Party funding talks collapse

The collapse of the cross-party talks on party funding chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips is deeply disappointing and sends out a terrible message to the electorate.

This isn't going to stop politicians from increasing state funding - in the last year alone MPs voted for themselves a £10,000 annual Communications Allowance. Without an agreement this will only get worse and increase the influence on individual millionaires while local politics will continue to decline and cynicism about politicians will fester.

The Tories objected to Sir Hayden’s draft proposals on trade unions yet the rules clearly state that donations from trade unions will only be exempt from the cap if they can be clearly linked to an individual and subject to an audit trail. The Conservative objection appears to rest on the idea that trade unionists should be capped more heavily than rich businessmen, which is manifestly not equitable.

I do not agree with all the proposals - indeed they go nowhere near far enough - but at least Sir Hayden’s draft proposals are an attempt to get to grips with this issue.

As Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey said: "By pulling out of these talks following the collapse of the police investigation into the alleged abuse of the honours system earlier this year, the message of the major parties to the public is clear: it is business as usual. This can only lead to greater cynicism and alienation from the political system. So much for Cameron’s and Brown’s competing claims to embody ‘new politics’. It is time for Parliament to try and get them out of this mess."

Cabinet sings praises of brook action group

Stroud District Councils' Cabinet have approved the Ruscombe Brook Action Group (RBAG) memo of cooperation (see previous posts). The meeting on Monday afternoon was an additional Cabinet meeting to look at flooding issues - for details of some of the points see last blog entry - or watch the webcast of the meeting.

Photo: Cabinet papers

It was good to hear the Cabinet recognise the good work of RBAG - see Special Meeting of Cabinet 29th Oct here:
http://www.strouddc.ukcouncil.net/site/index.php#pp10946

Thanks indeed to all who have helped - a well deserved recognition from the Council.

The Cabinet also covered other flooding issues and are giving some of the central government money to help prevent future problems in Slad brook and other water courses. Tackling prevention makes much more sense than some councils that are using the money to re-wallpaper houses. They have also confirmed a Policy Panel on Sustainable Urban Drainage systems - something I have been requesting for a while.

All these are excellent steps towards developing an holistic approach to managing water in the District - something much needed as Cllr Lunnon noted at the Cabinet meeting.

Other brook and water-related news:

The Lawns - I went with another RBAG member on Monday night to Cainscross Parish Council meeting to hear Stroud Valleys Project share more re the Lawns project - more of that at next RBAG meeting - they have produced plans for management of the site looking at key issues like biodiversity and use of site. I was able to share some of the results from Ismailas project on the brook.

Next RBAG meeting - 7.30 Tues 4th Dec - contact me for venue and further information. Join us!

Randwick sewage incident - Severn Trent will be renewing the manhole cover on the Randwick tributary this Thursday (see earlier blog re problem). They have also been measuring flos with a flow meter at that site.

Cotswold Canals Brimscombe Area Action Plan - The Area Action Plan is now open for comments. For more details click here.

Brook update: MSc project, plan and Cabinet meeting

Last week we had a Ruscombe Brook Action Group meeting - minutes will be out soon but wanted to give a brief summary...

Photo: Aerial view of brook

MSc report and plan for brook

The highlight was hearing from Ismaila - the Masters student from Glos University who has been researching the brook - I can't go into details here as his project was huge but he gave us a brief verbal summary (written available soon) - it showed that between June and September this year water quality remained fairly good although deteriorated down the length of the brook - there were no sewage incidents during that time - looking at the silt along the brook - again this got worse as he got down the brook although the worst point was at Puckshole with lots of nasty faecal contamination.

His recommendations included more sampling and SUDs - Julian Jones from Water 21 will now be working on these plans and suggestions to present a first draft plan of action for the brook - he hopes to have that at our next meeting (see date below). It is brilliant to have such great support for the project.

At the end of the meeting we presented Ismaila with a framed photo of the brook and thanked him enormously for all his work.

Update on work along the brook

We have only had one serious incident in recent months where sewage got into the Randwick tributary (see previous blogs). Severn Trent have installed a flow meter in the sewer to see if they can identify problems at that point.

Severn Trent Water have also been cutting roots in sewer pipes that run near the brook, and other works - these do seem to have significantly improved matters. There is also now a plan to reline some sections of sewers where roots have re-grown- indeed they have been approaching householders to get permission to go on their land.

Leaflet being delivered

The Severn Trent funded leaflet about the brook is now being delivered - more of that later - but huge thanks to all who are helping with that.

Memo of Cooperation and Cabinet meeting

We now have nearly all relevant bodies signed up to a memorandum of cooperation to look at sustainable ways of reducing flooding at sites like Puckshole and improving water quality and biodiversity. Stroud District Council's Cabinet are due to consider it tomorrow (Monday) - see below - they are also looking at various other issues related to flooding like the Slad Brook Action Group - clearly with properties and businesses flooded they need to be a priority for funds - plus tackling Stratford Park where 600 tonnes of rubble and silt was brought down the brook there by the floods.

Another idea that gets support from me is funding the setting up of a voluntary watercourse wardens scheme - again more of that in future posts.

Cabinet recommends to Council that: (i) The £60,000 Flood Relief Grant be allocated up to the levels indicated:- (a) £9,000 (revenue) be used to remove rubble and associated debris from the Painswick Stream.
(b) £25,000 (capital) be used to fund an inspection of culverts and a hydraulic study of the Painswick Stream so as to identify a prioritised programme of necessary repairs and improvements which will be used to advise riparian owners of their responsibilities.
(c) £6,000 (revenue) be set aside to assist the Slad Brook Action Group (SBAG) to accomplish small scale clearance works.
(d) £15,000 (capital and revenue) be set aside to assist SBAG in working towards establishing an attenuation scheme on the Slad Brook to alleviate the risk of future flooding events.
(e) £5,000 (revenue) be used to promote the concept of watercourse wardens with Parish Councils and to provide necessary training and guidance.
(ii) The action plan in appendix B to report DS-137-10-2007 be approved.
(iii) Council agrees to be a signatory to the Ruscombe Brook Group Memorandum of Understanding as set out in appendix C to report DS-137-10-2007.

Next RBAG meeting

Do join us at our next meeting 7.30 Tues 4th Dec - contact me for venue and further information. Join us!

Dismay at British government over Burma

I am dismayed at the lack of action on Burma from the Department for International Development (DFID) - the British government has been better than many at calling for international action yet DFID is failing us. MPs had demanded a big increase in aid to Burma, funding for cross-border aid, and funding for projects promoting human rights and democracy in Burma yet DFID has taken no action in any of these areas. Take action at: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dfid_action.html
(See previous posts re Burma by clicking on Label below)

Undemocratic Regional Assembly for the chop - but what in it's place?

Some interesting correspondence regarding the membership of the South West Regional Assembly below - of course this Assembly is set to be abolished very soon - see consultation details below - but thought worth including here how this undemocratic Assembly works - basically excluding large sections of voters views - perhaps no wonder they can come up with a Regional Spatial Strategy that increases emissions over next 20 years instead of cutting them.

Photo: Randwick Woods

Anyway here first is how Assembly Members are currently identified:

Seventy percent of the Membership is drawn from the region's 51 Local Authorities. The remaining thirty percent of the Membership is drawn from sectors across the region. These Members are known as the Social, Economic and Environmental Partners (SEEPs). In addition, there are two National Park Members and two representatives of Local Councils (Parishes). Local Authority Members are identified in two ways.

First, each Local Authority nominates one Councillor to represent the Authority on the Assembly. These 51 Members are then 'topped up' from County and Unitary Authorities with additional nominations to ensure the Members from Local Authorities reflect the political makeup of the South West as a whole. These additional Local Authority Councillors are nominated by political groups in the South West in accordance with a formula agreed nationally by the Local Government Association and the political parties.

To answer your question, political parties are represented on the Assembly by Local Authority Members, and therefore, a Green Party Councillor would have to be nominated by the Local Authority on which they sit to serve as an Assembly Member. In addition to the Local Authority members, there are currently 36 Social, Economic and Environmental Partners (SEEPs) amounting to 30% of the total Membership of the Regional Assembly. They represent a number of sectoral interests of importance across the South West, which includes the Business and Economic Sector, Agriculture, Health, Environment, Trade Unions, Learning, Skills and Business, Voluntary and Community, Equalities, Youth, Faith Communities, Public Transport Users and Housing.

All aspects of SEEPs Membership is reviewed every four years. SEEPs are nominated by regional organisations from the sectors listed above. In order to qualify as a nominating body for the Assembly, an organisation must demonstrate that it has a regional remit, represents interests in economic, social and/or environmental development, and has clear processes in place for selecting its representatives to the Assembly. The term of any SEEP appointment is set by the nominating body and is usually between two and four years, though some require annual elections. Like all other Assembly Members, the SEEPs sign up to the Code of Conduct for Members and complete an annual register of interests. More information about the Regional Assembly and Assembly Members can be found on our website www.southwest-ra.gov.uk

Another question was posed by a Green:

"These 51 Members are then 'topped up' from County and Unitary Authorities with additional nominations to ensure the Members from Local Authorities reflect the political makeup of the South West as a whole". I take it that by "political make-up" you mean the political constitution of the various Local Authorities. Democracy is that system of government where ultimate power resides in the will of the people.

The people express their will in a vote. The electoral system then interprets that vote in a variety of ways. In the UK we have a particular electoral system called First Past the Post (FPTP) which results in a variance between the proportional vote expressed by the people and the resulting representation of elected members on the Local Authorities. In "topping up" to reflect the "political makeup" of the South West as a whole, the SWRHA is perpetuating the distortions arising from FPTP. It would be more democratic if the political allocation of the SWRHA were to reflect the votes cast in the South West, rather than the seats allocated.

Here was a response:

As officers, it is not for us to agree or disagree. The South West Chamber and the South West Planning Conference agreed the constitution for the Assembly when the two groups came together to form the Assembly in July 2000. The constitution under which we work includes details of how the Membership should be identified based on the Rallings and Thrasher model, which is also the method the National LGA employ. If you have any further questions, you may find the answers by looking at our Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.southwest-ra.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=61&tt=swra

And some more Green comment:

Thank you for the link to the FAQs. I read: "...the share of seats each party has in a local authority is calculated. For example, if in a 40 seat council, party A has 12 seats, party B has 15, and party C 13, the percentages would be 30%, 37.5%, and 32.5%. Each party is then said to represent that proportion of the authority's electorate, expressed in raw figures." This means that instead of taking the actual vote cast, which would respect the principle of democracy, the method used includes the distortion applied by the electoral system, which includes the notorious effects of the FPTP system.

Well fear not - the Government announced in July that Regional Assemblies will not exist in their current form after 2010 - therefore questions on the future of regional governance in the region, should be addressed to the consultation when it is launched by Government http://www.southwest-ra.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=3322

I have to say the proposal for Regional Development Agencies is equally worrying - again seem to be totally undemocratic.

Cashes Green Hospital site latest

This comment piece appeared in The Guardian yesterday about the Cashes Green Hospital site (see also previous blog entries using search facility on this site - 13th June last main entry) - I've also added a bit more after this article...

Photo: Cashes Green Hospital main building

Opinion: Does Whitehall really trust us on housing?

By Peter Hetherington - Wednesday October 24, 2007. See article in The Guardian here

No one can doubt the commitment of Hazel Blears in championing the cause of "community empowerment" - namely giving people the tools and confidence to run neighbourhoods free of the dead hand of town hall and Whitehall. Launching an action plan last weekend, the local government and communities secretary invoked her record in Salford, where she is MP and resident: "All my life I've been a firm believer in local activism ... my whole approach, fashioned on the streets and estates of Salford, is anchored in localism and devolution."

The plan contained 23 areas for action, including one to support a cooperative concept of land ownership, apparently dear to the heart of Blears who wants communities, rather than state or local government institutions, to control neighbourhood assets wherever possible.

Community land trusts, an innovative concept yet to take off in England - although self-governing Scotland has set the pace with far-reaching land-reform legislation - should fit the bill. The trusts hold land in perpetuity after it has been transferred from a public body or an altruistic landowner. One effect is to rule out speculation and ensure that the community captures an increase in value - a handy asset to borrow against for further local benefit - once planning permission is granted for housing and other neighbourhood facilities.

But there are already problems, leading some to question the will of Whitehall to deliver. In the one area regarded as a national pilot for land trusts, activists are discovering that reality on the ground does not match ministerial rhetoric.

The Gloucestershire town of Stroud might appear an unlikely starting point. But outward signs of prosperity obscure a deepening housing crisis for locals priced out of the market by second home owners.

At stake is a 4.5-hectare (11-acre) former hospital site, known as Cashes Green, on which a local community land trust wants to build 77 houses; 50 affordable units cross-subsidised by the 27 for sale. In June, the government's regeneration agency, English Partnerships (EP), under the wing of Blears' department - which acquired a string of former NHS sites for housing - announced it had agreed to hand over Cashes Green to the community land trust, subject to ministerial approval. In a statement, the agency stressed its support for innovative methods of delivering homes for renting and buying.

But when the deal reached Whitehall, matters stalled. Some believe EP was asked to think again. Now, it seems, a revised plan will propose that between a third and half of the site goes for mainly social housing run mutually. Most of the rest will go for private development. This will effectively end the mutual ideal, scuppering the plan. It seems that, in the culture of short-term Treasury accounting, Cashes Green is less "valuable" as a community resource; ie, more private houses will yield a better return. The matter has gone back to EP for further consideration. The community trust, Gloucestershire Land for People, is perplexed. Stroud's Labour MP, David Drew, is " worse than annoyed ... we're [now] struggling to get it off the ground."

No matter that those ministers are committed to increasing England's level of social housebuilding - almost doubling levels to 50,000 annually after three years. "If the government wants to increase supply to these levels, it's crucial to use public land," says one official close to negotiations. "It needs to weigh the long-term gains in providing decent housing against the short-term gains of increasing capital receipts."

What does this teach us about community empowerment? Perhaps, while welcoming the worthiness of Blears' commitment, to reserve judgment on the implementation of detailed plans.

In Scotland apparently 'landed power' did all it could to block land reform from taking off. Fortunately under Donald Dewar politicians took the side of the people and so the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 was pushed through as flagship legislation for the new Scottish Parliament. This legislation provided a high level of political impact for very little cost to the public purse - Scotland has moved from a situation where there was very little Scottish land in community ownership to one where there is now 367,000 acres under communities ie 2% of the Scottish land mass!

This is how it has been described by Professor Alastair McIntosh: "The basic driving mechanism is simple. The average cost of a rural hosing plot in Scotland is £50k, which requires earnings of about £8k after tax and NI to cover the mortgage for the land value portion of value alone. But agricultural land sells for only £3k / acre, and you can comfortably put 7 plots on an acre. The current status quo is stitched up by land ownership and a planning system that has failed to take on the evolution of low-impact ecological architecture and the need to rekindle both a rural and urban human ecology. If communities are given back the land, huge economic benefit, and more, is set loose. On the Isle of Gigha, for example, only one new house had been built in the previous 30 years of landlordism. Since the buyout, 30 houses have started going up, half of them in social ownership, and life has returned to a dying community."

England has not yet woken up to what land reform really means as the asset base for community empowerment. Alistair McIntosh goes on: "It is about much more than agriculture, or even socially affordable housing and entrepreneurial opportunity. It is about rekindling applied values in what I call the Cycle of Belonging. Here, 1) a sense of place generates, 2) a sense of identity, that carries with it, 3) a sense of values, which in turn nourishes, 4) the sense of responsibility necessary to cultivate social justice and environmental sustainability in strengthening community of place. Too often this agenda in Britain and a wider Europe has been grasped by the xenophobic political right and applied in ways that would seek to build identity through exclusion – especially minority ethnic groups. In Scotland we are very clear that identity linked to place must be inclusive: the way that I put it is:“a person belongs inasmuch as they are willing to cherish and be cherished by a peoples and their place.”"

Let us hope Hazel Blears wakes up to the potential here on our doorstep.

Andy Wightman's website is good with good links at:
http://www.andywightman.com/
See also:
http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/

Proposed incinerator near Stonehouse?

On Monday one of the meetings I attended was of Green councillors looking at waste in the County - could write for pages on that - indeed many items on this blog - but a crucial issue was the concern that the County maybe going back on it's promise of no incinerator...

Copyrighted photo reprinted here with permission of Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan. See more photos.

I hope this is not true as I am sure there will be mass protest if such a proposal is serious - below is my letter yesterday to the Cabinet member responsible at the County Council - I await with interest - meanwhile Martin Whiteside has sent a letter to local press putting the case against a monster incinerator. The Green party email lists have also been alive with debate - more of that perhaps in another blog and below after this letter....

I note that you are looking at all the options regarding waste for the County - I also note that the Government has not made it easy for Councils - you'll no doubt be aware that Ken Livingstone recently weighed into the debate with a strong case that Labour Ministers are colluding with incinerator operators keen to win lucrative contracts.

I write as I have grave concerns about Glos County Council noises in the press recently about the possibility of Gloucestershire having an incinerator. You will know that many are wholly opposed to this unnecessary and damaging move. Indeed I had thought the idea well and truly buried as I understood Conservatives in the County had promised no incinerator?

It is the view of some waste experts that fines are being used to 'terrify' councillors and others into making a decision for incineration. Correct me if I am wrong but I understand that to meet the Landfill allowance trading scheme (LATS) we need 65% recycling/ composting/ recovery. That means we only need a tiny recovery if you get 50% composting & recycling by 2020. That should be possible - and provide more jobs.

The LATS system has been going for just over 2 years and I understand the report on the 2nd year is due any day. It is only the biodegradable content that counts ie landfill 100 tonnes of mixed household waste and you need 68 tonnes of LATS. If you could take out the 68% that was biodegradable and landfill the 32 tonnes remaining you would need zero LATS. The way to get to LATS is to aim for zero residual waste. You then need a far smaller treatment plant and you need it at a lot later date. It would seem most councils will only need to treat a around 15% of the waste if they meet the governments 50% recycling targets unless they have a large population growth.

