Local Council Elections - 2012

In less than 24 hours the polls will open for the local council elections in throughout the UK.  Over the past couple of weeks I have reviewed the proposed policies on a number of environmental issues with a particular focus on Glasgow and found them to be generally lacking in detail, imagination or ambition. There are clearly other important issues on which the mainstream parties have focused the debate, such as education, health and employment, but these are often linked to environmental factors.  Better classrooms which can be temperature regulated well ventilated can aid concentration and hence academic achievement. Access to good quality open space, safer cycling and walking routes and clean air can improve health and decent public transport infrastructure can improve mobility and hence job opportunities, especially considering the low car ownership in the most deprived areas of the city.

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Even Worse Than NIMBYs...

I grew up in a small(ish) town before moving to the big city to study then settle down. I still go back to the small town from time to time and I notice the changes, some I like but others I don't. I like the riverside park that has been extended and I dislike the creep of houses and shops in to the countryside on the periphery of town.

But I do not live there. I have chosen not too, therefore I must accept the changes made by those who do. In the big city we have many amenities; why should the small town not have some too if the townsfolk want them?

Unfortunately there are some that don't see the world that way. They move to the bright lights but they want the old place to remain as it was when they left, as they remember it. They will go to great lengths to keep it that way despite the desires of those living there to improve the place. Worse still are those who have never lived there but have some ancestral ties that they believe gives them the right to decide what is and is not acceptable for a community.

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