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ECO WAR DECLARED
Report calls for a 'green audit' for every home
A RADICAL ‘greenprint’ report aimed at making Camden one of the most environmentally friendly places in the country will be unveiled tomorrow (Friday) – but its release comes as one family fights for the right to use solar panels.
Artist Ben Pulsford has been told by council planners that he cannot add a series of energy-saving gadgets to his listed home in Greville Road, West Hampstead, on conservation grounds.
He has launched a planning appeal and called the decision “short-sighted”.
The battle comes just as Camden tries to prove its green credentials by discussing a new plan to reduce the borough’s carbon footprint.
Councillor Alexis Rowell, Camden’s ‘Eco-champion’ and the council chief behind a series of new recommendations, has branded solar panels a thing of the past, and called for them to be scrapped in favour of on-site estate boilers.
He said: “Solar panels are incredibly expensive and may not be the best way to do this.”
Cllr Rowell gave the New Journal an exclusive sneak preview to the ‘greenprint’, which he will present to councillors for the first time in a private briefing tomorrow morning.
He is expected to recommend a series of dramatic key changes. They will include:
n Green auditors who will go in to every home in Camden, if asked, to offer families advice on how save energy.
n Plans to overhaul the heating system on every estate with a hi-tech incinerator that could one day be fuelled by household waste.
n Private companies to fund new greener heating systems.
Other suggestions will be announced later this week.
But the Lib Dem-Tory coalition’s commitment to green policies has been undermined by the row over Mr Pulsford’s solar panel plans.
It has also reduced recycling on council estates and is closely watching government tests which revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that electric G-Wiz cars are unsafe. They were hailed by Town Hall as the cars of the future and thousands of pounds have been spent fitting plug sockets in residential streets so car batteries can be conveniently recharged. The electric vehicles could be banned if further tests reveal they are more dangerous in collisions.
Cllr Rowell, a Liberal Democrat, has spent a year drawing up the environment paper and must now convince senior councillors to back his plans with both political will and funding.
He said: “Every single housing estate should be an energy hub in the future. Today we have inefficient boilers on estates that take in gas. Tomorrow we want to replace them with a turbine that will produce electricity and heating.”
The model, called Combined Heat and Power, will use gas to produce a localised source of electricity rather than taking it from the national grid. The dream is to convert the boilers into waste-burners that would be powered by waste wood and, potentially, household waste. The new system would then provide energy for both the estate and private homes nearby.
Cllr Rowell wants to fund the boiler overhaul by going into a joint venture with a private utilities company – who would then recoup their investment by charging the bills for heating and electricity.
Meanwhile, Mr Pulsford is still waiting to see whether he will ever get permission to use solar panels at his 18th century home.
He said: “If everyone who could do it, did it, it might make a difference - you’ve got to start when you can and do what you can.”
Sian Berry, the principal speaker for the Green Party, their alternative to a national leader, called local and national sustainability policies a “farce”. She said: “On the one hand the government are encouraging people to do their bit to help the environment but the very people who can afford to do it are the ones being prevented by the council, who are using their building’s listed status against them.” |
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