EU approves GM - aggggh!

The European Commission has just approved growing genetically modified crops in the European Union for the first time in 12 years! Caving to the GM lobby, the commission has ignored over 60% of Europeans who feel we have to get the facts first before growing foods that could pose a threat to our health and environment.

Cartoon by Russ - I like this one.

A new initiative by Avaaz allows 1 million EU citizens to make official legal requests of the European Commission. Let's build a million voices for a ban on GM foods until the research is done; they will be delivered to the President Barroso of the European Commission. Sign the petition and forward this email to friends and family: www.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_and_biodiversity/?vl

See here Jonathan Porritt writing about Chris Smith, Chair of the Environment Agency extolling the virtues of GM:

"I’d be astonished if he is not worried about the biggest environmental concern of all: the fact that even the next generation of GM ‘solutions’ promise little if anything in terms of reducing the dependence of modern intensive agriculture on fossil fuels and hydro-carbon-based inputs. On broad sustainability and governance grounds, GM-scepticism still seems to me to be the most appropriate response to the latest surge of evangelism for all things GM..."

The case against GM is still hugely strong and indeed if anything growing stronger:
- see fact file on GM and Labour's push for GM here.
- it will not feed the world - see here.
- doctors in the US came out against GM - see here.

Oldbury to be second new nuke

Oldbury was being billed as the site for the countries first new nuke. Now Wylfa has been chosen as the first site for a new nuclear power station - Oldbury has been relegated to second place - see The Times here.

Photo: T-Shirt for sale in Stroud Shambles Market

I am sure that the strong campaign by groups like Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy have played their part in discouraging Horizon. In contrast to Angelsey that has been a massive outcry and particularly huge opposition to the vast cooling towers that the new reactors will need.

Stroud Pound: BBC and demurrage

Well the BBC gave a little coverage to the Stroud Pound - See the 2 minute film here which also mentions that the Brixton currency now has £40,000 in circulation! However the bit of news for this blog is demurrage....

Photo from launch of Stroud Pounds: Cathy Lee, wife of Laurie, who is on the cover of the Stroud £10 note

Yes I hadn't a clue what it meant but have learnt since signing up to the Stroud Pound last year.....basically it means Stroud Pounds will lose 3% of their value on April 1st. Why do a thing like that? Well I hope this fact sheet answers question...certainly I still need to get a handful of notes stamped that I got a couple of weeks ago but have missed the Saturdays to go and change them...

What is demurrage?
Demurrage refers to a reduction over time in the value of a currency. It is a sort of negative interest.

How does demurrage apply to Stroud Pounds?
Stroud Pounds lose 3% of their value every six months. The first time this will happen will be on April 1st 2010 and then again on October 1st 2010 and April 5th 2011.

How will it work?
The Stroud Pound vouchers become invalid from April 1st unless revalidated by a special stamp (amounting to 3% of the note's value) which will have to be purchased and stuck on the note. This means putting a 3p stamp on a £1, 6p on a £2, 15p on a £5, and 30p on a £10 note.

Where do I put the stamp?
The stamp you purchase for a £1 note will need to be stuck on the allocated 3p square beneath the word 'april'. A £2 Stroud Pound has a space for 6p and so on. See the £1 above.

Will my money be worthless after April 1st without a stamp?
Yes. After April 1st traders and businesses will not accept Stroud Pounds unless they are validated with a stamp.

I can't be bothered with sticking stamps on my notes.
Spend your unstamped Stroud Pounds before April 1st! Any Stroud Pounds issued after Saturday March 13th 2010 will be ready-stamped and will be valid until October 1st 2010.

What's the point of money going down in value?
It is a way of encouraging the notes to be kept in circulation and helps maintain a supply of money in the local economy.

Doesn't it just encouraging pointless consumerism?
The idea of the scheme is not to encourage you to spend more, but to spend differently. We want to divert spending away from the internet and out-of-town 'big-box' retail shops and into the town.

As a trader what can I do with outdated vouchers?
Before spending them you will need to attach the appropriate stamps. If however you want to redeem them for Sterling you can do so at the usual exchange rate until April 19th. Thereafter a stamp will need to be attached even to exchange.

Where does the money raised by issuing stamps go?
It will go towards the administration of the scheme, which is currently run on an entirely voluntary basis.

What if I find some unstamped Stroud Pounds in June?
The stamps will be on sale throughout the year so if you find some unstamped Stroud Pounds in your raincoat pocket in June, you can still revalidate your notes with stamps.

Why haven't I heard of this idea before?
Demurrage currency has never been tried in England before although it has worked, and is working, successfully in Germany and elsewhere. What better place for innovation than Stroud!

Where can I buy the stamps?
At the Stroud Pound stall at Stroud Valleys Project, Threadneedle Street on Saturday mornings between 11 and 1 o'clock and the usual Stroud pound outlets.

If you have any queries, please contact 01453 757436 or email info(at)stroudpound.org.uk

See more about the Stroud Pound at: www.stroudpound.org.uk Also worth a look is the international Community Currency Magazine - see here - covers all currencies around the world and also has bits on Stroud.

See also Reuters film here.

Larger scale composting to become more difficult?

On my recent blog "Incineration; an alternative" I had a comment left regarding new regulations from the Environment Agency. Sadly it came too late for me to add a voice to the consultation but it did wake me up to the changes being made....

Photos: Bisley Community Composting

This was part of the comment: "As somebody who works in the resource sector I wonder if you have considered the need for lobbying against some of the permitting and exemption changes coming into force on the 6th of April from the Environment Agency. They certainly make community and on-farm composting and anaerobic digestion more difficult if possible at all in most scenarios. It looks to me like a clear preferance to large centralised facilities from the Environment Agency."

