Blog to what extent your ward/SOA resembles a 'sustainable community' and what extent you don't think it does. Give some evidence from your observations (or your memories) of this judgment.

Area: Sefton 002E (Lower Layer Super Output Area)

The Government is working hard to create sustainable, equal, and thriving communities within the U.K. A sustainable community is one where the community is of equal economic, social, and environmental value. To try and achieve this the government are using many strategies like building more and better homes and therefore reducing homelessness. By building better homes there is less chance of them having to be rebuilt in the future thus reducing wasted materials.  The government are working to produce a sustainable environment by trying to make areas more green rather than all concreate and roads, by encouraging people to recycle whatever they can with that being tins, plastics, garden or food waste.

From the diagram above you can see that the area that I live in (Southport, Sefton) is a lower layer. A SOA is a Super Output Area and is designed for small scale statistics mainly for neighbourhoods, a LSOA (Lower Super Output area) is built up from groups of output areas.

From this website we can see a lot of statistics about the area in which we live in. I found out that Sefton has 952.45 m2 (in thousands) area of green space. This doesn’t really come as a surprise for me as I do think that Sefton is a nice green area to work and live in  and that it is a sustainable community .I believe that a lot of effort has been put in place by many people especially young people to make Sefton a more environmentally friendly place to live. Not only to be more sustainable but so it’s more ascetically pleasing as Sefton is a tourist area and has a lot of visitors.

Southport can be seen as a very sustainable area in that the residents recycle and re use things but this can be said for any area in Britain now as they all are encouraged and in some cases forced to recycle on wanted goods. Some areas in the world live very sustainable lives e.g. Germany is a very sustainable country in that it tries to recycle everything from metal cans to trainers. However I do think that in the near future Britain will do the same as we are heading in that sustainable way now.

.What main concerns do you have that may influence your vote?What is your attitude concerning people who are not planning to vote in the general election?

I live in Southport which is in the North West of England. It is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. My area is represented by John Pugh our local MP; he is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party which is the party that politically dominates Southport. The name of my local council is Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council.

In our area the liberal democrats are the main party that people vote for however the conservative (Tories) party follow closely behind. The main influence that has my vote is this. I believe that the Labour party are the way forward in the UK. I am a lefty and therefore think that the Labour party should be in power however as my area does not vote for labour I believe this would be a wasted vote. Therefore I vote for the liberal democrats, I don’t think these should be in power but if I want to keep the Tories out, which I do, and then I have to out vote them with the Liberal democrats.

I believe in the Labour party because although they have higher taxes and its sort of a take from the rich and give to the poor I think that they want the best for everybody in the country. The Conservative Party believe that the rich should be richer and the poor should look after themselves. There are many things about all of the parties that I disagree with but overall I think that Labour should be in power. They do not want to privatise companies so that they can become wealthy businesses with extortionate prices like the Conservative Party has done before whilst they were in power. I can think of nothing worse than the Tories party getting into power and although they got this country back on its feet once before there is no reason for them now.

As for people who do not choose to vote I think this is very sad especially for women and men of a different race than White British. This is due to the struggle that these people faced trying to get the vote. In the 1920’s when women were fighting so hard for the vote men believed that women shouldn’t have a say in their own country due to reasons such as their brains weren’t as big as men’s or they should be concerned with what happens in the home rather than out of it. These were the women that kept this country still going by working when all the young men were sent off to war. As this struggle that the suffragettes faced, even going to prison in some cases, was so hard this is the reason that I and all women and men should vote. A lot of women risked a lot of their lives, in some cases even dying, for women to be counted as equal which is why I shall be voting in 2010.

Is there really a transport problem? Do the benefits of motorized transport outweigh the costs? Are there any minor (or perhaps major) changes you personally feel could make our present transport system more sustainable?

In nearly all cities across the UK there is a ‘transport problem’; this is because there are at certain times of the day there are too many cars on the road causing traffic congestion. Congestion causes many problems within the UK such as air pollution which is not very good for trying to keep our world a little more sustainable.

Although we do have a problem with congestion in Britain today its not enough of a major problem in that we aren’t going to drastically change the way we live to stop traffic jams. The main reason for people using public transport is not to prevent this but to try and stop poisoning our atmosphere with pollution caused by caused. Therefore the benefits of motorised transport outweigh the costs.

Transport has had a major influence on economic and social development with importing and exporting goods and people commuting. Since the 1920’s when Henry Ford invented the assembly line for the first Ford car there is greater accessibility, mobility, and communication has shaped the type of global society we live in today.

As a nation we would rather drive or take lifts then use public transport or even walk. Generally we rely on cars to get from place to place which is a negative way to think about transport facilities as there are more options for people who only want to travel on their own such as walking, using a bike or the bus.

There are changes that everyone can make to make their lives a little more sustainable. I use the bus whenever I want to get into the town in Northampton. As I live only 25 minute walking distance from the town and work in Southport I walk into town then. However I can still make changes to my lifestyle in a minor way as I could ride a bike etc instead of relying on lifts from my family. As I don’t drive yet I can’t change my life much more although I am going to learn to drive summer 2010 which will make a major difference and my life will be a lot more unsustainable as I will be using the car rather than public transport or walking.