A sustainable community is a place where people want to live and work, now and in the future. For communities to be sustainable, they must offer, decent homes at prices people can afford, good public transport, schools, hospitals, shops, a clean and safe environment


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According to the statistic from January 2006 – December 2006 there has been 6 fires incidents recorded in such a short period. Although there are no casualties, one has to be very careful because the community is not safe enough.



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From the data collected from January 2007 – December 2007, it shows that about 897 people are unemployed. It shows that 523 people are between the ages of 25 to 49 which is bad for a community because this age is the right working age for people to do something in their life or make changes in their families lives.

During the census in 2001 there were 676 of the population in this community working and each one of them have different method of travel to work, 3 people travel by underground, 18 of them uses train, 54 uses bus, 5 uses motorcycle, 384 drive a car, 85 share their cars, 15 uses taxi, 24 uses bicycle and 52 travel on foot. By looking at it, this result tells us that the people are thinking less about a sustainable method of travel. (http://www.statistic.gov.uk/tc.asp)

According to the definition of a sustainable community, there are some areas which my community is lack of. The environment looks like a sustainable place to live but some of the people don’t even think about how to make the world a better place to live on. If we look at the method of travel to work there are more people using their cars alone than people using a sustainable method of travel to work for example bicycle or public transport. In this area there are easy access to public transport, shops and schools.

FLATS AT WEST BLETCHLEY

The constituency in which you liveYour local MP (name, party)
The name of your local council
Which political party dominates your local council?

Milton Keynes is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England and north-west of London. It was formally designated as a new town on the 23 January 1967.
Milton Keynes is divided into two constituencies dividing the city roughly north and south. Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes. It is situated in the south west of Milton Keynes but still retains a distinctive identity. Bletchley is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. It is the town of the code breaker during the Second World War. Dr Phyllis Starkey is local MP from the Labour Party. The name of the local council is Milton Keynes council and is dominated by the Labour Party according to the election on May 1, 2009 (http://www.mkweb.co.uk/politics/DisplayArticle.asp).


2010 is election year.
What is your attitude concerning people who are not planning to vote in the general election?
What main concerns do you have that may influence your vote?

As a citizen you have the right to exercise your responsibilities and one of this is to vote for people that you would like to be in the government. Government is elected by common people like you and me, therefore you may loose your right without voting and you have no right to complain about the person who is running the country. Stop thinking that whether you vote or not there would be no difference, that non-sense because you are missing your chance.

It is nice to express your opinion on your candidates. The most important decision of a person is not only about his/her self but also for the whole nation and it is your responsibility to act right on what you believe and not because of the money. You thinking of having a better life for you or your family in future and one way of having this is by voting. There is no wrong of showing or acting the way you feel and what you believe in as long as you making the right decision without any doubt. Voting is your self defence because you are given yourself the chance to vote for your right.

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 cities or towns there is a high level of accumulation and concentration of economic activities and are complex spatial structures that are supported by transport systems. The most important transport problems are often related to urban areas and take place when transport systems, for different reasons, cannot satisfy many needs of urban mobility. Urban productivity is highly dependent on the efficiency of its transport system to move labour, consumers and freight between multiple origins and destinations.

These are some of the transport problems in this cities or towns, traffic congestion, parking difficulties and public transport shortage.
Congestion is one of the most prevalent transport problems in large town’s areas. It is particularly linked with motorization and the diffusion of the automobile, which has increased the demand for transport infrastructures.
Since vehicles spend the majority of the time parked, motorization has expanded the demand for parking space, which has created space consumption problems particularly in central areas.
Many public transports are either over or under used. During peak hours, crowdedness creates discomfort for users as the system copes with a temporary surge in demand.

A change from travel by car to cycle or walking means reduced external costs (e.g. air pollution and noise) from motorized traffic and reduced parking costs. Motorized traffic prevents people from walking as much as they otherwise would prefer.

At present, urban transport is a significant part of total mobility. Moreover, suburbanization and reduction of urban density, the increase of car ownership and the expansion of the road network have made the car the prevailing urban transport mode. This evolution causes not only congestion, but also safety and environmental problems. Because road network supply at present does not meet the demand, a reduction of the use of private cars in the city seems desirable. There should be more development to a sustainable transport system and also for the environment in cities or towns.

Bus transport is a common way to commute, thus the expansions of highway bus routes and the improvements of the city bus operations should be done to make the bus transport more comfortable. There should be more development on electric automobiles and natural gas automobiles. Employers should encourage their staffs to do car sharing and also encouragement and privileges should be offer to students sharing their cars. To use a bike is not only good for the environment but also good for your health.

Is christmas sustainable? How would it all work in a change world?

Christmas is the time when Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas is a time to bring families and friends together to share loved. It has being a customs and tradition for decays. On Christmas day most people stay at home with their family and friends to celebrate. Each family have their own traditions of celebrating Christmas. There are traditions in each family that hold special memories and help make Christmas more wonderful. Tradition like baking a special recipe of cookies and preparing special dishes each year. If only people were not wasteful during this period, it is nice, but in another way when you look at how other people are wasting food on that particular day, than you will ask yourself if people really think about sustainble life-style.

