Leafleting today

Leafleting :   its good exercise, and gives you a chance to take a closer look at everyone's gardens.  The variety in gardening styles is as diverse as the people whose gardens they are.  There are the gravel-only types and the push your way through the bushes types, and everything in between.  Today I saw a large brown rat, and a pond literally bulging with frogspawn...and loads of brand new spring flowers !!  Only one hostile dog behind a letter box.

3 cheers for the green surge!

Green Party parliamentary candidates for Yorks and the Humber (some of the many) in Leeds 7 Feb.

Comedy Club - Greens get out a bit!

Last night we sloped along to Comedy Club at the lovely community run Frazer Theatre Knaresborough.  The crowd was in the swing when we arrived,  dressed  mainly in black and downing local beers.  We were immediately given a warm welcome to our seats by an unmistakeably Scouse guy: he and his partner had come east for the weekend and had seen this show was on...but they said they had asked locals the way to the Theatre, and noone had heard of it! Could have been the Comedy Club they hadn't heard of as its new to the Frazer....or does this mean that Knaresborough has a kind of double life? 

Anyway - back to the show:  it was excellent with 3 very different acts (Harriet Dyer and Peter Brush  first) - but beyond my wildest dreams in terms of the election campaign. Tom Toal, the MC, after finding that everyone he asked  in the audience worked in  IT, asked who has the most interesting job in the room so I put up my hand.  'Im standing for Parliament for the Greens,' I said.  Oh! he said, so what will you do for this area?  I went Wow - you really want me to say?...Yes he said.  Of course I hadn't prepared a speech, so I waffled something about making everything more friendly and not about money and greed...must have sounded very vague....but the Green theme continued throughout the evening.. with comments like 'I'll get the Green Party to sort you out'...

Tony Burgess , the 3rd act, was ecstatic about Knaresborough ...its like Narnia round here,  he said, even Christmas decorations still up in the market square, comparing it with his native Manchester - where you can't go for a walk in case they nick your legs and leave your torso on bricks.  He said what a diverse audience too...including an aspiring  Green MP....He asked if we had any BNP around here...then said 'NO - you will have sent them away- in a gondola or something!!'

The lovely Scouse couple (having compared notes with my Scouse husband, Bill)  said they will come along to Green Party conference in Liverpool in early March (the venue has had to be changed due to massive demand for places).  Several others commented warmly as well - so it was a fantastic night out in all respects and we shall be going again to Comedy Club!    

Air quality: message to DEFRA

http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2015/defra-alert/

Dear Mr O’Byrne,  

I wish to respond to Defra’s current consultation “Review of Local Air Quality Management (England) – regulatory and guidance changes”.  Your ‘preferred option’ is one which was condemned by 18,000 respondents to your 2013 consultation. As your impact assessment shows, your proposals could see local authority air quality monitoring slashed by 75% and spending on air quality reporting by 60%.  Local authorities are encouraged to rely on Defra’s air quality monitors but there are on 137 of those across England, compared to over 2,500 air quality monitoring devices run by local authorities.

Without detailed local air quality monitoring, many ‘hotspots’ of air pollution will be missed and local authorities will have no incentive to reduce pollution in those areas.  The National Planning Policy Framework emphasises the importance of taking existing or likely breaches of air quality standards into account when assessing new planning applications.

 The recent Environmental Audit Committee’s Air Quality report calls for stronger measures to protect clean air and public health through the planning system.  Yet without detailed local authority air quality monitoring and reporting, communities and planning authorities will have no way of knowing where standards may or may not be breached.

In many places, air quality monitoring is already insufficient – it needs to be strengthened, not decimated, while air quality reporting requirements must not be watered down.

I am further concerned about the proposal to abolish air quality objectives for four pollutants, two of which happen to be of particular concern in relation to fracking.  I believe that the UK’s Air Quality Objectives must be strengthened, not eroded.  The air quality objective for PM10 is twice as high as that recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for protecting public health while the PM2.5 objective is 2.5 times as high as that recommended by the WHO.

Your consultation claims to encourage local authorities to take more action to reduce PM2.5 emissions, which are especially harmful to human health, but proposes that PM2.5 should not be incorporated into air quality regulations and that local authorities should not have to monitor and report on it.

 Without comprehensive monitoring and reporting, nobody can know what PM

2.5 levels are and whether they are going up or down and whether EU Air Quality Standards will be met.

Air pollution is a significant cause of illness and premature death in the UK and the country is facing infringement procedures for having failed to meet EU air quality standards since 2010.  I therefore urge Defra to withdraw the current proposals and to draw up genuine plans for reducing air pollution, ones which must incorporate the Environmental Audit Committee’s recent recommendations.

Yours sincerely,

shan oakes

Rail campaign Jan 5th

Harrogate station: Greens, RMT and police ensure the public get the
information they need about the dire results of privatisation of public
services.

Ramblers at rest: Welburn Hall lunch break

What a lovely day it was - Jan 4th

BIG TREE

Walk with the Ryedale Ramblers on Sunday near Welburn Hall,
Kirkbymoorside, North Yorks. Not many big old trees like this anymore...