Thank you for your letter regarding various green issues which effect us all locally. Sorry for the delay in replying but, as you alluded to in your letter, I have been very busy of late. All of these views are mine personally. I have answered some of them generally as several of them cross over your various headings.

renewable energy
I work for a electricity generating company who have just announced that they are investing £120 million in building another wind farm along with further funding for new and existing Bo-Mass trials and plants. I have been following the planning application for the wind farm on Romney Marsh with great interest after having visited the one in Cornwall several years ago. These are some of the way's forward, but in the longer term central government must both support new, renewable energy development and give existing generating companies financial incentives to invest further into renewable generation.

recycling
The power plant where I work is an imbedded generator with a large recycling plant. I see lorry load after lorry load of cardboard and waste paper come into the plant each day, Shepway, however, has a very poor record on recycling and is currently doing very little to improve that situation. I actually take my recyclables to work. I am on record, with the council, as trying to get a local recycling point somewhere near where I live. I am of the firm belief that it will be fully supported because of the 100's of flats in the locality. I do not believe that putting ones recyclable bits in a car and driving them to the local civic amenity compound is the way forward. I would actively support the introduction of "Blue - Black boxes" as used, very successfully, by other local councils.

Operation stack is both an environmental and commercial problem. Central government need to take on board Union Railways proposal to build a European standard railway from the Midlands to London to join up with the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link, thus enabling freight to be shipped across Europe with minimal use of lorries. This is the only long term solution.

As regards GM foods. I believe that a lot more research into the long term effects on both humans and the countryside is required.

Emergency plan. Yes! This plan needs to be revisited and regularly tested however, I do not believe that everyone should be given Potassium lodate tables to keep at home. the audit ability, and the fact of how many people move in and out of the area each year, would make the task very difficult.

Cycling. I am keen to see greater funding put into Cycle Ways but, as the funding comes from the county and the Lottery, each case would be looked at on it's merits by them. I certainly would be putting them forward along with 20 MPH zones etc. around schools and in some residential areas.

I am standing for the council because I want to try and make a difference for local people and I believe that the Liberal Democrats will make that difference.
Thank you
Brian Muston.