespeare Hospice at Burton Farm in Stratford – £3 per bag
  • Action 21, Re-useful Centre, Ramsey Road, Leamington Spa – £3 per bag or 2 bags for £5.

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Chair of the Warwickshire waste Partnership, said: “Most people do not realise that up to 30 per cent of their household bin is made up of organic waste which can be turned into compost. Composting is an inexpensive, natural process that transforms your kitchen and garden waste into a valuable and nutrient rich food for your garden. It is both easy to make and use. Home compost can improve soil structure, maintain moisture levels and help to keep your soil’s PH balance in check while helping to suppress plant disease.”

UK households in England throw away around 4 million tonnes of waste every year that could have been composted. Home composting not only helps to significantly reduce carbon emissions, it can also be used as an effective and sustainable waste management method to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

For those interested in home composting, now is the perfect time to get started. Through the Warwickshire Waste Partnership, householders can purchase home compost bins for as little as £16 for the 220 litre capacity and £19 for the larger 330 litre bin.

For further information about these products, please call 0844 571 4444.  Alternatively, you can also order your home composters and composting accessories online, just visit www.getcomposting.com

Through the roof!

County Council takes steps to keep energy bills down

The roof of Warwickshire County Council’s Barrack Street offices in Warwick has been fitted with a new 47kW array of solar electricity panels as it moves to offset costs of rising energy bills.

These have been installed along with a substantial thickness of insulation to bring the 1960s built offices into line with today’s standards.

Virtually invisible to the naked eye in keeping with Warwick Town Centre’s Conservation Area status, it is estimated that the 200 panels will generate over 41,500kWh of electricity a year making the county council a significant saving over the 25 year life span of the panels.

Furthermore, the panels, installed by Azur Solar Systems Ltd, will reduce the CO2 output of the county council by nearly 22 tonnes a year helping further reduce its carbon footprint.

Electricity use for Barrack Street and Shire Hall are metered together so power generated will be shared between the two buildings if it exceeds the requirements of Barrack Street.  This will mean, however, that even when producing at maximum output it is unlikely that power will be exported to the grid.

The total cost of the installation of £153,800 was met by the ‘Invest to Save’ funds and, accounting for life cycle costs, the rate of the borrowing is more than matched by the savings in energy and the feed in tariffs from government.

Cllr Colin Hayfield, portfolio holder for customers, access and physical assets, at Warwickshire County Council said:  “This installation has two principles which the county council needs to incorporate across its business.

“Firstly, we have a commitment to reducing our carbon footprint as an organisation and the reduction in our output of CO2 brought about by this project is a very significant step towards doing so.

“Secondly, we need to plan ahead and look at where we might see increased costs in future.  The likelihood is that energy costs will rise much faster than other costs and so being at least in part independent for our energy needs, we can plan financially without being subjected to such steep price increases.  The project enables us to make revenue savings every year, avoid price rises and save CO2 emissions.  It is an excellent example of thinking creatively to tackle important issues.”

Paul Holland, electrical engineer at Warwickshire County Council, said:  “Members have voted to allow more money to be borrowed for projects that pay for themselves over their lifetimes.  We are planning to deliver more schemes on council buildings and are in the process of finding the most cost-effective routes for doing so.”

Work begins on town centre improvements

Work on making Warwick more user-friendly for pedestrians is to begin on Monday (March 12) for completion in early summer.

The scheme will see four new crossings installed in High Street and Jury Street to rebalance space between vehicles and people. It will make it more enjoyable to walk around the town centre and deter some of the 80 per cent of the drivers using town centre streets just to pass through, reducing the level of air pollution.

The existing number of car parking spaces will be retained but some will be moved to the opposite side of the streets to meet businesses’ needs, and to contribute to slowing down vehicles. Islands in the middle of four new raised paved crossings will do more towards this, making it easier for people on foot much to cross.

During the work all the town centre’s businesses will be open as usual, but temporary traffic lights and diversions will be in place. Drivers passing through the town centre will be advised to choose other routes, to minimise congestion.

Cllr Peter Butlin, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways and Transport, said: “This is a hugely important scheme for the town which will reduce traffic speeds and make it easier and safer for pedestrians. We have ensured that the design of crossing features and the choice of materials is in-keeping with the very fine town setting.

“We will endeavour to keep disruption to a minimum and ask that motorists and pedestrians bear with us while the work is carried out.”

Warwickshire County Council has spent many months talking to local residents and businesses, plus organisations including the Warwick Society and the Chamber of Trade, to identify ways in which High Street and Jury Street can be improved.

Walter Block from the Warwick Town Centre Forum said: “The joint Forum and Warwickshire County Council project team has worked closely with residents and businesses in round table meetings to achieve consensus on the measures now being implemented. We look forward to seeing the work completed, and the benefits that it will bring to the town centre and those who live here, work here and visit.”

 

Contract clean sweep saves seven councils a small fortune

A new process to recycle road sweepings is set to save seven Midland councils £10 million pounds through an innovative partnership contract.