Clearly there is an issue around what percentage of waste would be incinerated in any incinerator. However I strongly consider we can do this without resorting to incineration - reducing, recycling and home composting - with a truly decentralised system for dealing with the remainder cleanly and efficiently - as I am sure you are aware the technology is now available for smaller local units such as ‘gas pyrolisis’.

Incinerators, as I am sure you also know, create legally binding disincentives to improving recycling by tying the council into a contract to supply waste for incineration, they produce extra traffic and noise, have 5 times fewer jobs than recycling, have health risks, they destroy valuable resources, produce toxic ash which still has to be land filled and exacerbate climate change because when materials are burned, more fossil fuel energy is used to replace the products through mining, manufacturing, and transportation.

I hope very much that you will be able to choose the sustainable solutions that will bring the most benefits to Gloucestershire and future generations. I would be interested to hear more on your thoughts.

Best wishes, Philip

Cllr. Philip Booth

Most of the latest strategies re waste still are based on waste growth to justify building big burners. Leicestershire for example expects waste to grow 40% over the next 32 years but it
is in fact down 4.5% over the last 2 years. The massive waste growth is over here in Gloucestershire too... Practical maximum levels of recycling may be 70-80% today but the waste facilities have very long contracts. Products will be redesigned if they cannot be recycled as we run out of resources. We need residual waste treatment to sort the residual into fractions which are then treated differently. We need to render the biodegradable fraction inert. Aerobics digestion may well be the best method at the moment. We also needs plant(s) to be adaptable to cope with falling residual waste tonnages. Short contacts are vital to prevent the residual waste treatment forcing the long term production of residual waste.

In 30 years time you should look at 97.5% recycling and 2.5% residual. That means the average material goes though the consumer 40 times (i,e, 1/40th is lost in each pass). The very best extreme recyclers get to that level today.

Want to write more but a Ruscombe Brook Action Group meeting very soon so must gather bits together....

Ground Source heat pump in District

I've been asked a couple if times about these pumps - basically Ground Source heat pumps are a tried and tested Scandinavian technology, but not yet in widespread use in the UK. They work by extracting heat from the ground, via a borehole, and using this to heat the property. This reduces running costs and CO2 emissions.

Photo: Ruscombe village

A Housing association in Cornwall has retro fitted them to a handful of dwellings. Stroud District Council are part of an energy forum of local social housing landlords, and none of them have yet installed heat pumps in their social housing. The problem with energy saving measures in rented homes is that they are high capital cost to the landlord but they do not see payback as the tenants gain the benefits of reduced running costs.

Grant funding has now been available from Powergen for a minimum of six adjacent properties. This means that the cost to SDC of installing a heat pump becomes comparable to that of installing oil fired central heating, and hence affordable to SDC. They have picked properties in Coaley as they are away from the gas main (SDCs first choice heating fuel); some have solid fuel heating that was approaching the end of its life, and some night storage heating.

SDC have 7 properties on the scheme. Each will have a new central heating system, served by the heat pump, which will also provide hot water. Their homes will also have an insulation upgrade, which will include checking cavity wall insulation, improving loft insulation, replacing ill fitting external doors and checking windows for draught proofing. Part of the project will be to review the running costs and performance over the course of a year to see what might be possible elsewhere.

Camp Hope success

It seems clear from the people who joined the camp that it was a big success in raising awareness. Some 100 people on the Saturday and 30 camping the night - TV crews and journalists - I know Greens who went are writing letters to the local press as a follow up.

Photos: The Citizen had a good article with photos of Gloucester and Cheltenham Green party members supporting the demo - below is the leaflet handed out to the airport.

Kevin Lister, one of the key organisers of the Camp, is to be applauded for his energy and passion at getting this issue onto the agenda - see his letter here to the airport management praising them for their approach to the Camp but also strongly disagreeing with them about their conclusions. It is at least welcomed that the Airport has reversed their opinion on climate change and now accept that it is a real concern.

It was also interesting to hear about the anger of some locals to the airport - as Kevin notes in his letter one Staverton resident told about how every second house in his street seems to have a cancer victim - even if this is an exaggeration it is deeply worrying - I had not been aware of this additional issue - but apparently this would concur with research which shows cancer clusters around airports - see http://www.areco.org/ExpAir.pdf

While cancer is another aspect around the airport growth, the issue around climate change remains the most important - unless we can act on this then we are in serious trouble as this blog keeps saying!

I wrote this week another letter on aviation - this time to the Local Government Association weekly mag to all councillors - there had been yet another article singing the praises of expanding regional airports - see my letter here.

Liberal-Tory proposal to scupper efforts to tackle climate change

Having had a go at Labour in my last post I don't want people to think the other lot are all wonderful - here is an exposure of Liberal and Tory MEPs -the European Parliament is voting today on a report outlining how it believes emissions reductions from cars should be achieved and what limit values should be proposed, with a view to influencing forthcoming legislation.

Copyrighted photo reprinted here with permission of Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan. See more photos.

UK Tory and Liberal MEPs have proposed an amendment to set weaker emissions limits for carmakers and to postpone the introduction of these limit values by a further three years, despite the urgent need for action. Basically they want to allow carmakers to produce dirtier cars and to delay the introduction of urgently needed emissions limits - this will scupper EU efforts to combat climate change.

An independent study, presented by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament last week, showed that only by introducing strict limit values for passenger cars as soon as possible will the sector be able to contribute sufficiently to enable the EU to meet an overall CO2 reduction target of 20% by 2020. The study showed that an average CO2 emissions limit value of 120 g/km must be introduced by 2012 if cars are to contribute their share towards the EU's overall emissions reductions and that stricter limit values for 2020 will also be necessary. In order to meet the 30% reduction, which scientists say is absolutely vital from industrialised countries to tackle climate change, significant measures not only to reduce vehicles emissions but also to reduce the amount of car travel are necessary.

Caroline Lucas MEP Comments: "The EU must make these deep cuts in its CO2 emissions if we are to try and keep climate change in check. Letting those sectors that are the worst performers off the hook, by allowing them to delay urgently needed emissions cuts, would make a mockery of the EU's climate strategy. The European Parliament has consistently called for strong measures to tackle climate change and we hope they will continue to do so and reject the Tory-Liberal proposal."

Labour failure on climate change and peak oil

The Guardian reports that leaked documents suggest that Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

This is monstrous - see a Green party press release that I sent out earlier today. I have highlighted this previously and can hardly believe Labour are still pushing this - all their talk of action on climate change amounts to spin - emissions have risen under Labour when we need a 90% cut. A local Whiteshill resident also pointed me today to the Oil Drum where there are some more comments re Labours actions on this.

Meanwhile a new report notes world oil production is to 'decline at a rate of several percent a year' and forecasts 'disturbing scenes of mass unrest' - see Energy Watch Group release yesterday they say that last year we have already reached peak oil - the point when oil extraction reaches its highest point and then starts to decline - see Stroud Green news release here. Again Labour are failing to act on this crucial issue.

Culling badgers 'counter-productive'

The Green Party has criticised the the government's Chief Scientific Advisor's recommendation that culls of badgers should be carried out to control the TB epidemic in cattle. This is deeply disappointing that they could ignore the science. See our local news release today here.

This is an issue I have followed over the last couple of years - Greens in Stroud mounted a campaign last year - that's me in the badger outfit in the photo - I've spoken with numerous people including several local farmers both supportive of cull and against and with local vets who support the cull. See Len Ballingers story here - he was a local farmer whose cattle were the first in Britain to be linked to the theory that bovine tuberculosis comes from badgers and he has since rubbished the connection – and declared his land a "no-kill zone".

The story is not straight forward but despite seeking the evidence to see if a cull was justified I have failed to find any that makes a cull the answer - the stuff is just not there - as Roy Hattersley says today in The Guardian 'Science backs the badgers' - I am sure this will lead to more local actions by the Stop War on Badgers group - I have joined there meetings several times in the past - their website is well worth a look to see a slightly different view from the Badger Trusts - basically we urgently need research that is broader than the past trial and looks at wider issues - I'm no scientist but my gut feeling is that it is our industrialised farming that is at fault - it is crazy that dairy farmers need to increase yields from cows by some 3% a year and many now keep cows inside all year around - see a letter I wrote last year here.

Latest on Puckshole

Work has at last begun on Puckshole - the workers are saying it will take 2 weeks before the road is reopened.

Top 20 Green blogs

This year Jim Jay selected his top 20 Green blogs in order below - sadly Ruscombe Green didn't make it despite monthly viewing figures of over 1000 people (470 plus of those are returning for more looks) and average stay times of 8 minutes. As he notes himself it is difficult to compare political blogs that cover local council issues with ones about economics or living a green life or whatever - the competition is stiff - the top 20 is below and Jim is now seeking a peoples vote - go here to vote - our very own Stroud-based Molly Scott Catos blog 'Gaian Economics' is at number 7 - see her comment about the voting.

Photo: Prof Rupert Reed - a Norwich councillor and leading Euro candidate has just started blogging- see here

Here is the 2007 top twenty submitted to Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging by Jim Jay:

1. Alice in blogland
2. Sian Berry
3. Tom Chance
   
4. Transition culture
5. Derek Wall
6. Jenny Jones
7. Gaian Economics
8. Know your place
9. Peter Tatchell
10. The Ecologist
11. Green Girls Global
12. Earthquake Cove
13. Philobiblon
14. The Void
15. Green Ladywell
16. Barkingside 21
17. Green Jelly Bean
18. Coventry Green Party
19. Conserve England
20. Greenman's Occasional Organ

Crash at Whiteshill turns Ruscombe Road into A46

Yesterday I waited for the 10.22 Gloucester bus at the Woodcutters, Whiteshill - there did seem to be very little traffic coming up the hill - a police car eventually stopped and informed us there had been an accident and the road was closed - it was hoped it would open in 2 hours or so - well back again the bus still wasn't running.

Photos of crash courtesy of Parish Councillor Gerri Kimber who lives near the site

I don't know what time the car was eventually cleared - and hope no one was hurt - the accident did make Whiteshill wonderfully quiet but with Puckshole and the A46 still closed it turned the Ruscombe Road into the A46 - cars streaming down despite reroutes via Stonehouse. Ironically the Parish had received an email yesterday from the Cabinet member at Glos County Council noting it seemed that the current measures re the traffic were working in Whiteshill.

It is true much has been done (see label below for more re A46) - I don't know how this accident happened but it is clear that the traffic is still too fast and too much. We need 20 mph and traffic calming measures - and will continue to push to get our village back.

Anyhow by the afternoon I wasn't feeling so great anyway so my trip to join Camp Hope (see previous blog) had to be cancelled - a great disappointment - I had armfuls of sandwiches and more to share there - apparently it was a wonderful atmosphere on Saturday - more of that in a later blog - today am feeling better but have a busy week and need a quiet day - as regular blog readers will know my health has not always been as good as I would want - a great pity as I really wanted to be at Camp Hope - it is infact 5 years on Wednesday when I wrote my first press release re Staverton. Those of us writing in protest then seemed lone voices - it is great to see the mushrooming of support.

Camp Hope tomorrow

The camp will be directly opposite the entrance to the airport on Bramfurlong Lane - see map below - see you there.

See background info here and by clicking on 'Airport' label below...also the residents campaign website is now looking great - see it here - it also has various ways to take action. By Bus - The Number 94 bus service between Gloucester and Cheltenham, stops 900m from the Airport entrance. Ask the driver for ‘The Plough’ or ‘Airport’ stop and follow the signs from the road junction. The bus operates in both directions, every 10 minutes.

PhotoStroud: a monster success

Monday evening I went to the opening of the PhotoStroud Festival of Photography 2007 exhibition at the Museum - this is just a couple of exhibitions in a whole host of venues.

Photo: Main exhibition room at Museum

'Facing Youth' at the Museum in the Park features photos by 13 to 17 year olds who attended workshops by Alexander Caminada - there are also some of his photos there - what a great project - we need more of these across the District!!

Photo: Two of Alex Caminada's shortlisted photos - of Puckshole resident and fishmonger David Felce and sculpter Simon Packard whose children go to Randwick School. These are the photos causing controvesy as they have been banned from the final competition due to the frames being while - Alex was offered black ones but considered they would damage the integrity of the photos - he felt guidelines were not clear enough.

The other main exhibition at the Museum is the Stroud District Council arts award shortlist - the public can vote on their favorites and that will form 25% of the final judging.

Photo: Cyril Laffort: loved his photos

This Festival is another example of Stroud at it's best - a large number of photographers are exhibiting across the area - the Sub Rooms, the space, Ruskin Mill, Stroud College, Kanes Records, Tinto restaurant (with Bread Street photographer Mike Gallagher), Kingshill House, Woodruffs, Mills cafe, the Apollo cinema, Star Anise, Prema and many more venues. I've since Monday managed to catch a few others - it is worth the effort before they end on 27th October.

Photos: Allotments

A huge thank you to all who helped organise this event - a wonderful enriching experience. I totally agree with the letter in this weeks SNJ thanking especially Fred Chance and Carlos Ordonez.

Civil Parking enforcement and more scrutiny

I've not slipped off and deserted this blog - it's been a busy week with various bits and pieces - so rather than go into lots of details I'll do a brief summary - do please email or call me if you want further info.....in terms of Council business the week started with...

Photo: Police have parking enforcement responsibilities until 5th Nov - here they are earlier this week in action opposite Blockbusters

Parking briefing

On Monday for all councillors - Parish and District - but being during 'normal' working hours meant only a few of us there. The District takes over responsibility for civil parking enforcement from 5th November - basically this is good news re more local control but it is yet another squeeze on local resources - no extra money to set up ie £1.2 million - when the parking ticket fines come in they will help running costs - when we break even then we can spend money on related community benefits - some say we never will break even - there is no contribution from central government and it seems the police who will have a much reduced work load in this area also wont make a contribution or see their monies drop.

District councils will enforce on-street parking in most of Gloucestershire from 5th November. Five district councils will be taking over from the police traffic wardens in a partnership project led by Gloucestershire County Council, the sixth - the Forest of Dean - is likely to follow next May.

Introducing Civil Parking Enforcement will hopefully help the District to manage congestion, improve turnover of parking spaces outside shops, prevent abuse of disabled bays, and release police resources to tackle crime and disorder. So from 5th November Stroud District Council will be responsible for both on and off-street parking enforcement, with a team of parking attendants on patrol. While Cotswold District Council will be carrying out back office functions including payments and penalty charge notice processing on behalf of Stroud District Council. Plus the County Council will deal with parking strategy and new parking schemes. The police will still be responsible for enforcing cases of 'obstruction', for example cars blocking a private driveway or a road without road markings.

There is lots more info about how this will work on the District website - with more info coming soon - Winchester has seen a 50% reduction in double yellow parking andcar park use is up 8.6%. So hopefully good news for the District - many issues were raised - indeed - well over an hour of questions.

Photo left: New road paint in Randwick - in my view unnecessary urbanisation of our village

I noted that as a result of the hand over to the District we have seen loads more road paint put down - this urbanises rural areas and is unnecessary - there are other ways of restricting parking than all the ugly paint - sadly there was not time for the County to review these issues before reinforcing existing Traffic Orders - a missed opportunity.

It now seems that if we want changes to current Traffic Orders we will need to put forward a case - it is unlikely any but the most urgent will be considered in next two years due to finances etc. It is vital that complaints about the service/parking issues are made so that a picture of problem areas can be fully assessed.

Resident Parking permits is an issue that needs looking at urgently - there are streets that face considerable problems - I've attended several meetings with residents and others in areas like Lansdown - yes we have problems here in Whiteshill but the problems there are terrible with cars parked on pavements, regularly mounting pavements and travelling far too fast....anyway enough on parking...

Planning Scrutiny

As part of the Quarterly Service Plans in my role on Scrutiny I get to see two service heads each 3 months to scrutinise their plans and more - this week I met with Phil Skill, Head of Planning and Cllr Lunnon - my report will go to Scrutiny meeting next week - but just to note the discussions included Section 106, performance indicators and the impact of Huntsgrove.

Regeneration Scrutiny

I also met with Nick Fenwick, Head of Regen - again with Cllr Lunnon - again my report will go to Scrutiny next week - issues covered include transport interchange, the planned new Regen Strategy, the Green Travel Plan and again 106 agreements.

Other stuff

An interesting meeting re Stroud Rugby Club proposals, a meeting in Cheltenham with Friends of the Earth Coordinator re Staverton (Don't forget Camp Hope this weekend) and more...got to go now so this will have to do for now - more later.

Blog Action Day for Environment

Today is Blog Action Day for the environment - we have just seen one in solidarity of Burma - it is great issues like this can get wider coverage and make people think but of course we need this topic on the environment and climate change to be discussed and acted on everyday - it needs to become part of our consciousness. See more re day here and more here soon.

Gore, the Nobel and the court case

Congratulations to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who share this year's Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Mr Gore is described rightly as "the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted" to solve the climate crisis. It is true that Mr. Gore has been able to use his position to push this issue - shame he didn't do more when he had more power.

Meanwhile we are getting more nonsense trying to challenge climate change - while it is true there are going to be areas of doubt and concerns the central thesis is incontestable - sadly when doubts are thrown it stops people from taking action....

The Guardian’s environment correspondent David Adam wrote a piece on Thursday last week reporting on the court case brought by Stewart Dimmock, a member of the New Party, challenging the government plan to show Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (AIT) in schools, on the basis it is “misleading”.

Resolving scientific debates/disputes is really not best pursued in a court but that’s where we are on this one. It is important to note the judge has concluded the film AIT was "broadly accurate". There has been a question that the film is alarmist. Yet the basic case on global warming is fundamentally alarming - very alarming - it is easy to sound alarmist - of course we need to put a balanced case - and this will alarm some - and it is clearly important we should try not to be unnecessarily alarmist.

I fear that despite the result of the court case we may have to deal with another wave of climate change denial - see my previous blogs like Gore hypocrite? and climate change denial here and here - indeed already the nonsense in the Global Warming Swindle programme is to be sent to all schools - see more re that here and click on last 'here' link for my rebuttal of the claims.

Below I post notes from a Green party colleague, DC, who looks at the case in greater detail - many thanks to him indeed:

I’ve expanded on David Adam’s 8 (yes 8) bullet points. I’ve added a ninth point. And I’ve watched AIT again and it is hugely impressive. Get it in context. It is a hugely important riposte to the carbon club/lobby and all the malign corporate forces who seek to sow doubt about the reality of global warming. There are just a couple of points where Gore could be pulled up, the Lake Chad reference and the Pacific Island evacuees. If you haven’t seen it – view it!

