Towns pool ideas for the future (From This is Hampshire)

Towns pool ideas for the future

2:00pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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DELEGATES from Basingstoke have taken part in a ground-breaking pan-European conference to share ideas on how towns can develop in environmentally sensitive ways.

The European Union-financed conference, held in Basingstoke’s twin town Alencon, brought together representatives from those two towns plus Basingstoke’s other twin towns of Euskirchen, in Germany, and Braine-l’Alleud, in Belgium. Alencon’s linked town in Germany, Quakenbruck, also sent a delegation.

Opening the conference, Joaquim Pueyo, the Mayor of Alencon and president of the Communaute Urbaine Alencon, told delegates that the scarcity of resources and threat to the global climate requires sustainable development and for local authorities to work across borders while also engaging citizens.

The conference took the form of a series of workshops, with representatives talking about initiatives they are pursuing in their own towns.

These covered topics such as waste management, energy use, community engagement, economic development and maintaining green spaces.

The French explained that homes account for 35 per cent of their greenhouse gas emissions and they are tackling this problem by offering residents subsidies to fit solar panels or insulation.

Dietmar Danz, Euskirchen’s chief of facilities management, said his town had reduced energy usage at a sports hall by fitting it with motion sensors that automatically turned off power.

Furthermore, it is working towards energy self-sufficiency by fitting public buildings with solar panels and is offering financial help for residents that want them.

Nicky Linihan, head of planning and transport at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, explained how the UK Government had introduced a rating system for homes, giving them an energy efficiency score of between one and six stars.

By 2016, all homes would have to be built to level six rating, which means no carbon emissions – something that is not currently technologically possible. The borough has already made it mandatory for new homes to meet three-star standards.

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