Environment Committee

Tonight was the first Environment and Climate Change commitee this (municipal) year.

I am one of two Lib Dem opposition members on this.

On the plus side I managed to get tree maintenance added to the work programme this year. Trees and their pruning, or lack of it, is a big issue in Cressington and I am sure there are similar issues in other parts of the City. I am quite frankly fed up of being fobbed off on issues around trees, and it will be good to do a piece of work about what the Council does and doesn't do on this subject.

Also on the plus side was an excellent presentation about ways of cutting down on road accidents affecting pedestrians, children and cyclists.

On the minus side, if I and my Lib Dem colleague hadn't been there this would have been a wholly male committee membership. (OK there is one woman on the Labour list of members but she didn't show). Given all the stuff around about gender balance I am surprised this happened and it'll be interesting to see what the balance is on tomorrows Regeneration and Transport Committee.

However I think this particular committee is going to be well worth the time and effort. I made the point that we ought also to be campaigning in Liverpool as a whole about waste minimisation (ie stopping waste being produced before we end up worrying about how to get rid of it). I'll push this again at future meetings as I suspect there is a lot of potential in doing this.