QUICK SUMMARY OF WHAT FOLLOWS. THE NEW PARTY HAS PARTLY SUCCEEDED IN A PROPAGANDA WAR ON GORE’S AIT. GORE’S MOVIE STANDS UP TO SCRUTINY AND HE CAN ONLY BE CHALLENGED ON A COUPLE OF MINOR CAUSALITY AND TIMESCALE POINTS. AIT SHOULD BE CHAMPIONED AS A GREAT INTRODUCTION TO GLOBAL WARMING. IT HAS HUMOUR, PASSION, WARMTH AND LOADS OF USEFUL INFORMATION.

The nine points: fact or fallacy? David Adam Guardian 11/10/07.
·The film claimed that low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls "are being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming" - but there was no evidence of any evacuation occurring

DC said: The island of Tuvalu has received much attention and it and its people are experiencing a rise in the sea-level. Mark Lynas in his 2004 “High Tide” devoted a chapter to Tuvalu – population 10,500. On the issue of evacuation Lynas interviewed the Secretary to the Government who said “We couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, … so far we have received approval from New Zealand to allow seventy-five people a year to go there. We don’t know, [when this will start] but it will be this year … ” (p85).

The Association of Small Island States website here has information which is relevant and provides lots of links. A Wiki search on Tuvalu confirms the annual quota of 75 evacuees to NZ and took me here where I found this article “ENVIRONMENT:Tiny Tuvalu Fights for Its Literal Survival by Stephen Leahy”in which he says … “More than 4,000 people havealready left the islands to live in New Zealand.” However the Wiki piece quotes the former PM of Tuvalu as saying that evacuation of the entire population is not necessary. I get the sense that the former PM reflects a feeling of pride and a determination to hang on, which is understandable. So maybe it is difficult, or indeed impossible, to find examples of small islands which have been evacuated completely. But evacuation - seen as a process as opposed to a single event - is clearly under way.

For reference this is from the New Party website. “The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.”

·It spoke of global warming "shutting down the ocean conveyor" - the process by which the gulf stream is carried over the north Atlantic to western Europe. The judge said that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it was "very unlikely" that the conveyor would shut down in the future, though it might slow down

DC said: There has been much debate on this over the last couple of years. The Gulf Stream has not always existed and there may be a time in the future when it slows significantly or stops. See this Wiki page for a brief summary. Real Climate has discussed this at length. Mark Maslin in his “Global Warming” has discussed the GS - see page 107. In sum there is little chance of anything dramatic happening on a short time scale. The scientists are gathering more evidence/measurements and will report in due course. Should the GS slow Europe is likely to be subject to a cooling effect but this has to be set against global warming generally. Predictions of a new ice age either in Europe or world-wide are wide of the mark.

For reference this is from the New Party website. “The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.”

·Mr Gore had also claimed - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed "an exact fit". The judge said although scientists agreed there was a connection, "the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts"

DC said: This is a complex one. Real Climate (again) has explored this at length. Here they conclude “… CO2 has not gone above about 290 ppm any time in the last 650,000 years (at least), until the most recent increase, which is unequivocally due to human activities.”

Coby Beck over at Grist deals with this objection. “In glacial-interglacial cycles, CO2 concentration lags behind temperature by centuries. Clearly, CO2 does not cause temperatures to rise; temperatures cause CO2 to rise.” He responds in conclusion. “So it is correct that CO2 did not trigger the warmings, but it definitely contributed to them -- and according to climate theory and model experiments, greenhouse gas forcing was the dominant factor in the magnitude of the ultimate change. This raises a warning for the future: we may well see additional natural CO2 come out of the woodwork as whatever process took place repeatedly over the last 650K years begins to play out again. The likely candidates are out-gassing from warming ocean waters, carbon from warming soils, and methane from melting permafrost.”

DC again: The key point to bear in mind after exploring geological time and wading through all this correlation vs causation stuff and is that we are causing the current warming. Those who refer to the past in an attempt to sow doubt on this are, to put it politely, dissembling.

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years."

·Mr Gore said the disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to human-induced climate change. The judge said the consensus was that that could not be established

DC said: Maybe Gore overstated the case here but here is the conclusion from Eric Steig at Real Climate here (Warning long detailed post.). Steig concludes “Based on what is now known, it would be highly premature to conclude that the retreat and imminent disappearance of the Kilimanjaro glaciers has nothing to do with warming of the air, and even more premature to conclude that it has nothing to do with indirect effects of human-induced tropical climate change.”

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct."

·The drying up of Lake Chad was used as an example of global warming. The judge said: "It is apparently considered to be more likely to result from ... population increase, over-grazing and regional climate variability"

DC said: The judge appears to be right here but unpack the “regional climate variability” and ask: Is there a global warming contribution in there?

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case."

·Mr Gore ascribed Hurricane Katrina to global warming, but there was "insufficient evidence to show that"

DC said: It is correct to say we should notattribute one-off weather events to global warming. What we need is data gathered over a period of time. This may show trends. My bet is that when all that has been done Katrina and other weather events will be seen as the consequence of global warming. But there is a place for pedantry and we can introduce inaccuracies if we rely on polemic. For examples of the, very necessary, pedantic approach see Chris Mooney’s work here or more particularly this on Katrina and if you want to see another pedant challenging Mooney checkWilliam M. Connolley’s blog here Mooney has a book forthcoming “Storm Wars”.

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming."

·Mr Gore also referred to a study showing that polar bears were being found that had drowned "swimming long distances to find the ice". The judge said: "The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm"

DC said: Much debate about polar bears at William M. Connolley’s blog. Go here for instance Looks like we might not really know what’s happening to polar bear numbers. It is true that, the less sea-ice -less bears, argument has gained traction.

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm."

·The film said that coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors. The judge said separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution, was difficult

DC said: Maybe there is something in what the judge says and Mark Lynas in his “Six Degrees” notes coral suffers from “ … sewage, over-fishing and agricultural run-off … ” (p44). However he also details bleaching of coral on the Great Barrier Reef in1988 and 2002. The result “A small number of reefs … suffered almost total wipeout.” (p41). Caspar Henderson here follows all this closely. His Coral Story blog addresses the question “Will tropical coral reefs be the first ecosystem to be eliminated by global warming?” I expect Henderson’s forthcoming book will shed much light on this. In the meantime it is clear global warming is some sort of threat to coral.

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim."

DC said: A final point on melting ice-caps and rising sea levels. The New Party seek to downplay the rate at which land based ice is melting and the consequent rise in sea-levels. The Greenland ice-cap and Antarctic ice are the issue here. My understanding is that the Greenland ice is melting at a faster rate than previously thought. Tim Lenton -University of East Angliasays “ …observations indicat(e) that the ice sheet is already in net mass loss and the rate of mass loss has accelerated in the last decade. The timescale for the ice sheet to melt is at least 300 years and often given as roughly 1000 years. However, given that it contains 7m of global sea-level rise the corresponding contribution to sea-level can dwarf other contributors.” On the prospects for the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet he says, “A worst case scenario is for collapse to occur within 300 years, with a total of 4–6m of global sea-level rise.” For more from Lenton go here.

So the worst outcome is that we could have a 12m approx rise in sea-level within maybe 300 years. Now the time scale may be longer and the sea rise may be less. Our actions will in part determine the future. But it is troubling when a timescale of hundreds of years leads to a complacent shrug of the shoulders. Again we are dealing with a process, already underway, with momentum built in. I’m inclined to look at the near future – surely a half-meter rise in sea-level within decades with more to come - is bad enough.

For reference this is from the New Party website: "The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia. The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing. The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration."

In conclusion

The New Party take Gore to task. They insist his movie is inaccurate – implying low standards or worse. The government defence seems less than impressive and the judge bases his conclusions on what exactly? But look at the New Party summary of the judge’s decision and compare it with David Adams reporting of same. Exaggeration and inaccuracy appears to be allowable for the New Party. They demand perfection form Gore but are cavalier in their own statements.

Population growth of humans and animals needs debating

On one email discussion list I'm on, the issue of population growth was raised - some of my response is below - I include mainly because this issue is still not getting enough 'air time' and because the issue of animal population growth is something I haven't got my head around...and indeed appears even more of a not-talked about issue....

Population as a recent Ecologist article notes is a hot potato - Jonathon Porritt recently got attacked in a totally unreasonable manner in The Guardian by Madeleine Bunting - anyhow the figures on population growth are staggering and should be cause for concerns (read more at the Optimum Population Trust).

We had last year a Cafe Discussion in Stroud on this issue that produced some very interesting discussions - the main parties have still not grasped the radical change needed to tackle climate change - standby button, light bulbs etc are important but only a tiny part of the solution - and in reality we are still only talking only about one half of the equation: the emissions we generate, not how we generate them - indeed standby buttons and low-energy light bulbs are dwarfed by the pressure of a global population rising by the equivalent of Britain every year.

As one article notes: "Put simply, if governments want to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent, and the world's population rises to the mid-range forecast of 9.2 billion, each person would in fact have to slash their emissions by 72 per cent."

Some population campaigners argue the world can only support a population of around three billion, some even less - but even if reducing the world's population is uncomfortable, it is worrying that there is not even a proper debate about this - certainly the biggest obstacle to debate is the matter of possible solutions. Here is another comment: "Propositions such as ignoring disease or limiting life-saving medical treatment can be ruled out as unacceptable, and birth control is objectionable to many on moral, religious and libertarian grounds. It is not surprising that green groups and politicians, worried about offending supporters, stay silent. There remains a fourth barrier to raising the population issue: even when people acknowledge the problem and brave the debate, it seems too big to solve. But there are things that can be done at least to reduce population growth."

Family Planning is one of those - over 200 million women in the world don't have access to 'safe and effective' contraceptive services plus some 45 countries have policies to increase birthrates. Certainly as noted in others comments to this list good family planning services, especially combined with women's education and human rights, are a part of the answer.

It was then that someone posted to the list: "By far the biggest population explosion is in animals which we are deliberately breeding for food. The number is now so great that they eat 5 to 10 times as much plant food as humans and compete with us for many scarce resources (especially land, water and fossil energy used in production) to supply a comparatively small quantity of meat. As well as breathing out CO2 they also produce methane which is 20 times more powerful. This area needs to be addressed, and could be dealt with a lot quicker than the human population."

This issue of the impact of animals on climate change is one I've raised before on this blog - but I have to say I wasn't aware of this explosion in numbers - it is absolutely right it needs tackling but we need to address both these issues - human and animal population growths - both have massive effects on climate change.

Ten Canoes

Well I did get my DVD last night - Ten Canoes - wasn't sure at first but ended up enjoying very much - the Special Features section was able to give lots more info about the struggle to make the film - in some ways that info made me appreciate much more the film and indeed it was great to hear how the making of it led to a renewal of pride in aborigine culture/history. It was fascinating to see the revival of canoe-making techniques and learn about some of the customs.

The film won various awards - See Guardian review here. It also brought back memories of working in the Sydney office of Community Aid Abroad back in 1985/6 - now known as the Australian Oxfam - I was fortunate to work alongside a couple of aborigines on one project - and indeed learnt lots.

Britain scuppering EU's renewable energy plan

Britain is now trying to wreck planned EU legislation to enforce a binding target of using renewable power to produce 20% of Europe's energy by 2020.

This target was agreed by Tony Blair last spring - Britain still produces only 2% of its power from non-fossil fuel sources such as wind and solar. However British officials yesterday in Brussels supported a system of mandatory trading permits between countries so that member countries that did not meet the renewables target would be able to buy in permits from other countries that had surpassed it. This would enable Britain to get to, say, 10% of its energy from renewables by 2020 and buy in permits from countries, perhaps outside the EU, to cover the rest.

This is outrageous and another example of this Government's total failure to understand climate change - and what of the need for energy security?? As Friends of the Earth commented: "The can't-do attitude to renewable energy is deeply worrying and a self-fulfilling prophecy."

It was some two months ago when we heard that officials had advised ministers that the UK had no chance of achieving the 20% renewables target and should work to undermine it at a European level or try to use "statistical interpretations" to get round it. Now we see them doing just that.

Basically an EU trading system would destroy the successful "feed-in tariff" schemes operating in countries including Germany and Spain. Such schemes, which are rapidly being adopted by other EU countries, involve paying micro generators above-market prices for electricity they feed into the grid.
Sweden - good news

Meanwhile it was good to hear of more news from Sweden - a country with a plan to be free of oil dependence by 2020 - The Green Party favored a Stockholm congestion charge for decades there - it was conservatives who blocked it. We now see the congestion charge being imposed under the country’s present conservative-oriented coalition government. Sweden’s Commission on Oil Independence, a government panel, also was a longtime Green Party initiative that is now embraced across the Swedish political spectrum. “The Social Democrats stole it from us,” Bolund says. He then grins, saying that the Greens must be prepared to be mimicked across the political mainstream to succeed.

The Swedish government also recently adopted another Green Party idea: a vehicle tax based on carbon dioxide emissions rather than weight. Bolund pointed out that some cars (such as hybrids) are heavy, but relatively low in fossil-fuel emissions. This is the latest wrinkle in a sixteen-year-old Swedish movement toward carbon-based taxation. The country was the first in the world to adopt a carbon tax, in 1991. Today, nearly half of the Swedish income tax burden has been phased out and replaced by levies based in some manner on fossil-fuel consumption.

Tecno solutions - not the answer

These are the ways to tackle climate change - not wriggling out of commitments - it is extraordinary how our Government seems to have no real plan - meanwhile there continue to be an extraordinary collection of absurd and often dangerous ideas being put forward: putting thousands of mirrors into orbit or launching up to 30,000 ships to pump salt spray or sulphate-based aerosols into the atmosphere in order to try to deflect the sun; deliberately polluting the seas with vast amounts of iron nanoparticles that stimulate CO2-storing plankton; and covering entire deserts with reflective film to reflect sunlight back into space.

Worse still Governments are taking some of this seriously - the US government is busy lobbying the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to allow stratospheric weather modification - something at least a dozen other countries are involved in (see blog on chemtrails). At least nine other nations and the EU have supported iron filing 'ocean fertilisation' experiments, usually by corporate commercial carbon 'traders'. Indeed Tory Parliamentary candidate for Stroud, Neil Carmichael said at the recent cafe discussion that technological solutions were the answer.

Here is one comment: "Politicians predictably misinterpret theoretical hypotheses to push quick-fix solutions but the fact is that systems as complicated and chaotic as the vast nexus of cause and effect we laughably term 'the environment' aren't gonna be amenable to a giant planetary elasto-plast."

Even boffin Dr Ken Caldeira, who a few years ago was punting the idea of putting a giant mirror on the moon to reflect the sun's rays back into the cold empty vacuum of space - has now acknowledged that there are inevitable weaknesses in the kind of modelling used to promote these ideas. He now rejects geoengineering as a tempting but illusory quick fix - and has instead realised it would be far easier to just er, change our lifestyles to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

"I think the Earth's system is so complicated that our interfering with it is very likely to screw things up and very unlikely to improve things... And this is the only planet we have."
Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology

Ken hasn't convinced all his colleagues, and politicians who are still pushing ahead with crazy schemes to keep the ecosystem and the economy running in conflict a bit longer. Very recently the Californian company Planktos Inc conducted their latest 'experiment' by dumping tens of tonnes of tiny iron particles over 10,000 square km of ocean around the Galapagos Islands - a real exercise in irony when you consider this is where Charles Darwin originally made his observations of a pristine eco-system that led to the theory of evolution.

See instead this inspiring letter from President Evo Morales of Bolivia to the member representatives of the United Nations on the issue of the environment:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13879

Nuclear: trainee journalists to pose questions, Tory speech and Windscale

Over the last couple of days I've had phone calls from a couple of trainee journalists at Cardiff Journalism school who will be taking part in an exercise next week at Oldbury Power Plant. The exercise apparently involves checks to safety and emergency procedures in the event of an accident - most likely taking the form of a leak/evacuation scenario which will be attended by local police, fire and plant staff.

Photo: If it had flooded evacuation for thousands may well have been necessary?

The exercise is designed to test the know-how and general ability of the press officers and staff at the plant on dealing with the press should a similar situation arise. The students have been invited along to produce a newspaper front page and spread afterwards as part of an assessment, as though the leak or fire has actually happened.

There are many issues to raise here as Emergency procedures in my view are wholly inadequate in terms of a nuclear incident - see talk re nuclear we had on Tuesday this week from top nuke scientist John Large - he highlighted serious concerns - like for example that computer models take a while to run to show where needs to be evacuated - plus in the past we have raised issues about plans for distribution of potassium iodate tablets, evacuation plans for say half a million people etc - see Glos Green party website for more on that and re letters written to Disaster Planning Officers - the recent flooding in Gloucestershire also highlights that services were stretched to limits - concerns were raised that if the sub-station had flooded and cut power, many thousands would have faced evacuation.

Clearly there should also be questions as to why this plant should have been allowed to continue to operate when there have been so many problems.

Anyway I wasn't intending to ramble too much on this topic now - wanted to highlight here a speech by the Conservative Dr Liam Fox. He started - "I want to begin with three simple facts. (1) In 1997 Technical Area 18, a highly secure area of Los Alamos National laboratory in New Mexico, was successfully breached by US special forces in a special security exercise. They were able to steal enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb. (2) Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the German government reported more than 700 cases of attempted nuclear sales, including 60 instances that involved seizure of nuclear materials. And that was only in the first three years. (3) Following the collapse of the Taliban after the invasion of Afghanistan, American forces uncovered details of an Al Qaeda nuclear planning cell. Osama bin Laden has called for the killing of 4 million Americans." See his full speech here.

The first point he makes is another example of concerns re safety - Greenpeace seem to have also walked in to virtually every nuclear power station in this country - see news release re the 'Kapow' they projected on to Oldbury. Anyhow it is great that Dr Fox is raising concerns but he doesn't come to all the right conclusions - certainly safety and security need raising - but where is talk of Britains role - we are promoting nuclear - indeed how much more unfair is it to say we need nuclear for our defence, energy security and to tackle climate change but you can't have it - the reality is, as this blog and others have shown, nuclear is not the answer to climate change, or energy security and only leads to a more unsafe world. We need to become a leader in renewables rather than wasting billions on Trident and 2 new Aircraft carriers.

