The judges scored Aylesbury particularly badly in the waste management category, which covers areas such as recycling and sustainability, awarding just eight points out of a possible 15, the town's lowest individual score.

But Cllr Mark Willis, from Aylesbury Town Council, who organise the town's involvement in Britain in Bloom, says a lot more can be done to improve Aylesbury's green facilities.

Appointed to the new post of speaker for the environment after the May elections, the London Tube driver has first set his sights on reducing the town council's own carbon footprint.

"The whole idea is to make sure the operations of this council are as green as possible," he said.

"We have commissioned a report on our building in Church Street, and one of the first things we are going to do is rip out the windows and replace them with double glazing, which will drastically cut down on energy bills. It's about cutting down on pollution, but it also saves you so much money as well."

The town council has changed its electricity supply to Ecotricity, which supplies renewable energy, and Cllr Willis is looking at the possibility of installing a 'green roof'- a roof which is literally covered with vegetation and soil.

"It would provide a habitat for birds and it's also a really good insulator," he said.

The 33-year-old has several ideas to improve Aylesbury's overall greenliness, but he says the help of other councils and the business community is essential if they are to work.

These ideas range from the easy to achieve, such as organising a green fair in the Spring, to the incredibly ambitious - a complete ban on plastic bags in the town.

"A village called Modbury in Devon has already done this," he said. "The traders decided to stop using plastic bags and to use biodegradable ones instead. I would like to do that here, although of course it would be on a much bigger scale. I have done a few surveys in shops and everyone was in favour, so it would be good to hear from shops and companies interested in taking part in a scheme - it would be very good publicity for them. Modbury even made it into the international newspapers."

Cllr Willis, who has not flown since 2000 after returning from his previous job with the Met Office in the Falkland Islands, is also calling upon the district council to make it easier for its residents to be green.

This includes providing recycling bins in the town centre for bottles and cans purchased in shops, and to also extend the range of domestic recycling boxes to cover cardboard.

He also wants them the district council to be more stringent in its approach to large developments in the town to make sure they are as environmentally friendly as possible.

An Aylesbury Vale District Council spokesperson said cardboard recycling could be introduced district-wide in the near future.
An 'in-vessel' composting plant is planned to be built to allow the introduction of composting collections to all suitable homes from 2008/9, which will allow the recycling of a wide range of materials, including cardboard, garden waste and foodstuffs.

The spokesperson added: "We would like to thank Cllr Willis for his suggestions to improve our local environment.

"These ideas will be passed to the relevant services for consideration at the appropriate time."

Cllr Willis added: "We need co-operation from other councils to do all these things.

"We are a little place but it is the message that we can send out - that we want to change the way we live and improve the environment around us."

And of course, if Aylesbury can become greener, there is the added benefit of a better score in future Britain in Bloom competitions.