Browse content similar to 19/06/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to the Politics Show in the South West. The row | :37:59. | :38:00. | |
over making weekly rubbish collections compulsory created a | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
bit of a stink in Westminster this week. Local Government Secretary | :38:03. | :38:06. | |
Eric Pickles had previously championed the cause. But when the | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
Government published its Waste Review on Tuesday, the idea had | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
been chucked into the dustcart. The Waste Review talks about advising | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
local authorities to carry out more frequent collections but Ministers | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
accept they can't force them to do so. At the same time the Government | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
wants to encourage businesses as well as households to recycle more. | :38:20. | :38:24. | |
John Danks reports. For any government trying to become | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
the greenest, landfill is that dirty word they all try to avoid. | :38:30. | :38:35. | |
Keeping rubbish out of the ground is foremost in DEFRA's Waste Review. | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
Getting businesses to buy into this ethos isn't difficult because the | :38:37. | :38:44. | |
more they throw away the more they pay in landfill tax. Darts Farm in | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
Topsham has made great strides in reducing the waste it throws out. | :38:48. | :38:53. | |
They separate plastics and cardboard for recycling. With the | :38:53. | :38:56. | |
cost of waste collection constantly rising, they've found it pays to | :38:56. | :39:03. | |
recycle. The cardboard is bulky stuff and we spend a lot of money | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
every month paying to get our general waste taken off side. The | :39:08. | :39:13. | |
more we can get recycled, we get an income from that cardboard so we | :39:13. | :39:18. | |
are turning what would be a cost into where revenue. The price of | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
recyclable materials fluctuates but a lorry load of cardboard can fetch | :39:21. | :39:25. | |
around �1,500. No surprise maybe then that a DEFRA survey of | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
commercial waste last year revealed a recycling rate of 52%. But for | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
some small businesses access to waste and recycling services is a | :39:32. | :39:39. | |
problem. For a start not all local authorities collect trade waste. Of | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
the various disposal authorities throughout Devon and Cornwall just | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
over 60% offer commercial waste and recycling services. It was | :39:45. | :39:47. | |
announced in the Waste Review that the Landfill Allowance Trading | :39:47. | :39:52. | |
Scheme would be abolished. This set a limit on how much authorities | :39:52. | :40:02. | |
:40:02. | :40:02. | ||
could send to landfill. It takes away one of the incentives for | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
local-authority is not to deal with trade waste collection and | :40:06. | :40:11. | |
recycling because that tended to count against our allocations. | :40:11. | :40:16. | |
Because we might have had to buy permits to cover that, it should | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
make it much cheaper and efficient for small and medium-sized | :40:23. | :40:27. | |
businesses to do far more recycling of the materials that they haven't | :40:28. | :40:35. | |
their waste bins. -- that they have in their waste bins. The review | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
also proposed that Household Waste Recycling Centres might be adapted | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
to accept business waste. An idea which Plymouth City Council and | :40:40. | :40:42. | |
Cornwall Council will consider if cost effective. Devon County | :40:42. | :40:47. | |
Council has it's doubts. difficulty is that we have sized | :40:47. | :40:50. | |
than for the household waste streams and if you start taking in | :40:50. | :40:57. | |
large chunks of extra waste, you end up with queues and delays | :40:57. | :41:03. | |
because the units are generally pretty small. They are constrained | :41:03. | :41:10. | |
by the size of the site. Councils will said about providing the right | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
service that ratepayers once and the best service. This is a local | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
issue and must be decided at a local level. What we want in our | :41:19. | :41:24. | |
waste review is to make it easier for people to reduce waste, recycle, | :41:24. | :41:30. | |
see their waste go to other uses and so on. We want to get it all | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
out of landfill. But the review has been slammed by critics for lacking | :41:35. | :41:37. | |
ambition and detail. Labour's shadow environment secretary said | :41:37. | :41:39. | |
the government's policies on rubbish were in chaos. Meanwhile | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
the government claim they're still on track for achieving a zero waste | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
economy. But to reach that goal it seems local authorities have been | :41:47. | :41:56. | |
left to do much of the dirty work. I'm joined by a waste expert from | :41:56. | :42:02. | |
the University of Plymouth. He has also stirred as a Green Party | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
candidate. We have a government that wants to be the greenest ever | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
and zero waste. In your view, is this report doing anything to | :42:09. | :42:17. | |
advance those goals? It is full of good intentions. It is a fairly | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
smooth continuation of a long process that has been going on for | :42:20. | :42:28. | |
several decades but it very much prefers to consider incentives and | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
it is moving away from targets, particularly forcing people to do | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
things. That is at the heart of this Government's philosophy all | :42:36. | :42:41. | |
