We write to object to the application to restore Stowey Quarry by landfilling of hazardous waste.

The amount of hazardous waste generated within the area would not seem to warrant such a site. The implication is that waste will be imported into the area from other parts of the UK, and indeed the application is for 100 lorry journeys a day. Transport of such a large quantity of hazardous waste in the area not only seems like an unnecessary risk, but would add significant traffic to the narrow roads typical of the site's location.

We also note with concern the fact that Bristol Water have opposed the plans due to the risk of waste reaching the nearby reservoir. The health risks were this to happen are significant, and given that other asbestos landfills (such as in Somerset) have seen waste escaping into the environment, placing such a site so close to the source of drinking water for so many people seems reckless. Even if waste did not escape from the landfill itself, the operation and cleaning of vehicles using the site is likely to release asbestos into the local environment.

The very real risk of waste escaping into the environment, along with the generally rural nature of the site making the use of heavy goods vehicles inappropriate, makes it impossible for us to support the proposed application.

Despite hollow government assurances, the Health and Social Care Bill will vastly increase the commercialisation of the NHS.

This is not scaremongering. We can already see the ground opening up to more NHS hospitals being run by the private sector. In fact, Government officials are already discussing handing the management of 10 to 20 hospitals to the German firm Helios.

A broad coalition of people, including many professionals working in the NHS, are deeply worried about the consequence of this top down reform.

And they are right to feel anxious.

This Bill allows hospitals to use nearly half our public beds for private work. It introduces a dangerous element of competition between service providers, and allows private companies to cherry pick the easiest cases for treatment.

It provides for a much more complex NHS structure, and rather than giving power to local GPs, it creates confusion about individual bodies' roles and responsibilities - and a crisis of accountability.

To make matters even worse, it makes provision for charging, and removes the statutory duty to provide public health services for children, smoking cessation services, alcohol and drug services and a raft of other crucial services.

The government had absolutely no mandate whatsoever for any of this, from the voters or in the Coalition Agreement.

Moreover, Liberal Democrat supporters in Bath should note with concern that Don Foster voted in favour of this Bill.

Shame on Mr Foster.

Yours sincerely,

Sue Bradley, Bath and North East Somerset Green Party

Last week councillors in Bristol passed a motion, proposed by Green Party councillors, which could provide cheap, clean energy for local residents. Rising energy costs, confusing tariffs and unscrupulous sales tactics often mean that those working the longest hours, or earning the least, are unable to take advantage of cheaper rates. Based on a successful Dutch initiative, the Greens' proposal sets out a national ‘energy bulk-purchase’ scheme. With an increasing demand for secure, clean energy which will not literally cost the earth , the proposed scheme aims to harness the joint purchasing power of local authorities across the UK to negotiate cheaper costs through bulk-purchasing of energy, both for their own needs and those of their citizens.

As well as incorporating stringent definitions ensuring that only energy from truly renewable, non-nuclear, resources would fit the criteria, the scheme would also look into ways of reducing energy consumption. The initial investment required would soon be repaid as local authorities reap the benefit of savings in energy procurement. This is a clear example of how Green policy initiatives are both visionary and practical, helping both people and the planet. We hope that BANES will be first in the queue to join our neighbours in this exciting venture.

Yours sincerely

Sue Bradley

Bath and North East Somerset Green Party

Local councillors continue to wrangle over bus routes to the university. Indeed an observer will have noted that their views change according to whether or not they are currently holding the reins of power.

The extended route via North Parade adds to the traffic jams out of the city and creates more pollution whilst cutting off access to Great Pulteney Street for elderly and infirm citizens. On the other hand it is undoubtedly true that Pulteney Bridge is not suited to the bendy buses and is now a more pedestrian and tourist-friendly place.

The answer lies in splitting the route into two regular services. One bus could take a circular route from Claverton to Laura Place, catering for students and residents alike and providing access to the surgery, the library and shops. The other could run from Oldfield Park via North Parade to the university. This would have the added advantage of eliminating the massive peak-time queues that block the High Street pavements and also free up the road for other local buses.

It's not rocket science, just common sense, but when will it become a reality?

The announcement of the transport package with nine showcase bus routes routed through Dorchester Street will be delayed on an already saturated route and bring the city further into disrepute due to Traffic problems. The only street management mentioned is the High Street which, although welcome, will do nothing to relieve traffic or address city centre pollution.

It is two years since the new Southgate development opened, during which time the roads around the Bus Station have become more congested due to the use of the new Southgate Car Park constantly delaying buses.

