Possibly last chance to reform Lords

On 7 March 2007, MPs will have the best - and possibly last - chance to democratically reform the House of Lords for a generation. Visit the Lord's Reform Day website that is dedicated to encouraging MPs to vote for a predominantly or wholly elected second chamber, and to reject proposals to retain political patronage. It has plenty of good info on the site. I've already emailed David Drew MP and would urge others to do likewise from the website.

"Hereditary privilege is completely at odds with a modern democracy that claims to offer opportunity to all regardless of their birth. It is for this reason that members of the House of Lords should be elected. It is also essential to remove the Bench of Bishops; religious privilege is as much an outrage as hereditary privilege. Religion and the state should be entirely separate."
Rebecca Elliott, Penarth, Vale Of Glamorgan

Some will remember earlier this year I bought myself a virtual online peerage - Baron Booth of Bread Street - to highlight the terrible state of affairs where it appears that people can buy there way into the House of Lords (Click labels to see previous blogs). Amazingly investigations continue on that..heres a quote from Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey:

"The loans-for-lordships controversy has raged for a year now and is severely damaging British politics. As long as political parties are reliant on large donations and they retain the power of patronage, the perception of sleaze will remain. The main parties however appear to be unable or unwilling to see this, with Sir Hayden Phillips' attempts to develop a consensus on party funding deadlocked, and the government insisting that a third of the second chamber should continue to be appointed by party leaders. It is time they woke up."

We are long overdue reform.

Local odds and ends: manholes, roads, school safety

Photo: Ruscombe

Hedge planting and pond survey

4th March 10am to 1pm - Hamwell Lease hedge planting and March to April a pond survey is being carried out in Cainscross with a Pond Fair planned at Cainscross Primary School at 10am on 24th May: for more info contact Ivi on 753358. This "Greenspaces in Cainscross" project by Stroud Valleys Project has been hugely successful - Randwick Scouts have been out lots helping - bulbs planted, new hedges at Humphreys' Close and more. Others have also joined in - local schools like Archway, Ruskin Mill students, volunteers from a local forestry company, the Cainscross Wildlife Group and more. Parents who have joined children in helping have remarked how nice it is to spend quality time as a family with their children rather than all the usual interrupions of normal family life.

Overflowing manhole incident on 10-01-07 by A.S. Cooke's yard in Puckshole

Severn Trent tell me that the incident was confirmed as roots, root cutting had been undertaken downstream but some roots immediately adjacent to the manhole were still present (this occurs sometimes when the equipment is put into the system it can miss the first few roots as the cutting commences) - the roots have now been removed and all root cutting along the length has been completed. The system is remaining on planned maintenance until a scheme to overcome the roots is completed. Also Severn Trent have now had approval to progress a scheme which will probably include relining however the engineers are now looking at the system and will propose final details of the scheme in due course. Timescales will depend upon workloads. The Ruscombe Brook Action Group are delighted that the problem here has been recognised and solutions being considered.

Lower Street, Whiteshill still closed

Update: they are going to work in front of the wall on the private residence side which will need planning permission. Apparently the planning process takes 8 weeks, so they are looking at starting the repairs in May.

Ruscombe Road to close

Glos Highways are saying they are planning to close Ruscombe Road so that they can repair the wall supporting the carriageway by the Old Co-Op. The dates they have given are 19th March for 2 weeks. The Parish Council have raised a number of issues re this - see minutes on their website.

Climate change in the Western Daily Press

My 1000 wod comment re climate change appears in todays' Western Daily press. See it here.

WaRbler - future editions!

Whiteshill and Ruscombe residents will have recieved the first issue of the Parish newsletter - should be a copy on the Parish website. Future editions are being planned - a meeting to choose topics for next edition is planned - let WaRbler know direct or I will pass info onto next editorial meeting.

Main Road / Highfield Road Box Junction outside Whiteshill School

There have been proposals for a box to replace the zigzag lines opposite the school - apparently at the request of the school - I am unclear how much consultation has taken place but it looks like this will go ahead. I personally am generally unhappy about more road paint and suspect a box will do little to improve the situation - cars already ignore the zig zag area and my fear is that more paint will distract drivers from looking out for children. I consider other
measures are necessary to slow traffic and reduce parking there...and will continue to campaign for them - at the very least we should have a 20 mph zone.

Pipeline protests continue

More than 250 Corse and Tirley residents packed into a public meeting to hear how Campaign Against Pressure Reduction Installation members will battle against National Grid. Forest of Dean District Council through out the plans last year so residents will now go head to head with the gas company at a public inquiry in April. Read the latest from The Citizen here and links to most recent Glos Green party news release here.

I've been following the story closely as I have had contact with various groups along the whole route of the planned pipeline. I hear that on Valentine's day pipeline activists brought work to a halt at Milford Haven. It took police many hours to cut every one free and eventually make their thirteen arrests.

Photo: inside the pipe – taken by squatter – shows unprotected weld. Is this normal?

The 120-mile project cuts a nearly motorway-sized swathe through from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire to Tirley in Gloucestershire. Sections of the ground along the route has been deemed unsuitable for building houses on, with some living nearby refused even having domestic mains gas - yet this giant main pipeline which even industry experts predict will suffer at least one crack in its lifetime is being built through these areas.

In November the first protest camp was established, now camps have sprung up at Milford Haven, Trebanos and Cilfrew, with locals and activists regularly disrupting work. January saw a number of actions, including at a new location at Alltwen, Pontardawe - where people chained themselves to machinery in order to stop the work carrying on the other side of the valley from the Trebanos camp.

On February 7th, the DTI announced approval for the start of phase II of the environmentally damaging project, across the Brecon Beacons heritage site - which the national park authority called a "huge blow".

One activist is quoted as saying: "Milford Haven is supposedly a potential target for terrorists. Yet this pipeline will commit us to another thirty years of fuelling a cause of terrorism: Western corporations taking countries' gas to expand consumption and their profits. This is not just a Welsh problem it is an international one! We all know about the effects of carbon dioxide on climate change - with the UKs main contributor being Gas!".

The protestors continue...Now the DTI is proposing to license oil exploratory drilling in sites of special conservation just off the coast of Wales. Local campaign Group S.O.S. have succeeded in delaying the granting of licenses through widespread local discontent.

Read more on the Green Culture blogspot especially 11th Feb blog.

Staverton airport hopes to expand

News that Staverton airport near Gloucester is applying for planning permission prompted me to another letter to David Drew MP (most of which is attached below). Amazingly all three main parties support this expansion and daily there is edidence that this Government doesn't understand climate change - today for example The Telegraph has a bit about how the climate change bill has been downgraded.

Photo: me outside Staverton last year

I am sure opposition will be strong - last July we had a demonstration outside the airport and since then I've written many letters to the press on this issue (put Staverton into search facility on Glos Green party website). I am hoping that David Drew will now clearly oppose this expansion.

Thanks for your recent reply re airport expansions. I write again though to seek your opposition to the current airport expansions.

In the region Bristol airport is currently being considered and Staverton airport now has planning applications out. Staverton is clearly much smaller: the improvements there were said to be about improving safety but now that the 5 year plan has been released to the public for the first time I am told it contains clear references to expected larger business aircraft. I have to say if this is true then this is a clear example of misinformation by the airport who have repeatedly publicly stated that the measures proposed are only about safety. They have also dismissed my comments publicly about expected increased use.

Indeed there has been much misinformation put out by the aviation industry: Ken Livingstone recently made a dramatic u-turn on airport expansions and said he would rule out any expansion in the South-east, arguing that the aviation industry had told him "a pack of lies" about the economic benefits of expansion. The likelihood of rising oil prices is not even considered let alone the possibility we have reached a point of Peak oil.

There has also been much misinformation regarding the impact on climate change and a reluctance to take on the industry. Environment Minister Ian Pearson, who has a collective responsibility for this massive expansion in aviation, even said last month that the Government is powerless to face down airline lobbyists!

This is not acceptable. I wont repeat all the facts and figures, Stern or IPCC, as I am sure you are well versed in them and for that matter, all the facts like travelling by train would have meant 17 times fewer CO2 emissions than aviation. I know also that you are deeply concerned by climate change.

I can at last see a change coming. More people have woken up to the importance of stopping airport expansions. There were 3,500 objections to Bristol.

You are probably familiar with the Environmental Audit Committee who wrote: “DfT’s plan for a large expansion of aviation was incompatible with the Government’s very demanding target for 60% carbon reductions by 2050—especially when taking into account the wider global warming contribution of aviation (previously accepted by the Treasury as equivalent to 2.5 times the weight in emissions simply of CO2 ).”

It goes onto say (bold in the report): “sadly, little has changed for the better since EAC’s last report on aviation. Progress on introducing financial mechanisms to reduce the growth in emissions from flying is slow, and both the Government and the industry are as intransigent as ever” and “even under the Government’s own and most optimistic projections, every other sector of the economy would have to cut its share of UK emissions, while that of aviation would be assisted to almost quintuple (to 24% of total UK emissions given a best case scenario).”

Similarly the draft South West Regional Spatial Strategy’s own Sustainability Assessment (SSA) notes airport expansions will increase climate-changing CO2 emissions in the region. The SSA concludes, if expansions do go ahead, “all other gains in CO2 emissions will be cancelled out by growth in air traffic alone.”

Why should other businesses have to cut emissions even harder to allow expansion of airtravel?

Expanding airports means increasing air travel. In the light of climate change and the most serious threat it presents, a more radical approach is the only acceptable strategy.

Many measures have been proposed in addition to stopping airport expansions like banning virtually all flights under 500km - in many cases fast trains can reach destinations in times that are not much longer when check-in times etc are included.

I hope you will be able to confirm your opposition to airports expanding. All the best - Philip

Philip Booth

UK's true carbon footprint and the carbon off-setting scam

Christian Aid have just launched a new piece of work on climate change – the most pressing campaign issue for the organisation - it is afterall vulnerable people in poor countries that are affected first and most seriously - it could well undo decades of progress in fighting poverty.

Photo: Carpenters Arms, Westrip

In their new report they look at the extensive and global economic reach of the UK and conclude that we have a far greater impact on global carbon emissions than the 2% the government declares. In the light of this the report argues that the UK should bear a far greater responsibility for reducing the world’s CO2 emissions than its rhetoric suggests.

This is very timely and comes on top of long-overdue criticism of Carbon off-setting. In 2005 this business was worth around £20m and is expected to top £300m over the next three years.
A report ‘The Carbon Neutral Myth – Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins’ was published by Carbon Trade Watch - it is highly critical of the offsets industry, arguing that not only are supposed climate benefits impossible to quantify, but that projects are also being imposed on communities in the global South with little consultation - there are some shocking stories in the report giving illustrations of failing projects. In Uganda, for example, people have been expelled from their land to make way for plantation schemes, while workers are paid below subsistence wages.

The report also explains how these companies have little or no monitoring and are using number-crunching trickery to boost their eco-friendly boasts. Plus the off-setting industry is based on only limited research into the actual long term benefits of tree-planting. Carbon in a tree is not stored safely. Trees burn, trees die down, there's insect infestation etc etc Last year WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace issued a statement saying they do not support forestry projects to offset carbon emissions and last month a new US study claimed that where you plant makes a massive difference to effectiveness.

For me carbon off-setting has been a distraction from the critical task of tackling our unsustainable consumption patterns and business practices. It is no wonder activists are trying to highlight wahat is going on: last week London Rising Tide occupied the offices of the Carbon Neutral Company (CNC), at the forefront of carbon offsetting.

Kevin Smith, London Rising Tide summarises the key objections:

• Offset companies are selling a “peace of mind” to consumers where none should exist. This breeds complacency.
• Some of the most polluting companies (and politicians) are using offsets as a cheap form of greenwash - a distraction from their inherently unsustainable practices and a refusal to take more serious action on climate change.
• Creative accountancy and dubious scientific methodologies are often used to inflate profit margins.
• Our knowledge of the carbon cycle is so limited that it is impossible to say whether tree plantations even have even a net positive benefit in terms of mitigating climate change, let alone exactly quantifying this supposed benefit into a saleable commodity.
• It is impossible to determine the baseline of what would have happened if the project had not taken place that would enable calculations of how many credits could be generated.
• Projects that look great on the website or in the leaflet are often, in practice, mismanaged, ineffective or detrimental to the local communities who have to endure them.
• The media and certain celebrities have been complicit in promoting an analysis of climate change that puts all the focus on individual lifestyles and draws attention from the wider, systemic changes that need to be made in our societies and economies.

The act of commodification at the heart of offset schemes assigns a financial value to people’s desire to act on climate action, and neatly transforms this potential into another market transaction.

There is then no urgent need for people to question the underlying social and economic structures that brought about climate change in the first place - one has just to click and pay the assigned price to get 'experts' to take action on your behalf. Not only is it ineffective and based on half-baked ‘guessing games’ and dubious science, it is also very disempowering for the participants.

For more information, visit http://www.londonrisingtide.org.uk/

Incandescent light bulbs: seeing the light at last?

Australia has just joined Cuba, Venezuela, California and New Jersey in phasing out incandescent light bulbs. Read more here. Good news but John Howard still won't join Kyoto and most of the country is still run on coal, but it is steps in the right direction, I guess. Natalie Bennet, Green party activist and serious blogger has a comment on this.

The International Energy Agency have said that if efficient, low-energy lighting were installed all around the world, global energy costs could be cut by nearly a tenth. They go onto say that artificial lighting accounts for 19% of the world's electricity consumption, and without rapid action, the amount of energy used for lighting will be 80 percent higher in 2030. The average American home uses 10 times the artificial light of the average Chinese home, and 30 times that of the average Indian home.

However a closer look at statistics shows that switching light bulbs will eventually save 1% of national electricity use. This measure is no replacement for more substantive, bigger action on say, the coal industry, and what about the people who will be unable to afford the bulbs, and find themselves having to choose between light and food?

Full Council: Environment Strategy adopted - great stuff!

I'm just back from three days at my parents down in Devon - very nice to see the sea and also discovered this Labyrinth that I hadn't known was in Seaton.

Photos: Seaton Labyrinth and left Napoli on right of photo viewed from Sidmouth.

Further along the coast, Sidmouth was surprisingly busy - many coming to catch a glimpse of the stricken Napoli - more stuff has apparently been washed ashore - indeed a walk on Seaton beach yesterday and there is much rubbish to be found - one man walking his dog excitedly told us he'd picked up 60 to 70 bottles of shampoo that morning - certainly there were still dozens left but all I tried were empty!

Photo: debris on Seaton beach

Anyhow this afternoon I came back from Devon for Full Council meeting! Perhaps foolish as I could have stayed on longer at my parents - meetings should be better planned - half term is the time that many councillors with families have time to see family or go on holiday - having meetings then makes no sense.

