The Coventry Green Party is disappointed with the final masterplan for the city centre of Coventry.
Our main points of criticism:
- When you strip other factors away, the purpose of the new city centre is to create a place where people shop and shop and shop some more. The Green Party believes, both here in Coventry and nationwide, that we need a society-wide emphasis on sustainability. We can't keep consuming as we have, with shopping fuelled by credit card debt.
- The "10 Guiding Principles" of the project do not prioritise sustainability. Indeed, the "10 Principles" do not even mention carbon emissions, public transport, or how energy will be generated for new city centre buildings. These factors have to be integral to any future development in Coventry.
- It's unclear how representative the consultation was of Coventry's population. 42% of Coventry was under the age of 30 in the 2001 census. Less than 18% of those involved in the consultation were under 30. This seems very lopsided in a city with two universities (Coventry University; the University of Warwick).
- From areas/buildings to be knocked down/demolished, we need an explicit commitment to use the materials to help build community centres and repair schools throughout Coventry.
Scott Redding, local coordinator for the Coventry Green Party, said:
"Local high streets throughout Coventry should be strengthened, rather than drawing retail activity away into a city centre that will take 15 years to build."
"Instead of a Disneyland of a city centre, Coventry must attract the same degree of private investment and have it focused on putting our economy, city-wide, on a sustainable footing (retrofitting houses, renewable energy projects ward by ward, public transport)."
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For further comment or more information, you can contact Scott Redding on 07906 316 726, or at sgredding2003@yahoo.co.uk. He is now the prospective parliamentary candidate for Coventry South for the Green Party.
re: figures for under-30's in Coventry; 2001 statistics by Coventry's population: www.statistics.gov.uk
You can follow news and activities of the Coventry Green Party on:
]]>The next Coventry protest against the Israeli actions in Gaza will be on Monday, the 12th of January, at 6pm, in front of the Council House (Earl Street).
Please bring whistles, banners and placards.
You can find more information on the event on Facebook:
You can find more information on the national demonstration in London (Saturday, 10th January) here:
You might also want to see a video on the conscientious objector movement in Israel:
]]>It contains information on our next meeting in December, an article on the proposed mega-incinerator for Coventry and Warwickshire, and an article on how making our homes warmer can lead to a boom in youth employment.
]]>It's hard to exaggerate how much of a mistake a PFI-led incinerator project for Coventry would be. The city council wants to build the incinerator on urban greenbelt land (a flood plain, formerly used for allotments). The council assumes that waste will grow by 1.5% each year, but waste declined by 3% last year, and it's down this year as well. The council wants to increase spending on recycling by £500 000 a year. This sounds good, until you realise that the council also wants to spend an extra £4.5 million a year on incineration. We should be spending 9 times as much on reducing, recycling and reusing our waste, not on incineration.
]]>The Ecology Building Society specialises in funding green mortgages for properties offering an ecological payback. They lend money to people who want to build energy-efficient new homes.
As well, in 2004, 39% of the society's mortgages were for the repair and restoration of run-down property. Refurbishment and restoration is key to lowering carbon emissions.
The Green Building Council is calling for a "pay as you save" system. A homeowner or landlord would borrow the costs of improvements (new windows and insulation) from a council or bank. We would then pay the money back, over a number of years, with the costs covered by lower energy bills. This would virtually eliminate up-front costs to the consumer. It could also lead to tens of thousands of "green-collar" refurbishment jobs.
In contrast to the tsunami unleashed by financial speculation, we need to get back to investing in the real economy.
]]>Labour, coming out of its conference, has to realise that it's not about one good speech by Gordon. We won't cut greenhouse gases by 80% if John Hutton keeps championing new coal and nuclear plants. Alistair Darling needs to say the words "peak oil" and provide funding for a plan to address it. The next Transport Secretary should have three priorities, no more, no less. Walking first, cycling second, and public transport third. Caroline Flint must make every building a power station. Andy Burnham has to fund community media projects that link people together, so we can focus on all of these tasks.
Scott Redding, local coordinator for the Green Party, says: "It's not about photocalls with bananas, or redesigning the number 10 website. It's about policies, over the next 100 months, that will help our survival."
]]>The council needs to emphasise not just a plastic bag ban, but to reduce our consumption overall:
Coventry Green Party spokesman Scott Redding said:
"Plastic bags are more symbolic than anything. They might make up a small percentage of waste but cutting down on them might get people thinking in a different way."
"What's more effective is to get across the idea that plastic is oil and we should cut down on our use of plastic, full stop, by using glass bottles instead of plastic."
"Right now, the council is shying away from trying to reduce people's waste overall. They want to up the household recycling from 25 per cent to 50 per cent but they're taking 12 years to do it. In terms of non-plastic bag waste, they're setting their sights lower than they could."
]]>In addition to blocking food, police have confiscated such dangerous items as disabled access ramps, crayons, marker pens, radios, banners, nuts and bolts holding toilet cubicles together, blackboard paint, biodegradable soap, and toilet paper.
Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South-East:
"The climate camp protest is a peaceful and legitimate demonstration against a proposed facility that many view as a potent symbol of the government's misguided commitment to highly polluting and unsustainable fossil fuels."
"Activists from far and wide have travelled to register their disgust at government support for new coal-fired power stations and at the lack of urgent action on climate change."
"I am shocked by the violent and excessive attack on civil liberties meted out by the police here, as is my Green colleague on the London assembly and member of the Metrolitan Police Authority, Jenny Jones, who has already raised concerns with Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, and New Scotland Yard. We will be calling for any Met officers who have acted inappropriately to be reprimanded, fined or even sacked. It is crucial that we defend the right to peaceful protest, a right that is under threat from the government's disproportionate anti-terrorism legislation and anti-democratic amendments to its planning bill."
]]>The reason that energy bills are rising in Coventry is the fuel that we use. We heat our homes with oil and gas, but we are entering an era that will be defined by a peak in the supply of oil, as well as a growing dependence on a few countries (Russia, Iran) with large supplies of natural gas.
In response to this, we need energy security. Energy security won't come from hopeful letters from the city council to Malcolm Wicks. Energy security won't come from Gordon Brown urging Saudi Arabia to pump even more oil.
The Green Party on Kirklees Council (in Huddersfield) introduced the country's first universally-free insulation scheme. Any household, no matter what their income, qualifies for free cavity wall and loft insulation. It will save over £4.5 million in fuel bills, and it will create over 100 new local jobs.
Coventry could be a pilot city for only A and B rated white goods (ovens, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers) to be sold in stores.
We need to start thinking about not just renewable energy, but renewable heat. This can include solar thermal collectors, which heat water in pipes on your roof; wood-burning boilers; or air/ground source heat pumps. A basic solar thermal system roughly costs £1 800 and provide 80% of a typical family's hot water during summer months. A 20kW wood boiler can cost £5,000.
Scott Redding, local party coordinator for the Coventry Green Party, said:
"We need to concentrate more on how our homes are powered, not just plastic bags or switching off the TV from standby or recycling."
"I'd like to see a lot more discussion in Coventry about renewable forms of heat. We need a multi-year, multi-million pound public/private partnership to make renewable forms of heat affordable to working-class families in Coventry."
]]>People should write to Coventry's three Labour MPs, and urge them to oppose the extension of detention without trial to 42 days.
Emergency measures already exist, under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004). If police are overwhelmed by multiple terror plots, the government can use this Act to temporarily extend pre-charge detention.
A wide variety of experts -- the current director of public prosecutions, the head of counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, the former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, the former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, the former lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, and the former head of the Met, Lord Condon -- are unconvinced of the need for 42 days.
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