The Green Party proposed the closure of Dorchester Street, along with other measures, in January 2010. However, the only change has been the addition of two yellow box junctions along with improved lane markings, which have done little to alleviate the problems.

It is clearly a situation which cannot continue, with constant delays and cars trapped in the Southgate Car Park. The closure of Dorchester Street to private vehicles is the only realistic solution left to redeem the situation.

The closure will have the additional benefit of removing a traffic rat-run through the city centre and will be realistic start to reducing traffic and pollution, which is the stated aim of the council.

If the Lib Dem council does not implement this solution the Showcase buses will be static display, not a moving one, in Dorchester Street.

Don Grimes

Bath and North East Somerset Green Party

Sir

The Green Party has dismissed the Coalition government's plan to "localise business rates" as a superficial gimmick with potentially damaging effects for local government, small business and the environment.

The new plans are an example of false localisation, designed instead as a mechanism to further squeeze council budgets and services. While the proposals are portrayed as localism, both business rates and the valuations on which rates are based will be set by central government.

The proposals go further to state that any business rate growth achieved by local authorities below a centrally set growth target - adjusting for inflation - will be kept centrally. Local authorities are actually set to lose out to the treasury if the treasury's own targets are not met, placing further strain on the provision of already slashed services.

It is absurd to even call the proposals 'localisation' when the key variable - the level of tax - will remain out of council control and the growth target will be set nationally for all of England.

Many small innovative businesses, such as new media, attract little or no business rates because they are run from home or modest offices. To benefit most under the new scheme, local authorities need to favour large projects like new airports or large shopping centres. This makes a mockery of the Coalition's pledge to support small business and will further choke an already stalling recovery.

Business rates need to be set locally so regional authorities can adjust strategies to optimise local talent. Without this, both the local economy and the environment will suffer from corporate cherry picking.

Yours sincerely

Sue Bradley

The recent news that Hinchingbrooke Hospital is being handed-over to the private healthcare company Circle to run is a timely reminder of the fact that our MP Don Foster voted for the controversial Health and Social Care Bill.

Despite coalition assurances that this would not lead to privatisation, we are already seeing that this is as true as David Cameron's promise of 'no top-down reorganisation of the NHS'. After all, what is the handing-over of an NHS hospital to the private sector if not privatisation?

Circle are not the friendly sounding 'John Lewis' style mutual often portrayed - more than half of the business is owned by ex bankers and speculators including Tory party donors such as Paul Ruddock and Crispin Odey. It is based in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, so while NHS money is going to make some Tory donors very wealthy they are not even going to pay tax on the profits. It's worth remembering that it was Labour who started negotiations to give control of Hinchingbrooke to profit-making companies, and it was is their market-based NHS changes that allowed the current coalition NHS dismemberment to take place so quickly.

This is the sort of NHS that Don Foster and his coalition supporters voted for. They are trading our health for their donors' profits. The Greens are the only party that is fighting for a public NHS working for people, not profit.

Dominic Tristram

Bath and North East Somerset Green Party

The announcement that B&NES Council is to retain the post of Chief Executive (2010-2011 salary £178,000 per year plus pension benefits) and also pay a 'head-hunting' fee of £50,000 of council taxpayers' money in this time of high-level unemployment reflects very poorly on the councillors who voted for this – the majority of them.

When so many people are to be laid off and low-paid workers are having difficulty making ends meet, this appointment is a missed opportunity for councillors to address the gulf between rich and poor in their own workforce by not paying the boss more than ten times the lowest paid worker in salary and benefits.

Lesley Seary, the incoming chief executive of Islington Borough Council in London has not only accepted this 10:1 ratio but has taken a salary cut of £50,000 making her salary £160,000. She said: "We are committed to tackling inequality in all its forms and putting money back in the pockets of our residents."What a contrast to our own bloated executives supported by unnamed councillors spending other people's money.

This could have been an opportunity for our council to lead the way and encourage others to follow suit, but instead it simply seems to confirm the fact that when it comes to high pay, and examples such as banking bonus excesses, the ConDem coalition will never do anything except talk about it.

So there’s the challenge - hopefully some of our councillors will take it up.

Bath and North East Somerset Greens meet regularly in Bath. Some of these meetings are open to non-members so that they can find out more about the party and what we do.

The next such open meeting is on the 19th of July at 8:30pm in the Central Bar on Upper Borough Walls. Come along!

Bath and North East Somerset Green Party would like to thank all those electors who voted with hope for the future and a belief in Green policies, which put people and quality of life ahead of consumption and greed.