round. It is an idea that is being tested in all kinds of areas. Some | :42:41. | :42:47. | |
people would suggest there is a conflict between on the one hand | :42:47. | :42:49. | |
encouragingly weekly rubbish collections and encouraging more | :42:49. | :42:55. | |
recycling. Is that your view? a matter of emphasis. I can see for | :42:55. | :43:00. | |
political reasons why they wanted to make an effort to go back to | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
weekly collection but the real emphasis, they know, is the better | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
management of our resources as a country. Just simply stopping | :43:09. | :43:14. | |
throwing things away in a hole in the ground. They have kept with | :43:14. | :43:17. | |
that commitment. They are attempting to rationalise and | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
improve recycling. They then are trying to ensure the best energy | :43:22. | :43:29. | |
recovery. Do you think they largely incentive based policy can work on | :43:29. | :43:32. | |
its own? Do we need more of the stick that the Labour government | :43:32. | :43:38. | |
introduced? I think that some of the freeing up of opportunities is | :43:38. | :43:44. | |
a good thing. It is difficult to say with the land full allowance | :43:44. | :43:50. | |
trading scheme, which is being scrapped, that set targets for the | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
total amount of waste being generated by councils. They are | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
arguing that in fact the landfill tax, which is now moving up to that | :43:58. | :44:05. | |
�80 per tonne target, is sufficient in itself. Maybe that is the case | :44:05. | :44:09. | |
but I have been pleased to see that they are already encouraging | :44:09. | :44:16. | |
anaerobic digestion and they have made some intelligent pointers to | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
the way things that things could go for it, albeit they are not taking | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
a front seat in forcing it to happen. Arabic the suggestion of | :44:24. | :44:29. | |
course deals with food waste, which is a big component of domestic | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
waste. -- and a row brick by gesture. The government is also | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
looking at excluding VAT from landfill. How do you see that | :44:40. | :44:46. | |
working at? In Plymouth for instance, they are committed to an | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
incinerator and it is the cheapest, dirtiest way of dealing with it but | :44:50. | :44:54. | |
it does deal with it. It avoids expensive separate food waste | :44:54. | :45:00. | |
collection which I would like to see. I think that the big plus that | :45:00. | :45:05. | |
you can get from separate food waste collection is you can put it | :45:05. | :45:12. | |
through digestion and can recover gas. And what this report for the | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
first time says, is we could be supplying up to one-fifth of | :45:16. | :45:23. | |
domestic gas from the digestion of this kind of waste. That is | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
incredibly important when we are seeing the rising price of gas from | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
natural... From the road non- renewable resources, to move | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
towards a situation where we are supplying our gas these from away | :45:37. | :45:43. | |
waste food, that is good stuff. we are now going to have an | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
incinerator in Plymouth. I think that is right and it is a problem | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
certainly. But at least it avoids it going to landfill. At the moment, | :45:50. | :45:55. | |
we've got a huge amount of her mother's waist, which cannot be | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
recycled, and after all they are below 40 % in their current | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
recycling, so that means that more than 60 % of the waste from | :46:03. | :46:10. | |
Plymouth is trundling in trucks, 15 or 20 miles down the road every day. | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
We are going to have to leave it there. Thank you very much. A South | :46:16. | :46:18. | |
West MP wants the Government to help a taxi driver from Cornwall | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
who's been in an African prison for the last three years. Whilst living | :46:22. | :46:24. | |
in Gambia, where he was building a retirement home, Stephen Scarlett | :46:25. | :46:27. | |
drove three men over the border into Senegal. When they arrived all | :46:28. | :46:30. | |
four were convicted of visa fraud and Mr Scarlett's been in prison | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
there ever since. Tamsin Melville has been talking to his wife who | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
lives near Redruth. Jackie Scarlett's hopes have been | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
raised and dashed many times during her fight to get husband Stephen | :46:41. | :46:46. | |
released from a Senegal jail. His sentence ended in February but he's | :46:46. | :46:52. | |
still behind bars. The latest court hearing was earlier this week. | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
During our interview at her home near Redruth, Jackie took a call | :46:55. | :47:05. | |
:47:05. | :47:12. | ||
from the Foreign Office with some news. Yeah, yeah. All right, I will | :47:12. | :47:22. | |
:47:22. | :47:23. | ||
talk to you again soon. Goodbye. It has been rejected again. I'm sorry. | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
For the family, various holidays to the Gambia had been very happy | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
which is why Stephen decided to build a retirement home there. Now | :47:29. | :47:35. | |
the dream has turned into a nightmare. I have had no help at | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
all apart from I just keep ringing places and hope to be heard. There | :47:40. | :47:48. | |
have been doing it for three years, tried to get somewhere. The three | :47:48. | :47:52. | |
men also jailed have already been released but one is said to be | :47:52. | :47:54. | |
claiming he was a victim and is paying the Senegalese authorities | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
