MAKING OUR TOWNS & CITY THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY IN THE UK

1. Labour will explore the viability of creating a Cheshire West Solar Farm, generating clean and green electricity to sell back to the grid so residents can enjoy the financial returns being invested in quality local services and will support all low carbon, clean energy and local energy solutions, including local Heat exchange Networks; Geothermal; Hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Smart Energy Systems.

2. We aspire to create a new energy company so residents in Cheshire West and Chester can benefit from fairer tariffs, and feel confident about reducing their carbon footprint with gas and electricity in their homes and businesses coming from greener sources.

3. By working with residents, businesses and community groups, our ambition is for our borough’s towns and city to be among the most sustainable in the UK. To support this, we will commit to:

• Local businesses being supported by a new sustainability and carbon reduction bespoke advice service.
• Introducing a Lane Rental Levy on utility companies in relation to roadworks. This will incentivise them to work in a timely and efficient manner and avoid the costly and disruptive impacts on residents and businesses when road works overrun.
• We will continue to support a boroughwide effort to reduce plastics by focusing on supporting businesses, residents and communities with an emphasis on ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. This will be a central ethos of the Council’s new waste service from April 2020.
• Rolling out Electric Vehicle Charging points and introducing a planning policy to encourage new developments to include EV charging points.
• To address public health issues, we will explore the implementation of clean air zones and other initiatives in parts of the borough where air quality is an issue (Air Quality 20/21). In addition, we will reduce emissions by completing the roll out of 20mph zones on all residential roads.

4. Working with communities, we will develop a range of wildlife and biodiversity policies that give greater protection to life in our borough, including:

• The role out of a four-year badger vaccination programme.
• Building on recent success in Chester and Ellesmere Port, expanding boroughwide ‘In Bloom’ projects.
• Developing a policy to encourage the growth of wildflower meadows to support biodiversity, especially the bee population.
• Supporting Chester Zoo’s sustainable palm oil campaign, working towards becoming the first Sustainable Palm Oil Borough.
• Continuing to work with our partners to support clean up initiatives, such as the Big Dee Day, to protect and enhance our natural waterways.
• Working with our partners to deliver a viable and sustainable solution which recognises and celebrates the uniqueness and natural beauty of the Sandstone Ridge.

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5. No animal should be made to suffer unnecessary pain and degradation. We will continue to drive up standards and increase our advice and interaction with other animal related businesses. Building on our previous achievements, such as the banning of wild animals in circuses on council land, we will work towards achieving a gold standard on all of our animal welfare policies, including:

• The prohibition of badger culling on council land and support for vaccination programmes.
• Continuing the RSPCA Gold Paw Prints Award in relation to stray dogs.
• Introducing a Quality Mark for animal welfare.
• Working with partners to increase control of hunting events, enhance community safety and maintain the highest standards of animal welfare.
• Pursuing prosecution in cases that concern the neglect of animals both domestic and wild and work with our partners to achieve this.

6. We recognise the continuing and legitimate safety concerns around fracking in our borough. Cheshire West Labour will endeavour to make sure residents’ concerns are addressed and work to represent our residents fully within the current legislative constraints. Nationally, Labour is opposed to fracking and a future Labour government will ban it.

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DEVELOPING THE BEST MUNICIPAL WASTE AND RECYCLING SERVICE IN THE COUNTRY

7. Labour will transform the waste service in our borough by bringing it back under council control, with five priorities:

• The new waste collection service must lead the way for other councils, being brought back under the council’s operational control but run as a municipal service, rooted in communities, and based on co-operative principles.
• The waste collection service must continue to maintain the high standards our residents expect.
• The workforce will continue to be valued for the skills, experience and insight they bring to the service.
• The new service will be innovative in meeting the environmental and legislative challenges we face locally and globally, so it can be flexible and responsive in the future.
• The new service will include a mechanism for residents to influence the future direction and priorities of the service.

8. To support residents, small businesses and sole traders, we will expand our award winning recycling centres by:

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FUNDING A NEW RAPID RESPONSE TEAM TO KEEP YOUR STREETS EVEN CLEANER

9. Fly-tipping is disgraceful and shows a blatant disrespect for local communities. Mobile CCTV units will be used to catch culprits, and new powers invoked to prosecute them with the maximum possible penalty.

10. Labour’s ambition is to have the cleanest, safest and most sustainable neighbourhoods in the country. In order to deliver on this promise:

• We will fund a new reactive Streetcare service, known as SMART (Street Maintenance Action Response Team), that can respond quicker to issues reported by local people. We will introduce ASSIST officers, who will help coordinate reactive teams in the locales.
• We will continue to empower communities by delegating authority for enforcement of dog fouling to town and parish councils, where they wish to do so, building on the new PSPO for dog control orders.
• We will deliver the second phase of our Streetcare pledge, allowing communities to apply for specific funding to finance projects that will improve the area where they live.

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