Frank Barnes' wishes must come first

There is currently £200m available from the government as part of its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme for secondary schools. We have learned from bitter experience that it is a mistake to hesitate with this government when funds are offered, because it can and does evaporate, as ALMO funding did. There are two areas of Camden that need secondary places - the north-west and the south. There is, at present, no available site in the south. Swiss Cottage is a perfect transport hub for the north-west. Our cornerstone expenditure under BSF will therefore be on a new secondary school in Swiss Cottage.

There is a prerequisite before the Swiss Cottage school can proceed and that is the unfortunate need to relocate the Frank Barnes primary school for profoundly deaf children. Camden is understandably proud of Frank Barnes and, although only four of its 30 pupils live in the borough of Camden, my Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues and I recognise the moral responsibility that we councillors have to the whole school.

That's why a group of Liberal Democrat back-bench councillors will visit the school later this week to make sure we completely understand the school's position. We are sympathetic to the cause of Frank Barnes, we want to make sure the wishes of Frank Barnes come first, and we are actively seeking a satisfactory outcome.

Lib Dem appointed Camden Cycling Champion

I'm delighted for my colleague Cllr Paul Braithwaite who's just been appointed Camden Cycling Champion to advise the Council on cycling issues. Paul was instrumental in getting me on a bike a couple of years back. He advised me which bike to buy and has helped me to learn to love cycling in recent years. Paul is one of our most conscientious councillors and I'm sure he'll make a great success of his new role.

Paul's stated ambition is "to see Camden become London’s leading cycle-friendly Borough. " Cycling in Camden has doubled in five years, but Paul wants to see this figure double again and soon. In my role as Camden Eco Champion I intend to help him work towards making cycling in Camden safer and more enjoyable.

Going low waste at home - part 3

Of course all the changes I've described in my last few postings have

taken time, effort and masses of motivation. And, yes, I know, we don’t have children. But the point is that it is possible to achieve dramatic reductions in the amount of waste we create. People need help, they need information, they need incentives and occasionally they need rules.

For example, I think the only way we’re going to be able to introduce a pay as you throw scheme in an inner city borough like Camden is by copying cities in Belgium and Switzerland. Over there the local council sells colour-coded bin bags to local shops at different prices. The cost of rubbish and recycling collection is then taken out of local taxes and put into the price of the bags. Black – for general waste – is the most expensive. Recycling bags are cheaper with bags for the most valuable recycling cheapest of all. Nothing is picked up unless it’s in a colour-coded bag.

This neatly gets round the biggest problem with pay as you throw in Camden – the difficulty of associating a household with a particular bin. And it provides incentives for people to produce less waste and recycle more. It’s a big change, and for the moment I’m being told by those in power that it’s too big a change. I think we need to be more adventurous. In the words of John F Kennedy: “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.”