Forum Topic

Wake up Wandsworth Council

Wake up Wandsworth Council! An online event for discussion about the climate and ecological emergency in Wandsworth - TUESDAY 18TH MAY 7:30-9PM.As you’ll probably know XR Wandsworth have been dismayed by the lack of progress from Wandsworth Council towards a greener future - and they’ve launched their campaign ‘Wake Up Wandsworth Council’ - to try and address this. They've drawn up demands of Wandsworth Borough Council in four key areas: air pollution, green spaces, food waste and divestment. They've pasted them on the front doors of the Town Hall + around the borough and begun a steady stream of actions in these four areas, and now they want to provide a forum to discuss. The aim of this zoom will be to lay out the rationale for these desperately needed demands AND how you can join in their campaign! There will be lots of time for questions and discussion.Come along to share your thoughts and collaborate. Sign up for free here! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wake-up-wandsworth-council-time-to-act-on-the-climate-emergency-tickets-153699257617?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch Please note the session will be recorded and you’ll be emailed a link to the recording if you register - so worth registering even if you can’t make it live!

Matt Palmer ● 1786d43 Comments

@Matf, At this very moment Putney Leisure Centre are having their lawn mowed.So obviously this no mow May is a bit of a nonsense!

Ed Robinson ● 1774d

exactly, there's a good article herehttps://www.zmescience.com/science/we-cant-plant-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis-researchers-argue/

Matt Palmer ● 1775d

While it is mature trees that are being cut down the new plantings are mainly saplings.  Not like for like in ecological terms so the net plantings number is very misleading.  A re-think is needed.

Jonathan Callaway ● 1775d

Matt - It is on their website: https://enablelc.org/parks/biodiversity/

Ed Robinson ● 1775d

So it's Council's No Now May Failure!You would have thought it was such an easy thing to achieve.  Shame.I understand there are 50% more bees where plants are grown organically.

Philippa Bond ● 1775d

You don't have to be a supporter of XR to recognise that the council that aims to be 'the greenest borough in London' needs to rethink it's actions.Incidentally it's nearer 400 trees that will ultimately be felled at York Gardens.

Matt Palmer ● 1775d

Yes the company is called 'enable', either they weren't informed of 'no mow May' or they ignored it. As it's now towards the end of May and some places have been mown more than once I think it's fair to say the council isn't too bothered about enforcement, just wants that greenwashing headline.

Matt Palmer ● 1775d

I am NOT a supporter of XR & never will be, but I have to bring up the disgraceful decision by Wandsworth Council to allow Probably FIFTY Mature Trees to be hacked down  from the Former B&Q & Homebase Sites  last Year.These Trees were on the Perimeter of both Sites , so there was no need for this Vandalism.I saw on the News this week that they are at it again at a Council Estate off York Rd, where 100 Trees could be removed!!Check it out!!

Vic Condon ● 1775d

Is someone or a company sub-contracted to cut the grass on a regular basis?  Perhaps it would have upset a contract or an excel sheet tick boxing activity?

Philippa Bond ● 1775d

100% agree, 1, 2, tree!Interestingly WBC also signed up to 'no mow May' this year, the idea being that specific green spaces (they provided a list) would not have the grass cut during May to allow for wildflower and pollinators to have a field (geddit?) day.Tragically they don't appear to have bothered to mention it to 'enable' as the majority of the sites listed have had a few haircuts through the month.

Matt Palmer ● 1776d

Thanks Matt,I had a reply from Tree (trees@enablelc.org) on Thursday.I understand that they carry out the planting for WBC.They have finished their planting for for this year until late November. It probably needs a seperate thread but:Without consultation two large circles (3-4m) appeared in the communal lawn which is maintained through WBC.Apparently wild flowers are going to be planted - they must be very wild and must have escaped because there is no sign of them!The circles were not the best placed -- anyway it is meant to improve wildlife etc so all good. I suggested putting a sapling in the middle of each circle. But no it would create too much shade for the flowers apparently. Yeah in 20 years time not now.But shouldn't this be their default thinking?Where can we put trees?If we are going to do this can we add a tree as well?Clearly they are not thinkin 1,2 TREE!Unless we get them automatically thinking like that it just a PR exercise and WBC will cease to be green!