Hilary Fowles, Labour Leader at the Council, put forward a motion this evening calling for DCC meetings to move to the afternoon - see my blog for 9th February for more info on this - as I said at the meeting I couldn't support it as current DCC members hadn't been consulted but Labour are absolutely right to be looking at how we can improve access to meetings by councillors. This just wasn't the best way in my view to go about it. However I did get applause for coming back for the meeting!

The Government has launched a Commission into this just a couple of weeks ago - I will be writing to SDC in support of more work to look at how our meetings can be improved to encourage wider participation in council work - but we need to also talk to existing members before those changes can go-ahead. I hope members will listen.

Anyway other items at Full Council were setting the Council Tax which most agreed with - plus various other bits and pieces - the most important being the Environment Strategy paper. Leader of the Council Chas Fellows and Cabinet member Nigel Cooper have done an excellent job with this paper. Greens have welcomed this and also welcomed the process and indeed applauded officers and councillors from all parties who have helped put this together- see press release earlier this week.

Greens particularly welcomed that this strategy incorporated a considerable amount of what Greens have proposed as the way forward - we have produced 3 reports on the strategy at the various stages and attended many meetings - at last people are listening - much of this strategy is what Greens have been saying for 15 to 20 years - let us hope that continues!!

The success of the paper was slightly marred by confusion over two items which had been agreed in Scrutiny committee and were then in the initial council papers for approval. Somehow they were dropped when the paper was finally presented this evening. No one could give an explanation. The Green party's Martin Whiteside raised the issues - you can see his important points on the webcast on the Council website - and of course see the rest of the meeting.

One of the points was a crucial target about reducing waste - we thought this would be accepted but it was pushed to an amendment which Martin Whiteside proposed the - the Conservatives inexplicably voted against it - I am hopefully the issue will be picked up by them as the strategy develops - it is important. There also seems no reason why it shouldn't be picked up.We'll see. Anyhow time for bed.

Monthly summary of Glos Green news

I've just sent out our monthly summary of Glos Green party news - anyone can receive this free by logging on to the Glos Green party site and signing up to GNN very simply.

This issue includes:

QUOTES OF THE MONTH
1. BLOGS UPDATE
2. BOOK NOW: COACH TO TRIDENT AND TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ DEMO ON 24TH
3. NUCLEAR: BERKELEY STORE AND HIGH COURT WIN
4. STROUD GREENS GIVE £1.4M SPENDING PLAN GO-AHEAD
5. CLIMATE CHANGE: 1000 WORDS COMMENT, PARKWAY AND MORE
6. BIRD FLU: TIME TO END FACTORY FARMING
7. GREENS BACK PCS STRIKE ACTION
8. PETITION TO CHALLENGE ANTI-GAY PETITION
9. WASTE: VISTA AND FOREST RECYCLING RATES
10. REGULATION OF SUPERMARKETS IS CRITICAL
11. HARRIET: GREEN CALL FOR COMMON SENSE
12. OTHER LOCAL ISSUES
13. NEW ON 'BIG ISSUES'
14. WEBSITES THAT MIGHT INTEREST
15. OTHER UPCOMING KEY EVENTS: COFFEE HOUSE, OIL AND CONFERENCES

One of the sections I often enjoy is the quotes - often these are sent in my members or are just ones I've come across. This month:

"We cannot have peace ON the earth until we also have peace WITH the earth."
Julia Butterfly Hill

"The uncertainty of our times is no reason to be certain about hopelessness.”
Vandana Shiva

"Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."
Nelson Mandela

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Freedom of the press in Britain means freedom to print such of the proprietor's prejudices as the advertisers don't object to."
Journalist Hannen Swaffer in 1928

See more of this issue here - other issues also on the Glos Green party website.

Disability agenda launched: a much needed reminder

Britain has got better for many disabled people over the past decade yet more work is needed as, in some cases, things have got worse. Bert Massie writing in the Guardian spelt out some of the issues which I abbreviate here.

Photo: view across from Bread Street to Whiteshill/Farmhill

There are now more disabled adults of working age in relative poverty today than a decade ago; and only half of all disabled people are in employment, which drops to 20% for those with mental health problems. A third of all people without formal qualifications are disabled. The lack of services and support impacts on families and places them at high risk of poverty. One in three children living in poverty has a disabled parent, while the children of disabled parents in Bangladeshi families face an 83% risk of growing up in poverty. There are 6 million unpaid carers, a figure set to rise to 9 million within the next 25 years. They are mostly women, often out of work, impoverished, in poor health and likely to experience poverty in retirement.

Many families of disabled children say they are at breaking point, with only one in 13 getting support from social services. The chances of working have retreated for many mothers of disabled children, who just can't afford to pay £10 an hour childcare and attend huge numbers of assessment.

As someone who has experienced disability personally and in my previous work it is great to see this issue being brought to the fore with real plans about the ways forward. The Agenda calls for family-centred policies that start from the point that disabled people and their families need real opportunities and access to services that support them to take risks, escape poverty, and become resilient to it. It gives suggestions on how to improve the skills of disabled people; of how we can improve the housing conditions of households with disabled members, a quarter of whom are living in conditions that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. It identifies how we can reform social care to give families the means to organise their lives, participate socially and economically, and get on. It identifies how health inequalities might be narrowed to stop disabled people needlessly dying earlier than their fellow citizens. The agenda is in effect also about all those who experience disadvantage.

The Agenda is launched just when the UNICEF report comes out showing this country ranks last in its care of children, out of 21 advanced nations - making it the worst place to grow up in the developed world. One interesting fact that to me is very telling is that the UK had the lowest inequality in 1979 in Europe and by the early 2000s had almost the highest - in contrast the Netherlands who came out best in the survey have stayed about the same.

We could also talk of the loss of playgrounds, the endless TV adverts and messages, but discussion around this can perhaps be for another day....

Vote for Amnesty on Labour party site

Amnesty International UK have started a campaign on the Labour Party website "Labourspace". Please cast your vote to help promote Human Rights in the area of Terrorism, Security and Human Rights. This is an opportunity to show the UK Government your strength of feeling on this issue. Please pass this on to all your friends and contacts as quickly as possible as we only have until the end of February to get as many votes as we can.

Click here

I wrote as a comment: "I whole heartedly support this motion. I have been shocked, disappointed, appalled, angered and more by this government that has repeatedly ignored its human rights obligations."

There are so many areas that Labour have disappointed - Guantanamo Bay, Belmarsh, ID cards, anti-terrorist legislation and more - the CIA abuses are just the latest example. See the latest news release from Green MEP Jean Lambert - the so-called 'war' on terror has been used by some to rework international law and defy international conventions on human rights and the treatment of those detained (on suspicion, not proof) without trial or any due process. The recent EU report is seriously critical of the role of the UK in this murky saga, not only the fact that there were 170 stopovers by CIA flights in the UK but also that the UK Government failed to co-operate fully with the Committee and also refused consular services to residents that were detained.

How can I reduce CO2 in my office? And One Bin Day on 21st Feb

How can I reduce CO2 in my office? This was a question recently put to me from someone wanting to green up their employer - another Green party member kindly suggested wrote this:

Envirowise has produced a free CD-ROM toolkit offering small businesses the opportunity to cut office waste and save money. The 'Green Officiency CD-ROM' is designed to help office-based businesses reduce waste and their use of resources such as paper, water and energy - as part of Envirowise's programme geared to helping companies improve their environmental practices.

For a free copy of the Green Officiency toolkit, please visit the Envirowise website or call 0800 585 794. I can also recommend EnVision http://www.envisionsw.org.uk/ as a consultancy which finds win-win solutions for businesses to increase profits, save energy and save waste.

It is interesting to see that Envirowise are promoting One Bin Day for 21st Feb: the suggestion is to take all the bins away from your colleagues, and put one bin in the centre of the room - then just see what happens. If your office is average, that one bin will quickly become full. Full of waste that can easily be reduced, reused or recycled. The suggestion is then to explore ways forward and take action:more on their website.

Randwick bus service update and minibus sharing?

Blog readers will remember that back in April just before I was elected the bus service stopped going along The Lane in Randwick - you can read more by looking at the old blogs: 17th May, 17th June and 21st June - basically this is had an impact on several people who now no longer can get to Stroud.

Photo: village bus in Bread Street

While I was able to arrange Ring-a-Ride to cover the village centre this is still wholly inadequate - and costs lots. I had also explored the Village Link bus service that operates like a taxi in some parts of Stroud but instead of expanding this popular and well used service to our area the County are cutting the service completely - the Government grant hads dried up.

Last month I had a meeting with 2 women from Randwick in Whiteshill Village Coffee Shop with Village Agent Pam Thorne to explore ways forward re the Randwick bus not going down The Lane. Yesterday I had another meeting with Pam. I suspect we will be putting concerns to the Parish Council seeking their support to take this issue forward: is there a way to get the bus back? What alternatives exist? There are few ways forward, but we need to make sure we have looked at all options and made clear our views to policy makers.

Photo: empty buses threaten viability of services that are already reduced

I have been reluctant to look at alternatives like a regular minibus until we have ruled out getting our bus back - a minibus used regularly could impact negatively on the already underused bus service. However it maybe a way forward for a local group to establish and run a bus once a week? Certainly it is a wonderfully positive scheme that could open up opportunities to people locally.

Minibus Sharing?

Vision 21, a community-based sustainability organisation, has received £35,000 from the Gloucestershire Rural Renaissance initiative to expand the existing urban Minibus Sharing Scheme, which currently operates in Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Vision 21 director, Graham Stanley, who lives in Ebley, said: "Many schools, colleges and village groups have saved up and bought their own minibuses, but don't use them all the time. This scheme aims to 'borrow' these minibuses when they're not being used, to help people get out and about. The Minibus Sharing Scheme could, for example, give a parish council the chance to organise regular visits to the nearest town for young people to go to the cinema, or to go bowling. Or a WI could hire a minibus for a theatre trip; primary schools might need minibuses to take the children on an educational visit, or a group of older people could hire one to take them to a tea dance in Cheltenham."

Certainly the minibuses could provide a lifeline for those who find travel difficult. Many local groups can't afford to buy a minibus, but would be glad to hire one and of course the scheme could reduce the cost of transport for clubs, groups and schools. By sharing the resource, they can get more use out of it, benefit their local community and earn a little income. It also provides a stronger case when applying for funding for a replacement vehicle in the future.

I'm waiting to hear back from Pam and the Randwick women who were concerned re the cut to the service in The Lane.

The way to go: Personal Tradeable Carbon Allowances?

My blog on 13th Feb challenged Stroud District councillors who were circulating a plea to sign the road pricing petition to think again. My piece has led to many comments sent to me by councillors, some supportive, some dismissive...one questioned carbon allowances. They made many useful points - here is my quick response to them:

Thanks for your comments - You are right there is much to clarify re personal carbon allowances. I too, have concerns that it could be an ID card and also be open to fraud. There is however growing support across parties for this move and I strongly welcome the Government looking at it further. Here are some bits written earlier that may explain more - to me it is the fairest way forward. Other taxes and measures are often seen as unfair by people, often hit poorer sections of the population harder and can also have other unintended consequences. All the best - Philip

How would it work?

Domestic Tradable Quota for carbon is a Green Party policy which aims: a) To reduce the UK's carbon emissions in line with the target of a 60% reduction by 2050. b) To change the way we as a society view carbon emissions by making each of us personally responsible for our own carbon footprint. The system of tradable quotas covers all emissions of carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels as well as: a) Purchase of electricity (from non-renewable sources) b) Air flights c) Direct purchase of fossil fuels (gas, coal, petrol, diesel, fuel oil). The total annual carbon quota is equal to current total carbon emissions.

The quota is then reduced annually in line with agreed targets. A proportion of the total quota is distributed by the government to all eligible adults in the UK for personal needs (all adults receive the same quota). The remaining quota is then sold to organisations (public, private and voluntary) through a system set up by the government. Another system is set up by the government for people and organisations to buy and sell quotas.

New infrastructure would be needed but much already exists: bank cards could store both pounds and carbon points. When we buy electricity, gas and fuel, we use our carbon points, as well as pounds.

Useful discussion here.

Benefits?

People on low incomes are likely to benefit as they will be able to sell their excess allowances. People on higher incomes tend to have higher carbon emissions due to higher car ownership and usage, air travel and tourism, and larger homes. A tradeable personal carbon allowance is more empowering than many forms of regulation, as it allowed citizens to make trade-offs rather than banning them from certain activities or goods, or taxing them heavily. It is also empowering because many citizens want to be able to do their bit for the environment and tackle climate change, but there is no measurable way of guiding their decisions.

The Sustainable Development Commission have said that it would provide a "virtually guaranteed" way of reducing fossil fuel emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. They go onto say that domestic tradeable quotas have many advantages over carbon taxes, not least because they are independent from political control.

Kevin Anderson, of the Tyndall Centre, has said: "Once you have accepted that we need a reduction of 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 - which it seems now that all parties have - you need to start soon. We saw what the public thought of carbon taxes in the protests over the fuel tax escalator. The beauty of personal carbon allowances is that you only need to make about a 1.25 per cent reduction in carbon emissions every year. This is a way that enables us to make the necessary annual changes without radical adjustments to our lives. It is about making the small changes year by year. It won't stop us going on holiday. But it might constrain how many times we fly. This could be up and running within four to 10 years."

RSA have an interesting project:
http://www.rsacarbonlimited.org/emissions/default.aspa
There are also Carbon Rationing Action Groups getting established:
http://www.carbonrationing.org.uk/topics/carbon-allowance
Including in Cheltenham:
http://theonetonners.blogspot.com/

Ruscombe Road to close temporarily: others to be repaired

Glos Highways say they are planning to close Ruscombe Road so that they can repair the wall supporting the carriageway by the Old Co-Op. The wall was damaged by a 7 and a half tonne lorry. The dates they have given are 19th March for 2 weeks.

Glos Highways also mention Lower Street: "I do appreciate that there will be concerns with another road closure in the Whiteshill area, but due to planning requirements and the complexity of the scheme in Lower Street, it is unlikely that those works could be done within the next 2-3 months."

Other news is that Upper Kitesnest, Ferndale, Lower Street and Bishop's Walk are all scheduled for repairs.

Concern re sub-station in Whiteshill

This sub-station in Whiteshill is not safe as the photo clearly indicates. The 4-6weeks given as the time before permanent repairs can be undertsaken is unacceptable. Parish councillor Steve Tomkins has been on the case and the Whiteshill and Ruscommbe Parish Clerk has now written to Central Networks urging repair as a matter of urgency.

1000 words on climate change

The Western Daily Press have kindly agreed to published a 1000 words on climate change from me in their Comment section towards the end of next week. It is very positive that papers are starting to cover these issues more - but a challenge often to meet deadlines. These 1000 words were pulled together hastily building on an article written a few weeks ago.