to keep Stephen imprisoned. He's asking for compensation, which | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
Jackie simply cannot afford. She hasn't spoken to her husband for | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
two years and has received only three letters, the last of which | :48:02. | :48:12. | |
:48:12. | :48:36. | ||
It is just not Steve. He is very cold, I'm alright, I'm fine. Don't | :48:36. | :48:42. | |
worry about me, look after yourself. That is all he says. What his state | :48:42. | :48:47. | |
of mind is, I don't know. I have no idea what kind of man is going to | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
come back home. It will certainly not Biedermann but went. Jackie's | :48:53. | :48:56. | |
MP took her fight to the Commons this week, calling for financial | :48:56. | :49:03. | |
assistance in cases like this, prompting this Government response. | :49:03. | :49:08. | |
I understand the distress felt by Mr Scarlett and his family, and the | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
length of time his cases taken to resolve. He has been assisted by | :49:12. | :49:17. | |
the British Embassy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a whole. | :49:17. | :49:22. | |
The responsibility of assuring Mr Scarlett receives his best possible | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
outcome rests with his lawyer. The Foreign Office supports and part | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
funds three groups, Prisoners abroad, reprieve and fair trials | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
International, all of which assist British citizens. We are aware that | :49:35. | :49:37. | |
Fair trials International have offered their services to Mr | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
scarlets family. But Jackie says they couldn't even find an English | :49:40. | :49:43. | |
speaking lawyer from a list they were given and Fair Trials | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
International haven't been able to help. There's a reason for this | :49:46. | :49:53. | |
says their man at the top. government has offices, staff, | :49:53. | :49:59. | |
consulates all over the world. A charity like Fair trials | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
International has received only �15,000 from the government in the | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
last year. It is nowhere near enough money to provide the kind of | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
support that is needed. And he says they're reliant on Foreign office | :50:09. | :50:15. | |
assistance. It is difficult to understand why he is continuing to | :50:15. | :50:22. | |
be held and what the Basic Law is in Senegal on this point. We've | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
asked the British government to gather that information so we can | :50:25. | :50:29. | |
provide some answers to Mr Scarlett and his family in Cornwall and to | :50:29. | :50:34. | |
consider whether we can challenge his treatment at the UN or other | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
international fora, but that have has not been forthcoming from the | :50:37. | :50:40. | |
British government. And the Government's answers aren't enough | :50:40. | :50:43. | |
for others either, with calls for legal aid rights at home to cross | :50:43. | :50:50. | |
borders in cases like Stephen's.? In extreme cases, we should offer | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
financial assistance because there is a big difference between fact | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
and somebody who is going on holiday, gets in a brawl and ends | :50:58. | :51:01. | |
up in trouble with the local police. There are distinctions between | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
those kinds of cases. There are only two British citizens in prison | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
in Senegal and in these countries they have a very different legal | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
system two hours. I don't think it would break the bank because the | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
numbers in these situations is small. Back in Cornwall it's a | :51:17. | :51:24. | |
struggle to keep the hope alive. feel dead inside because I just | :51:24. | :51:30. | |
don't know what door and going to knock on next. I just don't know | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
what I'm going to do. Jackie Scarlett ending that report | :51:34. | :51:38. | |
from Tamsin Melville. We did request an interview with the | :51:38. | :51:41. | |
Foreign Office Minister and Taunton Deane MP, Jeremy Browne, but he | :51:41. | :51:44. | |
declined. The MP for South East Cornwall has | :51:44. | :51:47. | |
once again called on the Government to abandon its plans to close | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
coastguard stations. Sheryll Murray's husband died in a fishing | :51:49. | :51:52. | |
accident earlier this year, and she made an emotional plea in the | :51:52. | :52:01. | |
Commons this week. No one knows more than me how dangerous the sea | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
is and how important it is to co- ordinate all rescue services | :52:05. | :52:12. | |
locally, when an incident occurs at sea. If these -- in these proposals, | :52:12. | :52:18. | |
I'm reminded of 1994, when two fishermen lost their lives of the | :52:18. | :52:27. | |
Cornish coast. It was below a recently closed... In reply, the | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
Shipping Minister Mike Penning insisted change is essential. | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
Parties can play politics with this but we will come out of this with | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
an emergency service which has the resilience nationally that it | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
deserves and the pay and training infrastructure that the service | :52:43. | :52:48. | |
needs as well. I hope that everybody understands that. The | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
government is doing this for the right reasons, not just about cuts, | :52:51. | :53:01. | |
:53:01. | :53:03. | ||
it is because... What we need is a 24/7 -- a 21st century service. | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
Transport Select Committee will deliver a report on the proposals | :53:05. | :53:10. | |
this Thursday. When the Government came to power | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
