Letters: Basingstoke should learn from Longparish

A carbon-free Basingstoke
Dear Editor,
The first council elections for two years are upon us. On May 6, we will choose who will be in power for the next three years. These will be the three most important years in responding to the climate emergency. This is our last chance to elect people who can respond. Making changes in 2024 will be too late. 
We face a climate emergency. We know the cause. It is the greenhouse gases we emit into our atmosphere. This comes from burning fossils fuels, the way we produce the food we eat, our waste and from our buildings. If we are to avoid the worse impacts of a changing climate then moving to a carbon free world is a necessity.  
Most of the world’s leading companies have laid out their plans to decarbonise. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has produced its plans; so have the National Grid. We await to see our Council’s plans. 
We know what needs to be done. We need to: 
• Reduce the amount of energy we consume33 by becoming far more efficient in our energy use.  
• Recover the enormous amounts of energy that leaks from our building. This is by retrofitting existing buildings and designing new ones properly. 
• Renew our energy infrastructure by replacing inefficient fossil fuelled power stations with renewably generated electricity and by electrifying our transport and heating systems. 
• Reform what we eat and the products and services we consume. This requires us to change our behaviour and lead more healthy and less damaging lifestyle. 
• Regrow, rewild and restore. As a final step we must regrow our woodlands and restore our peat and fen land. We need to return pastureland to its natural state and re-wild instead of build. 
We know how to do it, all that is required now is the political will to deliver it. Doing so will generate massive opportunities for today’s younger generations and will create millions of jobs whilst, at the same time, reduce the impact of the climate emergency we all face. 
On May 6 we face a stark choice: on the one hand do we see responding to the climate emergency as an opportunity to create new industries and jobs, to transform the way we live, plan and build and a way to create a fairer, greener and healthier world or do we, on the other hand, let the threat grow and fester until it is too late? 
We need to elect a Council that is prepared to do the hard work in delivering a carbon-free Basingstoke by 2030. I will be asking each candidate what they promise to do to achieve this. I hope many more of us will do the same. 
Martin Heath, Newnham Lane, Old Basing

Vote for PCC election
Dear Editor,
On May 6, as well as local and HCC elections, you will be also asked to vote for the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner. 
Most people will think this is of little consequence and vote ‘tribally’. But this person will decide how Hampshire is policed. 
So, find out the Candidates’ views on ‘hate crime’, or the so called ‘low level’ crimes, which blight most people’s lives.
Bizarrely, the present PCC, a Tory, has been deselected by his party. 
His main objective seemed to be the Estate Plan. This involved, as in Basingstoke, selling off valuable accessible town centre Police Stations and relocating them to industrial estates outside town. 
I have emailed the new Tory candidate, asking if she wins, will she continue the Estate Plan. At time of writing, she hasn’t replied, so draw your own conclusions. 
The PCC also sets the Council Tax contribution to the police budget. This is set currently at approximately 19%. Nobody begrudges this money to police if we get the policing, we want. Too often, we get politically correct and gesture policing. And why are the police so ‘top heavy’ with senior officers? And let’s have promotions, on ability, not because it ‘ticks a box’. 
Davd White, Coates Close, Basingstoke

Message to next generation
Dear Editor,
I am getting annoyed as I keep hearing about planting thousands of trees when the truth is they cannot look after the ones we have got.
Having been walking around Basingstoke for over a year, they are in a dreadful state, ivy growing up most of them, branches hanging down, they are never pruned. I only hope the next generation stop building houses and look after the countryside better than this one has, otherwise my grandchildren will not know what a field is.
H J Stillwell, Basingstoke

Don’t spoil nature reserves
Dear Editor,
Recently on the news was the story of a fire that has completely destroyed a 120-acre nature reserve in Devonshire, and also, a nature reserve in Dorset has been severely damaged by two fires only days apart, due to people having illegal campfires and barbecues.
I went for a walk recently in Pamber Forest, a 500-acre nature reserve, it’s connected to Lord’s Wood and Silchester Common which adds at least another 100 acres to it.
Under the pine trees in the northern part, I found the remains of a large campfire and about 30 empty beer bottles, some broken.
The forest is a nature reserve. I’ve been walking these once a week, weather permitting. I’ve seen so many rare birds, butterflies, moths, reptiles and animals. Yet, there are people gathering in there at night, lighting campfires under pine trees. Pines are very flammable!
Also, I was told of a dog bitten by an Adder. The dog should not have been running loose, so it was the dog walker’s fault.
The Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust state - “When out with your dog, please keep them on a lead or under control at all times, especially in spring, due to ground nesting birds.”
Recently, as attempted to photograph a male stonechat, I was attacked by an out-of-control loose dog. Its lady owner said: “He won’t hurt, he’s playing!”
A dog that attacks other people and won’t come when called, should be on a lead! People are spoiling our nature reserves.
A D Carter, Sherborne St John, Basingstoke

Eco-friendly Mannydown
Dear Editor,
What an excellent letter by Bill Fergie last week, encouraging the council to build/approve eco-friendly houses at Mannydown. 
Certainly the morally/politically correct thing to do, but also economically the right thing to do. (Assuming the houses will be built and sold by the developers and not built and rented by the council). 
The council will realise at least a circa 67 per cent profit on the cost of the land compared to the purchase price 25 years ago, probably a lot more with planning permission. That money could be used in conjunction with other council accumulated funds to buy The Camrose for BTFC, help fund the Anvil and fix the problems with the ice rink. 
With The Camrose becoming an incremental asset on the council’s balance sheet to offset the expenditure on the Anvil and the ice rink. 
The projects would be almost self-funding and the fight against climate change would be recognised and assisted. Something for Basingstoke and its citizens to be proud of and set an example for Conservative Boroughs throughout the UK. As Bill Fergie said, ‘Do they have the courage to do it.’
Steve Partridge, Old Basing 

Longparish shows the way 
Dear Editor,
The Council have listed the Camrose Ground as an asset of community value and have now dismissed Mr Razzak’s appeal to have the decision overturned. But what action will the council and councillors take to back up these decisions? 
In the next borough Longparish parish council have admirably shown how to save an asset of community value. Working with residents they have borrowed from the Government-run Public Works Loan Board (at attractive interest rates) to save the vacated and threatened Plough Inn as a pub/restaurant and community hub – and without any plans to increase local rates. 
Instead of saying that we rest on our existing facilities (a village hall, school hall and a second pub), they have the foresight and drive to oppose a private developer and enhance their community. 
I call on our elected representatives to show the same initiative and partnership approach to help transform the Camrose into a community sports hub as proposed by the community run Basingstoke Town FC.  Surely capital rich B&D Borough Council can emulate little Longparish. 
Steve Williams, Overton