Hard to treat insulation pilot

I have been meaning to blog something on this for ages as it was an issue Greens raised in Stroud when the funding was cut. We need to get better at this sort of insulation and projects like this are gaining valuable information. This is a pilot project that might interest people as it has some funding. Below is their news release...

Photo: Randwick woods

Just heard no funding left for Stroud and many of other areas.

As well as offering its standard loft and cavity wall insulation and energy efficient heating measures, the Warm and Well scheme has now introduced its hard to treat pilot. There are now grants available for internal wall insulation, external wall insulation and sloping ceiling insulation, and everyone is entitled to at least a partial grant. To be eligible for a full grant (max £10,000 for internal and external wall insulation and max £3,000 for sloping ceiling insulation) the client must either be:

• Over 60 with savings of less than £16,000 and a weekly income of less than £246 (single person) or £338 (couple)
• Families with children under 16 with savings of less than £16,000 and a weekly income of less than £358 a week
• Be in receipt of a qualifying benefit (please see website or call Warm and Well for details)

If a householder does not fall into any of the categories above, they are eligible for the ‘Able to pay’ grant which is a 40% grant (to a maximum of £3,000). During this pilot stage of the scheme, all insulation measures are being installed by Domestic and General Insulation Ltd. For more information visit the website: www.warmandwell.co.uk

Or use the free phone number; 0800 512012.

Twinings Tea outrage

I was shocked to hear that the UK-owned Polish subsidiary of Twinings Tea has successfully applied for €12 million from EU regional development funds (ERDF) to open a new factory in Poland, transferring 392 jobs from Twinings' plants in South Shields and Andover to the new facility.

I've copied in the news release below - sadly this can only give the EU a bad name. While Twinings maybe following the letter of the law this is clearly an outrageous use of public money in the current climate of cuts.

In a written reply to a question from the South East's Green Euro MP Keith Taylor, the European Commission confirmed that the EU paid €12 million to Twinings’ parent company Associated British Foods (ABF), in a deal signed on October 4. The requirements for ERDF funds to be used for regeneration were sidestepped by ABF, who channeled the application through its Polish subsidiary, and thus escaped the full rigours of the grant process.

Speaking from Strasbourg Keith Taylor said; "These funds are intended for genuine regeneration, not simply relocating jobs from one member state to another. There are good examples of new EU investment which help build communities, but instead this deal risks dismantling them'. I do not believe taxpayers money should have been used to bolster the profits of an already very successful company like ABF. Last year their pre-tax profits were £559m. The Twinings deal was rushed through, and this optimised the chances of getting the grant - another 3 months would have meant undertakings about genuine regeneration would need to have been given. There is no way the ABF lawyers would not have known that. In my view this grant was wrong, and should never have been agreed. I believe there is a strong moral case for Twinings to repay this money. They have currently a good reputation in the UK and they should seek to protect it. In Parliament I will raise this as a special item in the Regional Development committee on November 30th, and continue to chase the Commission to take action, but so far it seems their rules have been effectively sidestepped. Regeneration is badly needed in many parts of the European community and it is this sort of behaviour that gives ammunition to critics who say the EU is not serving the interests of the people it represents."

Stroud District wins Green Award

Stroud District Council has won the 2010 Green Energy Award for being the south west’s Most Proactive Local Authority.

Photo:award being presented

The award – which is designed to recognise the crucial role local authorities can play in supporting sustainable energy – was presented to the council at a ceremony in Bath last week. I was asked for a comment by The Citizen - here's what I said on Sunday early (well it wasn't so early but I was still in bed!): "Huge congratulations this is a significant award for measures that Greens have been pushing for locally. However as Jonathon Porritt said at the award ceremony we need to go much further: this is only a small step to where we need to go. It is vital we scale-up energy efficiency and renewables work. Lloyds of London predicted recently that oil could go to $200 a barrel in 2013 and warned of “catastrophic consequences” if we fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity, increasing fuel poverty and a lower carbon economy. Now is the time to build on our success locally."

Here is the rest of the news release from the awards ceremony:

Head judge of the category, Dermot Grimson of the Crown Estate, said: “Stroud is increasingly seeing things happen ‘on the ground’. There has been tremendous improvement in the district over the past 12 months, and its model is an exemplar to all smaller local authorities.”

The council was particularly noted for its three-year Climate Change Programme “Target 2050”, which has helped over 180 householders, 66 businesses and 20 community buildings to reduce their CO2 emissions. Their ‘cross tenure’ project in an off-gas area has delivered 48 renewable heating solutions, and their involvement in the ‘DECC PAYS’ pilot finances tailored local solutions with local suppliers and installers.

Stroud District Council beat off strong opposition from other shortlisted entries including previous winners Bristol City Council, and Gloucester City Council. Now in their seventh year, the South West Green Energy Awards recognise, reward, and pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations operating in the south west sustainable energy industry.

Leading environmentalist Jonathon Porritt, who hosted the South West Green Energy Awards, said: “Forget two, five, ten or even fifteen percent – we need at least 70 or 80 per cent of our energy to come from renewable sources – as fast as we can deliver it. It’s therefore essential that we get spread that message, so that people understand the power of what lies behind a renewable future. What we are celebrating here at the South West Green Energy Awards are the decisions and actions of people working towards that kind of future. The people here tonight have demonstrated what the potential is for building the future in a completely different way; for creating wealth in completely different ways; and for bringing forward new technologies in completely different ways.”

See more about the awards here.

102 photos: unique exhibition deserves national attention

A remarkable photographic exhibition has opened in Stroud and I still haven't got to it. I am hearing from many people about how powerful the exhibition is so will get to it this week!!

I first heard about it in the summer and even helped find a couple of the people to be photographed (see earlier post here) - the idea seems to have touched many people and already photographers from many other towns are interested in doing something similar while Stroud Museum is looking to have it there for a while next year.

So what is it all about? Well here is the press release:

The inspiration of local photography enthusiasts Caroline Denny and Pete Blythe, the exhibition features 102 portraits, taken in May and June this year, of people who live in the Stroud district. There is one photograph for every year of age from 0 to 102. Each portrait is displayed with the name and age of the subject and a few personal words by or on behalf of each person.

