Burma: boycott of Lonely Planet to continue

Some years ago many of us supported a campaign against companies that were encouraging tourism to Burma or indeed were getting products from there. We had some very noteable successes - various key travel and clothing companies withdrawing from Burma. However one failure was Lonely Planet who persistently ignored pleas to stop encouraging tourism there.

Last month Lonely Planet was sold to the BBC so I have written again in the hope that the new owners will look favourably on this issue - in the meantime I have continued to boycott Lonely Planet and would urge others to do the same until we get assurances of a position change. Here is my letter sent to the BBC:

I am very concerned that Lonely Planet publications produces a guide to Burma. Now that BBC Worldwide has bought a 75% controlling stake in Lonely Planet, one of the first things it will have to decide is what to do with this travel guide.

You will be aware that Lonely Planet is on a "dirty list" of companies that Burma Campaign UK is petitioning to sever all business ties with the Burmese economy in order to cut off the ruling military dictatorship's overseas revenue. If you continue to publish the guide then you are taking sides.

The development of hotels, transport and tourist attractions to encourage visitors to Burma is directly linked to mass human rights abuses. Added to this, tourist dollars go straight into the hands of the dictatorship. For these reasons Aung San Suu Kyi, the British Government and the European Union have asked tourists not to visit Burma. Against the weight of this advice Lonely Planet publications continues to promote tourism to Burma through their Burma guide.

Burma's people are suffering under a brutal dictatorship that:

- forces around 8 million people (equivalent to the population of inner London) to build roads, railways and other projects. Forced labourers face punishments including beatings, torture, rape and murder.
- forces more than 50,000 children to become soldiers : a greater number than any other country in the world.
- has 'ethnically cleansed' over half a million minority peoples.
- has refused to hand power to Aung San Suu Kyi's Party, the National League for Democracy : which won 82% of the seats in Burma's 1990 election.
- has made Burma the world's leading producer of heroin and opium.

Other companies like Rough Guides have said they will not publish while the dictatorship remains in power and Aung San Suu Kyi requests tourists not to visit.

The right to life and the right to live without torture and intimidation must come higher than any of our rights as tourists for freedom of movement. Lonely Planets position is impossible to defend. Please reassure me that you will cease to publish the Burma guide.

Others can take action by going to the Burma Campaign website:
www.burmacampaign.org.uk

Or email the BBC direct

Randwick: Potential wall collapse and right-of-way issue

The last blog entry talked about a footpath opposite the Scout Hut - these two issues are just around the corner - again not in my ward but used by residents - first the wall then the right-of-way...

Wall in Westrip Lane near Hawthorne Rise and opposite Red House Farm

Photo: Area of wall previously subject to heave: now relatively safe

The wall has over the last few years become increasingly dangerous. It has been brought to the attention of various agencies and more recently following several complaints from parishioners the Parish have written a further letter and made various phone calls. There seems to have been frustration that the issue wasn't getting resolved so I also wrote a letter last week and we got a good response from the District Council and Highways who set up the site meeting today to look at the wall.

Photo: Looking at previous photos and plans

Problem: This retaining wall is along a long stretch of the pavement and it is leaning alarmingly and is seriously cracked and has heave problems as well. Many pedestrians use the pavement and in particular mothers with push chairs and young children on the nearby estates taking children to school either at Cashes Green or Foxmoor Primary Schools. There are also two bus stops at each end of this section. The wall is about four foot high - and higher in some places. There is only one pavement on that side of a particularly dangerous road. The danger is compounded by a large hedge planted behind the wall which probably also adds to it leaning and heaving. The issue is made more complex as some owners of the adjoining properties consider (following legal advice) that the wall was never transferred into their ownership when the developer signed off the estate. The wall is in an increasingly dangerous state and may well topple into the pavement and road and in our view constitutes a serious danger particularly to pedestrians.

Photo: Wall leaning at alarming angle

The Building Inspector present showed photos of the wall from about five years ago - the problems were nothing like as bad then - clearly it needs attention now - the first stage is to again contact householders and discuss the best ways forward - the problems of ownership make this particularly difficult issue to resolve - one option may be fort the County to remove the dangerous section and replace with chain-link fencing and allow that and the tree roots to retain the earth. Hopefully this meeting will at least now lead to action to reduce the risks of collapse here.

Right-of-way near the junction between Redhouse Lane and Westrip Lane

Photo: area of concern

The second issue is a patch of land on the same side of the development as the wall but directly on the corner of the junction between Redhouse Lane and Westrip Lane – also allegedly not transferred into anyone’s ownership by the same development company. This has now become an unofficial footpath used by pedestrians including young children, cyclists, moto-scooters motorcyclists etc as a short cut to and from both the Perry Orchard and Hawthorne Rise estates.

The problem is that people come out unexpectedly straight onto a very busy narrow road junction with no warning and little visibility. A number of near misses have occurred at this point. The Parish has been unable to resolve the problem despite contacting various agencies including the Land Registry to identify ownership and thereby bring pressure to bear on the developers, if they still exist as they were last heard of as being based in the Channel Islands - after the original development company ceased trading.

There must be ways to improve the situation: clearly it is a well-used route so blocking it does not seem the right way forward. Improving visibility for vehicles might help as would changing the road surface but again it is a matter of funding priorities - especially as we cannot even establish whether this path is official. Issues like this are deeply frustrating and it seems there are not many options to move forward. What do others feel?

Moves to tackle a dangerous footpath in Randwick

I attended a site meeting today regarding the unofficial footpath that comes out opposite the Randwick Scout Hut (next to Cashes Green School) on Cashes Green Road.

Photo: Richard Huxford, Randwick Parish Chair with Highways officer looking at the unofficial footpath - below other views of path

The official footpath in fact runs parallel to the road for a stretch, but to cut off a significant corner children and adults go under the rail and down a steep slope to join the footway adjacent to the road and opposite the Scout Hut.

Several attempts have been made previously to stop pedestrians cutting off the corner but these have been vandalised - the most recent being a wire fence that has been pulled down. It is the view of myself and Randwick Parish Council that action is needed as the current situation is dangerous. The slope is used by a large number of people coming to the schools and playground - it is steep and when icy or wet leads to people slipping into the path of traffic on the road. This has been witnessed occurring on several occasions.

The Parish have written letters but not had any joy and strictly speaking the footpath is not in my ward - but it is near and residents of my ward use that path - so I also wrote last week - and was able to set up a meeting today with Highways.

The Parish and myself are seeking that the slope be made into a proper path or steps - these could be at an angle to the road to prevent people coming down directly onto the road.

Highways note there is a perfectly good path - with disabled access - so therefore they do not need to act to make a new path - indeed if they do any action they would consider reblocking the cut through to reduce the dangers - although they note that this would likely be vandalised like previous attempts to cut off that route. However Highways have agreed to look at possible costs and possible schemes - it might be that monies can be found from other sources to help pay for the path. We await with interest the next step in improving this situation - and in the meantime hope no one gets hurt on that slippery slope.

I am also of the view that more bulb planting is needed on these verges - I raised this a while back and know the Parish are considering it.

Aussie elections: Peter Garretts' defection?

It is possible Greens will have increased their senate seats to 5 or 6 - good news indeed - however one disappointing piece of news I heard was the defection of former Nuclear Disarmament party candidate and eco-warrior rock star Peter Garrett.

Both the governing rightwing coalition and the Labor opposition are keen to build a pulp mill that would chew up the forests in Tasmania and create pollution. Peter Garrett, as a would-be Labor minister has been arguing that the pulp mill is a beautiful thing, a best-practice, environmentally sound job creation scheme. As Derek Wall writes: "It's like Sting turning up as transport minister here and calling for new runway at Heathrow."

I met Peter Garrett a couple of times when I worked for Community Aid Abroad (now called the Australian Oxfam) managing their Sydney Office - it was back in the mid-80s and I was somewhat in awe of this larger than life bald-headed dynamic campaigner and lead-singer of Midnight Oil. It does seem strange that this radical whom I talked with is now supporting the corporate-friendly policies of ALP - even declaring his support for an American base in Western Australia - quite a change from one who sang: "US forces give the nod/It’s a setback for your country" from the Oil’s 1982 hit US Forces.

Indeed many in the Green movement have been upset by his 'defection/betrayal' and question his credibility - see for example blog comments here and here. By all accounts his move has effected voting - however I hope Greens still manage a strong showing and perhaps once in power Garrett can raise the issues like climate change effectively? In some of his speeches he still seems to understand the urgency of action re social justice and the environment but I will need to see and hear a lot more to be convinced - and certainly evidence like the US base and the pulp mill do not help.

CO2 from 70,000 fires in September in South America

I've just come across this - a NASA satellite image measuring carbon monoxide to show smoke from over 70,000 fires across South America during September 2007. I've pinched the photo from the Biofuelwatch website as this issue is just not getting enough air time. Here is what they write:

"Reports suggest that 2007 has been one of the worst years on record for fires in large parts of South America, including in the Brazilian Amazon, Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina. The biofuel boom is raising commodity prices and large landowners have been burning forest to clear more land for soya. Brazil's sugar ethanol expansion is putting further pressures on the Amazon, too, primarily because it displaces cattle ranching and other agricultural activities elsewhere and pushes them into the rainforest. Recurrent drought in large parts of South America suggests that, due to deforestation, the Amazon forest may be close to the point where it can no longer maintain the rainfall cycle on which it depends, in which case much or all of the rainforest could die back and large parts of the Americas could dry up."

Infact some are nick-naming biofuels as 'deforestation diesel' - deforestation is itself one of the biggest causes of CO2 - all this is giving the reused biofuels - the chip fat - a bad name as one biofuel is much the same as another to the average punter - check them up before you purshase. See also the 'Label' below for previous blogs on this topic.

Discrimination paper to dilute equality duties

The new equalities watchdog - see previous blog re concerns about one appointment - begins work just as the government proposes to sweep away some of the most important advances in recent years.

Photo: Randwick woods before the winds have blown the leaves off this last week

It seems the green paper on discrimination law looks set to dilute duties on public bodies to promote race, disability and gender equality, in spite of - or perhaps because of - the fact that they have begun to prove effective.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission also rightly worries about the green paper's failure to back a new duty covering age, religion and sexual orientation. Age discrimination has been outlawed in the workplace and extending the same principle to services would have huge implications for social care.

Then the government really would have to invest in its future....take dementia as one example - the UK was in the bottom third of Europe in delivering high quality dementia care. This indictment of past failures is set against rising need as the number of people with dementia soars from 700,000 today to over one million by 2025 - the situation is severe. Only a third of people ever receive a formal diagnosis, while those who do, go on to navigate a confusing system characterised by overstretched services, poor carer support and a lack of awareness and training. At least now a strategy on dementia is planned but this will not be helped by this green paper - or for that matter the squeeze on public funds.

And how will we pay for it I hear some as? Well I saw recently a blog entry that asks: "When will Britain accept that it is no longer a colonial power that can organise the world along its own lines and instead start looking after the people who live here?" See blog entry here which includes:

"Earlier this year, MPs on the House of Commons defence select committee were told that the cost of the Iraq war was set to exceed £1bn in 2007. The NHS debts totalled £512m. Make up your own mind where the money would be better spent. While we are on it, the remaining £500m could go towards social care. Practically every single social services department in the land is calling for financial help. Granted, that £500m would be a drop in the ocean.However, when the independent Iraq Analysis Group estimates the cost of the entire campaign in Iraq at nearly £7.5bn so far, there is a feeling that this is the sort of sum that could be invested more wisely. And that doesn't even take into account the new Trident system that has been estimated to cost £76bn over 30 years."

And of course there were calls at the weekend for more dosh for 'defence' - see BBC report here.

Defra cuts will hit Gloucestershire hard

This blog sometimes misses large chunks of my week - too much that could be scribbled here - and probably some think I could keep it shorter as it is......anyway one issue I've not covered here from last week are the cuts to Defra - £300 million that will hit coastal and river flood protection, climate change, canals, animal health - and will bear heavily upon rural counties like Gloucestershire - see my news release last week that doesn't seem to have got any coverage despite the impact on local farmers.

Photo: Cheery local pig

I was also shocked to hear from a local farmer that Defra are insisting that people moving cattle out of the Foot & Mouth zone to a clean zone have to have them blood tested. The test is provided by the same institute that released the virus - and - they have to pay the institute £16 per animal for the test!! (Plus vet charges). As the farmer said: "What an insult!"

Safe Water Campaign meeting

On Thursday I joined our regular meeting of the Safe Water Campaign - see write up of meeting here plus photos.

There were several key issues we are looking at - including our submission to the Nuffield Council, a letter we are writing to the health authority and an extraordinary article in the latest issue of 'Dentistry'.

We also planned the stall - which happened today in Stroud (see photo) - I had my partners granddaughter with me and we had cucumbers, onions and other matters to get at the Farmers Market so didn't help this time with the stall.

Secondary double glazing and listed buildings

I just got an email from Lydia Savage re the article in The Guardian today about secondary double glazing and listed buildings (see below). I have to applaud the Savages for getting coverage of this issue - and indeed the articles' author, David Adam (environment correspondent for The Guardian) for writing about it.

It is an extraordinary situation - at least English Heritage recognise the problem now and look set to act - let us hope it is not too long and that sensible solutions can be found that ensure warm homes and the integrity of the building is retained.

Indeed yesterday I was talking to a designer who was looking at how the stone could be cut out of the stone window frames in one house so that the frame of the new double-glazed windows would be hidden. Clearly this is one way but a huge expense. Most of the existing guidelines were written before we recognised the immensity of the challenge we face with climate change - indeed instead of making it difficult for householders isn't it time we perhaps rewarded them for taking such actions?

David Adam, in the article below, also mentions the solar panels in Bisley - see my blog on 1st August 2007 for a discussion re that issue.

The carbon cost of protecting our heritage

- Listed status takes priority over energy efficiency
- Rules stop homeowners from keeping out chills.

For more than 300 years, people have peered through the window from the kitchen at the front of Richard and Lydia Savage's 17th-century farmhouse near Painswick, Gloucestershire. And for most of the time, they probably shivered. The Savages do what they can to keep out draughts, but even in October the house has a distinct chill. As a result, their central heating system burns twice as much fuel as the average house, and produces twice the carbon emissions.

The couple want to fit modern secondary glazing throughout the house, to bring down their bills and their carbon footprint, but are prevented from doing so because the farmhouse is Grade II* listed, of outstanding architectural or historical interest. And they are not alone - some 450,000 people in England live in listed properties, and millions more face similar restrictions in designated conservation areas.

As ministers urge greater efforts on energy saving and talk of new eco-homes, thousands of existing buildings are being denied basic improvements, and are producing unnecessary carbon emissions.

Tony Allen, a legal adviser to the Listed Properties Owners Club, said: "It has become a really big issue because listed status has traditionally taken priority over a desire to save energy. It's something the authorities are going to have to look at." He deals with three or four inquiries a week from frustrated homeowners.

Walk around the Savages' house and the problem is not hard to diagnose. The walls are thick and the roof well insulated, but the glass windows barely fit their frames. One upstairs bedroom is permanently open to the elements, through a sizable gap left by a former craftsman to vent condensation. To make significant changes, the couple must get the consent of a conservation architect at their local council in Stroud, which follows guidelines issued by English Heritage.

To English Heritage, the imperfections are an example of "a physical survival of our past to be protected for their own sake as a central part of our cultural heritage and our sense of national identity". To the Savages, they are the reason the temperature in their house barely reaches 13C. The Department of Health-recommended minimum for people their age is 21C.

Mr Savage said: "We are in the middle of a conflict between environmental conservation and cultural conservation. If we put in secondary glazing, it is only going to make a very small difference to global warming, but the global answer depends on hundreds of thousands of small differences. The planners see the debate in terms of buildings and we would argue they need to see it in terms of energy efficiency. They talk about saving the houses for our grandchildren, well I want to save our grandchildren from the houses."

David Drewe, who works on energy conservation for English Heritage, said: "We know this is a hot topic and we plan to give a lot more detailed guidance to local authorities next year. There is no such thing as a standard building so it's hard to talk about specific measures, but we are trying to be much more positive towards energy efficiency measures now." He said one problem was that different local councils interpreted the guidelines about what changes were allowed in different ways, so there was little consistency. While some councils allow solar panels, for example, others refuse all requests.

Phil Skill, head of planning at Stroud district council, blames the government for sending out mixed messages. "We don't want to appear unsympathetic, but the government has left us in limbo between two sets of different priorities." He said they were being asked to arbitrate and would like unambiguous guidance.

The council is also in dispute with John Cowen, who has been refused retrospective permission for the solar panels he installed in 2001. The council says they are an eyesore; Cowen says nobody noticed them for six years. He argues that efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be of historical interest, and as such should be protected.

The guidelines

People living in listed properties and conservation areas must get consent before doing anything to their building in case it harms anything that in the government's words "adds to the quality of our lives, by enhancing the familiar and cherished local scene and sustaining the sense of local distinctiveness which is so important an aspect of the character and appearance of our towns and countryside."

In practice this means work to external walls, windows, roofs etc should not alter their character and appearance, though the final decision on consent is left to local councils' planning officers, with the help of bulky guidance notes. On replacement windows, the notes say factory-made double-glazed windows are "almost always damaging" and should not be allowed. Secondary glazing, a less obtrusive window mounted inside the original, is "an acceptable option for some windows". Solar panels are not mentioned, though because they can be removed in future, some councils allow them.

See article here and links to other related articles in The Guardian:
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/24/energyefficiency

Local news: traffic, village shop, poems and big cats

Whiteshill traffic

Just back from the Village Hall where a group of residents and Parish councilors discussed traffic along the main road - it was an open meeting and Chair of the Parish John Rogers (see photo) kicked the meeting off with a series of photos to help the discussions.

Some old ideas to slow traffic were discussed like 'Gateways' to the village - what could they look like? Where could extra benchs go? What about planting? Various new ideas also came up like trying to put in a rural footpath along the road at the top end of the town where walking is lethal - indeed when I canvassed up there or delivered leaflets it was seriously dangerous. The ideas will now go to the Parish meeting and some decisions made about priorities.

Village Shop sale - and fire repairs

This morning I caught the Village Shop sale of crafts - they had just moved inside - forced there by the rain - came away with marmalade and various other bits.

