Monthly Report for August-September 2007

Below is a summary of my work in Parliament and in Southampton for the month of August & September. Click here to read previous reports.

If you'd like to know more about any of the work I've been doing, or if you think there is another issue you think I should be acting on, you can always contact my office.

Work in Parliament
Work in Southmapton

Work in Parliament

Climate Change Bill

My work on the joint committee scrutinising the Climate Change Bill has now concluded. The committee report recommended a number of ways the Bill could be strengthened, including:

· The 60% reduction target: we welcomed the Draft Bill as “an extremely encouraging sign that the UK Government intends to take the issue of climate change seriously.” However, we considered the target of 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 to be potentially inadequate in the face of emerging evidence about the speed of climate change.

· The 32% 'upper limit' by 2020: we said there is no compelling reason for the 32% upper limit on carbon reductions and, as such, the upper limit should be scrapped.

· Role of the Prime Minister: we recommended that the legal duties of the Bill should be placed on the Prime Minister rather than the Secretary of State to reflect the paramount importance of the legislation across the whole of Government.

· International measures: we highlighted the absence of international shipping and aviation from the carbon budgets as a weakness in the legislation.

· Carbon credits: the Government currently intends to buy foreign carbon credits to meet 70% of its emission savings under the next stages of the EU emissions trading scheme. We said this could potentially postpone the decarbonisation of our economy, and called for an absolute cap on the purchase of foreign carbon credits.

· Enforcing the rules: we called for a system of annual milestones in order to create a strong legal framework which would require the Government to immediately make clear to Parliament how any slippage in reduction targets would be addressed. We did not call for statutory annual targets, as after assessing the evidence we came to the conclusion that such targets would be too vulnerable to short term fluctuations in energy demand (due to, for example, an overly cold winter). However we did recognise the virtue of introducing an annual element into the monitoring system, and came to the conclusion that annual milestones would be just as effective in making the government accountable for its carbon policy without making the administration of the system unworkably inflexible (it is worth noting that the Big Ask campaign now supports this approach).

Waste fees for charity shops

A number of councils in England are charging charity shops for collecting and disposing of unwanted donations. Councils are supposed to provide at least disposal services for free, but many appear to be simply unaware of the rules. I wrote to all councils about this practice in my capacity as Chair of the Parliamentary Waste Group. I am happy to report that over 40 councils have now changed their practices and that DEFRA is now also writing to all councils to make sure this practice stops. Southampton, incidentally, is one of the authorities that has systematically refused to change its present policy of full charges to Charity shops for collection and disposal.

More information from the Third Sector magazine

Work in Southampton

Noise at the docks

Constituents in Freemantle have contacted me about the growing noise pollution coming from section of the docks near Millbrook Road East. ABP recently switched location of stacking sites for the large number of empty containers that need to be stored in the port because of the imbalance of full containers in and out of the docks. Pentalver Transport, the main contracting haulage company in the docks has moved stacking operations from a site near berth 101, and into what was previously the Post Office site, which is immediately adjacent to residential areas in Freemantle. The new site is operated 24 hours a day. The noise coming from the docks has as a consequence increased dramatically and does not stop, even during the night.

I have now met with ABP and Pentalver to discuss the problem. It has been agreed that containers on the edge of the site closest to residents should be long-term stored, and should only be moved during the day. 24 hour working will therefore only take place well away from residential areas and in the core of the 9 acre site.

Housing

The response from constituents and local residents groups over my 10 minute rule bill on regulating HMOs has been very positive. Coming out of my work on the Bill, I met with members of Highfield Residents Association to view a number of recently converted HMOs in Portswood. In addition to the issues covered in my Bill, the tour also highlighted the related issue of landlords building extensions onto their HMOs and then applying for planning permission retrospectively. I will raise this issue in my next meeting with Council officers.

My campaigns on housing

Charities

The Big Lottery Fund recently awarded grants to three community projects in Southampton. I have now met with volunteers from the three successful projects- one run by Mind, one run by Crime Concern and one run by Shirley Warren Community Centre. This month I also held a meeting with local bank managers on how they can better support local charitable projects.

Environment

A few weeks ago I attended three environmental events in and around Southampton, including:

a visit to the Lower Test Nature Reserve to talk with staff about how climate change and rising sea levels would impact on the local habitat (the reserve is almost unique on the Hampshire coast in that its habitat may be flexible enough to survive a sea-level rise).
attending the ‘Environment Day’ at the Ropewalk Garden, which was recently restored and re-opened. I spoke to the volunteers who run the garden about how it could be made more accessible to the local community.
After the Ropewalk I answered questions on the impact of climate change on communities around the world on Unity 101.
Earlier this month I also introduced the Greenpeace film ‘A Convenient Solution’ to local business and local government leaders, and met with representatives from Fawley Power station to discuss the Energy White Paper.