This week saw the 50th anniversary of the Windscale fire on October 10th 1957 - the first serious nuclear accident - a reactor fire at Windscale (now called Sellafield), three years after the first nuclear power station was opened. Since then, there have been other serious nuclear accidents - in the UK - Douneray, Chapelcross and THORP, in Japan - Monju and Tokaimura, and in the USA - Three Mile Island - and of course parts of the UK are still contaminated by the fallout from Chernobyl.

The Windscale anniversary is surely a sobering reminder that nuclear power creates horrific dangers for humanity and the natural environment. The fire spread radiation across Britain - Tuesdays nuke talk this week had a map showing the effects on populations for many hundreds of miles. It was like some horrifying event from a science fiction movie. The very name Windscale was changed to Sellafield as a public relations move to make nuclear power more acceptable....

Burma: new actions to take

From Avaaz (see also previous blogs on this topic): This Monday, October 15, the foreign ministers of the 27 European Union states will meet in Luxembourg - and decide whether to live up to their warnings to the Burmese junta. Three weeks ago, the EU vowed to step up sanctions on the Burmese regime if it cracked down violently on the protesters. If the EU fails to take action now, the Burmese regime will take it as a sign that international pressure is mere talk, and won't hesitate to commit further atrocities.

Burma isn't a democracy, but EU countries should be. If we can send a flood of messages to our own foreign ministers before the meeting on Monday, we can press each of them to vote for stronger sanctions and targeted incentives to push the regime into dialogue - without hurting ordinary Burmese people. Click here to send an email to your foreign minister:
www.avaaz.org/en/eu_squeeze_the_junta/a.php?cl=31108912

The brutal Burmese military sees EU sanctions as a serious threat. To finance its vast army, the junta exports billions in gas, oil, gems, and timber each year. Targeting these industries will hit the state-run monopolies, but won't affect the public; most Burmese are desperately poor and gain nothing from this ugly trade. In parallel we can offer aid and incentives for reconciliation. Strong sanctions would give the democracy movement a powerful bargaining chip-- the government might cede power in exchange for them being lifted. That's why Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic Burmese opposition leader, has been calling for stronger international sanctions for more than a decade. And it's why, earlier this week, she refused to back down--even after the dictator Than Shwe promised to meet with her if she would drop her demands.

We can stand with Suu Kyi, with the monks and other protesters--so many of whom have given their lives--by supporting their call. Let's send a flood of messages to the EU foreign ministers before they meet this Monday, supporting targeted sanctions and incentives for Burma:

www.avaaz.org/en/eu_squeeze_the_junta/a.php?cl=31108912

The very day before the Burmese junta's crackdown began, the EU threatened to "reinforce and strengthen the existing sanctions regime" if the junta were to "resort to using violence against the unarmed and peaceful demonstrators." Meanwhile, a remarkable global movement has arisen - protests worldwide, media attention, more than 750,000 individuals signing the Avaaz petition on Burma. Unless European countries act now, international pressure could lose all credibility. It is up to us to make sure that our leaders live up to their own words--and take meaningful action now to support the Burmese people.

Waffle about A46 closure, Agresso and more

After a Woodcraft meeting with lots of 7 year and 8 years olds identifying berries near Rodborough Common it was to Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish meeting...

Photos: Den making at a previous Woodcraft session near Hawkwood college

...minutes will be out soon on their website so I wont cover here - in any case I only was able to stay for first tiny bit to feedback stuff like A46, Post Offices and possible impact of Huntsgrove call-in on Ruscombe - to be honest I can't see how Huntsgrove will not go-ahead but if it doesn't then it will mean massive pressure to build across the District - we will have to remain vigilant re the Ruscombe fields and indeed the rest of the area - David Drew and Parmjit Dhanda are wrong on this one...

...however it was good to hear David will be visiting Whiteshill to see the impact of the A46 for himself - he has of course already been active on this issue but it is good that he will meet Parish Council - all this sudden attention on Whiteshill from politicians is most interesting! As reported earlier two top Conservatives visited earlier in the week - however while an election might not now be happening I think we should use their offers of support. Work on the A46 has still not started and it will be 6 months work when it does - it would also be good to get their support for longer term hopes for Whiteshill. I've said before we want our village back not a transport corridor.

Anyway this week I heard again from the County in response to various queries - they are it seems at last going to advertise the County carshare scheme - better late than never - also they are going to review buses going through Whiteshill - as residents will know the ones being rerouted from A46 don't stop - hopefully after the review they will stop to pick up locals - plus there is an extra bus being put on. No more news yet re the reduced train tickets - but all this will hopefully encourage people out of cars. As I've said repeatedly this could have been a wonderful opportunity to high profile alternatives to the car....

Anyway after a brief stop at the Parish I got to the training session re financial matters - in particular one of the main items was re Agresso - computer software that is being used for finances at the District Council - about 10 councilors present had a tour of the software which by all accounts is an improvement on previous situation...it certainly made looking at accounts easy...and even a few laughs as - one councilor there who like me had been to Ebley Mill three nights on the trot said we were 'demob happy' - indeed tonight a DVD, a bottle of wine and I'm not answering the phone!

Housing Green paper - some thoughts

Tuesday night I managed to get to the first half of an evening at the Council regarding Self financing HRAs - how council housing is funded - the presentation was excellent and extremely useful - I was very sorry to have to miss the second half due to going to the nuclear talk (which was also excellent - see earlier blog). Anyhow the second half of the evening that I missed looked more at the Government's paper 'Homes for the Future: more affordable, more sustainable'.

Stroud District Council are doing a submission re this paper so I enclosed to them and below the notes that I have been working on during the last couple of weeks - they are some of the key issues raised by the Government's paper - the notes below are still very much in their 'raw state' rather than put together as a final submission. Some of the issues come from thoughts from others like the Kent Green party who have already completed their submission. I plan to add comments following the presentation this week and further discussion with Green party colleagues but post them here as several others have asked to see them. Consultation closes Monday so there is still chance to send something in.

Draft submission re 'Homes for the Future: more affordable, more sustainable'

Introduction:


Stroud District Green party have a number of criticisms of the Green Paper which offers too little, too slowly in relation to the imminent challenges of serious climate change, Peak Oil, the serious limitations of current Government housing policies and the legacies of past Governments in these areas.

We note that many very serious criticisms of the Government’s Sustainable Communities programme made by the Sustainable Development Commission have been ignored in this Green Paper. We also note that comprehensive and well-considered ideas about regeneration and new development made by key urban specialists have been ignored in favour of a neo-liberal market based approach to housing and communities. We are disturbed that a high quality and attractive built environment is possible in a number of other European states, like Austria, but is proving elusive here due to excessive power ceded to house builders and developers by the State in the UK.

Key points:

1. Empty homes: Housing stock would be increased much more quickly by bringing empty properties into use than relying on house builders who have no incentive to build at a rate which would bring home prices down. The Green Paper makes no reference to this market failure, relying instead on what we see as misleading criticism of local authorities.

2. Local authorities powers: We believe local councils should have power and budgets to meet social housing needs. This paper goes someway to addressing this issue although in places the report is very ambiguous. Each local council should be able to meet its own local demand with resources transferred to assist them from other budgets or planned expenditures eg. cancellation of two aircraft carriers (£3.9bn); cancellation of the ID card (£10bn); ending subsidies and research for nuclear fission/fusion; stopping further PFI contracts as they are not good value for money, etc. Indeed there should be a complete removal of pressures to move towards privatisation. The new powers should include allowing local authorities to start a new council house building programme and ensuring that local authorities have sufficient revenue to maintain all council homes in future years. Councils should also clearly retain the full rental income from their homes etc - the current situation is wholly unacceptable.

We note that the Institute of Public Policy Research report challenges the idea that dramatically raising supply will dramatically bring down house prices. It says it is a blunt instrument and building more social housing (homes for subsidised rent) and shared ownership is a better way of doing it. Indeed the IPPR report on meeting housing need notes that the key reason for house-building plummeting is because councils have stopped building homes and building by registered social landlords is not properly compensated.

3. Affordable homes: 70,000 more affordable (not purely social housing) units a year by 2010-2011 cannot possibly reduce the 1.5m households on council waiting lists. The trajectory of house price increases, rising repossessions and bankruptcies will inevitably lead to larger council waiting lists. Private sector rents are much too high to be affordable for many people in much of Gloucestershire. We emphasise again, councils must be empowered to buy properties for social housing in their local area. There is no quicker way to relieve over-crowding, dramatically reduce homelessness, meet general housing demand or regenerate areas of empty properties.

4. SE Housing growth: We reject the principle of emphasising housing growth in the South East quadrant of the country. This just serves the desire of the large house building companies for higher prices which they can obtain in the SE. Local housing demand should be met everywhere, not the pressures for more buy to let properties or the desire to migrate from cities into the countryside. In short, there should be local control of planning for housing, not imposed national targets which deliver housing with inadequate employment or infrastructure. Housing is an entitlement which needs meeting by a more effective public sector, not mainly by the private sector. We urgently need to look at rebalancing the economy: it is crazy that in some parts of the country we are pulling down thousands of homes while in others we can't find room for them.

5. Eco-towns and sustainability: Whilst the principle of eco-towns appears appropriate, we need all of our built environment to be energy efficient and sustained by renewable energy in as short a period as realistically attainable. New eco towns will not meet this need quickly enough and should not be built on greenfield sites. The Sustainable Development Commission write: “Increasing the density of existing towns and cities is, in our view, significantly more sustainable in almost all circumstances than creating new communities outside them.” Furthermore the emphasis on sustainability in new homes avoids responsibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the existing built environment. This is a fundamental omission in this Green Paper. Many ways forward are possible: for example we cannot see any purpose being served by stamp duty. VAT on new homes would be more useful, to increase developer focus on refurbishment and regeneration.

6. Village homes: Social housing using village brownfield sites should be particularly prioritised to move away from the current over-emphasis on property ownership in villages. Asset rich but income poor households exist in the private sector in villages. Programmes are needed which divide properties in villages, assist the very elderly into smaller accommodation and help people meet their actual housing need rather than be encumbered by properties too large or too difficult to maintain. The assumption that large home means large income is often not true in Gloucestershire’s villages.

7. Public sector land release: this is to be welcomed, especially if it involves a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ and the release of their resources and powers to local authorities.

8. Affordability of homes: this should not mean 70% of average market price in a new development - this is still over-priced for most households. Affordability should mean 50% social housing in any new development leaving the option with tenants of right to buy if they wish. It should be noted that we do think each council should be able to determine whether its social housing is to be available under a right to buy scheme. This simplification avoids the complexities of shared ownership schemes and local authority negotiations with developers who resist social housing and then challenge local councils for non-determination or through planning appeal. The various avenues and tactics used by developers to avoid providing social housing need to be closed. These constitute a right to avoid social responsibility and should not be sustained.

9. Zero Carbon homes: the move towards zero carbon homes by 2016 is too slow and applies only to new homes. We suggest one way forward similar to Germany is a ‘dash for solar’: all new homes (with immediate effect) to have multiple social panels, solar water heating, top grade double glazing, cavity wall insulation, improved loft insulation etc. Plus grants for renewable energy installation on homes and businesses should be increased in value with no upper limit on solar PV grants. There is no reason for more years of prevarication. Retrofitting the entirety of the built environment must be planned and where necessary funded over a realistic and preferably short time period eg no more than 15 years. Water butts and rainwater capture for flushing toilets should be standard features of new housing and an essential part of renovations when roofs or gutters are replaced. Building standards can be improved now. The Government has caved in to the volume house builders on this topic.

Every town should be an eco-town and every building should have its environmental impact reduced. All local authorities should be adopting a Zero Waste approach and should be pressed by legislation to become ‘transition towns’ – moving away from a carbon based economy. The rate of new build with new standards, when implemented in 2016, is simply too late to assist in bringing UK emissions down, especially as these are 12-14% of global greenhouse gas emissions as Christian Aid has reported, not the misleading 2% figure Government ministers often quote.

10. Government action on Climate change: the paper notes that more action needs to be taken concerning climate change - this begs the question of where the Government has been living during the last ten years. Government allocation of funds to all environmental policy budgets is low in relation to other areas of spending and environmental policy integration does not exist. It is impossible to resist climate change without rapidly improving existing and new building stock, or dealing with aviation, marine and surface transport emissions.

11. Rural transport: the Green Paper notes only 12% of homes in villages are social housing. This is scandalously low, but many of Gloucestershire villages are afflicted by poor public transport coverage so whilst we support having more social housing in villages, the market provision of public transport would need to be adjusted upwards. Research by Lynn Sloman suggests typical rural bus spending in western Europe is 50% higher than in the UK.

12. Developer delay in the planning system: this is not addressed effectively in this Green Paper or the Government’s recent Planning White Paper. Rather than rewarding councils for identifying building land it makes more sense for outline planning permission to cease after 2 years with renewal by the same developer for the same site costing far more in terms of planning fees than the first time. It is not in the interests of developers to bring house prices down. The Housing Green Paper admits “slow down in the rate of house price increases can lead to house builders slowing production even when overall prices remain very high.” Cynics might say that the Labour leadership also does not actually want to bring house prices down – as demonstrated by its inaction over the last ten years. It is certainly true they have benefited from the electoral effects of high house prices - but note point 2 above.

13. Empty property relief for business rates: this just encourages disuse. Property should be used or subject to compulsory purchase after 12 months by the local authority for allocation to other purposes including housing or public infrastructure/service needs. We emphasise that the current allocation of public funds to quangos should be revised in favour of more funds for local authorities.

14. Flooding: Note 31 suggests that ‘…flood defence infrastructure cannot be continuously expanded…’ However, given the UK and global failure to radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, the UK Government and many others elsewhere have effectively committed themselves to continuously rising flood protection spending and new resources for coastal protection as well. We note that the Environment Agency wants £1bn a year for flood protection alone, and is promised only an increase from £600m to £800m pa. This suggested policy cannot be sustained politically and adds to the general impression of Treasury-led neglect of environmental concerns that has characterised Government since 1997. Note 32 suggests building on flood plains will be stopped but neither the Green Paper nor the Planning White Paper suggest local authorities would have the power to stop development on flood plains, and we have even had ministerial pronouncements saying development on flood plains will have to continue in the midst of the summer floods! This is confused, contradictory and devoid of morality or logic.

15. Community Land Trusts: We applaud this innovative move to develop land trusts, particularly noting their success in other countries. The New Economics Foundation propose Community Land Trusts as a good way of countering house price growth: “The aim of mutual home ownership is to provide a way of separating the cost of the land from the purchase price of the housing on it. This is achievable in practice by taking the land out of the marketplace through a Community Land Trust.”

16. Debt and the unmanaged housing market: We note that home ownership dropped in 2006 and may drop further. The unmanaged housing market is increasing house prices - that is not properly addressed by Government policy. The issue of increasing personal debt as a potentially destabilising factor to the economy is not addressed in this Green Paper, and 80% of personal debt is mortgages. We should be learning from the mistakes made in the US, not emulating them. Restrictions on who can obtain a mortgage in order to reduce personal debt and increase savings make sense if this is done in stages whilst more social housing is being provided. See points 2 and 12 above.

Housing quality reflects actual household income, so the curiously phrased prospect of ‘..raising the financial capability of consumers..’ begs questions like when does the Government intend to permit pay increases to the public sector to meet rises in housing costs and associated bills? When will it ensure that the Minimum Wage becomes index-linked to inflation and backdated to when it was introduced? When will taxes be applied fairly and effectively to the top 20% of households? Inequality is being maintained and reinforced by Government policies, with implications for housing. We note the recent Sheffield Hallam University study saying the real level of unemployment is 2.6 million.

17. Regulation of construction: Markets will not provide sustainable construction or satisfactory building standards until the construction sector is regulated and inspected effectively p.101 . So the idea that sustainable construction will not involve ‘..introducing new legislation..’ is plainly daft. Indeed the last change to building regs was going to give us new builds that were 40% better, the govt (eventually) admitted that the final regs would only give 25% better, but in fact the AECB and others note the actual figures are much much lower.

The Citizen today had a review of the band Cuckoo Row - their guitarist Freddie Whittaker lives on the edge of Whiteshill and they've played several local gigs including the Wap (see photo and write up here), the Fringe and Prince Albert.

The three-piece is named after a street in Nailsworth and have now officially unveiled their debut album - Lost on Cuckoo Row - it was recorded over the past eight months, with the bulk of the sessions committed to tape at DB Studios in Stroud.

The Citizen quotes Freddie Whittaker saying: "It's a fantastic achievement for us. After a gig, you get this enormous sense of well-being, but it doesn't always last. This is something we can actually show for all the hard work we put into writing and rehearsing our music."

Lost on Cuckoo Row is on sale exclusively in Kane's Records, in Kendrick Street, Stroud, from today.

Government move puts Staverton expansion in doubt?

The plans for Camp Hope (against Gloucestershire Airport's plans for expansion) are still progressing - apparently chinese food will now be available on the site - more details coming soon - meanwhile the Government’s new aviation duty may help curb plans for expansion of Staverton and Bristol airports.

Since aviation fuel is not taxed, cheap flights have become the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe. The rise in Air Passenger Duty is a small step in the right direction, but charges on aircraft emissions will also increase the cost of flights - hopefully this is another nail in the coffin for Staverton airports (and others) plans to expand - see my hurried news release on this today here - it also makes the point that more climate change curbing legislation needs to come and that oil prices look set to rise massively - air travel will increasingly only be for the super-rich - in fact the bulk of Stavertons is private jets/corporate flights (I badly worded this - see comments below) - why on earth should they be allowed to increase emissions when everyone else has to decrease by 90%????

Meanwhile campaigning friends in Cheltenham met with Martin Horwood MP this morning re Staverton - hopefully that and the Gloucester Green party letter in Citizen today might make him rethink and come out against the expansion plans?

