A BUSINESSWOMAN wants cycle tracks on the Medway City Estate to encourage firms to "go green".

June Crisp, a director of Bio-Health, in Culpeper Close, said that since her company had introduced green policies, it had saved money, improved productivity, cut down absenteeism and received many column inches of free publicity.

"After an article appeared about our idea of buying bikes for staff to cycle to work, we had many enquiries from people wishing to work for us," said June.

"Employees really like to work for companies which are environmentally friendly.

"The problem is that you take your life in your hands if you try to cycle on Medway City Estate and, of course, cycling through the Medway Tunnel is right out of the question."

She said that, nowadays, recycling and good environmental practice was central to everything her company did.

This included bird boxes and wild flower gardens around the factory, reduction of water consumption, and converting waste paper to packaging material.

Bio-Health was now looking at the possibility of a wind turbine to generate some of its electricity and collecting rainwater to make less use of the metered supply.

It had also invested in a company membership of Kent Wildlife Trust for employees.

June said: "The problem is there are no grants for small companies to invest in environmentally sensitive practices.

"What we need is for businesses on this estate to get together to work out environmentally friendly policies we can all benefit from."