Hustings of MP Candidates in Eastbourne for General Election 2024. Held on 19th June 2024, 7pm.
[Music] [Music] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] that’s [Music] [Music] no all right just loading up for [Music] [Music] my [Music] h [Music] [Music] have a for [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] you [Music] to keep the keep [Music] [Music] you [Music] go [Music] he yeah for [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I’d like to introduce you to the hustings house band that we have [Music] [Applause] [Music] today just sorting out their volume for us thex it’s [Laughter] is that better thank you very much to the husting has to also doing our sound I guess so um my name is Gemma and I’m one of the group of small group of people that have organized this hostings on the environment and the others are you’ll see them around TKS and the reason that we wanted to do this is because we feel that this is something which very much affects our town it affects our country and it also affects our world so the purpose of this husing is not to be adversarial about this but for us to work together with whoever is going to be our MP and try and become critical friends to them and by critical friends I mean working with them to provide the information that we have because I know most people in this room are members of various voluntary groups that all do things that have one common purpose and we might really disagree about the way to do that but we all definitely understand that the same purpose is trying to make our community and the bigger communities that we’re a part of better and so what I wanted to do is start this husting by reading to you what the role of an MP is because I think this is really important and sometimes people don’t know that so and just to qualify that I am the chair of a SP sa fory group in town I’m also an apologist which means I study people and I study people as they do their things and one of the things I study is how policy gets made and I still have to look up what an MP is because it’s really complicated so the role of a member of parliament is to represent their constituents including those who did not vote for them or did not vote at all the UK public elects members of parliament to represent their interests and concerns in the House of Commons MPS consider and can propose new laws as well as raising issues that matter to you in the house this includes asking government ministers questions about current issues including those which affect local constituents and I think it’s fair to say whatever your feelings about climate change or climate Justice or anything like that the one based thing that you can agree on is that the place that you live the air that you breathe the food that you eat the water that you drink or swim in matters to everybody and is of a concern to Residents now I think what’s really important about this is to perhaps understand that this doesn’t actually mean voting or representing what the majority of people think all the time it also means acting as a representative in the National interest and in the interest in the community which by Britain you understand be part of the world so it means listening to people talking to them and getting ideas from the community that you represent so what we’re doing here today is setting up a future conversation with whoever is going to continue to represent us or newly represent us in Parliament and I’m going to hand over to Scarlet now who’s going to explain the format of this event um and hopefully you’ll have quite a good [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] time thank you um my name is scet MC um I’m a resident of eastborn I’m a surge at dgh in here 23 years um and it’s so lovely to see so many people here um so I’m sharing this just to see fair play um and it’s lovely to see people it’s also lovely to see people with the volunteering to do that really very difficult job of being an MP and so there’ll be questions we’ll hear things we might disagree with but we’re all going to be respectful to each other the questions have all been sent in by everyone who applied to come today so they are although the audience will be asking questions they are audience questions um so we’re going to begin I’m going to start with an introduction from each candidate um with answering a couple of questions we’re then going to go to the questions that have been sent in and have each candidate say their answer and then there’ll be the fun lucky dip round um where the questions that didn’t get in the top view um will out that and there’ll be a surprise for everyone and then candidates can choose to answer or not um so that we get through a number of questions here later and so we’re going to start um’ got microphone oh I’ve got microphone I it down that way um all the way to the end and then we’ll bring it back so if you Havey to start what asking each candidate to do before you ask a question can I just talk about the timing yes so each candidate is going to have 3 minutes for this question this uh introduction and I’m going to give you 10 seconds warning before your three minutes rep my my watch is going to give you 2 minutes 50 seconds and now 10 seconds to finish up if you want thank you thanks for um and so each C can to introduce thems um and say their uh their role and then ask these two questions number one how will you use your position as MP to tackle the climate and environment crisis and number two what one thing do you think is the most important action you can personally take to combat climate change bed that’s part of the three minutes main role your position as NP to tackle climate change the thing you person um so if you’re ready to start H yes okay so do you stand up you can stand if you want on your head or you can I I I’ll stand as long as I can my name is Mark ashtown I’m the candidate for reform UK and i’ would like to say before I start anything else I am a advocate of zero pollution I hate pollution nobody likes pollution I agree with you entirely on that subject uh mostly I’m more concerned about energy security I don’t like being beholden to people like Mr Putin and the midle for our energy so that’s the backbone of my um involvement in the Renewables energy Market when you say Renewables I like to call it sustainable energy because you can’t renew energy it can’t be at or destroyed so my background is I’ve spent a bit of time in the um Market as I say I fully agree with those two points energy security primarily and pollution I don’t like it um the rest of it is sort of s neither here or there to me there are opinions on both sides about climate change and I’d imagine most of this room thinks it is all manmade and we’re all going to end up in AR again very shortly um you can that’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned but we can discuss it um what I would do as an MP I would have a voice at the head of government and I try and steer energy Direction this country in the right direction and that hasn’t for stand up and say things that I consider to be incorrect so I can put mik Ben in there and I do want a fair BGE on the subject and the matter thank you thank you um pass the microphone on and stand sit whatever like thank you thank you yeah um I’m Mike Monson you no I’m standing for the green party and I’m not going to kid you this is not about me being an MP there’s only one person on this panel is going to be an MP and uh no panel in the past three years has had the Tories ahead here two years ago Josh himself was tweeting that the LI Dems were 21 points ahead in polls and the Tories haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory since then question this this election is about how you use your vote what your hard fought for vote is saying I will continue after this election trying to keep Josh honest well informed and more active on the climate and environment so there’s a better better work to be done there um but it would help if climate and environment had some public support here if eastborn voters showed their strength and feeling on green issues if I had to vote vote every time I’d heard I’d like to vote green but we have to vote Li to get the Tories out we’d have solved the climate crisis by now Tories are toting don’t let them reason why climate and environment still don’t get the attention theories than they do about the more votes the green party get the more will have to pay attention to the C yes I’d like you to answer the question I am answering question I am the question was what I do as an NP to tackle the climate and I’m [Music] saying because everybody’s I’m going to take action I’ve told this and it’s 3 minutes stop this and it’s 3 minutes I’m taking chair AC I’m taking chair action we have six people who are standing to be MP of this town we want to hear them we don’t want to hear um dismissing of other people’s policies and so forth you want to hear what you will do because that’s what we asked I’d like to take chair’s action and give you 30 seconds to answer what is the one thing you think is most important you can personally take to tackle climate change thank you the answers to climate change are political not personal preoccupation with personal climate action is playing into the hands of those who don’t want the problem solved households and individuals cannot be expected to be held responsible especially the hard press we need system change not climate change where we are now with the climate transition the