The charity Small acts of kindness once again provided over one hundred care packages for residents across Woodside during the Christmas and New Year period.
Further to the snow & ice in December the Salt Bins have been topped up. Further to complaints in regards to the A41 footbridge being quite treacherous Cllr Tim Williams visited and gritted the area on two mornings during the snow & ice period.
The Lib Dem team are pleased to announce that after escalating this long running matter with Thames Water’s Chief Executive it seems the issue has been found, and a thorough deep clean is about to occur. It was a combination of sewer abuse (fat, oil & wet wipes) and the sewer pipeline was full of root ingress.
At this time of the year several residents contact us regarding their concerns over the level of light from Herts County Council’s lamp columns.
Southwark Council's Labour administration has left hundreds of residents in the cold by refusing to address failures in the council heating network, the Southwark Liberal Democrats revealed on Wednesday.
Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today called on ministers to acknowledge the frustration faced by fishermen that valuable monkfish stocks are still regarded as “data-deficient”. Data-deficient species of fish pose greater challenges for the setting of quotas, as the lack of information on numbers makes it hard to reasonably reflect the potential catch in fishing grounds. Monkfish is a key stock for Scottish and in particular Shetland fishermen.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
