On April 6th our ward committee heard Charlie Croft explain how the replacement pool that was promised for the site will no longer be on offer - all that is on offer is a small community meeting room or £200,000 towards other local facilities. The dilemma is whether taking the money is 'selling out' or whether we should take whatever advantage we can from the scheme.

 The mood of the meeting was understandably hostile - why should we have another 'budget hotel' in place of what was a wonderful community sports facility? It was proposed that we should campaign for the site that had been earmarked for the replacement pool to be kept out of the land sell off so that if the money could be found from funding bids there would still be a site on which to locate facilities. We will debate this issue at full council next week - an amendment to a Labour motion will give us that opportunity.

Press release sent today below:

To make your own comment on the government policy review, go to http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review/ before April 14th 2006

If you want to know more about the issue, see http://www.fraw.org.uk/ebo/tour_info/ebo_introduction-a4.pdf 

or read 'Energy After Oil' by Paul Mobbs

A couple of graphs - for the end of oil, and the end of uranium.

from http://financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/petch/2005/0703.html

 

The first shows how oil declines from now. The pink trail is "if everyone shows spirit in humanity and cuts back on energy usage"... the dark blue is most likely, and the yellow path if we attack oil hard.

 

You will notice that uranium is gone by 2030 maybe earlier... (new nuclear power or not)

 

"Our global politicians should have prepared decades ago for the pending crisis, because the trend that occurs will dictate how hard society crashes and how high the human toll will be"

 

 

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Energy Review Motion  to City of York Council meeting  

April 11th 2006:

This council resolves to respond to the Government's Energy Review by writing to the Secretary of State -

1. Drawing attention to the commitment of City of York Council to the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change and its support for the Microgeneration Bill (July 2005), now represented through the Sustainable Energy Bill due to receive its third reading in May.

2. Stating that this council believes that enhanced building regulations(that increase energy efficiency) combined with expansion of renewables and other measures to reduce fossil fuel use for heating and transport are the most timely, cost effective and publicly acceptable ways of reducing CO2in order to address climate change.

3. Stating that this council believes that new nuclear power stations are not an option that should be supported for the UK at this time, and thatsolutions for the decommissioning of existing stations and long term safe storage and management of the existing nuclear waste must be a priority.

 Proposed:Cllr Andy D'Agorne

 

 

Highway Code - new draft revision

A new draft revision of the highway code has been published. Most of the cycle related stuff is in Rules 56-79. There are some good amendments, for example:

• The advice 'not to drink at all when driving, because any amount of alcohol can impair driving ability'
• Drivers MUST NOT ... use a vehicle with excessively dark tinting on the windscreen or window either side of the driver
• There is also a new section for new drivers.

The worst part is the insertion of the words 'cycle facilities' in section 58.

A wide range of cycling organisations have expressed deep concerns about this proposed change.

Rule 58 "Use cycle routes when practicable and cycle facilities such as advanced stop lines, cycle boxes and toucan crossings where they are provided, as they can make your journeys safer."

If you don't use a 'facility' then, in the event of a crash, a drivers insurance company could claim that your going against the highway code was "contributory negligence" and reduce your claim. The CTC makes a good case and asks people to fill in an online letter to their MP.

Now remember that shared use & segregated paths are facilities to. If this draft gets accepted you can expect increased intimidation of the 'You cyclists shouldn't be on the road' type. Some routes may make a pleasant leisure ride but are completely impractical route for commuting.

Cyclists have a right to choose a direct route rather than a 'facility'. Travel is complex and based on freedom of choice, freedom of choice whether to drive or cycle and which part of the network is best, considering speed, distance to be covered, skill level etc. Cycle Friendly Infrastructure acknowledges this.

If you object to the rewording of section 58, follow the link to send your comments to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) www.dsa.gov.uk/highwaycode before May 10th 2006

Autumn Conference 2006

The Green Party Autumn Conference 2006 will take
place at Hove Town Hall on 21st to 24th
September. The deadline for motions for the first
agenda is midnight on Thursday June 22nd. Motions
for the First Agenda should be sent to Chris
Cotton, Standing Orders Committee, 3A Silver
Road, Norwich NR3 4TX (Telephone 07950 715293) or
by email to soc@greenparty.org.uk.

Motions are required to be signed by 4 members, and to be
valid they must comply with rules set out in the
Green Party's agreed Standing Orders for the
Conduct of Conference- please contact Chris
Cotton (contact details above) for a copy of
these Standing Orders.  A first agenda summary
will be sent to all members and amendments should
be submitted before the Final Agenda deadline,
Thursday August 10th. The full first agenda will
be available on request, after the deadline, from the contact above.

