Efficiency savings? In Bristol, the Greens are ahead of the game!

Written by Pete Goodwin Sunday, 02 May 2010

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Green Party lobbying has led to Network Rail slashing their electricity bills and their carbon emissions at Temple Meads. It's all thanks to the tenacity of Green Party activist Ben Hartshorn, a frequent traveller to Bristol from his home in Crewkerne, Somerset.

ben_hartshornBen (pictured right) noticed that all the platform lights remain switched on even on the sunniest days.  Appalled at this  extravagant waste, he embarked on a year-long personal campaign, with appeals to the station manager, letters to the Chief Executive, and finally with a successful appeal to the Customer Liaison Panel to intervene.

Thanks to Mr Hartshorn's efforts, station staff now include monitoring of the lights in their daily routines, and they will normally be switched off during the day.  Mr Hartshorn calculates that this will save tens of thousands of pounds annually, and some 150 tonnes of global warming gas CO2.

Ricky Knight, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Bristol West, which includes Temple Meads, was full of praise for Mr Hartshorn.

"Ben is leading by example" he said. "It's easy to make promises about cutting out waste and tackling climate change - but here's an example of someone really taking up an issue and following it through."

[ENDS]

Contact:
Ben Hartshorn, 01460 271227
Ricky Knight, 0117 934 9421 or 07986 941 026
Pete Goodwin (Bristol GP press officer) 01275
543280 or 07772 306 205

Notes:

1.  The Temple Meads station manager is   Richard Morrish

2.  Bristol Green party are making Temple Meads one of the core issues of their election campaign, by calling for the empty Plot 6 site and the Digby Wyatt shed to be used as a multimodal transport hub for Bristol, essential to make public transport a real alternative for residents, visitors and commuters.