OCT 2007
Hull & E. Riding Green Party
Topics
Climate Crisis (10)
Stop the War (3)
Iran (12)
Iraq (13)
Hull CND (3)
Civil Liberties (8)
9/11 issues (6)
Go Green (3)
Interesting Articles (13)
Funnies (4)
Invest?
31.5.07 - I hear Hull City Council has sold it's shares in KC netting £100,000,000. I also hear this is to be invested giving an income of about £6,000,000.
What's the chances they could investigate building a recycling paper plant for Hull. Or actually buy a VCU, Vertical Composting Unit, like I saw being used in Manchester to process tons of green waste a year, producing lots of useable compost every few weeks.
Environment I
Domestic Renewable Energy
- promote renewable energy provision in the domestic and business sectors
- incentivise and subsidise these and the important area of energy conservation.
- Present Labour government grants are laughable - monthly funding for renewables is exhausted on the first day of each month
Martin Deane on the planned Casino.
Gambling with Hull's future.
The casino planned for the fruit market south of Clive Sullivan Way will be subject to an oppositional campaign.
Casinos increase debt where they have been built. Promoting gambling should not be the way Hull seeks to create jobs!
This is driven by central government for friends in America.
PEOPLE ARE OUR PRIORITY not the prospect of minimal jobs to enrich casinos and impoverish gamblers.
Editor, Hull Daily Mail
Dear Sir,
We welcome the Lords vote recently to put the plan for casinos and supercasinos on the back burner.
Your article did not report any of the arguments against but seems to presume a consensus across Hull that everyone thinks they would be a jolly good thing.
Since when has it become common knowledge that casinos lead to regeneration of cities? If casinos are the magic answer to bring wealth and regeneration to everyone then how come they are not being pioneered by Oxfam, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and so on?
There are good reasons why the Lords defeated it, why a number of Bishops spoke out against it and why government whips were running around like headless chickens trying to make sure MPs numbers added up to force it through: problems like gambling addiction, the attraction to young people, the lives it wrecks, and how addictions of all kinds fuel crime.
Even Prof Peter Collins (Salford) who is for casinos, says they suggest an increase in problem gambling of 50%. He does say that this can be offset by a public awareness campaign of problem gambling. But is this planned?
What happened to thoughtful housing planning, good town and environmental planning, progressive transport policies, provision of public services? No doubt Council will claim they are doing all those things and now need a casino to top it off. Casinos are not the cherry on the cake!
Who makes money out of casinos? The people? The Council? Or is it the owners of "the house"? We stand for all those people who think it's the wrong direction!
Let's face it. It wouldn't be the first time!
Regards,
Martin Deane Hull & E.Riding Green Party
The Big Screen - A Questionnaire.
On 10th March the Green Party consulted people in Queen Victoria Square on the Big Screen. We wanted to see if people wanted to keep it there or investigate alternative ideas. Here are the results >>>
Challenge supermarkets
Members are seeking ways to resist the encroachment of major supermarket chains across the remaining retail sector. Their highly centralised distribution system accounts for hunderds of thousands of food miles annually.
Quaywest, Go West!
Quaywest was passed on March 9th with minimum fanfare. From Princes Quay to Ferensway down to Staples, yet another really big shopping development is on the way. But with vacant lots on Whitefriargate and Princes Quay and St Stephen's yet to open: does Hull really need it?
Huge swathes of retail merely continue the Business-As-Usual scenario promoting unfettered economic growth. It is not sustainable.
Environment II
Climate Change Strategy
Hull STILL does not have a CCS despite being so vulnerable. We will push for a progressive one such as Woking's. We will seek for Hull to live up to its Nottingham Declaration and promote the Merton Rule to provide for 10% renewable energy generation in sizable non-residential new build.
Incinerator Transparency?
- Hull LAB and LIB DEM Councillors passed the incinerator.
- We opposed this as many Hull people have for years.
- We have actively sought full access to the contract. We are told it is not available in digital form! Now most of it will be made available but at a cost of about £42 p a sheet!
- It has been pursued under Freedom of Information.
- the FOI Office remarked on Hull being surprisingly resistant.
- It is still unknown the extent of liability that Hull people have.
- The Incinerator's not built yet but toxins, heavy traffic, threats to recycling are already major concerns.
- We will work for full transparency and seek to mitigate as effectively as possible the negative consequences of this approval.
Zero Waste - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
We will promote Hull adopting a Zero Waste policy aiming for 100% RRR of materials. This will put us with the world's most progressive cities on waste management. We will promote Hull's recycling independence and seek to create jobs with sustainability in mind.
The 3 R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
We will promote reduce, reuse, recycle, especially against excess supermarket packaging, and for more recycling points and cardboard processing too. We will build enthusastically on the recycling rate of 22% which Hull people have doubled in less than 2 years and deserve more recognition for.
Local Democracy
We will work for a petition section on the Council website and in the Guildhall where people can create their own local petitions to drive progress in Hull, to gather support and to effect real people-driven change.
Faslane - the local Green Party joined the Yorkshire anti Trident Protest as part of Faslane365. A Parliamentary debate will vote on Blair's wish to renew the Trident nuclear system. It stands for a theft from across British society and the escalation of a new arms race. >>>
Green Party policy: Scrap Trident. Scrap the new nuclear weapons projects at AWE Aldermaston. Defend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) Treaty. The monies saved should be used across the public sector from education to health.
A tunnel for Castle Street - Got that sinking feeling?
The Highways Agency in Government may rubber stamp this as it is supported by all MP's and all PRESENT councillors. Anybody ask you? Hull City Council reckons Castle Street needs £250 million worth of tunnel dug under the River Hull to cope with traffic.
The Green Party opposes this. Tunneling under the Hull has failed dismally in the past. The stories of Yorkshire Water and the bridge at Ennerdale are testimony. A Green councillor would seek to reduce the level of traffic not increase it. Major works are very costly in carbon terms. Works now need to be studied from an environmental viewpoint - not just short term gain.
"Burning the Future" : Hull LIBDEM and LAB councillors voted thorugh the WRG Incinerator for Saltend. LAB and CON councillors on ERYC Council approved it in December. The way is clear for bulldozers... Do you need a Green councillor yet?
Green Party policy: Incineration is the "solution" to the wrong question! Incineration destroys materials, transporting waste clogs up roads, it poisons people! Our priorities are: to reduce, reuse and recycle. >>>
The police helicopter. Up? Or away?
The Green Party is unhappy with levels of accountability for the helicopter. We want to know and understand it is properly being used for the good policing. Is it efficient in combatting drug dealers? As claimed? Is it value for money? It adds noise pollution, is up a lot, and flying is set to become the single greatest cause of climate change before long. The Green Party is investigating this.
Martin Deane, Hull Green Party on Diana Johnson, MP's take on Iraq.
With the peace movement, the Green party calls for the immediate withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq due to the war and occupation being illegal and immoral and unwanted by the vast majority of Iraq. It is driven by Bush and the UK's few thousand troops make little effective difference. The occupation must end. Blair must go. >>>