Coffee Morning, organic carp, meetings and comments to press

A slightly quieter week which is very nice as lots to catch up on - but thought I might as well do a round-up of some of the meetings over the last few days below. I've also included some links to this weeks news releases - and have to mention a freelance journalist phoned yesterday re an article he was considering for The Independent - looking at how green is Stroud - ended up talking for over half an hour - we'll see if it translates into an article (see my blog on 7th November 2007 for a previous discussion on this).

Photo: Coffee morning, Whiteshill Village Hall

- Coffee Morning this morning in Whiteshill Village Hall. This was to promote the work of the Village Agent, Pam Thorne (see my blog for 25th October for more info). Sadly only a couple of people turned up but it was nevertheless useful to hear their views on how the Parish could be improved. Traffic as always featured highly.

- a Transition Town Stroud meeting - the core-group of over 15 people fed back on what had been happening with the sub-groups. We've also just launched a new blog site - but virtually nothing on it yet - we hope to build it as a history of the project that maybe useful for others.

- Gloucestershire Green party meeting - this was in Gloucester - a thrice annual meeting of Greens from across the County. A great opportunity to share where we are at and plan ahead. Much discussed like the planning applications at Staverton (see my blog on 2nd March) and letter to press on this subject sent today.

- Ruscombe Brook Action Group AGM last night - much discussed like the next leaflet, our public talk planned for 25th April in Randwick Village Hall, the details of the partnership agreement with other parties plus election of Officers - I'm again Secretary for the group. We then had what can only be described as a very very wonderful meal by Julian Jones and Ali from Water 21 - Julian has been particularly supportive of our project and this meal was a fitting tribute to the first two years of RBAG - we have learnt lots and much has happened - I'm hoping the next years will be just as exciting!!

- Organic carp farm - well this wasn't really a meeting so much as a social - Jimmie Hepburn who is starting the country's first organic carp farm is a good friend. He is now based in Somerset but was passing through so it was great to hear about his project. Fish farming is highly controversial as is any food production system that puts profit before principles and good practice. However carp is different from many of the other vastly more polluting fish like salmon - plus we are talking organic standards and with carp unlike many other varieties of farmed fish you don't need to import vastly energy-intensive fish food - carp is very popular in Austria and Germany but over here you never hear of people eating it - let's hope that will change when the first fish come out of Jimmies ponds in Somerset and that people choose this rather than from other less sustainable farms.

And news releases include...

Nurses pay award is effectively a cut and Blair's latest proposals for health make no sense at all. I also commented on the Council Tax settlements by SDC and GCC, noting what we really need urgently is a reform of the whole system. Plus a comment on the absurd situation where grants for renewables run out in minutes - this month in 75 mins and also had a journalist contact re the threat to Painswick Library (see previous blogs for background). So far these comments haven't translated into print yet, but I'm not going to do my usual moan about how the press fail to cover stories properly.....