only way we’ll stay under 1.5 degrees of warming is through major policy Frameworks to deliver green industries of the future and green industries of the present like those being taught in eastborn college by the way East has one of the lowest percentages of sustainable industry in the country thank you we need regulation for a just transition from gas to me thank you okay [Music] [Applause] so you will have 30 seconds and those the two questions [Music] ask hello should we all start again so my name is Paul Richards I’m the labor and Coop candidate in this election and I live in the e SW uh we mov down from London about 15 years ago I’ve been boring everyone for the last couple of months about my amazing Health Journey I’ve been on which has involved me losing awful lot of weight and one of my challenges was to do a parachute jump so I did a parachute jump about three weeks age 56 um quite um and lot of things go through your mind as you might imagine Terror being the main one but as I was looking down on the Earth from 12,000 contemplating my own existence but also the scene from London to the coast the hills the towns it kind of I feel a little bit I I feel like I know how those astronauts felt when they look back at the Earth from the Moon and just realize what a beautiful beautiful place this is and uh you know the environment is not just that very local feeling it is that Global feeling that feeling that we’re all part of something much bigger than the whole that’s feeling I have which I wanted to just share with you um um I’ve been in politics for 40 years I work in Parliament one of my first jobs was the advisor to the uh Shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection um before the 92 election I was a special advisor in government working three different departments Health cabinet office and communities so I’ve been intimately involved in the policy side of these things for an awfully long time I belong to an organization called CRA the Socialist environment resources Association founded the same year as the green party but by socialists who got important to use the power of the state to try and get things done with the environment and the co-op party of course who sponsor me who were founded even earlier in the 1840s who wanted to have unated food they wanted local ownership of the land of community assets and the things that we’re going to have to deliver to stop climate change um there are people on this panel who don’t think there is a climate crisis I’m telling you there is it’s real it’s happening it’s happening right now and so we need to change your government do something about that um so to the questions we would put what would I do if I elected as a labor and Coop MP I would be voting through legislation um in the first session starting after the election um to do all kinds of things on the AR we are going to talk about this evening so practical measures to tackle the crisis um and what do I personally think I should do well we have it’s a question of leadership I think that public figures should model good behavior they should show through their own behavior is that local change is possible and to work with local groups and to actually make those arguments locally too so as an MP I would want to v through laws but also show locally what could change is that yeah thank [Applause] you thank you very much well good evening it’s really good to be here Caroline and saw your conservative candidate for this next election seeking reelection so that I can make good on the one billion pounds of investment that has been pledged to our town which includes the new hospital I’ve lived in eastborn around 40 years uh but my parents are actually Scottish my oldest sister met a man at University from eastor they married and settled my second sister married the best man also from eastborn and so the migration uh continued now four generations of my family live in this beautiful town of ours from not to 92 so I couldn’t be more invested in its future I went into Politics on the back of a life changing life saving experience for my little boy who had a shock diagnosis of a brain tumor and I simply want something back I’m answering the question I’m introducing myself any I simply wanted to give something back and that hasn’t changed to this day I served on the local Council for 5 years I was East born’s first woman MP when I was elected in 2015 and I’ve served now for seven years but teaching is my profession what will I do to use position uh of MP to tackle the climate and environment crisis well pick up where I left off one a guiding principle for me will be to work collaboratively as I hope I’ve demonstrated these last years working with local groups you have the shared values and shared purpose to see this a better place use every lever of government so that is uh I served on the education select committee I raised parliamentary questions on shipping emissions and solar initiatives met with ministers to talk about food production and led debates on the circular economy so to address waste particularly food waste and in very specific terms I’ve confined myself to 10 of the active projects that I Midway through that I will pick up again uh should I be fortunate enough to be returned as eorts Member of Parliament the first this month I was due to present a petition by plastic free eor to uh make the case for biomass fuels so I will pledge to take that back with me and knock on that big black door no matter who opens it and who might be on the other side rampion I’m committed to that expansion of rampion to see that wind committing to Solar Development in our town I partnered with om to engage with businesses most particularly to build rooftop solar uh I’ve been exploring geothermal uh with the hospital with some wfs there’s actually good potential there in eort for us to develop that I’m committed to honoring uh the blue heart recommendations and that’s around surface water seel and the environment agency the bus Corridor improvements that we need and also the gcsc on Natural History good evening um name and I’m the UK Independence Party candidate for eor I’ve lived at eor now 36 years last Monday and I have seen a [Music] I was surprised when I got the invite to come here um because any of you who’ve looked at our national Manifesto might see that um we actually oppose n z we oppos Net Zero because it is too costly and when you look at uh the way we have implemented net Z it cost every single one of you in this room 20% tax on your uh gas and electric bill that is something that is unsustainable and in fact BL Farms are being subsidized and in 2022 which is the last year that I have the full figures for they were paying out 100 million a month for the real Farmers to switch off generation when there was excess generation into the National Grid and the problem is that the National Grid cannot cope with the irregular distribution we do need to be self-sufficient in energy and what I get display at is when I see the people saying that we shouldn’t use any natural gas we shouldn’t uh actually have [Music] any so what do we do we stop our own natural gas where we’ve got 100 years plus of non resources and we import it from the continent that doesn’t make sense to me take t St down was too expensive for them because of our electricity costs to actually manufacture still gr Quality Steel a t Ste now made back India using CI P stations they then put it on ship which turn Halfway Around the worlding the dirtiest FS a mon for the stale that we need and these are the sort of policies that I find don’t quite and by F the way we did is something that I will push to stop thank you very much for listening and over to Josh who’s already had a [Music] [Applause] presentation well good evening one and all my name is Josh pindy standing to be our next liberal Democrat uh member of Parliament um and I want to start by touching on one of the comments that was made earlier not one person on this panel has received one vote at this stage uh in the election uh every single candidate here needs to work out all the stops to earn the trust of folks in this room and Beyond and anyone who suggests otherwise anyone who suggests that this election is already won uh is taking people for granted and that is exactly one of the chall that exist in our political system at large and we cannot let that continue by entrenching that uh tonight but if I’m to introduce myself and Stark I’m an eastborn boy uh born and bred uh I went to Cavender School uh one of my former Supply teachers is on this very panel and uh I had some tricky pches uh in my childhood uh growing up but I had amazing teachers um who inspired me I had Scout leaders Who challenged me I had local business in our town uh who backed me and it because of our town rallying around in the way that we all know it does best that I was able to do a lot of the things with my life that I wanted to do to create opportunity for folks uh like me and I’m determined to give back to the town that made me me determined that those same opportunities are available to other people across our town too but that will not be possible if we do not address the climate and environment crisis because frankly folks there will not be a town if we do not pull out all of the stocks to address it so I’ll move on to the next question what have I done so far um to play my part well one of the things is I used to run a social Enterprise uh that trained employed ex offenders to do a particular thing