Basically the proposed changes mean that under an exemption the amount that can be processed will be 60 tonnes at any one time rather than 1000 cubic meters at any one time which was previously the case.

My understanding is that if you are only doing green/garden waste and you have no more than 60 tonnes on site at anyone time then you should be fine and fit under the exemption. If you are considering doing more or other wastes then it could change. The hugely successful Bisley Community Composting Scheme with 110 members does not produce 60 tons p.a. so is not in that league of producing 60 tonnes 'at any one time'! Lower Slaughter (the only other long running CCS in Gloucestershire) only has 40 members and produces much less than Bisley.

However many other larger scale composters will need to act. I can't understand why the EA want to change it now and it appears it will indeed disincentivise smaller varied initiatives in favour of fewer bigger multinational projects that will need as much waste as possible to make a profit.

I understand the Community Composting Network have been doing little else but work on legislation and challenging some of the proposals coming forward since 2008 - with a very limited staff and hardly any funding - they have won some significant battles as a network – free exemptions, raising of the tonnage limit levels, no bioaerosol risk requirements etc. However it seems to me that we need a complete change in approach - community composting and other such schemes need to be made easier.

As a note the Community Composting Network are planning to improve their website and upload more info about this soon. Guidance on the new exemptions has been published by the EA and deals with the whole suite of exemptions (there are around 60), this is available online at: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/permitting/115492.aspx

Allotments are go!!!!

The Whiteshill and Ruscombe Allotments site at Humphreys End is nearly ready to be launched. We have been working on this in the Parish Allotment Working Group for over two years: meetings and discussions have been taking place with allotment groups, police, planners and more. Now the great news is that the Parish Council have signed a lease with the landowner, Julia Currie.

Photos include allotment site being cleared and meeting with Parish.

Work had already begun on clearing the self seeded trees and brambles from the site. Contractors did lots of work last week but on Saturday 27th March over 12 prospective plot holders spent over 3 hours cutting, digging, chopping and burning brambles. We did remove as much of the wood as possible so most of the stuff being burnt was brambles. No doubt many sore backs but more still to do. We also did look at a shredder but the damp brambles would not be good for very much.

We have also been working a bit against the clock to ensure that no birds nest in the cut down brambles - indeed the landowner has put up extra sparrow nesting boxes in the adjacent orchard. This site has been unused for 16 years so a fair amount of wildlife had built up there amongst the brambles - a Little Owl nested close-by and a fox dashed out when contractors started work. I hope by restoring the hedges and other works we can again make it a place for some of that wildlife.

Anyway a meeting has also been held where the prospective plot holders met the parish council (see left) and were given information on the requirements of them becoming plot holders. This list was based on many other allotments but understandably a lot of time went into preparing it to match this particular site. One key provision is that the site will be organic - so again good for the wildlife. There is also a provision not to have sheds or ponds.

An inaugural meeting of the Allotments Association is planned this week where the officers of the Association and related matters will be decided. It is hoped that in a couple of months we might be able to officially start digging our plots. That will be a bit late for this year but still a chance to get some stuff in the ground - certainly I'll be looking at some sprouting broccoli and kale.

This is a really exciting time! There have been times when I thought this project wouldn't happen but everyone has persevered - it has been a long haul but it will be worth it!

We celebrated the first time on the allotments on the Saturday with local apple juice and fruit wine from Randwicks' very own "Field Bar Wines" - one bottled donated by them to get us going. I was impressed with the wines - for example the Strawberry was wonderfully dry and crisp and full of the taste of summer!

Field Bar Wine produce their wines in a micro-winery in Randwick and source their produce from local hedgerows and suppliers. See more about them here - or at the Farmers Market second and fourth Saturdays.

Photos: starting the fire and the youngest 'worker' on the allotments!

Another reason for this being such an exciting project is that it is one of the first allotment sites in the District to be developed on private land. I am hoping it can perhaps be a model for other groups to follow? Certainly the demand for allotments is growing fast as this blog has noted before.

Anyway it is hoped that the nearly 20 people on the allotment waiting list will all be offered half size plots. There are, no doubt others, who would also like allotments. If so, please do put your names down with the Parish Clerk. It would be great to also have a site somewhere in Randwick: there needs to be a request from at least 6 residents requesting allotments for them to act. And what about another site in Whiteshill and Ruscombe? Click on 'Allotments' label below for previous blogs about allotments.

Make a Bat Box!

I had great fun a couple of weeks ago when the Woodcraft group I help made bat boxes. Some great help from Ivi Szaboova-Baxendale from Stroud Valleys Project who have a great leaflet.

Photos of the Woodcraft evening

I've always had an affection - or something - for these small, furry insect eaters - indeed when I was very very much younger I helped set up a Bat group that had Judith Hann off Tomorrows World as an honoree member - because she hung upside down in one of the programmes! OK that will have to be a story for another time....

Anyhow bats need a range of roosting sites, including summer daytime roosts, winter hibernation ones and breeding sites. Amazingly in the boxes we made each box will have between 50 and 80 bats roosting!!!!!!

Here are some tops:

- Make the box from rough sawn timber to give the bats something to cling to. Make sure the wood is untreated - many wood preservatives kill bats!

- Cut plank as shown in SVP guidance sheet.

- Fit together with lid so that it can open: need to clear it out once a year.

- The best place to position a bat box is on a tree some 5 metres high. Place them in groups round three sides of a tree - bats like to move from one box to another during the day and from season to season as temperatures change.


- Clear away surrounding branches to give them a clear flight path.

- Boxes can also be located on buildings. A good position is under the eaves to protect them from bad weather.