In the City of Bath, where for the first time we stood a candidate in every ward, our vote share averaged just under 12%, with individual candidates in Walcot and Lambridge gaining 18% and 15% respectively and the Westmoreland team totalling a 21% share.

We will continue to press for a sensible form of PR which will give more weight to the aspirations of so many Bath voters. Meanwhile we urge the other parties to take note of the increasing number of voters who want something different, better and Greener.

The BBC interviewed our candidates for Westmoreland, Jon Lucas and Nigel Williams, for The Politics Show.

Our segment is about 40 minutes in. You can watch it by following this link.

Sir,

Whilst acknowledging the deficit, the Greens have a positive and constructive viewpoint on managing the country's financial problems by identifying different options for dealing with them. The response of ruthless cuts and austerity measures is an ideological choice made by the big three parties. For Labour and some Lib Dems to criticise the "pace and scale" of the cuts is still a pro-cuts,pro-austerity choice.

The Green Party, many unions and some economists have proposed alternatives such as cracking down on tax avoidance and tax evasion, thereby recouping billions every year. The wealthiest people in society should be paying a fairer share, with windfall taxes being imposed on bank profits and bankers' bonuses.

A huge £100bn could be saved over thirty years by scrapping Trident and its proposed replacement. Meanwhile let's start 'smart switching' funds from high-carbon to carbon-reduction spending,for example away from motorway-building and into public transport.

Investing in the transformation to a post-carbon economy, while creating a million new jobs and training places, will ensure those new jobs bring in extra revenue to support public spending, whereas the cuts will cost the country a million jobs.

Elected Greens will vigorously challenge cuts to local services because we believe there is an alternative based on fairness and sustainability - not the one based on destroying public services and punishing the poorest people in society.

Dominic Tristram (Green Party candidate for Odd Down)

27 Frome Road, Odd Down, Bath

Sir,

Greens in Bath and North East Somerset advocate what their Green Party elected colleagues in Kirklees have pioneered.

Greens want to roll out free home insulation programmes to insulate every home that needs it, taking into account a given area's deprivation ranking, to ensure the poorest benefit first. The costs will be manageable within a typical council budget, running for 20-30 years, drastically reducing domestic emissions and saving people money on their increasing fuel bills. Such programmes would also create jobs, resulting in a win-win-win solution all round.Green Party councillors in Leeds are promoting a similar scheme, which is expected to cut £10m a year off people's fuel bills and, for every pound the council spends on the scheme, to generate a further £4 in the local economy.

Elected Green Party councillors in B&NES could go further and advocate another Green Party policy recently initiated by Norfolk County Council, where the Greens have 7 elected County councillors and are already in opposition with a further 14 City councillors to Labour's 16. Norfolk has agreed to set up an energy-saving company to pursue carbon-reduction while generating a new income strand for the local authority.

Like the rest of Britain, B&NES is going to suffer from the savage austerity measures forced on local councils by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition. Adopting green policies like the above would help mitigate that damage.

Yours sincerely

Sue Bradley (Green Party candidate for Widcombe)

4 Broadway, Widcombe, Bath BA2 4JA

At the hustings for the London Road and Snow Hill Partnership on 20th April, one of the major issues raised was the problem of traffic on the London Road. The seriousness of the resulting pollution can be understood from government figures showing that up to 24,000 people a year may die because of pollution. A big problem is the particulates from diesel engines, so reduction of the 500 plus lorries per day on the London Road must be a priority.

The London Road monitoring system is 150 metres from the lights. It consistently shows 65 micrograms of Nitrous Dioxide per cubic metre as the hourly mean, when 40 micrograms was the EU target to be attained by 2005. In addition the peak mean for one hour was supposed to be 200 micrograms per cubic metre whereas the monitoring station registered 288 and that is not even at the lights and on the other side of the road from where the traffic stops.

Air pollution from traffic is one of the greatest causes of ill health and early mortality, and only the Green Party would take the necessary measures needed to tackle this. I hope the residents of Bath will take a historic decision to elect Bath's first Green councillors on May 5th to bring about some effective positive action.

Nick Hales, Green Party candidate for Walcot ward

The Green Party is the only party in this election standing on a platform of change. We are the only party committed to progressive, imaginative solutions to the challenges of climate change, environmental problems and the cuts in public services imposed by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition and Labour government mismanagement. We need councillors who are responsive to the needs of residents and who advocate local and sustainable solutions.