I also heard that the shop are struggling to get a second quote for repairs following the fire there (see photos) - are there any local builders out there that can help? I've phoned a couple this evening but no joy yet - until the shop get the quotes they cannot get the insurance sorted or work begun.

Randwick Gardening Club

I'm told by a member they are taking bookings now for their annual holiday together - it will be in Leeds and 5 gardens will be visited June 30th to 4th July £238 per person.

Randwick Playgroup poems published

Poems are set to be included in the 'Young Writers: My First Poem anthology' - due to be published in February. Apparently they were given sentences to complete with their own words.

Big cats seen in Whiteshill

I just got this report: "A lady was driving at Whiteshill yesterday mid PM and had to slow down due to two big black cats crossing road together. This is in the zone centred on Randwick & Standish woods that's become reliable for sightings. I could do one of my big cat talks in a local village/community hall if you know any local organisations who might want to set this up. The talks explain what's happening with big cats, which species are about, and what the implications are." See my blog on 11th November for details of how to report sightings and email me or leave a comment if you would like someone to do a talk.

Randwick Parish Plan

Sundays meeting which I missed was apparently successful in planning the next stages - particularly looking at the Design statement for the village - more volunteers still wanted - the latest will be soon on the Randwick Gateway site - also with Wap updates.

Savannah Miller in Whiteshill

I just read The Citizen's extra features today and learnt that Savannah Miller lives in our village of Whiteshill.

Photo above of Savannah with sister Sienna from launch of her enterprise - and one below from the Citizen's website

Here's some of what the newspaper writes below - I do remember Sienna being quoted in The Guardian saying: when asked who she would she vote for? "I don't know. I'm a liberal at heart; I don't want to vote Conservative. I'd vote Green, but I know it's a wasted vote or whatever, but it's the only party with integrity."

I hope that with examples like Caroline Lucas MEP and other places where Greens have been elected that it is clear that a Green vote isn't wasted - indeed unless people start voting for what they believe in they are never going to get it - anyhow back to The Citizen....

Fashion designer Savannah Miller is often spotted on the red carpet alongside her actress sister Sienna Miller. But you're much more likely to catch her doing her weekly shop at Stroud's Farmers' Market. As Savannah admits, her life is one of extremes.

The girls were born three years apart in New York and Hong Kong - so life was never going to be conventional. Now, 28-year-old Savannah has been catapulted into the heart of the celebrity and fashion whirlwind, ever since she's launched her fashion label with her younger sister. Savannah, who lives in Whiteshill near Stroud, admits she was expecting the Miller sisters' label, Twenty8Twelve, to be criticised as another celebrity marketing venture.

Sienna, style icon, much- publicised ex-girlfriend of Jude Law, and star of Alfie, Factory Girl and Casanova, with Heath Ledger, is one of Britain's most famous faces and Savannah was worried the critics would get stuck in. But so far, she says, the response has been fantastic. It was never in doubt, really, with her impeccable fashion credentials.

Savannah graduated with first class honours in fashion design and knitwear at Central St Martin's before working for Alexander McQueen and as a freelance designer for clients such as Matthew Williamson, Anya Hindmarch and Betty Jackson.

Twenty8Twelve - named after Sienna's December 28 birth date - brings together Savannah's design skills and Sienna's ideas. They'd thought about working together for years, but it wasn't until fashion entrepreneur Carlos Ortega approached them that the idea came to life. They spent 18 months working on designs - Sienna proved a brilliant fit-model - and now their work is in the shops.

The 2007 autumn collection is a heady mix of Dickensian London, 19th century French peasant and 70s rock 'n' roll New York - with a smattering of Beat poets along the way. It's entitled An Anthology of Rebellion, and fabrics are beautifully-finished denim, luxurious knitwear, perfectly-cut dresses and masculine shirts. Notes and poems are stitched into some of the key pieces - so they immediately become collectors' items. For this collection, they've collaborated with artist David Cooper - he of PO Box art fame.

Savannah is justly proud of their work. "The vision for the label relies on time-old tailoring tecnhiques - sophisticated garments with a vintage feel, but contemporary vibe and strong directional design," she says.

At the start of each season, the sisters head off to Paris to scour the vintage markets for inspiration and brainstorm ideas for their look book. Their ideas and styles complement each other with Savannah describing Sienna as "younger in spirit" and someone who comes up with "crazy" ideas. "I'm quite an old lady really," Savannah giggles. "Sienna brings a youthful, slightly more edgy aspect to the design process."

Once they're back from France, Savannah gets stuck into the groundwork of making each design a reality. She's currently working on Twenty8Twelve's winter 2008 collection. Summer 2008, inspired by the vintage style of Vita Sackville West and other literary icons, is already in production.

Twenty8Twelve aims to produce quality, beautifully- finished clothes which are the antithesis to high fashion mass-produced clothes - much of which has, ironically been inspired by Sienna. "A lot of what Sienna was wearing was being copied and it was quite weird," said Savannah.
"It made her think 'where's your individuality?' Women need to feel that they can dress for themselves and wear clothes in their own way."

But for Savannah fashion is only half her life - she spends three days a week in London before returning to family life in Stroud with her two-year-old son, stepson and husband Nick.

Savannah says she lives in a "unique reality". "I don't think I can exist solely in either situation," she says. "I'm quite an extreme person. I like going to London and getting really involved and I also love being able to get completely away from it," she says. Although she does admit to being constantly in touch with home and work via her Blackberry.

Savannah moved to Stroud from Devon, partly to be closer to London, but also because the town and its surrounding countryside offered a way of life which suited her family. And she's in good company too - Robin Hood actor Keith Allen and Britpop artist Damien Hirst have all bedded down in the Stroud valleys. Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall have a cottage on the Gatcombe estate and bonkbuster novelist Jilly Cooper is just down the road in Bisley.

"I love the Stroud farmers' market and the personal touch you get there," says Savannah. "We're so lucky to have it here. It's probably the best market I've ever been to in the world."

Stroud suits her down- to-earth side - she doesn't own any designer clothes, other than a few gifts from Sienna, and says she shops at H &M in Gloucester. Country living gives her a healthy dose of reality to contrast the chi-chi world of London fashion. "You can go mad working in the fashion industry. It's all consuming," she says. And although she says Twenty8Twelve is here to stay, she has an alternative career up her sleeve for when it really does get too much. She is training to be a doula - or birth assistant.

"I want to eventually make it my career," she says with a smile. "I love fashion but I can't see myself doing it when I'm old and grey. I really believe there's not enough support for women when they give birth. I had an amazing birth and was very inspired by that. Birth can be a very empowering - and disempowering - experience. It's a time when you really need to feel empowered."

But for the time being, her double life of Stroud mum and London designer suits her well. As she says: "It's unreal - but it's also quite fun."

Ruscombe field plots still being sold?

I was sent an email this week from someone wanting to find out more regarding the fields at Ruscombe - they included plans and several photos including this one here. They were interested in a plot on the site and whether it would be a 'good investment' - I wont comment on that but I know the community will fight tooth and nail to ensure no houses are built on this land, that there is cross-party support against any development on those fields, that the Local Plan (which we have to adhere to) makes clear no development for this site, that the fields are in an AONB.....I could go on - anyhow I have left a message for this person if they want to talk more about my views on this.

It is worrying that land is still being marketed in this way - while perfectly legal it is clearly wrong in my view on many counts. The Ruscombe Valley Action Group will continue to to support moves to stop the practice of landbanking.

See more re landbanking on this blog here - and our action group's statement on the Parish website here.

UK’s first organic carp farm

Channel 4’s River Cottage food guru Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall gave the UK’s first organic carp the thumbs up as a tasty sustainable alternative on Thursday.

Photo: Jimmie who used to live near Nailsworth at his Devon Carp farm

See my blog re 21st August 2007 for more re my visit.

In the last of three progammes on fish: ‘Gone Fishing’ Hugh visits all too briefly the pioneering carp farm in Devon which has grown its fish almost entirely on locally sourced organic feeds. This is in stark contrast to virtually all other fish farms in the UK. These farms, as I've noted previously on this blog, use highly processed fish pellets that contain a significant proportion of wild caught fish originating from many areas of sea where fish stocks are seriously threatened. Hugh cooked the carp for an invited taste panel which rates the fish very highly and also explores the idea of growing carp in your own pond for your table.

The organic carp project at Upper Hayne Farm. Devon is the brain child of husband and wife team: Jimmie and Penny Hepburn who used to live in Burleigh just outside Nailsworth. The fish are reared at low densities in carefully managed ponds which produce much of the carp’s feed naturally (e.g. daphnia). Additional feeds are also given to the carp including meal worms, compost worms and locally sourced wheat grain. A week before harvest, the carp are transferred to natural spring water which thoroughly cleanses the fish and allows the true taste of the carp to be revealed.

The Hepburn’s carp is the first in the UK to be grown to the Soil Association’s organic standard for carp. The farm is planning on harvesting the first organic carp during 2008 and supplying restaurants, shops and Farmers Markets.

The demand worldwide for fish is increasing, however three quarters of the worlds fisheries are either fully or over exploited (FAO). Aquaculture is increasingly playing a key role in supplying this demand, indeed globally, it is the fastest growing food sector. Here in the UK, it is mainly carnivorous fish such salmon or trout which are farmed. The farming of these species can have a significant environmental impact such as their dependence on wild caught fish which is further threatening wild stocks. An alternative is to grow a species such as carp which occupies a lower level in the food chain requiring less energy to produce the fish protein. In fact more carp are farmed worldwide than any other group of fish – much of this takes place in Asia but also in central and eastern Europe. Although carp were grown in the UK in Medieval times the rapid development of the sea fishing industry led to the taste of carp and other course species to be lost and today carp are only regarded as a sport species.

We have come full circle, it is now important that we not only farm more fish but that we do it as sustainably as possible. This trail blazing project along with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s approach demonstrates what is needed to produce a fish which tastes good is much more ecologically responsible and you can even grow the fish yourself!

If you are interested in the project/venture and would like to find out more please contact:
Jimmie & Penny Hepburn 01823 680888 www.aquavisiononline.com

Buy Nothing Day tomorrow

Buy Nothing Day - Saturday 24th November will see people around the world take part in Buy Nothing Day - attempting not to buy anything for 24 hours. Described as a 'challenge' to consumer culture, Buy Nothing Day aims to highlight the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism.

I have supported this day on many previous occasions (see here) and indeed applaud it's sentiments. However tomorrow I will be supporting a sale in our local village shop in Whiteshill in the morning and hope to also go to the Farmers Market (just been awarded as best in country) - have uncharacteristically not been for some weeks and the cupboards are also very short of anything fresh.....but let us hope the day will make us all think before we buy.

Green Party Principal Speaker Dr Derek Wall comments: "People often ask me - how to be Green? It's really very simple, and requires no expert knowledge or complex skills. The answer is this: Consume less, Share more, Enjoy life. The root cause of so many of our problems - from climate change to garbage mountains and species loss - is over consumption. It is a cold fact that we cannot consume more and more, the waste mountain will suffocate our children and rising temperatures will make life on planet Earth unbearable. Yet trillions of dollars are spent every year to persuade us to buy more stuff. The present high growth capitalist economy is unsustainable. I am backing Buy Nothing Day on Saturday and I often have my own buy nothing days. We need an economy based on making things that last longer, enjoying what we have and being less driven by addictive consumer behaviour promoted by out of control corporations. That great green author Erich Fromm said it all in his book title 'To have or to be', we need to think about what we do, not base our identity on shopping alone. I am calling on all greens to consume a little less and live a little more."

Let us not forget that the UK is already more than £3,000,000,000,000 in debt yet the shopping centres and landfill sites remain full to bursting.

Airbourne lidar opportunity for Randwick?

Airborne LIDAR - well I have to confess I'd never heard of it until the beginning of this week - Light Detection And Ranging - it measures the height of the ground surface and other features in large areas of landscape with a resolution and accuracy hitherto unavailable, except through labour-intensive field survey or photogrammetry.

Photo: comparing lidar and google on computer and below closer detail of lidar

It provides highly detailed and accurate models of the land surface at metre and sub-metre resolution - operating by using a pulsed laser beam which is scanned from side to side as the aircraft flies over the survey area, measuring between 20,000 to 100,000 points per second to build an accurate, high resolution model of the ground and the features upon it.

The Parish of Cranham have a project to survey a large area (costing many thousands of £££) and for a mere £2,500 extra they would consider Randwick and Standish area. One parishioner attended the talk at Cranham this week and was impressed by the incredible detail and versatility of this stuff - 'stuff' - oh dear my descriptive powers are failing me this evening - anyhow he contacted me and he kindly invited me to view LIDAR in action on his own computer yesterday.

It was certainly impressive giving vertical resolutions of only a few centimetres - perfect for a vast range of projects - particularly archaelogical research and flood modeling. One map showed the site of an old triangular Roman fort - particularly interesting as the road it was on has always been known locally as the Roman Road - it also showed at another site that instead of three separate forts there was only one - indeed it was leading to a rewriting of archaeology for that area!

It would be very wonderful to do the same here - particularly looking at the ancient sites in the local woods (see previous blogs re barrows). Plus it could be used for a multitude of other purposes - flood modeling to mapping toxic fumes from a possible explosion at a plant and much more.

I have since spoken with Parish councillors and also officers at the District Council - they had a very helpful guy there who was a mapping expert - I learnt that LIDAR data was used by the EA as part of the detailed planning for the canal line. However the District Council take height data from a company called Intermap - not as detailed as the LIDAR data and wouldn't be suitable for detailed analysis such as the very detailed flow modelling and archaeological applications. SDC have however used it for 3D visualisation purposes (e.g. for the Brimscombe AAP) and for planning applications relating to masts and turbines. In these planning cases they create a 'viewshed' - a layer that shows all areas of land that the structure can be seen from.

So where are we - well the cost - it's very expensive - SDCs aerial photography for Stroud District was about the same price as quoted above for Randwick parish - but then this is something quite different. The stuff (oh dear there I go again with my descriptive powers) takes up huge amounts of disk space to store (because of the detailed resolution) - and apparently software applications that handle LIDAR are expensive and need to be used in conjunction with very high powered computers.

Is there anyone in the Parish interested in taking this forward? The Parish Council members I have spoken to are interested - so are the local Historical Society - but I doubt they can proceed when we are talking £2,500 - then of course we need a group to follow up to analyse the stuff (OK last time I mention stuff) whether it be archaeological or flooding or whatever if we are to proceed we need to act quickly as surveying must start in new year when no tree cover.

Further resources:
LIDAR general - go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR
LIDAR Archaeological Applications - click here.

Peoples Navy sets sail: sign petition now

Please consider signing this pledge to support the Peoples Navy which will set sail to highlight the disgraceful treatment to the Chargossian people by primarily the UK government, and support their right of return. This is an issue I have followed for some time but it has rarely got into the news - let us hope this exciting move will lead to more coverage and action. Visit http://peoplesnavy.com/

To sign the petition
To follow the fleet
To spread the word

See update at bottom of this post re the gloomy news - Meanwhile a post from the New Statesman sums up the situation well - here's the link:
http://www.newstatesman.com/200711200001

Infact as the New Statesman carry a link to this blog I hope they wont mind me reproducing the article here (meanwhile visit the New Statesman for other great articles!):

Don't mention the Chagossians
Sean Carey
Published 20 November 2007

A resolution to the long-running British injustice to the Chagos islanders could have signalled a switch in UK foreign policy

The dawn of the Brown premiership could have heralded a shift in British foreign policy by resolving the long-running injustice to the Chagos Islanders. It is, after all, more than 40 years since these people were evicted from their Indian Ocean home by the UK so the Americans could build an airbase. Such a move would have had the additional advantage of introducing some political distance between London and Washington.

It might even have gone some way to revitalising Brand Britain which has undoubtedly suffered badly - both inside and outside the country - because of Iraq. But it has now become obvious that even with the selection of left-leaning, senior figures like David Miliband and Mark Malloch Brown at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office it is, for all practical purposes, business as usual.

Gordon Brown, unlike his predecessor Tony Blair, may not always be on the phone to George W Bush but it is clear that he is still a staunch supporter of the "special relationship".

Indeed, in his Mansion House speech on foreign affairs, the British Prime Minister declared that he regarded America as the UK's most important ally in re-energising international institutions like the United Nations in order to tackle a range of 21st century problems - from climate change and trade reform to nuclear proliferation, global terrorism and flu pandemics.

The Chagossian issue wasn't mentioned in the Guildhall speech. Why would it be? One suspects that at the lofty heights of global government from where Gordon Brown aspires to operate he would think -- if he thinks about it at all -- that the exile of the Chagossians from their homeland in the Indian Ocean is all a bit unfortunate but, that when the political arithmetic is calculated, some sacrifices, preferably by the "little" people, are sometimes required to sort out the world's "big" problems.

Maybe this is what the British Prime Minister had in mind when he used the now much commented on phrase "hard-headed internationalism" in his speech at the Guildhall. But sometimes politicians can be a little too hard-headed. Indeed, there is something peculiarly cruel about the way the British government's legal juggernaut has set off once more to crush the hopes of the Chagossians who have already won a series of victories in the courts allowing them the right of return to the islands of Chagos archipelago which were illegally detached from the colony of Mauritius three years before its independence in 1968 and now form part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. . No sooner do the Chagossians achieve victory in one legal case, than the government appeals and the heavy, legal machinery once again clunks into gear.

And this time the reason, as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokespeople are very keen to explain to anyone prepared to listen, is that there is an urgent need to define the defence status of all British overseas territories including Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands -- not just the British Indian Ocean Territory, you understand -- because of the Court of Appeal judgement in May this year which ruled that the British government had abused its power in evicting the Chagossians from their paradise islands. All this legal manoeuvring very conveniently prevents the islanders returning to their homeland, of course.

Meanwhile, over the last few months the Americans have been busy upgrading some of the aircraft hangars at the Diego Garcia base in order to accommodate the B-2 stealth bombers -- equipped with new 30,000 lbs bunker-busting bombs -- that will relocate to the island from the Barksdale base in Missouri if President Bush decides to authorise military strikes against suspected illegal Iranian nuclear facilities.

And the legal moves undoubtedly buy the British government more time. Indeed, there must be a hope in London that as more and more of the original 2000 inhabitants of the Chagos Islands grow older or die - there are around 850 still alive, 700 in Mauritius and 150 in the Seychelles - the Chagossians' campaign to return to their homeland will lose momentum. By and large, elderly people don't make good campaigners and dead ones don't campaign at all.

