It was a great shame that Labour’s desperation to ignore green issues and to take part in yah boo politics meant that this week’s green themed council meeting debated green issues for about ten minutes.

I was really hoping that the council would take up a radical but costed and thoughtful suggestion from Southwark Liberal Democrats. Turning Southwark green will only ever happen with political will and leadership.

Liberal Democrats did show that this was possible when we ran the council between 2002 and 2010. This is a huge credit to colleagues like Richard Thomas who genuinely transformed our borough.

We introduced almost 1000 new recycling sites plus the clear bag collection recycling scheme which is enormously popular and which is now so a part of Southwark life we forget that it didn’t exist previously. When Lib Dems took control of the council, recycling was just 3.6%! It increased massively to 21%. We also made happen the new waste management site at the Old Kent Road and this has continued to have the legacy of improving recycling rates – even after we stopped running the council.

Another amazing achievement was the Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding – now loved by all parties. This is money which residents apply for to carry out projects in their area and local community councils decide where the money is spent. In Bermondsey we have had some fantastic environmental improvements over the years, in particular an extensive programme of loft insulation which has meant reduced carbon emissions and lower fuel bills for residents.

And I am also very proud of the Liberal Democrat record on street cleaning in Southwark. I grew up locally and remember wandering through Camberwell Green literally knee deep in litter. Southwark was one of the dirtiest boroughs in London in 2002 and a few years later it was one of the cleanest. A great tribute to the councillors and officers who made that happen. And it shows that anything is possible if you have the will, drive and commitment.
To be fair, Labour have continued a lot of the things which the Lib Dems had started. Like the Old Kent Road recycling facility and the SELCHIP project – using waste to create heat for 5 big estates in SE16. But there is an awful lot more to do – on cycling, on green spaces and on air quality. And that’s why the Liberal Democrats will fight next year’s council elections by putting forward a radical green vision for the future.

Because the most helpful thing which the council can do is to sort out the damage it causes itself. And that’s why we’re saying that the council absolutely must become carbon neutral. No excuses and no looking for reasons to say no. Southwark Council is responsible for 14.5% of the borough’s total carbon emissions. That’s over 500 tonnes a day. The equivalent of five blue whales of carbon being produced by Southwark Council every single day. It’s possible to stop that and that would be the single biggest thing we could do to help the environment – and save money in fuel bills. We know that it’s possible because Lib Dem run Eastleigh Council has been able to do it. And the sooner Southwark follows it’s lead the sooner we will be carbon neutral.

Southwark Liberal Democrats are setting a target by which we can be held to account. Not something that might happen in 30 years’ time as Labour’s targets do. But a vision for the term of the next council. We offered up the carbon neutral council proposal to the full council meeting this week but Labour voted to amend it. To suggest it was a worthy aspiration but that we couldn’t do it.

Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make it happen. In fact that makes me more determined to do it. The point of politics is to show leadership in achieving difficult things. And that’s why the Liberal Democrats will turn Southwark green in 2014!