Photo: Antarctica ice melt 2006

How can we keep this issue alive and fresh in the press? Already I have seen 2 letters in The Citizen complaining that too many letters on climate change is a bore - yet to my mind they don't publish anything like enough - it should be news everyday!

Anyhow I've sent this morning a letter responding to the Comment in The Citizen yesterday - see letter here. It is vital these misconceptions around nuclear are challenged - it is not an answer to climate change.

Climate change: doing the impossible

Tackling climate change can seem impossible. Yet history is full of examples of things happening that previously seemed impossible. The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, the ending of apartheid in South Africa or more recently, England winning a cricket match in Australia.

The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms again that the disastrous effects of climate change are already happening and will accelerate significantly without major policy changes. Michael Meacher, former Environment Minister, writes: "What we, and the government, need to get our minds around is that we are at war: at war against climate catastrophe, presenting us a far greater threat towards our survival than 1939."

So why aren't we tackling our addiction to fossil fuels?

In the case of addictions, we have to first recognise the problem. Denial is not an option. Scary reports and warnings do little to help: indeed can paralyse many of us with fear. We need more real communication.

We recognise the need for urgent action on climate change, but we still haven't created a positive debate to ensure everyone understands why change is needed. The online petition against road-pricing with 1.5 million signatures is a perfect example of this.

We have the worst traffic jams in Europe and our emissions from transport are rising. Since 1997, the real cost of motoring in the UK has gone down while public transport costs have gone up. We urgently need both better public transport, and tax measures to reduce demand and ensure we use less polluting vehicles. These could include fuel tax, road user charging, graduated vehicle excise duty, but the measures we choose need to be the subject of genuine public debate.

A sophisticated programme of road pricing could be accepted, if people know that the money raised is sorting out public transport and that it doesn't penalise the worst off. Indeed I challenge those objecting to such measures to come up with alternatives that will work.

Signs of hope

The report by Sir Nicholas Stern has been hailed as a turning point: he translated climate change into the language of economics which sadly too often seems the only language that governments and business can understand.

President Bush now recognises climate change, while over 400 US Mayors representing 60m US citizens are taking action. Even China has made dramatic shifts with new legislation not least because of the impact floods and drought will have on food supplies.

Al Gore's excellent film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has raised awareness enormously. More of us are taking action, businesses are changing and local Councils, like Stroud, are developing strategies. Opposition in this country is also growing to criminal plans like new coal power plants and aviation growth: over 3,500 objections to Bristol airport expansion alone.

The word 'criminal' is not used lightly: the average Somali is about 100 times more likely to die from events caused by climate change than the average American, despite emitting roughly 16,000 times less carbon. We must cut emissions not create more.

The Government already recognises the need to cut CO2 emissions by at least 60% by 2050. Most scientists now believe this is inadequate. If aviation is excluded from such cuts it will mean that everyone including other businesses will have to cut emissions even harder.

Similarly people have objected to the draft South West Regional Spatial Strategy; the most important regional planning documents for the next 20 years. Incredibly this strategy’s own Sustainability Assessment notes it will increase climate-changing CO2 emissions in the region! What are those politicians thinking when they develop such plans or want to expand airports?

Dangerous beliefs

Too many of us still hold dangerous beliefs that we can take ‘hard’ decisions without impinging on our rights as consumers, that some unspecified swift action will sort the problem or some Branson-inspired technology will transform us into an environmentally-friendly society. These assumptions distort reality.

However perhaps most dangerous of all is that we can tackle climate change whilst continuing economic growth. Do people really believe the climate and the natural environment can be protected in a world where the population is forecast to grow from its current 6.5 billion to over 8 billion, and in which everyone is entitled to the lifestyle of the most extravagent consumers?

Continual growth for an expanding population means greater exploitation of natural resources, greater pollution and catastrophic climate change. We need to start talking about quality of life, not quantity of consumption. Living sustainably doesn’t mean living miserably.


The challenge ahead

We know what needs to be done. The challenge is for us all to build sufficient political to make it happen. For starters no more tinkering, lets stop the £12 billion road building programme, end aviations annual £9 billion tax break, end subsidies to the oil industry, and build peace and save £78 billion by not replacing Trident. Then with all those savings make vast investment in home energy conservation, renewables and public transport.

Let us also introduce individual tradeable carbon quotas with smartcard technology that could ensure everyone gets the same ration of carbon. Light users could actually benefit by selling to others with the poor on average benefiting. While internationally Britain should assist sustainable development in poorer countries and push for the "Contraction and Convergence" model which would achieve the necessary reductions in emissions in a globally equitable manner.

We can all play our part in our own lives but without changes in government policy we are not going to win. Politicians rarely act unless they have public support. We must make them act: write letters, campaign, vote and consider joining the march on 24th February in London against Trident.

The changes ahead mean that nothing short of a new human era is in the making. The choices we make now will determine whether the birthing is successful.

Philip Booth is a Stroud District councillor and Coordinator of the 5-strong Green party District councillor group in Stroud. His ‘renowned blog’ can be found at:
http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com

Front page story: Nuclear waste store at Berkeley

As regular readers of this blog will know I've helped compile several Green party's submissions to the recent Government consultations on nuclear waste. Today The Citizen ran a front page story (see left) of it's Stroud edition: "Massive Nuclear Store Planned" about the proposed nuclear waste store at Berkeley near Dursley.

It is interesting that one of the journalists I spoke to in Gloucester thought as a Green I would be against the proposal. Infact Greens support it. We are in a mess with all this nuclear waste - we just shouldn't be producing it in the first place. The map below shows all the other places we store nuclear waste in this country. Here is my comment to the papers:

"Regrettably an intermediate level nuclear waste store is the least worst option, but it must not take waste from elsewhere and it must be properly water proof as sea-level rises are forecast. "However clearly the best way to begin dealing with this hugely costly nuclear waste is to stop producing it. It is crazy the Government are planning new nuclear reactors that produce even more of the higher levels of radioactive waste. Last month a new report published in Nature, confirmed Green fears that materials used to store nuclear waste long term are much less durable than previously thought. Burying toxic waste deep in the earth is an unproven, unsustainable and unpredictable route to follow.

"We have already produced vast quantities of radioactive waste, some of which will be deadly dangerous for tens of thousands of years: yet we can't predict how climate change, might impact on this nor the effects the next Ice Age might have in 100,000 years time. Storing this stuff deep underground is asking for problems - the dangers presented by climate change may affect water table levels and geological structures and are likely to impact upon waste storage in ways previously undreamed of. At a time when no safe storage options have been found, it would be irresponsible in the extreme to build new nuclear power stations to add to this deadly toxic legacy."

BBC Glos were after an interview - I never like doing that stuff but it was at a particularly awkward time with other meetings planned - Martin Whiteside, the Greens Parliamentary candidate stood in and did a bit on the show despite being equally busy himself. Thanks Martin!

Interestingly yesterday Greenpeace, supported by the Green party won their High Court bid to make the government rethink plans to build a new nuclear power. This is wonderful news and of course I sent out a news release to celebrate - see here. However as I read the Citizen today I can see there are all sorts of mistakes in the Comment column re nuclear power - will need to put something together on that....

Iraq, Iran and Trident - join the 24th Feb demo

Casualties in Iraq are reaching even greater obscene levels. Yet Bush responds with plans to escalate the war with his troop "surge". Tony Blair says this "makes sense." I think there are now few who agree with such madness.

The Green party, alone amongst the main parties, was against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the Liberal Democrats have at last now called for the complete withdrawal of British troops by the end of 2007. In the US the tide is turning rapidly against Bush. Even Russia's President Putin is strongly criticising US policy.

Bush's only answer to the growing condemnations is more war in Iraq, the intensification of the nuclear arms race and the threat of an attack on Iran. A massive expansion of the US military budget will mean that in 2007 the cost of the Iraq war alone will be $800 for every American man, woman and child - paid for by yet more cuts in welfare services for the poor.

Iran (see article by John Pilger) is a deeply worrying development - fears have been growing for some time - back in April I condemned the BBC with others for their grossly unfair coverage of the country. Indeed in 2005 Greens raised concerns and fears about Iran being the next target. It seems things are moving in that direction and if we are not careful there will be another war.

I have just sent out a letter by Stroud Greens Parliamentary candidate, Martin Whiteside to other local political parties calling on them to sign a letter with him to Tony Blair urging the Government to take actions to prevent a war in Iran. The Stop the War Coalition write:

"Can it get any worse in Iraq? The answer is, yes, it can, if we let it. The response to the escalation of the Bush-Blair wars must be to do all we can to make our elected representatives act in accordance with the wishes of their electorates. The US anti-war movement has responded magnificently to the challenge. Its demonstrations across America on 27 January brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets for the largest protest since the war began. Campaigns are now running in localities across America to make the US Congress stop Bush in his tracks by withholding the funding he needs to escalate the war. We in Britain on Saturday 24 February will have our opportunity to give voice to the view of most people in this country that the war must end and all British troops must be removed from Iraq."

We do indeed have the national demonstration on 24th in London and Greens are organising coaches from Stroud and Gloucester. Iran will clearly feature as an issue but the focus is 'Troops Out of Iraq' and 'No Trident' - Martin Whiteside will have a comment piece re Trident in The Citizen tomorrow, but Ruscombe Green readers can see it here now:

The Government is about to spend an estimated £76 billion of your tax money to replace Trident nuclear weapons with an updated system. This is a decision that defies logic. Nuclear weapons make us less safe, not more. Nuclear weapons are not a credible defence against the key threats facing us in the 21st Century. Nuclear weapons are no defence against terrorists, whether home grown or from abroad.

Senior Government figures have at last admitted that the greatest threat facing Britain is not actually terrorism – but climate change. £76 billion spent on a new nuclear deterrent is £76 billion that is not being spent on tackling climate change (or world poverty, or child poverty in the UK). This money could be used to make Britain a leader in taking positive action to make the World a better and safer place. Instead our Government plans towaste it on something that is illegal, unnecessary and a catastrophe for our future.

As a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Britain and other nuclear states are legally committed to prevent new countries adopting nuclear weapons AND to move towards phasing out their own nuclear weapons. How can we argue that Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea should not have nuclear weapons and at the same time spend billions replacing our own with an updated system for the rest of the century - demonstrating very clearly to the World that we have no intention of phasing them out?

Are we, the people who are paying for it, being consulted about how our hard earned cash is being spent and how our future security, and the security of our children is being compromised? It doesn’t seem so.

Unlike the Labour and Conservatives, the Green Party opposes Trident's renewal outright (the Lib-dems seem to want to delay the decision). Many ordinary people share our views and no longer want to waste money on a mythical threat or supporting some vision of us as a warrior nation. At a debate on Trident in Higham, chaired by Citizen Editor, Ian Mean, 126 people voted in favour of ending the UK's nuclear weapons, 10 abstained and only 15 voted to replace Trident.

Next week Gloucestershire people are taking their disgust at the way our Government is acting to London, where they will be joining tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of others in a demonstration against Trident replacement and against the continued presence of our troops in Iraq. Many of us will also be voicing our concerns about Bush’s threats and build-up to attack Iran. We have got to stop this madness now.

Coaches are going to London from Stroud (01453-750962), Gloucester and Cheltenham (01452-549669) on Saturday 24 February.

Interestingly I just heard from CND today that Tony Blair speaking at a Young Labour conference in Glasgow said that he ‘doesn’t really know’ why there has not been a debate on Trident replacement in the Labour Party!!! This is what CND write:

During the Q&A, a delegate asked the Prime Minister why there has not been a debate and vote in the Labour Party on Trident. Mr Blair, visibly caught off-guard by the question, replied:

‘I don’t really know the answer to be frank. I think in the end there will be a vote in the Commons. There should be a very lively debate in the party and elsewhere. The trouble is we need to take a decision at some point…In terms of the process I honestly don’t know the answer. I know it was an issue at the National Policy Forum and so on but I don’t have a problem with people voting on it at all. Let the party express their view on this but we will need to take a decision on this as a government.’

Let us not forget that 17 motions on Trident replacement from Constituency Labour Party groups were ruled out of order before the Labour Party conference in 2006. In January 2007 three motions on Trident from members of the Labour National Executive Committee, including CND Vice President Walter Wolfgang, were again ruled out of order.


NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION: TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ/NO TRIDENT
SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY
ASSEMBLE HYDE PARK 12 NOON
MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE

More on Painswick library and national situation

My blogs on trying to save Painswick Library have now been linked to another website - Volumizer - plus Painswick got a mention at a talk in London entitled, "What Have Global Trade Agreements Ever Done for Library and Information Workers?" at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals this week - see also Flow of Ideas website for more info and key Online articles by Ruth Rikowski who gave the talk. Plus I've seen a link to the story on the Information for Social Change website.

...and while looking for further information I have come across more info on libraries that I think is useful....

Photo: Ruscombe valley fields

Tim Coates, a former MD of Waterstones, now writes a library blog. He insist that most libraries could be kept open if only they were more efficiently run - and has figures to prove it. He suggests for example that backroom staff, who often account for up to half of a council's library budget, always seem to keep their jobs even as branches close. Tim Coates also points out that councils have run some libraries down deliberately - if a library's stock is poor, fewer people will use it; if fewer people use it, they can make the case for closure. Amazingly in the last decade the number of books in libraries has fallen from 105 million to 80 million.' Tim Coates also makes some very useful points in his manifesto for public libraries.

"If there were to be a word that remains lovable for me, even when set adrift on meaninglessness, it would be 'library'. 'Tea and buns' may be nice, but 'tea and buns' in the 'library' is rhapsodic." Feminist Germaine Greer

So where is the Government in all this?

A year ago the culture minister, David Lammy, made a speech to Parliament on the subject of libraries. He said: "I love reading. Coming from a household where you could count the number of books on the fingers of two hands, I celebrate libraries' central mission of the promotion of reading."

Last year budget deficits meant councils were increasingly planning to close libraries - Painswick is not alone. David Lammy wrote, urging councils to think carefully before closing libraries. He even announced that he would look at his powers under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act to see if he could, in some instances, prevent closures. Then all went quiet and by last June some 107 libraries were threatened with closure. Lammy was quoted in The Bookseller with quite a different attitude to the beginning of the year: "I will continue to monitor these things closely" adding that the figure being suggested was an exageration and in any case "Communities come and go". What does that mean?

I also wonder why the public library performance figures for 2005-6 are being kept Secret? These were meant to be available in January but the public has to pay £400 to obtain a copy. Some council figures have been released, but the totals are still being kept secret. Why?

Last week further concerning news is that the British Library may have to start charging researchers for admission to its famous reading rooms and the collection of 150 million items. A cut of up to 7% to its £100 million budget is proposed. As well as the unprecedented charges, opening hours would be cut by more than a third under the proposals.

