Birmingham Friends of the Earth is surveying candidates for the upcoming council elections about their views on a more sustainable future for Birmingham.
Candidates are being asked to express the extent to which they agree or disagree with Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s Ten Point Plan for Birmingham (below), so that voters can gauge candidates’ commitment to sustainability and the environment.
We hope to have as many candidates agreeing with the points as possible, and to see these points become enacted after the elections.
All responses to the survey will be posted here as they are received, so keep an eye out for responses from candidates in your area!
Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s 10-Point Plan for a More Sustainable City
Transport
1. Aim for cycling to be 10% of journeys by 2025, by maintaining funding for walking and cycling at £10 per person for 10 years after end of the Cycle City Ambition Grant though a combination of:
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New local ways of generating revenue.
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Changing priorities of highway spending from cars to cycles and pedestrians
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Bidding for further investment from national government.
2. Ensure any improvement or expansion of the road network will contribute to reducing levels of air pollution from transport, including making it easier to travel by cycle/walking
3. Commit to introducing ‘low emission zone’ charging, both in order to reduce unacceptable levels of air pollution, and act as a ring-fenced funding source for sustainable transport projects
Waste and recycling
4. Phase out the burning of rubbish as a fuel and aim to switch off the incinerator within five years of the end of the Veolia Contract. (2019 so by 2024)
5. Establish separate food waste collections across the city by 2018.
6. Start to roll-out street bins with sections for recycling segregation within the next five years.
Energy
7. Aim to quadruple the number of Birmingham schools (currently around 25) which have solar panels by 2020.
8. Commit to divesting all Council investments and pensions from polluting fossil fuel industries within 5 years.
Biodiversity
9. Commit to a change in the management of all the council’s grassland areas in order to maximise the amount of areas that are beneficial to wildlife, by pledging to continue and expand the work of the Birmingham and Black Country Nature Improvement Area through increased and long term funding.
10. Bring forward Birmingham’s target of increasing Birmingham’s tree population by 30% from 2026 to 2021, and ensure that new trees are targeted at areas of the city with low tree cover.
