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Home / Newsletters / Spring 2005

Newsletter Spring 2005

 

AGM

Tony Juniper (Director of Friends of the Earth) is coming to Taunton to talk about climate change. Tony is an excellent speaker and his talk is bound to inspire. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for you to meet members of your local Friends of the Earth group, find out more about it and maybe get more involved!

Membership

If your membership is due for renewal you will find a form included in this mail out. I hope you will feel your continued support is worthwhile and want to carry on supporting your local Friends of the Earth Group.

Web site

Taunton Friends of the Earth now has its own web site developed by Dave's nephew as part of his GCSE course. It can be found at http://www.tauntonfoe.2md.co.uk or by going through the links to local groups at www.foe.co.uk.

E-mail updates

We have recently set up an e-mail system which enables Taunton Foe members to send and receive updates on events and activities which will be of interest to others. If you have provided an e-mail address in the past you will already be receiving these updates. If you are not getting these updates and would like to, please ensure we have an up to date e-mail address for you.

Climate sceptic MP

In an article in the Somerset County Gazette our MP Adrian Flook described wind turbines as ugly metal scars on the landscape and made it clear he would not support wind farm development within Taunton Deane. At our monthly meeting Taunton FoE decided we should seek a meeting with Mr Flook to impress on him the essential role wind farms must play in combating climate change.

Our subsequent meeting did not go well. Firstly we asked Mr Flook if he felt that climate change is a serious threat. He surprised us by suggesting that independent scientists who are warning of the dire need to address the causes of climate change may be over stating it's significance in a bid to secure government research funding. Mr Flook went as far as stating that the UK chief scientific advisor, Sir David King, was not qualified to say, as he has, that "Climate change poses a bigger threat to the planet than terrorism". It was clear that our MP is among those who don't want to believe that climate change is a significant threat to all our futures and prefers to keep his head firmly buried in the sand.

Trade Justice Day

On 26th September, 2 members of our group travelled to Brighton with a coach party from the Taunton area to attend the Trade Justice Rally. From talking to others on the coach, it became clear that the Trade Justice Movement is supported by a wide range of differing interests - WDM (World Development Movement), FoE, Fair Trade, Christian Aid and the WI to name a few. Increasingly it is being seen as the way forward both to redress the balance between rich and poor nations and to protect the environment.

After a picnic on the beach (yes - it was a beautiful day!), we walked along to the rally point to hear a number of inspiring celebrity speakers say why they support Trade Justice and explain its importance on a global scale.

Thousands of us then moved along the promenade to lobby MPs at the Labour Party Conference. Later we cast our votes at the 'Ballot on the Beach'. The aim is to collect a million votes for Trade Justice by spring 2005.

If you don't attend our meetings but could collect votes from family and friends, phone Christian Aid on 08700 787 788 to order voting cards.

I don't have figures for the numbers attending the rally, but there were certainly as many, if not more that those who demonstrated the following Wednesday against the hunt ban. However the Trade Justice rally was peaceful and good-humoured while the Countryside Alliance dumped dead animals in the centre of Brighton and gate-crashed the Party Conference. No prizes for guessing who got the publicity!

Nevertheless it was a really inspiring and worthwhile day with quite a lot of positive feedback from MPs. The message is getting through - Trade Justice not free trade.

Helen Grant

Development

Recent proposals to expand Taunton are of great concern Taunton Friends of the Earth who, therefore, responded to a recent consultation on these proposals. Included here is an extract from our objection which was put together by Garry Cox on our behalf.

"Of particular concern to us is option 2b, the high growth option of building 10,000 to 13,000 dwellings east of the M5 towards the Blackdown Hills. Taunton Friends of the Earth are totally opposed to this option and will campaign against it vigorously should it ever show signs of making progress. We hope that this consultation exercise will expose this idea as scandalous and serve to bury it once and for all.

The creation of a 'Taunton New Town' to the East of the M5 would be a disaster for all the reasons that SCC cite in the consultation document. It would segregate the town and would not be integrated with the existing town. It would put further strain on existing infrastructure and it would contribute greatly to noise and air pollution. As SCC very sensibly recognised in the consultation document, "development associated with this option would be highly visible from the Blackdown Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty." Encroaching on the Blackdown Hills with thousands of characterless new buildings would do nothing to enhance Taunton's "enormous potential in heritage and tourism". Any proposals to expand urban development towards the Blackdown Hills must and will be fiercely resisted, not simply because we cannot go on endlessly destroying the natural environment, but because the highly attractive rural area immediately to the south east of the M5, a few minutes from the town centre, is one of Taunton's most important aesthetic, wildlife and leisure assets. To lose this area to development would be for Taunton to lose its special identity as a town in the country. It would become a small city sprawling either side of the M5."

While opposing massive developments around Taunton we recognise that some form of development is inevitable. We have, therfore, been working with the planning officers at Taunton Deane to ensure that any new developments are as sustainable as possible; local services, transport infrastructure, energy conservation are just some of the issues we have been discussing. This dialogue has resulted in one of the planning officers coming with us on a visit to some eco-homes in Portishead. This visit providing important pointers in how to and how not to go about persuading developers to build homes sustainably.

Letters

Ethical Money

In response to the article on ethical money in our last newsletter Susan Gibb sent the following useful information.

