20/11/2011 The Politics Show South

In the self: As protest cannot get close down, we have been to the one

that is actually welcomed by the local authorities.

And could the Isle of Wight really become the most environmentally

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2341 seconds

Hello, welcome to the part of the show especially for us in the south.

And today's show: Plans to turn the Isle of Wight green.

They don't just want to be energy- efficient, they want to be

exporting energy in 10 years' time. We also find out why one of our

committee of MPs thinks our councils are getting too much money

from the government. And we will be hearing from the one

that protest camp where the council is actually welcoming. I think they

have caught the public mood and they are not doing any harm. More

on that in a few minutes. This week, Parliament's green

watchdog, the environmental audit committee, claimed the UK is

failing to meet air pollution targets over the majority of the

country and that current levels are shortening life expectancy for

hundreds of thousands of people. But rather than pushing to cut

pollution on British roads, the government is trying to water down

the rules and avoid EU fines. Joining us now from a Brussels

studio is the Green Party MEP Keith Taylor. What is most worrying, do

you think, nitrogen dioxide, or the particulars? Where you are stuck

between a devil and a hard place. We have a basket of toxic

substances which all affect respiratory disease and increase it.

Over the last 10 years we have seen an increase of of 400,000 people

who have contracted asthma. This is together with chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease. This is bad news. The government is standing by, but

really they have known about these European targets the 10 years and

have chosen to attach little importance to them. They are

putting more effective, as the environmental audit committee says,

into trying to water down at the regulations. What I want to see his

money being spent on improving the air quality. But what exactly is

the problem? Some people say it is particular its from diesel cars,

because we have all switched to diesel, in some cases because we're

trying to be green and more efficient. And is it actually

everywhere, is it a global problem? Well, some pollution comes across

the Channel, but the point is it is worse in cities because seven --

70% of the air pollution is emitted by transport, traffic. So it is

worse in cities. So we need to improve the traffic management and

the type of fuel we use and we need to actually put in, as the

environmental audit committee suggested, Low emission zones. That

is something the government can do. Should we be sorting out diesel?

That is something a lot of environmental campaigners thought

was a good thing. Well, as you say, the taxation was encouraging car

owners to buy diesel cars. What we need to do actually is to get away

from oil products altogether. So if we can use hybrids, or electric

cars, that is going to be part of the solution. There are too many

cars making too many journeys. Everybody can do something to

reduce their damage. The Green Party has campaigned so much

against vehicle traffic, but that will harm the economy, and at the

moment that is a real problem, isn't it? We aren't campaigning

against vehicle traffic. We would love to see the need for travel at

reduced. We need to have sustainable, affordable, efficient

and less damaging forms of transport. Cities are the best

place to start achieving that. Keith Taylor, thank you for joining

It has not been a good week for the various Occupy protest camps around

the world. New York and other American cities started to remove

theirs, and that son Paul's and London authorities have restarted

their eviction plans. But there is still one camp going which is not

tolerated -- is not just tolerated by the local council, it is

welcomed. The authorities in New York launched an aggressive

eviction against Occupy Wall Street. Police also broke up camps in

Portland, Oregon, and California. In sympathy with protesters at St

Paul's in London, the occupy movement in Bournemouth to go over

the town hall for a fortnight, but have now been peaceably evicted,

although they continue to debate on Yet, as are the camps of falling

foul of local authorities, the occupation in Brighton is

positively flourishing, with the support of the local community and

even the City Council. They have been supportive, they have come

here with fruit, they honk when they see the camp. The Green

council have obviously been very supportive. We're lucky to have

Caroline Lucas here, she has been a rock. Sussex police have been very

helpful as well. We have good relations with them. I think it has

been very successful. It is helping to raise people's awareness of what

is going on. The occupiers have gone to great lengths to keep the

camp clean and tidy and to engage with the authorities. It has been

very good. The council offices and the police visit the camp regularly,

talk to the campus. When they have had requests from the Council for

the campus to do things differently, corporation has been very good.

movement has regular discussions, debates, General assemblies. But

can that ever be more than just a talking shop? What are they trying

to achieve? Fairness. The present so sheer economic system is unfair.

--socio-economic. My hope is that the corporation's, the banks, take

some responsibility and be more fair and ethical. I think it is

very important to raise awareness because perhaps a few people cannot

make a difference, but if a lot of people are informed and made aware

of the way in which we can resist this injustice, I think change can

happen. The camp is not without its critics. Hove Conservative MP Mike

Weatherley says camping in public spaces as a form of protest is

completely unacceptable. So why is the Brighton camp been tolerated by

authorities? I think they have caught the public made and they are

not really doing any meat. It is not up to us as to judge their

message, it is up dyes to make sure we preserve public safety, and we

do so in a way that spends public money wisely. At the moment, we

have no intention to affect them. - - to evict them. This movement may

have a vague objective, but they do want to see a fairer society for

everyone. We want people to come -- to become aware of how their

actions affect everyone, people in Europe, Africa, South America.

can't just complain about something, you have to have a sensible

suggestion of how to cope with it and how to move on. That is what

this camp is about. History has proven one thing - we evolve. Our

perception of what is fair evolves, civil rights evolve, and this is

one of those times. It is time everybody to get real about the

problems we face. That is what Occupy is about to me. If Occupy

can work anywhere, it is here. very interesting place, as ever.