The cuts would threaten spending on research journals and books, undermining 250 years of collecting and damaging Britain's position in the world research rankings. Other risks would include the "irrecoverable loss of unique conservation skills", the halting of targeted support for public libraries in London and the regions and the development of impressive web resources.

The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury said in a letter to Gordon Brown that funding cuts would be "a gross act of cultural vandalism. It is difficult to fathom the mind of a government that sets out to wreck a world class public institution — as you would do if the BL is forced to make these cuts."

The Daily Telegraph reports that suggestions that funding normally designated for the arts could be diverted to help cover the spiralling costs of the 2012 Olympics has spread fear among library supporters.

Another possible blow to libraries this week is news that the management committee of the Feminist Library is calling an emergency meeting on Saturday 24th February to decide on whether to close the library for good. This meeting is a last ditch attempt to rally feminists
to support the library and, if they are not able to come up with a solution, to discuss finding another suitable home for the collection. The collection currently includes 75 boxes of material from the Women's Health Library which closed last summer. The library is run by volunteers.

John Dolan, is head of library policy at the Museums, Libraries and Archive council (MLA), the quango responsible for library strategy. He is reported in the Guardian and elsewhere saying good things are happening: new libraries in Brighton and Bournemouth; Big Lottery Fund funding of £80m for projects at community libraries; the MLA service which provides every library with access to 29 electronic subscription-based products such as dictionaries, saving them 50 per cent on some titles.

Meanwhile, as I've noted in previous blogs, communities like Painswick, are reduced to trying to persuade their local authorities to let them run their libraries themselves.

In 1866 the social reformer George Dawson noted that 'a great library contains the diary of the human race'. Indeed thanks to the Public Libraries Act of 1850, there are some 3,000 libraries in Britain - a system of which we can be justly proud. This is not the time to cut or close them.

Government to recommend 20mph for residential areas?

Valentines Day and I've got a Green party meeting tonight: a love the planet night? Ummmh - doesn't go down well with my partner....see blog on 9th February 2007.

James Wishart left a comment on my last blog about 20mph zones - in that he wrote: "In a few month's time the Department for Transport will issue new guidelines called the 'Manual for Streets' specifying that all residential areas should have a 20mph design speed."

Photo: Gloucester 20 mph zone: not the end of 20 mph zones but rather this must be the beginning of many more

This 'Manual' will basically be guidelines to assist practitioners in making informed decisions relating to appropriate streets design. The draft 'Manual for Streets' states: "7.9.2 All streets whose main function is to provide a residential environment should have vehicle speeds of no more than 20mph. All measures that slow traffic help pedestrians feel safer. The most effective ways to discourage speeds above 20 mph are often to either generate sufficient ‘side friction’ on streets e.g. by the provision of on street parking, ......."

I hope it still appears in the final version of the Manual and is made even stronger. The 'Manual for Streets' also looks set to move more in the direction of support for schemes like 'Shared Spaces' (click 'Labels' below for more info re this important approach).

James Wishart's blog about 20 mph zones has some great info about his campaign - like commonly held myths about 20 mph zones. I have taken the liberty of reproducing them here:
There are some commonly held negative views that the public hold regarding 20mph zones which are usually based on misconceptions or misapprehensions.

• “20mph is too slow for most traffic.” In most residential areas, the average speed will already be below 30mph and in the St Edmund’s area is probably about 20 to 25mph. Government guidance for road planners is shortly to be published which will say that all residential areas should be governed by a 20mph limit.

• “20mph zones require road humps which are a nuisance”. As stated above the average speed in residential areas is likely to be just over 20mph. At this low average speed, the law permits the provision of 20mph zones without road humps.

• “If the average speed of traffic is already low why do we need 20mph zones?” Accident statistics show that the death rate resulting from a collision between a car and a pedestrian is nine times higher for 30mph than it is for 20mph. Furthermore a 20mph zone is about more than accident reduction. The limit reinforces the fact that residential areas require a different balance between car and pedestrian with more power and authority being given to the pedestrian.

• “The police do not enforce or monitor 20mph speed limits”. The police do not monitor 20mph limits because it is considered that they are ‘self enforcing’. However there is no reason why these limits should not be enforced like any other speed limit.

• “20mph zones are already provided near schools. Why do we need them elsewhere?” Pedestrians are a vulnerable class whatever their age and children do not disappear when remote from schools.

Other sources of good info include the Slower Streets initiative and of course the Transport 2000 website - see under capmaigns for their '20 is Plenty'. Click on the 'Labels' below to link to letters re campaign in Gloucestershire and more locally in Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill. Meanwhile coming soon I hope to be adding some of the responses re 20 mph zones to this blog - at the moment I've had very favourable from Lib Dem and Labour are putting a motion on this - all good news.

It does seem amazing how long all this takes to get the Department of Transport to move - it was only in 1991 that the first three 20 mph speed limits forming zones were implemented in Sheffield, Kingston upon Thames and Norwich. In much of Europe 30 kph is standard for residential/town centres. Until June 1999 specific consent from the Secretary of State was needed - and up until October 2005 only around 450 zones were installed in the UK. But we are at last getting through, a culture shift is slowly taking place.......

Randwick Educational Trust: financial assistance offered

The Randwick Educational Trust has limited funds to use "in promotig the education of persons under 25 years old who are resident in the Parish of Randwick and who are in need of financial assistance" - equipment, books, travel are included - a wider view of education than the study of academic qualifications. Contact the Clerk, Mrs Flack on 757136. Applications must be in by 23rd February 2007.

Photo: View from Selsey across to ward centre left top is Randwick village with to the right Ruscombe then Randwick

And talking of education, next Friday - 23rd Feb - the Coffee House Discussion in Stroud will be on 'What is Real Education?'

Brook group talks with EA

The Ruscombe Brook Action Group met this evening for a talk by retired Environment Agency Officer, Bill Blake. He gave us many insights into his work and relationships with other agencies. It was interesting to hear that some years ago members of our group would have been labelled "Continuous Complainers"!

Photo: Randwick tributary coming from top left corner of photo plus Cashes Green and More Hall Convent

We also learnt that Stroud was so effective at dealing with sewage incidents in the early 90s that they became the first Council nationally to be sacked as agents for sewage - in their place a much less effective system was put - nationwide our sewage system is in urgent need of action. Bill was able to share many intersting stories and his passion for getting the right solutions shone through. In the past he has also helped Water 21 and RBAG when they set up the Archway School water testing project.

We also learnt that local Freddie Whittacker, who helped set up the testing project and attended various RBAG meetings was recently voted into Gloucestershire County Youth Council - he holds the Environment portfolio.

RBAG also celebrated this evening the news that we can proceed with setting up of a partnership and accept Water 21s offer of £3,000 plus to develop plans for the brook - see blog for 2nd February 2007.

Photo: Archway School towards Whiteshill - Ruscombe brook runs from two-thirds up the left handside of photo down following the hedge/trees across the bottom of the photo

There was plenty of discussion about ways forward: plus planning our AGM meal and another public event - hopefully a talk on 25th April on the 'Mysteries of Water' - more details to follow when venue confirmed. Our RBAG website has now been transferred to a new site - same address - link in column on right-hand side of this blog. The new site will hopefully allow more of us to update it but first there is the task of putting back all the old info - please bear with us!

Greens challenge councillors on road pricing petition

Labour are messing up on this one - they just didn't sell the scheme properly - people have recognised the need for urgent action on tackling climate change, but the government is failing to make the case for the sensible measures that need to follow.

Photo: view down Ruscombe valley

Which measures we choose - and how to ensure any money made pays for better public transport - needs to be the subject of genuine public debate. The motoring lobby has run a deliberate campaign of misinformation and sadly what we're likely to see is the government rolling over at the first sign of trouble. A Stroud District councillor circulated the petition which gained public support from some councillors - below is my response just sent out on behalf of Greens:

Over a 1.2 million people have now signed this online petition against road pricing. There is indeed much wrong with this particularproposal: it might sound green, but it makes no sense to reduce fuel taxes so that gas guzzling vehicles can pay almost the same to drive as a mini. We need incentives in favour of fuel efficient cars, not a technocratic solution which involves just moving traffic off one road and onto another. Furthermore we need guarantees that data used for road pricing does not get abused by other Government agencies.

However there are now 33 million vehicles on our roads - 7 million more than in 1997 - and the number of miles driven on British roads each year is rising by between 400 and 500 million miles. It must be clear that neither the economy nor the environment can sustain a rise of 500,000 vehicles a year nor the journeys they make.

On top of that since 1997, the real cost of motoring in the UK has gone down while public transport costs have gone up, leaving many people without travel choices. We have the worst traffic jams in Europe and our traffic related CO2 emissions are rising, not falling. They make up a third of all our climate change emissions, yet the Government is going ahead with it's £12 billion road building programme. We cannot afford not to take radical action now - this is a moral issue regarding climate change and the state of the country for future generations.

Road-pricing could have a role to play, but it must be part of a strategy to reduce road-traffic, cut emissions and encourage more fuel-efficient vehicles. Sadly the government has failed to get across why change is needed. A sophisticated programme of road pricing could be accepted if people know that the money raised is helping sort out public transport and doesn't penalise the worst off.

We have got to stop thinking of motorists' and start thinking about people who need to travel to work every day in the most efficient and pleasant way possible - few motorist groups would argue that a stressful, wasteful gridlock every morning is the way forward.

An effective and fairway of addressing both climate change and congestion, would beindividual tradeable carbon quotas. Using smartcard technology everyone would get the same ration and light users could actually benefit by selling to others - on average the poor would benefit from such a scheme. Individual choice and ingenuity into how to economise on energy use would be increased. Using this approach the total quotas available each year could be gradually reduced, in line with our national CO2 obligations.

Branson & Bush - the new eco warriers?

Ecotricity is the largest independent provider of electricity in the UK - based in Stroud with the wind turbine at Nympsfield. Dale Vince, their chief executive, had an advert this week calling on Branson to have a carbon-free breakfast with him to look at ways to tackle climate change - see Citizen article here.

Good on him - while I respect Richard Branson for raising the profile of climate change he is still missing the point badly...I hope if he does go to breakfast, Mr Vince will be able to put him straight...

Photo: balloon over Cainscross

Guardian journalist George Monbiot has already exposed Branson on his 'green' credentials - read here - and a while back I wrote a press release in response to his plans to give profits to making aviation more sustainable - in that I said:

"UK aviation carbon emissions grew by 11% last year alone. The truth of it is that Governments must act to curb the growth in flying and cancel all airport expansion. If Branson talked more about limiting flights and expanding rail networks we would be more confident, but sadly now some people are given the impression that flying Virgin is somehow OK and will even help tackle climate change. Ministers have the opportunity to do tackle aviation in their review of policy later this year - we need a fundamental policy rethink."

Photo: pinched from Green Ladywell blog

Branson's latest offer is a £12.7m prize for a new wonder technology that would tackle climate change - known as the Virgin Earth Challenge. For this he has again been condemned by climate scientists and greens. Leading climate scientist Kevin Anderson, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at Manchester University, said: "He's misguided, misinformed and potentially quite dangerous in making people think there is some great technological hope out there."

This does indeed seem to be about promoting hopeful, madcap magic bullet schemes when the reality is that we know what needs to be done - we just need the political will. It seems wrong to knock someone with such good intentions but far from helping could Branson actually be hindering the cause? I think it is a bit of both good and bad but certainly his actions are obscuring the reality from many - and that, as Kevin Anderson says, is 'dangerous'.

Meanwhile it is great to hear that at last Bush recognises climate change! He is clearly feeling the heat - his defensive letter put out by the White House on Wednesday began:

"Following last Friday's release of a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a number of media reports perpetuated inaccuracies that the president's concern about climate change is new...In fact, climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office. Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem."

Critics have pointed out that at least three times last year, Bush claimed climate science was up in the air. In June last year he said: "There is a debate over whether it's man-made or naturally caused."

We should also not forget Bush summarily rejected the preeminent global solution, the Kyoto Protocol, in 2001 - even though, as we're now told, he was quite convinced of the climate science at that point. Some other global solution, then? How about an international agreement to follow after Kyoto expires in 2012? Unfortunately Bush doesn't want that either.

Neither Branson nor Bush are anywhere near the eco warriers they need to be, but I am hopefully a shift is on it's way - we've come far in the last couple of years. Climate change is still in the news and more are waking up to what really needs to be done.

Folly Farm footpath falls, SUDS and planning applications

Firstly the good news is that Development Control Committee, which I sit on at Ebley Mill, voted today to let the application for this contentious footpath fall. This means the application for this footpath will not be continued. SDC will be liable for costs to date but the alternative would most likely have been a Public Inquiry which means even greater expense. 17 objections including Stroud Town Council were made to this proposed change: a considerably higher number of objections than most other diversions - use search engine to see previous entries of Folly Farm (or Folley farm as the sign on the gate says).

Photo: Ebley Mill a couple of weeks ago

As the neighbouring ward councillor I welcome this decision - it would be great to have a footpath that goes along another section of the brook but this proposed diversion cannot be at the expense of the other route. I have some sympathy with the owner who wants to change the route away from her front door but the new route is radically different. There are a number of serious concerns but primarily in place of a flat, accessible route often used by people who have some difficulties walking, we have a potentially much more muddy route that is longer, goes up and down slopes and is much less easier to walk.

Councillors making the decision have heard the various points of view and many have visited the site themselves and could see this change was not acceptable. There are other options which could be considered by the owner and the community which could potentially get around these problems. I hope that a satisfactory solution for all could be reached in the future.

Meanwhile at DCC I managed to add a Sustainable Urban Drainage condition of development to at least applications - DCC have agreed in the past to look at this but it still isn't getting through - I hope this time they got the point - SUDs should be standard on most applications.

Another condition that should be standard is wheel washing by lorries on development sites - the mess they can create on our roads and to our drainage systems is huge. Again I raised this a couple of times where it had been missed.

You can of course see the meeting on the webcast here. Some of the decisions included turning down the application in Painswick for 16 care apartments, defering a decision on a barn conversion in Kings Stanley and approving Sunday opening at the chippy in Minchinhampton - the latter I abstained on as I am uncomfortable about most Sunday opening but there was no clear planning reason to object - here was a business that had operated for 30 years with no complaints - a point I made at the meeting. Anyway very tired now so need a rest before a brook group meeting.

Chemtrails - conspiracy theory or not?

A couple of people locally have called on the Green party to take up the issue of 'Chemtrails'. It is hard to see how best to proceed in the face of many official denials that they even exist.

Photo above and below: contrails over Whiteshill? Why do they sometimes disperse and othertimes not? What atmospheric conditions effect these trails?

