“Waveney will be an attractive and accessible rural, coastal and urban environment that is an international centre of environmental excellence and in the delivery of low carbon and renewable energies; consistently bettering Government targets on climate change and CO2 emissions”

The current challenges for the Waveney area are to:

Protect Waveney’s cultural heritage and quality of life.

Ensure the effective achievement of environmental targets to enable coastal erosion and flood protection to be well managed.

Ensure that Waveney has a clear strategy to deal with climate change and peak oil developments.

Deliver sustainable travel patterns that support Waveney’s ambitions to meet social and economic growth and support regeneration, whilst protecting its unique environment and quality of life.

Minimise the impact of traffic and its infrastructure on market towns, villages and tourism hotspots to protect the quality of the natural and built environment.

Deliver against the national priorities for regulatory services, which includes air quality, clean streets, anti-social behaviour and public health.

Tackle the issues surrounding waste collections and disposal, for example achievement of the Government’s targets which require a reduction of 75,000 tonnes going into landfill by 2012/13 (available landfill in Suffolk is predicted to run out by 2015).

Mitigate the effects of the fluctuating market for recyclable materials.

Involving communities in improving the quality of public open space.

Addressing water resources in Waveney which are severely restricted, with over abstraction of the Waveney and limited ground water abstraction capacity. This is likely to be exacerbated by new development.

We will:

Act, in partnership, to minimise the effects of climate change particularly in relation to coastal protection and flooding, including lobbying the Environment Agency and Government regarding their current position.

Develop a more integrated and sustainable rural and urban transport network with improved road, rail, cycle and public transport connections, and improved pedestrian routes.

Ensure compliance with the requirements of the Local Better Regulation Office, which drives improvement in Environmental Health through an increased range of advice, community education and effective enforcement.

Secure effective regulatory services that improves compliance levels in respect of health, safety and the environment.

Identify funding opportunities and deliver safety improvements along the A12 and for cycling across Waveney.

Increase use and availability of public transport and cycle networks, to reduce congestion and improve air quality.

Successfully deliver against Government targets on climate change and CO2 emissions.

Encourage investment in rail infrastructure to increase the freight transported by rail.

Improve access to and provision of public transport, including bus and interchange facilities, particularly in rural areas; and more closely integrating the transport connections between Lowestoft, Ipswich and beyond.

Increasing value for money, achieving Government waste disposal targets and recycling and composting rates of 60%.

Achieve top quartile performance in annual local environmental quality surveys. Increase community action and activity that improves local parks and green space, empowering local people to make a difference.

Secure additional funding for the sustainable protection of the Waveney coast . Continue to deliver an integrated Coast Zone Management approach securing the prosperity and qualities of coastal areas and communities, whilst responding to climate change and the natural processes that occur along the coast.

We will progress policies to reduce drinkable water consumption. This should be supplemented by water use reduction messages and the development of a water recycling infrastructure.