The Chagossians may be perceived in some quarters as small players in the great scheme of things but to ignore their legitimate plea to return to the archipelago after so many victories undermines the legal process -- its spirit if not the technical aspects, anyway -- and is immensely damaging to the UK's image abroad.

This argument was powerfully put by David Snoxell, the former British High Commissioner to Mauritius, 2004-06, in a letter to The Times three days before the government made its announcement on November 6 declaring that it was going ahead with its decision to appeal to the House of Lords to seek clarification about the status of its overseas territories.

"Apart from the legal costs, which have to be funded by post closures in Africa, the UK's reputation for defence of human rights and basic freedoms is brought into question," he wrote. "For the British government to be pursuing a case that denies the Chagossian community its fundamental right to return to its homeland, a right that has been restored by our courts at each level over the past seven years, puts us on par with those countries we condemn for lesser human rights violations."

Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagossian exiles in Mauritius, takes a similar line. "Why is the British government always lecturing the rest of the world about human rights when it ignores the human rights of the Chagossian people? We have already won twice in the High Court and again in the Court of Appeal so why do we now have to go to the House of Lords and waste even more of the British taxpayers' money?" he asks.

These are simple questions which do not require the sophisticated legal responses that will no doubt be delivered by the Law Lords next summer. In the meantime, perhaps Gordon Brown or his ministers David Miliband and Lord Malloch Brown might like to answer them.

UPDATE: Shocking news Oct 2008 - see Guardian article here - Chagos islanders evicted by the British government in the 1970s today lost their long-running battle to return to the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Government transport policy based on oil at $35!

This week's Signal Failures - Private Eye's news of c***ups in the transport world) highlights the entertaining little factoid that the Governments' 'model' used for the 'predict' side of their 'predict-and-provide' transport policy (Called the NTM or National Transport Model) uses an oil price scenario of (wait for it...) $35 (at 2004 prices) by 2010.

Yesterday the barrel price for oil was barely a few cents away from hitting $100. We can now see why the Government thinks widening the M25 etc is a goer while electric trams in Leeds would be a dead loss. You also have to wonder if any of the people involved in this work actually pays for their own transport...

Latest IPCC climate report: climate change worse than ever

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," warned the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its fourth and hardest-hitting report yet. Just released on 17th November - the peer reviewed analysis of 2,500 of the world's top climate scientists....

Photo: Randwick woods

The new report is intended to be a guide for policymakers - particularly the ones who'll be meeting next month in Bali, Indonesia, to begin hammering out a new treaty to pick up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off.

Delegates from more than 140 countries came to agreement on the document, which summarizes three previous reports and warns of the grave dangers posed by climate change. Scientists reportedly managed to fend off efforts by U.S. representatives and others to weaken the report - however many experts say the final version still doesn't capture how bad the situation really is. Hans Verolme of WWF, for example, said: "The IPCC is a five-year process and the IPCC is struggling to keep up with the data. And the new science is saying: 'You thought it was bad? No, it's worse.'"

Here are some of the bits from the report which local climate campaigner Kevin Lister extracted:
- Eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature (since 1850).
- Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 (379ppm) and methane (1774 ppb) in 2005 exceed by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years.
- Of the more than 29,000 observational data series, from 75 studies, that show significant change in many physical and biological systems, more than 89% are consistent with the direction of change expected as a response to warming.
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic green house gas. Its annual emissions grew by about 80% between 1970 and 2004.
- Continued green house gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century," (potentially up to an unimaginable 6 deg C increase)
- Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the timescales associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if green house gas concentrations were to be stabilised.
- Model projections suggest significant extinctions (40-70% of species assessed) around the globe.
- Early mitigation actions would avoid further locking in carbon intensive infrastructure and reduce climate change and associated adaptation needs.

How much more evidence is needed to convince people that we cannot expand Staverton or any other airport?

Devon: surfers and Napoli

Having been away in Devon for a couple of days I thought I'd do a quick round up of some of that visit...first up Woolacombe - my first proper visit to this village that has the 'most beautiful' beach in North Devon - it was very lovely and had a great walk on it..

No surfer clubs in schools?

I did talk some to local shopkeepers and one thing that astonished me was that local schools apparently didn't have surf clubs - is this really right? Surely schools should be supporting this - the economy of this part of Devon relies heavily on surf tourists and locals....in Australia schools support surf clubs hugely.

Artist Martin Procter

Enjoyed this artist's work in a gallery in Beer (see left) - apparently he claims to have been strongly influenced by Cotswold artist John Blockley.


Napoli still causing problems

My parents live in Colyton so a walk on the beach at Beer revealed the Napoli still there (see photo) - apparently Europe's largest crane is booked for next year to continue dismantling it - hopes had been for work to finish before Christmas.

Be one of 40 homes to cut energy use

Stroud District Council have just released this news release below - I would urge people to apply - while I would prefer to see more focus on energy saving measures to all this project is now up and ready to run - go for it!

Photo: Randwick woods

Wanted - forty homeowners with a passion for saving energy and a willingness to work in a team. In an exciting new initiative, Stroud District Council is aiming to show that existing homes CAN achieve a massive 60% reduction in CO2 emissions.

Under the scheme - named Target 2050 - the forty homes will be subjected to an in-depth energy usage survey, after which an individual action plan for reducing emissions will be drawn up. Owners will get expert advice to support them in carrying out their action plan, including free energy saving gadgets. The scheme takes its name from the government target to reduce the UK's CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. The forty homeowners taking part in Target 2050 will be selected on the basis of ensuring a representative mix of housing types, location and number/age of inhabitants.

To start with, Target 2050 will run for three years. Twenty of these households will be invited to have an Ecometer fitted, to monitor their energy use in detail and in particular, how changing habits can help to maximise energy savings. These households will also be expected to become case studies, with a willingness to work with others to show what can be achieved and inspire other householders to take action.

"This is a big challenge," says Cllr Elisabeth Bird, the Council's Cabinet Member for the Environment. "We are looking for people who are serious about reducing their carbon footprint - serious enough to change their behaviour and invest in home improvements - with some help from us." Target 2050 is the only scheme of its type to be running in Gloucestershire. Stroud District Council is committed to investing £400,000 over the next three years to improve home energy efficiency. This was one of the pledges contained in the Council's Environment Strategy, launched last year. The project is managed by Severn Wye Energy Agency. There is no restriction on the types of property which will be considered for Target 2050 - even listed buildings are eligible. The emphasis is on getting a range of different property types that reflect the profile of the district's housing.

Anyone interested in joining Target 2050 should call Gloucestershire Energy Efficiency Advice Centre on 0800 512 012 (eeac@swea.co.uk) as soon as possible for more information and an application form. Successful applicants will be notified by 7th January.

Poppies, Iraq and refugees

The BBC phoned just as I was going away to family for a couple of days - they wanted an interview me as to why I wear both red and white poppies - they had picked up a previous blog item (see label below for more info) - unfortunately I missed the chance but did pass it onto someone else.

I have to say I find opposition to white poppies very strange - a minority seem to misunderstand them -one letter in the The Citizen even said: “wear your poppy with pride unless it’s the white variety usually sold in Stroud town centre – then wear it with shame.” The writer should know better - John Marjoram wrote a reply - see it here. I have discussed this issue before on this blog so wont repeat here otherthan to say that the White Poppy symbolises the belief that there are better ways to resolve conflicts than killing strangers.

However Remembrance Day did get me thinking about Iraq - an issue I've not touched on for a while - it is still going on - it did seem extraordinary that no one mentioned Iraq - no one even mentioned the fallen of that country - I am only today catching up on emails and came across this link of a Pilger article on this subject. It is worth a read to remind us of the pain and horror of what is happening in that country.

One shocking fact is the number of refugees - as many as 5 million have now fled their homes but half of those are unable to leave the country - see article here. Those who cannot find refuge with relatives or friends are forced to live in temporary camps which have sprung up across the country. Accurate figures are extremely difficult to come by, but according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), two million people are now displaced within Iraq, while UNHCR indicates that another two million are refugees outside the country. Neighboring countries are increasingly closing their borders to Iraqis, suggesting that the number of displaced seeking shelter within the country is unlikely to fall in the weeks to come.

Why no media coverage of refugees?

You would think this would be big news but it seems that it is barely been mentioned - a suggestion in an email to me is that we should write to the news media and ask why:

(1) They are not reporting on the huge refugee crisis in Iraq. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), claim that two million people are now displaced within Iraq, while UNHCR indicates that another two million are refugees outside the country.
(2) there has been no in depth reporting/ investigation on the number of Iraqis that have died as a result of the illegal Anglo-American invasion. The Lancet published research by the John Hopkins University and al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad which calculated 655,000 Iraqi death. The British research polling agency, Opinion Research Business, has extrapolated a figure of 1.2 million deaths in Iraq.

You can either phone, write a letter, or send a email to the media outlet concerned:

BBC complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

ITV complaints and comments
http://www.itv.com/ContactUs/wheretofindus/default.html

Channel 4 Comments
Click here

Sky News Feedback
http://news.sky.com/skynews/contactus

Channel Five Feedback
http://www.five.tv/aboutfive/contact/general/

Dobells' in Cheltenham is site for Staverton discussion

Dobell's pub Monday night was the meeting place for a collection of campaigners looking to stop Staverton expand - various groups represented including Green Party, FoE, CASE and the campaign group 'Plane Stupid' - I have heard it said that to be considered a true 'Cheltonian' one has to have been born within the sound of the 'Dobells' - anyhow we kicked off with a look at how we all felt Camp Hope had gone...

To my mind Camp Hope was a bit of a turning point - 5 years ago I raised the issue re the proposed expansion - the airport has tried to deny they are expanding - even tried to deny climate change existed - now with their planning applications this year they can no longer deny expansion plans - indeed already they have extra scheduled flights: their CO2 emissions are on the rise. I had a letter in the Western Daily Press yesterday on this topic (see here).

Camp Hope was significant in that it is an indication of the wide level of support - I had loads of emails sent and many didn't go but the demonstration raised the issue. It also brought together campaigners from various organisations who can hopefully reach people more effectively together.

I can't discuss all meeting here but other topics included:
- the link between the airport and cancers in the community - I've mentioned this before on this blog and the evidence is not very conclusive either way. To my mind there are enough arguments without needing to also use this.
- recent media attention has been concentrating on the protesters rather that the airport. This maybe a human interest angle but detracts from the important message re climate change - and for that matter other issues like noise, pollution, traffic etc.
- feedback from the SW Green party meeting in Bath which was open to all campaigners to discuss SW airport expansions (several from Glos went): hopefully a new email list to be set up soon - anyone interested let me know.
- Cheltenham Borough - several questions were submitted to the last scrutiny committee meeting. Meetings have also been held with some councillors and Martin Horwood MP. He stated that his position is no longer that “the changes are safety related and are not expansion” - he now has an open mind. Campaigners also met the prospective Conservative candidate for Cheltenham - no firm commitment re a position.
- Gloucester City - discussion about how best to ask questions.
- Tewkesbury planning committee - still no date for application to be seen.
- Various actions have been suggested to continue to highlight the moral, environmental and economical madness of airport expansions.

Infact several calls to make now - any blog readers interested in getting involved more do contact me....

Write to Ministers re Cashes Green Hospital site

Just sent the following letter below to Ministers Hazel Blears MP and Yvette Cooper MP - see my blog on 15th November for background. I also raised this project with Randwick Parish Council last week - they are the neighbouring Parish to this project and have a strong interest in seeing the site is put to good use - they are now looking to also write a supportive letter of the GLP plan.

I would strongly urge others to write letters of support.

The latest news is that this hinges on the Value For Money case - GLP hope to engage a consultant to put together the arguments - apparently the Treasury has been caught short in the past with money from old hospital sites - but surely even a brief look at GLP shows this exciting pilot scheme is a win win situation....

Re: Cashes Green Community Land Trust pilot project

I write on behalf of Stroud District Green party who have 11 out of 18 seats on Stroud Town Council and 5 Stroud District Council seats including my ward that neighbours the Cashes Green Hospital site.

We are deeply concerned to hear that English Partnerships has reversed their decision that the former Cashes Green Hospital site be transferred to Gloucestershire Land for People for urgently needed permanently affordable homes, allotments, social rental homes and community facilities.

GLP's innovative proposal for the 11-acre former hospital site was developed thorough considerable open consultation and engagement with the local community. This resulted in the particularly exciting proposal, which included carbon neutral houses, good social design, significantly lower entry prices for home ownership and permanent affordability through Mutual Home Ownership and retaining the land value in the community land trust (CLT).

It was our understanding that the English Partnerships' Hospitals Disposal Board welcomed GLP's proposal in June 2007 and that there is cross-party support for the principles of CLTs. We also understand that the government hopes to increase the number of affordable homes, encourage moves towards carbon neutral housing and have specifically identified CLT's as part of the flagship community engagement policy.

Why then has there been this change of direction? We would urge you to give GLP your full backing and send a strong message that the government is supporting local communities. To significantly change this scheme now, after so much consultation and work with the community, would be unforgivable.

I hope very much you will be able to clarify the situation and give this project a clear message of support.

Cllr. Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party

Stroud Farmers Market is best in country and update on Heinz campaign

Various food related updates in this blog entry...Farmers Market, Heinz, Tesco and GM:

Stroud Farmers' Market which started in 1999 has been named the best in the UK. The market which has more than 45 stalls each Saturday has been awarded the Certified Farmers' Market of the Year 2008 by FARMA - the National Farm Retail and Markets Association. Huge congratulations must go to Stroud market organisers, husband and wife team, Kardien and Clare Gerbrands.

Clare is quoted in The Citizen saying: "We are delighted. The customers will be so proud and so will the stallholders. We are kind of floating really. We never thought we could win it because Stroud is such a small town." Last year, the award went to Edinburgh.

The "unique community experience" offered by Stroud Farmers' Market clinched this year's award of the FARMA engraved market bell. The judges' citation read: "Farmers' markets are lively and personal, and none more so than Stroud, where organisers use a dizzying mix of innovation, marketing, publicity and retail skills to weave a unique community experience. For being at the leading edge of everything about farmers' markets, energy and commitment, Stroud is the national winner 2008."

Update on Heinz campaign

See previous blogs by scrolling down - 5th and 10th October - Heinz have now responded to pressures to remove their new Farmers Market soup range - they will change their labels saying that the products are made from the UK and other countries and also say they are "Inspired by farmers markets" on the front of the tin - this is still nonsense and goes no where near far enough. As Clare said previously: "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."

The campaign is now moving to expand and go national with petitions and also to urge people to write to the Advertising Standards and not buy the soup.

This seems a bad move by Heinz who will receive plenty of adverse publicity about this...

Last Tesco-free town under threat

Meanwhile I was astonished to learn that Harrogate is one of only four places in the UK not to have been colonised by Tescos - the others are the Shetlands, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides! Harrogate is now under threat - read more here.

GM funding revealed

The massive funding of GM by the Government has been revealed - £50m per year for biotech industries while only £1.6m goes to organic farming. Read local Green party letter here.

This comment re the Farmers Market award was also in The Citizen:

IT'S MY FOOD NIRVANA

National food critic Matthew Fort, who lives in Stroud, described the market as his 'personal food nirvana'.Mr Fort (pictured) wrote in his column in the Guardian on Saturday about the market. He said: "One of the markets covered by Fork is my personal food nirvana, Stroud farmers' market, where this column began all those calories ago. The market has gone weekly but lost none of its energy. I bought duck legs to confit, a couple of lamb breasts and a bag full of less usual apples."

Mayor meets leader of West Papua

On the 14th November in the afternoon Green Mayor John Marjoram welcomed Benny Wenda independence leader of West Papua to Stroud - they both then joined an evening organised by the Mid Glos Amnesty International group to highlight the situation in West Papua - read news release and see photos here. See also previous news release here and blog items here.

Photo: Benny Wenda with Mayor John Marjoram who spoke passionately about the need to support this cause: in West Papua sentences of 10 and 15 years have been given for peacefully flying the West Papuan independence flag pictured here.

Last time Benny was here was in November 2005 - then Film-maker Nathan Hutchings of the Stroud-based film company SnakeBite Productions organised the talk to highlight the problems in West Papua - it was a good evening - I talked to Benny briefly then but due to a 21st birthday party (not mine!) I couldn't get to this event this week - Benny is a great green radical - and I also heard him speak at the Green party Spring conference - Stroud was very fortunate to have the chance again to hear this extraordinary man talk about his extraordinary fight.

As I was writing this post I was sent this - Indonesia has made the transition from dictatorship to democracy, but without justice for millions of victims of President Suharto's tyranny. See Peter Tatchell interview Indonesian human rights campaigners, Carmel Budiardjo and Adriana Siti Adhiati. Watch the interview here and see his comment below:
http://snipurl.com/1titn

President Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 30 long, dark years, from 1967 to 1998. During this period, millions of Indonesians were massacred, jailed, tortured or forced to flee their homes to escape murderous rampages of the armed forces. President Suharto's bloody rule was backed by the West. The UK and US sold him the weapons that he used to repress his own people. We colluded with his human rights abuses.

In 1998, economic downturn and mass protests forced Suharto from office. Since then, Indonesia has embraced democracy, holding largely free and fair elections. Democracy has not, however, bought justice for the millions of victims of Suharto's tyranny. They have no redress. The government and military officials who authorised or committed murder and torture live openly and freely; never called to account.

Colonel Burhanuddin Siagian, for example, was responsible for many of the worst atrocities after Indonesia invaded and occupied East Timor. He was recently rewarded with the post of district military commander
n the city of Jayapura, the capital of Indonesian-annexed West Papua.

During the period of Indonesian occupation of East Timor, nearly 200,000 people - around a third of the population - died. In West Papua, an estimated 100,000 people have been killed. East Timor is now independent. But West Papua is a nation that still suffers Indonesian oppression and exploitation, with the collusion of western oil and mining companies. They are looting West Papua's immense natural riches.

Suharto and his cronies embezzled billions of taxpayers' money. Hardly any of it has been recovered; depriving the government of desperately needed funds for economic development and education and health facilities to uplift Indonesia's impoverished people. New democratic Indonesia has failed to bring Suharto to justice. Instead of being tried for crimes against humanity, he is allowed to live out his days in luxury, enjoying the fabulous wealth plundered by him and his family during the thirty years he terrorised the country.