repairing smash smartphone screens why because one of the things that that did is it helped people to reuse uh their technology reduce uh wastage reduce consumption and with it reduce the emissions that come from production uh of technology and the distribution of it a clear example of one of my contributions to reducing uh the globe’s carbon footprint another thing is working for the school for social entrepreneurs where I trained and invested in lots of environmental and climate startups uh to support us to reduce again the glob carbon footprint what would I do as our Member of Parliament well number one uh to put into law um a piece of legislation that would bring uh carbon neutrality or net zero even uh by 20145 2050 is too late and we don’t have time to lose and particularly let’s look at our environment crisis I think one of the biggest challenges facing our environment is raw sewage being dumped in the sea by Southern water enabled by this government and we need to tackle it as soon as possible thank you folks [Applause] thank you everyone we’re moving into the questions now um are we going to have a [Music] me one [Music] [Music] [Applause] so the first question um I’m just do slightly random order keep moving the first question is eastborn has the highest number of short car Journeys in the Southeast and is one of the worst towns for pm2.5 particulate air how will you work on overcoming the local barers to sustainable affordable transport and active travel um am I’m going to start start I think the um the thing that an effective MP can do is have they have convening power in a town like this and they can bring together all kinds of different resources they don’t have we the definition only of what an MP does they don’t have actual power at all do they but they have great influence and I think you can do a lot in a Time to actually bring those different resources together and I would want to see a sustainable balance of Transport particularly with an emphasis on public transport so that you can get the buses the cycling the walking uh and other forms of Transport um united into a system because I think what the town suffers from is that it hasn’t got that holistic view to moving around and that’s why people are jumping in their cars because they think that’s the fastest way to get somewhere but it isn’t often um and often it’s much better to walk and it’s much better for health to walk as well doesn’t it and it cuts some of the other issues as well so I just think there needs to be that joined up approach and at the moment that just really isn’t uh uh having said that though it must be balanced with the needs of the local economy too and also the the state of the town I mean if you walk through the center of eastn um it’s not necessarily a very welcoming Place often it does feel a bit intimidating lots of the crown jewels are boarded up um and I think there czy things you can do with things like the deum site with a community of right to buy that labor is talking about where you can turn that over to community use and so people will want to walk into town because there’s something there that they can come and see at the moment as you know it’s it’s bled in that middle there and so there’s a like I say a a creative approach a reimagining of what a town is thinking strongly about all the different ways to integrate transport you’re using convenient power of a member of parliament who really cares and gets on with the job um back up by a government which is then bringing in legislation to help them do that I think if you get all of those layers in the right way then you can cut down [Music] [Applause] C thank you very much um I I was just stuck there um and I would just like to take a moment to congratulate Ian who have had that really powerful convenient role and brought people together uh including MPS and the attraction of ministers too so a great deal of that work has has gone on one of the other things an effective MP can do is to make the case for investment and unlocking investment for change excuse me and most particularly that investment has taken the form of bus improvement work over 40 million pounds was dedicated to East Sussex County Council to look to encourage more passengers so there’s more reliable and more frequent Services they’re looking to see how they can reduce congestion some of these proposals have been very very difficult to land because of course there is always choice there’s compromise so I’ve worked really closely with local businesses to see how we can unlock that Seaside Corridor which is absolutely pivotal to those bus services uh in the town uh there’s also been really important uh investment during the life of this Parliament milon in fact in active travel but most importantly and most locally we have now a 20 million pound towns fund that and the spend around that is going to be driven wholly by local people and local priorities and one of the key um measures in that can be focused around public transport because the reality is eace B although I see it as as beautiful and a huge an important future ahead it is very car dependent it is very constrained and congestion is a real issue for us so we do need to unlock more cycling and more walking uh and so one of the schemes that we’ve battled long is to unlock seafront cycling but we’ve never managed to get a scheme where people could rally around it but that doesn’t mean we should give up as an opportunity but the environment agency [Applause] well thing I noticed tonight I mean we can talk and talk but I noticed tonight arriving here I I couldn’t Park so what do I do I drive around I drive around a number of streets trying to find somewh to park now that don’t sound like a very good idea from a prodution point of view um eventually I found somewhere m my suggestions would be to take up some of the double yellow lines and single yellow lines because when people do come to this town really want to par not just drive round and around ping the atmosphere years ago there were good idea of Alliance um they as fire engines and vehicles could get around the corners and then of course Mission creeper crept in and we had load lines red lines single red lines I don’t know if you get London get some um and I actually look at taking up some of them of course the people have the job to put lines down aren’t going to sack themselves so they’ll look for more places to put lines down I’d make it more user friendly for somebody to come into the town to park I find it strange that we have a major pollution problem in East B do we got the coast well the coast The Atlantics flowing across I mean compared to other towns in the country I I really would find that hard to uh [Music] Bo what you could do also is you could have some small EVS now EVS aren’t very environmentally friendly we all know that because you SE the pictures of kids digging up lithium and Cobalts and all the other things but there is a case for EVS and I’m not against them especially small ones on Short Stop start missions n mention we have an aging population so I initially got some sort of policy to get the Aging bicycles to come into town and then do their shopping and take it home with them um I think we should be thinking more towards the Aging [Music] population thank [Applause] you thank you so the question was on barriers to sustainable affordable transport and active travel well here we’re talking about walking we’re talking about cycling we talking about buses we’re talking about uh trains one of the solutions to spending ages uh driving around uh trying to park is to get public transport or indeed to walk here I walked it this evening to C this evening and I’d highly recommend it in terms of cycling cycling uh infrastructure in eastborn is much much poorer than it ought to be um I used to cycle around town um I don’t think it’s safe in fact I remember at the sustainable transport Summit uh Jem stood up and said something to the of you know I’m taking my life into my own hands sometimes when I’m cycling around if you look at a crash map put in the postcode where you live or where where you go to work and you can see that there are so many um fatal fatalities or accidents serious and minor um that involv cyclists and so we need to see more investment in our cycling infrastructure Eastex County Council from by the conservatives have massively lagged on this we need them to pull the finger out and another real danger uh to cyclists uh but also to other Road users um uh is the state of our roads in terms of the potholes Here There and Everywhere it’s like a golf course uh driving around our town whether on a bike um or on another uh vehicle um and we need the County Council to take that seriously uh often you get a pothole that’s filled in in one place there’s another pot hole right next to it and they completely miss it out it’s a waste of our money and the County Council needs to get on top of it uh in terms uh of trains um our train services are horrifically uh unreliable is having a detrimental impact on people’s ability to travel green but also on our ability to bring uh investment uh into our town so I believe uh that the government should have greater Powers uh to sack uh and sanction uh rail operators like Southern rail that aren’t delivering uh for our town we get more people uh on Train Transport just point there’s a few people trying to this YouTube and if you hold the microphone right close to your mouth it gets very boomy you hold it just about mle chin you get