The Green Party only advocates cuts where they are needed - not where they hurt. We would increase the supply of affordable and social housing by ensuring that all new developments set aside 40% for this purpose. We will also assert the council's powers to bring empty homes back into use and support an adapted New Homes Bonus Scheme as a further incentive.

We will maximise energy efficiency by supporting a home insulation programme, reducing council energy consumption and promoting micro generation. We will implement the Zero Waste Strategy, focusing on reducing waste as well as maximising efficient recycling.

We will promote walking, cycling and public transport over personal car use and introduce a 20 mph speed limit across Bath and a 10 mph speed limit in selected residential streets. We support greater pedestrianisation of the city centre to create an enhanced built-environment, free from the impact of traffic.

We will protect and preserve the Green Belt - the lungs of the city - opposing any development here and on public green spaces. We will introduce Area Committees to devolve power to communities, thereby ensuring people are consulted about decisions that directly affect them.

Green councillors can be a voice for change in Bath, promoting sustainability, vigorously defending public services and influencing progressive alternatives. Make a real difference. Vote Green.

Sir

With Hinckley Point just down the road , the nuclear disaster in Japan and wars in the Middle East show us all the stupidity of the LibDem/Tory coalition following blindly on where Labour left off, by taking us into an uncertain nuclear age of weapons and power. The vulnerability of nuclear plants to flooding and terrorist attacks is moving up the scale to 'when', not 'if'.

The Middle Eastern wars allow sophisticated weapons, including rockets, to be sold to terrorists. If Israel, after 50 years of trying, cannot stop rocket attacks from Gaza, what will stop an attack on our nuclear plants? The alternatives to nuclear power are well documented: www.noneedfornuclear.org.uk is a well balanced site.

The combined LibDem/Tory/Labour support for £80 billion on continued use of nuclear weapons could be used to get our million unemployed young people back to work in worthwhile industries to make our country a better place. It is our vote, our choice.

Yours faithfully

Don Grimes

Bath and North East Somerset Green Party

On a hot and sunny Saturday the 9th of April the party manned a street stall where the public could come and ask about policies and take literature away to read.

In this period of cuts and high unemployment, the Government needs to make job creation a priority.

However, we need jobs that are of benefit to local communities and based on sound ethical values, not ones that destroy local economies. Elected Green councillors would encourage local entrepreneurs to create small-scale businesses, while opposing large corporations whose profits disappear from the locality and who benefit from tax avoidance. We strongly oppose the attempts to turn Bath into yet another clone-town of large supermarkets, which force our small local shops to close.

Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, recently introduced a bill into Parliament to reclaim the billions lost in tax every year from big business.

The Tax and Financial Transparency Bill would tackle the UK's billion-pound tax evasion scandal, including the 500,000 companies who either pay no tax at all or fail to file their accounts. It would also force companies to publish how much they pay. Corporate social responsibility cannot be optional for companies, and paying tax to the country that provides them with their opportunities to trade is not negotiable.

Jon Lucas and Nigel Williams

Green Party candidates for Westmoreland ward, Bath

It seems like only yesterday that Stephen Lewis reported on the meeting of the London Road Residents Association for The Bath Chronicle on Wednesday May 3, 1995. The candidates in the election of that year were all asked what they thought of the plans for what was then a Safeway supermarket, (now Morrisons) on the London Road.

Liberal Democrat Eddie Forrester, Labour's Janice Ross and Tory Ahmed Chowdhury all pledged to oppose the plans. Of course it was built in the end despite the promises which proved to be false. Now we have plans for two supermarkets by Tesco in close proximity on the Upper and Lower Bristol Road. As the election approaches no doubt we will hear some opposition to those from the three historic parties if it looks like they can change voting intention in their favour. The reality is that only The Green Party has the honest will to oppose such expansion.

The Conservatives have announced in the recent budget that they will destroy many planning regulations.This will undoubtedly mean circumventing the concerns of local people over, for instance, supermarket planning permissions, housing on the green belt around Newton St Loe and, in places like Woolley Valley, we may see control handed to the company devastating the landscape there which has resubmitted its applications for development.

Globally, if other governments look to our own mother of parliaments for inspiration, relaxation of planning laws will mean more tribes, like the Penan in Malaysia, moved off their land, reduction of biodiversity and the extinction of species as, for instance, palm oil plantations cover Sumatra.

NICK HALES Larkhall, Bath

Kat Miles ran a Green Party information stall at Bath University's Global Futures week.

Kat reports: "We had a good 2 hour session, handed out loads of leaflets, chatted to quite a few people and  added to our growing student group!"