Anyhow if you have the time join Benny and the Free West Papua campaign on the 30th November for the Independence Day Demo at the Indonesian Embassy 12noon-2pm and 'March for Justice' to the offices of BP and Rio Tinto 2pm-3pm. See www.freewestpapua.org for further details - on 1st December 1961 West Papua’s national symbols, the Morning Star flag, the national anthem "Hai Tanahku Papua" [“O My Land Papua”] and the national coat of arms, the Mambruk bird, were officially approved and recognised by the Dutch government. Indeed I would urge people to join Free West Papua Campaign. Here's a quotation from their website:

"Ever since the Indonesians set foot on Papuan soil, human rights abuses have been the rule of the day. In antiquity, or the dream time, the Indonesian quest had been Papuan slaves and the birds of paradise. Since 1962, however, the quest has been the vast mineral deposits (gold, copper, nickel, oil, etc.), the vast virgin forest with its timber and the 'empty' land. The West Papuans have had to be removed from their land by hook or by crook We have struggled for more than 30 years and the World has ignored our cause You can help end this evil. Imagine for a moment swapping lives with relatives of the survivors and the dead? How long could you endure the terror? Wouldn't you desperately pray for help? Help from anywhere, from anyone? Do you want to know the really frightening truth? These people's last and only hope is you. Governments don't want to know or care."
Moses Werror: West Papuan independence leader

Anti-gay equalities Commissioner must step down

This week saw the 20th World AIDS Day and the 25th anniversary of the Terrence Higgins Trust.”

Photo: The Bell Hotel, Stroud

Some 17,000 people have died of AIDS in the UK in the past 25 years. It is a shock to learn that the last 2 years has seen the highest number of people newly diagnosed with the syndrome. Safe sex messages aren’t permeating throughout our community and in the climate of budget cuts access to treatment could become more and more difficult.

Concerning another matter I have belatedly written to the Chair of the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, as the new Commission looks set to fail in upholding the equality of LGBT Communities. Other Greens have also objected - see article here and a Green party letter here.
Here below is my letter based largely on the Green part's letter linked above:

Dear Trevor Phillips,

I am writing to you because we are concerned about the appointment of one of the Commissioners to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

As I am sure you are aware that Dr Joel Edwards, is General Director of the Evangelical Alliance which opposes the new government LGBT hate crime legislation and even submitted evidence in October in front of the House of Commons Justice committee examining the need for the new legislation. Dr Edwards has described homosexuality as “sinful” and has organized protests against the introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which as you know, provide equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people when accessing services.

The heinous homophobic murder of Stroud's Jody Dubrowski in Clapham led many of us to campaign for specific homophobic hate crime legislation. Do you not agree that it is surely dangerous to have homophobic opinions held high by the public body purportedly addressing equalities? Are you also saying that a Commissioner who was LGBT and who expressed racist or sexist opinions should be tolerated?

Many of us have pushed for the creation of an offence of homophobic hate crime, the introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations and the Goods, Services and Facilities Regulations, the repeal of Section 28 and an end to the unequal age of consent. Homophobia should not go unchecked.

I urge you to review Dr Edwards’ position. Dr. Edwards should be encouraged to do the honourable thing and step down, as true equality for the LGBT Communities is clearly not part of his vision.

Yours Sincerely, Philip Booth

You can also write: chair@equalityhumanrights.com

Whiteshill Village Green make-over

What a great improvement. This is a photo pinched from the Parish website - taken by the Clerk today.

Photo: Village Green

It is only the first stage and my understanding it is only a temporary step to much greater changes - much consultation has already been undertaken but more is planned - at least the previous mess has been cleared.

Sign petition on badgers

Here is a petition set up by the RSPCA who were shocked at the recommendation put forward by the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, which suggests a cull of badgers in England should be undertaken in order to control bovine TB in cattle. The Glos Green party also issued a statement - see news release from last month here. We also contributed to the original consultation and were active in trying to raise awareness re this issue.

Sir David's advice goes against the conclusions of the Government appointed Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on cattle TB, published in June, after a 10 year study. Their conclusion was that while badgers are a source of bovine TB in cattle, badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. The evidence was that some culling policies could make matters worse rather than better.

The badger is a protected species and a much loved symbol of British wildlife. A cull could cause enormous suffering, particularly as it is possible that methods such as snaring may be used to 'remove' these beautiful creatures.

The government are due to make a decision in the next weeks on whether to go ahead with a cull of badgers as a means of controlling bovine TB in England. We cannot allow this to happen.

Photo: Green party action last year in Stroud High Street - it was very cosy in that costume!

Help the RSPCA reach their target of 25,000 petition signatures. Forward this petition to everyone you know. Add you name to our text petition too - text BADGER to 60022. The petitions will be presented to the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP as a sign of public opposition to a cull. For further information on our campaign to stop the cull of badgers visit www.rspca.org.uk/badgers

An interesting way of viewing matters comes from a local badger expert Martin Hancox - see his graph and thoughts here plus more here on the Stop War on Badgers website.

Many people are very angry about the idea of a cull. Indeed I've had several angry emails and SchNEWS report that badger groups nationwide have vowed to take direct action. A spokesman for the the Coalition of Badger Action Groups (CBAG) said: “We took action against the experimental culling in the South West - we were out nine months of the year, chasing MAFF (Ministries for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries - now DEFRA) from their base in Truro. We obstructed them, dismantled traps and freed trapped animals...destroyed 70% of the traps. Direct action will continue – but we’re going to need numbers if they roll this programme out across the whole country.”

It is extraordinary to propose a cull - the ISG findings were summarised by John Bourne – the group’s chair when he said: “While badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better... Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone.”

Pretty unequivocal you might think....so why the cull? To me it is partly to divert attention away from the increasingly intensive nature of farming...as SchNEWS write: "The modern farm animal is a hothouse flower, overbred and pumped full o’ drugs for maximum meat and milk production using all the latest ‘advanced’ veterinary techniques. After a lifetime of overstocking, this animal is then trucked around the country for sale and slaughter. In human beings, TB flourishes amongst physically and psychologically compromised individuals on poor diets and with inadequate housing. This is a fair description of life in cattle sheds and milking parlours. During winter months, cattle are kept in overcrowded, often badly-designed barns, conditions in which infectious disease spreads. The persistent focus on badgers distracts from the serious health problems faced by intensively managed cattle in Britain. Many other diseases, such as pneumonia, E. coli, coccidiosis (a fatal diarrhoea), salmonella and mastitis, are also increasing in British cattle herds. Desperate to defend their highly subsidised agri-business practices, farmers turn time and again to blaming the wildlife."

Success on train fare reduction!

Morning Peak Travel restrictions on cheap day return tickets have been lifted by First Great Western on the Stroud to Cheltenham route. The move is aimed at helping to relieve Stroud villages from traffic which has significantly increased due to the A46 closure. Savings of up to £3 can be made.

Photo: Stroud Station

I first wrote to First Great Western soon after the floods in July and as noted on this blog received a favourable reply in September - however I then heard the offer was not going to be coinsidered after the BBC contacted them. Later after more contact with the County and another email to FGW it seems they have finally responded favourably. See my news release and comments here.

Controversy over Vicarage trees

Apparently several local residents and the developer have agreed that the two Beech trees will be felled, and replaced with two large container grown Birch trees at the Old Vicarage site, the Chase, Cashes Green. Cainscross Parish disagrees.

The developers may have gained the consent of the immediate neighbours who may also be affected by these mature trees, but the Parish Council rightly see these trees as bringing far more to the wider community. Indeed they were cited by the original applicant, the diocese, as the major reason for demolition of the vicarage.

One commented: "The fact that TPOs exist on these trees is not a happenstance or an inconvenience. In these very particular circumstances the development had every opportunity to be managed and planned around the trees. In this instance the trees were most certainly there throughout. If a development is granted permission taking into account the positioning of the houses in relation to the existing trees, how can a new application to fell some of those trees be approved immediately afterwards when the development is still under construction?

"Any compromising of these trees now would indicate inconsistency from the planning authority. We would have to question whether there was an error in the planning and approval of the scheme as it stands, or whether the system is open to manipulation by developers. This is not the first time we have questioned the construction of new houses in close proximity to existing mature trees and would cite the recent example of an application for tree surgery to the large deciduous oak tree on the Ebley Wharf phase 2 development, which has ruined the setting of this wonderful unique tree in full view of Ebley Mill."

This latest move does seem strange especially when the diocese had sited these trees previously - indeed the trees were considered to be of higher valuable than the historically interesting vicarage building. To now apply for permission to fell and reduce trees because ‘they dominate the garden’ and are ‘unsuitable for retention so close to the house’ is unacceptable.

I understand that the Parish have not withdrawn their objection so it may have to go to the Development Control Committee. I have written seeking more information. See also previous blogs re this development.

Singing Granny on Toast

This was the headline in yesterdays' Citizen - Godsells, local cheese producer are trialing their 'Singing Granny' cheese at local markets - it joins there others: Three Virgins, Scary Mary and Hooded Monk.

The Godsell family has been farming for five generations in the Stroud Valleys (including at Far Westrip, Randwick) producing the milk from a herd of Friesans for the handmade cheese which is free from chemicals, additives and preservatives. Here's more from The Citizen:

Liz Godsell is the master cheese maker helped by husband, Bryan. Liz described Singing Granny as a mature Single Gloucester. "It is 16 months old and a limited edition," she said. "We are trialing it at the moment but it is incredibly popular Stroud Farmers' Market where we sell it. It has a hint of parmesan about it and is full of flavour."

And the name? "We call my mother-in-law the Singing Granny because she sings a lot and S and G are the initials for Single Gloucester," said Liz. Three Virgins is a Cheshire style cheese; Scary Mary, small and strong, while Hooded Monk is a Double Gloucester with dark green wax. Godsells Double and Singer Gloucester cheeses are stocked by the Midcounties Co-operative which has now decided to extend its successful 'Local Harvest' local food scheme into dozens more Co-op stores.

Midcounties Co-operative says that until now its Local Harvest products have only been available in its larger supermarkets. Now they will also be stocked in a large number of the Society's convenience stores giving a boost to the mostly small local businesses that participate in the scheme. Other Gloucestershire food and drink suppliers to the Co-op include Freeminers Brewery of Cinderford; Draycotts Bakery of Cam, near Dursley; Winstone's ice cream of Rodborough near Stroud; Hayles Fruit Farm of Winchcombe; WR Haines farm products of Chipping Campden and Bottlegreen Drinks of South Woodchester, near Stroud.

Patrice Garrigues, ethical trading manager for the Midcounties Co-operative said: "Local Harvest features a wide range of products from over 30 suppliers. For some suppliers extending the scheme will make a real difference and it will increase their distribution by more than 200%. It means we are now able to offer local products in all types of our stores, including the convenience sector, championing the products produced within our trading area. For more details about Local Harvest visit www.midcounties.coop

Glos Flood Relief Fund extended

The trustees of the Gloucestershire Flood Relief Fund met yesterday and decided to extend the fund's closing date indefinitely. A further large donation is likely to be made to the fund by Severn Trent Water. The trustees have received a low level of applications for help from Stroud residents and a further opportunity now exists for any resident who has not claimed to do so.

Photo: Randwick woods in July rain

Claim forms are available from Reception at Ebley Mill and on the Council's web site. Any residents whose homes have been flooded in July floods (not second homes nor businesses) and who might be in a position to benefit please do make a claim. Funding will be considered for excesses on insurance properties, uninsured financial loss (with consideration given to reasons for not being insured), costs relating to damaged possessions, equipment and machinery plus any other costs trustees feel should be funded.

Randwick Parish meeting last night

Last night Randwick Parish met at the Scout Hall - there will be a report in the Runner so I wont repeat here - but lots discussed - heres just a taster:

Photo: Randwick woods

- the Mayors Pool being repaired after the car rolled into it earlier this year (great job done on it)

- a rather unhelpful reply from County re buses going down The Lane in Randwick - they wont look at it until contract renewal (see many previous posts on this)

- the post of Randwick Clerk is advertised - 4 applicants so far - Arthur, the current clerk will retire in March

- the budget for next year - not any major changes planned at this point but money proposed for items like a land-use survey that will fit with the Parish Plan - I did speak to Stroud Valleys Project today about this as they helped with the one in Cainscross

- I proposed a letter of support for GLP (see previous post yesterday) - the Parish will consider it

- the footpath opposite the Scout Hut needs action - children are dangerously slipping down it into the road

- I updated Parish very briefly re Ruscombe Brook (see previous posts)

- the Village Hall improvements - they are looking at renewable enregy as an option - it is interesting that noone talks about an ordinary gas boiler paying for itself, let alone a car or a computer, yet many of us talk about how a solar hot water heater should? Also figures are often based on current energy prices - over the past two years, oil prices have climbed from $50 to nearly $100 a barrel. Some commentators note that it could rise to $300 over the next 3 years. Anyhow I'm hoping they will be able to achieve something - I did note that the little noticed provision of the 2006 Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act gives new powers to Parish Councils to encourage or promote microgeneration. Several Parishes are now using the powers - Kirkburton Parish (with a Green majority) for example has established an annual £10,000 budget to invest in microgeneration and basic energy conservation measures in community buildings such as village halls. It is also a good way to raise peoples awareness of small scale renewable energy through such examples - and encourage more people locally to adopt the measures.

Didn't mean to scribble so much on that - time for my tea so I'll stop this blog now....

Boycott Texaco and Total Oil

This boycott info comes from Avaaz - see below - as regular blog readers will know Burma has been a strong interest of mine for many years - let us hope this move will make a difference.

Photo: Randwick woods earlier this week

Far from the headlines, the crisis in Burma continues fueled, in part, by international oil corporations like Total Oil and Chevron/ Texaco. These corporations don't just fund the junta; they lobby on its behalf in capital cities around the world. These are the same companies many of us fuel up with. That means our pressure as consumers has the power to force change—and it's our responsibility to act.

Will you pledge to join the global boycott of Chevron and Total? The boycott will last until the companies withdraw from Burma, or until the Burmese junta begins a genuine democratic transition and frees all political prisoners - including Aung San Suu Kyi. We'll deliver all the pledges and comments straight to the top management of Chevron and Total. You can see what brands to avoid in your country and take the pledge, at:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/burma_corporate

French oil giant Total (which also owns ELF and FINA) and U.S.-based Chevron (which also owns Texaco, Caltex an Unocal) have been operating the Yadana natural gas pipeline in southern Burma since the early '90s.The junta takes in an estimated $450 million a year from the Yadana project alone--and uses that money to maintain its brutal control, while most people in Burma live in dire poverty. To keep their profits flowing, Chevron and Total lobby hard in the U.S. and Europe against government measures to support a democratic transition in Burma. For companies like this, it's all about the bottom line. We must show them that if they keep backing the Burmese dictatorship, they will lose their customers--by the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, even by the millions.

With enough pressure in the pocket book, we could actually get these companies to switch sides--using their enormous leverage with the Burmese regime to push for the democratic reforms necessary to call off the boycott. It just requires more loss from the boycott than profit from the junta.

Could that happen? Yes - if we act together. That's why we're raising a call for an international boycott of Total and Chevron. The pledge: to refuse to buy fuel from any Total, Chevron, ELF, FINA, Texaco or Caltex station in our home countries and wherever we travel. The boycott will last until the Burmese junta begins a genuine democratic transition and frees all political prisoners--including Aung San Suu Kyi --or until these companies exit Burma completely.

To make sure our voice is heard, we'll deliver all the boycott pledges and comments straight to the senior corporate management of Chevron and Total Oil. You can add your name to the boycott pledge today, at:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/burma_corporate

We've all witnessed the rise of global corporations whose power crosses national boundaries. But today, Chevron and Total are going to witness the rise of something greater: global people power. Today, as consumers and wold citizens, we stand up together to demand justice for the people of Burma – and our voices will be heard.

Cashes Green hospital site - what is going on?

First up in this blog entry is an update re the project then the campaign to see if we can still get it to happen despite all the gloomy news - then at the end a briefing paper for councillors which hopefully is useful to answer questions.

Photo Citizen news report of site

It has been suggested in the local press that Stroud District Council have concerns about the capacity of GLP to deliver the pilot - but this has not been confirmed by the Council - indeed some I have spoken to talk favourably - nevertheless there does appear to be a break down in communications - I hope these are sorted soon as this project will benefit the community enormously - and certainly better than any alternative can offer if the land goes to a private developer.

Update info from the project

The plans for an innovative national Community Land Trust pilot project to provide permanently affordable homes are at risk. Gloucestershire Land for People has been seeking urgent talks with Housing Minister Yvette Cooper MP after being informed that English Partnerships, the Government's regeneration agency, has reversed their decision that the former Cashes Green Hospital site be transferred to Gloucestershire Land for People for urgently needed permanently affordable homes, allotments, social rental homes and community facilities.

GLP's innovative proposal for the 11-acre former hospital site was developed thorough open consultation and engagement with Cainscross Parish Council and the local community. This resulted in a proposal, which included carbon neutral houses, family friendly social design, permanent affordability through Mutual Home Ownership and retaining the land value in the community land trust, GLP.

When English Partnerships' Hospitals Disposal Board recommended GLP's proposal in June 2007, David Warburton of English Partnerships said; "We welcome this approach for a Community Land Trust pilot project. It provides for significantly lower entry prices for home ownership in perpetuity by utilizing what is known as a Mutual Home Ownership model and it will help us achieve high quality, well designed, sustainable and affordable places for people to live."

In a surprise change of course, which has shocked Gloucestershire Land for People, Cainscross Parish Council and Stroud residents, English Partnerships have signaled that the plans may not now proceed. In a 17th October letter to CDS Cooperatives, GLP's partner housing association, English Partnerships state that they now propose to develop alternative proposals for the Cashes Green site, due to financial constraints. The new plans propose a partnership development between EP, GLP and Stroud District Council with 1/3rd to ½ the site being used for a CLT pilot project and the rest developed "in a more conventional manner …. to include homes for outright sale and conventional affordable housing".

