Open Letter to Harrogate MP, Andrew Jones

Dear Mr Jones,

 I am writing to you as part of my school project on how we can live greener, causing less impact on our earth and ultimately becoming more  environmentally friendly. Harrogate is overall quite a green town - I mean we have the stray and the Valley Gardens etc...- however there is still A LOT more we could do to improve it. Below are my ideas:

SCHOOL GREEN PROJECTS
Some schools in Harrogate are already trying this but not all are. For example Harrogate Grammar has a school allotment and gardening club run by one of the teachers. The club is well attended and people generally enjoy helping out. Only thing is that the club is only really active within the school. Wouldn't it be nice (and good for everyone - fitness, environment...) to get more people involved? I suggest that we have some sort of competition between schools. Perhaps which school is more eco friendly based on grounds, wildlife, energy consumption then give the schools 1 month to improve and crown a winner. As I already know Harrogate pupils are extremely competitive (as well as myself!) I believe this would work - even if the competition did not take this format.

HARROGATE: MORE BUSSES/BUS STOPS, CAR SHARING
Yesterday after walking into town I could not believe that even on what I believe has been the hottest day of the year the roads were still fully crammed with cars and I was being choked by the sheer amount of fumes being exhausted - perhaps a slight exaggeration. I propose the idea of a car sharing scheme for Harrogate to try and minimise the amount of cars taking up our roads - especially in hot weather. Or if this is too hard to try maybe we could insert more bus stops around the town. Less cars on the road - either by people sharing or people on busses/trains - would be great! Think about the less road works to be done - a lot less expensive- and more jobs available as drivers! In my opinion this is the win win situation.

LITTER PICKING!
Even on the stray I cannot fathom how much I am appalled my the amount (piles) of cans and crisp packets lying around. In your defence, today is a particularly hot day so all the young people are hanging around outside, however who's going to pick it up? It was hot last week too and some of the litter from then is still lying around. Would it be possible for the council to have a litter picking scheme or for the government to be more involved in one? Less litter would be fantastic - prettier places, less danger to animals and community involvement.

 I hope you have listened and liked my ideas and take a least some of them onboard.
Thank you, yours faithfully,
Ellen Y.