Council has no money for Liveable Streets scheme
On 29th July Mark Baynes published a humorous and critical look at the latest Tower Hamlets Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting. He heard that the overall capital investment required to deliver Liveable Streets would be about £30 million over 3 years, and the consultation for just the Bow part of the scheme was costing £1 million! It’s unlikely that TFL will be able to continue funding Liveable Streets. Are our councillors mad? Check out Mark’s article in East End Enquirer to help you decide.
On the PCLConsult website They say: “The Bow area, which is in phase one, has also been successful in securing a Liveable Neighbourhoods bid funded by TfL, which could add up to £3.5m to the budget for that area.”
Extra Powers for Tower Hamlets
Boris Johnson has empowered local councils to better enforce coronavirus local lockdowns. Decision making has been given to Directors of Public Health. The Daily Mail reports: “Local authorities can make an application to a Justice of the Peace in the Magistrates’ Court to impose restrictions or requirements to close contaminated premises; close public spaces in the area of the local authority; detain a conveyance or movable structure; disinfect or decontaminate premises; or order that a building, conveyance or structure be destroyed.”
Scary stuff. Hands up those who think Tower Hamlets Council would get this right!
Burning Coal and Global Warming
Greenpeace says that burning coal is the most polluting way of producing energy. It contributes a great deal to global warming. You can read more in this Union of Concerned Scientists report.
In the first 3 months of 2020 47% of Britains electricity came from renewable sources – solar, and especially wind power. Only 3.8% of our electricity was generated by burning coal. Contrast that with the United States which generates around 25% of its electricity from coal. From mid April to mid June this year the UK managed to run for two months without burning any coal to generate electricity. This is good progress. The cost of generating wind power in the UK has fallen by a third since 2017. By 2023 it will no longer needs subsidies to compete with gas. From Jan – March wind power supplied 30% of our electricity. Since the wind blows thoughoutt the night, it can be used to charge electric vehicles, and to power trains carrying goods around the country.
In May this year RWE’s brand new Datteln-4 coal fired power station started generating electricity in Germany. It’s one of four in the North-Rhine Westphalia region. Germany says it it will phase out burning coal by 2038. This set of four giant power stations burn lignite, otherwise known as brown coal. This is the most polluting type of coal and it’s happening in a densely populated area. RWE is clearing the nearby Hambach forest to get at the lignite.
All four RWE power stations exceed the NOx emissions limits which come into force in 2021 under EU law. Germany is ignoring a UN request that no new coal plants should be opened anywhere in the world.
Alan Tucker
From listening to the webcast of the Overview & Scrutiny committee, Cllr Dan Tomlinson says the Bow scheme will cost over £1m, he doesn’t say that is what has already been spent. There is a clear difference. Understandably people may be concerned if just the consultation had cost £1m but that isn’t what he said.
Good news about the increase of renewable energy that the UK uses, but not entirely sure what a coal plant in Germany has to do with ‘news and events around Bow’ ??♂️
Regarding the statement “The consultation for just the Bow part of the scheme had cost £1 million!”, where is that stated?
At 1hr:18mins in the recording of the O&S meeting (see https://towerhamlets.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/494844) Cllr Tomlinson says:
“The Bow scheme costs more than a million and so it has to go to Cabinet”.
ie expenditure over the threshhold of £1million has to be approved by cabinet as per https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=152288
Please let me know if I have missed something?
Stated in the East End Enquirer, but I will read your links.