last year it promised to cut red tape for business. Here in the | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
South West there are few bigger businesses than tourism. But people | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
working in the self catering sector fear they're now facing more | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
expensive and complicated regulation. John Ayres reports. | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
Flick through a holiday cottage brochure and what are you looking | :53:25. | :53:32. | |
for? Nice accommodation, good location that's quite and peaceful, | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
maybe near to a town or a beach, maybe you want to take a dog? But | :53:37. | :53:41. | |
energy efficiency? Here's the thing. Apparently the Government hasn't | :53:41. | :53:44. | |
been correctly applying its own laws on holiday lets, to brings it | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
in line with Europe and now they're putting it right. From the end of | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
this month, a Energy Performance Certificate which is one of those | :53:51. | :53:54. | |
things you have to get when you sell your house, will have to be | :53:54. | :53:57. | |
produced, and its details made available to propective customers. | :53:57. | :53:59. | |
Ian Sturt carrys out energy assements. The information he | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
collects will be made availaible to anyone wanting to take a holiday in | :54:02. | :54:09. | |
this property. They are aware of how energy efficient the building | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
is and then they can make a statement in terms of choosing to | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
rent properties that are more environmentally friendly. It is | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
freedom of choice and giving them the information to make that. | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
Possibly more significant is the fact the energy performances have | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
occurred produce for the owner of the property is going to indicate | :54:26. | :54:30. | |
to them how they can improve the efficiency and reduce the energy | :54:30. | :54:35. | |
waste. The EPC certificate costs between �50 and �80. So what's the | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
problem? Well Moray Bowater runs a agency marketing properties like | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
this and he's concerned about putting all this information in | :54:42. | :54:47. | |
their literature. It may well increase the size of the brochure, | :54:47. | :54:51. | |
maybe 10 or more pages. That will cost be up to �50,000 to increase | :54:51. | :54:55. | |
the pressure by that amount. The mailing cost of the extra paper | :54:55. | :55:01. | |
could cost us may be �70 -- �70,000 to �80,000 a year. We estimated | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
will cost us in the region of �100,000 a year to add these | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
details to our brochure and to the details that we send out to | :55:09. | :55:12. | |
prospective ranters. Now the Government promised it would cut | :55:12. | :55:14. | |
red tape for business. This week, the Conservative MP Andrew | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
Stephenson, who represents Pendle in Lancashire raised the issue in | :55:17. | :55:23. | |
the commons, and was supported by Anne Marie Morris from Newton Abbot. | :55:23. | :55:28. | |
This is a classic case of the UK gold plating EU rate elation, | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
something which ministers have promised to stop. For the avoidance | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
of any confusion, I understand that the details state that all | :55:36. | :55:40. | |
buildings are subjected to these regulations unless specifically | :55:40. | :55:46. | |
excluded. As holiday lets have been -- not been excluded, it must apply | :55:46. | :55:50. | |
to them. Effectively, this is going to become a tax on tourism and it | :55:50. | :55:53. | |
will be harder to enforce because a lot of these lettings are not done | :55:53. | :55:58. | |
through agencies. That, combined with the Finance Bill changes which | :55:58. | :56:02. | |
changes the categorisation for relief, is going to give holiday | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
lettings, small businesses a real problem. An important part of what | :56:06. | :56:10. | |
my department attempts to do is to bust barriers and barrier busting | :56:10. | :56:16. | |
is one of the things on which we you wax very eloquently. But it has | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
to be the case that United Kingdom government must comply with EU | :56:20. | :56:25. | |
legislation correctly interpreted, and it also has to be the case that | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
it is extremely important to reduce the carbon output of the United | :56:29. | :56:32. | |
Kingdom. But while the MInister talks about barrier busting, the | :56:32. | :56:38. | |
industry is still to be convinved. It is a first test of whether this | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
government is serious about supporting business and driving out | :56:42. | :56:47. | |
red tape. It is the symbolism of a government helping business because | :56:47. | :56:51. | |
if they look at this, they will realise it is not needed. Under the | :56:51. | :56:54. | |
Government's own statements it should not happen. There's another | :56:54. | :56:59. | |
issue here too. The EPC legislation is designed for tenancies but will | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
now be applied to holiday lets. The industry fears this could be the | :57:02. | :57:10. | |
thin end of the wedge. There are different rules, regulations and | :57:10. | :57:14. | |
laws associated with shorthold or longer tenancies and those rules do | :57:14. | :57:17. | |
not apply to holiday lets. Of course, holiday lets could not go | :57:17. | :57:23. | |
ahead if the tenancy rules applied. Applying for work tenancy to | :57:23. | :57:26. | |
holiday next undermines the whole basis of a holiday letting industry. | :57:26. | :57:29. | |
The deadline to comply with the new application of the law is the 30th | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
June, and applies to any property rented out for more than 20 weeks a | :57:33. | :57:38. |