"High Speed [Rail] 2" (HS2), a new high speed rail link from Euston to Birmingham then to Manchester and Leeds and ultimately Scotland has been approved by the UK Government.

North West Green Party oppose HS2

Professor John Whitelegg, former Lancaster councillor and Green Party (England & Wales) spokesperson on sustainable development, said

"The decision to approve HS2 is a mistake and is based on deeply flawed assumptions that have not been subjected to rigorous, independent audit. On both economic and environmental factors it simply does not add up.

• High speed rail is not a "get out of jail" free card for carbon emissions and cannot justified on the back of very large increases in all modes of transport and increases in energy use.
• Time savings on train journeys leading to job creation is not supported by the evidence. 
• Train journeys are not "wasted", with zero productivityas is assumed in the report

Passenger behaviour contradicts these theories and inspection of passenger behaviour on any inter city train will show. There have been impressive developments of sophisticated teleconferencing, videoconferences and on-the-move IT solutions. Improving IT infrastructure and teleconferencing pervasiveness will solve many "needs to travel"

Does a successful economy really need 20,000 people a day leaving Manchester to go to London and another 20,000 leaving London to go to Manchester? 

North West Green Party solution

Capacity problems on the West Coast Main Line can be solved by more trains, longer trains, passing loops and intelligent city regional planning.

Our cities desperately require the kind of reliable, affordable, sophisticated public transport systems we can find in Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna. The economic, social and environmental gains from spending £3 billion in each of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham far outweigh the gains claimed for HS2.

It is a disaster that we will spend so much money on a single project during the UK's current fiscial situation that for the same money we could improve most of the UK's cities.

The Committee had been due to discuss a planning application relating to a controversial new industry  - shale gas ‘fracking’ - which could affect many residents in Lancashire over the coming years. Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, involves pumping water and chemicals deep into the ground to fracture a layer of shale and force out natural gas which would otherwise remain trapped within the rock. The process was initially developed in the USA, where its environmental and health impacts have generated a great deal of public concern and anger.  The impacts including chemical contamination of groundwater (a source of drinking water), and air pollution leading to respiratory problems in communities living close to the drilling sites.

Cuadrilla Resources has already begun exploratory drilling and fracking of the Bowland Shale which lies beneath large parts of Lancashire, and the UK Government looks set to issue licenses for more shale gas extraction across the UK. The French Government is concerned enough to have imposed a ban, and many people are now calling for the UK Government to do the same.

 Discussion of the planning application lodged by Cuadrilla Resources was deferred until the next meeting of this committee, on 14^th September 2011.

County Councillor Chris Coates, who took part in the demonstration, commented: “I was really pleased to hear about the decision to defer this matter. Cuadrilla have suspended fracking at Weeton (near Kirkham), pending further investigation of recent earthquakes which may have been caused by their operations, and it is important that councillors who sit on this committee have the fullest information about what this company is intending to do before any agreement is made to their request for a 12-month extension to exploratory drilling at the site.” 

County Councillor Sam Riches, who was also present in the demonstration, added: “Further planning applications for drilling and fracking in other locations in Lancashire are expected in the future, and it is really important that people across the county are fully aware of the risks which seem to be associated with this technology. We need residents to talk to their county councillors about the issue and ensure that decisions are taken which really represent residents' wishes.”

Philip Mitchell of Blackpool & Fylde Green Party, who is a leading UK campaigner against onshore and unconventional gas, said: “We are approaching all the county councillors who sit on this committee, to make sure that they do not make any decisions 'on the nod' but are fully informed about this issue. Even excuding the risk of it triggering further earthquakes, fracking has too much potential to do harm to  communities and the countryside across large parts of Lancashire. We all need to ensure that we do not start off on a path towards a future we won't want.”

For further information contact:

County Cllr Sam Riches email:   phone:  07909 001432

Philip Mitchell  email:  phone:    07715 363587

A suspected unlicensed dog breeding operation in an agricultural building off Ashton Road in Lancaster has been closed down by the Police and RSPCA, after concerns were raised by local Green Party Councillors, as well as by many members of the public.

Councillor Melanie Forrest raised her concerns at a local ‘Police And Communities Together’ meeting in early July. The issue was taken up by a Police Community Support Officer, Amy Knott, who arranged an unannounced visit to the site with the RSPCA and a vet.

They found 37 dogs in total, mostly pugs and shitsus, lurchers and spaniels, including 2-3 week-old puppies. All had some sort of health problems (such as skin conditions, conjunctivitis and overgrown nails). The owner of the dogs was nowhere to be seen.