Gloucestershire Land for People has written urgently to Housing Ministers, Hazel Blears MP and Yvette Cooper MP, seeking a meeting to clarify the situation and show how the innovative Cashes Green Scheme can deliver the benefits the government says it wants. Cainscross Parish Council is also writing to the Ministers to press for the GLP proposal to go ahead.

GLP, which welcomes Stroud District Council's partnership, has sent a briefing to Councilors, so they are fully in the picture (see below).

GLP will highlight to Ministers that Community Land Trusts and Mutual Home Ownership are government policy for delivering affordable homes, community cohesion, carbon neutral houses and community engagement. Hazel Blears MP, DCLG Minister, both supports a CLT start up in her Salford Constituency and includes CLT's as part of her flagship community engagement policy. Yvette Cooper MP said in Parliament on 11 September 2006 that 'community engagement is essential to the delivery of sustainable development and creating sustainable and safe communities.'

Cllr Helen Royall (Green party) said, "This is what local people want. The plans have been put together sympathetically and sensitively, and we want them to go ahead. The sooner we see some affordable housing the better. This scheme will be at the heart of the Cashes Green community."

GLP invite you to join the campaign

A Brick for Cashes Green! Securing land for Gloucestershire Land for People national pilot of permanently affordable homes with CDS Cooperatives.

The future of the long since derelict Cashes Green Hospital site in Stroud is hanging in the balance. EP wrote to GLP on 17th October, to apparently reverse their Hospitals' Disposals Board positive recommendation to the Minister in June 2007. They did not state their reasons to GLP for the change, and proposed an alternative that would be potentially unviable for the pilot 50 unit Mutual Home Ownership Cooperative, and that would compromise the integrity of our community engagement work and scheme.

Peter Hetherington's article in The Guardian - copied on this blog has more info (see 25th Oct 2006 blog).

This is a defining moment. GLP invite your help to create a value shift from a failed rental and first time home ownership market where land is owned as a commodity, to capturing land value for communities through community land trusteeship. In fact, the government has both all the land we need for affordable homes for people and communities, and the resources, for example the £16billion loan to Northern Rock. We have the expertise with the community energy - if only the government -as has so famously been done in Scotland - can make CLT delivery easier for communities on the ground.

Send a brick

GLP are inviting people to send a brick and letter to Yvette Cooper MP to endorse and support the proposal that the government disposes the land to GLP for this scheme. It is an important National Exemplar Pilot that will pave the way for other such schemes nationally, - and best preserves public subsidy for permanently affordable housing. Say that the brick is your contribution for permanently affordable homes at Cashes Green, and that communities can help government to help communities create affordable homes.

Yvette Cooper MP's address Housing, DCLG, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU. Her email is: PSYvetteCooper@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Also write to Hazel Blears MP. I will be sending my letter shortly.

Lots more info at:
www.gloucestershirelandforpeople.coop/


Cashes Green - What is happening?
A briefing note for SDC Councillors: October ‘07

Cashes Green – a national pilot project

The potential for development of affordable homes at Cashes Green is not yet secured. Last June, English Partnerships’ , owners of the site, approved proceeding with the proposed development, which included 50 affordable homes, subject to ministerial approval. The recommendation was in response to a proposal from Gloucestershire Land for People and CDS Cooperatives. This proposal has been described as innovative and would be a national pilot project, demonstrating how a community land trust and a mutual home ownership scheme deliver permanently affordable homes. What is happening now?

Gloucestershire Land for People – a community land trust

Gloucestershire Land for People is a community land trust CLT for community benefit. CLTs own land in perpetuity on behalf of the community and lease it out for affordable housing, land for growing, and/or workspace. CLTs are adaptable and can be established to serve the specific needs of the local community and to work with charities, local authorities or land owners by, for instance, the retention of the value of public investment for long-term community benefit and enabling a secure way for people to invest for local benefit. GLP is an open membership, Industrial and Provident Society with over 50 local members, who elect a Board of Directors. The Directors represent the public interest, users and the community at large.

CDS Cooperatives – pioneers of Mutual Home Ownership

CDS Cooperatives is the largest co-operative housing service agency in London and the South of England dedicated to promoting, developing, and servicing housing co-operatives controlled by the people who live in them.

Mutual Home Ownership MHO1 is a new form of tenure that seeks to increase the supply of affordable intermediate market housing without requiring a major increase in capital investment from Government. Unlike other forms of low cost home ownership, it is designed to remain permanently affordable and not move out into the open market.

Cashes Green Hospital Site Feasibility Study

English Partnerships, owners of the Cashes Green site, agreed to GLP carrying out a feasibility study2 for a community land trust and mutual home ownership pilot project (at nil cost) but also asked that three other disposal options be considered:
• Open market sale to a developer;
• Disposal to a CLT for MHO at a cost equal to the costs paid for the site by EP
• Disposal to a CLT at full cost.
The Feasibility Study shows that none of these options are viable as a means of providing affordable housing and do not provide as good value for money to the taxpayer as disposal to a CLT for a MHO project.

Following local community and stakeholder consultation, the GLP and MHO proposal is for:
• 77 homes from 1 bedroom flats to 4 bedroom houses, of which 50 are for MHO and 27 for sale or HomeBuy sale to capture land value in order to lower the income threshold for MHO and create a mixed income community;
• A health centre/community facility: the health centre for a local GP’s practice in a dual purpose building designed to permit the public areas to be used by the community outside surgery hours;
• The reinstatement of 25 allotments on the former allotment land at the west of the site;
• Public open space.

Advantages of GLP and CDS proposal for Cashes Green

1. Permanent affordability
The key is to make land available, as a sustainable community held asset, for MHO at nil cost to the mutual home owners who will live in the housing built on the land so MHO residents pay for the build costs, but not the land. The land is transferred into the ownership of a Community Land Trust CLT that holds it in perpetuity for the provision of affordable housing in their community. The homes are never sold on the open market and are re-cycled, from one family to another, through the MHO scheme.

2. More affordable homes
If the Cashes Green site is sold to a commercial developer there will be far fewer affordable homes as part of any scheme agreed with a developer under the current strictures.

3. Homes for rent can be part of the scheme
Stroud District Council have already requested that, as with any development, a certain number (10 -12 in this case) of houses will be included for rent. While that has yet to be discussed in detail with SDC, GLP and CDS have agreed in principle to include homes for rent and to try to secure funding for them from the Housing Corporation, which has agreed to support CLT projects. Subject to funding, homes for rent will be included and should be seen as part of a integrated range of tenures offering residents opportunities to progress from one form of tenure to another. It is GLP’s view that residents who rent homes should be within the mutual scheme and encouraged to play their part in the mutual, like any other resident. (See GLP Board Meeting Minutes 3 July ’07)

4. Lower income households can improve their choices
Membership of the MHO scheme offers members the opportunity of a ‘foothold’ on the housing ladder at lower household incomes.

5. Benefits of scale eg. energy efficiency
A mutual scheme, such as MHO, makes it easier to finance environmentally sustainable components eg. combined heat and power; photovoltaic panels because the costs can be amortised over a much longer period than any individual householder can envisage.

6. Acitve citizenship and community engagement
Resident management and community ownership encourages active citizenship and the development of a more sustainable and empowered community

Cross Party political support

1. Michael Gove MP, has spoken several times about the potential of community land trusts. When he was Shadow Housing Minister he established the Conservative Party’s CLT Taskforce.

2. Labour National Policy Forum, Report to Conference 2007. Pg 69. Section headed “Meeting intermediate demand – low cost home ownership. It reads: “In addition to the schemes already in operation, one model of shared equity ownership which has provoked great interest is the mutual home ownership model. The affordable housing sub-group has been impressed by the case for this model. A key advantage is that the housing is not put out to the open market. It depends on land being made available as a community asset at no cost to those who live in homes on that land. This is achieved through transfer into a Community Land Trust (CLT) - for example from surplus publicly owned land or from a private land developer through a Section 106 agreement. The CLT may be particularly effective in some rural areas."

“Mutual Home Ownership is a new form of tenure that seeks to increase the supply of intermediate market housing without requiring a major increase in capital investment from Government. Unlike other forms of low cost home ownership it is designed to remain permanently affordable and not move out into the open market. (Cooperative Development Society, September 2005)”

The Liberal Democratic Party has also supported CLTs and mutual home ownership in its 2005 housing policy paper: Affordable Homes in Safer Greener Communities: “First time buyers will benefit under Liberal Democrat plans for low cost home ownership. By investing in more shared equity schemes and with our new model of mutual home ownership, we will make it easier for people to own their first home. Our policies would create an intermediate housing market, bridging the gap between the rented sector and the open housing market. Mutual home ownership is a totally new concept, primarily aimed at helping young people starting out. Rather than buying the home right out, people would buy shares in a mutual homeownership trust that owned their home. Mutual homes will also be affordable because the land on which the homes are built would be owned by a separate Community Land Trust. By permanently excluding the land cost from the house price, affordability is locked in. Sites would primarily come from surplus land now owned by the Government.”

The Green Party, Manifesto for a Sustainable Society Spring 2007 said: “The Green Party seeks a balanced mix of housing tenures, to meet the diverse needs of the community. These include individual and shared home ownership, leasehold, and others. Disincentives to the speculative ownership of housing will be introduced, including higher rates of Council Tax for unoccupied properties and second homes. People must not be forced into home ownership because there is no alternative. The Green Party seeks to increase the amount of social housing and commonly owned housing as representing the best way of ensuring an availability of affordable housing.”

English Partnerships recommends proposal to Minister

After considerable work looking at value for money and long term benefits, English Partnerships Hospital Disposals Board recommended that the GLP & MHO proposal go ahead and, because this is such an innovative proposal, that Ministerial approval should be shortly forthcoming.

However, at our recent AGM CDS reported that at a meeting with English Partnerships, unexpectedly, two new problems were revealed.

Firstly, in discussions between English Partnerships and Stroud District Council (SDC) have been exploring a different scheme for the Cashes Green site involving a different mix of tenure including houses for sale and rent and only a small part of the overall scheme to involve GLP and mutual home ownership. This has not been the basis of discussions between GLP and CDS with Stroud District Council. English Partnership’s had also reported that Stroud District Council was concerned about the capacity of GLP/CDS to deliver the project, but as this has not been Communicated directly to GLP by SDC it is necessary to ask Stroud District Council to articulate their stance more clearly.

Secondly, Apparently EP have an ‘overage’ agreement with NHS Estates, from whom they purchased the portfolio of hospital sites including Cashes green, that when they dispose of old NHS sites, that the NHS are entitled to an additional payment if the site value is greater than a specified amount. This means that if EP were to dispose of the site to GLP at nil value, as has always been proposed, they will still have to make this payment to NHS Estates. This would be a cost to EP in addition to providing the site at nil cost to GLP. EP’s view, therefore, is that they will be unable to secure HM Treasury approval to the scheme proceeding as planned. English Partnerships had therefore proposed a different approach to developing the site. This involved one third to one half of the site being made available for a reduced GLP pilot community land trust project to include a smaller community/health facility, with the rest of the site being sold by EP for more traditional affordable housing for rent and sale. EP would lead working up the development of the site, in partnership with GLP/CDS and SDC using its ‘Enquiry by Design’ Process.

GLP has requested a meeting with the Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper MP to discuss the difficulties that the proposed pilot project has encountered. The minister has agreed to the meeting and a date for it is awaited.

Climate Change Bill criminal in face of arctic ice disappearing by 2013

Todays Climate Bill goes no where near far enough - see my news release here. All this comes on top of a link I was sent by a colleague today re the fact that the Arctic sea ice is disintegrating "100 years ahead of schedule" - having dropped 22% this year below the previous minimum low - it may completely disappear as early as the northern summer of 2013. This is far beyond the predictions of the International Panel on Climate Change and is an example of global warming impacts happening at lower temperature increases and more quickly than projected. See more here:http://www.carbonequity.info/docs/arctic.html See also here.

Graffiti: art or vandalism?

There was some controversy recently re the famous graffiti artist Banksy - the elusive artist was caught in the act by a passer-by using a mobile phone. I've long admired his work which covers many political issues (see some here as well as his website) as well as the photo reproduced here.

Photos: Banksy, then below vandalism (?) of Labour Party office and art behind Blockbusters in Stroud and bin in Stroud

So is it art or vandalism?

Many agree that the best policy is to remove graffiti immediately - but when does graffiti become art? Banksy is surely art? But to some it is also vandalism....to my mind ‘graffiti’ on pavements by traffic engineers - markings often left for months - often devalues the streetscape far more. If we are going to tackle graffiti then we must look broader...

Bus shelters decorated by school children can be a mess or wonderful - we have examples locally in Whiteshill - then there are the great other works - Stroud to my mind is particularly fortunate - see the walls down from Mother Nature and the roundabout opposite the station.

I also love some of the political graffiti like“Official Polling Station” printed on the rubbish bins - see photo below - but then some is perhaps more overtly vandalism like the painting of the Labour party's office in Stroud.

Stroud also have poems in many places - often beautifully printed. Love them!

Anyhow the news is that a Stroud grotspot - the pedestrian underpass at Wallbridge looks set to be improved - the town council will be commissioning an artist to paint a mural there - the hope being to discourage tagging - studies have shown that street art tends to be left alone by youngsters - Stroud District Council spends an average of £8,000 to £10,000 a year cleaning up graffiti.

Oliver Jelf, who runs the Illustration Gallery in Stroud, has been asked to oversee the project and he is looking for an artist to come up with a design. Oliver has worked with graffiti-style artists before and says there is a place for street art. He is quoted in The Citizen saying: "A lot of graffiti is about tagging and indiscriminate scribbling and what we want to do is bring forward a proper co-ordinated approach. We felt that we could enhance that location by having proper street art." Work will not begin until Spring next year at the earliest but I am sure it can only improve that walk way.

Saudi King visit highlights Labour's breath-taking hypocrisy

In the last post I noted deep concern at the Queens visit to Uganda - any notion of an ethical policy went out the window long ago but I suppose I keep hoping. In this post I wanted to highlight the state visit to the UK of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - another outrageous example..

King Abdullah, a guest of the Queen rules one of the most fundamentalist and reactionary countries in the world, where women are veiled and homosexuality can be punished by death. As Green party Principal Speaker Derek Wall said: "We are currently under huge pressure to go to war with Iran, and one of core planks of this campaign is Iran's record on civil liberties. But we welcome as an honored guest the leader of a country where human rights are generally considered to be non existent. Brown's decision to welcome King Abdullah clearly illustrates the breath-taking levels of hypocrisy at work at the very heart of the Labour government. Where oil and lucrative arms deals are concerned, the government has no interest in challenging human rights abuse and repression."

One good piece of news was that two High Court judges have granted permission to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House for a full judicial review hearing against the UK Government's decision in December last year to cut short a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into alleged corruption by BAE Systems in recent arms deals with Saudi Arabia. See my blog on 17th December 2006 re this. See more re the court case here.

In fact since the Serious Fraud Office terminated its investigation in December last year, the Department of Justice in the United States has launched a criminal inquiry into alleged corruption in BAE Systems' deals with Saudi Arabia and the company's compliance with US anti-corruption laws. The Department made an official request for 'mutual legal assistance' to the Home Office, which has delayed passing the request to the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO has important documentation relevant to an investigation gained from its inquiry into payments made to members of the Saudi royal family. In addition, a US pension fund and BAE shareholder started to sue past and present directors of BAE Systems in September this year over allegations that the company spent more than $2 billion bribing Saudi Arabian officials to win business. The fund charges the company officers with breaching their fiduciary duties.

This decision to look more at this is very welcomed - let us hope we get to the bottom of what looks very dodgy from where I am sitting.

Uganda: a Zimbabwe in the making?

On Tuesday I was fortunate to meet a Ugandan man who had just returned from visiting family there - what he had to say was deeply shocking and echoed by yesterdays piece by Green party spokesperson Peter Tatchell writing in The Times. He writes that:

"Uganda is drifting towards dictatorship, just like Zimbabwe a decade ago. The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, is a new Robert Mugabe in the making, a budding tyrant who is subverting democracy and human rights (according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) through voter intimidation, hounding opposition politicians, detention without trial, torture, extra-judicial killings, media censorship, corruption, suppression of protests, homophobic witch-hunts, and crackdowns on universities and trade unions.

"And how is he rewarded for these abuses? By being given the honour of hosting the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala in two weeks' time. The Queen and Gordon Brown will accept the hospitality of a despot who has abolished limits on presidential terms in a bid to ensure that he remains president for life; framed the opposition leader Kizza Besigye on charges of rape and treason; and who is implicated in massacres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and northern Uganda."

I was told in my meeting on Tuesday about the many secret detention centres and 'concentration camps' - conditions are terrible - indeed in the civil war in northern Uganda more than 1.5 million people have been herded into camps by the Ugandan Army - in the worst period, fatalities peaked at 1,000 a week - this Ugandan man saw one of these camps at close quarters in the war zone a few weeks ago - his descriptions were shocking.

Peter Tatchell concludes his piece:

"Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth for breaching the Commonwealth's 1991 Harare Declaration on good governance and human rights. Uganda's violations have, in contrast, merited barely a murmur of criticism. Why the double standards? The Commonwealth's tacit collusion with Museveni's abuses is the most shameful betrayal of the Ugandan people since its feeble response to Idi Amin's murderous regime in the 1970s. If the Commonwealth won't defend its humanitarian principles against autocratic leaders, what is the point of its existence?"

I have written to David Drew MP seeking his support for action.

A46 update: Edge lights removed

Well work has started this week in repairing the A46 - due to be completed February if all goes well.

Photo: A46

However regular travelers on that route will note the removal of the traffic lights at Edge - these were helpful in regulating traffic flows through Whiteshill so it was with some dismay that we discovered their removal. Here is Highways answer below but as some compensation there has been a temporary illuminated slow down sign at some times along the route.

"The purpose of the lights was to make sure the left turning buses (from Pitchcombe to Whiteshill) could get around the junction safely. Unfortunately the sub-standard width of the Whiteshill road was causing us some major problems, with a lot of damage to the telegraph post, and with the walls being so close, some of which retain the edge of the road, the potential for failure / collision was very high. The length of the controlled section, (needed to allow waiting traffic to stop in a wide enough part of the road), was very long, which in turn increased the timing on the light sequence. We were getting problems with vehicles jumping lights, short cutting down Belle Vue the wrong way, and this meant we were manually controlling the lights for long periods of time. Ideally the lights should have been set even further back towards Whiteshill, but this would have created even longer delays, and greater frustration.