Parliamentary committees have been very busy this week, perhaps making

up for the fact MPs have been on recess for half the week. One

making its mark is the Public Accounts Committee, which this week

released a report into the funding formula used to pass money from

central to local government. They reckon some councils are getting

double what they need, whilst others fall short. And they named

names - they reckoned that Wokingham gets more than its fair

share whilst Dorset is seriously missing out. So I'm joined now from

Reading by the leader of the Woking Borough Council David Lee, and he

with me in the studio is the leader of Dorset County Council, Angus

Campbell. David Lee - twice as much as you need, it is suggested!

yes, I find that quite interesting. We all were already the worst

funded authority in the country. And now they think we will get

twice as much as we should. Margaret Hodge thinks we should be

getting about �57 per person, which is ridiculous, I think. It is all

assessed on the need, isn't it? A you think -- suggesting this

formula should be thrown away, or is in fact it about the stability

side of things which is playing in your favour? It is important we

have a level playing field and end areas of deprivation, it is

important to give them more funding. We're not complaining about that.

But I cannot see how it could possibly cost 18 times more to look

after someone -- someone with dementia in London. The London per

head funding is in the region of �1,045, so I cannot see how we

could be pushed down to that level and to provide the services we have

to. But you are not being pushed down, actually, you are being

artificially supported. Do you agree this support is something

which is wrong? I think the level we get, we would of course like to

get more, but we're quite happy to pay our bit towards helping the

economy, we have had a 10% reduction and we will have a

further 10% reduction next year. But we cannot lose a further �9

million because that would definitely start affecting the

services. I think they have to look at the formula and not the actual

quantities coming up. We know we are in affluent area but we are not

so after when we can afford to be down to that level. Angus Campbell,

you have been arguing for more in Dorset for a long time. We now know

where it is going! You are trying to get as against each other! What

I would agree with is that the formula is fairly useless. It is

totally opaque. If you ask any minister how it works, and you

cannot find anybody who understands. It has certainly disadvantaged

Dorset for many years. Up till recently, we were the worst funded

per head. I suppose everybody has that statistic which will prove

their case. Yes, he was saying he was poorly funded! But the system

is entirely wrong and it does not take account of the circumstances.

What is happening to others is that a levelling system is in place. At

the moment, we lose �7 million on average per year above what we are

supposed to get. We could very well do with that money. Is that what is

benefiting them in working in? -- in Wokingham? I think they thought

counties getting the benefit and take it away earlier on. But it is

not fair. You cannot take �7 million art of a hard-pressed

budget. And this is based on the 2001 currently, they are looking at

this. -- This is based on the 2001 census. Yes, and there is a great

danger we will end up in exactly the same place as we were in, with

a system that starts charging gainers. We have to make a break

and have a realistic way of funding organisations for need and not

stability. We were never going to get perfect knowledge about all

these things. We have to work to some assumptions, don't we, David

Lee? Had been did is only right we work to some assumptions. But -- I

think it is only right. But we do well because we actually have a lot

of area intervention to help problem families, for example. I

think they have to go back, because it is not right to reward failure

and to penalise success. We have been very successful in a lot of

the things we do. Are secondary pupil funding is down at the very

lowest level, our Primary Care Trust funding is the second lowest

in the country, because we actually have prevented its systems in place

for our elderly and extra care. I think we will need to look

carefully at the formula. We're more than happy to pay our share.

Good to hear from both the view. And hopefully we understand a bit

more about it. We although the coalition is

claiming to be the greenest government ever, but how about an

ambition to be the greenest island ever? That is exactly what a scheme

launched on the Isle of Wight - called Ecoisland - is hoping to

achieve. The idea is to combine various

renewable sources of energy and distribute them as efficiently as

possible. There are some ambitious targets. The island wants to be a

net exporter of energy by 2020, it wants to reduce bills for residents

by 50%, to create jobs for investments in green technology,

and to cut landfill-0. There is already some so energy in place,

but no wind turbines, no tidal energy, yet. This week, organisers

travelled to London for a launch at the House of Commons, where Cabinet

officer minister on the Met win was pushing it as an example of big

society. -- office minister Oliver Letwin. We have to act in the end,

and this is in a sample of people getting together to try to do it.

But you exactly should be organising things? One man who has

taken action is David Green. You originally tried to do this with

the Isle of Wight council and did not get very far. I think the

difficulty is in the current round of spending cuts there is not

really the resources or money to drive a scheme of this scale. So it

has come up from the community and into this form. There are 70

partners you really have the opportunity to take this forward

into the brave new world we envisage. Do you feel stronger

without having to deal with the council and doing it yourself?

is difficult. If you look into this localism bill, you will see there

are ingredients that for communities like as to be slightly

more self determining, so we do have planning opportunities within

that, services that can obviously be challenged. But the most

important thing is the will of the people. If the community really

wants something, we are in a position to request that, using a

mixture of local and outside business interest. I don't want to

be rude to the Isle of Wight, but there independent spirit means it's

like herding cats, doesn't it? are looking for a model which will

then be applied to the rest of the UK. Part of the government's

challenges to find this green for a print, this model of the green

agenda, that can then be replicated elsewhere. So in some ways, we are

not looking for independence, but self-sufficiency. That is a very

different thing. And you think people are taking this a more than

they did when it was the council's idea? Well, we put out a charter

setting out our idea of the future. We did not have a single the centre.

So at that point, 100% of the responses we got was a -- were that

it was a great idea. Yes, everybody thinks the idea is great until they

have to pay for it. Is it going to cost a lot? I think the interesting

thing is the whole thing has been done without a single penny of bank

debt, a single dance -- donation or any government money. And there is

no intention whatsoever of leaving any of that cash out of the pockets

of the people of the Isle of Wight. In fact, we want to put money

backing. We have got people who are now looking at reducing the energy

bills for the people of the island as a result of the energy we are

able to sell back to the grid. you reckon you will be a net

exporter of energy! We will have you back to make sure those targets

are reached! Thank you for coming in. That is all from us for now. If