Cllr Forrest said: “I would like to thank our PCSO and the RSPCA for their swift action to protect animal welfare. It is very distressing to think that dogs are being kept in large numbers indoors, presumably so that somebody can make money from breeding and selling them.”

The RSPCA have taken the dogs into their care in centres around the NW, where they will remain until the case goes to court. The RSPCA are confident that they will be able to find new homes for all of them.

"When the history of nuclear electricity generation is finally written readers will wonder how a supposedly intelligent species could embrace a technology with such enormous destructive potential. The catalogue of disastrous consequences associated with Chernobyl and Fukushima tell their own story and point unerringly to the need to follow the German and Swiss examples and terminate nuclear electricity generation and shut down the plants.

Nuclear power is a moral and ethical issue of enormous importance. Should we embrace a technology that is used to produce electricity to boil kettles, operate lights and run domestic appliances when the consequences of human error and technical failure are so very dramatic and long lived? Should we embrace a technology that requires the transport and storage of highly dangerous nuclear materials across the country and across the world often on trains that traverse London or go though all our main population centres in the NW? The risks are too great to be tolerated and the time is long overdue when we should embrace alternative sources of electricity generation especially the so-called renewables (wind, wave, tidal, solar) that do not carry the risks associated with nuclear.

The moral and ethical issue is made considerably easier to handle because scientific analysis shows that we can shut down the nuclear option and meet our electricity demand from efficiency savings microgeneration, renewables and some gas and coal (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2009). We do not need nuclear power.

Getting rid of nuclear power brings about a large number of co-benefits in addition to the elimination of unacceptably high risks. These include large scale job creation of the kind already seen in wind energy in Denmark and photo-voltaics in Germany. The UK has considerable resources of renewable energy in its wave and tidal environment and exploiting these resources can create thousands of jobs in places that really need them including Liverpool, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Heysham, Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington. These jobs will be additional to the many thousands of jobs that will still be needed to deal with decommissioning of Sellafield, Heysham reactors and the other nuclear facilities associated with fuel fabrication in the NW.

A nuclear free future for the NW is something really worth fighting for. The region can be freed from the multiple risks of nuclear accidents and failures, it can be transformed into a shining beacon of innovation and job creation linked to renewables and the billions of pounds likely to be thrown into the nuclear option can be put to socially useful and sustainable purposes rather than increasing the likelihood of a major ecological disaster."

Reference

Stockholm Environment Institute (2009) Europe’s share of the climate challenge

http://sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/europes_share_heaps_09.pdf.pdf

Councillor Robinson is a retired software developer, now a student of horticulture at Reaseheath College and a Cheshire East Waste Reduction Volunteer. She says, “As a mother and grandmother, I have deep concerns about the state of the world, and what we are creating for our children. We need to think globally but act locally. As a Town Councillor, I will work towards increased local sustainability for Alsager.”

The Government, we were told, had listened to the people, apologised for ‘getting this one wrong’ and backed down.ⁱⁱⁱ Demonstrations were called off.^iv Environment correspondents turned their attention to other issues.

Imagine our astonishment then, when Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman quietly announced her intention to go ahead with the sale of 15% of our forests (see here)  notwithstanding the overwhelming public opposition to this policy.   

Jackie Tait, Green Party candidate for Gowy Ward in Cheshire West and Chester wrote to Stephen Mosley MP asking for an explanation of this extraordinary double U-turn.

‘The sale of the 15% of public forests’ replied Mosley ‘was in fact agreed to by the previous Government. As you may be aware, the whole reason that the Coalition Government proposed legislation within the Public Bodies Bill was to protect rights of access from this specific sale and any future sale of forestry land. Because that specific policy has been withdrawn, due in large part to the scaremongering of the opposition, this sale will now go ahead in the same fashion as previous sales under the Labour Government, without the guaranteed rights of access that our policy was intended to protect.’

So there you have it. It looked like a climb-down. The Government said they had ‘listened’. The Environment Secretary apologised. They removed the offending clauses from the Public Bodies Bill. But all this means is that they are going ahead as planned, flogging off our forests with no guarantees that public access or environmental management will be safeguarded.

The Green Party want our forests to remain in public ownership. We want to work with the Forestry Commission to improve environmental stewardship of natural spaces, and get the right balance between public education and enjoyment and preserving forests as a haven for wildlife, promoting biodiversity and climate protection.

On May 5^th you will have a chance to have your say. You can vote for more of the same arrogance and duplicity. Or you can vote for the Green Party.^vi

Jackie Tait (NWGP media officer and Green Party candidate for Gowy Ward in Cheshire

Cllr Andrew Kay (Lancaster, Bulk ward) has been campaigning against cuts and closures of schools, post offices and social care services.