"I've been looking into ethical money matters for many years and can confirm that Co-op Bank is good - Smile is its internet branch - but you can also keep with Co-op bank, using Link machines and telephone banking, but also online Co-op Bank transactions, like paying Visa bills etc.

I have an Oxfam Co-op Visa card too.

I use a mutual building society for deposit and ISA accounts, as then you can visit a branch if you want to, rather than a distant office.

The Co-operative Bank will also give independent financial advice on any investments.

The Co-op Insurance Society (CIS) does house and car insurance, and in my experience gives good personal service through local agents (there is one in Yeovil).

Other useful tips

• Use the Phone Co-op for telephone bills. This is a genuine cooperative, based in Oxfordshire: it is a bit cheaper than BT, and you can use its prefix number for your internet logging on. They have a website (www.thephone.coop 0845 458 9004).
• There are "green" ISPs: they do cost monthly sums: but if you want a free ISP the best one is Waitrose.com, as Waitrose/John Lewis is a type of workers' cooperative organisation.

Another thing you can do, is pressure any pension provider on their investments, to make sure they are ethical. Ditto auditors.

Any other ideas from anyone else?"

Susan Gibb

End of Year Review

Links with Greenpeace and Leaf

The past few years have seen the very positive relationship with Somerset Greenpeace strengthening with the 2 groups sharing meetings and joining forces in nearly all our campaigning work. In the last year a new alliance has been forged with Leaf the environment group from Richard Huish College. The involvement of the young people of this group has bought a new energy to our campaigns and brings hope for the future to all us tired old campaigners.

Genetic Modification

A constant campaign over the 5 years of Taunton FoE existence has been GM. This hugely successful campaign resulted in Somerset declaring itself a GM free county in July 2003 then the company which was trying to foist GM fodder maize on us announced it was no longer going to market this maize in the UK. This effectively removed the immediate treat of commercial planting of GM in the UK. However cattle in the UK continue to be fed imported GM fodder, GM contaminated imported seed and international commercialisation of GM crops continue to be of great concern.

The fight to prevent the importing of GM fodder has seen our campaigners pressing Sainsburys to ensure all its milk is sourced from cows feed on non-GM feed. As a result Sainsburys are trialing milk labelled GM free at selected supermarkets.

Members of the group have also attended GM rallies and lobbies in London the most recent being the Friends of the Earth Scarecrow lobby of parliament, demanding:

• the right to chose GM free food
• strict laws to prevent GM contamination
• liability laws to ensure the biotech companies pay if anything goes wrong

Local food/Organic food/Fair trade

We have continued to promote and lobby for organic, fair trade and local food wherever possible. Members of the group taking part in the Go Organic lobby of parliament and another lobby demanding trade justice.

Roads

There has been a recent spate of new road building announcements following an upsurge in road lobby pressure. In the Southwest the duelling of the A303 to Ilminster has been announced, as has the duelling of the A358 Ilminster to Taunton. We joined environmental groups, across the board, who successfully opposed the duelling of the A303 across the ANOB of the Blackdown Hills. We also expressed our opposition to the duelling of the A358 and our dismay that proposals to reduce the need for roads (from Government appointed consultants), are not even being talked about. In particular we would like to see an increase the capacity of the Exeter to Waterloo rail link and a new rail freight interchange at Exeter.

Meanwhile Taunton Vision proposals raised hopes that the inner relief road would be abandoned in favour of a cultural area. Unfortunately despite representation from us the local councils have decided to proceed with a version of the inner relief road. This new road, although an improvement on the original proposals, will still detract from the tranquillity of Goodlands Gardens and diminish from what could have been a vibrant cultural area. Proposals for a cinema in the cultural area having been dropped to make way for the new road.

Development

With recent consultations on the development of Taunton we have been pressing the council to ensure that new housing developments in and around Taunton are as sustainable as possible. In particular we are asking for new housing is built to a high environmental standard, has access to local facilities, and good transport links which promote non car transport to and from the rest of Taunton.

We have also objected to proposals to develop Taunton to the East of the M5 during recent consultation. The basis of our objection being that it would mean a massive increase in the size of Taunton effectively dividing the town in half because of the M5, while swallowing huge chunks of green field land next to the ANOB of the Blackdown Hills.

Waste

Our waste campaigners expended a considerable amount of effort into partaking in the council's waste local plan consultation. While minor changes were made, campaigners were left with a feeling that their efforts were not worthwhile as the process was overly bureaucratic with no clear connection between the issues or even individual council departments. Campaigners concluded it is more effective to challenge or support individual initiatives as they arise.

Wind Power

The proposal to build a wind farm next to Hinckley Point power station on the north coast of Somerset has lead to a concerted campaign in support of this proposal. Currently we are waiting on a date to be announced for the planning meeting, which will decide on the proposal, from West Somerset District Council.

Running of the group

While the group has continued to maintain a high level of campaign activity we have been unable to recruit anyone to fill some key positions necessary for the overall running of things. In particular we continue to be without a treasurer, membership secretary or newsletter editor. In consequence we only managed to produce 2 newsletters in 2004 and did not collect membership fees in this year either. Needless to say Dave would be very interested to hear from anyone interested in taking on any of these roles, regular attendance at meetings would not be necessary.