a nice tone coming out is that better much better thank you okay um I do agree with some of what’s been said tonight um I used to cyle but I don’t feel safe on the bik anymore um there’s too many cars there’s too many Pooles and I actually fear my life so my B hasn’t been out of the garage there for 12 months um I do accept that I tend to drive um more than I perhaps should though I do try and do 10,000 STS a day in the uh summer when the weather comms but one of the things that I noticed on the way here um I live in Lang and uh I went to pick up a colleague who’s here who lives up in m and from ly R right down to the sovere center right along the sou front as far as the PA I was following a double deck of bus until he pulled in when I went pass I couldn’t say that there was anybody on it it hav’t stopped all that way but it was bounching out St now why are we and then after I pick col up to drive down here from M we then saw a single de of bus beling smoke and there appear to be nobody on that bus either so I do agree that a better bus service is required but the bus service we have at the moment is not fit for purpose and is actually causing more pollution than euro6 um compliant cars driving into town the other thing I would like to raise is Seaside the buses don’t pull in to lab as they used to they Park out and all the cars pile up behind with their engines more pollution [Applause] our transport choices account for about a quarter of UK carbon emissions if there’s a war on cars the people in Planet are losing it more attention needs to be placed on the 27% of eastborn households that don’t have access to a car the noise made about V is understandable but have you seen the state of our Pavements they’re not conducive to L dis travel first of all we need to engage all sectors in promotional events and activities the council needs to build the walking Festival chical Mass Carree day into a cohesive event with cycle road racing something to rival airor we need public information TI particulates and break dust cost the UK economy 20 billion pound a year contributing to 40,000 deaths so let’s use the dgh and GP surgeries to promote this our town slogan after all is breath the te on cycling and walking we need to invest 2.5 billion a year in new cycle paths and cycleways and foot paths and we need to adopt active travel englands aim of 50% of trips in East Bor to be walked wheeled and cycled by 2030 on buses we need to incentivize public transort I will push for local Authority control and proper funding for bus services so a one pound Fair can take you anywhere in East bort we need to increase annual subsidies for Rail and bus travel to make them reliable frequent accessible and affordable for all including free bus travel for under 18s and we need to give buses priority to make them the swifter option for [Applause] travel we going have a musical engine [Music] thank you um and thank all of you for um uh keeping calm and listening because we often hang out in groups of people that agree with and actually I think you learn more by hearing what other people are thinking what other people are going through so thank you for um listening so the next the next question is on energy um so the question and again I’m going do random picking people uh for two minutes each what Solutions um what Solutions do you propose I don’t think it’s I’m going to STI to this um what Solutions do you propose to increase the number of solar panels and other Renewable Energy Solutions in the town so I’m going to start in the middle here well um I wouldn’t that’s the simple answer because um what good are s panels in the winter when it’s dark between the others of four and so now that doesn’t mean to say that I’m totally opposed to solar panels I actually have solar panels on the roof of my house and I’ve had them since 2014 um and when the Sun’s shining uh they are actually create some of it goes to the grid but it means that I can run my hot water system uh my washing machine um my tle dryer if that driv wash and I would encourage all of you I would encourage all of you that have the ability to have s pan on the RO to have them but I think s pan FS play [Music] it may come as no surprise that I don’t green party is committed to the energy sector being under local Democratic control government will have failed in the infrastructure for sustainable energy generation if it is primarily in Cor private hands we will push for a minimum threshold of community ownership in onshore energy infrastructure the removal of regulatory barriers barriers to community energy an investment in community energy by Regional investment Banks there are existing proposals for a large S farm in East Bourland the developers low carbon are open to community investment involvement these b b CC should make low carbon responsible for ensuring and facilitating this to happen as part of their planning incent the green party will support wind farm development mostly offshore to provide 70% of our energy by 2030 we will rapidly expand capacity for electricity storage for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow we will support the rooftop solar Revolution on all new homes provide incentives like green mortgages installation grants and low VAT on green products we will work to replace lease hold Arrangements on properties so that rooftop Zeller can be introduced as part of common hold agreements crucially our approach will be to give the sector the confidence to invest and innovate that comes from long-term predictability the crown estate will be brought into public ownership and should open more Co waters for offshore wind and Marine energy we will end all subsidies to the oils and gas Industries and cancel all recently issued fossil fuel licenses such as Rose bank and we will phase out nuclear thank you very much and so solar energy and renewable energy well first of all I think that we need to see a revolution in rooftop uh solar um it’s a a missed opportunity not to capitalize on it to the degree um so far and the cost of those solar panels those photovoltaic panels has gone down U massively over the last decade about a tenth of the cost uh before so there’s a real opportunity uh to be able to roll uh this out what Democrats are calling for in fact is that on any new homes or indeed non-domestic buildings uh that are built uh to require that solar panels are on top of them um so that that uh the energy can be stored um in Factory forms um so that it can be safe for the winter when it’s not always sunny uh but also so that energy can be sold back into uh the grid and actually make some money for folks who who have those but even if we did cover all of the square footage of say all our commercial um square footage in East form with solar panels uh we would not be going far enough um to reach Net Zero um and so there is a need to look at how to generate solar from other sources um there is a proposal for a new solar farm in East born in East born Park um and there is some controversy around it uh my view um is that my support for that is conditional um on that energy being able to be used by local people for example to power um our uh social housing stock secondly uh that the jobs that are involved uh in uh the creation and maintenance of that solar farm um go local as far as possible and thirdly that there’s a Fair Community benefit fund so the wealth that’s generated uh from that solar farm is invested back uh in our town but also it’s no good uh investing all of this stuff in renewable energy uh and having homes that aren’t energy efficient so we lose so much of that power um and so the liberal Democrats are calling for retrofitting um of uh of our h particularly for those from low incomes for fre which is all costed in [Applause] [Music] our thank you um I don’t that’s a coincidence in what the Europe Here Comes the Sun just a coincidence very good well there’s a person called um El musk you might have heard of him um and there’s a massive new nuclear fusion reactor that we look at every day it’s up in a sky it’s 93 million miles away and that across the planet can provide all the energy we need so I do find myself agreeing with Josh it’s very important that we do use rooftops for solar generation and like you said you’ve got battery back up now so you can do some through the night and that’s made a huge difference in the last 10 years incidentally I just have to have a little nigle at the greens because when I was in the industry less than 1% of our customers were green less than 1% most people were doing it for financial benefit um I wouldn’t put them on the land if you’ve got some land I wouldn’t do that um because we need land and we have very short memories but we have two world wars that show that up we do not have enough land in this country to feed the people we had to bring in ships from the United States and lots of people lost their lives because the Germans decided they wanted the syn room so I won’t put anything on the land it is not expensive to put wind farms out of the sea it’s probably four times more expensive and there’s an argument that they won’t probably pay for themselves in 30 years but that’s what I would do anyway at the end of the day you have to make a choice you need an energy mix in this country it’s not about chitty chat chat you have to make a choice and that’s what I go along with education education education someone said that once and you need to educate the people the but things have changed on rooftops of solar