Kay says that: "I am determined to fight cuts to local services, including those planned for Firbank children's centre, the Ridge community centre and to home care services for older people. There are alternative ways of reducing the deficit without being so destructive."

A councillor for Bulk since 2009, Andrew helped set up "Lancaster and Morecambe Against the Cuts," a 500-strong coalition of people from all walks of life who are opposed to the government's budget cuts. He also reduced the city council's budget through efficiency savings, through reducing the number of managers on top salaries.

There are 34 candidates standing for the Green Party in the Lancaster city council elections on 5th May 2011. They present a slate that will fight for properly funded public services that are accessible to everyone, regardless of income.

Andrew Kay: "We will not stand by while the rich get richer and ordinary people lose their jobs and services they depend on."

The North Lancashire Green Party continues to support the campaign to "Keep our NHS Public" and wants to reduce public sector waste and energy bills instead of reducing public services. They are also opposing the county council's planned closure to two of Lancashire's respite residential centres for young people with learning disabilities.

Such actions obviously appeal to the public. Lancaster has a strong Green following and are considered to be one of the most successful local Green Party groups in England. Greens believe that economic activity should be locally-based, with companies being locally-owned and run. The local Green campaign to save the Lancaster market gained public support and attention, as have their campaigns to gain better public transport, protect green fields, and to make the district a 20mph zone.

The 2011 Green manifesto for the Lancaster city council elections promises to:

- give homes the ability to produce their own renewable energy,

- use local recycling as a way to generate more jobs, and,

- give local businesses, public services, arts and voluntary organisations the chance to thrive, instead of being cut and forced to close.

To help the North Lancashire Green Party continue to make a constructive difference to the district, oppose harmful cuts to services, and fight for a fairer society, vote Green on 5th May.

The Greens are fielding a full slate in Liverpool (30 candidates) and Trafford (22 candidates), with large numbers of candidates also in Manchester (28) and Wirral (20).  In Lancaster, where the Greens are defending 12 seats on the City Council, the Party is fielding 32 candidates.  

For a full list of boroughs where the Greens are standing, plus candidate numbers see here 

"The oil and gas industry is seeking to exploit UK onshore gas reserves trapped in shale rock and coal beds requiring environmentally damaging and risky techniques, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

This conference condemns the Coalition Government for refusing to impose a ban, demanded by environmental groups, on shale gas, and on the related coal bed methane extraction industry, at least until the results of studies here and in the US could have been considered.

This conference expresses concern at the historic first UK use of this technology at a site of an important groundwater aquifer and notes that over 80 further applications have been applied for around the UK.

Conference instructs GPEx to publicise the issues to enable the Green Party at every level to take a firm line to protect communities, drinking water and the environment."

Prominent  Greens from the North West were leading proposers of a national Green Party motion taken at last weekend’s Cardiff conference which stated that the proposed high speed rail link (‘HS2’) would be economically and environmentally unsound.

 The conference vote was overwhelmingly against the HS2, the first stage of which is a new £16 billion, 250 mph train link between London and Birmingham. Future plans include an extension to Manchester, which would not be completed until around 2032.

Consultations on the first phase of the plans open today (28^th Feb.).

The Green Party remain committed to genuine improvements in public transport, but say that any high speed rail project would need to meet strict criteria.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP said:

"The Green Party is opposed to the current HS2 proposals. The economic case is unsound. The claims about reducing CO2 emissions are questionable to say the least. And the huge damage which would be caused to local communities and their environment would be unsustainable."

Transport expert and Lancaster councillor, Prof. John Whitelegg (pictured below proposing the motion at the conference) said:

“The proposed HS2 would burn 50% more energy mile for mile than the Eurostar and would produce more than twice the emissions of a current Intercity train.

Also HS2 will be a rich person’s railway – the business case for it assumes that a third of passengers will be on incomes of £70,000 or more. Greens are passionately committed to social justice and to the environment. The current HS2 proposals would serve neither.”

Other signatories to the motion from this region included North-West Green Party Co-ordinator Emily Heath and Chair of Manchester Green Party Brian Candeland.  

Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay described the savage cuts to public services as ‘regressive, divisive and socially destructive.’

Everyone agrees that we need to transition our economy away from carbon intensive energy usage. But can we afford Green ideals in times of austerity? The Green Party thinks we can and must invest now to build a sustainable future.

Says Howard Thorp, Chair of the Campaigns Working Group of the North West Green Party and leader of Cheshire West and Chester Greens:

For further information, contact:

Directors of Public Health in the North West have produced the report, which draws attention to the high rates of death and injury on roads in the region where children are more likely to be injured in RTCs than anywhere else in the country.

