What a waste of compost!

It's amazing how our council have generated so much bad will over something that no-one was unhappy with before. I fully agree with them that steps need to be taken to reduce household waste, but I believe that they have their sums wrong. Most households with 4 adults in it will require more than 1.5 bags of household waste a week, especially as we seem to be able to recycle less and less. But then, maybe before we were deluding ourselves about how much we recycled. It's not really recycling if it just gets sorted and thrown away at the other end.

Where we really seem to have missed the point is in charging £60 a year for a company to take our green waste from us. Firstly, why is it £60 for us, and only £30 in Bracknell? And secondly, how is it fair that someone with a 30 foot back garden pays the same for green waste as someone with half an acre? This goes against the principle that those with the deepest pockets pay the most.

So, what would a Co-operative approach be to this problem? I compost what I can, it's my green waste and I get the benefit of the compost from it. I don't burn fuel taking it to another town and gain no benefit. But I appreciate that we can not all do that. I wonder if there is scope for co-operative run micro-compost centres across the borough? We have been warned that the changes being introduced will increase the fly tipping of green waste. How about making provision for green waste to be taken locally, composted and given back to the people that provide it and maintain it.

Cameron's plans for the Big Society were much derided for being ill thought out and poorly explained, but maybe this is a case where it could work. Community led composting, maybe on a ward by ward basis, with the local community benefiting could really work. And it wouldn't be all about the end product. I wouldn't mind betting that there are retired couples across the borough where one partner would welcome the other getting out from under their feet for a few hours a week to spend some time helping out at the compost centres.

What do people think?

Vote Labour and Co-operative on May 3rd

I am please to announce that I will be standing for election to Wokingham Borough Council on May 3rd as the Labour and Co-operative candidate for Finchampstead North.

Some people may be unfamiliar with the term 'Labour and Co-operative'. The Labour Party formed in 1900, and the Co-operative Party in 1917. By 1927 it was clear that they had more in common than they had differences, and they agreed to work together. Since the 1930s, all Co-operative candidates have stood as "Labour and Co-operative", and are endorsed by both parties.

So, what do we believe in?

• We believe that people achieve more by working together than they can by working alone.
• We support the efforts of those who seek success through that co-operative endeavour.
• We believe that the only way to create a just and fair society is through power being spread evenly throughout society, and not arbitrarily based on wealth, class, gender or race.
• We work to promote co-operatives and all forms of mutual organisation.

Labour has always stood up for normal people in the work place. The Co-operative party look to organisations such as John Lewis, Building Societies and of course, the Co-operatives, and asked if there are not many more companies that would benefit from a mutual model.

The Co-operative movement has been at the forefront of bringing Fairtrade to the high street. We believe that workers should receive a fair standard of living regardless of the country they are in. We can no longer feed our children cheap chocolate and turn a blind eye to the children working in slavery that produce it.

Since the early days of the Co-operative movement, Co-operators such as Robert Owen have been involved in education. Since Ed Balls, himself a Labour and Co-operative MP, introduced co-operative trust schools, more than 100 such schools have been set up and are serving their communities. But our current government has opened the flood-gates to big business running our schools, and soon we will see more schools run by multi-nationals than are run by Co-operatives. It's time we took a stand and insisted that the government listened to the electorate. The vast majority of people do not want the changes to education and the health service that this government have introduced. The most effective way we have of expressing our displeasure is through the ballot box; and that is why I am asking you to vote Labour and Co-operative on May 3rd.

Vote for me

The little guy is turning in to a book burner. Vote for me and together we can defeat him.

Boulters Lock

Boats in Boulters Lock

Summer Reading

My copie of A Most Improper Magick arrived!

Holiday Reading

OK, time to think about holiday reading. I have a biography of Neil Kinnock that I'm looking to read, a copy of Suite Charlotte by Maureen Johnson, and, if the postmans can deliver on time, A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis (@stephanieburgis on Twitter). You can read the first three chapters of her book here.

You can read more about Stephanie Burgis here!

So, tell me, what are you taking away with you?

Youth Band

Practice before the service