panels PV and Thal and it is now a very good option thank [Applause] you thank you well I’ll just touch on that commercial solar farm by the hospital and I think what’s really important if that stands a chance of coming forward is that there is that local buying and there is that local return and that there are ways actually of constructing this in more aesthetically pleasing beautiful ways and there are ways in which we can increase the biodiversity gain on this particular site we’ve committed to protecting the best agricultural land for food production because that’s really important for food security uh but in East the sunniest town in the UK where the win is is our rooftops and car parks and the hospital has shown the way with a 26 million pound decarbonized ation Grant from the government the hospital now is through its solar rooftop on the STA car park so nestled at the back you might not see it’s the biggest solar array for just miles and miles and miles they now have the capacity with heat pumps to produce 50% of the hospital’s energy needs That’s The Power of harnessing solar so they’ve shown the way we have other retail parks where there is that potential for the car park top uh Sovereign is in my uh frame most particularly there but also the rooftops and I worked with own and they did the most incredible work mapping all the warehouses those industrial Estates in the eastor we have hectares and on one occasion I got to go up with some of the apprentices that are training at our local Hub because we need these sort of skills for the future and you could just see the potential before you so oh are doing really important work that I’m backing to demonstrate to businesses the kind of return that they could make to encourage that much bigger uh upake uh in our Manifesto there is uh for every household every household will qualify an Energy Efficiency voucher scheme and also there’s a million pounds for Community energy funds and working with powerful people [Applause] thank you very much um we’re at a inflection point in our politics I think in the UK and it’s a really I’ve lived through a couple of these in my life but this is a really interesting moment and one of two things are going to happen we’re going to wake up on the 5th of July wish is walking down Downy Street he’s celebrating his victory to have got another five years and Caroline’s plan will be put into into place uh you’ll be doing national service various other things will be happening or we’ll wake up with a A labor government uh in office and we don’t know which of those is going to be um but if it is labor government I really would recommend you reading the manifesto because on page 27 there’s the whole piece there around how we’re going to get more solar energy as part of a mix of energy and one of the things we’re looking at and we’ll introduce if granted the opportunity to serve is the Great British energy a new organization to challenge the broken market and to release money that we’ll raise through windfall taxes on the gas companies and put that money into local engy schemes including solar and the the piece actually says you know partner with local councils co-ops and other organizations will wind solar um hrcts and other Renewables so there’s a genuine prospect that we’re in we’re about to go through this this is all a little bit hypothetical but I’m telling you that on that Friday there might well be a government in place that will want to unleash the incredible power of solar energy alongside the other forms of Renewables too and get a genuine change in Direction after 14 years it’s a really really exciting prospect so um like I said you know with the manifesto have a look it’s available online see if it’s a sort of thing you think you might want to wake up to on the 5th of July and that King speech coming in with that Bill to tackle the environment crisis that’ll be there in real life in those first days afterwards um that’s what’s on our fa this thank you for your answers the question to you we now have another music thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] now we’re going to move on to our next question which is about beaches and again I’m going to randomly um pick candidates to spend two minutes answering this um question is what needs to be done to Ure that eastborn as a tourist town has clean and safe beaches sea and rivers um it’s good thank you we rely on the environment for air water and food and mental well-being it’s all interconnected whether it is in the whatever is in the soil runs into the rivers and our seers apparently into them as well greens would introduce a rights of nature act to restore soil Health water security and protect pollinators it will promote regenerative farming and tighten up on pesticides prevent agricultural runoff and sewage pollution a climate and nature act overarching these two areas would be based on science we would introduce a Clean Air Act to protect Green Belt National Landscapes and sssis so vital for East SPS tourism water privatization has been an unmitigated disaster we currently pay a third of our bills just to pay the interest on the debts that they’ve wrapped up investors in these monopolies have risked nothing and have profited much they need to be brought back into public hands no one should be able to profit from from an essential public utility Southern water recently applied to the off one to increase your bills by 72% no amount of tinkering with this model changing the regulator Etc um no one’s ever prosecuted none of the bank CEOs were prosecuted no one at the post office has anyone been prosecuted for the pp procurement scandals it needs to be brought back into public hands some nonprofits other foreign owners usually and you pay greens will set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in which nature will receive the highest PRI priority and protection only 5% of our land is currently covered in this [Applause] way thank you very much um I think one of the most important things for water quality was the environment act which um in this last Parliament uh World leading worldclass piece of legislation that the labor party has committed to enacting should they should they be elected so think perhaps there’s a seal of approval uh there but what needs to be done uh in East what I can tell you what’s already been done by the government on water quality that is monitoring we move monitoring in these last years from 7% to 100% that’s why we know we have the issue that we are to deal with that’s the truth there is new legislation with tough standards binding targets there is enforcement there is Criminal liability all of these things are already in play locally what is so important for us in East because our water quality is good and as a tourist tell that was one of the things that was put into question as a tourist and the SE is our number one asset so my dismay when our local Council put out that our bathing Waters were a tsunami of human waste was total incomplete I mean what a spectacular Act of self harm for our town when our water quality is good what we’ll see Improvement that is stopping surface water running into the combined Victorian sewer stopping surface water we need to slow it we need to stop it and that’s why the roll out of those smart water butts on those um is so Mission critical including in parks and Gardens in those times of heavy rain that we can prevent that rush into the system that’s what creates the Overflow and I just want to put the choice to you because my liberal Democrat friends uh would turn off the storm overflows and the choice there is whatever uh you’ve flushed it’s coming M back at you well we are blessed in East BN to have 94 individual uh beaches uh that our town relies on for his tourist economy for our wellbeing and much much more I’m order and I love going out uh on the sea um but you’ve only got to download the surface against sewage app or look at beach boy to be B barded uh by alerts saying that there has been a dump of raw sewage in our sea and as far as our tourist town is concerned uh we need to deal with that um the way of dealing with it isn’t by brushing it under the carpet and pretending that it’s not a problem uh It Is by clamping down on these companies that are dumping tons and tons and tons of roid across our seas our Rivers our Lakes waterways across the country and um and so what do we need to do to do it well first of all uh this has become an industry the water industry and it should be a service that serves uh the public so what liberal Democrats are calling for is a ban on bonuses for polluting water company Executives and indeed further uh criminal uh prosecutions and sanctions um for the worst corporates uh more than that we’re calling for a sewage tax uh on polluting water companies to make them pay for the damage that they’re doing and to force them to invest in the capacity that they have failed to create over the years and more than that we need to restructure uh these companies uh they’ve done it in other countries across the world Democrats are calling to restructure these into public benefit companies where you write in to their articles of Association that not only do they have um uh a responsibility to serve their shareholders but they have a responsibility to serve the communities that they are serving unless we take Serious measures uh like this we will see further damage uh to our seas our rivers and waterways and that is not [Applause] acceptable thank you um like a lot