It truly is a snapshot of the Stroud community from birth, through childhood, middle age and the elderly. Stroud being the place it is there are some national celebrities featured but all the subjects have the same A3 sized portrait in order of age. Three of the people have died since their portraits were taken. Alison James, 46 years old who lost her battle with cancer, Stella Longhurst who was 77 and Ernie Matthews who was 95.

The project was open to everyone and hundreds of photographs were submitted. In this final selection the work of 49 different photographers is featured. Milly Blythe is the youngest at 11 who photographed her class mate Zuza. Alastair Hignell, the former BBC reporter and winner of the Helen Rollason award at the 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the year officially opens the exhibition and features at 54. His photograph was taken by Sylvain Guenot a local professional photographer. There are 57 women and 46 men featured.

This exhibition is more than a series of photographs because the words written by each person are often very poignant. The 17 year old ‘This was not my idea’; The well endowed lady with the shiny red shoes who is ‘Having a Dorothy moment’; the young lady in the wheelchair ‘I didn’t die’. The older people are equally inspiring ‘Keep right on to the end of the road’……………. ‘I eat spinach every day’……’I survived, to the memory of my friends’.

The exhibition runs until Dec 4th 2010 at The Subscription Rooms, Stroud and is open on Tuesdays 12noon-5pm, Wednesdays to Saturdays 10am -5pm. There is an evening opening Friday Dec 3rd till 9pm which coincides with Stroud Goodwill Evening. The exhibition is closed Wednesday Dec. 1st.

1984 Stroud Theatre Company success

A Northern Broadsides / Dukes Lancaster Production in Association with the Ruscombe-based Stroud Theatre Company presented GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 at the Tobbaco Factory in Bristol (see photo). See original post here and preview video here.

This was a wonderfully innovative production with 7 flickering TV screens and all the essence and depth of the book....chilling is not the word - it was deeply, deeply disturbing - and magnificent! This is the novel in a visual form that is in many ways more disturbing than the book - or is it just that my school days reading of the book has dimmed? I was expecting to be unsettled but this went further....we follow Winston's hope only to be dashed....oh for a little more hope in Orwells story....

The Stage wrote: "One of the most disturbing elements about any revival of George Orwell’s once bleakly futuristic vision of totalitarianism is just how much of what he viewed as unthinkably awful now seems almost mundanely acceptable....Haverson brilliantly executes the transformation of Winston - from curious to love struck, and from enlightened to brutalised. The torture scenes are as effective as they are disturbing. Again not surprising to 2010 eyes but none the less a vision of something even Orwell may have blanched at."

Winston was indeed brilliantly played, as were all the cast - and indeed the set and amazing graphic film that enhanced the whole experience.

As The Guardian review commented "Many of the book's broader predictions – Big Brother, Newspeak, Room 101 – have become common currency. Watching Nick Lane's adaptation you are struck by how many smaller details Orwell also foresaw: a state-run lottery, shoot-'em-up movies, and a two-year wait for a plumber."

Carolynne on ScanOnline reviewed making a similar point: "As Northern Broadsides began their run of 1984 at The Dukes in Lancaster, I could not help feeling Orwell’s words are often ringing true today: Guantanamo Bay, waterboarding, the War on Terror and the use of the media for propaganda by governments across the globe all serve as a stark reminder of Orwell’s nightmare....Turning from the play itself to its relevance today, more than 60 years since Orwell’s original novel was penned, our leaders, following the defeat of Nazism, Fascism and totalitarian Communism, would have us believe that utopia is in sight. Francis Fukuyama wrote that we are all headed on a wagon train to a liberal democracy utopia. Looking through the news and at events, injustices and inequities across the globe, I doubt them very much. So, I believe, would Orwell. After all as he put it when Winston is tortured in Room 101 by his captors “we do not seek to destroy our enemies, we seek to change them”. Echoes of enforced economic liberalism and the current chaos in Iraq anyone?"

Indeed I have to note being shocked by Bush openly saying this last month that he supported 'waterboarding' - a practice widely used in interrogation - yet it was a crime under US and international law - British officials at least dismissed his claim that there was any evidence that the practice saved lives. Worrying though is that Obama has chosen not to investigate - although at least has ended the practice. Also the CIA officers who destroyed the latest lot of evidence 'torture' tapes will not be charged. What sort of world is this?

However we can at least welcome the abolition of ID cards - although the Deputy Prime Minister has proposed that from 2014 all voters will have to register themselves, providing "signature, national insurance number and date of birth", converting the current electoral roll into a centralised population register little different in principle to the ID scheme database. No2ID comment: "Systematic abuse of the existing electoral roll already discourages registration and facilitates fraud; sucking up even more personal information can only make this worse. And what other purposes will be found for the new system? History has shown how such bureaucratically-driven registers, and their uses and abuses, only expand over time. Just as worrying are the 'cross-matching' powers to be given to local authorities to track down the unregistered. With echoes of Clause 152 - the Ministry of Justice's blatant attempt to "overcome the barriers to information sharing across the public sector" which NO2ID helped defeat in 2009 - these new powers would overturn the fundamental data protection principle that information gathered for one purpose may not be used for another without consent. Individual voter registration does not require a centralised database, any more than ID ever did. The government should be reining in mass data-snooping, not extending and encouraging it. And, given that voting is voluntary, why should councils spend money chasing people onto the electoral roll who don't want to be there? Will forcing people to register make them more or less likely to vote?"

While on database state stuff - as noted on this blog the new government pledged to scrap the Summary Care Records but has since broken that pledge and is continuing the SCR roll-out. However a welcome goes to the proposals to require the consent of both parent and child before any fingerprint can be taken by a school. Although I find it extraordinary that we have now reached a place where schools are fingerprinting children as young as five re attendance, school meals, library books and more - should we really be subjecting children to the dehumanising effects of fingerprinting from such an early age. Two years ago, more than a third of local authorities and 26 schools were using biometric data systems and it is understood even more have introduced them since or are planning to. A local nursery has fingerprinting technology for use with parents - see here - and see here a letter to local press in 2007 about the 29 of our 287 County schools fingerprinting pupils then!

Terry Dowty, of campaign group Action on Children’s Rights, said: “We are conditioning our children to accept a surveillance society. If they grow up thinking it is all right, in future years the boundaries will be eroded even further. We are on a very slippery slope.”