Local climate change campaigner, Kevin Lister has also pointed out in a letter there are other concerns re the Airports finances - he write with regards to a letter in the Echo/Citizen:

In Peter Jacques letter on 25th Sept he claims “The airport's assets will always be greater than its liabilities, borrowing to finance any improvements will, in no way, affect council taxpayers and there'll be no need for any future bailing out." We have down loaded a copy of the airports accounts from Company’s House for review against his statement. These accounts show the net assets of the airport are only £2,518,273. The business plan estimates that expenditure will be £2.19 million, but this estimate has not been validated and could easily rise to up to £3million. Furthermore, the airport only has £406,437 cash in hand, so the development will have to be funded entirely through borrowing.

As the total loan will most likely be higher than the assets, then the council tax payer will have to back the loan. Given the warnings of economic recession and escalating fuel prices, then if the business that the airport is relying on does not materialise, then the council tax payer will be left to pick up the bill. Alternatively, if the airport has to comply with environmental concerns such as restricted opening times, it will limit its revenue and increase the likelihood of requiring a council tax bail out. It is clear that what ever way this development is viewed, it is bad for the council tax payer. They will either suffer increased noise and pollution, or have the risk of bailing out a failed investment.

Other news re aviation this month comes from the European Parliament’s Environment Committee - they have voted to bring the aviation industry into the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme after Green MEP Caroline Lucas called for international agreement on reducing
flying’s increasing impact on climate change.

Dr Lucas had originally called for the aviation industry to be brought into an emissions trading scheme just for airlines – a proposal accepted by the full parliament last year but weakened in the report adopted earlier this month. Dr Lucas said at the time:

"The Environment Committee has voted to bring the ever-growing emissions from airlines in check. While the report is not as ambitious as my original proposals, which it adopted last year, MEPs have succeeded in significantly improving a weak proposal from the European Commission. With airlines the fastest growing source of climate-damaging emissions, it is crucial that the EU adopts robust measures to reduce these emissions as soon as possible. Past experience shows that unless polluters are made to pay or emissions credits, sectors like aviation - which can pass the cost on to their consumers - will gain windfall profits from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Clearly only a full auctioning of permits would ensure this is avoided and that airlines are made fully responsible for their emissions; thus we regret that MEPs did not support full auctioning. However, the Committee has voted for auctioning of half of the emissions permits, which is certainly a marked improvement from the Commission's proposal.

“Furthermore, the Committee has voted to take more account of the non-CO2 impact of aviation (which can be up to 4 times greater than the impact of CO2 emissions alone) by introducing a so-called ‘multiplier’ on CO2 emissions if alternative measures are not brought forward. Entry into the Emissions Trading Scheme cannot just be an excuse for the worst offending airlines to buy their way out of trouble and continue with a business as usual approach to their damaging emissions. I’m glad that MEPs have voted to limit the possibility for airlines to buy permits from other industry sectors that would allow airlines to increase their emissions. Trading with other sectors should not be manipulated by the aviation industry to enable it to pay for the 'right' to increase its pollution. Euro-MPs also proposed a significantly stricter initial permit allocation to the aviation industry than the original Commission proposal. While it is still more generous than that of other sectors or the Kyoto protocol commitment, it does at least imply an actual reduction in emissions."

The proposals will be debated and voted on by all MEPs next month. As Caroline Lucas said: “The challenge is to keep its strengths and make sure the bill is not further diluted.”

For more see here.

18 Nigerian men facing death sentence for sodomy

A long while back I raised with David Drew the case of 18 Nigerian men charged with sodomy who could all face death by stoning.

Reports from the Nigerian news agency, NAN, say that 18 men in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi, which is governed by Islamic Sharia law, have been arrested on charges of sodomy and could be sentenced to death by stoning (this is the prescribed penalty for sodomy under Sharia law). The 18 men have been remanded in prison after they were arrested Sunday, 5 August 2007, at a private party in a hotel, where they were allegedly celebrating a "gay wedding." They were arraigned on Wednesday before Justice Taminu Abubakar of the Bauchi High Court, and will soon be sent for trial. I asked David Drew if he could act - he kindly wrote a formal question:

David Drew Hansard source: "To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations on behalf of the 18 Nigerian men in the state of Bauchi charged with sodomy and who potentially face deaths by stoning."

Meg Munn Meg Munn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office) Hansard source: "The charges of sodomy against the 18 Nigerian men in the state of Bauchi, Nigeria, have been replaced with charges of indecent behaviour and vagrancy, for which the death penalty would not be given. Our high commission in Abuja followed the trial closely and discussed the case with the accused men's defence counsel and local non-governmental organisations, whose view was that making representations might be counter productive now that the charges had been reduced. Consequently no representations were made but we shall continue to monitor the case."

This is clearly an issue that still needs following.

Good TV prog on food and peak oil

Recent programme on welsh TV about food production and peak oil - Click on Video link to Week in week out - only available for viewing for few more days:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/weekinweekout/

Photo: Ruscombe last week

See previous blog items on this topic and other articles re Peak Oil here especially Green MEP Caroline Lucas' report on oil and food security here.

Odds and ends: canal, Archway, Lawns and more

Here's a collection of bits and bobs of recent local news.....

Canal update - Last night I spent a couple of hours at Ebley Mill discussing the canal (terrible quality photo of noticeboard at Ebley) - the latest public news is that following much negotiation Cabinet are recommending Council to take on the risks of Brimscombe Port - read more here at item 5 - this report out today shows the risk could be as much as £2 million but if not accepted basically the whole canal project is in jeopardy - I often think Councils don't take enough risks - playing it too cautious and thus missing out on possible serious gains - this looks like here at least they are prepared to support the project.

Anyway there were some useful discussions during the evening - I am still not happy that cycling has been prioritised sufficiently in this project - see earlier blogs on this topic- although I did learn today that cycling is being looked at with a new seriousness. In terms of the issue of using the canal for freight - this is more understandably not going anywhere as the other phases of the canal do not have funding - but it is worth noting that I learnt today that water freight uses 22kg of CO2 per tonne/km compared to 59 kg by road. Another issue is the absurd suggestions that longer term the canal could be used to pump water to the SE thus saving 5 reservoirs to be built - an issue I will return to - indeed I will no doubt return to all of this when I have more time - but for brief summary here is the Inland Waterways view of where we are:

British Waterways has locally announced the start of works at Oil Mills. This is a step towards the start of the main works of National Lottery supported major restoration. There has been some concern that the restoration programme was in jeopardy owing to BW’s board becoming increasingly concerned at the level of unfunded risk that it might have to bear. However, it now appears that BW has accepted a higher level of risk than it originally intended and Stroud District Council has (subject to formal documentation) taken on a significant element of risk that would otherwise have fallen to BW. In order to allow the rest of the major restoration works to start announcements are awaited to confirm the agreements between Stroud District Council and British Waterways for the Council to take on the restoration and development at Brimscombe Port (via a private developer) and for the handover of the land from Gloucestershire County Council to BW.

The work at Oil Mills covers the £1.3 million restoration of a 650-metre stretch of the Stroudwater Navigation and the restoration of Oil Mills Bridge. The original hump-backed bridge on the site was removed as part of a road improvement scheme. It will be replaced by a new bridge echoing original designs but able to carry modern traffic levels, using what remains of the original bridge under the road.

The National Lottery supported restoration work is likely to cost £24.2million and is itself part of a wider regeneration funding package of £37million. The workincludes the full restoration of a 6½-mile (9½-kilometre) stretch from Brimscombe Port to Stonehouse and a further 4-mile (6km) multi-user path to Saul Junction, due for completion in two years. The work is to be project managed by British Waterways and undertaken by its contractor Morrison Construction. Excavation work is expected to be completed in November, followed by the bridge in March 2008. The Cotswold Canals Partnership expects to hear later this autumn about its £24million Big Lottery Fund bid which would take the restoration a further 4 miles (six kilometres) from The Ocean to Saul Junction.

The Lawns consultation - the area opposite Tricorn House in those woods is called The Lawns and has the lake there that this blog has discussed much in the past - the land is now leased by Stroud Community Land Trust from the county council - they plan to share their ideas about ways forward on Sunday 14th October on the site from 10.30am to 2.30pm - call Caroline on 753358 for further info.

Bus shelter in Ruscombe - a bus shelter and/or seat is being considered for near the chapel - local residents, police and highways will be asked their views but do contact the Parish Council if you have thoughts on this.

Ruscombe Brook - today a flow meter is being installed to measure sewage flows near the Randwick tributary sewage pipes - this will hopefully give a clearer picture of what is going on and why we have had the recent incidents of raw sewage escaping into the brook at that point. Plus just a note to say the RBAG display is now up in Cainscross Parish Council office.

Archway school - have their new technology block opened - the first phase of a £6.5 million revamp - it looks like a calming space - and has a biomass boiler running on woodchips.

Stroud Film Society - their 50th Season has started - some films listed here - most films shown on Thursdays at 8 pm - doors open 7.30 pm at the British School, Slad Road, Stroud. Contact: Mrs Beth Cheyne 01453 823 551 for info.

Gullies and footpaths in Randwick - the Parish asked whether the gullies could be cleaned more regularly especially down the Lane and at the bottom of Ash Lane. The footpaths have also been recently checked and various comments made like repairs needed to foot bridge over stream in fields leading from Morehall to the village.

Mayor's Pool - a while back now an unmanned car rolled down from the Vicarage over the wall and into the road destroying the wall around the Mayor's Pool. The car is beyond repair but insurance monies are being sought to repair the wall.

Free Ordnance Survey maps for 11 year olds - I saw a note in the paper re this (more here) - it quoted Vanessa Lawrence who I knew from my school days (see photo) - she is now Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey and I get the chance to meet up about once every 2 or 3 years - this reminded me we must be due a visit! She is quite an extraordinary woman with many tales to tell of various adventures and more.

Guide Hut - Randwick Parish are still trying to see the best way forward for this site that is currently being misused. Thoughts welcomed by them.

No water in some houses in Paganhill this morning - why?

SNJ look at 1915 wedding - Saw the SNJ report of these two pictured in the photo - employees of Lodgemore Mill near Stroud - Winifred Davis, a weaver who lived at Ruscombe and George Walter Cratchley, a loom tuner who lived in Randwick - George was in the Glos Regiment of the British Army - they married in Ruscombe Chapel in 1912 - this photo of them was used in the article to talk about our local history in weaving - like the billiard tables, Milliken tennis balls and the scarlet cloth used by the British Army for teh Regiment of the Guards.

Play re Rachel Carson - Saturday October 27th - 'Breaking the Silence' - a one woman play on the life of Rachel Carson at 7pm - a one hour piece - see www.rachelcarson.co.uk for show details. This year is the centenary of her birth and as the play advertising says: "it is time to listen as if for the first time to what she has to say." Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring" in 1962 overcoming the opposition of government, industry and her own failing personal health in order to alert the world to the careless use of chemicals in our environment. Advance ticket booking: £10 each from The Organic Farm Shop, Abbey Home Farm near Cirencester. Pay by phone with a credit card on 01285 640441. I've been trying to get local media to cover this - by all accounts it should be a good evening.

Chinadependence report

The Chinadependence report has just come out - Saturday 6 October was the day that the world as a whole went into ecological debt for this year - Chinadependence published by nef reveals the many ways in which Britain is becoming increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to fuel our high-consuming lifestyles. See BBC report here.

Photo: China's rising consumption of coal is largely to make goods for the western world

China is being increasingly blamed for the rise in its CO2 emissions but as the report says, it is the richer countries who are fuelling the demand. And 'outsourcing' production to China, where costs were cheaper, has led to a remorseless rise in greenhouse gases because China uses more fossil-fuel power plants.

Andrews Simms from nef says: "As China is increasingly attacked because of its rising pollution levels, people overlook two important issues. First, per person, China's greenhouse gas emissions are a fraction of those in Europe and the United States. Second, a closer look at trade flows reveals that a large share of China's rising emissions is due to the dependence of the rest of the world on exports from China - a Chinadependence."

All this comes as other research shows that a high quality of life is as easy to achieve at very low levels of consumption as at high levels, and as awareness is growing that the pursuit of high-consuming lifestyles undermines well-being.

• From all trading partners in total, the UK imported 14,000 tonnes of chocolate covered waffles, and exported 15,000 tonnes.
• We both imported from and exported to Italy, 600 tonnes of, 'gums and other jelly confectionary'.
• We sent 21 tonnes of mineral water all the way to Australia and brought 20 tonnes all the way back.
• The large, two-way traffic of beer between Spain and the UK is also almost identical in amount

Heinz condemned for new soup

On Friday I noted on this blog my disgust at Heinz for releasing their new range of Farmers Market soups. Trading Standards phoned in response to my email saying they will look at it, Sainsbury's have emailed me to say they wont support our local Farmers Market by removing these products and Heinz say: "We note your comments and can assure you that our Research, Packaging and Design Department will be informed of your views." I have written again noting I am interested in their views.

In the meantime we have been considering setting up an online petition after the comment left on the last blog - the Farmers Market are still looking at it but focused last weekend on doing a soup test between a real Farmers Market soup and one of Heinz salt-ridden soups - the decision was unanimous with the real Farmers Market soup winning.

Meanwhile David Drew MP has started an Early Day Motion yesterday on this stating: "That this House condemns Heinz for issuing a new brand called Farmers' Market Soups when that brand makes no attempt to source its materials through farmers' markets and is, at best, causing confusion on what ingredients are contained within those soups let alone whether they would be capable of meeting the stringent standards that farmers' markets have to meet; and notes the upset that this has caused to the farmers' market movement, including the excellent Stroud Farmers' Market."

So far only one other signature - if you are visiting this site from another area please write to your MP re EDM 2064.

Oldbury incident outcome same as Chernobyl?

Last night we had a public meeting at the Old Town Hall in Stroud with two renowned nuclear experts: Dr Ian Fairlie, a consultant on radiation who gave evidence as to why nuclear is not the answer to climate change or energy needs, while top nuclear scientist John Large gave a detailed look at the problems with Oldbury's graphite core and showed how an accident there could be comparable to Chernobyl.

Photo: Audience, John Large (with a fuel rod), Ian Fairlie and then a series of slides from John Large

Worryingly John Large said that an accident at Oldbury could mean Gloucester would be effected within 3 and a half hours...anyhow over 70 people turned up to the event - a good turn out and makes all the preparation work worthwhile. Here are some of my notes from the evening - rather hurriedly put together but hopefully a flavour of the evening...

Ian Fairlie kicked off by showing how nuclear would only make up 4 to 5% of our overall energy, that it would take 10 to 15 years to start producing, fails to provide energy security and costs double wind power according to the Government's own figures. If I can I'll get his excellent slides put up on the Glos Green party site in the coming weeks.

It was interesting to see the list of organisations that have doubts about nuclear: Environment Agency, the Commons' Environment Audit Committee, the Governments' Sustainable Development Commission, MPs from all parties, 3 Cabinet Ministers, 2 Former Environment Ministers, Mayor of London, All Environment groups, 10 Former Environment groups, David Cameron MP (but not Tory party), Mikhail Gorbachev and much more.

It was also interesting to see the list of large corporations set to profit from building and operating nuke reactors - all companies outside the UK. And that the DTi have spends three times more on Research and Development of nuclear than renewables, that the trend for renewables is to become cheaper while the trend for nuclear is that it becomes more expensive.

Interestingly a quarter of UK gas is used for electricity - mainly at peak times as it can be switched on and off quickly - nuclear would not be suitable to help with this as when it is on it is on - so why the argument about nuclear being for securing energy supplies - especially when it is only such a small proportion and most UK gas comes from Norway (we have contracts until 2020). The UK has no uranium reserves and some 15 to 20% of our uranium supplies come from Uzbekhistan and Kazakhstan - hardly stable especially with rising prices in uranium as it becomes increasingly hard to find and extract.

Anyhow then it was questions - including some from what sounded like the nuclear industry - good to have them there.

After this was a stop for snacks and drinks then John Large's presentation - a detailed and entertaining description of how nuclear power works at Oldbury and why there are serious concerns.

The reactors were designed for 20 to 25 years and are still running over 10 years past that date despite a whole host of identified problems.

Indeed we have seen repeated closures and as John Large noted running Oldbury now 'maybe taking a risk too far'.

In the detailed talk John Large showed why he and others considered there were risks. He also gave a detailed description as to why an accident at Oldbury could be comparable to Chernobyl. He concluded: "Potentially an accident at Oldbury would have the same outcome as Chernobyl."

John Large used computer modelling programmes for the 3rd October 2007 as an example to show how an accident at Oldbury would mean that Gloucester could be affected within 3 and a half hours and Birmingham within 7 hours - sooner on a windy day. His analysis shows that over half a million people would need to be evacuated with deaths from the accident numbering 57 and over 3,000 in the following years. Iodine tablets would be needed in the first day at Sharpness area while an area up to 40km from Oldbury would also require tablets to prevent cancers.

It was worrying to learn that the computer programmes can take three days to show how an accident will progress. This is not good enough when in the event of an accident nuclear experts will be concentrating on the incident and evacuation plans, iodine tablet distribution and more should start immediately. How will local authorities be able to act when they wont have the information they need?

As Sarah Lunnon who chaired the event said: "Last night showed how we need to invest in safer and cheaper renewables and micro generation that provide real energy security."

Butt Butts

These rainwater butts may not be everyone's taste - see more here - available in three colours - but a sense of humour in tackling the problems we face is vital!

See previous talk re butts on this blog here re tackling future floods and here a great old photo of a butt in 1912. Many of us found them invaluable when our water was cut off for 2 weeks....but having been away a couple of days I should not be blogging but answering emails and catching up on all those phone calls...bye for now..

Burma march and 'Troops Out' march

Too late for one and had to leave too early for the other march...so much for being the activist campaigner!

I arrived in London on Saturday primarily to see family - got there later than planned and only managed to see supporters of Burmese people - who had being marching earlier - going home - apparently several thousand had marched there (see photos here- final figure for number of marchers was around 10,000) and more across the world. In Gloucester there was also a demo outside the Total garage but not had news yet of how that went. At least now Gordon Brown is acting on Burma.

