21st April 2005

 
Green candidate launches Green transport pledges

The Cotswold Experience Tours Ltd, which provides 11 subsidised bus services in the Stroud District (i), has taken on larger premises and moved to Woodchester. Their radical approach to the threat of global warming means they produce minimal carbon emissions.

The Managing Director, Mr. Lawton said: "Global warming is probably the single most important environmental problem. Inaction will make species extinct soon and cause irreversible climate change for future generations; so inaction is an incredibly selfish path to tread. Everyone and every organisation must take responsibility for their own impact. If we do this we can lessen the effects of climate change. We also urgently need a Green voice in parliament - the other parties inaction and policies are not good enough. Every Green vote sends a message that we must take climate change seriously. I would urge everyone here in Stroud to vote for Martin Whiteside (ii)."

 Mr Lawton said: "All our buses run on 100% biodiesel: a fuel that is made from recycled vegetable oil as a main component. This means the use of the buses are "carbon neutral" and so do not add to global warming (carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas  that contributes to climate change). Our Company also receives all its electricity supply from a 100% renewable energy tariff, uses only recycled paper, and uses the environmentally friendly phone co-op."

Over the last few years Mr Lawton estimates the amount the Cotswold Experience has prevented over 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being added to the atmosphere.

Martin Whiteside, the Green party candidate in the coming election (iii), was asked for advice on securing an environmentally friendly future for the company. This led to the Cotswold Experience office and bus yard coming under the same roof as well as the associated company Pure Biodiesel Ltd. Martin Whiteside said: "The Cotswold Experience company is part of the answer to building a working, clean, safe affordable public transport network is key to tackling climate change and to creating a more equitable society, but we urgently need more action by the government."


Greens transport pledges

Martin Whiteside visited the company's new site today, to check on the company's move and to launch the Green party's 6 transport pledges. He said: "Greens want £30 billion road building money transferred to public transport, road traffic reduced by 10%, the railways brought back into public ownership, buses re-regulated and taxes on biodiesel made from waste fuels reduced."

Martin Whiteside said:"Successive Governments' obsession with roadbuilding and neglect of the public transport network, has cut off people who can't drive from their essential services, and left Britain with a £43bn a-year road habit (iv) that accounts for about a quarter of the UKs Greenhouse gas emissions (v). With 32,000 people dying prematurely last year from respiratory illnesses caused through traffic fumes the time for immediate action is now - and unlike fossil fuels 100% biodiesel is not carcinogenic (viii)."


The 6 Green transport pledges

Pledge 1 - Invest £30 billion into rail, bus, cycle and pedestrian transport improvements - £30bn liberated through scrapping the Government's roadbuilding scheme and through taxing progressively
Pledge 2 - Make rail transport publically funded, affordable, available for all. Bring rail back into public ownership. Reduce rail fares.
Pledge 3 - Re-regulate the Britain's buses.
Pledge 4 - Reduce road traffic by 10% over 5 years: scrap the tax disc, increase fuel duty.
Pledge 5 - End aviation's £9bn a year tax break (vi).
Pledge 6 - Reduce taxes on biodiesel made from waste oils (vii).

Switching to biodiesel

Mr Lawton said: "We need more dedicated people to show how easy the switch to alternative fuels can be done and still survive in the commercial world. We've proved that. I would urge others to follow, otherwise it’ll be too late."

Notes to the Editor:

(i) The Cotswold Experience Company provides 11 subsidised bus services in the Stroud District which enable people particularly living in more remote areas to have access to services. The services running now from the new base are:
Service 30: Stroud – Randwick – Stroud
Service 25: Stroud - Oakridge – Stroud
Service 19: Stroud – Standish – Stroud
Service 27: Stroud – Bourne – Field Road – Stroud
Service 67: Stroud – Woodchester – Stroud
Service 23A: Stroud – Cheltenham – Stroud (Bisley)
Service 23B: Stroud – Painswick – Sheepscombe – Stroud
Service 61: Nailsworth – Newmarket- Shortwood - Nailsworth
Service 61B: Nailsworth – Amberley, Woodchester – Nailsworth
Service 61C: Nailsworth – Nympsfield – Nailsworth
Hopper: Wotton – N. Nibley - Coombe - Tresham, -Kingswood -Wotton

(ii) Mr. Lawton said: "I would urge people to vote for Martin Whiteside primarily because we really need a green voice in parliament. If we had proportional representaion - a proper voting system - we’d already have a handful of green MPs. It would make me so proud of Stroud to get the UKs first Green MP in - against a system loaded against it. David Drew is a nice guy bit unfortunately he belongs to a party which has killed thousands and thousands of people unnecessarily and I don’t want to risk a repeat of that or a repeat of ignoring the most valuable global peace force the UN. Besides people are bored of the “spiel” from other parties. "

Mr Lawton continued: "A Green MP would be a breath of fresh air in parliament! I think we could vote for Martin Whiteside on that basis alone. Greens couldn’t get a majority but it would be a relief for millions of people around the whole country if they heard just one Green MP, one person standing up for the radical changes which are needed to prevent irreversible climate change. Climate change and species extinction will happen if we don’t act fast now. Fact of the matter is if you care about the environment and want real progress, you need radical policies, not just spiel. The vested interests are so powerful that if you don’t start off radically the policies will get diluted through pressures - to the point of being ineffective for climate change prevention. We have a time span within which to achieve massive carbon reductions. This is the urgency! Otherwise it’d be fine to make changes at the current rate. We are well behind schedule on the necessary targets and need stronger radical policies to halt global warming and the consequential killing off of species forever."

(iii) Martin Whiteside lives with his wife and three children in Thrupp, near Stroud, where he is an existing Green Party District Councillor. The first time he stood for the Council he scraped in by 35 votes, after a year of hard work for his constituents he was re-elected this year, getting more votes than all the other parties combined. He is hoping to repeat this at the parliamentary level. Martin Whiteside works as a freelance development consultant for aid organisations, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, WWF and the British Government, advising them on their development programmes in many different countries.

(iv) The UK spends £43 billion a year on the direct and indirect costs of road transport, inluding road building and maintenance and hidden costs such as pollution and health costs. See 'Fair Payment From Road Users?' - A critical look at the calculations for air pollution by David Maddison, Centre for Social and Economic Research into the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London and University of East Anglia, for ETA Trust on behalf of: Council for the Protection for Rural England, Friends of the Earth, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000, December 1998: As quoted in "Fair on fuel, fair in the future" (2000) www.greenparty.org.uk

(v) p.2 of Financial and Environmental Impact of Biodiesel as an Alternative to Fossil Diesel in the UK - prepared by ECOTEC for BABFO. It reads: "Road transport is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas and PM(10) (fine airbourne particles) emissions, about 30% of volatile organic compound emissions, 60% of black smoke etc...."

(vi) VAT enjoys hidden tax breaks (including VAT) and other subsidies amounting to £9bn a year.

(vii) The Green Party accepts that biofuels are an important 'stop-gap' measure to improve the Government's emission reduction strategy, particularly for transport, where emissions have not been curbed. But they note just growing biofuels is not enough. What's needed is support for vibrant local economies, and measures to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and long-distance transport. Recycling wastes into biofuels offers considerable benefits for local economies. However the Green party has concerns about aspects of the Government's proposals for intensive biofuel production that could hurt small farmers and the British countryside by strengthening the hold of multinational corporations on British farming.

(viii) See: http://www.biofuels.fsnet.co.uk/basics.htm