Thankyou for writing to me on 5* April. Please accept my apologies for not having replied to your letter sooner but I am sure you can appreciate that campaigning in these local elections is quite intense. I must emphasise that I have sought advice from party colleagues on matters beyond my personal knowledge.

On Dungeness I do not believe that another nuclear power station is viable. Nuclear energy is already heavily subsidised and yet the government had to bail out the privatised nuclear energy industry recently This strikes me as good money following bad.

On renewable energy I am broadly in favour, although these have to be sensitively sited as there is a problem if these were situated to close to a family home say. Offshore wind farms could a way round such a state of affairs arising m the first place.

On GM foods I am against, not least on the grounds of unforeseen consequences of mutation of other crops caused by the cross transfer of pollen. Bees will travel a considerable distance that dwarfs government ministers expectations. I am concerned with the prospect of multinationals holding the copyright on staple crops of many third world countries. America's determination to force EU shoppers to buy these GM foods despite widespread reservations could cause a transatlantic trade war. We have to make a choice whether we bow to pressure from the Bush administration or alternatively stick up for ourselves.

On the emergency plan I have sought advice from councillor colleagues and they tell me that Shepway does indeed have a contingency plan which has a periodic overhaul We think that it would be a mistake to issue potassium iodate tablets right now , because people would lose them. Given the number of doors I have knocked and leaflets delivered I know the enormity of getting these tablets to people in Shepway would be. This would be a vast logistical exercise.

On the subject of cycling I do indeed support safe cycling routes, but I understand that much of the funding for these comes from the County Council. We would like to see walking bus schemes.

On Operation Stack I believe our suggested alternative is that the EU has the legal power to keep certain truck roads between nations open. It would be illegal for French farmers say to blockade Calais and thereby induce Operation Stack. Similarly we would oppose any proposal to build a temporary lorry park to overcome tire M20 being used as a lorry park. We would still support the development of a service area which was originally envisaged for Stanford on the M20, but any large scale lorry park would be an environmental disaster and empty for much of the time. Once again green spaces in the country disappear under tarmac. On lorries in general we would like to see rail freight subsidised, and the greater use of lorry carrying trains within the U.K These forty ton plus vehicles cause the majority of damage to our roads, and any measure that can reduce this damage must be investigated.

On recycling I do not think we recycle nearly enough here in Shepway. In comparison with the rest of Europe Britain still does not do enough. Personally I would like to see more made of our door-to door recycling service but this would require investment. '

Yours sincerely
Janet Andrews