Life in a tip

If you've picked up the Lancashire Evening Post today you'll know that I've pinched their front page headline for the title of my blog today.

Now that's not just because I'm into those 'witty' kind of headlines (as you will have probably noticed) but because the article that accompanies it in the LEP today is related to something I was ranting about just a couple of weeks ago.

So, a couple weeks ago, I posted a blog entitled 'what a load of rubbish' and it was all about how Lancashire is suffering a shortage of wheelie bins causing people to either share their wheelie bins or even just dump their bin bags in the garden (providing they use no more than 3 bing bags a week). Well, you'd think this was bad enough, but there's more to the rubbish crisis, and it's right in the middle of Lancashire, in Preton, where I live.

Basically, there's been a lot of fly tipping going on across Preston, and the change in bin collections to just once a fortnight has been blamed for it all. The Lancashire Evening Post said that there have been 14,000 incidents of fly tipping over the last 2 years causing £650,000 worth of clean-up costs. The LEP also said that illegal rubbish dumping in Preston has risen by 29% in the past year. That's just over £30,000 of the city's taxpayers money on cleaning it all up in the past year too.

I myself have felt the wrath of fornightly bin collections, incorporating the ol' sitting on the bin lid trick to get 2 weeks worth of rubbish between three people into a space that just about handles one. The premise that they use the week they don't appear to take the rubbish is to pick up recycling stil hasn't been proven in my household - as every time we've put it out, no ones bothered to take it.


What's more, Counciller John Swindells, counciller for the University ward was quoted in the LEP saying "In some areas, particularly around student accommodation, they are not recycling. People just seem to think we will pick anything up that they bother to throw out." Well, i'm afraid John, in my case, that isn't true I don't seem to think you'll pick a single thing up that I bother to throw out, I've had my wheelie bin swiped twice and I can't get rid of eight empty 1 litre bottles of Diet Coke to save my life! Throw me a bone here!

Poeple are also peeved that all this fly tipping is going on and no one is taking the wrap for it. There hasn't been a single prosecution for it in the last two years! There needs to be something done, and a good start would be the weekly bin collections starting up again.

Have a look at this website www.weeklywaste.com to find out about the cause to bring back weekly bin collections!!

Water relief!

Sorry for the wild generalisation i'm about to make but I think its safe to say that water is taken for granted in this country.

I'm not surprised - I do it, my housemates do it and I'm pretty sure you do it too because we live in England, where most of the people in this country today have never gone a day in their life without that necessity of running water throught their taps. But what makes us British folk even less greatful for this life-saving essential is the fact that, not only do we take it for granted, we complain about it too.

Only too often do i hear, "urgh I hate tap water, i'll have a bottle of Evian" and I'll be honest, I've never appreciated the tap water, here, in Preston where I study for University. The reason I'm rambling on like this is because I actually found out today that United Utilities are investing about £56 million to improve its services to West Lancashire customers between 2005 and 2010. So we're pretty much bang smack in the middle of all this treatment. What's more, they claim that the water in the North West has never been so good, which makes me feel worse for the poor sods drinking it 3 decades ago.

United Utilities are going to start off with just over £6 million on West Lancashire's water treatment works, which I can only assume is the stuff that keeps the quality of our water tip top.

There's another £3 million going on maintaining the water supply system. That's basically getting rid of all the the old pipes, that are from as far back as the Victorian era!

The local water treatment isn't forgotten either, cos there's over £40 million pound being invested into that too, so United Utilities can clean and return the water safely back to the environment. This means cleaner rivers, streams and coastal bathing waters. A further £1.8 million has been put forward to prevent sewer overflows into local rivers and streams. £300,000 to improve the local sewer network and a further
£3.5 million will be invested to help prevent sewer flooding to customer properties.

So no more moaning, mine'll be a tap water, no ice.

Now, knowing how much money and effort goes into your disappointing tap water, you'll probably want to conserve it a little more eh?

Well you can find a wealth of the most "exciting" water conservation tips you'll find in this link here: http://www.3valleys.co.uk/water_efficiency/ah_we_watereffhome.shtml give it a go!

other sources: http://www.unitedutilities.com/?OBH=4179&ID=1450

Casino chaos

Lancaster councillers are in talks about converting an un-used office block into a nice new shiny Casino.

Excited? Yeah me too, although there are a few environmental impacts that would be worth thinking about before you completely agreed with the proposal.