- Bats can take a while to investigate new premises, but if your box is not occupied within three years, try moving it. You can check if the box is being used by looking for crumbly brown or black droppings on the ground.

Great news re Heathrow - time to review Staverton

Great news! Government's nonsense plans for a third runway at Heathrow have been dealt a huge blow - see my letter to local press below calling for a review about the decision to expand Gloucestershire's Staverton Airport - plus how to buy a part of Heathrow.

Photo: poster from one of the demo's against Staverton and below one of the news articles about the protests

A legal challenge was mounted by a coalition of organisations that include Greenpeace. Lord Justice Carnwath ruled last week that the Government's decision to give a green light to the proposed third runway does not hold any weight. He said that their claims to the contrary were 'untenable in law and common sense'! The judge went on to say that the government's decision hadn't properly taken into consideration climate change policy or the economic case and surface transport! Effectively this means that for the runway to go ahead, the government will have to re-consult on these major issues as part of an overhaul of its wider aviation policy.

The judge ruled that:

• If the Government decides to push ahead with the runway project it must now review the climate change implications of Heathrow expansion, the economic case for a third runway, and the issue of how additional passengers would get to a bigger airport.

• The Government’s entire aviation policy must now be reviewed to take into account the implications of the 2008 Climate Change Act. The judge found that “the claimants’ submissions add up, in my view, to a powerful demonstration of the potential significance of developments in climate change policy since the 2003 Air Transport White Paper. They are clearly matters which will need to be taken into account under the new Airports National Policy Statement.”

• On the economic case for Heathrow expansion he would be ‘surprised’ if the recent tripling of the estimated cost to society of emitting carbon did not have ‘a significant effect’ on the economic case for the runway. The judge also said that “it makes no sense to treat the economic case as settled in 2003.”

• On the issue of surface access he said the claimants’ case – that there is no credible plan in place to transport millions of extra passengers to an expanded Heathrow - was ‘justified’. Significantly, he noted that the Government was “unable to provide a convincing answer” in court when it was pressed about over-crowding on the Piccadilly underground line that would result from construction of a third runway.

The judge is now inviting the Government to sign a legally binding undertaking that it will not base future aviation policy solely on its 2003 white paper. A further court hearing is expected to take place next month to examine the Government's response to the judge's request. At the same hearing the coalition will seek costs and fully expects to recover those costs from the Government.

Let us hope that this crucial ruling will have implications that go far wider than the aviation sector. For a judge to tell the Government that it cannot build huge pieces of carbon-intensive infrastructure without considering the long-term consequences is a resounding win in the fight to tackle climate change.

Buy some of Heathrow

Some might remember that I own a bit of Heathrow - well I'm one of 73,000 people who have become beneficial owners of Airplot and. More are still needed to reach 100,000 beneficial owners - so tell your family and friends to sign up! See more here: www.airplot.org.uk

My letter to The Citizen today

The Government’s Heathrow policy is in tatters after the High Court ruling that the decision to give a green light to the proposed third runway does not hold any weight. The judge said that the government's decision hadn't properly taken into consideration climate change policy or the economic case. In plans to expand Gloucestershire's Staverton Airport, common sense has also been thrown out of the window. Economic and environmental arguments have been ignored. Surely we should now review that absurd decision? Cllr. Philip Booth, Gloucestershire Airport Action Group

One Pot Pledge launched

This week exciting news as the allocation of allotments in Whiteshill and Ruscombe begins following the signing of the lease - it looks like all or nearly all on the list will get a half size allotment - more of that very soon plus the meeting we had this week and first work on the site. This blog post is for those who don't have an allotment and have never grown anything before....

The One Pot Pledge is a nationwide campaign across the UK hoping to recruit 30,000 people to pledge to grow their own fruit and veg for the very first time. It is a project sponsored by Garden Organic (the organic growing charity) and they've asked bloggers to help publicise it - here's what they have to say:

Despite the surge in interest in ‘grow your own,’ many newcomers - although keen to have a go - still don’t know where to start when it comes to food growing. Many are put off because they think they don’t have space to garden, or because they don’t have the time or knowledge.

One Pot Pledge aims to:
- Get people growing food, even on a small scale in just a pot, and show them how to do it.
- Provide simple tips and advice to demonstrate how easy it is to grow your own – all you need is a pot, some compost and seeds.
- Give people the chance to connect with the food they eat and enable them to make more sustainable food choices.
- Show people they can save money by growing their own food.
- Encourage healthier eating.

See more at www.onepotpledge.org. This sounds like a great project and links well with plans next year for a Potato Day in January - see here - more on that also coming soon!

Earth Hour tonight

Today Saturday at 8.30pm, the hope is that a billion people around the world will switch off their lights for one hour to show they care about climate change. People from 115 countries are already participating. Big Ben will be switching off and even the legendary neon sign in London's Piccadilly Circus will go off for only the fourth time since the second world war. It would be great if as many people as poss in Stroud also participated. See more at: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/

Last year I helped publicise this event with Stroud Valleys Project - see here - more people look set to participate this year - although with huge companies like Coca Cola sponsoring the event we have to wonder?? A closer look though shows Coca Cola are indeed improving matters - still a long long way to go but they are putting in place actions to tackle the climate.....but do we really need this sugary caffeine laden drink with all it's promises that Coke is it??? Do we understand it is not the real thing?

Research shows that it is still possible to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by measures such as rapid development of clean energy production and stopping tropical deforestation. Coca Cola has to be part of the solution - as we all do. Switching off sends a message that we want action.

Housing Benefit success and affordable homes

Inside Housing covered a good story about Stroud's Housing Benefit section - see it here and copied below - this is Systems Thinking in action and I thought it deserved a congrats.