Green Party spokesperson on sustainable development (and Lancaster City Councillor), Prof John Whitelegg commented:

“This is an incredibly important report from NHS Directors of Public Health.  It says we have a serious problem with death and injury on the roads and it says the solution is a 20 mph limit. I agree.

 “The report presents compelling evidence that lives could have been saved and injuries reduced if 20 mph limits had been introduced in residential areas.”

The reports main points include:

·         Child casualty information shows that two-thirds of children who are killed or seriously injured on the roads are boys.

·         Over four-fifths of child casualties occur on roads that have a speed limit of 30 mph, and statistical modelling shows that up to 140 killed or seriously injured child casualties could be saved each year if 20 mph speed limits had been applied in these areas.

In the report, road traffic casualty rates are measured for all local authorities in the North West.  Stockport is the “best” with 342 casualties per 100,000 population and Eden the worst at 793 per 100,000 population.  Lancaster is 477 casualties per 100,000 population.

 The full report, Road Traffic Collisions and Casualties in the North West of England, was produced by the North West Public Health Observatory in conjunction with NHS North West, the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, the Child and Maternal Health Observatory and the Trauma and Injury Intelligence Group. See http://www.nwph.net/nwpho/Publications/Forms/rta.html.

Further information from Green Party national press office, 020 7561 0282.

The technique, known as fracking (hydraulic fracturing) has already caused pollution in parts of the United States.  There have been claims of contamination of water supplies, and New York State has already introduced a moratorium on gas exploration.  The technique is featured in the documentary film 'Gasland' which has been released today (17th Jan), promoted by the Co-operative as part of its Toxic Fuels campaign.   

Blackpool Green Party have called for a moratorium on drilling at the Bowland shales site near Blackpool.  Chair of Blackpool Green Party, Philip Mitchell, said: 

"In America there have been examples in which the well has had to be blown out and explosive liquid has spilled out onto the ground, which causes a fire hazard and pollution hazard," he said.

"The pollution has many different ways of getting into the ground, gas is dissolved in water and can find its way into the water course.  There has been little interest at any level of government in public safety and the impact on the Lancashire countryside"

Philip has written to the Department for Energy and Climate Change asking that further licences should not be granted until concerns have been addressed.  

See BBC coverage here   Picture from BBC Lancashire website

As is usual under first-past-the post there was evidence of a high degree of tactical voting.  The Lib Dem vote will have been bolstered by tactical Tory votes.  Similarly although the Green's candidate Peter Allen gained considerable respect on the campaign trail, many potential Green voters will have been persuaded to vote tactically between Labour and the Lib Dems.  

The Green Party's vote share of 1.5% can be compared with similar tight-fought Parliamentary by-election results, such as the Crewe and Nantwich by-election back in 2008 when the Greens only polled 0.9%. 

The responses?  (note: situation at time of posting, the day before polling day) 

 Conservatives - no reply 

 Labour - no reply (!)

 Lib Dems - no reply

 UKIP - no reply 

The Green Party's Peter Allen - a detailed response to each question: 

For details of the questions and Peter's answers see here:  http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/pcs_in_the_north_west/make-your-vote-count/index.cfm 

This is not the first time during the campaign that Peter (picture right) has outshone rivals from other Parties.  At a weekend hustings meeting attended by around 200 people Peter arguably won the greatest applause of the candidates present:  see Youtube clips below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpnvJqSvS_o 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6taoJt9Gdg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFHTghOh-Uk

Polling takes place tomorrow (Thurs 13th).  Whilst lacking the big bucks available to other Parties, the Greens have run an energetic campaign on the ground in the run up to polling day with 30 people out campaigning last Sunday alone.  

Out on the campaign trail again in sub-zero temperatures, Peter is adamant that the planet is still hotting up, and the deal hammered out at Cancun is not enough to save us from dangerous climate change.

‘The recent cold weather in the UK may have persuaded people that global warming is no longer, or was never, a reality' says Peter. ‘Nothing could be further from the truth. Looking at the world as a whole - as we must - 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record.'
Another severe winter and the Sceptics are out in force pouring cold water on the scientific case for climate action. But local people are warming to the Green alternative in this by-election, and general disillusionment with the dominance of the three main parties is not the only reason. In an area well known for vibrant multiculturalism many residents have family ties to vulnerable areas of the world like Bangladesh and Pakistan where the devastating effects of global warming are already painfully apparent.

‘The economic damage from an increasingly unstable climate will be horrendous'

The idea that environmental protection is a luxury we can't afford in a time of austerity doesn't wash with Green Party media chief Spencer Fitz-Gibbon. Says Spencer: ‘The economic damage from an increasingly unstable climate will be horrendous, so we can't afford not to tackle climate change'.