A number of emergency motions were passed on topical issues:

Emergency Motions

EM1: Protecting Youth Hostels: Passed.

This conference notes:

i) As reported by the BBC and other sources, the
Youth Hostel Association (YHA) plans to close 32
hostels over the next three years.

ii) That this number means one in seven youth
hostels in England and Wales will be closed.

iii) Some of these hostels provide vital stops on
long distance paths.  In particular Keld, which
serves walkers on both the Pennine Way and the
Coast to Coast long distance paths.

iv) It has been reported in the Guardian that the
closures are to raise capital to invest in some
of the more urban hostels, which are more profitable.

v) That one of the stated aims of the YHA is to
help people develop a greater love, knowledge and care of the countryside.

This conference believes:

i) That in an age of cheap flights and obesity,
Youth Hostels support holidaying in the UK, and
healthy and sustainable leisure activities such as walking and cycling.

ii) That they enable people of all ages to get
out into some of the most spectacular parts of
the UK and develop a love of the environment and the countryside.

iii) That to close one in seven hostels will
undermine the hostel network as a whole, making it less

affordable and convenient for people to plan long
distance walking and cycling journeys.

iv) That although the YHA may be dependent on
some of its urban hostels to make a profit, it
should not focus on these to the detriment and closure of rural hostels.

This conference therefore:

i) Affirms its support of walking, cycling and outdoor holidaying in the UK.

ii) Calls upon the YHA to abandon the widespread
closures and its apparent change of focus to urban hostels.
    * Mandates the Green Party External
Communications officer to publicise this position.


EM2: Trade Union Mass Strike for Pensions: Passed.

Green party Spring 2006 Conference notes the
"Yes" Strike Vote by nine Trades Unions on March
15th 2006. The first strike to protect the Local
Government Pension Scheme for existing members is
expected on March 28th 2006 by up to 1 million Trade Union Members.

The Green Party Conference supports this campaign
and deplores the Labour Government's disgraceful
betrayal of pension rights due to millions of
workers and calls upon GPEx to publicise this position.


EM3: Regulatory Reform Bill: Passed.

Conference calls on the Executive to make known
the Green Party's vehement opposition to the
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill -
otherwise known as the Abolition of Parliament
Bill. This Bill threatens to shatter the very
foundations of democracy in this country,
allowing government ministers to create law
without consulting parliament, thereby replacing
a system of checks and balances - over six
hundred years in the making - with despotism.

The Bill has received bewilderingly little
publicity or media scrutiny and conference calls
on the Executive to help bring this leap towards
tyranny out of the shadows and into the public spotlight.


EM4: Climate Change Filibuster: Passed.

The Green Party condemns the Conservative Party's
fillibustering activities of their MPs Eric Forth
and Chris Chope of the Climate Change and
Sustainable energy Bill. We condemn their
leadership's hypocrisy in giving verbal support
but refusing to deal with their own members'
activities. We call upon the Executive to publicise our position.


EM5: Trust Schools: Passed.

Conference calls upon the Executive to promote
the Green Party's opposition to Government
proposals for the establishment of Trust schools.
Trust schools are not accountable to elected
local government. Trust schools also give
external interests undue weight in state
education by allowing business, religious and
other parties to take positions on school boards.

Conference calls upon the Executive to make known
its criticism for private funding of state
education and calls for public investment in local schools.

Conference calls upon the Executive to reject the
introduction of widespread selection and the
transport of children to distant schools
"championed" by the local authority, on the basis
that every child has the right to be educated at
a high-quality school in the local area.


EM6: Iran/Iraq/Palestine: Passed amended, as follows:

In view of the failure of British and American
forces to halt the escalating crisis in Iraq, and
in view of the very recent events in Jericho,
where British monitors clearly failed to prevent
violence and abduction, Conference calls upon the
Executive to lobby the British Government on this
issue to instigate the following Security Council resolutions:
    * That all British and American and allied
forces in any Middle East country, principally
Iraq and Afghanistan, be withdrawn over a period
of months, to be replaced by United Nations forces.
    * That all Israeli forces be withdrawn from
Palestine over a period of months to be replaced
by UN forces. This will enable the "Road-map" to make progress.
    * That member States cease to make veiled
threats of illegal military action against Iran,
and that greater efforts are made by the
international community genuinely to negotiate
with the Iranian government (involving respect
and a search for a workable compromise, as
opposed to simply making demands and threats
while offering vague promises of future possible
cooperation in return) in order to achieve a
solution that gives objective guarantees that
Iran is not pursuing a military nuclear
programme, and that gives objective security
guarantees by the US and Israel for the security and the integrity of Iran.