Photo: Pic of District Council's Ebley Mill hanging in one of the rooms there

Inside Housing is well worth a look although they've not yet covered our Green party housing policies that I'll cover briefly below - however they did cover the new league table by Shelter on affordable housing - see here - only eight councils in England are ensuring there are enough affordable homes to meet housing need in their area.

You can see Stroud's statistics here - we rank 12 out of 37 in South West and 113th out of 323 Councils in England. It is always hard to rank Council's as it is not so easy to compare however it does give an indication. Basically councils do have sufficient resources to build homes but we could be doing more - it is good to see that the first indications on the Core Strategy for our area look set to recommend higher numbers of affordable housing.

We do need to do alot more to get our housing right. Labour have failed us - especially by discouraging Council's from keeping their own Council housing - all credit to our Tory Council that they didn't sell it off - but then there was huge huge opposition from tenants and more I think it would have been a totally foolish move.

Green party views on housing

Anyhow Greens are calling for direct investment in Council and other social housing to be resumed and local authorities allowed to use receipts from sales to fund new affordable accommodation. In particular while the building trade remains depressed because of the recession Greens are producing a costed manifesto that looks set to provide £2bn in 2010 rising to £4bn in 2011 to local authorities to expand social housing - mainly through conversion and renovation, and create 80,000 jobs.

As I've said on this blog before there are 750,000 empty homes. We estimate that we could halve this number through empty property use orders. Greens would also like to see more rights for homeless people - indeed giving local authorities the same duties with regard to single people and childless couples as to families, and ending the nonsense practice of declaring people "intentionally homeless".

Again as I've said before we need steps to ensure that development is more evenly distributed across the whole of the country, so reducing pressure on housing in the South East in particular but also places in the South West. We cannot keep squeezing more houses into our already crowded land - we also need to minimise encroachment onto "greenfield sites” by re-using previously developed sites which have fallen into disuse wherever possible.

Of course as I've also said before we need to end the right to buy and introduce the right to rent. It is wholly unacceptable that we have people without homes - the knock-on effects in terms of mental health, employment etc are huge - not to mention costs to services - ending the right to buy at least ensures Council's have more homes to ensure homeless people are housed - the right to rent is also a great policy - People facing severe difficulties with paying their mortgage and facing re-possession should have a right to rent their existing home as council housing, analogous but opposite to the Tory ‘right to buy.’ The Greens proposals look set to make up to £2bn per annum available to local authorities to support ‘right to rent.’

Lastly for now - again nothing new - we want to see the introduction of a free home insulation programme for all homes that need it - with priority for pensioners and those living in fuel poverty, aiming to insulate 4 million homes every year. Such a programme would cost £2bn in 2010 rising to £4bn a year and create 80,000 jobs. Of course the knock-on environmental; and economic benefits would be huge.....but enough on all this for now....I'll leave you with that article on Stroud's benefit team....

Reaping the benefits

Tue, 9 Mar 2010

Ninety per cent of calls to Stroud’s revenues and benefits department were ‘waste’, the council has found. Peter Middleton explains how it came to this conclusion, and what it did about it.

The starting point to discovering waste, according to Anne McKenzie, head of revenues and benefits at Stroud District Council, is to define your purpose from the customer’s point of view.

Her team’s new purpose is ‘to pay the right amount of housing benefit to the right person at the right time’. Once the team had defined its purpose, they worked out how much of what they did contributed directly to achieving this purpose and how much didn’t. They did this by analysing all calls, visits and emails into their service over a period of time. To everyone’s surprise, 90 per cent of all customer demands were not contributing to the purpose and were, therefore, waste.

Ms McKenzie says: ‘Much of this waste was due to customers’ progress chasing their claims, telling us they did not understand the letters we’d sent them and - by far the most frequent – incomplete claim forms. None of this was the customer’s fault. We knew it was our responsibility to change the system.’

Waste

In the old system, the front and back office were split, with generic customer service staff responding to customers at reception points and answering calls. The split meant that dependency on the IT system that transferred work from the front to the back office (the DIP) was high.

Ms McKenzie says: ‘We didn’t realise how slavishly we worked for the DIP system, rather than using it to work for us.’

A result of the front/back office split was that assessors had very little face to face contact with customers. In the new system, there is no front/back office split. Customers are now seen by a benefits assessor or other trained member of staff when they first come in, with the option of a home visit and help with getting documents to the office if they need it. Customers develop a personal relationship with the assessors, visiting the same assessor again if they need to tell the office about a change in their circumstances.

In the old system, claims often took 40 to 42 days to process. In the new system, most claims are completed within a week, even with the additional workload caused by the economic downturn. Twenty per cent of claims are now completed within two days.

Benefits

Customers love the new way of working and the team often receive letters of thanks and even flowers. Complaints are rare. Waste is also rare; phone calls from customers chasing the progress of claims have almost disappeared because people know that an assessor is personally handling their claim, which gives them confidence in the process. One customer wrote:

‘I’ve always had a fear of any kind of authority and found it a bit daunting to go down to the council offices. To my surprise, I found you approachable, helpful and considerate. I feel I owe you thanks for the way you helped me.’

Staff now see their role as ‘helping people to claim benefits’. This is profoundly different to their previous role which was ‘to assess benefits’. Sickness in the team has reduced by 44 per cent. Staff enjoy the personal contact with customers and feel a real sense of accomplishment when resolving benefit claims quickly and efficiently.

Ms McKenzie’s advice to other housing benefits teams is that a low cost, low risk start to improvement can be made by analysing why customers contact a service.

She says: ‘Understanding demand provides data on how much waste there is. This can be a very powerful lever for change.’ But she warns that this, on its own, is not enough, ‘if you want to change the results, you have to change the system. And to change the system, you have to change how you think’.

