Winchester Ranked Least Eco-Friendly City In UK

A green league table of 60 UK mainland cities, compiled by WWF, ranks the Hampshire city of Winchester bottom when it comes to its carbon footprint.

Measured in hectares, the ecological footprint is an estimate of the amount of land and sea needed to support a person's lifestyle, from growing food to disposing of waste.Based on Government and market research data, it takes into account the amount of gas and electricity used at home, petrol consumed in commuting and the distance food and other products travel to the shops.

People in Winchester have the largest footprint for consumer items and private services and are in the top five largest footprints for housing and transport.In fact 40 per cent of Winch-ester's residents commute out of the city to work each day compared to just 20 per cent in Salisbury, and they go further afield too, with thousands travelling to London each day.

Winchester has a an ecological footprint of 6.52, at the top of the league for the greenest city were Plymouth, Salisbury and Newport. Each had a footprint of 5.01. London fared relatively well, with its large public transport network crucial to its ranking of 44th greenest city out of 60.

Scotland's worst city was Edinburgh, and its best, Glasgow. Bangor left the biggest footprint in Wales, according to the research for WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund.

Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF, said people were currently depleting the earth's natural resources quicker than it could replace them and that city residents had a key role to play."The battle for the environment will be won or lost in our cities," he said. "They have the highest potential for eco-living due to local facilities, public transport links, dense housing and shared public resources."