Lastly it was only a couple of weeks ago that I read that while you watch screens, screens will watch you - see computerworld here: "Orwell's telescreens served as an instrument of government propaganda and control. In our world, such technology exists, but starting next year it will serve the purpose of Huxley's Soma: to entertain, pacify and encourage consumption."

Talking of which see here my previous blog entry on Aldous Huxley vs George Orwell.But hey to get back to the play - it was great but sadly that was the last show of the current tour but am sure it will pop up somewhere else? I hope so as it is worth the watch but not for the faint-hearted.

Living Flood Histories: great day!

Well Friday last week I went along to a day's workshop in Bristol on flooding and 'art' - it had the catchy-title: ‘Researching Learning to Live with Water: Flood histories, Environmental Change, Remembrance and Resilience'.

Photos: from the event that was also being filmed for a possible Youtube film

It was an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project involving folk from various universities around the country - this was the first of a series of workshops - I was one of 6 speakers - the others all Profs and Docs, I was there with a local action group perspective having helped set up the Ruscombe Brook Action Group and the Stroud Valleys Water Forum - plus of course being a District councillor and sitting on the Wessex Water Customer Liaison Panel.

So what was it all about? Well it was hugely informative and interesting - learnt lots - it is exciting when different perspectives come together. Indeed to give some ideas I will attach the programme below with some additional comments - there will also be more coming soon on their blog at: http://livingfloodhistories.wordpress.com/

The aims of the network can be found here - basically about exploring the potential that arts and humanities approaches have (in interdisciplinary contexts) to contribute to our understandings of how communities have lived with flood risk in the past, and how they might do so in the future.

Friday aimed "to draw together an initial set of ideas, projects and examples from artists, interdisciplinary academics and activists who are in some way or other working with communities in relation to past flood trauma and future flood resilience. This will then serve as a springboard for the development of the network through online resources and subsequent events. In workshops two and three, we will be particularly interested in projects which seek to work between artist practices/ humanities research approaches and practical development of resilience in communities."

There is a great introduction to the project here. It includes: "The July 2007 floods in Gloucestershire were considered by hydrologists to be a very extreme event, with percentage probabilities of occurrence of <0.5>200 year return period) on some rivers (Marsh and Hannaford, 2007). It represented the biggest peacetime civil emergency in recent history. The scale of these floods brought the possible interaction between fluvial (river), pluvial (surface water) and groundwater flooding in a single event on to the radar of the public and those involved in flood risk management. The severity of the 2007 floods was again matched by those in Cumbria in 2009. Lives, property, strategic infrastructure, and the fabrics of local communities and economies were inundated and destroyed. Many other smaller, but equally severe at the local level, instances of flooding of settlements and parts of settlements have occurred and seem set to continue across the UK. Across Europe and globally, extreme floods events have also occurred in the 1990s and 2000s."

Indeed as it goes on these events have helped confirm the view that out climate is changing. However as the day noted and this blog has done too - flood and drought are two sides of the same coin. A point perhaps missed by policies and approaches like the Pitt Review - although the Pitt Review does embed the idea of resilience - how can communities, and society more generally, be (made more) resilient in the face of flood risk and flood events.

One aspect these workshops hope to explore more about community resilience is that of community knowledge. Not something Pitt considers - but as the introduction says "the community knowledge around flood resilience is embodied within the stories that reside within individuals and communities and are shared about past flooding experiences."

In the arts there is a growing interest in landscape, place, nature, community, environment and environmental history - in Stroud we have groups like the excellent 'Walking the Land' that have had many local exhibitions and walks and more. The arts as this 'Living Flood' project hopes to show can help with investigating local histories of flooding, helping manage the after effects of floods and living with flood risk, connecting those who have no experience of floods with those who have to help prepare in areas identified as flood risk. It is extraordinary that houses continue to be built on flood plains.

Anyway here is that programme below from the first day to give a flavour of it - apols as all these are notes - hopefully the reports and papers will be available on the web as I cannot even begin to do justice to them here!!

Learning to Live with Water: Flood histories, Environmental Change, Remembrance and Resilience. Workshop 1: Floods and environmental change: conceptual frameworks for thinking about watery landscapes and living with floods.

Date Friday 26th Nov. at UWE Bower Ashton Campus, Bristol (pictured left).

Programme

10.00 - 10.30 Registration and coffee

10.30. House-keeping introduction

10.35. Network / workshop introduction by Professor Lindsey McEwen and project team (Dr Owain Jones (pictured left), Dr Iain Robertson and Professor Mike Wilson)

10.45. Reading 1: From Small Memories by José Saramago. Lissa Carter, who performed the readings is a theatre specialist working in the south-west - trained at New College and later completed a MA in Feminist Performance at Bristol University. She has taught acting skills for many years and is a voice specialist. I loved these readings that were delivered beautifully - many of them bringing to life flood experiences, many of them bringing a smile...what a treat for us!

10.50. Talk 1: Dr. Lucy Veale. School of Geography, University of Nottingham “Representations of climate change in East Midlands museum collections”. This was fascinating and has inspired me to see if we can do something similar in Gloucestershire - see their network here and more about the Mubu climate change project here. Lucy talked about some of the pitfalls of climate change exhibitions but also some of the possibilities. I've already started some conversations on this - as blog readers will know I have long felt the County has failed us with their library service not being used to promote actions for a lower carbon economy - climate change is one of GCC's aims yet they don't seem to use the tools they have to help tackle it - it took me far too long to get the Energy Monitors project off the ground despite all around being keen and willing - I am hoping that project will encourage more similar projects. But now museums I can see more clearly museums have huge potential......each region really needs a Lucy to get this ball rolling but I understand from an artist at this event that there is already interest in this area.....

11. 10. Talk 2: Dr. Chad Staddon, Bristol Water Group, University of West of England (UWE)
"Climate Change, Extreme Weather and People: the socio-cultural experience of flooding". I also loved this talk as it posed questions like are floods really what we should be focusing on - this goes back to my comment earlier re flood and drought but also a wider issue....