Dr Peter Middleton is the author of a new book, Delivering Public Services that Work, featuring case studies with six public sector managers, including Anne McKenzie. It is available from Triarchy Press.

Cameron: nukes and lobbying

In a moment towards the end of this blog the campaign to get Cameron to tackle lobbying but first the Tories energy policy and new nukes - their policy launched in July 2006 had a well-reasoned argument explaining why nuclear power must be a "last resort" in particular highlighting the lack of solution on nuke waste. In the same year he even described Labour's enthusiasm for nuclear power as "irresponsible".

As Lib Dem Simon Hughes points out in The Guardian this week: "Four years on, we're no closer to finding out how to deal with highly toxic nuclear waste and the Tory leader's point stands as strong as ever. But unfortunately, the Tories no longer seem to care. Indeed, the Tories' new green paper on energy security shows remarkable dexterity in rewriting history, now criticising the Labour government for dragging its feet before finally coming round to support new nuclear."

This has to be worrying to even die-hard Tories? It seems evermore clear their flirt with environmental causes was about trying to improve their image and nothing to do with really understanding the issues. Even their opposition to Heathrow is not about cutting air travel but about expanding regional airports instead. Thank goodness that our District Council Tories seem a little more sensible....

Photo from local campaign group - see here

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, CoRWM has also stated that Britain may not find a suitable place for a planned £12bn hole to bury radioactive waste from new nuclear power stations - they note "some plans exist" to deal with the UK's high-level waste, but whether they are effective is "a matter of judgment". It raises fears that the Government may try to impose a giant waste storage facility on a hostile community, if no UK region agrees to take on the waste. Perhaps such a facility could go at Oldbury on the flood plain area next to those vast cooling towers?

It was good to get reports at the weekend that this week the Energy and Climate Change (ECC) Committee reiterate this point and said that the Government have failed to consider the issue of radioactive waste. The Committee also recommended that the Government looks again at its analysis, as "the current assertion of the need for new conventional generating capacity reduces the likelihood that the renewables target will be met".

Also this month a group of 90 high-ranking academics, politicians and technical experts called for an independent inquiry into a new generation of nukes - see Guardian report here.

Amazingly the papers continue to cover stories of the nuclear industries incompetence - see here how even after all these years their evacuation plans have deep flaws.

Plan to pull down wind farm for new nuke!

Amazingly I have received emails from acampaign group that there is a proposal to plant a new power station at Kirksanton in Cumbria on the site of the Haverigg wind farm! The Kirksanton Action Group of local residents have been joined by an impressive list of supportive authorities and organisations including National Trust, Friends of Lake District and Lake District National Park Authority, the local councils, Triodos Renewables (who are joint owners of the windfarm) and a lot more, not to mention the usual suspects like FoE, Greenpeace, Green Party, RSPB. See their website www.savekirksanton.org.uk for more info and an action to email Robin Clark.

Jonathon Porritt in Taunton

Porritt was in Stroud earlier this month to launch our Green party Parliamentary candidate, Martin Whiteside - see here - he dismissed nuclear then but at the meeting in Taunton he set out much more of the case against new nukes. Here is some of the report from the evening:

“It would be totally wrong to impose on future generations a problem for which we have no solution. We don’t know how to deal with nuclear waste. There is no clear strategy. We are just hoping that the next generation can sort it out...I have huge concerns about the cost of nuclear power.

Don’t believe a single word that comes out of the industry. This is an industry that has obscured, concealed, lied and deviated from the truth from the 1950s onwards." He gave the example of the £76 billion it now emerged it would cost to decommission existing nuclear facilities, let alone any new ones. This money would have to come directly from the taxpayer. The economics of nuclear power were so unreliable, he added, that it was possible that Hinkley C would never be built because investors would have nothing to do with it. He added: “Even if we replaced all our existing fleet of reactors, as the government wants, we would still only cut about 4% of our 1990 level of carbon dioxide emissions. The idea that we can wheel in nuclear power to deal with our low carbon imperative is a flawed argument. No new nuclear plant was likely to be up and running before the middle of the next decade which would be too little too late."

Instead, Porritt painted a picture in which Britain’s future energy needs would be met by access to endless and clean sustainable energy. “I am absolutely persuaded that this is deliverable,” he said. His prescription included four elements – a major campaign on energy efficiency, massive investment in renewable power, more use of combined heat and power generation and, in a transition period, the development of cleaner fossil fuels. On energy efficiency he said that the UK could reduce energy consumption by 30 to 40% over the next two decades by measures like improving the efficiency of the existing housing stock. “The government just hasn’t done enough,” he said. “The fact that you don’t hear politicians talking about this is a nightmare.”

See Dr Lawson's report on the recent Porritt talk in Taunton here.

Sign petition against plans for Hinkley C - the planned first new nuke

Sign here: www.stophinkley.org/PETITION.htm

Sale of BE to EDF report

This is just out and says more than just about the sale - it also says lots on the potential longer term implications e.g. the risks of EDF not building nukes (because no guarantee was sought by DECC) and / or subsidy for new build. It also has implications for the non-EDF sites which are dependent on EDF getting planning permission etc for its nukes. The report is also critical of the Shareholder Executive (a Govt dept which oversees bodies which the taxpayer has a financial interest in) and DECC itself . Download here.

Cameron and the lobbyists

Meanwhile we have to wonder about why Cameron has changed his mind - could it be those lobbyists? Channel 4 revealed this week yet another case of politicians trying to profit inappropriately from their work as MPs. This time it was by offering to work as lobbyists, boasting of how they shift government policy for corporate clients. Former Labour Minister Stephen Byers described himself as a "cab for hire".