Another way during this period that people are not being environmental friendly is by cutting down of christmas trees. They are only grown with only one mission of being cut down when christmas comes. Christmas trees are used for few days, over the holiday season they are put out on the for garbage pickup to collect them once the new year day is over. There should be another way to stop cutting down christmas trees to use. People should try and get artificial trees that can last for a lifetime. Others, who like having the real thing should try to reduce waste by finding a company that deals with living christmas trees. The company delivers the tree, provides care instructions and once the holidays are over reture them to the forest where they can replanted.

To what extend do the best selling UK newspapers cover stories related to serious issues?

I think that national newspapers in the uk were traditionally divided by format, between the relatively respectable and intelligent broadsheets, gossip and crime-obsessed tabloids.

The newspapers keep the people informed about the political activities of the government, i.e they give detail like the statements of speech made by political leaders at public meetings. Newspapers describe the economic policies of the government as well. it's include plans for future economic development, prices of different things fixed and also report economic policies of our different in the field of agriculture. they also described the problems of labors, famers and other working people and suggested their solutions. they also give the true pictures of society.

The tabloid media and low budget entertainment have a great influence in the country. If we take for e.g soap like eastenders there are 30.15 million people watching it in one unique occassion and in a good week is watched by 16 million people. (http://www.bbc.co.uk). People create time to watch reality shows and soaps. some people will even go to the extend by recording it or even program it on for automatic recording, so that they will have time to watch it if they have missed it. I do believe that reality shows and soaps have a great influence in peoples lives here in UK.

To what extent do you think that it is your duty as a citizen to be informed? are you informed? how do you get to be informed about serious issues? to what extent do you think that you should leave the complicated decisions up to other?

As a citzen you should always follow the news and well informed. i can say that i am informed because i always follow the news of the country where i am staying and also news around the world. it is also the duty of the government to informed the citizen about any serious issues.

people should not depend on others for information, because there are some people who do not belived in some certain things (for e.g about climate change), they will end up giving you the wrong information. there are some others that you can listen to, for e.g Al Gore, the film that he did about the global warming, he was the right person to pass on such kind of information to the world, particularly to the people in the western world. as an ex politician, he knows how to bring the messages to the world. must people you watched the film were thought something about global warming and what is going to happen to the earth in the years to come.

politicians in africa should stand up and informed their citizen about climate change. though in the documentary film about the great global warming swindle, they explained about trying to used the solar system in africa so that they will stop using fire wood which is not a good way of sustainable life. but we all know that solar system can only operates in only one electrican equiment and not two at the same time and what about the raining season how are these people in africa going to survied. they should also think about the factories how are they going to operates. that why the governments of all africa countries should come together with the rest of the world to make people in africa live a sustainable life style.

To what extent do you thin this was deserved?

Mr Al Gore deserved to win a noble price because of his concerned he has for the world. He was not only thinking about the present but also about the future. in the next 90yrs and above he will be gone but his son or grandchildren will still be alive and they will also be affected greatly by the global warming.

Having watching this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps) the opinion of others to issues of the climate change could be positively influenced?

I thought that my opinion and other that have watched the film was positively influenced, although i hard some others critics over the film. I think the film has educate us about what climate change is, the consequences that we will suffer because of climate change and what will happened to the earth in the next 90yrs and above. We take 30yrs back and see how the earth has been affected by climate change is so fast that we cannot believe it will happen so quickly. Watching the thick ice melting down so quickly it was a shocking thing to see. Could you imagine what is going to happen to some of the species (example like the polar bear) here on earth, we are going to loss them. Again thinking about hurricanes, floods, droughts and diseases that are cause by climate change, i become more worried about the future.

What did you think of the film? Was it effective?

I think the film is another way to educate or bring people to awareness of global warming. Although some people are having comments over the film but i think that the younger generations in the western world need to be more educated about global warming, because they are not taking it seriously about climate change. Al Gore did measured about the different part of the world that are affected by climate change, for example take places like Asia, hurricanes and floods are more common there. Also in the US and Europe countries, there are also heavy stormed and floods. In Africa, drought is affecting them greatly to the extend that they are losing there major rivers and also famine (losing animals, tree and plants), because the earth becomes dried.

I don't think it was that effective in the world, because i believed there should be so many ways to educate people about global warming. I known it was effective in western world particularly in the US because they have also suffered from hurricane Katrina. Take, for example the third world countries (like Africa and Asia) and also especially to the younger ones around the world, think of way to supports and encourage them to improve on things that will sustain them and the entire world. Encourage people in Africa and Asia to plant trees and reward them for every tree they planted, they will receive a sum for it. Because this people suffer a lot and there is no way they can get help from.