11.30. Coffee

11.45. Reading 2: From Waterland by Graham Swift

11.50. Talk 3: Dr. Simon Read, School of Arts and Education, Middlesex University and Artist: “Imagining Change. (Artist as mediator in coastal flooding histories and future scenarios)”. Again another fascinating talk about the Suffolk coast and use of beautifully painted maps to plot and record flooding and impact - to show how the 'armour' defences along the coast - rocks from Norway - are collapsing and communities are threatened. In the afternoon a couple of artworks by Simon Read were on display including "A map of the River Deben to show topography and the indicative flood plain 1999-2010" - beautiful but also an extraordinary record.

12.15. Reading 3: From accounts of the 1607 floods of Somerset and Monmouthshire

12.20. Talk 4: Dr. Rebecca Whittle, Lancaster Environment Centre; University of Lancaster “After the rain: flood, vulnerabilityand urban resilience in Hull”. This talk was also brilliant - a great project looking at adults and children who had experienced flood - work compiled from interviews and diaries to give a real flavour of how floods impact. It isn't the flood that often causes the problems but the aftermath and dealing with insurers and more....

12.40. End of morning discussions

1.00. Lunch (with slide show of flood heritage markers/images running on loop)

1.45. Reading 4: Wetland – life in the Somerset Levels, by Patrick Sutherland and Adam Nicholson

1.50. Talk 5: Philip Booth, Stroud Green Party Councillor and Water Issue Activist: “The story of Stroud water politics and the Ruscombe Brook Action Group”. Well my 20 minutes - although I apparently ran over a couple - was looking at how RBAG was formed and what we have been doing with community groups, Councils and others. It was a whistle-stop tour of some of the highlights - missed out lots but hopefully gave a flavour. It was also good to hear that a couple of artists in teh audience were interested in something here in Stroud.

I also mentioned three artists - the international Iranian artist Ahmad Nadalian who had a big impact on me seeing how powerful art can be at getting messages across (see my blog here and here re his visit to Stroud) plus two local artists - Simon Packard (see here - his sculptures are still at Ruskin Mill) and Richard Dean (see map left which was in my presentation and see my blog here).

“These maps are not intended to scare, but the vision is rather alarming. Art making has always had a visionary, prophetic intention, to see into humanity’s dreams as well as nightmares, to explore the things we fear most. Maybe in this way we become better able to deal with these fears, and possibly also get a firm grip on what we need to do to avoid them. I hope we can all learn from their watery tales”. Dean 2009.

2.10. Reading 5: In Time of Flood James Crowden

2.15. Talk 6: Nicola Whyte Department of History, University of Exeter: “Memories of wateryscapes in the early modern period”. Wow was this interesting - I've had an awarenss of the use of court reports - think I caught something on radio 4 a while back but this was really interesting to see how these old reports can be used to look at our landscape and tell us stories - to look at memory and oral traditions and for example how flood landscapes changed grazing and impacted on local Parishes and farmers.

2.35. Discussion and short presentation by Professor Mike Pearson of Aberystwyth University. Mike was the keynote discussant at the first workshop - Professor of Performance Studies at Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Aberystwyth. Professor Pearson is a leading international academic in the area of performance, place and landscape and the author of In Comes I: Performance, Memory and Landscape, University of Exeter Press, 2006 and Theatre/Archaeology, London & New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2001 (with M. Shanks ). Again a very interesting talk about the carrlands project: www.carrlands.org.uk/

That is well worth a look and indeed a listen - some 3 hours of audio - but hey I'm running out of puff with this blog so must stop....

3.00. Open discussion forum on the day (inc coffee - and hey this was the best coffee I've had for many years at any conference - fresh and quality!).

3.45. End.

Thanks to the organisers and indeed for the invite.

Gorilla expert/UN Ambassador leads Coffee House discussion

Friday night saw the Coffee House discussion on Biodiversity with five key speakers - a great evening that this blog post does not do justice - complete with drinks and delicious cakes at Star Anise cafe in Stroud.

Photos of evening

These Coffee House Discussions are every month (not Dec or Aug) sponsored by the Green Party and this was the 50th meeting!! An amazing array of topics that have been covered....but Friday night some of the issues we covered included:

- What is happening to our plants and animals locally?
- Will the proposed sell-off of our forests damage our wildlife?
- How is the Bee Project doing?
- What can be done internationally?
- Can climate change agreements save the rainforests?

Ian Redmond OBE (pictured above in first photo and left) lives locally and was the lead speaker - describing himself as a 'jobbing naturalist' - like his mentor, the late Dr Dian Fossey, his work shifted in 1978 from research to conservation work, after poachers killed Digit – a young silverback in one of the Karisoke study groups – to sell his skull and hands. His books about primate and elephants have been translated into many languages. He works for a whole catalogue of organisations and is the Envoy for the UN Great Apes Survival Partnership and this year was appointed an Ambassador for the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species. See more about apes here.

Ian was able to talk about the recent biodiversity conference in Japan which he attended and the upcoming Cancun conference - while sharing many of the challenges ahead he also shed some optimism and hope - in particular about the development of the controversial REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) programme. A commitment to interim financing for REDD+ and deforestation projects in less-industrialised countries needs to be agreed upon for the future. Ian shared how this could be made workable if indigenous people were included.

This year is the UN Year of Biodiversity. Many scientists believe the earth is undergoing a sixth great extinction event caused by humans. Extinction is natural, but scientists estimate the current pace outstrips the average rate by 100 to 1000%. About a third of assessed species worldwide are threatened with extinction in the wild. This is a serious serious issue.

Dr Simon Pickering (pictured left with chair of teh evening Martin Whiteside), a former Green District councillor with a wealth of biodiversity experience - like at Cotswold Water Park and now with Ecotricity. He was up next with a look at national policies regarding biodiversity and the changing picture - the importance of linking areas of conservation rather than having 'islands' - he also shared some of the local changes that are already occurring due to climate change like more egrets.

Ivi Szaboova-Baxendale of the Stroud Valleys Project (pictured left) was up next with a look at many of their local projects and how they are engaging with different groups of people in the community. In particular speaking about the groups where people with mental health problems come and support conservation work and get enormous benefits from participating.

