22 Jun 2009

Local news bits: Whitestock, toilets, recycling and Tricorn

Whitestock - The Friends of Whiteshill School hope to repeat the huge success of their first music festival - gates open at school at 6pm on Saturday 4th July with the Whiteshill Samba band then a mix of various other acts including the Johnson and Kempner Partnership teachers jazz band and the Reservoir Hogs - ring Angie Mason on 753461 for details.

Photo: Standish Woods

Our Wonderful World exhibition - Randwick School's exhibition 9am to 5pm in the church until the end of June - pride of place is the Tree of Life.

Randwick Hall Toilet block success - the Glos Environmental Trust have come up trumps with £8,000 for the toilet block - this means the £40,000 phase II of the hall development is now set to go-ahead this year - an incredible achievement to raise all that money since September - special thanks to Val Flack for masterminding it all.

Recycle Week - yes it's recycle week this week - see more here and here - it is good to have these reminders about what we can recycle but none of this goes far enough - we need Councils and the Government to wake up - we are still years behind countries like Germany. Oh and another website that is good is that Love Food Hate Waste site: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

On street recycling bins launched - lots of hard work by Stroud District Youth Council (SDYC) means that innovative litter recycling bins will be unveiled this week at locations across the local area. Recognised as the active voice for 11 - 18 year olds for the district, the youth council formed a litter recycling pilot project team. They decided to introduce recycling bins around Stroud, concentrating on routes most commonly used by young people such as the paths to and from school. Following extensive design work and consultation with officers at Stroud District Council, bespoke multi compartment recycling bins were sourced, customized artwork produced and locations known to have a high density of litter were identified. Well done indeed to them all.

Tricorn House - Objections to the compulsory purchase of the eyesore Tricorn House will be heard at a public inquiry to start on 14th July. The building's owner Wellfair Holdings will argue against Stroud District Council's plan to buy the derelict office block and hand it straight on to the company Ecotricity - who want to redevelop the site on the Cainscross roundabout as its new HQ. It will be before a government inspector, whose final recommendation will probably go before the Secretary of State for approval. As many will know I have long argued along with most of the local population that this site urgently needs redevelopment - indeed I raised the issue when I was first elected 3 years ago - so I have given a warm welcome to this move at last of compulsory purshase - Tricorn was built in the 1970s and was originally Stroud's Department of Social Security building. In the last 10 years it has not been used and has looked worse each year. See a photoshop of someone elses' view of Tricorn House here.

Cashes Green Hospital - site has got the go-ahead for Outline Planning permission - see previous blog here.

4 comments:

Russ said...

I sort of object to knocking Tricorn house down; I don't think it is necessarily an eyesore; what makes it an eyesore, any more than a lot of buildings?

But I do think that it could be nice to have a spanking new building for Ecotricity, to show case ecotechnology, but they should forget about pretending that the project is carbon neutral. If that was the main concern then setting an example of recycling old buildings would be the answer, don't you think?

Where's the ethos of recycling, knocking down what I presume is a perfectly good building, to erect some trendy monolith with a few small wind turbines, and solar panels on top? It's a bit New Labour isn't it?

Russ said...

here is a better photoshop, than the last one I did.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/
3376/3653413284_d8f45f35ff_o.jpg

:D

Armchair Green (not by choice) said...

Agree with Russ - where are the green credentials in pulling something down?

len tillnitr said...

Russ/Armchair Green - would you *really* be happy with a lick of (eco friendly) paint over the existing building? I am not so sure that would do it.

I am sure that is something that the existing owner would happily do however, while he waits for a supermarket to buy it and knock it down ;-)

The carbon cost of knocking something down are greater than the carbon costs of maintaining/heating/cooling an aging hulk for decades to come? I would like to see an impact analysis for sure.

I also seriously doubt that Ecotricity have plans to "erect some trendy monolith with a few small wind turbines, and solar panels on top" in its place, but I suppose we will have to wait and see what the plans are.