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Five questions for your Oxfordshire County Council election
candidates
The elections for Oxfordshire County Council take place on Thursday 4 June 2009. Those who are
elected will be making crucial decisions which will affect
Oxfordshire’s environment for years to come.
Oxford Friends of the Earth have suggested five key questions to ask
your candidates when they come to your door.
Please use these questions to challenge candidates of all parties, and
use your vote to help improve the environment of our County.
You can also download a flyer of
these question, including a table for you to fill in each candidate's
answers, so you can easily compare them to help you decide who will get
your vote.
1 Do you oppose the incineration of Oxfordshire’s waste?
Incineration is polluting and a waste of resources. We support less
waste, more recycling and treating the remainder without burning it.
2 Do you support the Council committing to an 80% reduction
of Oxfordshire’s carbon emissions by 2050?
Last year Parliament passed a law which commits the country as a whole
to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 in order to minimise
dangerous climate change. We believe Oxfordshire must play its full
part in meeting that target.
3 Would you require the bus companies to work together with
the Council in a Quality Partnership Scheme to improve services?
The County’s Transform Oxford proposals aim to remove buses from
central areas of Oxford. Users complain of too many, often empty buses,
badly planned routes and no common ticketing. The Council is now
allowed to set up a Quality Partnership Scheme bringing Council and bus
companies together to plan better services.
4 Do you support the introduction of an electric shuttle bus
system for the centre of Oxford?
With bus stops in Oxford city centre moving further out and pressure to
reduce the number of buses running through the city centre, shoppers
and visitors who cannot walk far will really struggle to get around. An
electric shuttle bus system – small, clean and frequent – would solve
this problem with no pollution or danger to pedestrians.
5 Would you support a policy of all County institutions
buying food only from sustainable sources?
Soy grown to feed animals in Europe is leading to the destruction of
the Amazon rain forest. Current trends will lead to a 40% loss due to
food production by 2050. This is having devastating effects on the
climate, local people and biodiversity. The Council can seek to
minimise this and promote the UK agricultural economy by making sure
that the food chain behind the food it procures is sustainable.
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