Photo: Protesters after the march supporting Burmese people and below outside Westminister before march today - Brian Haw talking to another protester

Today I had been hoping to support the 'Troops Out' march on my way back from London but various reasons meant I had to leave earlier than planned - I also heard that at the last minute police clearance was given - that in itself is a wee victory for democracy. The Metropolitan police had threatened to use legislation brought in to thwart the Chartists 170 years ago to block plans for a march to Parliament Square (see my earlier post).

5,000 people joined the demonstration (on a weekday), timed to coincide with parliament's first day back after the summer recess and Gordon Brown's statement on Iraq and his plans to cut troops back to 2,500 by Spring.

I have to agree with whoever it was who said on the radio we don't want the troops brought home just so they can be sent to Afghanistan or the Iranian border.

Wikipedia on Staverton changed and changed again

The reference in the wikipedia entry for Staverton was changed to remove the link to the camp and the reference to their report that denied climate change. I was going to write about that but I see that it has now been changed back. See my original blog post on this here.

Photo: Great photo of sunflowers - nothing to do with Staverton!

Governments' shameful ban on march

Police stopping a march on the centre of government - Rangoon? Beijing? No - London. Gordon Brown talks of human rights so how on earth can this be going on?

The Stop the War Coalition (of which the Green party is a part) organised the "Troops Out" march on October 8th from Trafalgar square to Parliament - it has been banned by the Met police. But the march will go ahead anyway. Usually STWC conducts totally legal demonstrations and has not previously lent its support to illegal direct action but on this occasion they were in negotiation with the police for some weeks beforehand and appeared to have the police go ahead. Indeed have been allowed in the past and this time there were even discussions between the organisers and the police re plans to neutralise any anarchist elements, such as samba group Rhythms of Resistance.

"This is rather a ham-fisted attempt to prevent us from demonstrating. What they (the government and police) do is up to them. We will just ignore them and we have the moral and logical high-ground. I will be marching on Monday 8 October."
Mark Thomas

As SchNEWS write: "To achieve this the cops dusted off the the 1839 Sessional Orders legislation, which allows the granting of orders to allow the free passage of MPs and peers into Parliament. The Act "ORDERED, That the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis do take care that the passages through the streets leading to this House be kept free and open and that no obstruction be permitted to hinder the passage of Members to and from this House". When this act was passed the greatest threat to the state was Chartism, a riotous movement demanding democratic freedom. What next? Public gatherings broken up under the 'Corn Laws'? The return of the ducking stool? The Sessional orders do not actually confer any extra powers on the police, being merely a formal expression of parliament's wishes. Those wishes being of course being that the people should in no way attempt to interfere with the business of their masters. But it is anticipated that police will make arrests under the usual Do What You're Told Act if any attempt is made to breach the cordon around parliament."

Human rights group Liberty says our march is legal and we will be exercising our democratic right to protest peacefully on the day Gordon Brown makes his long awaited speech on Iraq to the House of Commons. I have a meeting in London on that day so there maybe a chance I will be able to join the march - I will certainly be with them in spirit - this is an outrageous move by the Government.

"In the run up to this much anticipated general election, the leaders of each major political party have claimed to champion our civil liberties. No doubt they will now unite to ensure that this peaceful demonstration takes place."
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty

"The authority for this march derives from our ancient right to free speech and assembly enshrined in our history. It is only fair to tell you that the march will go ahead, in any case, and I will be among those marching."
Tony Benn, in letter to the Home Secretary

"A protest demanding all the troops out now is of national significance. To try and stop that protest is a major interference with free speech. The march should go ahead whether it is formally permitted or not."
Walter Wolfgang, Labour Party NEC

"The government want to bury the issue of their disastrous war. They will not succeed. We will be marching in our thousands on Monday."
Lindsey German, Convenor Stop the War Coalition

"In a democracy we expect peaceful protest to be permitted. We are not yet in the kind of tyranny that the Burmese people have to suffer, I hope the authorities will reconsider."
Bob Wareing MP

"Gordon Brown cannot praise protesters in Burma and then ban a protest in London. I will be protesting on Monday, regardless of whether Police permission is granted."
Ben Griffin (ex SAS trooper)

"If people aren't allowed to have their say on all our streets, what kind of Parliament are we meant to be defending?"
Michael Kustow, theatre director

"It's becoming remarkably hard to escape the feeling we're ruled by people who are basically paranoid authoritarian incompetents."
Iain Banks, author

"It is depressing that our democratic rights are being whittled away bit by bit. We will look back and wonder how this happened. They wouldn't get away with this in one go. First an arrest for reading names, then a ban on marches. What will be next?"
Benjamin Zephaniah, poet

"The stop the war demonstration on 15 February 2003 was arguably the most politically influential march in Britain since the 1970s, so it's no surprise that politicians are immobilising anti-war demonstrations now. At a time when the political debate at Westminster occupies ever narrower ground, it's vital that voices from outside are heard."
David Edgar, playwright

Monday 8th October, 1 pm, Trafalgar Square, march to Parliament Square. For more see: www.stopwar.org.uk

Meanwhile see SchNEWS also for the end of the Faslane365 demo - the Faslane naval base holds nuclear-armed Trident submarines, and since 1982 there has also been a Faslane peace camp. This Monday was the Big Blockade send-off for the year-long Faslane365 action where over 100 separate actions during the year by anti-war groups coming from all around the country and beyond. Greens in Gloucestershire have supported this event along with many Green party members from across the country - indeed Caroline Lucas MEP was arrested for her peaceful demonstration. I never made it all the way up to Scotland but thanks to everyone who took part!

100,000 petition to prevent whale killing

Many Gloucestershire signatures, including my own, will have been among the 100,000 who hand-signed the petition to EU calling for existing loopholes in EU legislation that permit whale killing.

Photos: Left a picture I took of whale meat for sale in a Norwegian market and below a photo from Campaign Whale (see below)

A report produced by the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) for Campaign Whale last year exposed serious flaws in existing legislation intended to protect whales. They would permit the killing of whales for so-called 'scientific' and ‘fisheries management’ purposes - even in the 'overriding public interest' - which might be used to justify whaling for 'cultural' or economic reasons. All these arguments are currently used by whalers to justify the ongoing slaughter of whales in defiance of international agreements. The petition calls for these loopholes to be closed and for a freestanding EU Regulation banning whaling forever.

The Campaign Whale/FIELD report also reveals that EU law for the protection of whales is inextricably linked to decisions made in other fora, such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Both of these are in danger of being overwhelmed by Japan's so-called 'vote-consolidation' programme - the recruitment of pro-whaling votes through Development Aid packages - meaning vital protection measures could be overturned in the near future. Only last year, the whalers gained a voting majority at the IWC for the first time in over 20 years.

Dr Caroline Lucas, Green MEP who helped present the petition to the EU and is vice president of the European Parliament’s cross-party Animal Welfare ‘intergroup’, said: “I call on the European Commission to make clear that it is unacceptable for member states to turn a blind eye to whaling in order to preserve fisheries agreements with countries such as Iceland, Norway and the Faroes. These nations need their EU fish markets more than they need whaling, so the EU can and should take a strong stand, linking fisheries agreements to conservation guarantees, as in the US.”

For more info see Campaign Whale - this is dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises, and the environment: www.campaign-whale.org Campaign Whale is founder and coordinator of the Global Whale Alliance, an alliance of over 150 groups in over 30 countries, fighting the resumption of commercial whaling.

See also press release from Green party nationally re sharks this last week:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3175

Heinz 'not so soup-er'

Just a quick post to applaud efforts by local food campaigners in taking on Heinz over their new tins of soup. Clare Gerbrands, organiser of Gloucester and Stroud farmers' markets, has said complained to Trading Standards about Heinz's new range of Farmers' Market soups.

She has called on Sainsbury's in Stroud to remove the soup from its shelves in support of the town's market, which will be selling its own farmers market soup on Saturday. As she says: "Everything is fresh and local at farmers' markets - and that soup is neither. There's no reason for Heinz to be using the name Farmers' Markets - they are nothing to do with farmers' markets."

To call these soups 'farmers' market' soup is patent nonsense - they are not made or sold in farmers' markets. It's purely a marketing gimmick. I have also written to Trading Standards and Sainsburys.

Apparently Sainsbury's says it has no plans to withdraw the soup range.

New Hate Crime law needed

BBC Glos on the phone today re the Greens call for a new Hate Crime Law. I sadly wasn't able to pick up on the story soon enough to talk on the radio or get any local spokesperson... ....anyhow here's the issue below from a national Green party news release. See here my letter to local press with link to petition against hate crimes that is still open.

Photo: Rainbow flag flying over Stroud District Council on Gloucestershire's Rainbow Day

GREEN Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell have added their names to a 1,000-strong petition calling on the Government to enact new laws specifically outlawing hate crimes perpetrated against gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people.

Dr Lucas, who represents South-East England and hopes to become MP for Brighton Pavilion – a constituency with one of the largest LGBT populations in the UK – said the lack of specific legislation tackling homophobic and transphobic hate crime was yet another form of official discrimination against LGBT people. She said: “LGBT people face a barrage of discrimination – from employers, landlords, and, all too often, homophobes.

Dr Lucas added: “The Government must harmonise hate crimes legislation so that homophobic and transphobic crimes are dealt with on a par with racist crimes. In particular, this would outlaw the performance, sale, promotion and broadcasting of music and other arts which incite hatred and violence towards any oppressed group. We also campaign for police forces to adopt and implement action plans on homophobic and transphobic hate crimes."

Green Parliamentary candidate for Oxford East and Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "The government has failed to remedy the fundamental injustice of the ban on same sex marriage. Having a separate civil partnerships system is not equality. It's sexual apartheid. If there are going to be laws prohibiting incitement to hatred, these laws should cover all forms of hateful incitement. Outlawing incitment to racial hatred but not incitement to homophobic hatred is discrimination. Labour's failure to equalise the law is further evidence of it's ambigious commitment to LGBT equality."

The petition runs until November 3rd. It can be viewed in full, and signed, at:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/LGBT-Hate-Crime/

Tenancy Management Focus Group

This is a newish group made up of tenants reps, officers and one or two councilors - the aim is to cover all aspects of Estates Management of the Councils homes ( except communal services like cleaning, grass-cutting etc which is covered by another group).

Photo: Old Stroud College building coming down to make way for houses - but not enough for the people who need them.

I went along to my first meeting yesterday - two and a half hours - which included looking at the whole process of how homes are allocated and included a talk about Choice Based Lettings Scheme - see my comment on this from a while back here - I am more reassured that the needs of vulnerable people will be considered as more staff time will hopefully be available for this group as less time is spent on queries...

And talking of queries I had one that I was able to raise after the meeting re a local resident who has been on the housing waiting list for a long while - he is not alone - indeed I get various queries (see previous blog re Whiteshill homeless and our housing timebomb here). I clearly can have no role in moving someone up on a list but I can at least check to see if they have all the points they are entitled to have...

However the reality is that many people are in dire situations but do not have enough points to be housed in the near future. Indeed under the current system where so few homes are available many single people are very unlikely to be housed at all - priority is given to others like those who are unintentionally homeless or who have children.

As I've noted before I am personally appalled by the lack of social housing available - the result of Council homes being sold and not replaced along with a failure to build more homes to cope with the increased need - both Tories and Labour must share the blame. It is an issue many of us have raised over many years but to be honest there is not a lot more the current local administration can do, as hands are tied by central government regulations.

For many the best bet is to find a private rental flat - not at all easy - the Council has a leaflet with advice but it is more than a serious challenge as I know from members of my own family.

Future meetings will include a look at other aspects of Estates Management (incl TV relay), anti-social behaviour and transfer and exchanges. This is a place for tenants to raise concerns and issues.

Climate: time for real changes not ineffectual actions

This is a good article below from Climate Change Denial blogsite - reminding us about the need for the big actions - saving our environment requires action from everyone, at every level. I've been concerned about totemic gestures for a a while as they really add up to the picture we need. Nevertheless what they do achieve is the raising of public consciousness - and it is obvious that the profile of environmental issues has increased markedly over the last decade or so, and that the use of totemic gestures plays a big part in this.

As this article makes clear what we need to do now though is to move away from the increasing
trivialisation of environmental issues and look at these issues again in the light of robust lifecycle assessments - it is time to start making the big changes - that means taking decisions like no to Staverton Airport expansion, a massive shift in emphasis to public transport, schemes like Kirklees Councils free insulation to 30,000 householders and more....

DEATH OF A THOUSAND TIPS

George Marshall

We are constantly being told that easy personal actions will ‘save the climate’. The problem is that most of these “top ten tips” are ineffectual and play directly to our denial tendencies.

Take plastic bags for example. Live Earth, green groups and lifestyle features have constantly told us that we can ‘save the climate’ by re-using them or using designer “Bags for Life” instead. People get very worked up about this topic. There are eight petitions on the number 10 Website calling for them to be banned or taxed, Ireland has imposed a special bag tax, and a town in Devon has banned them outright.

Granted, plastic bags are ugly, wasteful and deadly to turtles. But their contribution to climate change is vanishingly small. The average Brit consumes 134 plastic bags a year, resulting in just two kilos of the typical 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide he or she will emit in a year. That is one five thousandth of their overall climate impact.

And then there are the electronics on standby. They are an attractive example of the waste of consumer culture but are hardly a major source of emissions. The electricity to keep a television in standby mode for a whole year leads to 25 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide. It’s more than plastic bags, but still very marginal: one fifth of one percent of average emissions.

Here’s another tip that sounds more substantial: fill your kettle with the right amount of water. The UK government made this one of the core messages of its 1999 “Are You Doing Your Bit?” campaign. A very small bit as it turns out. According to the government’s own figures even if you are constantly boiling full kettles this will save all of 100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year, less than one percent of average emissions.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. All of these actions are worth doing as part of a green lifestyle. But it is a serious distortion to imply, as the top ten lists usually do, that there is any equivalence between these lifestyle preferences and the serious decisions that really reduce emissions –stopping flying, living close to work and living in a well insulated house.

Judging by the latest MORI poll data link…. , people have already acquired a severely distorted sense of priorities. 40% of people now believe that recycling domestic waste, which is a relatively small contributor to emissions, is the most important thing they can do to prevent climate change. Only 10% mention the far more important goals of reducing foreign holidays or using public transport.

This easy tips undermine the wider message on the seriousness of climate change. In its report on climate change messaging, “Warm Words”, the Institute of Public Policy Research argues that simple actions “easily lapse into ‘wallpaper’– the domestic, the routine, the boring, the too-easily understood and ignorable”. The IPPR is especially critical of headlines such as ‘20 things you can do to save the planet from destruction’ and said that putting trivial measures alongside alarmist warnings can lead people to “deflate, mock and reject” the very notion of climate change”.

And there is a greater danger that people might adopt the simple measures as a way to avoid making more challenging lifestyle changes. In regards of recycling MORI concluded that it was becoming “a ‘totem behaviour” and that “individuals use recycling as a means of discharging their responsibility to undertake wider changes in lifestyle”. In other words, people can adopt the simplest solutions as a part of a deliberate denial strategy that enables them to feel virtuous without changing their real behaviour.

Imagine that we converted this approach into another intractable problem: smoking. Suppose a new campaign against smoking showed graphic images of people dying of lung cancer followed by the punchline: It’s Easy to Be Healthy- Smoke One Less Cigarette a Month.

We know without a moment’s reflection that this campaign would fail. The target is so ludicrous, and the disconnection between the images and the message is so great, that most smokers would just laugh it off.

So why then do well intentioned schools, councils and green groups – and let’s face it, Live Earth was an eight hour tip-fest - persist in promoting such ineffectual actions?

Their logic is as follows. Simple actions capture people’s attention and provide an entry level activity. Present people with the daunting big ticket items and they turn away. Give them something easy and possible and you have them moving in the right direction and, in theory, ready for the next level.

Well that is the theory but, as plentiful social research confirms, it doesn’t work. For one thing making the solutions easy is no guarantee that anyone will do them. The government spent £22 million on the ‘Do Your Bit’ campaign and has subsequently admitted that it produced no measurable change in personal behaviour.

And the argument that small actions are the automatic route to larger ones seems daft to my mind – like the old argument that cannabis leads to heroin. The people who do big actions were probably on that trajectory anyway, and most people get stuck on the small ones, happy to fool themselves that they have fulfilled their obligations.

Of course the real reason that the small steps approach is backed with government money is that it appears to be non-political. It is safe, domestic and non-threatening. It provides the appearance of action without challenging any powerful interests.

But no major social or economic change has ever arisen from volunteerism and the suggestion that it can is a deliberate strategy to prevent any real challenge to business as usual.

Take Ireland for example- a country where emissions have risen a quarter since 1990 – double the generous increase allowed under Kyoto. The response of the Irish government? A multi-million euro PR campaign called The Power of One link… which offers ‘ten top tips’ to ‘make a difference’. The tips include such earth shattering proposals as: unplug your mobile charger, fully fill your dishwasher and don’t overfill your kettle. That sounds much nicer than curtailing roadbuilding or industrial growth. They are not called ‘easy tips’ for nothing.

So let’s start again from first principle. We have to rethink the way we talk about climate change. It is insulting to assume that people can only be energized with the pint sized options. We need to present all lifestyle changes as part of a radical vision for a smart, healthy and just 21^st century.

Let’s be clear that voluntary action will never be enough - we will need radical political economic and social change. So let’s start with that wretched phrase ‘you can save the planet’. Who wants to be the first town to ban it?

This is a revamped and more opinionated version of an article that was published in The Guardian on September 13th 2007 Link… The Guardian also commissioned a counter piece which led to a discussion of the merits of ’small actions’ link… Mike Tidwell has also written a great critique of small steps for Grist magazine which led to an intense debate link…

One Blogpost for Burma

Click on 'Label' below to see previous blogs on Burma.

A46: another update

Just back from a Green party meeting and have had chance to look at Stroud News and Journal with a cup of tea - here's a copy of my email below to the Parish Council after reading the article about Neil Carmichael and Stan Waddington meeting in Whiteshill.

Photo: Robert Kempner, Headmaster of Whiteshill School walking with children to the Museum in the Park on Tuesday.

I note that the SNJ says Neil Carmichael and Cllr Stan Waddington will be meeting at Whiteshill School on Monday - Neil has called for 'urgent attention to traffic' - this is great but I wondered why now? Has he liaised with Parish Council re the results of the coffee morning or re the actions already taken as a result of the Parish and others correspondence with Highways? If not it would be good to get that info to him.