of people in the town I was not born here but I came here to live uh through choice and all the places in England I could have lived I chose eastn one of the main reasons we’ got no family here or anything like that was the sea was the beach was the beauty of it and the potential of it and it is just in the most you know I said to my kids most kids do not grow up next to a beach like most kids come here on holiday if they’re lucky you know maybe when you’re 40 you’ll appreciate it but it is an incredible asset and so something we have to nurture um yesterday I met with fergo sh that may be a name you know or don’t know but he he’s a water campaign and he’s taken on the water companies and he endorsement which was lovely but you know discussing what you can do about the sewage in the city um and Labour’s proposal is that you can turn these companies around you can say to them if you fail you will be fine um if you think you’re going to get a bonus of failure you can forget it and if you break the law you will be convicted simple as that and this will change that behavior and I don’t think civil servants running it would make it any better you know I think just turning it over some nationalized Monopoly would be any better I think companies can be made to fulfill their responsibilities and become responsible companies um and that would be the way we go it sounds like that’s what the would do too um it is I mean it is astonishing I think historians will look back and say how can they an organization supplying a monopoly to customers who have to use use it delivering a good that falls out of the sky how can they possibly make losses how can they possibly get into this kind of Deb um it is an absolute head scratcher that how these companies manage to mess it up as they do but you do need that really robust regulation you need that strong government intervention to stop them doing what they’re doing I’m afraid after 14 years a new bill you know is not going to cut it we need to change the government to do it but I believe that is something [Applause] well I sort of found myself agreeing with the labor party until B the end when he said going to vot labor um we’re going to just go around and around in circles we not careful all of this has been done before now after the war a lot of companies were taken into um the state ownership it didn’t work very well when I was kid in the’ 70s and someone decided oh let’s change you we protect them into private ownership now that was done badly and it took a few years for that to come out and that is the problem it doesn’t matter whether this glass of water is done in the private sector or the public sector in my opinion it’s probably more efficient if it’s done in the public sector because you don’t get the efficiencies in the private sector it’s just my opinion the problem this has been badly implemented and are no consequences there’s no consequences in anywhere the police force everywhere right across the board beaches water it’s all the same the directors there is no consequence they get their paycheck at the end of every month and whatever happens now also we’ve got infrastructure that was based on 56 million people now probably 70 or possibly more so it does need to be updated I don’t believe we need to check the um baby out of the bath and go back Fall Circle again and nationalize everything and then another 10 years or 20 30 yearsing again that’s not the answer it’s better implementation thank [Applause] you the world count is throughout the whole of this country are a National Disgrace I and their part believe the off who are supposed to be regulating them are poers when they do dish out funds for seage dumping they are merely a few thousand but meanwhile all that’s happening is that that cost is being added to your bills and they’re paying out bonuses to direct dors and chief Executives have P out dividends to shareholders but not delivering the service and we would actually ban any dividends and director’s bonuses to any water company until they’ve had 12 months where they haven’t dis discharged into rivers and soils that needs to happen that actually would start to hurt them where it’s most and the answer is not just to allow them to put bills up that’s what we would do and that’s what we are pushing for thank you thank you so that’s um those questions are the ones that um we had in advance um have music perfect you stretch [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that’s lovely so we’re moving on to the lucky dip round um so J has a hat with questions in um and this is slightly different because each candidate there’ll only be one candidate answering a question and then we’ll move on to another question um but each of the candidates has some papers in front of them that say either I also want to answer so if they also want to answer it’s very important for them they um asked to answer or if they’ve been giving that question and they don’t they want to deflect because they want to get the opportunity to ask a different question then they show up they deflect so um this is those the rules um so the questions are in the lucky dips [Music] [Applause] that’s a bit number [Music] [Applause] [Music] seven um so can I’m not bias picking a candidate I think will answer a particular question in a particular way for example I’m going to go along the row am I to do that super um so I’m going to start at the end with Josh um so or you may def if you require so the question is Stage Coach had correctly identified that the failure to commit to bus infrastructure such as Sea Side would result in no Central funding for zero m buses across the county in contrast to all our neighbors are you concerned that neighboring areas will increasingly transfer the older more polluting and less reliable buses here thank you thank you very much so the bus service uh Improvement plan was proposed by Eastex County Council a little while ago um and they embarked on a consultation to see what resid some businesses thought of it I made some submissions to that consultation um I thought it’ be a good idea uh for the bus service improvement in uh most parts of town actually but you know particularly in SN Harbor linking up North and South with um a bus for uh the first time fantastic um a king’s Drive bus lane um I supported uh that didn’t end up going ahead I got some flat from local residents for it but I thought it was the right thing there’s only a single yellow line um there and there’s a congestion there as well um where I thought folks needed to go back to the drawing board uh was on the seaside uh bus lane um they embarked on a consultation uh that local residents and businesses didn’t feel was done very well uh they didn’t get oh God that’s going quick anyway um I think that uh local communities we need to bring them along with us we need to bring our town along with us when it comes to US service improvements that wasn’t done I don’t think that the government should have punished e County Council uh and our town for thank you and I’m sorry announce it’s only one minute for these questions they quick um Josh is absolutely right it was uh at East Sussex County Council issue um they didn’t engage with the locality um we needed more Community engagement um the bus services Improvement plan failed because of that and we could have had funding for our own electric buses instead West Sussex got them and we will get the cast offs of their old buses turning out dodging that black smoke that was talking about earlier we’ll get that in our air because the consultation wasn’t done effectively we need to consult with residents before we come with plans we need to engage with residents in every local Authority Ward to see how areas can reduce traffic and open them up to the community and then join those Community Wards up together into a cohesive plan for East B [Applause] also want to answer this one okay I may regret this because I was hanging out for later questions uh but just to set the record straight around consultation the consultation is still live uh the County Council has gone back to local businesses uh we’ve worked over a period of several months to try to find a scheme that can both satisfy the concerns of business the needs of residents and that improved bus service so it is ongoing because I’m was pretty determined that we would see that4 million investment by the government to improve crust Services which along with the two pound fair is how we will encourage more passengers get more frequent services and have that more sustainable travel in [Applause] town thank you [Music] [Music] hello to read this question do you think recycling is as it should be or would you promise propose other Solutions [Applause] thank you um I’m the firm in recycling um it is something we should do as much as possible um and we need to actually educate people um on uh what can be recycled and what can’t be recycled um now a lot of people put every plastic bag and every type of plastic in their recycling thing unfortunately half of those bits of plastic can’t be recycled and that actually reduces the amount that the councel are able to recycle so education is important and yes we do need to do more to encourage it and to be fair the question do say recycling says recycling do you think recycling is as it should be or would you propose other solution thank you I question answer thank you I see no one also want to answer um next question please I need the number number 14 [Music] [Applause] okay the