Our own MP David Drew asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs over a year ago what research the Department has undertaken into the polluting effects of chemtrails for aircraft. Hansard records the reply as:

"Mr. Morley: The Department is not researching into chemtrails from aircraft as they are not scientifically recognised phenomena. However, condensation trails (contrails) are known to exist and have been documented since the 1940s. Contrails are composed of ice crystals forming on the small particles and water vapour emitted by aircraft as the result of the combustion process, they form behind high-flying aircraft depending on the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere."

Contrails are certainly being looked at - particularly in the light of aviations impact on climate change - but Chemtrails??

A brief look at the web and the more wacky websites have much to say on this phenomena - but there is also clearly a growing number of people with real concerns about this. I've not made my mind up - but here's a taster of some of the issues people are trying to raise...

Perhaps I'd better start with 'What is a chemtrail?'

Jack Blood's website writes: "A chemtrail has many similarities with a contrail or condensation trail created by an aircraft under certain atmospheric and meteorological conditions. However, chemical trails or chemtrails appear to last a lot longer, and apparently they seem to accumulate more moisture than contrails. In some cases, chemtrails may actually turn into clouds due to the moisture they absorb. Additionally, it is said that chemtrails differ in their flight pattern configuration from contrails; they do not appear to show aircraft trajectories from point A to point B, but rather crisscross-like patterns."

If we accept these trails are not produced normally by the aircraft then perhaps the most likely explanation for the chemtrails is weather modification. There is evidence to show that NASA have tried this in the past with many experiments looking at altering the weather patterns. There are also allegedly companies like Weather Modification Inc that publicise their weather modification activities. Are these companies real?

There have been strong suggestions that the US are not alone in these tests or programmes. The 1952 floods at Lynmouth claimed 35 lives - a BBC report found that cloud seeding had been going on days before 90 million tonnes of water swept down the valley - 250 times the usual rainfall for August. Read more here and in The Guardian.

Photo: Lynmouth 1952

De-classified War Office documents also suggest that the military had been interested in using rain to cause downpours to hamper enemy movements, clear fog from airfields, and even increase the fallout range of atomic weapons. Certainly since then, cloud seeding has been carried out in attempts to relieve drought and to encourage snowfall in ski resorts.

How does it work?

Chemicals including heavy metals that are used to accelerate the formation of clouds by increasing the size of the cloud moisture droplets. The accumulation of cloud droplets, and thus the increase in size of a cloud, is the first step in the development of precipitation. The droplets at such an early stage are too small to precipitate. In order for precipitation to occur, the droplets must grow much larger; they need to increase in density so they can actually fall and not evaporate after coming in contact with dry air. This is where allegedly the aerosols containing calciumchloride and silver iodide come in place; they cause the droplets to attract more moisture. This process requires freezing temperatures in order to work. The anti-freeze properties of calcium chloride would prevent the droplets from turning into hail.

Clearly if this is going on then we have a potential health hazard - to say nothing of the other concerns about what this will do to the environment.

So are they happening here in Gloucestershire?

Photo: contrails over Randwick?

Well there are those who are convinced that chemtrails are regularly occuring locally. I don't know, but I have become intrigued by how the vapour trails of aircraft sometimes disappear quickly and other times disperse and seem to extend creating cloud over larger areas. On some originally clear days like last week the sky is full of criss-crossings of trails, while other days the sky is empty.

I don't know enough about how atmospheric conditions alter contrails or about how flight patterns change. Could such experiments be taking place? Could creating cloud cover like that postpone climate change? Or make it worse? I would be interested in views.

Farm visit raises many important issues

On Saturday I was fortunate to be invited for a tour of Bridgemacote Farm, situated on the Severn along from Longney. Graham Littleton, a District councillor who owns the farm, invited 10 of us along to see his farm and gain a greater understanding of the issues facing farmers. I report here some of the issues that got raised along with a look at farming in a flood plain.

Photos: above farm on rise of hill and below empty dairy stalls

Until 1998 it was mainly a Dairy Farm with some 50 to 60 acres of wheat and barley. Graham got out at a time when the future of Dairy farming was starting to look bleak - the situation is even worse now with some 40 dairy farms going out of business every week in this country - an issue I've been trying to tackle for some years - see here for demo I helped organise and most recently here.

Photo: group visiting farm

The farm currently includes 110 acres of wheat, 50 acres of oilseed rape including set aside, 50 acres of forage maize, 15 acres of 2 Stewardship Schemes, 40 acres of permanent grassland and 20 acres for DIY livery. The farm is not organic but Graham showed how he limited the use of fertiliser and sprays. He highlighted various reasons for not moving to organic including persistent weeds in certain fields, economic factors and even the need for patience...

Photo: Problem weed - May weed or Wild chamomile and photo of view through hedge of point where Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean and Stroud District areas meet.

The economics is an important issue - I suspect things will shift over coming years - rising oil prices will start to make alternatives to fertilisers, herbicides etc much more attractive. See my blog from 15th June 2006 for more on Peak Oil and a film about Cuba and how they managed the rransition to a society with very little oil.

Photos: Graham Littleton talking about oil seed rape and photo of us walking through the orchard .

We started to walk with lots of talk at various points as we went. The orchard with it's old varieties, the challenges of maintaining the many hedges, how crops are rotated and more.

One issue that fascinated me was the drainage of many of these fields and the role of the Drainage board. The River Severn is Britain's longest river, rising in mid Wales and flowing for 220 miles to the Bristol Channel. There is an extensive intertidal zone, one of the largest in the UK, comprising mudflats, sand banks, shingle, and rocky platforms - and at times it can overflow it's banks. The problem includes urban areas to the north, east and south of Gloucester city centre which can also be affected by flooding...

Photo: this flood defence has recently been reinforced by more blue clay: it runs parallel to the Severn pictured in the next photo below.

The Environment Agency note that already with flood defences in place, the current annual average damage to property caused by flooding is estimated at £12.8 million. Up to 2,914 properties may be at risk during a one per cent annual probability flood, with damages to properties estimated at £94 million. The social consequences of this flooding are high as floodwaters are deep and fast-flowing and are considered a risk to life. With existing flood risk management, the annual average damage of flooding to property is expected to increase due to climate change and urbanisation. Flood depths and velocities will increase and be more widespread, increasing the risk to life.

Seeing the Severn at low tide here there was some magic to it - seeing it's quietness it was almost unbelievable that it could rise so high and create so much destruction - Graham at one point showed us a field where the water rose to over 2 feet deep in a space of 2 or 3 hours - and covering 1,000 acres!!! Such floods are exceptions but it seems starnge to me with all that we know about rising sea levels etc etc that more is not being considered locally to plan for the future - this does not appear to be part of the Drainage Boards role - the EA or other bodies are responsible for that yet to my mind local people should be having more of a say in this.

How should we manage such floods? Should we let this area flood more to save properties in Gloucester and further upstream? At the moment farmers have to pay the Drainage Board to ensure the ditches and other measures are properly managed but to me it would make more sense to pay farmers to manage the water - to let floods occur across the farm land....

Photo: ditch maintained by the Drainage Board and photo of field returning rapidly to scrub after clay drainage pipes in the field silted up: other fields around still green in contrast.

We finished up with a look at the grain stores then tea and biscuits in the farmhouse kitchen and more talk. It was a most enjoyable morning - and for me good to compare with the three other farms I've visited locally. Perhaps one of the sadest things was that over 6 generations of farming may come to an end when Graham retires - his sons at present do not plan to follow him. Too many of our small and medium farms are disappearing - corporations buying up the land and farming with much less sensitivity.

How can we get young people to get into farming? County farms is one way. What else? Clearly there is the broader picture - I came across this old Green party report on farming - it still stands today.

Bird Flu - what is really the cause

Local authorities are preparing later this week for 'Operation Winter Willow II' - an exercise designed to test how the country would cope with a major flu epidemic - they have a scenario envisaging 30% of the population being infected and up to 750,000 people dying. It will look at how various authorities work together - and probably all good stuff if it wasn't for the fact that it raises yet more fear...fear as I've noted before can disempower and lead to greater problems...

"We do not know what the virus is that will cause pandemic 'flu. What we do know is that Mother Nature has the recipe book and its just a matter of time before she starts cooking."
Sir Liam Donaldson speaking at the launch of his 2005 Annual Report, at the Royal College of Pathologists, Carlton Terrace, London, 21 July 2006.

It has been suggested the preparations going ahead are in part as a response to a possible threat from the bird flu virus. Yet as of January 2007, the World Health Organization had confirmed only 270 cases of H5N1 in humans in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, leading to 164 deaths. At present the virus does not have the ability to pass easily between humans - if it did the results could be catastrophic.
Then worldwide, experts predict anything between two million and 50 million deaths. However if that were so the mortality rate - which presently stands at around 50% of confirmed cases - could decline as it mutates. See Dept of Health website for more info.

A long while back I read 'Plague's Progress: A Social History of Man and Disease' by Arno Karlen (1995) - since then there have been similar books which look at the new plagues and diseases that are appearing at such an alarming rate and how they advance faster than ever - the reasons are spelt out when we look at how our behaviours have changes and we've damaged the environment.

It seems extraodinary we haven't learnt about the part we play in it all - take Bird Flu - Caroline Lucas MEP co-authored a report last year which examined the clear links between intensive poultry farming methods and bird ‘flu. She called on the Government to investigate urgently these links - their response has been woefully inadequate - indeed last week Ben Bradshaw ignored calls to examine the link then claims a link isn't proven. See my Glos Green party press release on this last week.

That news release didn't get picked up so I've written a letter to press over thsi weekend trying to raise more awareness for the need to look at this more:

The causes of the latest outbreak of bird flu are unknown. However last year Green MEP Caroline Lucas, released a report (i) 'Avian Flu - Time to shut the intensive poultry 'flu factories?' This showed the increasing evidence that the appalling conditions in intensive poultry production could be the original source of the deadly H5N1 bird flu.

Keeping tens of thousands of birds in cramped, warm conditions are perfect for virus mutations and infections. The international trade in hatching eggs and live poultry and the use of chicken faeces as fertilizer and as an ingredient of feed in fish farms were identified as possible transmission routes for H5N1. Dr Lucas' report concluded that the Government must consider halting factory farming to prevent the spread of the virus and the EU should immediately halt all imports and exports of live poultry and hatching eggs as a precautionary measure.

Defra Minister Ben Bradshaw has ignored calls to look more at the link between factory farming and the deadly virus. It is clear he must do his homework better. Foot and Mouth could hardly have been handled worse in 2001, we do not want to see a repeat slaughtering of millions of healthy animals (some 36 million poultry birds are registered in the South West alone) and the livelihoods of more farmers in Gloucestershire and the rest of the country destroyed.

Factory farming and live animal imports and exports are deeply cruel practices resulting in million of birds becoming sick or dying prematurely: now it seems that they could have caused the first mass outbreak of bird ‘flu on British soil. This should be a wake up call to prioritise free-range farming instead of the vile and viral intensive poultry industry.

Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party.

The Government prefer to focus on treatments rather than looking at the causes - isn't it always the way - ASBOs instead of the causes of the behavior and drugs for cancer treatment rather than looking at the causes like the chemicals in our environment - it is certainly true that drug companies are doing very nicely out of bird flu already. A quick search of the web shows there are many who view all this with a different slant. Here is one from 'thumping the tub' blog site:

"So the summary of the story is as follows: Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years. This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu. In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans. Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay him a fortune. Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed, the base for the antivirus. The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche. So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush doe the business."

Whether or not we accept that - and ALL Blogs should come with a health warning!! We do need to wake up to how we are creating and spreading these diseases - haven't we learnt from BSE? Greens are now calling for EU laws on keeping factory farming waste out of the human food chain to be clarified in the light of this week’s bird ‘flu outbreak. Caroline Lucas says:

“The European Commission must urgently clarify what laws are in place to ensure that waste products from intensive poultry farms – such as faeces, feathers, litter and body parts not fit for human consumption – are disposed of in ways that ensure they do not come into contact with animals or the environment. We also need to be clear whether it is permissible to use poultry waste of any kind, including meat processing by-products, litter or other waste material resulting from poultry farming, in poultry feed?

“Clearly we must be able to prevent such waste products – which we know can carry and spread the H5N1 virus – from ending up in animal feeds, fertilisers or the environment – and I have asked the European Commission to clarify the current rules on this as a matter of urgency.”

“Bird ‘flu poses a potentially deadly risk to human health. We need to know exactly what causes the virus – and how it spreads and mutates. Until we do, we must impose an immediate moratorium on the import and export of all live poultry products and hatching eggs. It's also clear that all uncooked poultry imports from infected countries should be banned - rather than banning imports just from infected regions of those countries.

Finally, in the light of Professor David King's statement this morning that we might be importing poultry from countries before we know they're infected, we must urgently consider whether we need a moratorium on all international trade in uncooked poultry products.”

Caroline Lucas is also still demanding that the Commission urgently investigates the scientific evidence that suggests intensive poultry farming is responsible for creating the breeding ground for highly pathogenic variants of avian influenza.

This all goes back to the fact that we must produce food locally wherever possible – both to cut out the environmental damage and CO2 emissions produced by transporting thousands of tonnes of food across the globe and to protect ourselves from potentially deadly diseases such as bird ‘flu - which, if it mutates to a form that is transmissible from human to human, could cause the deaths of millions across the globe. At the same time, we must halt the cruel and inhumane factory farming methods which are creating the perfect conditions for the mutation, infection and spread of animal diseases in the first place.

Note:

(i) Dr Lucas' report 'Avian ‘Flu – Time to shut the intensive poultry ‘flu factories' is available at
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk

Plea to County for widespread 20 mph like Portsmouth

The County are currently considering a move to put 20 mph zones outside schools - here below is a letter from me sent to all County councillors and the Highways Department. I await with interest any replies.

I've also enclosed at the bottom of this post a few comments from emails to me regarding 20 mph - sadly Highways is not covered by District Council but it is clearly such an important issue that as you will see from previous posts I've been trying to move it forward.

I write in support of widespread 20 mph designations for all residential areas. The County has made a start but needs to go much further.

You may well be aware that Portsmouth City Council has already adopted a citywide 20mph speed limit with the aim of protecting schoolchildren and other road users from serious injury and death. Other Councils are considering similar moves.

The benefits are indisputable.

Speed is a major factor contributing to road danger and children are in the firing line. A pedestrian struck at 20mph has a 95% chance of survival. This is reduced to 50% at 30mph. 20mph speed limits properly enforced have been shown to reduce casualties by 70% amongst child pedestrians.

Death and injury on the roads is a serious problem in Britain with 10 people killed and 100 injured every day. We have one of the worst records for child pedestrian accidents in Europe and children in the most deprived electoral wards are 3 times more likely to be a casualty than children in wealthier areas. Falling numbers of pedestrians and cyclists are directly linked to such road dangers.