I also wondered whether there was news of our County councillors position? I have certainly copied my emails re Highways to Stan Waddington and Len Tomlins so hopefully they are aware of the current situation - indeed it was Stan who supported our requests for extra policing.

I will be away on Monday so can't go to this meeting but wondered if someone from Parish had been invited or could invite themselves? It seems a very good opportunity to make the case again for actions like a 20 mph, removal of some centre white lines to slow traffic (as in Wiltshire) etc - it will be very useful to make the most of this much-welcomed support from both Neil and Stan.

Here's a quick update re actions relating to A46/traffic:

- County Officers are now - after I have badgered them repeatedly (almost feel sorry for them) looking at promoting more re carshare scheme in the area and are also having a meeting to review the buses that don't stop in the village to see if they can. This seems a great opportunity as I've said before to support people in making the shift to using public transport.
- Reduced train tickets are still being considered following my email to First Great Western.
- Puckshole meant to open within 4 weeks?
- I met with Cllr Sarah Lunnon yesterday and we again walked the Main Road and more and she will put ideas down re Shared Spaces - they will not be a plan but rather a tool to help look at possibilities.
- I've liaised with Officers re possible Section 106 money (which may become available shortly) going towards a 'Gateway' in Whiteshill to slow traffic - they will be in touch with John for Parish thoughts on location/views etc.
- Great to see Whiteshill are participating in the International Walk to School month - infact also came across a couple of groups walking to the Museum in the Park on Tuesday - I also hear they maybe involved in designing something like a speeding ticket to hand out to motorists.

Other stuff re A46 including correspondence with Highways at:
http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/search/label/A46

Lastly I have had reports that traffic has improved along The Main road in the last week - still worse than usual - I would welcome other comments re this as my recent experiences on that road don't bear that out!

Burma: petitions, bloggers action and London march

The international emergency petition to stop the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma is exploding - nearly 500,000 signatures from every nation of the world. Tomorrow will see action by bloggers - bloggers supporting the Burmese people will not post anything tomorrow accept a banner re Burma (see previous post on Burma) - then Saturday will see a Global Day of Action for Burma and a march in London. Avaaz writes:

"The situation in Burma remains desperate, with reports of hundreds of monks being massacred and tortured. Burma's rulers have also killed and expelled international journalists, cutting off global media coverage of their cruelty. China is still the key - the country with the most power to halt the Burmese generals' reign of terror. We're delivering our message this week with a massive ad campaign in major newspapers, beginning Thursday with a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide, and in the South China Morning Post. The strength of the ad comes from the number of petition signers listed – can we reach our goal of 1 million signatures this week? The link to sign the petition and view the ad is below, forward this email to all your friends and family!

"China continues to provide key economic and military support to Burma's dictatorship, but it has been openly critical of the crackdown. Now we need the government to match words with actions. Our ad paints a powerful moment of choice for China in its relationship with the world – will it be a responsible and respected member of the global community, or will it be associated with tyranny and oppression?"

Please act now:

Action in Gloucester on Saturday - A peaceful demonstration is planned outside the Total garage near the Barnwood roundabout, Eastern Avenue from 12 noon tomorrow in support of the Burmese people. No 10 bus drops off there - for details call: 07948615561
Sign petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/u.php
Email EU President and Gordon Brown:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/crackdown.php
Join march: protests are expected right across the world at 12-noon local time. They have already been scheduled in key locations including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Ireland, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, the UK and the US. In London, the day of action will start at 11am with monks leading a march from Tate Britain over Westminster Bridge where they will drop petals into the Thames. They will then stop and tie their headbands onto Downing Street gates before proceeding to a rally at Trafalgar Square at 12.45 ish. Around the world campaigners will wear red headbands in solidarity with the monks under arrest and tie these onto government buildings, religious shrines or key landmarks to signify the thousands of lives currently hanging in the balance.
For a map of the route, please visit:
www.burmacampaign.org.uk / www.amnesty.org.uk
Boycott/write to the 'Dirty List' of companies who do business with Burma:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list.html
Petition to Chevron:
http://www.petitiononline.com/urgeChev/petition.html

Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment: Methodology Scoping Report

Today I've spent what seems like many hours deep in numerous Council documents - Cabinet papers for tonight, Development Control papers for next week plus various reports like the "Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment: Methodology Scoping Report" - catchy title that one!

Photo: Ruscombe fields - not at risk by this report

As I've had a query re it I'll note it here - hopefully to reassure re Ruscombe - the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (HLAA) basically provides information on opportunities that exist to meet the housing needs within the District. It will be used to inform the core Strategy DPD (Development Plan Document), which sets out the key elements of the planning framework for Stroud District. Hey now I know I've lost some of you blog readers with exciting talk like that....

This scoping report that I've read - and will be online at the District Council website - will set out the proposed scope and methodology of an HLAA to be prepared by the Council - it is NOT the full Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment but rather a scoping report. Views on it are required by 22nd October 2007.

Issues like whether the fields in Ruscombe will be developed are not being discussed here - developers may well put forward thoughts that they should be - but this is not about making decisions on that - it is more than clear that these fields do not meet the Council's criteria for development - they are in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) plus a whole host of other reasons that have been noted before.

Similarly large gardens must be identified in this research - but again need to still meet the criterias set out before in the Local Plan etc. However it is important we still stay vigilant and counter any ridiculous proposals.

Tesco 'green' research misses fact that supermarkets are part of the problem

Tesco is going to fund 77 academic posts in "green" research with a £25m donation to Manchester University - however it doesn't take a university to work out that supermarkets are a huge part of the problem. Read what Green party Principal Speaker Derek Wall had to say on this here.

Photo: Poster in window of Bristol home

Certainly there are so many things that supermarkets could be doing more - take packaging - there is a voluntary agreement - The Courtauld Commitment to redress excess packaging by 92%. It has failed miserably - I have to agree with those who say that such voluntary agreements are usually a way corporations avoid their responsibilities.... and what about plastic bags...

Anyhow just read the Coop will save 8 tonnes of plastic every year by being the first retailer to launch naked cucumbers - no shrink-wrapped plastic around them - it is part of other moves to reduce packaging - all good stuff but too slow! Come on Sainsbury's, Tesco and the others it is time for naked fruit and veg.

Time for a referendum on EU treaty

The Green Party voted at our recent conference to back union calls for a referendum on the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Sign up to 'I want a Referendum' here and read local Green party letter here.

The proposed EU Reform Treaty is substantially the same document as the EU Constitution, on which Tony Blair promised the British people a referendum. But now Gordon Brown wants to deny us a say on whether to adopt it or not – whatever you think about the rights or wrongs of the treaty that’s fundamentally undemocratic. As Colin Moses, from the Prison Officers Association, said recently: "We have had a belly full of broken promises and what we have here is another broken promise”.

Gloucestershire Airport on Wiki

Great to come across this on the Wiki re Glos Airport here - reproduced in part below as often these entries change as others add info or take info out.

Gloucestershire Airport (IATA: GLO, ICAO: EGBJ), formerly Staverton Airport, is located in Staverton, Gloucestershire, England. It is Gloucestershire's largest general aviation airfield^[1]. Although there are few scheduled flights, it is regularly used for private charter flights to destinations such as Jersey and Guernsey.

The airport is currently the subject of an intense campaign from angry locals and environmentalists who are protesting about the global warming impact of their proposed expansion plans. In response to this pressure the airport issued a report that claimed the science of global warming was a myth. Their behaviour has been likened to that of holocaust deniers. This has angered environmentalists who have responded by planning a protest camp near the airport, see http://www.myspace.com/campofhope and http://campforhopeatstaverton.blogspot.com/

Many of the flights to and from the airport are for business purposes, but there are also a large proportion of domestic flights, recreational flights and training flights. The airport is easily accessible from the M5 motorway to its eastern side, and airline Manx2 promotes the airport as "Gloucester (M5) Airport"^[2].

The airport houses many flying schools, including those specialised in helicopter and aeroplane training. Many people opt to do their pilot's licence training at the airport.

Gloucestershire Airport lies between Gloucester and Cheltenham, next to the M5 at Staverton. Location maps can be found at Manx2 Destinations and also at GloucestershireAirport.co.uk The airport has a Pilot Shop, and is also home to The Aviator restaurant and bar. The airport is a convenient location for islanders interested in visiting the following locations:

• 10 mins drive away are Cheltenham (for horse racing) and Gloucester.
• Worcester is 27 mins away.
• 40 mins to Swindon or Bristol.
• 45 mins to Shrewsbury and Warwick.
• 50 mins to Newport, Hereford and Dudley.
• 1 hr to Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Newbury, Leamington Spa, Cardiff.
• Reading is a 75 mins drive

Threat to Merton Rule

I have just read an appeal to the Government from the Sustainable Energy Partnership (which is supported by the Green party) re the Merton Rule - click on 'Label' below for info and a copy of my own letter to Ministers - plus see how this impacted on Stroud District Councils plans which have nevertheless gone ahead at 10% but perhaps could have been higher.

Photo: Climate Change march

Here is some of what the Sustainable Energy Partnership (SEP) wrote in their excellent document - I have included large chunks as I can't find it online yet and feel that what they have to say is of huge importance:

The new Government policy, as it is currently drafted, will remove the Merton Rule. This appears to have happened because of pressure on the department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) by the large housebuilders, who had a history of wanting to minimise local influence over their activities through the planning system. There is no evidence of the Merton Rule holding up new developments or even significantly eating into developers' profits. Only recently the government was asking authorities why they weren’t implementing the Merton Rule.

The removal of the Merton Rule would have serious consequences for the microgeneration sector, which now relies on the Rule for most of its orders. It also undermines Government plans for zero carbon homes by 2016. If the Merton Rule is effectively abolished, the microgeneration sector may not develop capacity needed to deliver the right kit to the right price. In the proposed replacement for Merton Rule is put in place by CLG, stretched planning authorities would be left to fight for renewables on a site-by-site basis against well-resourced developers. The developers would be backed by the CLG inspectors, who will be told by CLG that development comes before the environment.

It could also be that removal of the Merton Rule is illegal, for reasons set out in this document. The Sustainable Energy Partnership appeals to the government to change the wording of the PPS before it is finally published. Please keep the Merton Rule.

The threat to the Merton Rule from the draft PPS

Recently CLG civil servants held a meeting of invited stakeholders as a “sounding board” to comment on the most recent draft of the PPS on Climate Change. The most significant change to the PPS draft since the public consultation earlier in the year was the removal of the Merton Rule as currently defined and implemented - as a council-wide policy. Instead, the draft limited any council requirements to specific sites, flagged up in a high-level Local Development Document, with site-specific justification and an estimate of extra costs to any developer.

Removing the ability of councils to set a viable policy borough-wide in their planning documents - in favour of specific sites - will severely limit the number of sites benefiting from onsite renewable energy installations, not least because the PPS has primacy amongst planning documents. This means adoption by the Government of the PPS in its present form makes all district-wide council planning policies with a Merton Rule null and void. Probably over 100 planning authorities have, or about to adopt, a Merton Rule policy.

How the draft PPS will reduce the number of microgeneration installations that would have occurred if the Merton Rule was not abolished

After this whole-sale slaughter of the Merton Rule by the PPS, councils will be free, in theory, to adopt site-specific policies about specific sites as part of their emerging Local Development Documents. Of course, many councils are on the point of finalising and adopting their Local Development Documents and it is effectively too late for them to alter them in this round. The PPS deliberately prevents them from placing these site-specific policies in a following (easier and quicker to adopt) Supplementary Planning Document.

The remaining councils with time to alter their draft LDDs will find they can order a far smaller number of onsite renewables because of a variety of reasons (set out in detail by the SEP).

The result of all these “hoops” is that very few of the 20,000 major sites that come up for development in England annually, will have any higher environmental standards placed upon them. Effectively, this is a “holiday” for developers on higher standards until the next round of Building Regulation changes.

Is the PPS “illegal”?

The existing PPS 22 on renewable energy states that ‘local authorities and developers should consider the opportunity for incorporating renewable energy projects in all (our emphasis) new developments’ and that planning authorities may “require a percentage of the energy to be used in new residential, commercial or industrial developments to come from on-site developments.” But our understanding of the wording of the new draft PPS is that planning authorities would have to focus on local development or site specific opportunities, and avoid blanket requirements.

The latter is clearly a weakening of the former and a very significant u-turn on the CLG’s very clear public statement of support for the Merton rule of 8 June 2006 ie “A CLG survey of local plans published today reveals many local authorities are now adopting new requirements in their plans for on-site renewable energy in new developments. The Government is now urging all local authorities to do the same and will include the request in the new planning policy guidance on climate change due out later this year.”

Pursuant to section 82(5) of the Energy Act 2004 the Secretary of State has a duty to implement the microgeneration strategy drawn up pursuant to that section of the 2004 Act. The resulting document published in March 2006 titled “Our Energy Challenge, Power From The People - DTi Microgeneration Strategy”, on page 33, very clearly calls for the adoption of the Merton Rule by planning authorities which have yet to do so. This is supported on page 43 in the same document by a list of actions, where the Government promises to “undertake an urgent review of local plans to determine whether there is a problem with emerging plans that do not fully incorporate PPS22” (page 43).

SEP is advised that any proposed weakening of the Merton Rule in the draft PPS may well be ultra vires in view of section 82(5). The relevant sections of the draft PPS must be withdrawn before publication and that the duty in section 82(5) will be discharged. This SEP document clearly sets out, how the draft PPS, if implemented will reduce the number of installations, in the sections headed “The threat to the Merton Rule from the draft PPS” and “How the draft PPS will reduce the number of microgeneration installations that would have occurred if the Merton Rule was not abolished”.

Apparent change of policy by the Government

In the section above we have already featured the parts of the Microgeneration Strategy – a Government document published in March 2006 - which clearly promote the adoption by planning authorities of the Merton Rule. The new draft of the PPS signals an apparent change of policy by the Government, who had declared that renewable energy generation “will be at the heart of PPS1” in the recent Energy White Paper. Under the Renewables Summary of measures (page 168) the EWP states: “building on this statement of need, and the existing Planning PolicyStatement (PPS)22 on renewables, by putting renewables generation at the centre of the proposed Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on Climate Change”.

How the Planning Policy Statement 22 advocated the Merton Rule

The PPS states, under the Government’s Objectives that “Increased development of renewable energy resources is vital to facilitating the delivery of the Government’s commitments on both climate change and renewable energy. Positive planning which facilitates renewable energy developments can contribute to all four elements of the Government’s sustainable development strategy.”

To this end, the PPS advocated the Merton Rule. Paragraph 8 of the PPS states that “Local planning authorities may include policies in local development documents that require a percentage of the energy to be used in new residential, commercial or industrial developments to come from on-site renewable energy developments.”

Its council area-wide nature was embodied in paragraph 18 which says: “Local planning authorities and developers should consider the opportunity for incorporating renewable energy projects in all new developments. Local planning authorities should specifically encourage such schemes through positively expressed policies in local development documents."

8 June 2006 statement on implementation of PPS22 by the Minister for Housing & Planning

The government liked the Merton Rule so much that ministers became impatient with councils that had not adopted it so far. In a Written Ministerial Statement on Implementation of PPS22 by Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Housing and Planning published in Hansard Thursday 8 June 2006 she stated: “On 9 February my hon. Friend the Minister for Energy informed the Standing Committee of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill that I would undertake an urgent review of local plans to determine whether there is a problem with emerging plans that do not fully incorporate PPS22 guidance. That review has now been completed.

“The review has shown that in emerging new style regional spatial strategies and local development frameworks there has been a strong take-up of the policy in PPS22 on the use of on-site renewables in new developments. For those authorities preparing new plans where an appropriate stage in plan making has been reached, 26 out of 29 surveyed have devised policies to secure on-site renewables in new developments. The majority of them have set a requirement for 10 percent on-site renewables, where it is viable. Many of those at an earlier stage of developing their local development frameworks have not yet included PPS22 policies, although they still have time to do so. We strongly encourage them to do so. For those areas still completing old style plans, such as unitary development plans, policies on on-site renewables are less likely to have been included.

“It is essential that all planning authorities follow this example and take account fully of the positive approach to renewables set out in PPS22 at the earliest opportunity in their plan-making. In particular the Government expects all planning authorities to include policies in their development plans that require a percentage of the energy in new developments to come from on-site renewables, where it is viable. Such policies have a vital role to play in reducing emissions, through the use of carbon-neutral energy sources. Local authorities who are now updating their plans through new local development frameworks should take the opportunity to update their policies in this area. The Government's forthcoming draft planning policy statement on climate change will be an opportunity to consider further how the planning process more generally can help combat climate change by extending the contribution of renewables from both on-site and off-site sources.

“I have instructed my officials to write to all chief planning officers enclosing a copy of this ministerial statement and to draw attention to the importance that the Government attaches to such measures in tackling climate change.”

Definition of the “Merton Rule”

The definition of what is referred to as the “Merton Rule” is a borough wide prescriptive planning policy that requires new developments to generate at least 10% of their energy needs from on-site renewable energy equipment. The most commonly accepted threshold is 10 homes or 1,000m2 of non-residential development – though this is sometimes lower. This is the accepted definition by local (and regional) planning authorities, academic institutions, trade and professional bodies, and the development, construction and engineering industries.

The policy already allows local authorities to require more than 10% on specific sites if a reasonable case can be made for doing so, and as a counterbalance, is always subject to a "viability" clause which voids the policy if a developer can conclusively prove that it would be an undue burden.

Croydon, Merton and Woking have yet to see any evidence showing that the additional capital cost of renewable energy equipment is an undue burden on the developer, or that this additional cost cannot be realistically passed onto the end purchaser or renter of the property. The obvious advantage to the occupier/owner is lower monthly bills and added property equity.

