Full Council, Questions to Mayor & Cabinet

Last Wednesday's full council meeting was unusually amicable, with an unprecedented display of councillors of all parties agreeing with each other, constructively amending motions to improve them and then unanimously supporting two motions; one calling on rail companies to put rubbish and recycling bins in all stations, and one calling on TfL to reconsider its plans dealing with the planned East London line closure and to meet with a cross-party group from Lewisham to discuss how to minimise disruption to commuters.

I submitted four questions to the deputy mayor, on lollipop people (or lack thereof recently for Gordonbrock School), to find out how many residents took the council up on its renewable energy grant last year (answer: 1), the borough's carbon footprint and the future of Ladywell Playtower. Responses below, FYI.

Question
Does the council have relief crossing patrol staff to cover when the normal lollipop men/women are off sick for extended periods?
Reply
No, the Council does not retain relief crossing patrol staff. All staff are retained as permanent employees and work at one location. Unfortunately there are occasions when extended absence means that sites will be unattended.

This was in response to concerns from parents of pupils at Gordonbrock Primary School, as the lollipop man had been off sick for a while.

Question
How many residents in the borough received a grant from the council towards renewable energy installations for their homes last year?
Reply
In financial year 2006/07, the year in which this grant scheme was introduced, one application was processed for the installation of solar thermal energy, for a home in Catford. There has been significant interest in the scheme, with private blocks of flats in both Forest Hill and Blackheath enquiring about the grant, however, this has yet to translate into further grants. Encouraging further renewable installations in residential property has been identified as a priority by the council and is one of the reasons why the Energy Action Zone (EAZ) has been established. EAZ officers will undertake door to door surveys, initially in Downham, Evelyn and Brockley, to assist residents to identify energy efficiency savings. However, they will also recommend renewable energy installations where residents are able to access funding. It is hoped that this will significantly increase the take up of renewable energy in Lewisham.

Question
Has any attempt ever been made to establish what the council's current carbon footprint is, and do you agree that we need to move towards calculating costs of projects in terms of carbon emissions as well as financial cost?
Reply
The council’s carbon footprint has been estimated at 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum for energy used within council operations. This includes those domestic gas and electricity bills paid by the council. Of this amount, the council currently purchases 80% ‘green’ electricity, which means that just under 17,000 tonnes of the above figure is already offset.
The council is working towards using life cycle costing wherever possible when evaluating project costs, for instance, the Building Schools for the Future programme used life cycle costing. Life cycle costing is based on finance rather than carbon. However, energy is a critical factor in life cycle calculations, meaning that environmental costs are taken into consideration through the cost of long term energy usage. To calculate true carbon costs it is necessary to know the embodied energy of everything procured through a project. At present, insufficient work has been undertaken nationally to provide this information and thus it is not currently possible to produce accurate carbon emission figures for all stages of a project. However, long term, when further carbon information is available, it will enable accurate life cycle calculations to be undertaken for projects.

Question
As part of the public consultation about the expansion of St Mary's Conservation area last year, residents were asked their views on the future use of Ladywell Playtower, (a grade 2 listed building). A number of community, housing and mixed uses were suggested by residents and the Council’s property service was asked to "investigate and promote its repair and re-use and "continue to liaise and negotiate with developers interested in the site". Is there any progress to report on this?
Reply
Consultants have been appointed to advise on the cost of bringing the remaining part of the Playtower into good repair as well as design options for a mixed use development that would include a refurbished Playtower. This work will be completed in May and will be used by Officers to advise the Mayor on options for bringing the Playtower back into use. Discussions with interested developers are ongoing but there is nothing to report yet.