20mph limits are a critical success factor in promoting walking, cycling and public transport as alternatives to the private car. They help create 'living streets' as this is the speed at which drivers can have eye contact with other users of the street. It is the speed at which pedestrians feel more confident about crossing the road, children play outside their homes and it is quiet enough to hold a conversation. Research also shows lower traffic speeds mean reduced air and noise pollution, less fuel use and help tackling climate change. On urban roads lower speeds have been shown to reduce congestion.

Next steps

We need a shift in policy from Westminister to make it easier for local authorities to support 20 mph, but having said that local authorities have room to make significant strides in delivering safer communities and protecting children.

The suggestion to start with 20 mph zones around schools is one positive way forward, but children should be able to walk safely in all residential areas. We need a much more radical policy that ensures all Gloucestershire towns, villages and our city are all covered by 20 mph zones. This is common place in Europe and has potential to shift the way we see our residential areas from viewing them as transport corridors to seeing them as 'living' communities.

Financing and enforcement of such a project are clearly significant obstacles to overcome, but we can start now to create a safer, more pleasant Gloucestershire. All new developments should automatically be designed for maximum 20 mph speeds and a widespread programme of 20 mph zones should be established. If other areas can make these moves there should be no reason why we can't join those leading Councils.

Cllr. Philip Booth, on behalf of Stroud District Green party,
Stroud District councillor for the Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill ward

Some comments from emails to me (identities removed as permission has not been sought for publication):

1. 'We can't have a 20 mph because we haven't had an accident' - Who makes these crazy rules? Thank you for your work on this.

2. I write as I am worried about the speeds on our roads....Is there anything that can be done?

3. As our councillor, we wanted to know your take on the speed limits through Randwick and Ruscombe.....I'm always shocked and alarmed at the speed people drive....I know it just a matter of time before there is a serious incident.What actual ation is being taken currently to reduce the speed limits around here. The lanes are so narrow I think the speed limit should be 20mph.I've read your blogs and I think it is fantastic to have someone so active as our councillor.

4. Speeding cars in Whiteshill has been a problem for many years. I don't see that anybody can do anything about it until we have an accident. What do we pay our taxes for? The main road is to buzy and to many cars. We need a crossing but I the council say we cannot have one as there is not a place to put it legally. Can we have a volunteer to be injured on our roads?

Gloucestershire Unplugged

Unplugged is The Citizen's weekly page dedicated to music in Gloucestershire - the first week it introduced itself: "From rock and roll to rave, emo to electronica, Unplugged is the first place to find out about musical goings-on around the county. Gigs, reviews, band profiles and music news, it is all here, in The Citizen and at www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/unplugged"

I've already passed this info onto a couple of local bands who are already in contact with Paul Jones the journalist organising the site - if you are into music let's make this website work - there has been a lack of a space to share this sort of info - Britain is seeing a resurgence of live music in pubs and clubs and touring jam bands - many more people are doing it themselves - all good stuff and more refreshing than isolated downloading stuff from afar - music can be enjoyed together - let's not get too carried away here but it is also about communities - we sit too long passively receiving our entertainment when it could be great making it with our neighbours...

Photo: councillor practicing music making?

...ummm...having said that not sure if anyone locally would be interested in a tone-deaf councillor in their band?

Painswick library article on MI site

The editor of Managing Information who met with me earlier this week has now added an item re Painswick library on their website here. A much longer article is planned - all good news for raising the profile of this campaign - Managing Information is the magazine for Aslib, The Association for Information Management - established in 1924 - its members are private and public sector companies and organisations throughout the world, concerned with managing information resources efficiently.

Photo: Painswick church from near library earlier this week

Valentines Day: say no to flowers?

Valentines Day is next Wednesday - the greeting card, chocolate and flower industries are working full out. If you're thinking of saying it with flowers, be careful what it is that you say. I love cut flowers but sadly flowers are the most pesticide-intensive crop and flower workers pay a heavy price.

Photo: Supermarket flowers purshased 2 weeks ago for 10p as they were so wilted - amazingly they perked up and have looked totally beautiful even as they fade

A study published by the Netherlands' Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment reported that Dutch floral workers are exposed to pesticide concentrations of up to 60 times the amount considered safe. The Netherlands also has heavily contaminated water and air in its flower-growing regions.

Some 10 years ago, there was a crisis in the U.S. involving the use of a fungicide marketed by DuPont as Benlate. It was a known carcinogen, widely used in greenhouses and people working with plants sprayed with this substance were getting sick. Total litigation costs associated with Benlate have so far cost DuPont an estimated US$1 billion dollars, causing them to withdraw it from the market in 2001.

There are hundreds of pesticides in use, legal and illegal, around the world. Flowers are also dipped in a brew of chemicals to ensure that they look authentically fresh and natural when they are delivered. As you will know if you've been reading this blog regularly, Greens have been campaigning long and hard in Europe to get legislation passed on this - see most recent press release. The hazards posed by these chemicals most directly affect the people working with them at a production level, but they also adversely effect the environment and those living in flower-growing areas. The Toxic Trail website claims there are some 25 million cases of pesticide poisoning a year, mostly in developing countries.

Floriculture is big business, bringing in five times as much cash per acre than fruit - indeed a couple of years ago I read sales of flowers and household plants had more than trebled in the past decade, now standing at £1.5bn annually - and observers of the market think it can grow much more. Like many other industries the supermarkets are muscling in - 25 years ago half of all purchases were made in florists' shops while the big stores had three to four per cent of the market. All that has changed. The major multiples now take over 65 per cent by value, with Tesco selling about a third of all blooms. Some supermarkets now have their own flower farms and can order on demand.

On St Valentine's Day so many of us around the world want red roses - a fresh product which is not in season in most countries. In Britain, the average daily spend on flowers of about £3m leaps to £40m for the day. Many of us have no idea about how these flowers are grown - indeed there is part of me that wished I didn't know - here is yet another example of our failing economic system. We need much more work to protect workers - and in any case what are we doing flying in flowers from countries like Columbia? Infact now only 15 per cent of flowers sold here are home-grown.

Locally grown organic flowers is one way forward - but not sure we'll find them in the snow outside - what else could we do? Maybe it is about rethinking how we celebrate these days which have exploded into celebrations of commercialism with much of their true meaning and significance being lost - see also my blog re Halloween on 1st November 2006. What else?

As noted flower workers work in often appalling conditions producing cut flowers for world markets. I've just seen that War on Want are asking that this Valentine's Day, peop give a gift with a difference and support the flower workers. Just £5 is enough to help their partner provide flower workers with the knowledge to avoid these risks and to fight for better working conditions. Click to find out how you can help:
http://www.waronwant.org/valentines

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study and research and media censored

What is this? Schools closed again - what do they expect working families to do? Children at home again today. Yes of course safety is an issue but you have to wonder - the roads are clear (even all the little roads here), buses are running, people are going to work - yes snow is forecast for later but other countries more than manage.

Clearly one issue here is that people now travel ever further to take children to school - supposedly it is all about choice but don't get me on that one - in most cases locally, we should see local schools for local children - yet what we have is too many children being driven several miles to schools rather than going to the nearest one.....

Anyhow one item that I have been meaning to cover in this blog is the news from a week ago that scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine the IPCC climate change report - the news came to light on the same day as ExxonMobil announced record profits of $39 billion reports - yes that is $39 billion!!

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) with close links to the Bush administration, received more than $1.6 million in funding from ExxonMobil. It is reported in the papers that this was a clear attempt to cast doubt over climate change despite the evidence being overwhelming. The IPCC report (see blog for 5th February) is likely to be the most respected scientific guide to climate change ever published. It will form the foundation of any international agreements around a successor to Kyoto - it is perhaps understanding why they wanted to influence it?

Hot on the heels of this expose, a new document has now accused the Bush administration of deliberately censoring work by climate scientists. A report, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP), was based on questionnaire data received from over three hundred scientists. Over one third (37 per cent) of those who responded had experienced statements by officials at their agencies that had misrepresented their findings, and 43 percent ‘perceived or personally experienced’ changes or edits during review that changed the meaning of scientific findings.

Nearly half of all the scientists (46 per cent) said that they had come under pressure to remove the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ from their documents!

Dr. Francesca Grifo, Director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program, commented: "Every day that the government stifles climate science is a day we fail to protect future generations and our planet from the consequences of global warming. We need reforms that affirm the right of scientists to fully communicate their research and to blow the whistle when important science is suppressed."

In many ways all this uncovering is good news - and proof of what we have suspected for years - indeed as long ago as 2001 I was joining Greens in Gloucestershire to protest outside Esso garages - see here - as Esso, part of ExxonMobil, were strongly denying climate change existed - even then people were saying they were up to no good. Clearly this is another case of big business interfering to maximise profit - 'interfering' what am I saying - they are putting the whole planet at risk with their actions - it does make you wonder who is running these companies.

And as for the media?

Perhaps more worrying is how the media report all this - yes some have covered the stories about ExxonMobil but it is worth taking a closer look. Medialens have just produced their latest essay on this topic - they looked at how the papers covered the release of the IPCC report. See "In the Spirit of Nero" on their website.

On February 3, the Independent noted that the latest scientific assessment by the IPCC provides “humanity's loudest warning yet of the catastrophe that is threatening to overtake us” while The Guardian said “No more excuses”. Medialens write:

"The irony is bitter indeed. While the Guardian’s front page was packed with doom-laden warnings, the centre spread consisted of a two-page, full-colour advert for Renault cars: “Everything is sport.” For good measure, the cover story of the Travel supplement promoted holidays to New York.

"A classic double-page was also to be found at the heart of the Independent: graphs of perilously rising temperatures, text explaining the catastrophic impacts, photographs of climate-related disasters around the world. And also, bottom left on the same page, a large advert for Halfords "car essentials" and, bottom right, an American Airlines advert for reduced-fare flights (just £199!) to New York (You can see pages 4-5 here). The rest of the Independent – like all other newspapers - was crammed with the usual inducements to indulge in unrestrained consumerism: Renault, Audi and Hyundai cars, a multitude of hotel breaks, hi-tech electronic gadgets, credit card loans, furniture and yet more ‘cheap’ flights.

"The message? We’re rapidly heading for disaster and must take decisive action now. Meanwhile, we must continue accelerating along the same path that is the cause of this disaster. Never has the structural conflict of interest at the very heart of the corporate media been more painfully exposed."

"The cover story of the Independent on Sunday’s Review supplement the following day (February 4) was almost beyond belief. The words on the cover ran:"Time is running out... Ski resorts are melting... Paradise islands are vanishing... So what are you waiting for? "30 places you need to visit while you still can - A 64-page Travel Special..." (You can see the cover here).

Let us not forget the Independent is one of the better papers when it comes to raising the issue of climate change - but it still fails catastrophically when it comes to what needs to be done. Indeed it is perhaps no wonder that there is so much misunderstanding around. The paper calls for ‘greener’ economic growth to save the planet and says “The problem is not one of information, but action.” Medialens comment:

"Where are the discussions about the corporate stranglehold on economics, politics, culture and society? About the fanatical, age-old Western determination to control global resources and markets? About the West’s repeated crushing of regional self-development in Latin America, southeast Asia and elsewhere? About the psychopathic corporate imperative to yield, at any cost, shareholder dividends for rich investors? And about the patently unsustainable business model of endless economic ‘growth’?....none of this is up for serious discussion - even as the planet teeters on the brink of the greatest mass extinction since the end of the Permian era, 251 million years ago - is actually no surprise at all."

The essay has more of interest including suggestions for emails to send to key journalists and editors. It is a serious problem that these issues are just not getting the discussion they need.

Councillors: white and average age 58

A census of councillors showed that the average age of a councillor is 58, with more than half over 60, and fewer than 8 per cent under 40. Just under 30 per cent are women, and 96 per cent are white. Elsewhere I read 12% of councillors are in receipt of Incapacity Benefit.

Photo: a picture of self (taken by self - hence strained expression) in Members Room at Ebley Mill

The Governments' White Paper, 'Strong and Prosperous Communities', proposed the establishment of a commission on barriers and incentives to becoming a councillor. It was recognised there was a need to encourage more people to put themselves forward for selection and election, and also that at present, councillors do not reflect the wider electorate in terms of age profile, gender, or ethnic background.

Today there is news of the Commission being established to look at ideas like:

• encouraging employers to promote more part time and flexible working, and provide time off for public duties
• reviewing the time commitments needed to be a councillor and times of meetings
• encouraging councils to look at better childcare support
• providing better information on becoming a councillor and encouraging schemes such as mentoring and shadowing
• more support for councillors to develop necessary skills.

The Commission is expected to report before the end of 2007. In the meantime Local District Council Labour leader Hilary Fowles has put forward a motion to look at meeting times in Stroud at the next Full Council. I have problems with the particular draft motion I saw so wasn't able to give it full support at this point - but nevertheless I fully support the need to look at this issue.

Daytime meetings can be very difficult for councillors who work full time - also the timings of meetings can be poor - DCC for example starts at 10am - why not 9am so people can get back to work quicker? Similarly meetings and training days are often planned for half-term - indeed next Council meeting is right in the middle of half term week. If we are not careful we will only get councillors who are retired or have enough private income/savings to not have to work - infact an excellent Green Parish councillor decided she could not afford to stand as a District councillor as she would be so much worse off financially if she devoted the time she felt the role needed.

District councillors get an allowance of around £3,500 per year plus some travel, broadband and telephone expenses. Special posts like Cabinet members can get lots more - and councils vary - Stroud is comparable to other Glos councils - although District councillors in Tewkesbury District get twice as much!

I'm hoping that at the very least Council will support research into options - a proper audit of current councillors positions is needed if we are to move forward. Apparently this has been promised in the past but not materialised - let's hope this White Paper adds impetus to the need to look at this issue.

Personal relationships training for adults with learning disabilities

I wrote recently to the County Council seeking assurances that work in the area of personal relationships is being continued with adults with learning disabilities if they so choose. I read a couple of months ago in The Citizen that a relationships course was suspended following a complaint by a parent.

Some 15 years ago I was a Social Worker who managed daycare services and developed and led personal relationships policy and training for several local authorities and charities. There are many complex issues which need to be considered before such work takes place including policies, legal aspects, capacity to consent, assessment of sexual knowledge, and the skills that staff currently have.

I am well aware of the sensitive nature of this topic - and of the importance of this work. Too often without such work, adults with learning disabilities can be more open to abuse - and having worked with adults, their carers and staff I am convinced that such work is important in giving many real life choices, knowledge and skills of communication that many of us take for granted.