The transport chaos over the festive season would seem to bear this out. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond fiercely denies that the coalition government handled this year's severe winter even less competently than their predecessors, who failed to secure a sufficient supply of rock salt last year for councils to grit the treacherous roads. But he hesitates to commit more resources to building winter resilience until his scientific advisors can clarify whether or not we can expect more of the same in winters to come.(1) Paradoxically this is a question about climate change, which is making the planet on average warmer, but may have some unexpected local effects.

Green Party leader Dr Caroline Lucas MP has criticised the recent deal at Cancun, saying "It's a very weak deal - enough to keep the ongoing negotiation process alive, but not enough to save the climate.” 

Peter Allen sums up the Green Party position: ‘We cannot rely on the world’s leaders to take the necessary action to combat climate change. We must build a mass campaign in support of the demand for a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, combined with a demand for global justice and sustainable development for people across the planet.’ This is the vision that motivates him to head out into the snow again to speak to the voters of Oldham and Saddleworth.

Green Councillor Professor John Whitelegg said "I'm very disappointed indeed that Council has opted to support something that is intrinsically dangerous and high risk when there are many alternatives capable ofgenerating large amounts of electricity that are associated with trivial and insignificant risks.  The evidence is that nuclear is a far more expensive way of reducing carbon emissions than promoting energy conservation and renewable energy.

Nuclear power will not create the jobs or the attractive image that the district needs; instead the Council should support wind and wave power and other renewable energy technologies, all of which have far greater potential to create jobs and minimise risks."

As well as being a long-serving Lancaster City Councillor, John Whitelegg is Professor of Sustainable Transport at Liverpool John Moores University and Professor of Sustainable Development n the Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York.  He was also Deputy Chair of the Local Government Association, Regeneration and Transport Board for 3 years.

For more information see the Virtual Lancaster site   

Peter said "The Green Party has a fully costed set of policies which do not involve cuts in public services. We would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy, recycling and upgrading the housing stock. We would reduce the obscene level of inequality that blights our society. The Coalition Government are proposing vicious cuts in public spending which will hit the poorest hardest and will do lasting damage to our public services.

The voters of Oldham East and Saddleworth are the first to have the opportunity to express an opinion about this government at the ballot box. I am asking people to reject their divisive and damaging policies and support instead the Green Party’s commitment to a more equal, just and sustainable society."

Oldham Green Party Councillor Ian Barker says ‘We are very pleased to have Peter representing the Green Party in Oldham East & Saddleworth' 

For more information on the campaign as it develops see Oldham Green Party

Promoted by Cllr Ian Barker, 16 Douglas St, Failsworth M35 9PS

The Cheque Centre offers short-term loans to tide over borrowers until pay day.

It accepts business from people with a poor credit history but charges are high.

Someone borrowing £500 for a couple of weeks would pay back £602.41.

John Reardon, the Green candidate for Carlisle at this year's General Election, argues that the Cheque Centre is taking advantage of vulnerable people.

He said: "They draw in people who need to borrow money and who feel like they have nowhere else they can go. Many people find they have no alternative but to be held to ransom by vultures such as these.

"We believe that the rates on offer at these sorts of places are disgusting and completely unacceptable.

"People are getting charged average annual percentage rates (APRs) of 827 per cent by increasingly visible, modern-day loan sharks like the Cheque Centre.

"Some APRs approach 2,500 per cent and they are perfectly legal."

Mr Reardon advised would-be borrowers to visit the credit union in Lowther Street.

This is a non-profit making organisation that provides savings and loans.

Members are encouraged to save regularly and, once they have done so for eight weeks, can borrow twice the amount they have saved. Interest on loans is charged at 12.68 per cent APR.

Mr Reardon added: "Credit unions help to educate people about how to take charge of their finances.

"They encourage people to save and help them get control of their lives. People in Carlisle need to know there are alternatives to simply getting ripped off by these high street loan sharks."

The Cheque Centre is part of a 140-strong chain based in Edinburgh.

Reported in the 'News and Star'

The prospect for valuable jobs allowing local people to make their contribution to solving the climate crisis is very attractive.
At the same time we need to look for wider solutions, finding ways to use much less energy in transport, industry and buildings.  There is no future for endless economic growth on a planet with finite resources - however we generate our electricity. In a successful city region within a "steady state" economy we will find ways to look after each other and find fulfilment without always measuring it by how much we get and spend.

A report from investment body the Mersey Partnership estimates that expansion in the Irish Sea zone alone could be worth £15bn.    For more information see the Liverpool News