There is lots more in their report - particularly useful is the evidence of people wanting renewables - included is these bits of research findings:

Key research findings for House-builders

• Homeowners are concerned over how much electricity/gas and water they use (75% for energy; 61% for water);
• Water and energy efficiency are becoming more important features for home buyers. While 45% of respondents state that energy efficient or water saving features were fairly or very important when choosing their current home, 73% say it would be fairly or very important in choosing their next home;
• 92% of respondents want to see sustainability features offered as options on new homes. 64% of respondents think these should be compulsory;
• Home owners hold positive associations with sustainable homes, seeing them as modern, attractive, hi-tech, fashionable, and good value (in comparison with old-fashioned, ugly, lo-tech and poor value); and
• Home owners are prepared to pay extra to live in a sustainable housing development. Two thirds of homeowners would be prepared to pay a monthly charge for sustainability services, such as convenient recycling facilities, green-caretaker, and car sharing.

Key research findings for Government

• Four out of five homeowners believe that more environmentally friendly homes would help combat climate change;
• Three in five homeowners claim to have installed energy and/or water saving features since moving into their homes. Those homeowners who have lived in their home for more than ten years are most likely to have taken action. Those who claim they have installed energy saving features are also more likely to be concerned about how much energy and gas they use;
• 92% of respondents want to see sustainability features offered as options on new homes. 64% of respondents think these should be compulsory;
• Lack of information is seen as a key barrier in driving demand for sustainable homes. 70% of homeowners claim to know little or nothing at all about sustainable homes. Three quarters of home owners (73%) feel the Government should be responsible for communicating the benefits of sustainable homes to the public.”

Let us hope this campaign bears fruit - it is outrageous the Government are even suggesting going back on this rule. I would urge others to also write to the Government on this issue. Lastly I came across this useful pdf document on renewables here from the Energy Savings Trust.

How to encourage people to walk the stairs

According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, researchers monitored 82,000 people walking past messages like "seven minutes of stair climbing daily protects your heart" in a UK shopping centre. The signs led to a 190% increase in the number of people climbing stairs - and energy savings re the lift use.

Photo: Art installation, Norway

I've asked if Stroud District Council can display similar notices - no answer to my email yet.

Call for SUDs in Stroud

Stroud District Council Cabinet meeting on 29th October has been put aside especially to look at flooding issues. I am hoping that we can also soon have a Policy Panel to look at Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems. I have been pushing for this for a while and have now summarised below some of the reasons why I think it is important. I am hoping this will prompt a date from the Council.

Photo: Not the SUDs we are referring to in this blog entry!

As regular blog readers may remember I have also met in the past with Bob Bray, a well-known specialist in SUDs who lives locally - he has carried out training in SUDs with planners in Bristol and other Councils who by all accounts found it very helpful. I am hoping that SDC will consider similar training or help with the Policy Panel I am proposing - particularly to hear about other SUDs schemes and the issues around adoption.

Anyhow here's what I wrote - plus some good notes from Bob Bray as to why SUDs schemes are not being developed...

Proposal for the further development of SUDs in Stroud District

1. Reasons for a Panel Policy include;

1.1. SUDs will have an increasingly important part to play in future water management. The recent floods highlighted the need to develop SUDs systems: where they existed water was managed better.
1.2. Implications of the 'new' PPS25 Planning Policy Statement.
1.3. Our Local Plan contains a SUDs requirement but this has not always translated into SUDs schemes. The Planning department has seen significant improvements in this area over recent months particularly on larger developments. It would be good to build on this and develop a more comprehensive policy for our LDF in particular highlighting the need for guidance before Detailed Planning permissions are submitted. I note that Gloucester City have developed Supplementary Planning Guidance in this area (ii).
1.4. Issues regarding adoption and section 106 need resolving - see point 2.4 below.
1.5. Need to tackle widespread ignorance about SUDs (particularly amongst some developers) - see point 2.3 below and appendix one.
1.6. Consider developing a plan of action for the District. This could include establishing a Working party with potential representation including Severn Trent Water, Environment Agency, Drainage Team, Highways, University and Planning, Environment and Regeneration departments. The role of this working party would be to provide a focus for the wider debate and research on the area’s drainage its work could include:
- Policy development
- Drafting of supplementary planning guidance and design codes
- Catchment analysis to explore amongst other things regional (multi development site) controls for flood waters etc.
- Training tailored to staff requirements plus management of SUDs schemes.
- Above all the action will be about getting more schemes on the ground, reducing people’s concerns, establishing tried and tested management and best practice and building experience.
- There may be future opportunities to advise other Local Authorities as we build capacity as leaders in SUDS.

2. Background info re SUDs taken from recent submission to flooding inquiry (i):

2.1. What are SUDs? The SUDs philosophy is an integrated approach to managing water on site by minimising run off, attenuating discharge rates, detaining water for passive treatment, improving water quality and creating amenity space for people and wildlife. The overriding concept of SUDS is that drainage design for development sites should mimic, wherever possible, the existing drainage characteristics of the area and seek to minimise the effects of development on the hydrology of the site and the surrounding environment: water will be dealt with as close to where it falls as possible (iii). SUDS can be achieved by utilising a series of porous hard surfaces, swales (broad open ditches), ponds and wetlands. These all ensure that water seeps slowly away in to ground water (as would happen naturally pre-development) or is discharged to the drainage system at a low controlled rate.

2.2. Advantages of SUDs. SUDs systems offer solutions that are often at a lower cost and lower maintenance costs to traditional systems and are more sustainable than convention methods because they:

- reduce runoff flow rates which reduces the resulting pollution from run-off
- reduce flooding and subsequent damage to water courses and more
- protect or enhance water quality
- improve habitat for wildlife
- provide a public/functional space (good examples in Sheffield and Lewisham where SUDs have been integrated into local parks) or for willow, biofuel or aquaculture
- reduce depletion of ground water flow which in turn impacts upon water resources

2.3. Ignorance and resistance. Take up in England and Wales is very poor indeed even with support from Government through PPG25 and other policy documents, and from the Environment Agency (iii). Forward thinking councils like Gloucester City are attempting to develope ways to encourage more SUDs schemes. However they and indeed most Councils, even where they have SUDs policies as part of their planning process, are not seeing SUDs schemes delivered. Ignorance and resistance within the construction industry means that drainage proposals that have been called SUDs schemes have not always delivered easily maintained, visually attractive and functional solutions. Similarly even where Local Plans have called for culverts to be opened up this has not occurred despite new developments. It is critical that greater guidance and support is provided before a Detail Planning Submission is made.

2.4. Adoption problems. One key excuse that developers use to not submit a SUDS scheme is 'adoption'. However if structures are designed correctly in the first place then maintenance costs should not be prohibitive and structures can be adopted as long as appropriate commuted sum payments are made. In traditional systems pipes are adopted by Severn Trent, for which they are allowed to charge through the water rate: typically 10 – 15% of a water bill will be for this service. If the pipe discharges into a balancing pond then it is the local authority, who, with a commuted sum will take on the maintenance of this area in a similar way to public open space. Currently Severn Trent are obliged to adopt pipes typically used in traditional systems, but refuse to adopt many of the features associated with SUDs such as swales, filter strips or French drains even though they convey water from one place to another. It is not clear why this is the case, however, it has been suggested that the current system suits them well and there is no commercial benefit to change it. Local authorities have also been reluctant to take them on board as they are unfamiliar with them, and they have no long term revenue stream to pay for their maintenance even though SUDs usually have lower maintenance costs than traditional systems.

2.5. Lack of urgency worrying. The Interim report on SUDS was published in July 2004 and there is not even an estimated date for the final report. Furthermore that Interim report did not go far enough in making use of the advantages of SUDS. Apparently a group led by the Environment Agency, including representatives of major stakeholders, is considering both the technical standards and legal issues required to underpin the future adoption of SUDS. Again this appears to lack any sense of urgency.

2.6. National guidance needed. We urgently need clearer guidance and a stronger lead from bodies like the Environment Agency. A move to adopt a mandatory and comprehensive national SUDs policy in all new developments like in Ireland and Scotland would be a significant step towards managing our water better, but in the meantime individual Councils can considerably improve their current provision of SUDs through LDFs and more.

3. Notes:
(i) See full report here (ii) Copies of their policy documents in WORD can be sent on request. (iii) See below.

Appendix One: Moving forward with SUDS

In order to move forward with the uptake of SUDS techniques we need to understand the issues and attitudes of those involved in all aspects of development. Typical reasons (and excuses) behind the lack of uptake in the use of SUDS:

Cultural shift in how we manage surface run-off. Our present day system is based on 150 years of conventional practice and in effect is about putting water into pipes.

Lack of knowledge in what SUDS are and what constitutes good design from within authorities

Managing body – most SUDS will not be adopted by ‘The water company’ therefore it falls to another body to pick up the responsibility, for example a management company or local authority.

Management resources – It is rarely possible to acquire the surface water drainage proportion of the water bill for managing SUDS therefore other financing methods are explored such as Section 106 agreements and management companies.

Land take –landowners and developers can be concerned that there will be loss of land to SUDS features reducing capital receipts or profit from development. (will not fit with PPG 3 High density developments). With good design and early consideration SUDS can form part of the incidental landscape to a development. Volume storage which is the main issue in land take can be partly achieved through under-paving storage. Regional (multi-development) volume storage could form part of a wider public amenity, for example lakes and wetlands and level grass spaces.

Siltation – People get concerned about silt levels. Experience with older systems shows that with the right design silt is minimal in quantity.

Site too steep- not a problem infact a creative opportunity. There are examples in the UK.

SUDS are too expensive – There are costed examples already available within this country and practice abroad suggests SUDS are always cheaper. However, without actually designing an alternative scheme it can be difficult to challenge consultants and developers on this issue. The capital outlay for SUDS is considered to be less because its nature is less engineered. Each scheme would have to be considered separately.

Site too flat – water can be moved at very slight gradients as the need for cleansing as in steeper piped systems is not required.

People will not accept the look of SUDS within their local environment. If systems are well designed and managed SUDS should be an attribute to communities. All evidence in Scotland, where SUDS are commonly practiced, indicate that SUDS are accepted by communities and are infact a positive contribution to the environment.

SUDS are new and an additional burden (cannot be hassled) – with the right support and the spread of knowledge and experience to individuals through training etc this can be addressed. SUDS are likely to become mandatory therefore the longer the lead in time for an authority the better.

You need a water course to drain to –Whilst this can be an advantage water in some situations can be infiltrated or put into the surface water sewer in a cleaner and controlled state.

Safety of children – schemes can be designed to make access in and around them safe for example level grass benches to the sides of shallow ponds. Regular open water is not necessarily a common feature of SUDS. It is not economical to put large storm volumes underground therefore there is the occasional need for the use of the above ground environment for storage.

Lack of skills to manage – All the features within SUDS are common within society already. Most SUDS elements would be managed as part of a landscape such as mowing verges, removing litter, strimming or flailing shallow channels, cleaning permeable paving.

Conventional drainage for the large part does a good job - why try something else? SUDS can deliver massive water quality improvements as well as amenity benefits, they are a reminder of everyone’s connection to nature and their own responsibility. With the right planning they can deliver significant volume management above and beyond the conventional 1 in 30 storm period for piped systems. Recent events illustrate that conventional systems do fail either through exceedence or through blockage. 60% of reported flooding is due to conventional drainage failing.

SUDS are too loose and unpredictable they cannot be modelled precisely enough. SUDS are designed to the same standards as conventional systems for example return periods and storage. Much can be modelled, however the water’s behaviour is more difficult to model than conventional pipes. Infiltration is difficult to predict and vegetation can slow flows more than expected. However both these aspects can add extra capacity into a system. With the right design SUDS can be very robust effective systems requiring minimal input.

People can misconnect to SUDS – this can be done for example a resident building an extension and misconnecting a toilet to a surface water drain. Presently in conventional systems this would be difficult to detect. Although finding a culprit for a misconnection can be difficult the need for more societal responsibility for our surface water is needed. Within the some projects it is hoped the promotion of the SUDS and its possible use in for example supplying a fishing lake will deliver responsible behaviour. A well designed SUDS with source control lacks the use of extensive pipework therefore there is no opportunity to misconnect to a sewer. If someone does it is more obvious.

People can abuse SUDS – this can be addressed by good design and management, regular checking of inlets and outlets as part of a landscape management. Good design should involve the reduction of vulnerable engineered solutions.

It restricts design and does not fit in with the aesthetic of development – The built character of SUDS can vary with the use of different techniques providing opportunity for integration into development in a variety of ways.

What if it fails – good design and increasing experience from all professionals will deliver good schemes. The simplicity of the designs will deliver robust systems. Conventional systems fail more catastrophically whereas SUDS fail slowly or sequentially.

We don’t need to improve water quality – European Legislation will bring in the need to address diffuse pollution.

Long –term doubts about management, pipes are some much more understood. This is where there is a cultural need to understand how we can manage our surface water differently. The more schemes the more normal it will become along with its required management. Pipes are more understood but if they fail they can only deteriorate unless there is heavy investment. Greener natural systems are more robust. What is needed is knowledge transfer between professions so this new approach can be adopted.

Join Camp Hope to fight Gloucestershire's Airport expansion

Saturday 20th Oct and Sunday 21st October

Staverton Airport is applying for planning permission to extend its runway. If the extension goes ahead, it will allow new services to be introduced to European cities.

A mini climate camp is now planned following several meetings - along the lines of the inspirational Climate Camp at Heathrow. Land has been located land near the airport and the location and logistics to get there will be made available shortly.

During the weekend, there will be workshops on the Saturday and peaceful protests against the airport on the Sunday. Workshops and discussions start at 13:00pm with support from local Green party councillors (including myself) and Stroud MP David Drew.

For details contact: Kevin.lister@btopenworld.com

Three places to get up to date re Camp Hope plans:
http://campforhopeatstaverton.blogspot.com/
http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/news/detail.php?art_id=822
www.myspace.com/campofhope

Regular blog readers will have seen some of the outrageous claims made by the airport (see many previous posts by clicking on 'Airport' label below). Indeed the airport has so far failed to respond to the charges about its expansion plans and its climate change impacts and continues to make special pleading to politicians - in its political briefing document the airport even rejects climate change as being man-made from greenhouse gases!

The airport's accountability is a joke - it beggars belief that, when asked by Green party members in Cheltenham about the airport's climate change impacts, Cheltenham Borough Council's scrutiny committee simply referred the questions to the airport to answer. The latest round of scrutiny questions have also elicited a deeply worrying state of affairs amongst councilors who are meant to be looking at this development - I've just looked through all the answers from questions raised by members of the public - the councillors are at least are seeking more info from the airport but did not appear to understand peak oil or it's implications on aviation or the local economy.

In the press airport supporters have also ridiculed Tewkesbury councillors who will decide the airport's planning applications and made exaggerated claims about the "massive" worth of the airport - plus repeated the scare stories of development happening on the airport site if expansion isn't permitted. This last point is deeply ironic when the airport is also apparently seeking the release of land around the Staverton area for business development - ie more sheds and infrastructure to accompany the airport expansion.....but enough I've covered all this in other places....join us at the camp!

One other project we are looking at is to send a questionnaire to all householders around the airport - this will be done through an independent organisation to avoid leading questions or accusations of bias - this is important if it is to be a meaningful piece of research that really looks at what local people think about the proposed expansion.

Meanwhile a friend pointed me to this game re climate change - haven't played yet but I understand he's also emailed all Cheltenham Borough councilors suggesting they look at it before making a decision re Staverton:
www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge

See also flaws exposed in Cornwall County Council case for Newquay Airport at: http://www.groundswellcornwall.org/newquayairport

Festival of Photography

Just a reminder that from Monday 15th to Saturday 27th October Stroud will be holding a Festival of Photography - see more about it here:
www.stroudphotofestival.co.uk

Photo: Nelson Street shop front with work by Bread Street photographer Mike Gallagher (not part of official exhibition but worth a look)

Local bits of news: A46, brook and more

A46 update: Measures to tackle the traffic along the main road in Whiteshill continue - things have improved from the first week but are still dire at times as noted - use search engine to look at previous A46 entries in this blog. Small additional measures include: the District Council have been in contact with regards to the 2 refuse collections that operate in Whiteshill & Ruscombe: they will collect after 9.30am (one already was collecting after 9.30am) to ease traffic flows. Whiteshill school Year 6 children may get involved in helping to make drivers aware that dangerous/fast driving will not be tolerated in our village. One suggestion is a competition for them to design a ‘speeding warning’ ticket, which they could hand out to offenders with the help of the police.

Photo: Last week front page of The Citizen with my quote headlined

Speeding: I hear from the local police that speeding in Whiteshill has become a priority and will be tasked over the next 3 months. As reported earlier 60 people were caught in Whitsehill (see newspaper headline above). Go on to the Gloucestershire Police Website which is www.gloucestershire.police.uk/neighbourhoodpolicing and read more under Safer Community Teams.

Ruscombe Brook: Next meeting of the Ruscombe Brook Action Group (RBAG) will be Wednesday 24th October at Zarin's home at 7.30 pm (call me on 755451 if interested in coming to meeting) - this will be a chance to hear how Ismaila, our MSc student got on with his project looking at the brook - and a chance to look at the next steps - reed beds, ponds or whatever. I also dropped off at Cainscross Parish Council posters and stuff re the brook - they will have a display in their window later this week.

1st Randwick Brownies: 13 brownies apparently turned out at the first meeting to this new pack - email them for further details and how to join: randwickbrownies@hotmail.co.uk

The Randwick Directory: Out very soon and fully updated - it will be delivered to homes in Randwick. Spare copies will apparently be available at the back of the Church.

Wap update: Calvin takes over from Stan Giles as Chair - he also wrote a great piece in the Runner re Stan. The new committee is already getting to grips with next years plans.

Randwick School: has just won national recognition re it's international work - it is one of 447 schools in the country to get the 2007 International School Award - plus they got the National Healthy School Award.

Send a Cow to Africa: In support of this project we have Randwick's very own Antiques Road Show is set for 11th Oct in the Village Hall at 7.30pm - bring items to value: £2.50 on door includes tea/coffee.

Bloggers unite for Burma

International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We are planning to refrain from posting on our blogs on October 4 and will just put up one Banner with the words "Free Burma!"

If you are a website owner or blogger you just have to post one entry on the 4th of October 2007 on your website/blog - see more here - include one of the graphics from this page or from this Flickr group to sync our global voices. Meanwhile for previous posts on Burma in this blog use search engine or 'Label' below.