Rother takes silver in emissions league table

Government figures released recently reveal the carbon footprint of the five borough and district councils in East Sussex, highlighting the amount of CO2 emitted by council run buildings and vehicles.

Rother District Council (RDC) emitted a total of 2,777 tonnes of CO2, coming second to Eastbourne Borough Council, who gave off 2,269.2 tonnes.

Neighbouring Hastings Borough Council weighed in with 3,345 tonnes, followed by Lewes on 4404.7 tonnes and Wealden with 5487.7.

Breaking the data, taken from 2008-2009, down by population reveals a very similar pattern, with Rother District Council, with 0.03 tonnes per person, again coming second to Eastbourne on 0.02 tonnes.

Cllr Sue Prochak, whose repeated efforts to get the council to commit to the 10:10 campaign to reduce the authority's carbon emissions have not yet been rewarded, said: "It's welcome news that Rother's carbon emissions are the second lowest in the county, although emissions from transport use appear worryingly high.

"Also we now have a benchmark to use in efforts to reduce our energy use even further still further.

"This survey of local authorities comes at the same time as new research showing that simple measures such as turning off appliances at the mains and installing energy efficient light bulbs is up to 60 per cent more effective than previously thought.

"In fact according to the research such simple changes would produce the equivalent of removing about 10 large gas-fired power stations from operation.

"Simple actions taken at home and at work go a long way to cut energy use and costs."