Ed Robinson ● 1776d

@Ed, we have had the following figures from WBC on their tree planting ambitions for this year and the next - this quote is direct from the council"Wandsworth Council have committed to significant additional tree planting - in 2020/21 we planted 766 new trees across the borough, resulting in a net increase of 80 trees. In 2021/22 we plan on planting 600 new trees, resulting in a net increase of 100 trees across Wandsworth. "So you can see from this they in 2020/2021 they felled nearly 700 trees and in 2021/22 they are planning on felling 500.Obviously there are circumstances where trees need to be felled but it should be a matter of last resort, the current council policy seems to be the development always wins over nature. Planting new trees is no substitute for maintaining existing ones.https://www.zmescience.com/science/we-cant-plant-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis-researchers-argue/

Matt Palmer ● 1776d

You're doing well there Andy - bread is one of the food items that gets wasted most.  Having a freezer is a great help.  We changed from buying a large loaf to a smaller loaf and with lockdown have changed back to a large loaf and being prepared to freeze if necessary if we are going too slowly through it.  (More things on toast because of not going out.  Sigh.)I've made lots of soup too and it still seems to be soup season from the weather.  I always used to make stock/bone broth from the carcase and the easiest way I found was to use a slow cooker as I didn't have to watch it quite as closely as a pan.  Then I made various soups depending on what vegetables were around:  red lentils, onion, celery stick, carrot, ground cumin and ground coriander is a favourite store cupboard one.Sometimes the planning goes disastrously wrong.  My slow cooker needs some tlc and I was using a pan and had made the stock and was just boiling it down a bit to fit into the soup container when I was distracted by something and all of a sudden it was too late.  It only had to be a little too late so it wasn't just all the bones that ended up in a food waste bin  :(  It was bad day that day and that was the first mishap in ages...Shame about the shops' waste.  I think/hope a lot of them get a food distribution charity to take their unsold vegetables and near end of date stuff.  I believe they have a law in France that shops should do this.Unfortunately many people do not understand Best Before and Use By dates and the difference between them.  Teenagers can be particularly histrionic over dates when not understanding the difference between them.  I wish they'd do this at achool!https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/use-or-not-use-question

Philippa Bond ● 1777d

Ha ha!  We have children going off to university unable to cook as their parents work:life balances have been poor and they may not have been lucky  enough to have grandparents living nearby.  They may be looking for work as carers or may end up as our carers and it would be good if they could at least make a decent sandwich and a cup of tea. There are also a lot of older men who have had the luxury of having their dinners cooked for them most of their working lives and who aren't as good at cooking or cleaning or working the washing machine as they could be. There must also be some women in this position now too.Let's hope that a better life:work balance will help!

Philippa Bond ● 1778d

"There are now a couple of generations...."That looks like ageism in plain sight to me 🤣🤣

Ed Robinson ● 1779d

There are now a couple of generations who have not learnt how to cook - so they don't know how to make a lot of the quick and easy meals eg things on toast that we used to eat and now eat ready meals instead. There is a lot of food waste that you would not eat that can go into  your food waste bin.  Tea bags, onion and other vegetable peelings, orange peel and banana skins are things you are unlikely to eat but can be turned into electricity and compost.https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1765161/find-out-how-one-banana-peel-can-charge-your-mobile-phone-twice/Yes, different councils have different collections.  Enormous wheelie are a problem as they can be taller than window sills and pushed up against them and are difficult to manoeuvre as you often have to in a small front garden space to get the correct bin out each week.  Last time I looked there was at east one council that collected the residual waste only once a month - there were lots of complaints especially from those with nappies in their waste so I don't know if that is still the case.

