The Environment

Protecting and promoting our Environment

Trafford Conservatives are committed to making Trafford a cleaner, safer and more welcoming Borough where people are encouraged to contribute to the well being of their local community. We want to build on our reputation as a Borough noted for its large number of trees and interconnected green space, where the diversity of nature is valued and protected and where waste and pollution are minimised.

Waste Management

This Conservative administration will continue with its very successful drive to raise public awareness of the many schemes & facilities across the Borough, to further increase our success rates in waste collection & recycling. Since we took control in 2004, we have diverted more waste away from landfill and have increased the amount of waste recycled or composted. Recycling and composting rates are now 29%, four times the level under Labour. Specific recent initiatives include:

• The introduction of gardening waste collections to every house in the Borough with a garden.
  
  
• A campaign to raise awareness in our schools through a traveling roadshow
  

In 2008, we will introduce kerbside collections ofPlastics&Cardboard and are committed to retaining the weekly bin collection.

Litter and graffiti

We have recently established The Environmental Crime Action Team (E.C.A..T) to enforce environmental legislation, promote educational programmes through the Authority's Street Pride campaign and the Environmental Services Citizenship programme.

In addition, we have established the "Defacement Removal Team" to remove Flyposters & Graffiti from all public street furniture.

Last years successful campaign against cigarette related litter saw a major reduction in litter on our streets. This year we will introduce "The Tidy Business Standard" to encourage cleaner and greener businesses to make the effort to manage, reduce & recycle their waste.

As pledged in 07 Manifesto, we have increased enforcement of on-the-spot fines to tackle dog fouling, and will continue to drive enforcement action in relation to abandoned vehicles and litter. Todate, a total of 607 fixed penalties have been issued against offenders.

Street Scene Maintenance

The Street Cleaning team of 53 staff are responsible for cleaning over 500 miles of roads and footpaths in Trafford. We have introduced new street cleaning vehicles. We now clean retail shopping areas daily, pick litter across the Borough on a weekly basis and "deepclean" each ward every 8weeks.

We have increased our independent Audit Commission rating to a three star Authority and will continue to deliver a sustainable, effective service.

Sustainabilty

Trafford Conservatives will build on the success of 2007 in the areas of recycling and improvement of the Streetscene with a fully-fledged Sustainability Strategy which will tackle the problems of climate change and fuel supply in the borough.

Trafford Conservatives believe that these problems are too important to be subsumed by political point-scoring, and so a new all-party councillors’ working group, led by Trafford Conservatives, has been set up to investigate and guide Trafford’s strategy and response. The Environmental Sustainability Working Group has been intimately involved in the development of Trafford’s new Sustainability Strategy.

In 2007, Trafford Conservatives introduced a council tax rebate and discount home insulation scheme for residents, which has already seen hundreds of householders sign up to cut their energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. In 2008, this council tax rebate will be increased to encourage households on lower incomes to take advantage of the offer, and a new scheme which will introduce council tax rebates for any household installing solar hot water or photovoltaic systems will be launched, putting Trafford Council at the forefront of the fight against climate change and rising energy prices.

Trafford Conservatives will also be cutting energy use in the council’s own buildings, giving council tax payers more value for money and freeing up resources for frontline services. Schools in the borough will benefit from educational programmes about environmental sustainability, delivered by the council in partnership with Action for Sustainable Living, a local community-based organisation whose Old Trafford Renewables Project with Trafford Council won the Energy Institute’s Renewable Innovation Award for 2007.

Schools will also be encouraged to cut their energy use, save money on their bills and put energy efficiency at the core of their curriculum, building on the model of Woodheys Primary, which won the Ashden Award for Energy Efficiency in 2007 thanks to support from the council under the leadership of the Trafford Conservatives.

Public Protection

To will continue of efforts inrelation the illegal sale of alcohol to minors and the sale of Fireworks. Last year in Trafford there was a 28% reduction in incidents of under 18s buying alcohol, one of the biggest reductions in the North West.

Parks and countryside

We will continue to build on our commitment to make our Parks cleaner and greener and a safer place to visit, play and relax, for Trafford residents and visitors. We have continually improved our independent inspection score and have introduced our own Gold /Silver /Bronze awards.