Chiltern Green Party

The Chesham & Amersham Green Party is pleased to give a cautious welcome to the recent launch of the Town Council's Environmental policy.

Nick Wilkins commented: "This is a positive step, and the Town Council are to be congratulated on setting this in place. However, coming some fifteen years of inaction after the UK committed itself to Agenda 21 at the Rio Earth Summit, this is long overdue. The public are to be congratulated for making the environment a high enough concern for action to finally be taken.

"However, there is also a danger of being lulled into complacency by this sort of measure. This falls into the category of 'putting one's own house in order', and it is quite right that the Council should set an example on this. A greener Town Council is like buying a greener car: a step in the right direction, but only scratching the surface of the problem.

"The Council will inevitably have difficulties implementing some of these policies so long as there is economic pressure for high-growth and highly-mobile goods and services. Until the economic system is modified to reward localisation, congestion will always be a problem. The Council's power to make major changes such as "promoting public transport (1)" are extremely weak, and fall short of the radical overhaul necessary to bring our transport emissions to a sustainable level.

"Moreover, until Council Tax is abolished and replaced with a form of Land Value Taxation the South East will either become overdeveloped or its property prices will become so prohibitive that families will be forced to live even further apart. A Sustainable Urban Drainage policy (2) can only mitigate the problems of over-development. It won't prevent flooding becoming a more regular occurrence, let alone deal with the pressure on resources and public services that over-development brings."

(1) "Chesham Town Council Environmental Policy" p4 (2) ibid p6