next one school streets are just one of the ways that our schools can be healthier and safer environments for children what do you think about this and what other initiatives do you propose I it has come to me uh but actually the very best way for schools to undertake active travel is driven by the schools by the schools themselves by their uh pupils by their parents by their leadership teams and I say that with feeling because I’m a teacher and I was a deputy head before because each School in our town has its own unique set of challenges and they know how to deliver that because the question asks uh essentially um you know what I think about this it’s really important that we address the school B Transport we know is one of the top top issues we do need to address and combined with that is actually the health and well-being of our children and young people and walking and cycling to school is a really significant intervention if we can support them with the means to do so the culture and climate to do so uh so um I’m 100% behind that and obviously um roading behind that and we managed to get some funding for Lely school to do exactly that yeah I I think this partly goes back to the first question of um the air pollution in East school and on other occasions i’ have to go into town early and I find that getting towards any of the schools there are a big for my fools um unloading their children and the same at4 3 picking them up again and I do actually think that parents who live within a mile of the school unless it’s raining or they’ve got disabilities should be told you must walk your children to school [Applause] oh and we got another one want to I’ve used two of my three um I think question said what other things would we introduce and one of the things that the green party would introduce would be 20 M hour areas around schools um and if you did that around all the schools in East B you pretty much cover about 20 about uh 2/3 of the residential areas now that’s what I was saying earlier about Consulting with residents about reducing traffic in their areas um another thing that the green party would do would be to make bus travel free for all people who are under the age of 18 which obviously if we’re improving the bus services as well would make the school run take a lot more curls off the [Music] [Applause] road we ready for the next question you going to read it number [Music] so the next question which you may deflect on I’m just going to read read it um there could be 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050 I.E the entire populations of 31 countries with low resilience to the impact of climate change how do you think this will affect eastborn and how would your party address this so I remember quite early in my political advising career back in the early 90s attending a briefing at shape which is the Supreme headquarters Powers europeia um and at that moment there’s a kind of great Buzz around what some older people who remember has being called the peace dividend we thought there’d be lots of extra money available for public services after the collapse of the wall and the end of the Soviet Union and what those officials told stuck with me which was well that’s happened but what’s next there’s going to be mass population movement there’s going to be Wars Tau over resources like water there’s going to be climate change that will wipe out whole areas and turn them into deserts and cities will be on and in the 30 years since that’s been Bor out isn’t it that is what’s happening in our world so the idea of climate refugees is genuine and real um I think a new government would have a new approach to this I mean I would welcome refugees I don’t think we should [Applause] [Music] [Applause] put sorry supp be said another time thank anyone else to my last last one yeah I’m using the last one because it’s a really important issue founding an increasing geopolitical conflict of driving migration and we propose a significant inry increase to overseas aim and support to lower income countries to deal with the climate crisis to ensure that as many people as possible can stay in their home countries we need an end to the hostile environment and an end to minimum income requirements for the spouses of those holding work vises we need safer routs to Sanctuary for those fleeing danger persecution and War we need fast and fair Asylum assessment processes we need to end the exploitation of people for profit by working within Europe and going Upstream to dismantle the network of traffickers at source we need to only charge application fees at cost and we need [Applause] compassion you I can’t see 1.2 billion people coming here for for climate purposes the people have come here is because there’s a war going on or um they want to come for a better lifestyle and I don’t blame them what I think we should have is smart immigration it’s basically hypothetical to say that climate change is causing what’s happening what they’re doing more likely is they’re looking on the mobile phones and they’re saying there’s a better life over there I don’t blame them for trying to get over here I really don’t but I think it’s a little bit like being on an airplane when you have a problem and the oxygen M come down the instructions are you look after yourself first first you put your you put your own oxygen mask on first and then you look after the people around you once we look after ourselves we’ complain about infrastructure being pushed and stressed then we can look after other people and the last thing i’ like to say a pound if you’re going to spend a pound and that’s what we’re talking about if you spend a pound on this problem you’re better off spending it in the country where these people are coming from because it goes a lot further thank you oh m [Music] [Music] do you have a refillable water bottle and a keepy cut to reduce your Reliance on a single use plastic and have you downloaded the refill app [Applause] three questions in there okay three questions do I have a refillable water bottle and key cup I’ve got more water and uh to Sor to reduce your Reliance on single use plastic yes obviously and have I downloaded the refill app yes I have [Applause] I should get using these up um so yes I have a refillable water bottle um it is yellow um do I have a keep cup no I don’t because I don’t really drink tea or coffee so much um and do I have the refill out no but while question is being asked I’m going to download [Applause] it thank you [Music] thank you okay the next question um most climate experts agree that our current food system is not sustainable if you’re elected as an MP will you actively support animal Farmers to transition to more sustainable forms of Land Management such as plant-based crop forming or reing to take that sorry most climate experts agree that our current food system is not sustainable if you’re elected as an MP will you actively support animal Farmers to transition to more sustainable forms of Land Management such as f-based crop farming or reing thank deflect I actually have animals um on a small farm a small farm um saying most climate experts what that what they tend to say now that’s the consensus so what they’re actually really doing if you want to actually stud this is you get a room like this and the people that don’t agree with you you throw them out and then you get a consensus that’s the people who are left um but yeah people are already doing this anyway it’s extremely expensive energy wise fertilizers they’re actually already carrying on with this and of course I would encourage it is it sustainable well if you look at the experts they say we need twice the CO2 if you want to sustain life from this planet because originally used to have twice as much CO2 and the planet is actually green if you look from space it is actually green and getting green if you’re going to feed more people which eventually will run out then you’re going to need more plants and you’re going to need more CO2 so I just thought to throw that into the mix as well thank you thank you so we have three request to answer you still want to use up your um I don’t think that it but there was a really good uh dinner discussion of the hyro last week with the European movement was anyone in the European movement from but but the speaker was a farmer and she was addressing the question of food security and how you transition into a more sustainable former British farming but what was Tom was going to report this back okay don’t be but um she was very firmly of the view that it was C causing the trouble um and the fact that we were having to sort of create a an American style factory farming culture in British agriculture which she said was you know absolutely totally unlike what we’ve had before um it has been driven by the fact that we’re in this new situation with all these new trade deals and so I think the answer to some of this is actually better European integration like I say don’t move but that was what you were saying I think there’s a lot in that [Applause] [Music] [Applause] food security needs to be one of the essential things for any government and what I find bizarre is certainly in ways that the wsh parliament there have told the farmers they’ve got to turn over to 20% of their land to remold it what is that achieving it’s not doing anything for food security it is simply reducing the amount of food that we grow in this country and then we rely on Imports it just doesn’t make sense to me uh so to the