Coming clean over going green

ON Saturday, North Herts Friends of the Earth and the Rev Andrew Henton Pusey, of Walsworth Road Baptist Church in Hitchin, invited local decision makers to watch Al Gore's Oscar-winning film about changes to the Earth's climate.

About 85 people turned up at the church, including district and county councillors, journalists, community groups and residents, and after the film audience members discussed what can be done locally to combat global warming.

Some of these issues - the lack of a council plastic recycling centre in Hitchin and the fact that Hertfordshire County Council is studying Essex's plans to shut off street lights between midnight and 5am - are fleshed out on these pages.

Dan Gomm, of North Herts Friends of the Earth, explains why Saturday's event was put on: "We decided to invite locally active people, who are already involved in their community, local councillors, faith groups and journalists, all people who we felt could influence others and therefore ensure that the showing had an impact."

In addition to the screening and the discussion afterwards, audience members, including councillors, were given voluntary pledge cards which asked them to make certain commitments in their own lives to help make an impact on climate change.

Among the pledges which the audience could sign up to were to "say no to plastic bags in shops and use my own bags" and to "change the lights in my house/workplace to energy-saving light bulbs".

The pledge cards could then be sent back to Mr Gomm who would follow them up "further down the line" to check on whether the pledges had been kept.

Over the past year the North Herts Friends of the Earth group has seen an increase in membership, which now stands at between 80 and 90 members, and Mr Gomm believes residents across the area are starting to take notice of the problems they are facing.

"I think there is a real groundswell of local people beginning to take action on these issues," he said.