Philippa Bond ● 1779d

Wandsworth still have weekly collections.I'm not sure about other London Boroughs but lots of places have moved to recycle waste one week and general the next.Bracknell Forest have now have food waste collections. They have moved general waste collection from once every 2 weeks to once every 3 weeks.https://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/food-waste-collection

Ed Robinson ● 1779d

Ha, Ha,

Barbara Stevens ● 1779d

Thanks Matt as I'm moving to this green green grass Council thought they would be all XR with their food waste but apparantly not. Strange eh? I love the name of the green party  leader though.....Phil MCavity ... in Brighton ? You couldnt make it up😁😂😂

Andy Pike ● 1779d

well i dont know anything about their circumstances, it's been demonstrated a number of times that in Wandsworth its a net saving of money - irrespective of the carbon issue.

Matt Palmer ● 1779d

Maybe Matt but it seems in Brighton ( a green council) food waste collection is nif happening because they couldnt justify the additional costs to their ratepayers.

Andy Pike ● 1779d

Dont get me wrong I'm all on favour of food waste collection. But if folk ate sensible we are really talking about scraps and teabags

Andy Pike ● 1779d

Andy, you may well not throw away food, but many of Wandsworth’s residents unfortunately do. I watched most of the XR presentation last night and it appeared to me that the economic case for anaerobic digestion of food waste is well-proven, let alone the positive environmental argument. Richmond collects residents’ food waste and a company in Mitcham (Bio Collectors) processes it through anaerobic digestion, producing electricity, biogas and fertiliser. Why can’t Wandsworth do the same?

Catherine Schade ● 1779d

I reduce waste by only buying what I need and freezing any excess for a later date. All pretty simple really. Gone are thecdays of throwing away half a loaf or half a joint. I tend to take the bread for  the day out the freezer in the morning.Biggest waste is the shops themselves throwing perfectly good food away because of an arbitrary use by date.

Andy Pike ● 1779d

Oh how disappointing - I was so pleased to see there was a trial that I missed it was a Wandsworth XR person who was actually living in LB Lambeth.  :(  There are four London Boroughs who make up the Western Riverside Waste Authority - and they all seem to have a food waste collection (even if it is just a trial) EXCEPT Wandsworth!https://wrwa.gov.uk/waste-authority/And this is the go-to website if you want to reduce your food waste.  You can find recipes to match your leftovers - and the pictures are making me very hungry:https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/ 

Philippa Bond ● 1779d

Lambeth council are doing a trial.

Matt Palmer ● 1779d

Flats prove to be more problematic for waste and recycling generally.  Collective responsibility for anything is harder to attain but it does not make it impossible!Great news that Wandsworth are doing a trial in low rise flats.  I'm sure they will have researched and I hope they will give plenty of support - and that the residents will also support each other.  The Waste Authority may be doing this?Weekly food collections are better than fortnightly mixed in with everything else making a greater amount of smelly (if it is) waste.  Just having one encourages everybody to be more thoughtful about what they buy and what they waste - so there are likely to be fewer lost and inedible items at the back of the fridge.I don't know enough about high rise estates but I have heard that some UK ones are removing chutes for safety reasons.  I would imagine that people try and put all sorts of unsuitable things down them.Here is the WRAP website for you to investigate:https://wrap.org.uk/I wish I'd seen the Nadiya Hussein campaign but it seems to have coincided with the pandemic which changed everybody's lives.

Philippa Bond ● 1779d

It absolutely stacks up, food waste is currently incinerated and that costs a fortune (imagine trying to burn a melon)

Matt Palmer ● 1780d

Absolutely not if the costs stack up.

Andy Pike ● 1780d

I'm not sure there is a solution to high rise flats Andy, but does that mean you shouldnt introduce it where it can work?

Matt Palmer ● 1780d

Our low rise flats have an external communal bin area, but much of the food waste appears to be eaten by rats!The recycling bins are often full of noncycle rubbish but at least they have managed to get the stuff in a bin which is more than some people can manage.Possibly it's the rats?? Otherwise I'm at a complete loss of why some people can't dispose of their rubbish properly.Leaflets and instructions seem to have little impact.