Last up were the Bee Guardian Foundation - Jessie and Carlo both spoke about the hugely successful year they have had - click on label below for some of those stories. We finished the evening with a bottle of champagne to celebrate their £50,000 win to turn Gloucester into the first Bee Guardian city (see more here).

A great evening. Thanks to all organisers. And better still Ian looks set to return with a film or two in the new year.

Campaign re cuts locally

Green party members are handing out a leaflet today re the cuts - you can see my updated summary of the Green Alternative at the top of this blog by clicking on 'Coalition Cuts'.

Big Society sent in an email to me by a local resident bottom and photoshop by local artist

In Nailsworth Greens have exercised their right to summon a Town Meeting in Nailsworth. They have used a little known provision of the Local Government Act 1972, which allows six or more local electors to require the Town Council to hold a public meeting to consult the whole town. Catherine Farrell, the District Council candidate for the Green party in Nailsworth, who is proposing the motion, explained: “The draconian nature of the intended cuts has shocked us all. The library is a social lifeline for many, and the youth club is doing fantastic work with our local teenagers. We really can’t just sit back and watch those facilities go forever. A Town Meeting will give the residents of Nailsworth the best chance they may get of being able to discuss possible solutions. We expect to see a lot of concerned people voicing their opinions there.” See more here.

While in Stroud Town where there is a Green party majority already they have been looking at what can be done to fight the cuts. Here is the statement from John Marjoram, Deputy Mayor, chairing the Town Council meeting on 25^th October 2010:

"Let us be under no illusions, the Coalition is about to take the axe to public services. For the Tories this is not a financial crisis but a long awaited opportunity to shrink public services. The main weight of the cuts will be felt around the Welfare provision (£7Bn) and already Claimants are being demonised, however there is not much reference to Tax dodgers. It is predicted that the brunt of these policies will be felt by women in society.

Both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Conservative lead Local Government Association (LGA) is critical of the severity and speed of the cuts. I would maintain that these cuts will seriously damage our local and national, community cohesion. I predict that once public services, like Libraries, and there staff lose their jobs they will never be reinstated. There can be no justification in retaining nuclear submarines at a cost £1.2Bn each and at the same time, slimming down Housing benefit. We will arrive at an American situation where the poor are virtually ignored and undervalued. Our Council will do whatever it can to pick up the pieces, with the help of the voluntary sector, from this devastation, like increase funding of the CAB. Some Councillors, no doubt will wish to take a stronger political line in directly opposing the Coalition."

Greens have also joined the demonstrations locally. Meanwhile at the National Coalition of Resistance Conference on SAT 27th Nov the Green Party will have our own stall and our own literature. As folk will know Green MP Caroline Lucas signed the initial letter with Tony Benn launching the coalition - see here - read much more on the website at: www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/

Stroud: best food market and second greatest town

Stroud Farmers Market was the winner in the BBC Food and Drink Awards on Thursday night - see here. Well done to Clare Gerbrands, the producers and all who have made it possible.

Photo: Buskers at market

However Stroud was pipped to the post in the race to be named Britain's greatest town - see here my previous post. The town was one of three finalists in The Great Town Awards, alongside Westport in Ireland and Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. We are very fortunate to live in such a great place full of so many creative, unique and enterprising people!

Here's how The Citizen reported it:

"...after narrowly losing the award to Hebden Bridge, community leaders say being nominated gave the town the recognition it deserves.Mayor Andy Read said: "The judges weren't looking for chocolate box perfection but places where all sections of the community are getting involved to make their town a better place to work, rest and play."

Chamber of Commerce and Trade chairwoman Carole Garfield added: "This award has offered us a fantastic opportunity to discover what other pioneering towns have been doing to regenerate themselves and there are many great ideas that we are keen to try out in Stroud.""

Housing benefit cuts far from fair!

The Mark Harper article in The Citizen claiming housing benefit cuts were fair didn't just make me angry (see my earlier comments here) - local Greens discussed it at a recent meeting and responded to the article with the following letter below.

Photo: Randwick woods

But also it is worth noting that the BBC quoted Age UK's warning re pensioners over housing benefit reforms ie that housing benefit reforms could leave some elderly people on such low incomes their health may be at risk. These are all issues that will impact on the District Council's own housing standards and will no doubt be raised as part of the inquiry that I am chairing.

Mark Harper writes in The Citizen on 5th November saying the cuts to housing benefits are fair. The Con-Dem coalition has a knack of addressing problems in isolation to make them look reasonable. But once you know that over a million households will be affected, with many forced to move out, you begin to ask questions. Are the tenants responsible for the high rents charged? Do the government want an exodus of poorer people from their neighbourhoods, schools, relations and friends? Will it mean people being moved further away from their work? Will they even find anywhere else at a lower rent? The properties they leave may well go on the market for purchase by better off people. Even Boris Johnson has called this a "Kosovo-style social cleansing."

The reason we have so many poorer people in private rented accommodation, much of which is expensive, is that both Tory and Labour governments have continued the policy of selling off our council housing. The cash has been frittered away on tax cuts for the wealthy, instead of investing the proceeds in building more council homes, which has caused a crisis in social housing. Owner-occupier status for poorer people has been made impossible by the shortage of private housing, which drives up house prices. The only humane option in these circumstances was to pay rent for people.

So no Mr Harper, the cuts are not fair and it's not benefits that drive up rents. There is an alternative: to begin a serious program of building sustainable social housing. This would mean many new low and average income jobs, a boost to local economies and housing with lower energy consumption and running costs. During this financial crisis, we must not lose sight of the larger picture. Government must invest now to safeguard our future. If Mr Harper is so concerned about the hard working subsidising the out of work, he should explain the logic of why ALL tax payers have had to pay for the bail out of the bankers for an amount that exceeds the whole of the benefits budget.

Yours faithfully, Gerald Hartley, Stroud District Green Party

It maybe also worth looking at Caroline Lucas' speech which was given to the national pensioners rally at the end of last month - see here.

Gloucester Bee project won

THE BEES WON! I voted for the project and am delighted it will now go-ahead - the decision was confirmed last night on ITV and the Bees Facebook site was full of congratulation notices - Gloucester Bee Guardians will start in February 2011. They will become the first Bee Guardian City following Stroud being the first Bee Guardian Town - see more about the vote here.