Anyway I was pleased to hear the County has restarted the courses, having had much consultation and discussion with all parties - I was slightly alarmed on hearing that mandatory written consent was required from carers as this would breach an individuals rights. The suggestion that an adult (able to give informed consent) should have a carers written permission to attend a course is a dangerous precedent and something the Disability Rights movement has fought long and hard against. I have been assured this is not the case but discussions with carers would take place where appropriate.

It was good to hear today on the radio that Help the Aged are publicising elder abuse again. A slightly different issue but one which also deserves more consideration and awareness.

Snow, Environment paper, Paganhill history wanted and more

Snow - astonished to find local schools shut - what is it with a little bit of this whitestuff?? At least it gave me a good time out with my partner's grandchild, but do find it strange that schools close....

Photos: view across to Selsey Common and below Whiteshill - photo already on the Parish website!

Just back from a Scrutiny meeting - looking at the Environment Strategy paper - all 5 Green party councillors there but sadly barely 10 others present - it was our last chance to make recommendations before paper goes to Full Council. Lots of talk and a few good points made - have to say Officers and the current administration are to be applauded about how this policy has been put in place - good consultation and real discussion - and best of all they have been prepared to take on board a huge number of suggestions by Greens and others. To see the issues we raised at this stage see report here.

Indeed the Environment paper is looking good - it is hard at times to know how to make the paper realistic but also challenging - alot of this stuff is new to everyone. Clearly delivery is going to be the key - making it happen. Once we get started we will have a better idea about how we can push it forward....

Also today a Safe Water Campaign meeting - public meeting planned, beer mats, new website, newsletter and even a protest song all out soon! No details for this blog as more work to be done and don't want press picking up on stuff before we launch properly! Having said that - press can contact me if they want an exclusive! Infact today Western Daily Press picked up the Painswick library blog item below - I chatted with one of the journalists and gave them more contacts - so I'm hoping there'll be more on that soon in press.

Anyhow Valerie Regal is putting together an exhibition on Paganhill - she is after memorabilia, stories, photos and more - give her a call on 758835 if you can help. Last year she had an exhibition on the Environment and it was one of the first chances we had to let people locally know about the brook group - it is great that our local community has so many people prepared to give there time.

So what else? Well I've just done a submission re Lydd airport - there is a campaign there to stop the airport near Dungeness expanding from 5000 passengers per annum now to 2 million by 2011 and 6 million by 2021. This is just as crazy as Bristol airports expansion. It cannot be allowed to go-ahead - everyone else has to cut emissions yet here is a project to massively increase them.

20mph zone refused

Many will have read in previous blogs about the the lack of progress towards a 20 mph zone within Ruscombe and Randwick villages. Click 'Labels' below to see maps and previous discussions. Today I had a meeting with three County Highway Officers and a representative of the police who had refused the zone.

Photo: coming out of meeting today

It is clear that Government regulations, County priorities for spending, costs of enforcement and the lack of any accidents means we will not get a 20 mph under the current regime. Highways will be sending a letter to the Parishes confirming this - hopefully I'll be able to put a copy here.

I understand their position but nevertheless passionately argued that we should have a 20 mph zone in all residential areas (see previous blogs and letter for arguments that I wont repeat in this blog). However it is not them that make the rules. We could make a lot of fuss and noise to push for our 20 mph, but this at the moment would come at the expense of another community. To me we need to consider ensuring the County looks at this issue more broadly and ensures more resources are available - Portsmouth City Council for example has already adopted a citywide 20mph speed limit. I have already drafted a letter to the County calling for a change in policy - more of that in a future blog. We also need to support those like Transport 2000 who are challenging the government with their 20 is plenty campaign.

Clearly just getting a 20 mph zone is not the whole answer as enforcement is also an issue - signs are often not enough to slow traffic - other measures are necessary - also much of the area Highways were planning to put in the 20 mph zone is where cars already travel less than 20 mph - and in many cases that is too fast. There is an absurd rule that means they cannot put a 20 mph in areas where cars regularly speed more than that as it would put extra enforcement requirements onto our already stretched police force. So what is the point you might say! Indeed.

So where does that leave us?

Highways have agreed to look at what options are available to the community to reduce speeding on key stretches - measures for example like narrowing the road to slow traffic. We can then consider these and see if there might be other ways to finance them.

I have also asked that they specifically relook at both The Main road in Whiteshill and Church Lane in Randwick as from what people tell me these are considered the most dangerous areas. I also requested that schools and Parishes have a chance to have their say about these - interestingly the County have a motion before them to ensure that all schools have a 20mph outside them. This would be great and add weight to our campaign.

One other option to explore more is the voluntary 20 mph speed limits - '20 is plenty'. This is being trialed in some areas of Gloucestershire.

We are also still waiting in both Parishes for the mobile flashing speed limit sign - this apparently has been held up due to problems that sound so absurd that I need to check before writing them here!!!!

There are no easy answers here - indeed Highways have looked at these roads on previous occasions and no way forward has been found - a crossing for example cannot legally be built on The Main road and the lack of accidents permits more funds being available. The new Highway Officers are certainly prepared to work with us, and this is very positive but it is clear there are many obstacles to overcome. Ideas and ways forward welcomed.

Painswick library campaign goes international?

Well this blog works sometimes - a researcher in London picked up my previous item re Painswick Library - they pass it onto someone at the Managing Information magazine - a magazine that apparently sells in over 70 countries looking at all things to do with information - they contact me and a reporter came out today to talk about progress.

Photo: Cllr Francis Roden and Graham Coult from Managing Information

I am District councillor for the neighbouring ward to Painswick but have not been part of the action group to save the library. However local District councillor Francis Roden has joined the working group - we met at her house in Painswick. For background info read my previous blog items by clicking the 'Labels' note at the bottom of this item - The Painswick Beacon also has an excellent feature about the library giving a great account of the storyu so far and ways forward.

Photo below: The Beacon for those who don't know is an excellent local monthly news magazine - they also have a downloadable version of the latest issue at their website.

Anyhow the meeting with Graham Coult from Managing Information will hopefully lead to an article about how a community is fighting to save its library. He was very positive and keen to see ways he could help - at the same time acknowleding we are really only just at the start of the process.

Brief recap and where now?

At the meeting on 23rd Jan some 130 people turned out, previously 700 people signed a petition and already over £200,000 has been pledged - the community wants this library. It is true it is the least used in the County but it is drab and urgently needs attention - the staff are great and with some love and care to the building this could be part of Painswick's regeneration.

We need to find ways to work with all the parties to get progress on this - it is no secret that I do not agree with the County Councils' closure plans for this library. Can we encourage them to see the importance of local services like this? Services like this are vital to keeping communities alive - Painswick as noted in previous blogs has taken a bit of a knock recently with stores closing, Village Link bus stopping in March, post office threatened etc.

16th Feb is the deadline to raise another £120,000 or so - I do not think it is reasonable for the County to not extend this deadline. They should also return a much greater portion of the money they raise from the sale of the building - as The Beacon writes: "...some might think the County Council impertinent to ask us to pay for something we've already paid for..."

I couldn't agree more. We also need a commitment to ensure that even if the building is sold to the community the County will continue to provide library services. There will also be huge costs in doing up the building: many more ££££££s will be needed!

Photo: inside the library

The Painswick Beacon has an excellent feature on what might be possible - the Painswick Gateway Project - this would include exploring other options like expanding the building to include more community space, possibly a Post Office and maybe encouraging a Farmers Market.

All very exciting and it appears there is good support across the community to take it forward. Keeping local communities viable is also a key part of how we must tackle climate change - a Farmers Market would do huge amounts to cut 'food miles' from all those supermarket goods and could also reduce trips to Stroud or Cheltenham.

Let's hope this article will be another way of galvinising support particularly from the County. It was certainly useful talking to Graham who says he hopes to put a call on MIs website for suggestions to help find ways forward for Painswick. It is great if we can learn from others - as I have noted in previous blogs various Councils are exploring different routes: not all, in my view, are in the best interests of communities - but clearly it is good to know what all the options are.....enough for now on this blog and time for a mug of tea!

Climate change: doing the impossible

With the IPCC report out I'd done a news release over the weekend but felt it didn't really say what I wanted - so this morning I threw together this piece which I'm hoping local daily papers might accept as a 'Comment' piece. Now I should get back to looking at the next stage of Stroud's Environment Strategy paper - Scrutiny meeting this Thursday so yet another draft will be created - so far it is still looking good....but some gaps...more of those in a later blog....

Photo: Ruscombe valley - what a glorious Sunday it was - even sat outside in the afternoon

Climate change: doing the impossible

Tackling climate change can seem impossible. Yet history is full of examples of things happening that previously seemed impossible.

The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms again that the disastrous effects of climate change are already happening and will accelerate significantly without major policy changes. Michael Meacher, former Environment Minister, writes: "What we, and the government, need to get our minds around is that we are at war: at war against climate catastrophe, presenting us a far greater threat towards our survival than 1939."

So why aren't we moving to renewable power like wind and solar, introducing personal carbon allowances, massively increasing energy conservation and more? How can we end this carbon addiction? Well, like with other addictions, we have first got to recognise the problem.

Denial is not an option. Scary reports do little to help: indeed can paralyse people with fear. We need more real communication about the ways forward: not more spin. Al Gore's excellent film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has been a great help. More and more people are waking up; businesses are taking action, local Councils are developing strategies and new groups like Transition Town Stroud are developing local solutions. Even China has made dramatic shifts with new legislation not least because of the impact floods and drought will have on its food supplies.

Opposition in this country is also growing to criminal plans like new coal power plants and expansions in aviation: over 3,500 objections to Bristol airport expansion alone. The word 'criminal' is not used lightly: the average Somali is about 100 times more likely to die from events caused by climate change than the average American, despite emitting roughly 16,000 times less carbon. We must cut emissions not create more.

We can all play our part in our own lives but we also urgently need changes in government policy. We can write letters, use our vote and join the march on 24th February in London against Trident: money spent on nuclear weapons could instead meet the threat of climate change and offer much greater security, justice and peace.

The changes ahead mean that nothing short of a new human era is in the making. The choices we make now will determine whether the birthing is successful. The move away from the needs of more economic growth to the basis of what is good for humanity has started. Let's make it happen.

Painswick: library hope after repeated blows to town

Latest news after a public meeting last week in Painswick is that Gloucestershire County Council will still sell the building - gaining an estimated £325,000. They are offering a possible 20% discount to a community group but at the moment are not giving assurances about whether they will continue to fund library services in the town other than a visit by a Mobile Library.

Painswick library is apparently the least used in the County - but anybody whose visited it will know it is very drab to say the least - investment is urgently needed - and works - Dursley library has seen significant increases in use since the new building was opened.

So where are we now?

The United Reform Church are offering some £150,000 if they can also have use of the building and already an astonishing £52,000 has been raised by the community - the local newsletter, The Beacon, has also just gone out with an appeal to 900 homes for more money. The County have extended their deadline until mid-Feb. This to me is an outrage. How dare they sell community assets in this fashion. Worse still it was only a couple of months ago that Cabinet Councillor Tony Hicks apparently promised the library would not be cut.

I have spoken with several local people including one of the local District councillors about how best to go forward - I suspect there will be cross-party support locally for calling the County to not sell or at least not give that money back to the community - already 700 people signed a petition to save the service - mind even if the community can raise the money they need a commitment to staff the service. It could be a great opportunity to really develop a community resource. Certainly it is needed.

Painswick is at a bit of a turning point - and more County cuts

Already the bank has closed, only one store left, the Post Office for sale and news that the North Stroud Cotswold Link bus service is to be axed.

The pattern of odd library closures is being repeated across the country - more worrying is the cuts to new books, hours of opening etc. Indeed in today's Citizen Glos County have announced there will be cuts to staffing at libraries.

A new way forward?

A new development is that councils are looking at handing responsibility for libraries over to local communities, following the breakaway of five Buckinghamshire branches from council control in October 2006. Northumberland, Lancashire county, Powys and Dorset councils along with our very own Gloucestershire are all looking to see if they can turn small branches over to local residents, who may have access to parish grants not open to county councils.

Paul Leivers, head of cultural services for Dorset, where 13 libraries face the axe, said: "We want to see if there are ways of maintaining the service without it necessarily being run by the council. We are under huge cost pressure [and] if there are ways of squaring the circle, that is the right thing to do." Jo Hand, assistant head of libraries in Gloucestershire, agreed, saying: "We are looking at new ways of delivering the service, which can be just as effective, if not even better."

This new model, whereby councils make local people responsible for running and often funding the service themselves, was first implemented in Buckinghamshire and endorsed by minister for culture, David Lammy, at the Public Library Authorities conference (see below). Other councils considering the move are less convinced of its merits. Marguerite Gracey, head of libraries in Northumberland, where 12 branches are under review, said: "It's the only way of keeping it going, but how long for, I'm not sure."

This echos my own fears - grants are one thing but often dry up - County's can then stand back and avoid blame as libraries close. Heres the bit about David Lammy from the Bookseller, 13 October 2006:

Delivery of the public library service could be handed over to local communities, Minister for Culture David Lammy has revealed. He mooted the move at the Public Library Authorities (PLA) 2006 conference in Southampton, as part of a wider plan to loosen central government's grip on the sector and expand its community role. Lammy flagged up plans for substantial changes to the way libraries are assessed. He said the plans would be "leading to a system with much less red tape. Councils need the powers, and the freedom, to respond to local concerns". The devolution could be extended beyond councils, Mr Lammy added: "I can even imagine community groups being commissioned by the council to take on and run their library. We should not be afraid of that." The suggestion follows a similar move by Buckinghamshire residents, who defeated plans to close eight libraries with proposals to run the service themselves. Residents in Caton, Lancaster, have laid plans to open a community-run library which would charge members £5 to £10 a year. Lammy also responded to ongoing calls for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to ringfence book funds or to seize control of failing authorities. He said: "What one community may want can harm another and a national policy or initiative is not always the answer to the problem." However, the Shadow Minister for Culture, Tory MP Mark Field, said the DCMS had a statutory responsibility to provide a "proper library service" to the nation. The news comes as The National Lottery released £80 million of capital funding to public libraries to help strengthen the service's "place in the community life". Grants of between £250,000 and £2 million were made available to local authority library services in England to improve buildings or expand the range of activities on offer.

Meanwhile my previous blog item (see 'labels' below to find previous entry on 1st June 2006) on Painswick library led to Ruth Rikowski contacting me. An expert in this field she will be talking about her globalisation book at a London meeting of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. See
http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/feb07.htm

She aslo informed the Managing Information website to put the blog as an item of news on their website: Managing Information - Your Eye On The Information World - plus an item on her own site:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=news&sub=General%20News%20Items

Think that's enough for now on libraries - time for something to eat!

Tory Gloucester candidate Richard Graham on health

Gloucester Tories picked Richard Graham just before Christmas to fight their seat at the next General Election. Richard is a Cotswold District councillor for Cirencester Park and, when he was trying unsuccessfully last year to become Stroud Conservative candidate for the election, he telephoned me - he commended this blog and was after the low down on Green issues - all credit to him for doing homework - it is a pity more politicians don't talk more.