Conference also calls on the Executive to send a
message of support to the demonstrators in London
and across the world, who are tomorrow calling
for immediate withdrawal of British forces from
Iraq and an end to threats of illegal military
action towards Iran. We agree with the aims of
the Stop the War coalition, CND, and the Muslim
Association of Britain and send our full support.


EM7: Electoral Reform: Passed.

In the wake of the recent undisclosed political
loans scandal, Conference calls on the executive
to lobby the Lords Grand Committee to adopt Lord
Beaumont's amendment to the Electoral
Administration Bill. The amendment aims to
implement the exact recommendations of the
Electoral Commission's report to Government that
policy development grants be extended to parties
with two or more members in devolved assemblies
or parliaments or the European Parliament.


EM8: Human Guinea Pigs tragedy: Passed.

Conference expresses its sympathy to the victims
of the Northwick Park drug trials and to their
families. If it transpires that the drug given to
the humans was the same as that tested on
animals, this case illustrates in a tragic way
the limitations of testing on animals. Conference
instructs the Health and Animal Welfare speakers
to discover, using the Freedom of Information Act
if necessary, whether computer modelling and in
vitro cell based research were used to the full
to predict the toxicity of the drug in question,
and if not, to press Government to change the
regulations to ensure that they are so used in future.


EM9: Badgers, cattle & bovine TB: Passed.

This conference notes that the Government is
considering a widespread cull of up to a quarter
of the UK badger population in an attempt to
tackle the rising incidence of the cattle disease bovine Tuberculosis (bTB).

This conference recognises that at least 80% of
bTB outbreaks are attributed to cattle-to-cattle
transmission, and believe that the badger is
therefore being make a scapegoat to avoid
tackling the real animal welfare and intensive
farming issues which are at the root of the disease.

This conference calls on the Executive to
publicise the Green Party's unique political
position on this issue in the media. We call on
the national party and local groups to oppose any
such badger cull, denounce the Government's
continued persecution of the badger and promote
cattle-based measures to combat what is essentially a farming problem.


EM10: Closure of NERC Research Centres: Passed.

The Green Party of England and Wales:
    * Condemns the decision of the Natural
Environmental Research Council to close three
research centres in the course of reorganising
the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology.
    * These long-established centres at Monk's
Wood in Cambridgeshire, Winfrith in Dorset and
Banchory near Aberdeen have undertaken invaluable
work in monitoring the impact of climate change on biodiversity.
    * The reorganisation may take four years.
    * The continuity of research at these sites
will thus be destroyed as the reams of scientists
who undertook it are disbanded.
    * At a time when hard evidence on the impact
of climate change is vital to decision makers
this is an irresponsible decision.
    * Gives its full support to Friends of the
earth, the CPRE and the RSPB in calling for the
intervention of ministers to review the decision in the light of the above.
    * We instruct GPEx to write to the
appropriate minister setting out our position.


EM11: Peerages and Party Funding: Passed.

Conference notes:
    * the controversy over the appointment of new Labour peers.
    * That peerages appear to be given to major donors.
    * That secret loans to the Labour Party were
not even declared to the party treasurer.

These scandals highlight two problems:
    * the House of Lords is filled by appointment rather than by election,

and
    * political parties have to rely on rich
individuals, big businesses and trade unions for funds.

The Electoral Commission is investigating issues
around party funding and the second chamber. The
Green Party supports a fully elected House of
Lords by proportional representation and state
funding for political parties. These changes
would remove the dependence of parties on wealthy
donors and the temptation for parties to reward donors with honours.

Conference instructs GPEx to commend these
policies to the Electoral Commission.

In case anyone is interested to see what the government minister thinks on the phnomenon, go to http://www.odpm.gov.uk/cs/blogs/ministerial_blog/default.aspx The latest entry of Mar 29th is a comment on Bill Clinton's address to the Green Alliance on climate change... Weblogs in the UK have expanded from 20 million to 30 million in recent months - some people must have a brace of them!! Will it just be another passing fad or can it become a respected form of civilised communication and access to information?? You can comment below, for any other distracted internet user/ politico to read!