38 degrees are campaigning for new transparency rules to open up the murky world of lobbying. We need details of who's lobbying whom, and about what, to be made public by law. They write:

Thanks to this latest scandal, the Labour Party has finally promised to introduce new rules if they win the election. The Liberal Democrats have held this position for some time. But so far David Cameron has stuck to his old position that new rules aren't needed and that "self-regulation" is enough. We need to persuade David Cameron to accept the need for new rules for lobbying transparency. Click here to sign our petition to David Cameron, and help build the pressure: www.38degrees.org.uk/cameron-support-transparency/

David Cameron is keen to use scandals like this to argue that it's time for a change of government. If enough of us sign a petition demanding he promises new rules, he'll realise he needs to do more than just criticise his Labour opponents if he wants to look convincing. Together we can persuade the Conservatives to promise a new law to help clean up the lobbying industry, for good. Judging by this week's revelations, David Cameron has been right to warn of the problem of outgoing Labour ministers lining up future jobs as lobbyists. But we know that this isn't the whole problem - right now, 38 Degrees members in many areas of the country are challenging Conservative candidates to come clean about their recent lobbying jobs.

Lastly can't not mention Cameron's gaff on gay equality yesterday - can be seen here. Why did he not condemn homophobic law in Lithuania? Not good enough.

Cycling: disappointment with County

Here is a letter I sent yesterday to Stroud life:

Photo: Bicycle can be loaned by the hour in Oslo and dropped back to any number of key sites across the city

Dear Sir,

Stan Waddington's response in Stroud Life regarding the Nailsworth to Stroud cycle path, shows how far we need to travel in terms of support for cycling. The cabinet member for the environment, said the status of that path didn't need changing nor was there a need to improve cycling on the road. This means cyclists and the many other users on this key route must continue to endure the deeply unsatisfactory conditions of this muddy and potholed track. It is time this situation was improved.

In contrast Copenhagen has invested in cycling for years. Every day people cycle over 1.2 million kilometres in Copenhagen and cyclists rights take precedence over other road users. In winter, snow is cleared from cycle lanes before it is from other parts of the road network and traffic lights are set to favour cyclists. Already 37% of all commuters cycle to work and over 100 km of new cycle routes are planned throughout the city with an aim to have 55% of people cycling to work by 2025!

In Gloucestershire it is also disappointing that the County is dragging it's heels over mandatory 20 mph zones. These limits have been shown to increase cycling and walking, and cut casualties. In Portsmouth all residential roads, bar arterial routes, now have a speed limit of 20 mph and they have cut casualties by 15%.

In Randwick, Whiteshill and Ruscombe we are actually being asked to remove the '20 is Plenty' road signs, which we had hoped would be a step towards a mandatory limit across all residential areas. I am at least, slightly reassured, that the County is looking into 20 mph zones in the light of the Government's guidelines. 20 mph in residential areas cannot come too soon. We need to invest in walking and cycling improvements and return to seeing our streets as places for communities not just transport corridors.

Cllr. Philip Booth,
Stroud District councillor for the Randwick, Whiteshill and Ruscombe ward

Incineration; the alternative

OK in comments left on my blog item here it was suggested that there is too much focus on anti-incineration and not enough on what the alternatives might be. There is some truth to that accusation although repeatedly in the vast majority of letters and blog entries the alternatives are noted (see for example letter to press here or article here). Indeed checking back the vast majority of posts have the alternative mentioned. This particular blog entry with the comments did not!

Hence for 'Joker' I take up his suggestion for 'Incineration; the alternative'....

Photo: Marchwood Incinerator, Hampshire 2007 - photo by Green party Waste expert Chris Harmer

One of the challenges is that those opposing incineration do not always agree on the alternatives. Indeed I've had some lengthy discussions with other groups about the best way forward - our disagreements are mostly minor - should a small gassification plants be accepted for a temporary part of residual waste solution? What type of MBT (mechanical biological treatment)? What level of recycling is realistic and possible? See also here and here for example discussion re IVC (in-vessel composting) or AD (anaerobic digestion)?

I say 'minor' but there has been many a heated debate - but they are 'minor' compared to the overwhelming rejection of a large incinerator. I wont repeat those arguments here.

So where does that leave us? Well recycling can tackle a much larger part of our waste than now, we can also do much more home and community composting and we can also cut a lot of waste - but that still leaves the residual waste. Certainly long term there is evidence to show that we can get close to Zero Waste but we are not anywhere near that now - although that should be our clear aim. So it is the residual waste that is the problem...and the big issue that the County is trying to address. Landfill is not an option.

Today news report that Gloucestershire is facing a landfill tax bill of £7.7million this year as the cost of burying waste rises. What would happen if we invested £8million in developing re-cycling industries? Anyway....

You can download the Glos Green party waste policy outline at: www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/waste

However I have adapted some of it below - here it is in brief:

The Interim Solutions – now to 2050

1.“6Rs” promotion and research ie the main emphasis should be on progressively driving waste out of the system. For that, we have our old friends the 3Rs – Reduce – Reuse – Recycle, to which we would add a further 3Rs – Refuse – Repair – Research. “Refuse” is “saying no” to unnecessary packaging and goods, “Research” is the context of much of the rest of the report.

2. Enhanced kerbside recycling collecting a wide range of materials.

3. Local “green” jobs from local enterprises feeding off the recyclates.

4. Enhanced household and community composting, also consider community level anaerobic digestion (AD). A lot more support and advice in this area.

5. Food waste collected separately from dry residuals until community level treatment is in place.

6. Consider “pay as you throw” as carrot / stick to encourage sorting at household level and reducing residuals. This should only be an option if recycling rates don't change fast enough.

