Laura Carey, Hutton Central candidate, has lived in Brentwood since 2013 and has two teenaged children, both attending local schools. Laura works as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and as a Specialist Mentor for university students with physical and mental health issues.
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In response to a recent article on the civic dinner in the Wiltshire Times today - Cllr Andrew Bryant penned this impassioned response in the comments section which has since been deleted from the page along with a number of other comments. What does it take for people to realise something maybe isn't quite how it's portrayed? The mayor has privately expressed how he wishes for the money to be used and this will be made clear by him at council next week. Civic Dinners are not a dinner for Cllrs. In fact a number of Cllrs do not go to the Civic Dinner and those that do have to pay for their meal in full. I believe the last meal was approximately £35 per head. There is no free meal for Cllrs. But that doesn't get the headlines and the cries of outrage does it? This is yet another public rant by a Cllr who has made it his business to rail against anything that might find him a vote rather than offering constructive support for our town. Such as the multi-storey of which those nasty Lib Dems wish to dis
Way back in November 2018 the Tories voted for the version of Brentwood's Local Plan that they had been pushing to see happen. Their Plan contained (amongst other things) an excessively high concentration of sites allocated for housing development in Brentwood, Shenfield and Warley. The Lib Dems had, even then, been criticising these proposals for years because of our fundamental concerns about the impact that they would have on infrastructure in these areas - particularly roads, doctors surgeries and schools. And even in November 2018 the Tories knew that the version of the Plan they were voting for was not the version that could be submitted, because numerous pieces of work still needed to be finished (or even started), including the crucial studies which would show if these proposals could actually make sense. So, since it was the Plan they (and they alone) had approved they surely should have continued to pay close attention to the plan's evolution thereafter - in case any of the problems that the Lib Dem
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Many of us listened with dread to the announcement by Matt Hancock the health secretary of another reorganisation of the NHS. I would question whether this is such a brilliant idea whilst we are not yet out of the pandemic. Most of us have not received the first vaccine jab let alone the second. Part of the government's drive appears to be a reaction to some of the problems highlighted by the pandemic and the lack of control of many aspects of the NHS by government ministers.
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!”