From what i've gathered the casino will be right by a catholic sixth form school which could cause a problem, knowing how impressionable I was to putting the odd 50p at stake for a (usually unsuccessful) game of top trumps in school. If you'd have got me interested in craps and poker there's any number of horrible and dark scenarios i'd have ended up in! Of course i'm not suggesting this will happen, i just like to speculate! Before we know it, school kids will have swapped hop-scotch for Roulette and the hard kids will be on the 'one-armed bandits'.

I'm using this in jest because to be honest, I don't see a problem with the building of a casino, its bound to generate revenue (30 jobs in fact) and a new found interest in the city of Lancaster but it doesn't hurt to take a look at both sides of the argument.

I can see how parents wouldn't want their children to see a casino so close to school, which could well be glamourising a gambling culture. It's bad enough that we havn't got enough positive role models in the world as it is; arguably, i suppose planting a casino right outside your school is just asking for truancy.

There's also another issue of an already over-crowded road network without adding to insult with a band of Building Site's merry men (probably readily prepared with bum cracks and wolf whistles). While all this is going on, probably with roads being restricted or even shut down for a few days - will it be worth it? What are the benefits?

Well, as it happens there's some pretty good benefits, starting with the 30 brand new jobs being established in place for the new casino. I expect it will also attract new interest from people who perhaps wouldn't normally visit Lancaster, which in turn could generate even more revenue to maintain these people's interest, not to mention putting Lancaster just that little bit more on the map. Added to that, police and Lancaster officials can't see a problem with the casino being built, which i assume would mean that Lancaster would have complete backing of both departments to make sure this casino is a positive step forward for Lancaster city.

Think of it what you will but I'll be getting my pennies out and eagerly anticipating the opening as soon as possible!

What a load of rubbish

Now, this is going to sound pretty boring but bare with me, I am covering the environment afterall! I've just read in a blog that there is a huge demand for wheelie bins in Poland, Estonia and Germany and that it's reportedly the cause of a shortage in wheelie bins in Britain. Now don't get me wrong, what with all the other disasters going on in society today, we're hardly going to establish a crisis about where to put last nights curry and it certainly isn't going to be at the top of Gordon Brown's fix-list, but lets just take a look at the bigger picture.

Councils all over the country have told its residents that if they need a replacement bin, then its going to take several months before it arrives. Bins for new homes may take even longer. It's rumoured that a bin factory fire somewhere in either Poland, France or England is allegedly responsible for the shortage.

So what does this mean? Well it's simple, people don't have anything to put their crap in. I'm sure there's nothing more tedious than taking out the rubbish, especially when the end of the journey marks a dirty, smelly wheelie bin. However, having to pile black bin bags on top of each other in your garden is definitely not the superior option! And that's just what people in Derbyshire have been suggested to do while they wait for their replacement bins to arrive.

A little closer to home (and something that struck a bit of a chord with me after having my own wheelie bin robbed the other day!) is Lancashire's new homes may take up to an 8 month waiting period to receive bins! Lewisham councils are suggesting people share bins until November or later. It got me thinking, the core problem here is that pollution is soon to become a factor, right outside your doorstep. People aren't going to be able to manage sharing waste and any waste that is left in the gardens in bin bags will surely attract vermon and other unwanted creatures. There's never been a better time to start recycling than now people, so give it a go and make a difference!

References: http://www.technorati.com/posts/f424p5cjw2QsvtkNbhjzCn5aJPKqzDbVdjSdF6eM62I%3D, http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/868000.html

SWAT's new?

Preston's Moor Park was given all the environmentally-friendly trimmings by its very own SpringWatch Action Team (S.W.A.T) this weekend. It's part of the BBC campaign to create greener areas in your cities.

Together, Preston residents and SWAT injected a bug hotel (don't ask, just use your imagination!) and new homes for birds, bats and owls into the popular Moor park. The wildlife of Preston has never been so cushty!

SWAT is part of the BBC campaign called Breathing Spaces, which encourages everyone to appreciate the greener things in life and to help care for the environment by creating nature-friendly areas, such as in Moor Park. The campaign went country-wide after Lancashire spearheaded the initiative last year, re-generating three spots into greener spaces. It's been a year and there are another fifty sites across the country that have benefited from makeovers.

There's nothing better than hearing that your city is making a difference to life where you live and I know i'm pleased that Preston has jumped at the chance to be a part of this brilliant campaign. I'll be on the look out for similiar campaigns in a North West city near you soon.

You can find out more about the 'Breathing Places' campaign online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/ - Check out when and where your nearest project will be and head on down to inject a but

Picture:http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2008/05/09/breathing_places_swat.shtml
References:http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2008/05/09/breathing_places_swat.shtml