Stroud student protest today

Outside Neil Carmichael's office this afternoon a group of students were protesting - Neil was in London but his office staff were seeing them. I spoke very briefly to several students and also contacted the press as this is an issue that really should get a hearing.

Photo: Clegg signing pledge this April

What on earth are we doing to the next generation?? Climate change, nuke waste and all the other problems are more than enough....here is my hurried quote to Stroud Life:

I welcome the protest in Stroud to highlight the shocking assault on education funding. The recession has already hit young people harder with disappearing university places and increasing youth unemployment. Now the Educational Maintenance Allowance is being scrapped, college funding slashed and there are huge rises in university fees. Over 300 academics note the planned increase in fees means the "effective removal of higher education" for working people while the Institute of Fiscal Studies says that the cuts will lead to "insignificant savings to the taxpayer".

The Lib Dems are rightly the focus of much anger. You can't make an election pledge to oppose increased tuition fees then break it weeks later. With workers and students on the streets many of us may wish this will hasten the fall of this Government. There are better ways to tackle the deficit like reclaiming the billions lost in tax avoidance and investing in our future with green technologies.

Meanwhile with all the comments about violence it was good to see the Green party's Jenny Jones writing on the student protests and young greens call for NUS to organise NVDA training: "I personally agree that many of the Coalition’s actions justify civil disobedience. Where I draw the line is the argument that violence is justified because the impact of this government’s brutal policies will have a destructive impact on people lives. As soon as protest turns violent we lose the argument." See more here.

Flooding letter timely

As some will know I have been away some days and came home to news that Cornwall was mopping up after the devastating flash floods. The operation will last for months and cost millions, with hundreds of residents driven from their homes. Greens had written a letter to the local press about the Coalition cuts to flood defences - it was in the papers last week.

Photo: Russ' interpretation of my recent break - actually as I missed a summer holiday we took ferry to Brittany and had many wonderful walks along those beaches! It wasn't quite like this!!!

Interestingly there were a couple of people who questioned whether this was an important issue to focus on when other cuts were hitting so deep - I suspect the timely news from Cornwall highlight how we cannot and must not underestimate the impact of flooding. There is much that we need to do! See my previous comment here.

Meanwhile the Environment Agency are making significant changes to the flood Warnings that they currently issue which will take place on the 30th November. The District Council have arranged for the EA to give a training session on the new codes which will take place in the Council Chamber on the 6th December. If anyone is specifically interested in this please get in touch.

Fish Fight launched

A new campaign, Fish Fight, has been launched by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace and Client Earth.

The aim of the campaign is to raise public awareness and encourage consumer activism over a number of issues concerning global fish stocks and the marine environment. An astonishing half of all fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back overboard!! This cannot be right in any way!!

The first element of the campaign, launching now, is focusing on the broken Common Fisheries Policy and quota system that is the cause of a massive problem of discarded fish, especially in the North Sea. Do watch a short film highlighting the issue, and pledge support for the campaign at: http://www.fishfight.net

Cuts impact on Stroud District Council

At the last Full Council meeting (see here and here) we were due a presentation from the Chief Executive to the Council on how the cuts would impact. However due to the late hour of the meeting the item was cut from the agenda and instead a briefing paper was circulated to councillors.

As this was going to be part of a public meeting I see no reason why I should not publish the paper's notes below with the Chief Exec's comments. They give some indication of the impacts locally.

Photo: Randwick woods

The Government’ Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and what it means for the Council

My presentation set out the main headlines of the CSR around the Council’s priorities.

Resources

My headlines;

• 28% cut in grant over four years
• Offer of 2.5% grant for council tax freeze in 2011/12
• 1% increase in Public Works Loan Board rates
• Government capital spending halved
• New Homes Bonus – £ for £ match additional council tax over 6 years
• Councils can keep new business rates
• Tax increment financing – borrowing against projected growth in new business rates
My commentary;

We will know the true grant position in early December – 28% is the headline. The Government may vary its grant for different types of authority and it is collapsing around 90 funding streams into about 10 as part of the grant settlement. The Government is planning on changing the balance between local generated funding and centrally determined grant.

A 28% reduction over four years on our £7M grant is about £2.1M. The Government is ‘front loading’ the cut. Nationally, £2.2BN out of the £5.5BN cut in local government funding will come in the first year 2011/12.

Overall, the Government is signalling a shift in the balance between central and locally generated funding. The New Homes Bonus, Tax Increment Financing, new business rates, and the Self Financing for Council Housing are all part of this shift. The overall amount of local government spending will fall over the four year period (2011-15) of the CSR.

The Government is offering a grant equivalent to a 2.5% increase in council tax for those authorities that ‘freeze’ it in 2011/12. In the subsequent three years, the Government has calculated a council tax increase of 12% i.e. a ‘smoothed’ annual increase of 4%.

Affordable Housing

My headlines;

• Housing Benefit caps reduced
– 10% cut in HB if on jobseekers allowance for more than a year
– Age threshold up from 25 to 35 for shared room rate
– Reduced rates
• 10% cut in council tax benefit then local determination
• Social housing budget cut - £8.4bn to £4.5bn
• New rents to be 80% of local housing allowance
• Self financing for council housing
• Rental income from new rents to invest in new homes
• 150,000 homes by 2015
• Linked to planning policy changes
My commentary;

The Government’s intentions have been well publicised. The whole housing benefit regime will change as a result of the Government’s proposals for a universal benefit (much of this has been made known since the Council meeting). The Council is awaiting the Government’s decision about ‘self financing’ for council housing. The Government has committed itself to the reform initiated by the previous Government.

Since the Council meeting, the Government has announced further changes to the length of tenure for new social housing tenants.


Climate Change

My headlines;

• Reduced feed in tariffs for renewable energy
• Warm Front phased out
• £1bn Green Investment Bank – to be supplemented by asset sales
• Green Deal for households – roll out of Stroud pilot
• Renewable Energy Bonus
My commentary;

The feed in tariff will be lower than that planned by the previous Government. The Green Deal is based on the PAYS scheme piloted in Stroud District by the previous Government. The Green Investment Bank will fund new initiatives that help the UK reduce its carbon footprint. The Renewable Energy Bonus will be available to councils where new business growth takes place and uses renewable energy.