7. Best practice from recent PFI awards is MBT (mechanical biological treatment) as both better recovery of resources AND lower capital expenditure than mass burn incineration. MBT is an automated process which separates recyclates (typically at least metals and glass, and biologicals) from the residual “black bag” waste.

8. MBT plants should be distributed in a way that optimises closeness to waste arisings. By having several plants, we mitigate the inevitable and unknown rises in the cost of transport fuel over time, and we add the flexibility of being able to decommission plant as residuals reduce over time.

9. The biological process used in the MBT process should be AD (anaerobic digestion), optimised for biogas production which could be used for powering the waste process and collection vehicles.

10. We need research to decide on the best use for the “residual residuals” that are left after the MBT processing. Use of this material as soil conditioner is problematic due to contamination, and sending it to landfill as remediated waste is practicable but unsustainable. We believe that the best use for this material may be as RDF, refuse derived fuel, which could either be disposed of on the open market or used in small, local CHP gasifiers by industry.

11. CHP gasifiers will be attractive to industries that have large process heat needs currently fuelled by fossil fuels such as gas or heavy fuel oil. These will rocket in price to uneconomic levels with peak oil. A gasifier will give heat at a stable and economic cost over time, can be fuelled with other materials such as coppice wood, straw or miscanthus if required, and can have provision for fossil fuel firing as a backup. This also safeguards relevant local industries and local jobs.

12. Consider integrated AD schemes involving agriculture and water companies.

What else?

*Well GlosAIN website now has the powerpoint presentation used by Dr Paul Connett (pictured) in his talk last month about Incineration. You can view it on the homepage http://www.glosain.org.uk/

*Defra have just released a new report - see here - the strategy doc has much to be optimistic about - it shows waste as a PM10 producer, but way down compared to transport. However it does talk about transition to low carbon, and large scale waste combustion is directly counter to current policy as laid out in this report.

Another eco ball for the washing machine?

Am I a sucker? I just bought an Ecozone Magno Ball for about £15 - I am told it is an effective non-chemical way to remove limescale from washing machines (and dishwashers but I don't have one of those). It basically acts by crystalizing the limescale, making it impossible to stick to clothes, pipes, or heating elements. It can be used in conjunction with those Eco Balls that I also use - hey even had a juggle with the balls before washing my smalls today?!

If you still use detergent then the manufacturers of the ball claim it can reduce the amount of detergent by up to 70% - also no more anti-limescale tablets and you can reduce the machine temperature.

I am told by a washing machine repairer that our hard water leads to limescale build-up on the heating element. Over time, as this limescale builds up it can cause the heating element to fail and damage the drum, pipes and hoses.

If it does all it says then the ball should save on heating and the life of the machine...

Lease signed on allotments! Yippee!

The Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish meeting had lots of interesting stuff - I ended up staying to the end - after 10pm. Well just to give a very very brief update (full minutes will come here when available):

Photos: allotment site last summer!

Allotments: yes at last the lease has been signed - well done to all for lots of hard work - the site now needs clearing urgently before nesting - and it looks like we have a first meeting later this month of the allotment holders to elect an Association and work out division of the plots - they will be small plots but at least it is a start - my hope is that if this works on this private site we can use the model elsewhere. More on all this soon - we may even get veg in this year??

20 mph: the Parish have written also to Highways regarding their request to take the 20 is Plenty signs down - see my letter here. I've since had a reply and am hoping we can have a meeting to discuss further.

Basketball hoop: I can hardly believe this is still going on but it is still planned - we are waiting for a new pole before it can go up!

Parish Plan: the Parish are hoping to embark on one soon - hopefully in next couple of months to start - see Randwick Parish's review of their plan here.

Nestle blunder on with wholly unacceptable policies

Greenpeace launched a controversial Kit Kat advert on Wednesday and demanded that Nestlé stop using palm oil from companies destroying Indonesia's rainforests - and threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction. As they report in their latest email events have unfolded rapidly Here is their quick recap:

• Nestlé told Youtube to pull our video due to copyright infringement. It was later reinstated, but not before we'd uploaded it elsewhere and asked supporters to do the same. Current number of views: 585,000 and counting.
• Facebook users went to Nestlé's fan page to ask what the company was doing about their palm oil suppliers, where they were met with rude and arrogant responses from the company. Word of this spread like wildfire around the internet, and has been the talk of many high-profile blogs and news websites.
• Thousands of people around the world sent Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke emails, but we've discovered that Nestlé blocked many of these. Now, emails are going to André Kudelski, a member of the board of directors, and we're working out what to do with the ones which didn't get through.

Nestlé have issued a statement saying that they'll stop buying directly from the worst supplier, Sinar Mas, but this doesn't go far enough as much of their palm oil comes through third parties, like Cargill, who continue to buy palm oil from Sinar Mas.

It seems our actions are having a big impact at Nestlé HQ. If you haven't already, please consider emailing Nestlé to ask that they stop using palm oil.

"We all deserve to have a break - but having one shouldn't involve taking a bite out of Indonesia's precious rainforests. We're asking Nestlé to give rainforests and orang-utans a break and stop buying palm oil from destroyed forests." Greenpeace

See the video and more about the campaign here- plus you can email Nestle from that website. Lastly you can use the biofuel 'label' below to link to previous blogs on palm oil. And long ago I was involved in the campaign to try and stop Nestle selling it's powdered baby milk - see here and to try and get them to improve their labeling - see here.

Huge success re climate change measures

I had the pleasure of presenting the report to Cabinet at the District Council on 11th March - it is a report that I have been working on for some months: "Tackling Climate Change inquiry: Financing Domestic Sustainable Energy Measures in the Stroud District." Unfortunately this catchy title doesn't really do justice to the contents of this report - see below.