question uh supporting that transition um I can tell you that on page 69 of the liberal Democrat Manifesto there’s a commitment uh to funding independent advice to support Farmers to make those uh transitions um but also I’m particularly interested um in uh food security uh and food uh development in other ways as well so uh when I was working uh in my role supporting entrepreneurs particularly environmental entrepreneurs there were some really interesting projects around uh investing um in uh fungus um and meat Alternatives culturing in that way um also um growing meat from themselves and all that kind of stuff um I think it’ be really interesting to look at how we might be able to support the development of the foods that lots of us know uh and love but in other ways as well uh to get ready for the next Generation uh of farming thank you just number 11 [Music] the other way this time so the next question um is eastborn is one of the very few towns in the Southeast that doesn’t have a seafront cycle path what do you propose to do about this uh well I think it’s a great shame that we’re practically the only town on the coast that doesn’t have one of these uh there are some who argue that that creates a USP and that’s why people come here no actually I think we’ll be able to get more people uh to come to town were we to uh develop that cycle path um now there are a number of pinch points along ourc front that make it challenging but I’m absolutely convinced uh that by bringing together local businesses by bringing together the public by bringing together cyclists that we can find a solution um some say no we shouldn’t have say mixed use um along our SE front well we’ve had the doto train a vehicle running alongside people on foot along our prominade for many many years and long may they continue uh if we can make shared space work in that way and I’m convinced we can make Shar space work with Cy on the SE front [Applause] [Music] too thank you very much is there a number on talk about sorry [Music] [Applause] [Music] way uh so the question is eastborn has lower than average tree cover voluntary groups have been working hard to address this how will you support them with their efforts um yeah part of the problem is that um if you Ty and um it is mostly developed and there isn’t a huge amount of space to grow more trees um I do believe in growing trees wherever possible um I only have a average size Garden but I do have a apple tree and a bad tree that I planted a couple of years ago and um I think people should be encouraged to do that um but um you know we have to have a balance between Recreation space and where we grow Tru so it does need encouragement U but it needs careful encouragement next question to be [Music] [Applause] um so question is how would you reduce the amount of single use plastic produced uh yes absolutely thank you very much I think the thing tun for Barbie when I’m surrounded by Ken this is this is my this is my question um I think uh this is where that Cutting Edge research and development needs to come into play and some of the Innovations around and the alternative materials that can be used for all sorts of everyday uh products because single use plastic is absolutely in terms of the hierarchy of where we need to um bring change bring transformation that is it so how it’s produced well of course there’s all sorts of different um sort of nudge type initiatives whether it’s around funding for uh different streams whether it’s around helping manufacturers through tax breaks to Pivot to different types of Packaging there’s a whole range of different levers that can be used not least actually Consumer Power consumers making the choice to buy those far more environmentally sensitive and sustainable products because then manufacturers follow the believe my last on this I think the supermarkets have a big role to play in this you walk into supermarkets today and all the foten fegge uh or the majority of it is prepackaged and it also results not only in the use of plastic where it’s not required but it also does end up with food because if you only want two carrots you have to end up buying a kilo of carrots in the plastic bed and then they go off before you can use them so let’s go back to Brand paper Banks you help yourself and you break what you want no more no less [Applause] thank another I want to answer I think there’s going to be a lot of agreement on this question which is fantastic um I think my focus though is on uh the multinationals so when you look at pollution plastic pollution on beaches across the world uh there was a report that came out about six weeks ago now that found that 50% uh of uh that waste comes from UH 60 of the world’s largest uh companies and the number one uh polluter the number one source of that plastic uh is Coca-Cola um so I think that what we need to do is on an international level um Force The Producers uh of those um of of that waste uh to invest in technology and research um to to Pivot to a different kind of material I know Oliver was doing some work a little while ago looking at biomass Plastics um and whether um there can be more investment in technology of that sort uh but until we really push those massive corporates uh to get a grip of this uh it’s just going to trickle down and end up on our beaches and indeed in our water supply when it breaks down into uh micro [Applause] so here we go again round and around in circles does anyone know why Plastics were used for packaging fruits and vegetables and used in supermarkets in the first place no room some back the reason they’re brought in the first place Str is waste because there’s a huge amount of waste and that’s what was happening at the time everyone’s forgot that or forgotten about it so here we go for surf again do you happens to most of your plastic when you recycle it where does it go it goes abroad most of it a lot of it goes to Turkey and India and you what they do of it Chuck it into the river and it ends up in the sea so we need to we need to look it up go and check it out we need to address that and the last thing I want to say on the matter was that’s in my Supermarket I can buy carrot s you going to thank you Lov [Music] [Music] [Applause] I can get I I can’t get flood insance on on my house in eastn how would you solve this I can’t get flood insurance on my house in E how you this [Applause] [Music] I’m not going to deflect now how do you solve uh not getting flood insurance well the environment agency uh organizing building our flood defenses across pavy and East B but actually what we really need to do is to stop climate change the ice CS melting we need to keep oil in the sun we need to keep gas in the Earth and we need to stop adding to global warming which is making the seed rise that’s how we get flood [Applause] shes I can’t believe I’m hearing you really think think that global warming is flooding out houses and you can’t get insurance because of that you really believe okay how for how much in the last 100 years how much have the sea levels risen how do you measure it you get people the scientists have done the research oh the scientists okay [Music] so well the best way to manage it best way to manage it is actually from a satellite okay and it’s risen by about seven ises you think if you think that’s what’s caused the problems then um well fair play you but I don’t think it is councils are allowed to build on flood planes there’s a lot of youo about it but blaming the sea level rise is not the [Music] thank the whole problem [Music] another as we’re on the last question it’s not a policy response but I would say WR to your local Member of Parliament to come full circle to the start of uh the hustings one of the things that MPS do is advocate for local people because they should be able to access squading for their property and we’ve done all sorts of important work with mortgage providers and and the like so right to the [Applause] MP so I’m just going to check everyone feels they’ve had enough minutes used your ticket no one wants the one minute answer your question Splendid we have we’ve done very [Applause] well so I’d just like to thank um and i’ to thank the candidates for putting themselves forward for volunteering to do this work on behalf of the town and to come this evening and it’s been very interesting listening to everyone’s views um hearing what information changes people’s ideas or what stories change people’s ideas and how how we could make the town a better place and the country and I’d like to thank Tom and Dave [Applause] we You’ been amazing um i’ like to thank the East more blind Society for hosting us and they do welcome [Music] donations it’s a lovely space um and the organizing committee um for organizing all of this because it’s been quite a lot of work and thank you for uh everything you’ve done the event was live streamed um and the recording will remain up um that onook Facebook page or Facebook share perfect thank you so please share the recording with your friends and Community groups and please do stay and chat to each other um so that there’s the buckets of the back for donations to the um uh East BL Society thank you um please leave quietly to avoid disturbing the neighbors but do um stay in chat or talk to each other to see the community coming together um and using this as an opportunity to work out what we really want for ourselves and for each other and for the future [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the [Music] go