How Sustainable and/or Unsustainable is the Ward/SAO that you live in?

My hometown is Hemel Hempstead, a New Town that was built to take the pressure off of the large population in London after World War II. It is a fairly small town with a population of about 137,799 (April 2001). The Ward that my house is in is Woodhall Farm and the SOA is Dacorum 005C.

If I was to think of my hometown without looking at statistics, I would automatically come to the conclusion that it is not very sustainable, particularly environmentally. This is because most families in the area have more than one car, and many people I know drive to a lot of places. This is because my area is slightly out of town, therefore to go shopping or out anywhere like the cinema, people would drive. Also, many places that people work are a fair distance and would therefore drive. However, saying this, many people around Hemel Hempstead commute to London to work every day, and to do this with ease they use the train services. This makes the area slightly more sustainable as public transport is used.

Socially and economically, I believe that although the area I am from is not 'poor', the majority of the people living there aren't wealthy and there are areas where conflict is caused due to peoples backgrounds and where they are from.

From looking at information about my home town from census' and surveys, it becomes evident that many of my initial ideas are proven to be correct. Out of 487 households in my SOA in 2001, there were 834 cars or vans, this is almost double the amount of households. This proves that the majority of households have at least two vehicles, which is extremely unsustainable and can cause pollution to the area and ruin the quality for the future. Statistics also show that the majority of people who live in my SAO and are working drive to work, proving my initial idea that my area was unsustainable, because there are so many ways of travelling more sustainably.

Also, it is shown that 210 out of 473 people in my SAO were not working in 2001. This shows how unsustainable the economic situation is and how it is difficult to find employment in the area.

However, there are some sustainable aspects of my area. For example, there are school buses that run to the schools that are further away than walking distance from many of their students. This encourages parents not to drive and to try to teach the children to be more sustainable in their forms of transport. Also, the school that I went to had more than one gate for entrances so that students could easily walk from where they live to encourage sustainable transport.

Overall I think that my opinions are mostly backed up by statistics about the area that I am from, and that it could be a lot more sustainable. However, it could be much worse, and there are many improvements that I know are taking place in order for the area to be improved. There are many ways for an area to be more sustainable, but the changes take time. The fact that there are some more rural areas nearby to where I live also makes sustainability aspects such as being employed more difficult as there is more of a strain on the businesses in the town centre as people on the outskirts are looking for jobs as well as people who live close by.

References

http://nile.northampton.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4755_1%26url%3D

Education for Citizenship

Where I live - Information

Constituency in which I live: Hemel Hempstead
Local MP: Mike Penning, Conservative
Name of my local council: Dacorum Borough Council
Which political party dominates my local council: Conservative

What is your attitude concerning people who are not planning to vote in the general election?

It is almost certain that throughout the whole of Britain, there is always someone who says they don't or are not going to vote. Yes, they may have a reason for this, or several reasons, but you can be sure that after the election, they will complain about who got in, and what is going to go wrong now. I believe that these people, like many don't fully understand politics, I don't, but I will probably still vote so that I have had my say.

I do believe that MPs should make a greater effort to advertise their policies, and make them known, as I think that with a better understanding, more people would vote. For example, as small or as ridiculous as it may seem, I was reading a magazine not long ago, Glamour I think it was and there was a section that interviewed David Cameron, of the Conservative Party. This made me more aware of his ideas and made me understand what the election was about a bit more.

Overall, my attitude towards those that are not planning to vote in the general election is that they are wasting their opportunity to have their say and to try to influence things the way they would like them to be for the future. If people don't vote then they are not putting across their opinions.

What Main Concerns do you have that may influence your vote?

I have never voted before as this is the first year I am able to, so there are not many concerns that I have immediately, however there is something that I have read about that is concerning to me and many other students. There are some parties that would like to increase University tuition fees to £7000 per year. This is an extreme amount of money, because on top of that cost there are also living costs. Many students do not have jobs, and therefore could not afford that kind of money, and to be in that debt each year would mean that the majority of students would be in about £21000 of debt just for tuition fees. Therefore my immediate concern would be for the provision of low cost education. This is where the Liberal Democrats would benefit some students as they would like to make higher education free again.

Obviously there are other aspects that would affect me such as healthcare. Where I am from, in Hemel Hempstead, the Hospital has been closed down and there is not even an A&E. This has caused many problems locally as people need to travel to the next town hospital which is Watford, about a twenty minuite drive away in any emergency. If this continued throughout the country, there could be a shortage in healthcare and would cause major problems, so the provision of healthcare is also important to me.

As I have not voted in the past, i called my dad to ask him what his concerns would be so that I could see a different point of view from mine. He replied that he had similar concerns with education, but from his point of view not so much the costs, although that would be a concern, but also he wanted to make sure that there was a high standard of education, as he has three children all at very different stages of education ranging from primary education to University. He was also concerned about taxation, because if taxes increase he has to pay more money out.

There are many concerns that everyone has when thinking about who to vote for in the General election, but it is worth voting because it could make that difference that you want.

References

http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/constituencies/hemel-hempstead

http://readyforwinners.hertscc.gov.uk/public/Editor/assets/Issue3/dacorum%20copy_Contact.jpg