Photo: Interesting Cabinet? OK not quite the right image for this!

Click here to see a webcast of the Cabinet meeting - click on Index points and scroll down to number 17 part (b) to see my presentation. As regular blog readers will know I helped get this report through Scrutiny back in February - see details and recommendations here which include calls for an energy strategy, a cross party working group, a contingency fund to seek grants, support for installers, research into an ESCo, a trial project of solar or heat pump at a sheltered housing scheme and more!

I am particularly delighted that this got through, as when we started we were told that only several of the recommendations would be passed. Infact 9 out of 10 got through. Only the Pay as You Save didn't get through - but that was a long shot - and hopefully the trial will allow us to learn and poss use that for our own housing stock.

As noted the catchy title didn't do justice to the reports contents - as I said in the introduction: "Climate Change presents huge challenges and I am pleased to see it remains one of this Council's key priorities - however, as we know, the recommendations in this report have other benefits like developing the local economy, working towards more energy resilience and tackling fuel poverty. Our housing stock presents some particularly huge challenges - these challenges wont be new to members - for example 1,700 - that's 30% of our homes - are considered 'hard to treat' homes with very low energy efficiency ratings. Fuel prices are forecast to rise. Sir Richard Branson and other business leaders warned last month that we face an energy crunch in 5 years. While Age Concern note that, despite government relief, one in five older people skip meals to save money for heating."

There is no question that this is a monster-sized challenge. These recommendations are only a step along the way. As I said in my presentations previously we need to make a step change to take on these challenges - the acceptance of these measures go some way to preparing the ground. Now for the next step.....one particular interest is to see how we can use the feed-in tariffs....

Also at Cabinet...

- a disappointing delay to our inquiry into planning,
- a great new Animal Welfare Charter that theCouncil has signed up to (although as I pointed out at the meeting it would be good if we had an Ecologist to advise re planning like other Councils),
- and more but I've run out of time to write this up - you'll be able to see the minutes on the SDC website and many of the issues come to Full Council in April.

Sewage problems to be tackled, but when?

Don't read this article at meal times! This article below was sent to the Randwick Runner last week to update folk as we had a great meeting of the Stroud Valleys Water Forum where we were able to ask many questions of Severn Trent.

Photos: from RBAG meeting and Water Forum meeting with Severn Trent

The Ruscombe Brook Action Group also met the night before to pull together questions and issues (see photo). We are also looking at the next phase for Puckshole and plans for Hamwell Leaze and The Lawns - see previous blog on this.

Other issues I managed to raise with Severn Trent at that meeting include a request for:
- more info re planned works,
- issues around new developments in the area,
- Severn Trent to set up a Customer liaison panel like Wessex Water so that we can have input and feedback from the company,
- them to extend their tariffs to include an Assist tariff that is best for those in financial difficulties (they already have many measures incl their ST Trust Fund but this would be a step further).

Anyway to that article:

Many will know that about five years ago there were well over 20 incidents of raw sewage getting into the Ruscombe Brook including the Randwick tributary. This was mainly due to the sewers surcharging usually during heavy rain. Since then the Ruscombe Brook Action Group (RBAG) have been meeting monthly and incidents have been reduced to a couple a year.

There have been many successes and actions along the way including improvements along key sites of the brook, clear-ups of rubbish and furniture in the brook, work with schools, sorting out misconnections where for example a washing machine had been discharging directly into the brook, a replacement of a pipe bridge, distributing several hundred fat traps to raise awareness about blockages, working to develop a flood catchment strategy for the whole Five Valleys and this December the fitting of a 13k new grill and culvert at Puckshole to reduce flooding. When we met with Severn Trent all that long ago they originally denied there was a problem. Since then we have come along way and they have now done extensive CCTV, flow monitoring, a manhole survey, developed a hydraulic model and much more along the sewer system.

Last week we met again with Severn Trent at Ebley Mill and the year old Stroud Valleys Water Forum. John O' Leary (pictured second from right) from Severn Trent gave us a comprehensive presentation of plans for the area including the huge works at Slad and Cashes Green. At those sites vast pipes will store 180 cubic meters of sewage during heavy rain then discharge slowly into the sewers when flows have reduced. This will hopefully stop the handful of properties in the area from getting sewage in their homes.

John was also very honest about the problems and challenges. Severn Trent now admit there are large sections of our sewer networks that are inadequate. In recent years the water company has, each year, cut tree roots that grow into the sewer pipes in the Ruscombe Valley and Randwick and down the sewers to The Lake at The Lawns opposite Tricorn House. These roots cause blockages which can lead to the surcharges and blown manhole covers...and plenty of not very pleasant stuff in our fields and gardens. Indeed on one occasion we picked up two buckets of sanitary ware alone!

Relining does not appear to be an option as the pipes are not large enough, so a proposal is being submitted for specialised 'pipe bursting' that will lead to replacement of sewer sections. However this is an expensive option as much of the sewer network is inaccessible to the 40 tonne truck they usually use. There are also hydraulic issues and other challenges. So we need to now wait to hear whether the plans are accepted and what level of priority the capital works will get.

While I am delighted the problems have been clearly accepted and documented I am concerned that we will now have to wait a long time. Severn Trent's recent determination by OFWAT means they will have to cut staff. This is not good, but we will have to see what this will mean in practice. We understand priority must be given to people that face raw sewage in their homes but equally we need to address this issue which leaves us open to sewage incidents.

RBAG have a number of projects that we are working on and will continue to push for improvements. We would welcome new members or anyone interested in learning more.

Cllr Philip Booth, Ruscombe Brook Action Group