Environment Week (Hansard, 25 April 1990)

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, my honourable friend the Minister for the Environment and Countryside will launch the Environment Week at the Telecom Tower on Thursday 26th April. The Government very much welcome this initiative by the Civic Trust to encourage people to help improve their local environment.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his Answer. The annual Environment Week has the support of a very large number of reputable national organisations under the leadership of the Civic Trust and sponsored by British Telecom. Does he agree that it is an admirable opportunity to focus attention on improving, enhancing and preserving the environment? We are grateful that the Government are sending a Minister to open the event. It is too late this year to do anything more. However, can they not make a resolution to be rather more helpful and to do a little more next year?

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, I entirely agree with what the noble Lord said about the significance and value of Environment Week. We also consider it to be a wholly admirable occasion. It is an enterprise undertaken by the Civic Trust. Its intention is to focus attention on the local environment in order to encourage people to find out more about the area in which they live and to join in practical local projects.
579 We consider that that is best left to the bodies which have joined together to bring it about. However, we have done what we consider appropriate in opening the week.

§ Lord Beloff
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that in New York yesterday there was an event in Central Park in honour of Earth Day? I take that to be an environmental cause. As a result of the event grave damage was caused to the vegetation of the park and four and a half tonnes of non-recyclable litter was left behind. Is not the best way of protecting the environment to be very wary of environmentalists?

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, I was not aware of the facts about which the noble Lord has informed the House. There were Earth Day events in this country also. So far as I know they did not lead to such unhappy consequences. There was no direct government involvement.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, will the noble Lord consider a practical way in which the Government could show whether or not they are serious and genuine in their concern for the environment? The Government could announce that they are intending to give backing to the Bill which was sponsored in this House by the noble Baroness, Lady Robson, and which has passed through all its stages in this House. Will the noble Lord take this opportunity to say that the Government will back the Bill on CFCs? Such provision could greatly reduce those dangerous emissions of gases which are a direct danger to our environment.

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, that is an entirely different question. It is a matter for the other place.

§ Lord Mcintosh of Haringey
My Lords, I echo the welcome given by the noble Lord, Lord Glenamara, to the participation by the Minister of State for the Environment in Environment Week tomorrow. What participation is expected from the Departments of Transport and Energy? They have a very great involvement in environmental needs and improvement?

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, I am not aware of any other government involvement in Environment Week other than launching the week itself.

§ Lord John-Mackie
My Lords, we are all agreed that litter messes up the environment more than anything else. I hope that the Minister is aware that the young farmers' organisation has carried out an exercise of cleaning up litter in various areas. It deserves some credit for that.

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, a great many voluntary bodies are doing a great deal to clear up the environment. We welcome all such efforts. A considerable number of bodies are involved in Environment Week. I have a list that I shall not read out. They are all organisations which receive substantial government support.

§ Lord Stoddart of Swindon
My Lords, does the noble Lord consider it very surprising that the Department of Transport is not involved in Environment Week? Transport, in particular heavy lorries, is the cause of much destruction of the environment through fumes, noise and the destruction of people's property.

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, the intention of Environment Week is very much directed at local activities, very largely on a small scale. The leaflet that was distributed by British Telecom advertising the week listed some of the achievements last year. Those included items such as hanging baskets and window boxes which gave a facelift to Gateshead Technical College. An unsightly broken fence was pulled down and replaced in a single day by the Polesworth Society. A three-mile stretch of beach was cleared by the Llanelli Society. Those are thoroughly admirable achievements but we feel they are best left to local groups under the admirable lead of the bodies that organise them at the present time.

§ Baroness Nicol
My Lords, is UK 2000 making any contribution to the week; or is there not enough of the body left?

§ Lord Reay
My Lords, the Government provide the Civic Trust with financial support. The Civic Trust also receives support from the department via UK 2000. That amounts to £152,500.