Leader: talk is cheap
Hot air balloons
The labourers of old Hackney and the hipsters of new don’t have much in common, but in their own ways they would probably agree that our corner of East London is synonymous with leftwing causes and therefore, one might expect, green causes.
True, Stoke Newington, with its organic and fairtrade stockists seems almost a parody of eco-consciousness. The wheatgrass has even spread into Clapton.
Two years ago the council was boasting that Hackney had the lowest carbon emissions per capita of any borough in London. No more.
Surprisingly, Hackney now lags behind that kernel of untrammelled capitalism, the City of London, when it comes to cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
Data quoted in a Town Hall report on sustainability places the borough behind Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Newham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets and concludes Hackney is “on a par” with that famously progressive local authority Westminster in curbing CO2.
Councillor Sophie Linden, the Town Hall’s sustainability chief, said: “We always knew maintaining our position was going to be very challenging as … a rise in quality of life for residents can lead to carbon emissions increasing.”
In other words, Hackney’s historically low carbon emissions have been largely due to residents’ poverty.
In 2009 Hackney Homes, the Town Hall’s housing ALMO, launched a Green Estates programme, which is being piloted on the Whiston and Goldsmiths estate in Haggerston. To date insulation, draft proofing and boiler replacement have been carried out and hundreds of low energy lightbulbs have been fitted. Last month solar panels were installed on the roof of a block on the estate.
All this is praiseworthy, of course, as are other achievements like the increase in the recycling rate over the past ten years. But the initiative now needs to be ramped up if it is to be more than just a token.
Let’s not forget that in the same year as the Green Estates programme was launched, the council quietly decided to switch from powering its buildings using ‘green’ energy to buying energy generated from non-renewables like coal. Cllr Sophie Linden later explained that renewable energy no longer represented best value for taxpayers.
The Citizen subsequently learnt through a Freedom of Information request that the green tariff would have cost the council only about £7,000 a year more.
Cllr Sophie Linden insists that despite new financial constraints the council will deliver on its green commitments.
A seriously progressive council would take heed of the data and acknowledge that it must do better.
Yellow bird is no Tweety Pie
Utterances on Twitter in the aftermath of the riots included the following eloquent gems:
“The Police have been given light to smash thugs 2nite. Y R they so soft?”
“Forget about withdrawing benefits and housing for thugs. Let’s ship em to the pacific and deny nuclear testing!! Somethings wrong.”
“Bottom line is the looters are the LAZY SCUM who were paid off by Thatcher Brown and Blair sorry us the silent majority”.
The author was not Richard Littlejohn or Jeremy Clarkson but Hackney councillor Abraham Jacobson, a Liberal Democrat.
Both Cllr Abraham Jacobson and the Hackney Liberal Democrats were keen to point out that he was speaking in a personal capacity.
Cllr Abraham Jacobson said: “The reason I joined the Lib Dems is because we are not whipped and silenced by the party hierarchy and yes, we can speak our minds without fear. Looking back to some of the tweets I made, some were an emotive exaggeration, some tongue in cheek and some well OTT…”
True, Cllr Abraham Jacobson has only 32 followers (at time of publication), but perhaps he should think and take a deep breath before his next visit to the keyboard.