Warwickshire County Council has led on procurement of a contract to recycle road sweepings which will save the authority around £400,000 a year over seven years – as well as boosting the county’s recycling rate by at least three per cent.

In a groundbreaking move, Warwickshire has signed up a host other neighbouring authorities to the contract with SITA UK Ltd – Coventry City Council, Staffordshire County Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Herefordshire Council, Worcestershire County Council and Leicestershire County Council have all joined the partnership.

SITA’s new state-of-the-art processing facility in Wolverhampton will handle up to 30,500 tonnes a year from the seven authorities over the contract, which officially commenced this week (January 3).

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Communities, said: “It is almost unheard of to have seven neighbouring councils signing up on the same contract and we are justifiably proud that we have achieved such a groundbreaking deal.

“This kind of joined-up working between local authorities will deliver a more efficient service across the Midlands region and ultimately save money from the public purse.

“The signing of this innovative contract means that we will be diverting road sweepings from landfill and avoiding escalating landfill tax which is set to hit £80 a tonne by 2014.”

The Wolverhampton plant will recycle 98 per cent of the material from the sweepings including sand and grit plus organic material, which can be composted.

The recycled sand and aggregates can be reused in road construction, pipe bedding materials or blended with rock salt and used as grit on roads in the winter months. Meanwhile composted organic material – rich in nutrients – is suitable for blending with soils in land remediation projects.

Participating authorities are forecasting a diversion of nearly 300,000 tonnes of material from landfill across the life of the contract, which is an initial seven years with a potential extension of a further three years.

The procurement exercise was showcased at the October 2011 meeting of the West Midlands Waste Alliance and is now being chronicled as an Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) case study.

 

Council reacts to HS2 announcement

Warwickshire County Council has responded to the decision of the Transport Secretary on high speed rail.

Cllr Bob Stevens, Deputy Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “We are disappointed that the Transport Secretary has decided to go ahead with the HS2 scheme. It will have a devastating impact on the countryside and it will have little benefit for us. The county council remains committed to protecting Warwickshire’s heritage, environment and communities.

“We based our strong opposition to the scheme on the fact that it presents a flawed business case and offers poor value for money to the taxpayer. It is an expensive project which we believe will have only a very limited impact on the regional economy and certainly nowhere near as substantial as estimated in some quarters. There will also be unquantifiable hidden costs to the local authority.

“Now that HS2 is to proceed, we must ensure that the interests of Warwickshire residents are best served. In the immediate future, we will continue to work with the 51M Group to put forward the county’s case against this scheme.”

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Communities, added: “It is too early to examine the detailed impact of the line on us but the county council will continue to work on behalf of the residents of Warwickshire. The county council’s project team has full council support to engage with the necessary authorities and work to protect Warwickshire’s interests and integrity in light of the decision to proceed.

“We should pay tribute to the various action groups who have carefully and intelligently researched the proposals, articulated their objections and backed up their assertions with evidence.”

For more information on the county council’s views and for a link to the report and supporting documentation visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hs2

Changes to recycling centre opening

Wawickshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres opening hours are changing from Monday.

All sites, apart from the part-time opening at Stockton, will remain open seven days a week but with weekday reductions to six hours per day as part of the county council’s budget savings.

Following public consultation, the new arrangements will commence on Monday (January 9) at all sites except Judkins in Nuneaton which is run by a contractor and will change on April 1.

The last admission to the sites is listed below. The sites will fully close 15 minutes later. If on site before “last entry time”, residents will have time to recycle and dispose of their waste. The new gate opening and closing times will be:

Winter

Monday to Friday – 9.30 to 15.15 (apart from Stockton which is only open on Monday and weekends)

Saturday and Sunday – 8.30 to 16.15 (apart from Shipston which shuts at 12.15)

Summer

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – 9.30 to 15.15 (apart from Stockton which only opens on Mondays and weekends)

Wednesday – 9.30 to 18.15 (apart from Stockton which is closed and Shipston closes at 15.15)

Saturday and Sunday – 8.30 to 17.45 (apart from Shipston which shuts at 12.15)

Opening hours may vary during holiday periods.

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Portfolio Holder for the Sustainable Communities said: “Following the consultation in the summer we have tried to meet the savings required and minimise the impact upon the public by keeping all nine sites open, keeping weekend opening the same as before, opening later one evening a week, working with the third sector and improving the on site re-use shops.

“In addition, to meet our savings we also need all residents to sort their waste carefully before visiting the sites to maximise the amount of waste we recycle and reduce the expensive landfill bill we pay for the general rubbish.”

Warwickshire County Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres are at Grendon (North Warwickshire), Judkins (Nuneaton), Shipston, Hunters Lane (Rugby), Cherry Orchard (Kenilworth), Princes Drive (Leamington), Stockton, Burton Farm (Stratford) and Wellesbourne.

Please visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hwrc for more information.