Ed Robinson ● 1780d

Yes Phillipa I know how it works for street properties. Just wonder how itvworks for a 20 storey block, where general rubbish is disposed via a chute and recycled via a large bin at the base that residents carry recyclables to ( or dont as isthere want).Seems food waste would need to be a similar large container that woukd stink to high heaven in summer , if used, even with weekly collections. Wouldnt want to be the ground floor flat next to the bin chamber if indeed there was room in the bin chamber for another receptacle.

Andy Pike ● 1780d

An XR Wandsworth person moved into a low rise flat in Lambeth last week and received her food waste bin as part of a trial they are running.

Matt Palmer ● 1780d

WRAP did trials some years ago.  I'd have to look them up.  The food waste collection is WEEKLY - which is important! You also learn to keep the bin in a cool place rather than in the sun.  You can line your bin with newspaper or shredded paper or wrap your food in newspaper so that the contents leave the bin easily. You can also buy compostable liners on a roll or some magazines now come in compostable envelopes eg Which? and I've seen bananas from Waitrose in a compostable bag. You usually get two bins - a caddy for use indoors and the bigger one for collection.  You can of course use whatever you like on the worktop - it doesn't have to be the caddy.If you are composting though - don't give up!  The collection is particularly good for those with little or no garden.

Philippa Bond ● 1780d

It's good when it works. I wonder how you do food waste on a housing estate ( council or private) with multiple flats to collect from . Do you have one big communal swill bin on the estate ? That would probably stink to high heaven. Or individual bins for each flat collected throughout the corridors by binmen? Or do you only collect from street properties? Not straightforward as it seems.

Andy Pike ● 1780d

https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/potato-peel-soup/78e1698c-9ffe-4464-8a0c-697af5141cf3I decided life was too short to peel potatoes many years ago after a friend introduced me to olive oil roasted potatoes with the skins on sprinkled with salt.Don't decide not to wash them though - as my cousin did when making baked potatoes for supper! The skin is the best bit - usually!Some people hang their lockable food waste bins on railings and others put them on top of their wheelie bins and others wedge them against a wall so that they can't be tipped over.(Three methods I've seen.  Some others may spray with something foxes don't like.)

Philippa Bond ● 1780d

My brothers food recycling bin mainly contains potato peel, tea bags and the trimmings off cabbage and lettuce. So not sure what we learn from that apart from the fact he don't waste food.And the foxes have worked out how to get in those bins.

Andy Pike ● 1780d

Bump:  Where's Matt gone?

Philippa Bond ● 1780d

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/waste-and-recycling/consistency-in-household-and-business-recycling/I understand that it is a lengthy document so set aside some time before you start to fill it in!A food waste collection is really worthwhile.  You get to see exactly what you are wasting and can then work out whether there are any ways in which you can reduce that.  You can end up buying less because you are more resourceful in storing things and making meals.  You also have less smelly and fewer black sacks which don't drip and attract scavengers in the same way.  (Nappies of course still do :(  )  You can save money too!www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is a very useful website for portions, storage, store cupboard essentials and recipes and there are many more eg the supermarket ones which have lots of recipes for leftovers - so you can find several recipes for each ingredient.

Philippa Bond ● 1783d

Can't see the wood for the trees.

Barbara Stevens ● 1785d

You might also be interested in thishttps://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/state-of-uk-woods-and-trees/

Matt Palmer ● 1786d

ah great :)I think they're doing ok on tree planting, the issue is the amount of trees they also chop! I'm sure in 20-30 years when all the new ones have matured it will be amazing...https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9562503/Council-threatens-legal-action-stop-XR-backed-protesters-set-camp-save-trees.html

Matt Palmer ● 1786d

Thanks Matt, booked.I'm particularly interested in WBC tree planting record.

Ed Robinson ● 1786d