"After negotiation with adjacent landowners, we have managed to cut back some trees, and make Belle Vue accessible to buses, which allows them to turn left safely. This allowed us to remove the lights. I am aware that the lights were considered a good thing by the residents of Whiteshill, for their traffic calming properties, but unfortunately the problems they caused outweighed the benefits, and hence we needed to make alternative arrangements."

Glos Airport: busiest airfield in UK?

Glos Airport is the busiest in the UK according to a commercial lawyer writing in the local paper! Read on for more on that and various other bits and pieces re Staverton and air travel - yesterday I sent off a load more letters re Stavertons' expansion plans - at the bottom of this entry is the version to SNJ - plus a petition re Heathrow.

Photo: Setting up Camp Hope protest at Staverton

Meanwhile Staverton campaigners had a meeting in Bath on Saturday to look at airport expansions across the region - it was sponsored by the SW Green party but I wasn't able to go due to another meeting - the region faces expansion threats from various airports including: Bristol, Bournemouth (Hurn), Newquay, Gloucestershire (Staverton) Plymouth and Exeter.

Some interesting statistics from the meeting included:
* Recent ICM poll shows that 60% of the public think increasing flights from UK airports is a bad idea in the light of the impact of climate change.
* Annual emissions from flights from Bristol International Airport will make a greater contribution to climate change than several entire nations such as the Gambia, Grenada and Chad, with passenger numbers expected to reach 7 million by next year.
* Overall national CO2 emissions would be decreasing without the increases by aviation.

Hopefully the meeting will result in better links between the various campaign groups - a new email list is being established to coordinate efforts - details hopefully soon - or contact me.

More helicopter flights

All this as we hear in the local press plans for more helicopter flights - "pop stars travelling to festivals including Glastonbury, punters heading for Cheltenham Racecourse's March festival and Formula One at Silverstone have all used Rise Helicopters...Last year was Rise's first year running a shuttle service between the airport and Cheltenham Racecourse for the racing festival and it had 30 customers. Over the three days of the festival the racecourse becomes the busiest airport in the country."

The article goes onto quote Philip Chapman, a commercial lawyer at Willans solicitors ( www.willans.co.uk) who said: "We were delighted to assist in this acquisition, which is designed to strengthen Rise Aviation's services. There is a strong demand for airport capacity in this region. In fact Gloucestershire Airport is one of the busiest airfields in the UK, measured by take-offs and landings."

Private jets - and pets!

In another article the Echo reported that "dogs do not have to be grounded when their high-flying owners go on trips to Europe from Gloucestershire. Private air travel company PropStar Aviation has started carrying pets as part of the package of services it offers." As usual in the report there was no comment at the outrageousness of flying pets - when are these papers going to take responsibilities seriously re climate change?

Staverton is keen to attract more private jets - one campaigner who worked in the industry recently contacted us with various stories - here are some:

Some individuals possess their own aircraft for private use. Often these can be very ostentatious i.e. airliner size fitted out with luxury interiors. Historically, Arab sheiks and the like have taken this route, but Roman Abramovitch (Chelsea owner) has a Boeing 767, which he uses to go to watch Chelsea matches, as well as from business commitments in Russia, and his yacht in France. I think he has a helicopter too, so a typical pattern for a match at Manchester, for example, would be for a helicopter to take him from his home in west London to Luton Airport, then the 767 to Manchester.

The more prevalent usage of private aircraft is by chartering them from numerous firms set up to provide this service. Aircraft available come in a vast range of models, mainly at the low end (4-12 seats), but also some larger types, some in business-class type interiors, some in luxury arrangements. Some of the big aircraft manufacturers have specifically developed variants of their normal models for this market, e.g. the Boeing Business Jet, which is a modified Boeing 737-700. A number of types have very long range capabilities, enabling transatlantic flights and farther.

Use of helicopters for domestic trips also appears to be a fast-growing market, but it is harder to keep tabs on these because obviously their main advantage is that they take people to / from basically anywhere, not just airports.

Most of the firms providing aircraft for charter, are obviously wishing to attract custom, so, subject to being cost-effective, will position aircraft empty to where they are needed. Such trips between the various London-area airports are common, but on the whole market forces mean that most business jet firms locate their aircraft where there is greatest demand. And each aircraft tends to have very low usage, sitting around for long periods waiting for bookings. But when there are really major events, and demand outstrips supply in the local market, aircraft can be chartered from further afield. The newspapers a while ago drew attention to the Prime Minister (I think) using an Austrian business jet because that was all that was available at short notice; and the Rugby World Cup (see later) drew in aircraft from many countries.

One model of operation, however, leads to a greater proportion of empty positioning flights: much like terrestrial taxi services do. I refer to the concept of "fractional ownership". Users effectively pay for a certain number of hours usage of an aircraft per year, i.e. have a share in its total availability. But they can make use of these hours on demand from anywhere to anywhere, subject to giving a few hours notice. (I'm not absolutely sure, but I think it is something like 4 hours notice, and there may be cheaper price packages for longer notice.) The provider caters for this by pooling all the "ownerships", and having a large fleet of aircraft basically operating as a taxi fleet. Because of the on-demand arrangement, this often necessitates aircraft having to position empty to where they are needed (unless they are lucky enough to have someone going "the other way" at a suitable time). The main firm offering this is Netjets. It started in America, and now has subsidiary operations in Europe, and the Middle East. Its fleet is huge, several hundred in Europe alone, and of a range of sizes (another factor in increasing positioning flights if an aircraft of a particular type is needed for a trip).

Although it is obviously impossible to be sure without access to internal information, I wouldn't be surprised therefore if more than a third of their flights were consequently empty positioning flights. Clearly it is in their interests to make these positioning trips as short as possible (but being an international operation their fleet does get widely scattered). Again, flights between the London airports are common. One particular operating practice of this firm is that they always stay within controlled airspace whenever possible (in simple terms, there is controlled airspace where all aircraft are subject to ATC instructions, and uncontrolled airspace where they can do anything they like and separation is on a see-and-be-seen basis). Flights within controlled airspace are hamstrung by standard routes and procedures, and thus tend to be longer. To take an extreme example, to get from London City to Farnborough: outside controlled airspace you can nip round at low level just skirting the central bit near Heathrow, which is not a direct line, but not far off; Netjets, though, choose to stay in controlled airspace, and the route takes them north then west then south then east, skirting Heathrow by about 30 miles - probably 3-4 times longer.

Although "business jets" are used for business flights, taking time-poor executives to "important" meetings, they do appear in greater numbers on Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings, because they appear to be taking the businessman to / from their second homes in France etc. And they come out in their droves for major, and not-so-major sporting events. Over the years that the FA Cup final and other big games were staged at Cardiff, upwards of 20 aircraft commonly took fans from various London airports to Cardiff. For big Manchester United games, 5 or 6 executive jets come in from Dublin (including Chris de Burgh's own aircraft). Almost all Premiership football teams travel to matches by air.

The Rugby World Cup was an extreme event of this nature. Without sounding catty, I think rugby fans do tend to be at the well-heeled end of society, so England's unexpected progress to the final triggered a mass chartering of aircraft. One of the charterers (London Executive Aviation) reported that 17 out of their 18-strong fleet were hired to take fans to Paris, and I expect this was the same for most operators. Certainly, I listened to my aircraft radio between about midnight and 1am after the final (sad I know!) and there was a constant stream (c25 in the hour) of aircraft returning - and their return would have been spread over the Sunday as well. London City airport, which normally has plenty of spare runway capacity on Saturday morning, reported it was booked to capacity.

Ernie Els, who was competing in a golf tournament at Wentworth, I think, chartered an aircraft to fly him immediately after the end of his round to watch a South Africa match the same evening. According to my paper, it would cost £12K to charter a plane for 6 people to go to the Rugby final.


Aviation cuts will hurt economy

This was a recent claim I heard - it is suggested that tourism is responsible for 10.4% of the world's GDP - with Britain as the fifth in annual tourism earners - but as 'Plane Stupid', the campaign group noted there is a lot of double counting - money spent overseas doesn't disappear - it will be spent locally - indeed FoE have some seriously worrying figures showing how much money leaves the country to second homes, third holidays etc rather than being spent locally.

Indeed as one commentator put it "Having the aviation industry get the credit for every pound spent on holiday is like giving black cabs the credit for every pound spent in London."
Lots of journeys by plane are possible and just as quick by train.

Letter to SNJ:

Dear Madam,

Over five years ago Greens wrote to this paper protesting at plans to expand Gloucestershire's Airport at Staverton. Since then the airport have denied plans and in one recent leaked report even denied climate change existed, but there is no doubt expansion is planned.

The SNJ recently ran a competition with free flights on a new service from Staverton as the prize. However this support for increases in aviation flies in the face of science. The latest consensus is that 60% cuts in CO2 emissions will be woefully inadequate: many accept we need 90% cuts. If Staverton expands, what other sector of our economy must cut emissions even harder to 'pay' for this?

Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough own the airport and Tewkesbury Borough is the planning authority. Here is an opportunity for local authorities to take a lead. The good news is that a report this month by the IPPR, RSBP, and WWF confirms what Greens have been saying: measures needed to achieve radical cuts in our emissions are cost-effective and are possible without damaging the economy or having to resort to nuclear power.

However failure to act decisively now means that we will face increasingly terrifying choices about who lives, who dies, who eats, who starves, who swims and who sinks.

Cllr. Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party.

Petition - Heathrow

Greens have been signing this petition - Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas who has repeatedly spoken out against airport expansions added her voice - she drafted the European Parliament’s preferred option for tackling flights’ growing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. She said: “This Government’s support for the expansion of airports up and down the country makes a mockery of its claims to be taking serious action on climate change. Aviation is the fastest growing contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change and it is simply incompatible with the UK’s promises to cut overall emissions. Further expansion at Heathrow must be halted as part of a shift in transport and economic policy away from those sectors which are part of the problem rather than the solution. Otherwise we’ll never manage to cut UK emissions by 80 to 90 per cent over the next few decades - necessary if we are to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. Expanding Heathrow is social and environmental madness. We must stop the Government in its tracks if we are to preserve local quality of life and combat climate change.”

The petition is being hosted by the Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign, billed as the ‘biggest ever’ coalition against Heathrow expansion. It boasts MPs, MEPs, local councils, residents’ groups, businesses, the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, as well as environmental groups and organisations, among its supporters.

Please sign:
http://www.stopheathrowexpansion.com/

Campaign continues against ID cards

Back in 2005 I signed a pledge, "I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge".

Photo: Passport renewal early as protest against ID cards - see 30th Aug 2006 blog

In fact 11360 other people also did. Various high-profile figures have also begun to sign up, by committing themselves to non-compliance too - joining top Greens are top Lib Dems and more.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 is now law, and - despite growing opposition, significant delays and rising costs - the new Prime Minister shows no sign of calling a halt to the National Identity Scheme. In 2008, the government intends to pilot fingerprinting and to issue the first 'biometric residence visas' to non-EU foreign nationals as a precursor to registering British Citizens. The legal powers to do these all these things will shortly begin to be applied.

Now is the time the legal defence fund part of the pledge is being called in. I'll be sending my cheque off today but other donations, by cheque made payable to 'NO2ID' are also very welcomed. Send with contact details to:

NO2ID (Legal Defence Fund)
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ

Regular readers of this blog will remember earlier campaigns on this issue of ID cards like early renewal of passports (see link below).

Free bus passes

I am also concerned at the impacts of free bus passes...when David Blunkett first floated the idea of ID cards back in 2003, he did so under cover of the name 'entitlement cards'. People saw through the spin and the government was forced to call them what they really are.

Four years on, we're seeing a re-emergence of the 'entitlement' concept as the Department for Transport expands its "National Concessionary Travel Scheme". Already running in Scotland and parts of Wales, this RFID smartcard-based scheme has several characteristics that are of concern:

• the unique numbering of older and disabled people, and some children
• significantly expanded collection and collation of personal information
• a clear intention to share data across local and central government

When applying for one of these new 'bus passes', one has not only to submit to having your personal details shared for as-yet-undefined purposes but also to having every one of your journeys logged. And yet again the focus is on the card not the database behind it - or the amount of information that will be stored and shared, or who will have access.

Of course, a local authority-issued entitlement card could in time be made a 'designated document' - which means compulsory entry onto the national ID database. Free and reduced-fare travel not be used as a Trojan Horse for central government data-sharing and ID agendas. There's no need for a local authority to withdraw entirely from the scheme, but it should 'contractually' commit to using the cards for the single purpose of concessionary travel. A government-issued database-linked smartcard of undefined purpose, tracking you and providing personal information to agencies and persons unknown is an ID card in all but name.

Government's secret support for GM

The Independent on Sunday recently had an article 'GM: The Secret Files'. It revealed that Ministers are funding genetically modified crop projects with scores of millions of pounds every year and are colluding with a biotech company to ease its GM tests.

Apparently the information on funding proved extraordinarily difficult to get, requiring three months of investigation by an environmental pressure group, a series of parliamentary questions, and three applications for the information. Friends of the Earth finally obtained information which shows that the Government provides at least £50m a year for research
into agricultural biotechnology, largely GM crops and food. This generosity contrasts with the £1.6m given last year for research into organic agriculture, in spite of repeated promises to promote environmentally friendly, "sustainable" farming.

So much for Tony Blair insisting that the Government was "neither for nor against" GM and the then Environment minister, Elliot Morley, saying: "There is an open and transparent process for their assessment and all relevant material will be put in the public domain."

Friends of the Earth's Food Campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said: "Government support for GM is out of all proportion to its non-existent benefits; it is handing out millions of pounds for a technology that has fallen flat on its face. Meanwhile the Government is starving organic farming, which already provides clear benefits for consumers, farmers and the economy, but which is further threatened by increased incidences of GM contamination. There is mounting evidence that GM had been a disaster for farmers and consumers all over the world. The Government must now recognise that it is investing in failure and shift its support to the booming sustainable farming sector."

In fact the GM industry in the UK has benefited not only from funding but also political and regulatory support:

- The Government's advisory committee on GM releases to the environment has called for a system that concentrates on their claimed benefits of GM rather than its risks
- DEFRA consulted with biotech company BASF this year to ensure that conditions for the planting of GM potato trials in Cambridge and Yorkshire were 'acceptable'
- At EU level, the UK has consistently voted against the majority to lift all bans on GM crops put in place by other member states

Amazingly as FoE note in their press release the last Government analysis of GM crops found that they would offer only small benefits for UK farmers. In Spain, the only European country to commercially grow GM crops, the European Commission found that farmers did not receive any significant economic benefits and that seed companies pocketed a large share of farmers' profits. The GM industry's own evaluations show that the industry has suffered from loss in sales, and the loss of 75 biotech companies through mergers and acquisitions. On the other hand, sales of organic food in the UK have increased by 22% in the last year and are touching the £2 billion pound mark. Organic farming is at the forefront of cutting-edge business with 39% of organic farms practising innovative marketing and processing techniques. Furthermore, organic farming consistently performs better on environmental grounds. Evaluations of growing GM herbicide tolerant crops in the UK found that two out of three crops led to reduced food and habitats available for wildlife on farms. DEFRA studies have proven environmental benefits and increased wildlife on organic farms.

Take action

Just recently the European Environment Commissioner, Dimas, was reported to be opposing the cultivation in Europe of 2 new GM maize crops (both Bt) – Syngenta’s Bt11 and Pioneer/Dow’s 1507 because of the risk posed to the environment - see more here - both crops are already approved for import. There is likely to be a lot opposition from other parts of the Commission (e.g. Agriculture, Industry) before the final Commission proposal is agreed. We need to make sure that protecting the environment comes before industry interests and that the Commission agrees a strong position against the cultivation of these two crops.

Please take a minute to take Greenpeace international’s email action at: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/getinvolved/support-dimas-on-maize

However it was good to hear France has announced a ban on the planting of genetically engineered crops until the safety of the crops can be further assessed. French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicted that the decision was based on the desire to err on the side of safety. He said: "I don't want to be in contradiction with EU laws, but I have to make a choice. In line of the precautionary principle, I wish that the commercial cultivation of genetically modified pesticide GMOs be suspended."

Whiteshill will become safer?

I read this article in The Citizen recently:

CROSSING WILL BECOME SAFER 30 October 2007 - Councillors have successfully campaigned for improved safety measures for the school crossing at Whiteshill. Conservative parliamentary spokesman Neil Carmichael said he had been inundated with appeal as traffic levels mounted in the village following the closure of the A46 due to flood subsidence. "I resolved to ensure that speed warning signs were added and existing signage improved," he said. Mr Carmichael said that with the help of Coun Stan Waddington, Gloucestershire County Council cabinet member for the environment and transport, and Coun Len Tomlins, new road markings were planned.

Photo: Bus nearing school - will try and get photo soon of new road paint - the photo I took in the week is too blurred to make much sense

I have to say I read it with some surprise as the Parish Council have been working very hard over a very longtime to get matters improved outside Whiteshill School - plus huge efforts to reduce the impact of the A46 closure is having on the village - so has the school - and in the last 18 months I've also had some 5 meetings with Highways Officers to try and look at ways of traffic calming in that area plus loads of phone calls and emails plus the Parish meetings and their consultation coffee morning - at none of those have I seen any of these three folk mentioned below - when two of them did come to view the area one morning very recently (a couple of months after A46 closure) they didn't speak to the Parish - unlike the MP who arranged to meet Parish councillors.

It is however great to have their support - we all want improved measures here - the irony of all this is that the road paint outside the school is in my view a mess - ugly - and I can't see it doing anything to reduce dangers - indeed there is so much random paint going on - red boxes, paler boxes, yellow lines and zigzags - that I wonder if drivers will be looking more at the road than at poss children falling into the road. It is certainly not what I would have pushed for - and from comments I've received some other residents are also not happy - it also goes against the principles of Shared Spaces (see previous blogs on this topic). A great pity.

Meeting planned

Anyhow don't forget the Parish are having another coffee and traffic discussion/drop-in at 3pm on Sat 24th Nov at the Village Hall - a chance to raise these issues and hopefully find some solutions.

Randwick woods update

A new board was recently placed in Randwick Woods depicting interpretation of local Scheduled Monuments, alongside the Cotswold Way National Trail.

