TO DUDLEY'S DIRECTOR OF HOUSING - Kathy Jones

TO DUDLEY'S DIRECTOR OF HOUSING - Kathy Jones

Are you able to promote home grown timber for new homes, Kathy?

Can you encourage house builders to do so, in any way?

Does the council build any new homes these days?  Or, just leisure centres?

Is solar passive heating ever specified for new buildings?  Let alone PV solar?

Or Passivhaus standard?

Many thanks for your opinion on these matters, Kathy - please.

MY GREEN JOBS

MY GREEN JOBS SUGGESTIONS:  Exclude jobs building extensions for HS2, Metro, Sprint and 87 Kms WOM and in armaments, including WMD expansion.

Instead, go for making buses electric on bus priority roads, trains back on railway lines, exp to finish the 120 Kms Black Country Railway and the regional 50 Kms of freight-only railway lines without passenger trains.

Small to medium-sized homes that are built to Passivhaus standard with PV on every E,W,S facing roof.

PV retrofitted to every other roof and external/internal insulation to every building.

120 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway made fit for purpose as a major business, commuter and leisure route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

Every towpath made available for 100% self-powered cycles, plus e-bikes, with an all-weather surface for responsible shared use.

JOBS in bringing in petrol/diesel fuel rationing for all private motorists as was done in the 1973/4  energy crisis.  Now it’s climate crisis.  Even more urgent! Meanwhile, join my voluntary car mileage reduction idea - 50% cut on my 2019 mileage!

Invite Jonathon Porritt to Green Jobs summit via -  JPOffice@forumforthefuture.org

From: -   timweller1@gmail.com

Minimise is the watchword

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk-LnUYEXuM

Excellent video on why we need to go fossil fuel-free asap.

By the spending of money to as little as possible, going for active travel (walk, cycle, horse) and minimising fossil-fuel travel as much as possible.

MY EXAMPLE:

Cruise at 65 mph on 70 mph roads; aim for over 70 mpg in a diesel car but have your own voluntary fossil fuel allowance. Mine is 7,000 miles max for 2021, a 50% cut on 2019 and twice to Scotland instead of six times in 2019.

Disinvest from fossil fuels, now!

End subsidies to fossil fuels, for flying and to arms manufacturers.

End major infrastructure projects immediately.

Invest in solar and small to medium-sized, Passivhaus standard, housing.

End HS2, Metro, Sprint expansion and go for FFPT and bus priority measures.

LEAVE CARS AT HOME INCENTIVE:

You get paid for every day you cycle or walk into work. Include motorbikes.

Voluntary one day a week scheme to leave the car at home, linked to free VED that is ended if three contraventions detected via speed cameras.

Active travel allowance paid to parents who leave their cars at home when dropping off children at primary school.

END free car parking owned by councils. Dudley MBC car parks are still free.

Remove VAT from cargo bikes on new bike purchases.

Voluntary car mileage allowance that I have introduced to cut my car use for, mainly, car camping holidays in Scotland. Six trips in 2019 cut to two for 2021; 14,000 miles in 2019 cut by 50% for 2021 to a maximum of 7,000 miles. Max 65 mph on 70 mph roads to bring over 70 mpg in my diesel car for the max 7,000 miles in 2021.

To Simon Phipps re retrenchment

DUDLEY SHOPPERS TO TAKE TRAMS TO MERRY HILL

Thanks, Simon.  Very nice to hear from you.

I'm so pleased for you that you have your long-awaited (from the 1980s) Metro trams at long last.  But, don't rest on your laurels; there is still very MUCH more to do, my friend!

I quite understand that you must continue the 60-year-old policy of destroying, this time, Dudley's very last and fifth railway, to relegate our town from having back the mainline Castle Hill Railway Station - to piddling little tram stop and test track.  Dudley's New Fame:- the largest town in the UK by population without a railway station.  Yet, the line was successful for 100 years until we all fell in love with cars.  And nearly 50 Kms, already built, are left with nothing!

What is your personal wish for the former mainline railway and existing freight line from Stourbridge Jct to Brierley Hill and, the mothballed, former passenger and freight railway from Wednesbury to Burton on Trent?  Nearly 50 Kms still wasted alongside or, near congested main roads and motorways.  It has every motorway, road and canal crossing already built but you good politicians forgot to finish the job - with, you know what!

What are you doing to respond to your own Council's Climate Emergency motion that you passed last year and passed over this year?

Why did you bring it forward when it does look, so far, as though you have every intention to change nothing?  You now lay yourselves open to the charge of hyprocrisy, of course.

Have you ever considered reforming your actions to ones of retrenchment?  Retrenchment to minimise deadly greenhouse gas emissions and to maximise economic growth in insulation, Passivhaus standards in housing, solar PV on every E, W, S roof and small to medium-sized, highly energy-efficient homes for the homeless and badly housed?

Have you ever considered the carrot, the reward of regional Fare-Free Public Transport that old crocks like me have had for 13 years, so far?  This OAP and friends in Brum are championing the same perk for you youngsters!  Campaign with us over this iniquitous inequality and blatant discrimination against the young and middle-aged.  Co-operation and partnership working.

Remember, too the major 22 Kms, business and commuter route that is the fine, upstanding, disgraceful Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway.

And a decent mosque for Dudley town Muslims.  Stop that discrimination and Islamaphobia.

And a cycle-walkway on the other side of Duncan Edwards Way from the tramline.

Am I allowed, please to observe your council Climate Emergency (up and at 'em) All Action Committee?

Best wishes

Tim

Eddy Morton and SCDT show the way forward

Well done, Eddy. You have put it perfectly. As has Laurie Macfarlane. Housing costs must also include the cost of energy used in the home that must be the absolute minimum to cut deadly greenhouse gases. That is exactly what you are doing Eddy. Dudley Council needs to wake up and follow your lead. Buildings going up now are nowhere near the Passivhaus standard. That is a tragedy, as is the roll out of Metro "bus on rails" trams to replace perfectly good trains and buses that need to be brought up to, at least, the average of the standard in Europe. And, with regional Fare-Free Transport extended to ALL! More altruistic elders like me need to campaign for this equality and the ending of discrimination against the middle aged and young!

MY TOP 3 PRIORITIES FOR METRO MAYOR

 Truly addressing the Covid/Climate/Nature emergency by slowing the rise in greenhouse gases by:

1. building affordable homes and adapting all housing to meet Passivhaus standard of energy efficiency to meet a maximum of 5 units of electricity/day.
2. training the workforce and new entrants for jobs to meet this rigorous standard as soon as possible.
3. extending the present regional fare-free public transport for elders to the younger age groups for reasons of fairness, as compensation for the slightly higher risk of getting Covid and, as a reward for leaving their cars at home as much as possible.