Since the Council meeting, the Government has made announcements about investment in the green economy.


Economy

My headlines;

• 50% cut in capital spending on infrastructure
• £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund focused on 24 Local Enterprise Partnership areas
• 75,000 adult apprenticeships per annum by 2014
My commentary;

The Regional Growth Fund is primarily directed to the recently approved Local Enterprise Partnerships – Gloucestershire’s bid to become one alongside Wiltshire and Swindon has not been approved by Government and further discussions are taking place. Much of the Regional Growth Fund is directed at regions where the public sector is a large part of the economy – in the North East it is about 60% of the region’s employment.

Bids for such funding have to be private sector led. Further details have been published since the Council meeting and Lord Heseltine will head the panel that will make recommendations about the allocation of the Fund.

More detail to come…..

• White Papers
– Public Health, Local Growth, Planning
• Bills
– Health, Police, Police Reform, Localism
• Guidelines
– £500 payments, Council Tax Referendum

My commentary;

Since the Council meeting, more details have emerged on many of these. The Government has published Departmental Business Plans which a timetable for these and other matters. The Localism Bill is expected to be introduced into Parliament this week.

………and looking at the impact all this has on local government, the following has been reported in the local government press;

(all the following are over four years unless shown)

• Cornwall - £110m, 1 in 9 jobs
• Doncaster - £80m, 1 in 6 jobs
• Lincolnshire - 1000 jobs (14% cut)
• Kent - 1,500 jobs (9% cut)
• Birmingham - £230m, 26,000 non-teaching jobs with Section 188 notice
• Newcastle upon Tyne - £110m, 2000 jobs
and more locally…..

• Wiltshire - 350 Police jobs
• Bristol - £50m over 3 years
• Gloucestershire - £108m, 1 in 6 non-teaching jobs
• Gloucester City - £6.5m, 5% pay cut proposed
• Somerset – 1,500 jobs
• Tewkesbury £1.4m in 2011/12
• Cheltenham £4.8m with £2.4m of this in 2011/12

My commentary;

Many of these cuts are front loaded. Newcastle is working on £50M of its £110M in the first of the four years

……..and for us

Impact on Medium Term Financial Plan

• 28% cut is £2.1M off our government grant of £7M
• Final figure in December – may not be 28% for all types of councils
• Other income down and council tax frozen in 2011/12
• Gap between spending and income is £2.7M by 2015
• Concessionary fares – unknown impact


My commentary;

The Medium Term Financial Plan (our 4 year plan) presented to Cabinet on the 30th September had assumed a Government cut of this order. The final settlement will not be known until early December. We also have uncertainty about the amount of money that the Government will take off when concessionary fares transfer to the county council. We spend around £750,000 on them but the initial figures produced by civil servants suggest somewhere between £1.1M and £1.4M could be taken out of our grant. We are making the strongest representations and the Local Government Association considers the situation facing local government ‘a mess’.

The Council has been looking at next year’s budget cuts and efficiency savings for a considerable time. At the moment, it looks as if the work we have been doing could produce £2.7M over the next four years. This will be considered by Cabinet on the 6th January and then Scrutiny and Council. The final position on concessionary fares will be critical to all this.

We have the following things in place to help us to continue to manage the situation. We are also working with other public services across Gloucestershire on getting better value for money. Gloucestershire’s public spending is around £3.3BN each year and there are opportunities for better procurement and service delivery by looking at things from the customer point of view not organisations. Our systems thinking is being used in a pilot for older peoples services that will produce better services and cut out waste across public agencies.

• Workforce Plan delivering 10% reduction in staff by 2014 – 45 FTE
• Budget savings package for 2011/12 - £2.7m over 4 years
• ‘More for less’ but we can only go so far
• Continue successful approach
– ‘One Council’ teamwork
– Systems thinking
– Staff suggestions
– Accommodation
• ‘Community Budgets’ for public services

Overall, the Comprehensive Spending Review is tough but there are no surprises. It will be challenging but because we have been working on this for some time with our 4 year budget plan and our workforce plan, we have things in place that will help us cope with the CSR impact.

Parish and Town Planning powers removed

As the local quarterly news, The Warbler, goes to the editor and printing later this week, the Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish Chair, John Rogers will add his own comments on the changes to planning. It may also be linked to this blog and my comments on this as I was part of the inquiry into making changes.

Photo: Randwick woods

Many of the recommendations were accepted but the Cabinet went further and removed the current powers of Parish/Town Councils and ward members like myself to automatically have an item seen by Development Control Committee for a decision.

You can see my rather detailed discussion of the Full Council meeting (hopefully setting out both sides of the argument fairly) - and the decisions made here - and see my letter to local press here.

As I said at the time and at the Full Council meeting this is not the time to be making these changes. This seems even more so when I read the speech by Greg Clark in his talk to Localis on the 18th of November, 2010. See that here but note the following comments:

"But we don't just want people at a very local level to see the benefits of planning decisions: we want them to have a far greater opportunity to make or influence those decisions themselves. We want to enable neighbourhoods to exert more influence in the planning system than is currently possible. We aim to create a means for people to formulate their own plans about what their area should look like in five, ten, twenty years' time. This is a rethinking of how planning operates - creating new pressures and powers that operate from the bottom up, rather than the top down. The principle is simple. Local people come together and agree, "this is what we want our area to look like. Here is where we want the new homes to go and how we want them designed; here is where we want new shops and offices; here are the green spaces we want to protect."

"...We will have more to say about neighbourhood planning when we publish the Localism Bill. That's why, in the Localism Bill, we want to make it easier for local authorities, involving their communities, to draw up local plans - and to give them greater discretion to do it in the way they want, by cutting out excessive central prescription."

This move at Stroud District seems to go against what the Government are intending. We need to see how these changes impact on planning and there is a chance to review this decision in a year.

Nukes: body parts, petition and energy day

Shepperdine Against Nuclear Energy are having Day of Energy on 27th - see flyer left and more below but also wanted to note a blog by Prof Stephen Thomas first, then the campaign in India then the extraordinary scandal around body parts and lastly Ed Miliband...