Photos: Randwick/Standish woods

It is provided by The National Trust in partnership with The Cotswold Way National Trail and features include our Long Barrow, a burial mound dating back to the Neolithic period about 3000BC, 2 round Barrows and a Cross Dyke dating back to the Bronze age, approx 1500BC.

Next time you are up in the woods take a look at this Board and see if you can find the "lumps and bumps" identified on the map which provide fascininating insight into our local history.

Locally as noted previously on this blog we are aware that some damage has been done to these monuments by mountain bikers, mountain boarders and others but much of this we suspect is unintentional. If people were more aware of the monuments they would not use them as race tracks or slopes to try some fancy trick. There has been talk of another interpretation board at Ash Lane but concerns have been expressed about it being vandalised as previous attempts at signposting there have not fared well. What do others think?

Volunteers?

The Trust now has support re their annual photo logging and write up of the condition of the local monuments. However a future project hopes to find people who would be prepared to walk specific routes in woods and alert the Trust to dangers like overhanging branches, damage etc. Call Michelle Oliver on the number below if interested.

It should be remembered that Scheduled Monuments are protected by law, to help preserve our historic features - so do please report any damaging activities you may see to the National Trust, telephone 01452 814213.

Full Council meeting: flooding, car parking machines and climate change panel

Thursday I had a second session at Cardiff University talking to their MSc architect students about 'green' politics and community groups in action - it was refreshing to talk to some of the students about their enthusiasm for addressing climate change and more. Anyhow arrived back just in time to catch the green councillors pre-Council meeting before Full Council.

Photos: School of Architecture, Cardiff University and below sandwiches at pre-Council meeting

Thursday was my first day back as an ordinary councillor rather than Leader of the Green group - Sarah Lunnon takes over and will make a great job of it as I've noted elsewhere in this blog. Hopefully it will allow me a little more time - especially as I've embarked on a few hours as a Community Mental Health Worker.

Anyhow much was discussed at Council and I can't possibly do it justice here - but here are a few items...

Flooding - a great first step

The Government has given £60,000 to Stroud to help with Flood Relief - this is different from the Glos Flood Relief Fund (which has only several days left for applications re damage, insurance premiums etc - apply now!). Sadly the debate became political as sometimes these things do - and don't always seem to be handled in the most positive way.

Labour councillors rightly argued that Stroud should match the funding and that many areas were missed out from the funds which concentrated on Painswick and Slad water courses. Indeed it would be great to see more funds in this area - however while most of the opposition (ie Labour, Green and Lib Dems) supported an amendment calling for such money it was opposed by the administration - although I think one Tory abstained.

The main motion on spending the money was however passed unanimously (see 28th Oct blog for details). As noted before I think it is a very positive step forward to developing preventative measures - it is also targeted at the areas worst hit - but as pointed out in the meeting some householders elsewhere are in equally dire straights - some still living in caravans etc.

Also as noted before Greens have called for an holistic approach - that means looking at the whole picture - the extra £60,000 would have helped but it is disappointing that this wasn't discussed before the meeting - it seemed to be presented at Full Council to gain maximum media coverage. Where was the discussion beforehand? Where was the debate? This doesn't seem to me the best way to do politics. I am not surprised that the administration voted against - however hope they are still open to looking at this issue....

To me Stroud District has taken lead in this area of flooding in a way quite unlike other councils - for that they should be applauded - but we do need to develop a more comprehensive approach to all watercourses. That is what Greens will be seeking. This is a great first step but we do need much more.

We need to address the fragility of our infrastructure to cope with the shifts in weather patterns. We also need this whole area looked at by the Government - it is a mess - we have organisations such as Severn Trent (one of at least four companies responsible for the sewage network in Gloucestershire), the Environment Agency (which has regions which are not co-terminous with the political regions) and other bodies responsible for key utilities that appear to have no desire to work holistically together to improve our failing infrastructure. There is also a complex and piecemeal pattern of legislation and outdated discretionary powers that are in themselves not providing the clarity and direction necessary to help create better long term solutions.

We also have what the County Councils Chief Exec has described as "an aging Victorian drainage system that is already under heavy strain and our drains and sewers are simply not designed for the type of rainfall the UK is now and in the future will experience."

Our streams, waterways and non-main rivers were the cause of some 75% of Gloucestershire flooding, but it is unrealistic to expect riparian owners to maintain and improve flood defences. For each urban stream there could easily be up to 200 landowners.

We urgently need organisations to work together - hence with the Ruscombe Brook our attempts to bring the together with the Memo of Cooperation - now signed by pretty well all organisations and agreed unanimously at Council on Thursday night. But it shouldn't be up to a little group to have to set up this - there should be a way that this happens so that we can tackle these issues together.

Anyhow another point of contention was that the list of flooded properties was not complete - a difficult task to do anyway - approx 200 properties were hit in the Stroud area - some slightly and some very seriously.

Nationally of course the figure of flooded properties was in 1000s - and even more with the floods now on the East coast - in fact even before the summer floods nationally 5000 properties were flooded by sewers - and 3.5bn litres of water is lost through leaks per day - this all should be a warning sign - of the 29 places where the government plans more houses (new 'growth points') flooding is a risk in 80% of cases, sewer capacity are an issue in 72% and breaches in water in 62%.

Canal Regeneration - Stroud takes on £2m liability

Stroud accepting this liability is a risk to Council tax payers - a real and serious risk even though it has been described as 'nominal' - but if the Council had not worked so hard to achieve this then the whole canal project was in serious jeopardy - indeed British Waterways were set to pull out and with them most likely most of the other funding....this £60million project has it's faults and I still have very serious concerns about a number of elements - how much affordable housing will be on the site, what about biodiversity, the route itself etc - indeed I have talked of these before on this blog....in fact Martin Whiteside asked several questions at Council trying to get assurances re affordable housing.

Councils often don't take enough risks in my view - they are overly conservative and don't get many potential wins - why for example are we so cautious over the amount of renewable energy we ask of new developers, why so cautious re how much affordable housing - others are braver - there are reasons and I have touched on them before - but here at least the Council is being brave.

The liability was accepted unanimously by all at Full Council - that doesn't mean we will not be scrutinising all elements - indeed the Brimscombe Area Action Plan is now out for consultation (only 6 weeks) - look at it on the Council website here.

Climate Change Panel report

We had a report presented to us from this Panel - background and membership of the panel - The Climate Change Panel was set up by Stroud District Council during the summer of 2007. The purpose of the panel is two fold:

· To act as an independent advisory panel to the Council and Local Strategic Partnership (LSP);
· To provide non-elected member external scrutiny of Council policy and performance in relation to climate change;

The panel consists of 9 local and national experts in matters relating to climate change including matters such as energy, construction, urban and rural planning and land management. The panel also includes several representatives of the Youth Council. It is appointed for 2 years initially with a view to hold one full day annual meeting at a time where its deliberations can be most effectively fed into the councils’ annual corporate cycle. It is expected that there will be communications with and between the panel members throughout the year.

So what did they have to say - well there was lots of good stuff - the report will be on the webcast - here is what they said in their conclusion: "Stroud District Council through its Environment Strategy and its wide range of measures relating to climate change is in an excellent position to take some fundamental steps to move further towards a position where the District is carbon neutral. A number of suggestions have been made by the panel which could have a major impact on reducing the district’s CO2 emissions. In particular the cumulative impact of the planning measures proposed and the proposal for a 50% renewables target and associated installations are worth highlighting. For further CO2 reductions to succeed it is also clear that much work is still needed to encourage wider participation in the climate change agenda from residents, schools and businesses in the district. These are matters which will be included in future deliberations of the panel."

This Panel is very exciting and has great potential - again full marks to the Council on this - Martin Whiteside asked if the panel could not meet more often - no immediate answer to that but there will be a response to the various recommendations to Cabinet in January. I intend to write with a few areas that I think have not been covered sufficiently - not surprising given they only had a day - one issue was more re saving energy in existing housing stock - one idea I keep trying to push is Kirklees Councils free insulation to 40,000 homes! If they can do it so can we.....anyhow more of this issue another time....

Question time - new car parking machines

The procedure is not as simple as some people might expect - they were aimed at making it easier for parking time to be remotely extended using a mobile telephone. This has been requested by traders and others including Greens - but Greens wanted a pay on exit system - this is not the greatest way to do it - anyhow I wont repeat here the arguments - the Council have admitted problems and apologised for not giving enough support when the machines were introduced - also some free parking measures have been made on Weds up to Christmas - however while machines are back to simple operation they are set to come back again with all the print in your number plate letters stuff...

Green councillor Gwen Belcher raised a question at Council about how these machines had been chosen and the implementation planned (or rather not planned!) - another councillor asked about costs - all that is on the webcast - with the answers - certainly the introduction was a complete mess - Gwen - who walks everywhere - has described to me how she was 'harangued Face to Face with people and by phone about My Council.....approached by influential Members of Stroud Chamber of Trade' who claimed takings where done by 20% - however it was half term and takings are sometimes down anyway - nevertheless poor show.

On a lighter note Gwen was at the same time rattling tins for C.A.B and did very well as she had queues of people wanting to talk to her about the car parking saga and they couldn't possible walk away with out giving!

Other issues

Cllr Marjoram had a question re Huntsgrove asking why it had been 'called in' - still no reason given either by Government or David Drew - so officers have to plan for every eventuality - like going to court and not knowing what you have been charged with - and of course this all costs the Council money - taxpayers money.

Gypsies, Treasury Management and the new statement of community involvement- all discussed before on this blog.

Incinerator for Glos County?

Blog readers will know that an incinerator is poss for Javelin Park near Stonehouse (see blog on 24th Nov 2007) - I have written to the County Cabinet member Stan Waddington about this and he gave a comprehensive reply and noted that no decision has yet been taken.

Photos: Marchwood Incinerator, Hampshire - visited recently by Green party member and former Vision 21 Director Chris Harmer

Green District councillors locally met to discuss waste a wee while ago - I then had a meeting with Greens from all four Gloucestershire Green parties last week - we then had a Green party meeting on Wednesday night where we have agreed in principle a way forward on a few key points. All these meetings can be deeply frustrating but they are also empowering and allow us all to have a voice and a part to play in developing policy - we are also fortunate to have some very knowledgeable people some of whom work in the waste industry. Hopefully in very near future we will have developed a more detailed policy document but wanted to share where we have got to so far.

Anyhow following this I have sent a detailed email to Stan responding to all the points he raises....plus the Green party's key aims and my own personal thoughts (both aims and thoughts enclosed below) - indeed I have personally found the issue very challenging but am confident that we are now developing the framework for what is the most sustainable way forward.

Glos Greens remain strongly opposed to large mass burn incinerators but there is a discussion about the role that smaller ones could play as a disposal option at a residual waste level of 25-30% - the discussions on this have been very interesting and I can't say I ever thought I would be supporting an incinerator - still uncomfortable but the only realistic way forward is to have that as part of the solution - but as you will see there are very strict conditions about how much waste, about the energy it produces etc.

Many Councils are doing it completely wrong and building monster mass burn incinerators that are being built with crazy wasteful PFI contracts that require them to be fed waste for 28 years or more - the whole waste situation will have changed by then yet Councils are signing up....anyhow more of that madness another time - we mustn't let Gloucestershire go down that route.

Health fears????

One other fear around incinerators is the emissions...and I have to say that this area still causes me concerns - The 2002 DEFRA Study 'Review of Environmental and Health Effects of Waste Management' [endorsed by the NSCA] states : 'We found that dealing with municipal solid waste accounts for only about 1% of UK emissions of dioxins, shared approximately equally between incineration and emissions from burning landfill gas. This figure is of poor quality because of uncertainty over dioxin emissions from other sources. Domestic sources such as cooking and burning coal for heating are the UK’s single largest source of dioxins, accounting for about 18% of emissions. Transport accounts for about 3% and electricity generation about 4% of the UK total. A number of other sources contribute to emissions of dioxins to a similar or greater extent: accidental vehicle fires; fireworks and bonfires; small-scale waste burning (for example on building sites); incineration of other wastes; and the iron and steel industry.'

So - dioxins are a potential issue, but to be proportionate, we should also be seeking to ban domestic coal fires, barbeques, transportation, fossil-fuel energy generation, fireworks and the ferrous metal industry...One Green party member commentated: "From experience in discussing this with a Dutch EfW operator, when I asked the question 'do you have a problem with dioxins?', his reply was 'yes - we're struggling to find any to monitor'. This was from a plant that a local pressure group came to do a couple of days of independent stack monitoring at and went away not really having found much to write about. Hardly surprising, as their residence times, combustion temperatures and use of exhaust gas cleaning were exemplary - they design their plants backwards from the gas cleaning train out there, and they typically cost a third the cost of the whole plant."

Health is still an issue and we need to look carefully at sites and builds etc - I would be very interested in thoughts and further info from others on this issue and indeed any of this.....

Comments re County waste sent to Cllr Stan Waddington

****Please note these are in draft format****

The key aims of the Gloucestershire Green Party are:

- Maximum effort with a clear plan and investment to reduce, reuse and recycle for all waste streams within the county - leading to static or reducing overall per capita collection rate, of which 70% is recycled
- aim for an ongoing reduction in householders waste
- accept that Energy from Waste plants play a role in a future hybrid waste management infrastructure, but that their use should be limited to disposing of the final 25-30% of residual waste. In other words – we want to see reuse / recycling (to include composting/AD) levels of approaching 70% within Gloucestershire within the next 20 years.
- waste infrastructure should be small and localised and comply with the Proximity Principle as far as possible. They must include the capacity to deal with less waste over time as Peak Oil and Climate Change become more severe.
- EfW plants should be sized and located so that they are as small as possible and also have the best possible efficiency. This will inevitably mean that a heat sink will be needed to support a heat-only or CHP solution.

Here are some further personal thoughts on this based on numerous discussions (with huge thanks to Adrian Jones for his considerable help and technical knowledge):

1. Waste reduction
While recognising the urgent need for our lifestyles to change, I acknowledge that we are likely to see only a small reduction in waste being produced in the near future. We do not accept forecasts that waste will continue to rise indefinitely: action by Government, business and others along with rising oil prices will all impact on the amounts of waste produced. However we accept that waste is likely to continue to increase in the short to medium term future without significant Government and local action.

Waste reduction is, nevertheless, still an area that needs significantly more attention as there are many routes that can be pursued. For example in the absence of actions by the government on packaging some Councils are having meetings with local supermarkets. In Germany a tax reduced packaging by 17%: we urgently need similar actions here. We accept that alot of this is beyond the ability of local and county councils to resolve, but we urge them to raise such issues with government through the Local Government Association and other means.

2. Reuse and recycling
Zero-waste is what we should be aiming for but we still need a quantum shift in behaviour to create it: zero-waste is currently unattainable in Europe on a large scale. We need to plan for 70% recycling - this is achievable - although clearly as oil becomes more expensive and new industries develop we should be able to achieve more in the future.

The worlds best recyclers, Flanders, currently hit 71% recycling on municipal wastes. They burn the rest, apart from the 1% that they landfill. There is much that I could write here about how 70% targets can be reached (...more of that in another blog when proposlas are more firmed up).

3. Residual wastes
The choice is, as you note, quite stark: energy recovery or landfill. Reuse and recycling are fine until you start bumping up against the law of diminishing returns - which suggest that the final residual (25-30%) always leaves you with the options of energy recovery or landfill. EfW is clearly better than landfill when you adopt any form of lifecycle assessment. It is however critical that the use of EfW is as limited, as efficient, as clean and as complementary to existing and proposed 'better' waste solutions as possible.

Economies of scale are a big issue in waste management and any single District-scale residual treatment would be prohibitively expensive - although equally we wouldn't advocate a single centralised solution serving the whole County, for various reasons including that you'd struggle to get a heat sink to fit it. Without a heat sink, you don't get the CHP, and then the efficiencies and environmental impacts become questionable. Easier to find a number of smaller heat-sinks than one large one. Perhaps aim for three or four smallish-scale facilities?

Based on the latest analysis re Glos MSW, there's about 340kt/pa total municipal waste produced in Gloucestershire? Assuming 70% recycling - our target figure - this leaves us with a residual of about 102kt/pa. Enough for one small centralised mass burn facility, or three small gasifiers. But we haven't accounted for C&I wastes in this figure. Assuming the 'MSW-like' C&I wastes are around 60% of the MSW figure - this is based on figures seen elsewhere and seem typical - then we've probably got about 165kt of residual material to play with in Gloucestershire. This is without considering construction and demolition wastes - the wood content in these waste streams - and any combustible C&I waste not otherwise accounted for and which can't easily be recycled.

There are encouraging developments on the horizon in relation to gasification and pyrolysis. The problem is that none of them are yet satisfactorily proven in a UK context on municipal wastes, although we are likely to see reference plants in the near future. These include, but aren't necessarily limited to :
- Plasco of Canada
- Solena of Spain
- Refgas of Flintshire
- Compact Power of Avonmouth

Gloucestershire could easily therefore sustain three or four gasifiers at the scale at which a number of the smaller providers seem to be coming in at the moment [One conceptual plant with a throughput of 30kt/pa is sized to fit in three shipping containers, so that gives you an idea of the footprint]. The interesting thing about small-scale pyrolysis/gasification is that it is very adaptive technology and can be used for more than just residual MSW. It can also be used as a hazardous waste treatment technology, and to treat clinical wastes [which is indeed what the Compact Power plant is currently being used for].

Quoted CAPEX costs are low - c.£8-10 million for c.35-50kt/pa. So a lot of promise, but not proven yet. The Compact Power MSW plant will be fairly typical of the technology - they all have their different patented innovations, but essentially you are heating a waste in the absence of oxygen [pyrolysis stage] to produce a degraded char and a syngas, which are then heated further in the presence of limited oxygen [this is the gasification stage] to produce a higher grade syngas which is cleaned and fed to an engine, from which the electricity is generated. Some of the syngas produced is burned within the process to generate the heat. The WID bit of it is the engine and the release from the gasifier, and both of these need to be in compliance. These plants tend to have a small footprint and stack height though. Gasification/pyrolysis is also likely to be able to be adapted for duty with biomass when/if in the future the supply of residual waste dries up.