Anyhow I don't know his 'green' views - does he for example support Tory plans to expand aviation and road building? I hope not! But that is perhaps for another blog - for now I wanted to pick up on his campaign to save mental health services at Holly House in Coney Hill. It is great to have his support for such vital services, but Labour have a point when they note it was Tory MPs who voted against all the extra money now going into our NHS.

Labour also claim that his fellow Conservative councillors on Gloucestershire's health committee have given the thumbs-up to plans for the closure of this important Gloucester resource. This is less clear as they are constrained by Government but either way Labour and Tories should really share the blame. The truth is that Labour's management of the NHS is misguided, but when you look at the underlying causes of the crisis, privatisation and marketisation, then you can only conclude that a Tory Government would be just as bad. See Green party letter here.

Our own Weavers Croft in Stroud remains threatened - and papers have also been reporting on yet another review of maternity services. I can't see how it can conclude the Maternity should close and at the moment am optimistic that it will confirm the need for it.

Tear up your Ramblers Assoc membership!

Well that was what I thought before Christmas when the Ramblers Association decided to campaign against wind farms. I was angry - can they really not see the dire straights we are in??? I am still angry - but would urge those members to campaign to change their organisation. Certainly in other areas much good work has been done by the Ramblers Assoc in obtaining our rights of way etc.

Photo: Gloucestershires' only large wind turbine at Nympsfield, near Nailsworth

Wind farms can be beautiful and certainly are an essential part of the solution of tackling climate change. In the reports the Ramblers Assoc tried to defend a position where massive centralised generating stations feed a national grid. Yet they conveniently made no mention of power and energy loss through transmission and seem to ignore the present arrangement of transmission lines, which are surely as unattractive and larger than those associated with wind farms.

Repetition of an ill-informed tirade against on shore wind farms without giving any consideration whatsoever to curbing demand and improving efficiency of energy use, is irresponsible. The use of language in describing wind farms was highly exaggerated and presumably written by someone who does not live within sight or smell of existing fossil fuel or nuclear power stations, an open cast coal or uranium mine, or had their landscape ruined by oil and gas pipelines.

The question of who is benefiting from the development of wind farms was rightly raised, though they do not offer any realistic alternative which would, for Greens, ideally tie in benefits to local communities. They also leave the door open for nuclear power - I fail to see how they could tolerate nuclear stations and waste being around for a million years and burdening future generations with their cost and poison. Why on earth did the Ramblers Association not come out with a strong positive statement supporting a sustainable energy vision for the future instead of a negative lambaste providing no new or helpful solutions to future sustainable solutions?

All this leads me to Cripp Wind Farm in Cornwall...the district council received 550 letters of objection to a planning application for three new wind turbines at Morwenstow. The hub height will be 50 metres and each will have three, 31-metre blades. Objectors raise a variety of concerns including noise, visual impact and the effect upon both the economy of the area and its wildlife. It really does seem strange how these turbines generate such opposition when all statistics show support amongst majority and that I understand usually extends to their local area. Anyhow Planning committee rightly voted for a Sites visit - many await with interest to see if they follow the officers recommendation and the silent majority in approving the application.

Clearly those of us who support turbines - and we don't support them everywhere - clearly siting is important - but there needs to be a better way to support such applications. In this country people seem to only respond to a defined threat - objections are common but writing in support much rarer. A local Green party member was last year the only witness at a public inquiry for looking at a turbine in the Mendips - there were many against. In that case planning permission was granted - see news release here.

Anyhow this came in from a Green party member down that way as his letter to the Planning Department supporting the application - it makes some excellent points.

As a regular visitor to North Cornwall both to see friends and get to the nearest good beaches, although I live in Caradon, I would like to comment on planning application 2004/01028 for a small Wind Farm at Crimp. I see from your report that many objections have centred on supposed visual impact. I would like first to address this issue before moving on to more technical matters.

As someone whose major recreation is walking and cycling the lanes, moors and coasts of Cornwall I have to say I find the objection on grounds of visual impact most odd. To me the sight of wind turbines, whether on the skyline or in the valley below, is quite inspiring, speaking of man working in harmony with nature. The structures are wonderful examples of form following function, and to my eyes at least, quite beautiful.

We should remember that the whole landscape around us, including our Cornish AONBs, is entirely man-made - and if you know how to read the landscape it has a wonderful story to tell. Just as the lines of pylons marching across the country speak of the arrogance of the 50's-70's when we thought that we could enslave nature, and the military golf-balls at Morwenstow or the dishes at Goonhilly remind us of our mid 20th century visions of a space-age future, so the modern wind turbines speak of man finally learning to use technology in harmony with nature. I find the sight of the turbines at Cold Northcott and Delabole quite inspiring.

Whether the small domestic turbines that we start to see mounted on individual properties, or the massive majestic structures you encounter in much of northern Europe, these are truly beautiful objects that serve to enhance the landscape around us. I am strongly in support of the Crimp application and urge you not to reject this progressive application on the basis of a misguided aesthetic judgement.

I am surprised that Cornwall County has gone against the advice of its officers and considered that it would have adverse landscape impact. This is a purely subjective judgement and I wonder on what authority our County Councillors presume to make such judgements.

Turning to the more technical arguments that seem to be advanced; as an electronic engineer I am not fully qualified to comment on the more detailed aspects but I would offer the following observations from my interest and study of wind power (and other renewable resources) as an activist with the Green Party.

There do seem to be some concerns about the effectiveness and return on carbon investment of very small scale domestic turbines. This application is substantially above that threshold and since it is a commercial application I would presume that the applicant has made the appropriate measurements of the available wind resource at the site and is confident of a return. Objectors suggesting that there may be insufficient wind, or that the net CO2 savings over the lifetime of the installation are inadequate, are at odds with the facts.

We have several successful and proven Wind Farm installations in the County, and Cornwall is blessed with some of the best wind energy potential in the UK. We should be seeking to take a national leadership position in developing on-shore wind in Cornwall. Crimp will certainly make a positive contribution to our renewable energy portfolio. The draft SW RSS target of 20% of the region's energy from renewables by 2020 is woefully inadequate -- we should be seeking to make the region as whole, and Cornwall in particular, self-sufficient in energy by 2020 without importing fuel (gas, oil, coal, uranium or other non-renewable resources) from outside the region.

I notice that a significant number of the objections you have received so far are from local residents, in particular the Parish Council. In general we should be trying to ensure that there is some community involvement and benefit from renewable energy developments (for example by local ownership stakes providing discounted electricity to the community) and it is a weakness of this application that it fails to address the potential community benefits. However, given the current market and commercial conditions in which on-shore wind developments have to be undertaken it is more or less inevitable that the local community will feel excluded from the process. This, however, does not seem to be a valid basis for rejecting the application.

You also seem to have an avalanche of objections from organised lobby groups opposed to any and all wind farm developments. Given that a commitment to onshore wind is enshrined in government policy, regional policy, and local policy frameworks; these objections would carry more weight if they proposed where, within North Cornwall in particular, and Cornwall in general, they would like to see wind farms developed.

I am not aware of any evidence (and I have looked) that the presence of a wind farm has any adverse effect on tourism and visitor numbers in the local economy. For every visitor who finds them intrusive, there will be another who finds them inspirational. We have had significant (and much larger than this proposal) wind installations in Cornwall for many years now, and there is no evidence of a negative impact. Personally I have friends who visit the area who have stated that they really enjoy the sight of the Cold Northcott wind farm as we drive up to the beach.

In terms of wildlife impacts once again we do not seem to have much evidence to support the assertions made by the objectors. In the few cases where there have been problems elsewhere they are generally due to specific local conditions.

I believe that we have a wonderful opportunity in North Cornwall to take the lead in development of on-shore wind facilities. I would urge the planning committee and the full council to support this application. I would like also to see the council work with both this proposed developer, and also with prospers of future applications, to try and build some genuine local benefit into the schemes.

Yours Sincerely
Roger Creagh-Osborne

I've rambled long enough - if your a Ramblers Assoc member consider writing to the Ramblers now and tell them what you think.

Ruscombe Brook meeting success: potential horrors of sewage explored

On Wednesday 31st January, 25 people were at Ebley Mill Council Chamber to discuss setting up a partnership between the Ruscombe Brook Action Group, SDC and other agencies to improve the biodiversity, water quality and enjoyment of the Ruscombe brook.

Photo: presentation in Council Chamber

I organised the meeting on behalf of RBAG - we need a partnership if we are to seek funding and agree the best way forward. SDC's Drainage Officer Bob Nightingale has been immensely helpful since our group formed - giving advice etc - he organised the venue for us - we then sent out all the invites and were fortunate to have a good selection of councillors plus key Officers including the Chief Executive turn up.

Cllr Laurence Carmichael who is now a Cabinet member, kindly accepted our invite to chair - her ward borders the brook and she has been very supportive of the project.

I kicked off with a presentation of the project so far which has included involvement with local schools, a planned joint leaflet with Severn Trent and a conference last year at Ebley Mill which over 70 local people attended - see 5th January Blog for summary.

Helen Patrick, one of the group members whose home backs onto the brook then outlined our next steps forward - plans for the partnership of stakeholders similar to the Dorset-based Bourne Partnership who led a seminar we organised at Ebley Mill last year. Then considering an exciting offer from Water 21 to scope what needs to be done along the brook: the offer is for at least £3000 worth of assessment to look at what should be the prioritioes, what is possible etc.

We were then extreemly fortunate to have a presentation by Professor and Consultant Hugh Barr, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Bioscience at Cranfield University on his work looking at water quality - his presentation was shocking to say the least.

Photo: Julian Jones, Water 21 and Professor Hugh Barr

I hope to write more on this in the future but his concern is that the sewage entering our waterways could be much more dangerous than we have thought in the past - incredibly there are 100,000 consented outflows of pathogenic waste discharges into brooks and rivers in England and Wales each year - plus thousands of other discharges. There are, as noted before, no standards in the UK for pathogenic material in our waterways!

After Hugh came Julian Jones, from Water 21, who has also been immensely supportive of the project - he outlined previous work with which he had been involved including a reed bed project in Southern Sudan. He also talked about how the reed beds worked and possibilities for the brook - he also highlighted one particularly interesting local project that sadly didn't happen - a small hamlet that was looking to go on mains sewers - Julian put a £25,000 alternative proposal together for reed beds to deal with all their sewage - the biomass crop they would produce would also be enough to provide significant amounts of the homes energy. Sadly they chose the £250,000 route to go onto mains sewers - ten times the cost!

Julian also outlined the survey work of the brook taking account of stakeholder needs. This would then allow the Partnership to explore funding opportunities to make the improvements suggested.

We finished with discussions and agreement to form a partnership - a few more details to tidy up but basically it's a goer and we can also then proceed with Water 21s offer. Great stuff - My hope is that if this model of partnership and community involvement is successful it might be possible to repeat it along other watercourses in the District.

Computor probs, Vista and Cabinet

Computers....there used to be a rule many years ago at various places I worke that you couldn't have drinks at the same table as a computer. Sensible stuff - but mostly ignored - well ignored by me for many years - yesterday I spilt the tiniest slurp of tea into the key board - it really was a v small amount - what havoc it has wrought!!

Photo: neighbours cat steeling bird food from another neighbours bird table this morning

Incredibly this water managed to get into the delete key and before my eyes wiped out all 180 emails in my inbox and proceeded to wipe them out from the Trash as well - further problems continue but I am at least tapping away again - as for the 180 emails well I've retrieved about 30 from webmail online but the rest are lost! It is strangely liberating to find them gone - but at the same time hours wasted looking for stuff - and some info will never be found - so if I've not answered an email of yours please resend to me!

Mind these computer problems are nothing compared to what Microsoft are unleashing on us - see my news release re their new Vista, from earlier in the week. Now that really is a computer problem.

Anyhow it was Cabinet last night and several issues discussed - the three main ones being:
- Woolaway prefabricated homes that need attention (several reports given on those - SDC have done lots of good consultation but really feel they could have done better as just heard about a woman with reading difficulties who never responded to the consultation and didn't understand the phone call to her).
- Tenant Participation update - SDC doing v well compared to other Councils
- Environment Green paper reachs the next stage - no point in comments here as next week there is a special meeting to look at it - need to find time this weekend to pore through this latest version.

Don't tell anyone about Data Protection Day

Monday was Europe’s first-ever Data Protection Day. Twenty-six countries took taking part but can you guess which one didn't?

Photo: me renewing passport early to avoid registration

The UK government - and perhaps not surprising as they are trying hard to destroy privacy through 'Data Sharing'. The Council of Europe describe the day as: "to give European citizens the chance to understand what personal data is collected and processed about them and why, and what their rights are with respect to this processing."

NO2ID have declared 26th March 2007 as 'ID-Day'. The head of the UK Passport & Identity Service (UKIPS) has now confirmed on national radio that ID interrogation centres will be opening their doors for business around this time. The majority of those to be called in for interrogation in the first year will be 16-24 year olds, as UKIPS is initially targeting those applying for their first adult passport.

Therefore every young person that needs to apply for their first adult passport should do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to avoid a complex, intrusive interview leading to possible later entry on the National Identity Register - as well as the added expense and delay of having to travel to an interrogation centre.

Photo left: Private Eye from last year

Government documents show that it expects fully 1 in 4 young people to fail to get a passport in time to make their trip because of extended delays in the new system, and it is already paying for adverts to try to fool/convince people that there is some 'benefit' for them in all this. There isn't.

See my blog on 30th August for more info - click labels below. Use NO2ID's petition:
http://www.no2id.net/downloads/forms/NO2IDpetition.pdf

Casa Mojo, Italian architecture and Fringe Cabaret

Catch up on bits of local news:

Casa Mojo, Stroud's newest restaurant serving Polish and Italian food is owned by Polish-born Magdalena Flukto who lives in Randwick with her partner Benjamin Ford. I've heard very good reports so plan a visit soon.

Rachel Carter, 19, whose family live in Ruscombe, has an exhibition in Star Anise cafe in Stroud, of her work done before starting her degree course in September. The exhibition, entitled 'Out of the Sun Hut', opens Monday and will run for 3 months - Rachel says the Sun Hut is the name of her shed studio so is essentially where the work came from. The work is mainly infuenced by a trip to Italy and focuses on architecture (see photop above).

The Hub Collective return with another Fringe Cabaret on Friday from 8.30 at the Sub Rooms - amongst the players will be Ruth Royall (pictured left in SNJ) - lives in Ebley and is making a big name for herself - the SNJ describe her as the 'mesmerising and intoxicatingly soulful Ruth Royall'. It is true she is great!