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Supporting environmental community projects

Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 11:36, Thu 5 April 2012:

Apologies for the interruption to blog service last week. I was in Italy for a few days on a cross-party visit organised by the Howard League for Penal Reform to look at the treatment of girls and young women in the Italian criminal justice system.

It was a very interesting visit. In England, children as young as 10 years old can be held responsible for criminal behaviour. In Italy, the age of criminal responsibility is 14. The Italians believe children who've not even reached adolescence have to be treated differently to reflect their lack of maturity, and that's a view shared by many European countries - our age of criminal responsibility is one of the lowest in the EU.

The Italian models we saw placed great emphasis on education, child protection and care. Their reoffending rates are far better than ours, so there's clearly something we can learn from the difference of approach.

I returned to Manchester at the weekend, in time to join the team at St John's in Old Trafford to celebrate the launch of St John's Sunshine project, and cut the celebratory cake!

This is a really great project, combining environmental and community purposes to good effect. St John's have installed solar panels on the church roof. That means that not only can they take advantage of cheaper electricity, but they also receive payments by way of "feed-in tariffs", which will be used to make small community grants.

St John's expect to raise over £1300 a year from this project to invest in the community. And they don't even need the sun to shine for the panels to work. But the project was very nearly stymied by the government. Last year, with just a few weeks' warning, Ministers decided to cut feed-in tariffs, and for a while there was a real worry the St John's project wouldn't go ahead.

I asked questions about this in parliament, and Friends of the Earth successfully challenged the government in court. I'm pleased that the St John's Sunshine project has been able to continue (read more about it on the Guardian website http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/apr/03/solar-power-feed-in-tariff-old-trafford-roof-panels-st-john-s-church-community?INTCMP=SRCH ) but the government's claims to be "the greenest government ever" have been proven totally hollow, and it's entirely down to the determination of John Hughes, Fiona Nicholls, Gavin Wood and others in Old Trafford that this great idea has got off the ground.

I know there's considerable interest in the environment here in Trafford. Last year, I was delighted to present an Eco-congregation award to Christ Church in Davyhulme for the work that's been done by church members to care for the local environment. In Stretford, there's an active campaign to improve cycling facilities, and the Friends of Bridgewater Canal have done terrific work to improve the towpath, eventually hoping to do so right along the length of the canal. Next week, I'm looking forward to visiting Groundwork and the Trafford Eco park, and learning more about their work.

It's a shame, despite a strong pitch, that Manchester hasn't been selected as the home of the new Green Investment Bank - Manchester MPs, led by Tony Lloyd, campaigned hard for it to come here. But there's no doubt of our commitment locally to our environment. Now we need the government to play its part.

The UK's slipped from 3rd to 13th place in terms of green investment under the Tory-led government (in 2010, investment fell by 70%), and we all know George Osborne doesn't believe environmental considerations should get in the way of business. But the best businesses know you can make profits and respect the environment - and if we don't protect our planet, we'll all be paying the price.