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

In terms of mass burn EfW - I am less happy about these despite the concerns above re pyrolysis being not so well tested. If they are to be used for residual waste - and we must be talking only about the 25-30% residual here - then they must be with CHP with a suitable heat-sink - and the stringent conditions imposed by the Waste Incineration Directive. Mass burn EfW is possible if sized appropriately, fed with appropriate residuals and used in an industrial synergy. Particularly if it is also able to take biomass (and ideally clean waste biomass such as clean low-grade wood wastes etc - although we'd want to see most of this recycled where possible).

4. Comments re IVC
Despite fairly widespread support for in-vessel composting, the Gloucestershire Green Party have some concerns re the environmental impacts. If you compost segregated organic wastes, then you get a usable compost but at an energy cost (typically about 0.05 - 0.1MW per tonne - IVC uses some pretty hefty forced-air fans and other processing costs) - far better to run this material through an Anaerobic Digester and get the compost plus a liquid fertiliser plus carbon-neutral biogas to be burned to generate electricity, or to be cleaned and compressed for use as roadfuel. Your energy balances swing between 0.4 and 0.5MW per tonne the other way then, with a corresponding CO2 reduction [you're displacing fossil fuels too].

The IVC of a mixed green and kitchen waste stream at a remote location [such as is suggested by Glos CC] is worse than the IVC of kitchen waste only, which is far worse than using home composting for both options. (Although it should also be noted many need guidance on good home composting.)

Re IVC of mixed organic wastes such as come out of an Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) process. This does seem to be a poor solution as you can't really do anything with the output due to contamination issues - and it ends up as landfill cover anyway. The very best thing you can do with the output (known as 'Compost Like Output') is in low-grade brownfield land reclamation under exemption - which is effectively landfill by another name anyway. The environmental impacts mean that this approach [waste - MBT - remove recyclates - landfill the rest] isn't actually that much better than straight landfilling when you take the energy costs into account.

5. European Good Practice
An example of good practice is Denmark who have 29 incinerators for a population of around 5 million people. It had reached a 65% recycling target by 2004 and incinerated 26% of its combined non-inert wastes in this year. It only landfills 9%. 8 months of the year, the whole of Copenhagen takes its heat load from a number of these facilities, which are linked into a large ring surrounding the city. In the winter, they use a mixture of biomass and fossil fuel plants to provide the extra output.

The interesting thing about Denmark is that all of its EfW plants are CHP, and the vast majority of them are small - the smallest CHP facility they have is less than 10000 tonnes per annum. This would be small enough to serve the Forest of Dean, for example. This particular plant was installed to take local wastes from a remote rural area, and the CHP is used by a food factory - which would have closed without the available energy, with the loss of 80 jobs. EfW is quite popular in Denmark as a result of such linkages, as it has been specified in order to support the very communities that produce the waste in the first place. Heat only CHP from these plants can give efficiencies of over 80% - this is double the efficiency of a conventional coal fired power plant.

Here is a link which takes you to a publication by Denmarks largest energy from waste company. Here is a list of their work to date.

In comparison, we landfill around 68% of our waste in the UK at the moment. Of our 20 EfW plants, only four to the knowledge of the Green Party have any CHP. One of these is up in the Shetland Isles. It serves 800 local houses and 200 local businesses, and the average householder is between £500-700 per annum better off as a result of the lower costs and higher efficiency of the CHP system. The main local complaint has been that there is now no longer any capacity in the district heating scheme. It's a very small little facility, and is completely in keeping with its environment. (You wouldn't know it was there unless you really looked for it.) Shetland is now largely self-sufficient for waste disposal, and disposes of all of its non-hazardous wastes on the islands.

Peak Oil: County needs to wake up

I continue to be disturbed by the Government's failure to grasp Peak Oil - the point when oil extraction reaches its highest point and then starts to decline.

Photo: Randwick woods at weekend - just beautiful

A newly published global oil supply report by the Energy Watch Group (download here) considers that peak oil was reached last year and that production will now start to decline at a rate of several percent per year despite massive increasing demand for oil. They also predict possible mass unrest. The national press gave it some coverage but nothing like the attention it requires (see Guardian report here) - and local press are still to cover either our Green party news release or letter on this matter.

Anyhow I was able to raise this point re Peak Oil at the recent Scrutiny meeting which was looking at risks to the Council. As oil prices will have a significant impact on many of Councils' services and indeed the whole economy of the District. It is, of course, not just a matter of oil prices, but also one of food security (see Caroline Lucas' excellent report here). Since over 90 per cent of all our food products require oil, the imminent fall in production and consequent hike in prices will have a profound impact on food availability in the developed and the developing world. The report warns that anticipated supply shortages could lead to 'disturbing scenes of mass unrest.'

Peak Oil Think Tank for Stroud

Stroud District Council has already taken a bit of a lead on this issue with Professor Heinberg's visit (see previous blogs) and targets to cut CO2 emissions. The other good news is that through the Transition Stroud Business and Government group, of which I am a member, work has continued and tomorrow there will be a meeting with one of the senior officers at the District re the setting up of a Think Tank re Peak Oil.

I will sadly miss the meeting as I am off to Cardiff that day for work but the plan is to put together a Think Tank that will report to the Local Strategic Partnership(LSP) - now this body is important and has key influences over policy in the area so this is a good way to develop awareness and strategies to deal with the issue. More news on this soon I hope...

More re Peak Oil and films

Interestingly back in 2001 the Peak of oil supplies was calculated as 2009 by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Exxon. Then Shell was caught exaggerating its oil reserves by over 25%. Then it was noted that Saudi Arabia had been claiming the same level of oil reserves for 15 years. Finally, very recently, the International Energy Agency has reported that
key oil fields in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have oil reserves at levels which are roughly half of what was recently claimed. Kuwait's largest field has 48 billion barrels not 100; Saudi Arabia's largest field has 78 billion barrels not 150 billion.

Rationing activities in Iran - taking place at present - do not suggest an abundance of oil there
either. The IEA consequently predicts that by 2012 only 75% of oil demand will be met, meaning oil price rises from now on to levels not previously seen. There is no good reason to have confidence in the claimed oil reserves figures of authoritarian states nor any reason to
imagine that all of the actual reserves are economically recoverable.

The national press while noting prices are at their highest ever are talking about lower prices in the spring - we will see - most worrying is an article I got sent from Stroud Town councillor Dave Cockcroft re Alberta tar sands... it makes interesting reading. Brief extract below and full article at:
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/30/energy.oilandpetrol

The extraction of the oil requires heat, and thus the burning of vast amounts of natural gas - effectively one barrel of gas to extract two of crude - and some estimate that Fort McMurray and the Athabasca oil sands will soon be Canada's biggest contributor to global warming; nearly as much as the whole of Denmark. This in an area that has already seen, according to David Schindler, professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, two degrees of warming in the past 40 years. The oil sands excavations are changing the surface of the planet. The black mines can now be seen from space. In 10 years, estimates Schindler, they are "going to look like one huge open pit" the size of Florida.

One place for those interested in more on Peak Oil is Professor Heinberg's musings - see recent one here that has views on three options for the future:
www.richardheinberg.com/museletter/186

And those films...

The new film, "A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash" has opened in UK cinemas this week (although not Stroud). It sounds like it is worth a look - see Guardian review here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/04/energy.fossilfuels

I was also sent a link to a documentary online by a Whiteshill Green party member - he comments re the film: "it nicely combines the history of oil and how it’s made with peak oil and global warming. One thing I found particularly interesting was the explanation on how the earth deals with runaway global warming and how it led to mass extinction in the past."
See it here:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/crude/

See also previous posts on this blog re Peak Oil...

Update on Stop Staverton expansion campaign

Following the success of Camp Hope there have been various letters in the press for and against airport expansions - no one in my view has satisfactorily made the case for expansion - indeed arguments are extraordinarily week and I find it disturbing that not more are coming out clearly against Stavertons' plans. Lib Dems are especially poor in this matter - they have a national policy against expansions yet here they are seemingly supporting it.

Photo: Local woods - catch the colours before they go!

Anyway I was pleased to get my first letter printed in the Local Gov Association magazine which goes to all councillors - re airport expansions - see it here.

At the recent Environment Scrutiny Committee in Cheltenham Greens got the answer that they are not working on the airport because cabinet have not asked them to look at the issue. It does seem strange but hopefully they might look at it now? Not to do so would surely be deeply embarassing.

Meanwhile a collection of Friends of the Earth and Green party members were at the other Scrutiny meeting in Cheltenham quizzing councillors - below are some of their questions - I don't think the meeting has had anything like this number of questions around an issue in the past...

Also before I get to those questions this Saturday Greens will descend on Bath for their regular SW meeting - the morning session, from 11a.m. to 1p.m., will be an opportunity for anyone interested or involved in campaigning against airport expansion around the south-west. Already some STaverton campaigners are planning to go. There should also be representatives from the campaigns against expansion of Bristol, Bournemouth, Plymouth and Exeter airports, and information from the Newquay campaign group. It will be linked into the European campaign, and the work that Caroline Lucas MEP has done at that level. Do get in touch if anyone reading this is interested in going.

Some of the questions to Scrutiny

Runway movements concentration - Can the Committee quantify the increase in movements, noise and pollution that would be caused if an Instrument Landing System (ILS) is installed? An ILS would concentrate all of the additional ILS training approaches (3200 p/a according to the business plan) plus all of the ILS dependant commercial/business traffic onto the East/West runway instead of distributing it across the three runways. Is the Committee aware that aircraft using the main runway pass over Cheltenham?

ILS Approach Lights - Can the Committee explain why the business plan makes no provision for approach lights for the Instrument Landing System (ILS)? These lights would be required to make the ILS fully functional. The cost of acquiring land for, and installing the approach lights is not accounted for in the business plan. Can the Committee also state how far outside the current airport perimeter the ILS approach lights would be sited if they were to be installed?

Business case - Because the Airport doesn't own the land on which it is based, its borrowings for the propsoed development are liable to exceed the value of its assets. Won't this put the Council in a position where they are obliged to at least partially guarantee the loan and, if so, isn't this exposing council tax payers to unnecessary risk?

Air quality - The County Air Quality Report of 2004 raised Staverton as a particular concern noting that "the growth in air traffic has the potential to impact upon efforts to improve upon, or maintain good, air quality. Any increase in the number of air traffic movements leads to both an increase in aircraft emissions and ground vehicle emissions associated with an airport, such as service vehicles and passenger vehicles." The notion of "growth in air traffic" should not be limited to the number of movements, an increase in the size of the jets and the number of passengers they carry would also lead to an increase in pollution. Where does the Committee stand on the need to avoid pollution, the associated decline in air quality and the inevitable consequences for the health of the Airport's neighbours?

Peak Oil - Peak Oil is the moment when the markets realise that half of all the available oil in the world has been used. Thereafter prices of oil and hence kerosene, petrol, plastic etc will spiral dramatically as demand increasingly outstrips supply. It is reckoned that this phenomenon will be upon us within the foreseeable future and could well be only a few years or even months away. The idea enjoys the support of numerous academics and former oil industry workers – consider the book ‘Half Gone’ by Jeremy Leggett or Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) at http://www.peakoil.net Peak Oil could have dramatic impacts on the ability of the Airport to conduct its business. Will these potential impacts be considered when analyzing the feasibility of the business case for the Airport development?

International services - I understand that some Councillors have expressed the view that, whilst they support the Airport’s proposed development, they would be opposed to the Airport developing international services. If the developments proceed then the usable length of runway, will be increased. This increase will be sufficient to be utilised by the larger jets that could be used for European services. Given recent press and radio coverage the desire of the Airport to introduce such services is undeniable. Does the Committee support the introduction of international services or, otherwise, having facilitated their introduction by supporting the Airport development, how do they propose to prevent them?

Where have I been the last 2 weeks?

Yes the blog has slipped a little compared to it's usual coverage - yes I've covered the brook and a few other bits but missed lots in last two weeks. Below is a brief summary of some of the meetings, case work and activities from the last 2 weeks - more coming later today if all goes well!

Photo: Glorious colours in Standish/Randwick woods - don't miss seeing before wind blows leaves off!

Scrutiny meeting - 4 and a half hours - 6pm to 10.30pm - I could hardly string a sentence together by the end - especially after a busy day - that was nearly 2 weeks ago now and I can also not remember all the discussions! One item was peak oil and I'll save that for a separate post. The minutes and webcast will also be on the Council website. Clearly to be effective we need to look at the way this meeting is held - I think all are keen to see changes - part of the problem is that many of us on that committee are new and consequently are asking questions that we should perhaps know the answer to or is not in the remit of that committee - plus some work could be done before the meeting - one question I asked was about the key targets being chosen by the Council - now that is something I could have perhaps explored before the meeting - plus some members do not appear to have read their papers before the meeting - very frustrating!

Photo: Cafe discussion - James Beecher and Janet Bailey

Cafe Discussion - 'How can we achieve real change?' was the title of the discussion - I always find it difficult to drag myself from the house on a Friday night but everytime I go to these discussions they are different and pretty well every time they have been very interesting. See write up here.

Green Councillors and Cabinet - having arranged a meeting at Ebley Mill childcare arrangements fell through for one councillor so we ended up around a table at the Springhill co-housing (see more re SUDS at co-housing here and the project here). This meeting is a chance to share news and project between District councillors and look at approached to broader issues. One issue was the policies re floods - see my blog for 31st Oct 2007 - see also the webcast of the Cabinet meeting that we all went along to after this meeting.

Cainscross Parish Council meeting - I haven't managed to get to so many of these recently - not my ward but it is a neighbouring Parish with a chunk of the Ruscombe Brook in it - the two main topics of interest were
- the Cashes Green Hospital site (see blog for 25th Oct) - a presentation was given by Martin Large and the Parish agreed to write to the Minister in support of the Community Land Trust - more of that in a later blog entry.
- the Lake at the Lawns site - a presentation was given along with a comprehensive draft report on plans for management of the site - I have a paper copy but will try and get an electronic version for anyone interested.

Policy Panel on renewable energy - these are put on to help improve councillors knowledge and sometimes help develop policy - I nearly missed this one as I thought I knew much of it but infact it was excellent and a great overview of situation and approach. It was deeply disappointing that only 8 councillors were present - and 3 of those were Greens - especially disappointing as only a couple of Planning Committee members were present. The meeting looked at the background legislation and covered the basics in a simple way re new developments - like the need to reduce overall consumption, everything facing South if possible, concentrating on space and water heating first - Solar Thermal likely to be first choice but centralised gas chp or woodfuel boilers being an excellent way forward - only rarely will pv/wind/hydro be best options for hitting the Councils 10% of renewables target - of course Greens would like to see all homes Carbon neutral but in the light of Government rulings this 10% is at least a step forward - but still no where near far enough!

Councillors Training needs - I am on a small committee looking at members training needs - it only meets 3 times a year and we haven't met for a long while - in fact I was so keen to get to it I turned up 24 hours early - ah well I did manage to get to it on the next day - and one issue we looked at was the low attendance of the monthly Policy Panels - I've been to all the last 5 or so and attendance has dropped to around 10 - this is a great shame when the quality of presentations is usually excellent - at this training needs meeting we explored ways to encourage councillors to attend and also ways that the number of meetings can be reduced - often in a week I will have 4 evenings of meetings. It was also a chance to look at how best to induct new councillors - various ideas were put forward...

Gloucestershire Green party meeting - in Gloucester - the 4 Gloucestershire Green parties meet 3 times a year to share stuff - of course we meet at other times but this is our chance to develop policies across the county - the big topic this time was waste and we were fortunate to have a Green party member who works in the industry - more of that in a future blog.

Leaders meeting - this is a meeting the Monday before Full Council - and my last as the Coordinator of the 5-strong Green party District Council group - 18 months has been good in the role but my work commitments mean I have to step aside a little and this seems a good place - Sarah Lunnon will take my place from tomorrow - I hugely welcome her radical and thoughtful approach to issues - it was always hoped she would take over this role but a baby meant she has had to postpone it until now. Good luck to her - having said that Greens do leadership differently to other parties - as the party is now voting on leadership I'll no doubt do a blog on that.

Shut Oldbury - following the successful public meeting various people left names saying they were interested in doing more. I went to a meeting to explore what might be possible - one woman is now looking at whether she will coordinate a renewed campaign to close this nuclear dinosaur - meanwhile John Large, the nuclear physicist, has now put his powerpoint presentation of his talk onto his website showing the potential dangers of Oldbury.

Case work - various bits and pieces including...
- another nearly homeless person contacted me - amazingly there are 140 single people on the register waiting for homes in the District and barely one a month is found a home - I can't help re a home but I can ensure nothing has been missed - very very hard indeed for the people involved and it makes me angry every time I hear stories like this - our government has failed us badly re homes - and most so-called affordable homes are not affordable at all - we urgently need more Council homes and suitable private-rented.
- water leak in Upper Kites Nest Road - traffic on the lane has damaged this pipe in the past and did so again last week - the drainage officer Bob Nightingale attended the call when the water company didn't respond initially - the householder sings his praises now! Anyway the problem has been sorted but we now would like the water company to move the tap to stop the problem occurring again. We'll see what happens with that.
- problems re a building site in the ward - the Parish Council note that SDC Planning have now confirmed that their 'enforcement officers' were investigating. I have also heard from Highways regarding the possible damage to the road caused by the work, and they are monitoring the situation.
- several calls re Hunts Grove - see Green party statement and various letters by using search facility on our website

Photo: Gatcombe event - never been before and found a few bits of interest in the enormous marquees of endless craft stalls - plus glass blowing, ferret racing, puppets and more - but best was the food stalls!

Other news - the other news is that I've started a few hours as a Community Mental Health Worker - as a former social worker it is great to be back in a similar role. Plus last Thursday and tomorrow I'm doing 4 presentations to MSc students at Cardiff University - did a couple last year on the brook and Shared Spaces (see 2nd Nov blog) - this time also looking at the British political system, a councillors perspective on how councils work and various local green projects (that's green with a small 'g') - good fun and so far good feedback - but lots of work re putting presentations together - I forget how much time that takes!

Fire at village shop

The Village shop in Whiteshill is open after being damaged by fire. Very sad indeed. The Police think that some children were out at 3.30 in the morning and they set the litter bin alight – either with a cigarette or a firework and it got out of control. I understand the bin has been a bit of a problem in the past as children used it to climb on top of the shop. The Parish Council are already looking at whether a better location would be by the bike stand and perhaps have a metal bin instead. See Citizen report here.