Blog by Prof Stephen Thomas

See here Prof Stephen Thomas, a renowned energy expert from the University of Greenwich Business School, who has contributed to a guest blog piece for the Tenner films website expressing his concerns about the French EPR, reactor of choice for business and governments hoping to build a new generation of nuclear generating capacity in the UK, US and Europe. It is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our nuclear industry.

India - please sign petition

Last week over 600 people were arrested for standing up for their rights to live and work in safe surroundings. Over 2320 acres of land are being acquired by the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) to build 6 mega nuclear reactors in Ratnagiri district. It is said that the public protests have been suppressed using police violence and false charges.

The NPCIL is planning to import expensive and unsafe nuclear reactors from French company, Areva. US and European nuclear regulators have identified severe flaws in the reactor and they have not approved the design.

Over 2000 people will lose their land and over 10,000 people will have their health and livelihood affected due to this plant. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has the power to stop the import of dangerous nuclear reactors and listen to the concerns of the local people. Please can you write a letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh. Go to sign petition here. I fear there is a battle ahead as just last week the Indian Government signed a new treaty with the US re supply of nuke stuff.

Body parts scandal

This is an extraordinary story - see Stop Oldbury website here and Guardian here - Organs and bones were illegally harvested from the bodies of dead nuclear industry workers without their consent over a period of 30 years, an inquiry has just concluded. The relatives of 64 staff, many of whom only discovered their loved ones had been stripped of livers, tongues and even legs decades after they were buried, said the inquiry's findings proved the existence of an "old boys' club" among pathologists, coroners and scientists around Sellafield prior to 1992 which prioritised the needs of the nuclear industry above those of grieving family members.

So all the time that they were saying there was no link between cancer and radiation pathologists were keeping back body parts to take measurements!

Day of Energy at Cossham Hall in Thornbury

SANE is holding a day of talks, discussions and exhibitions on Sat 27th , 10am to 3pm, in the Cossham Hall (part of the Armstrong Hall complex) in Chapel St, Thornbury BS35 2BJ. During the day there will be five eminent speakers who will come and talk to the SANE Community and explain why new nuclear is of no relevence to our future energy requirements. Before the lectures, people will be marching from Cossham Hall around Thornbury to express to DECC our feelings about the Shepperdine Sites suitability for construction of new nuke reactors. See more;
www.shepperdineagainstnuclearenergy.blogspot.com
www.shepperdineagainstnuclearenergy.org.uk

Ed Miliband

The Guardian ran a story about Ed - see here - this is surely the time to tell him why Labour remains so misguided on its support for nuclear power, and ignores the anti-nuclear policy of SERA - Labour's own in house environment campaign. Email Ed at:
milibande@parliament.uk

Bee Guardian Foundation: become one now!

The Global Bee Project recently changed it's name to the Bee Guardian Foundation. Their recent newsletter explains why but for those folks who are not members I've added it below - see their website (where you can join) here: www.beeguardianfoundation.org/

Pics: Bee drawing, bee houses made by Woodcraft Folk, bee dancing at Woodcraft Folk, bee houses, bee bottle lid, Russ cartoon and Cleo Mussi mosaic artist bee and bee poem.

As I've noted before this Stroud-based project is just growing and growing - I've posted many times before on this blog about their plans, workshops and success locally from Stroud becoming the first Bee Guardian Town to our project to make 350 beehouses (see here and here - plus make your own here).

Well now comes the chance to make Gloucester City the first Bee Guardian City. The project – Bee Inspired: Gloucester Bee Guardians has been shortlisted by ITV’s Peoples Millions and they are votes away from winning a grant of £50,000 to transform Gloucester into the very first Bee Guardian City.

Tomorrow on the 23rd November a short film about Bee Inspired: Gloucester Bee Guardians and another project will be shown after the ITV 6pm News, the audience will be invited to vote for their favourite project. The project with the most votes will receive a £50,000 grant. More details to come.....People Millions Project Web Page

OK so here's the bit about why they changed their name...

We have changed name

We have recently changed the name of the organisation from the Global Bee Project to the Bee Guardian Foundation. Our reason for doing so is because we understand that the focus of the organisation is about inspiring people to actively protect and conserve all bee species as Bee Guardians.

The Global Bee Project will still exist within the organisation as a network of Bee Guardians around the world. The aim is that, in the future, the Bee Guardian Foundation will be able to fund and set up Bee Guardian Projects around the world, supporting and encouraging bee diversity - this is the Global Bee Project.


Who are BEE GUARDIANS and why do we need them?

BGF has created a new figure in the world – the Bee Guardian

The study of bees is split into two areas:
Apiology, the study of honeybees, whose public representatives are the beekeepers, and
Melittology, the study of all the other 20,000 bee species, for whom there is no public representative observing and looking after them.

As we have seen over the last few years, beekeepers who know their honeybees intimately, have been able to observe subtle as well as dramatic changes in the health of their honeybees. In certain countries they have successfully campaigned to ban paricular agricultural practices that have cause direct harm. Our question is, who is paying attention and looking out for the other bees, the wild bees, the bees that cannot be moved or prevented from flying at times when they may be harmed? Who is able to ring alarm when these other bees are declining in number and even disappearing? Our answer is the Bee Guardian! The bees needs a huge swarm of Bee Guardians to observe and look out for them, to protect their habitats and to provide them with more forage and nesting resources.

There are only so many bee scientists in the world, we all need to get involved, observe and speak up to protect these other bees.

For this reason, because there was no public figure observing these other equally important bee species, we decided to create a global project to launch the Bee Guardian figure. By creating a network of Bee Guardians around the world we hope to educate, inspire and enable everyone to start observing and protecting bee diversity. We want people to be proud of being Bee Guardians and the wonderful thing is that anyone can be one; you do not need to be a scientist, you do not need specialist equipment and expensive tools.

All you need is an interest and desire to understand and observe these fascinating and important creatures. Just by building a simple bee house you provide a safe a secure nesting site for certain bee species to return to year after year.

We are working on building a system so that anyone can become a Bee Guardian - individuals, groups, schools, businesses, towns and cities. (At the moment we are beginning to pilot the first Bee Guardian projects.)

Bee Guardians of all sizes can make a real contribution by paying attention to the bee species that live on the land that they manage. The activities of Bee Guardians not only improves the situation for bees but for all biodiversity.