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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Autumn '05 News |
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Greens double their support in Whiddon Valley
Green Party candidate Earl Bramley-Howard came much closer to winning a seat in the Whiddon Valley and Forches by-election on 27th Oct, as the Greens' share of the vote rose to 36%. In large areas of Whiddon valley, two out of every three votes were reported to be Green votes. The majority of those that visited polling booths on the day voted Green; it was the postal vote, a relatively recent innovation to the electoral process, that secured victory for the Liberal Democrat candidate Julie Hunt.
In the previous Whiddon Valley and Forches by-election less than two months earlier, 20% of the votes went to the Green Party.
The Green Party campaigned on a range of policies aimed at reducing North Devon's dependence on oil, to tackle the threats posed by Climate Change and Peak Oil to our local community, and to the World as a whole. The successful Lib Dem candidate mentioned just one policy area in her leaflet: road-building.
The Lib Dems also publicly criticised the Green Party for calling an election. Green candidate Earl Bramley-Howard commented:
"our local Liberal Party would have preferred it if we didn’t have the right to vote at all this time! They approached us (the Green Party) and suggested that we shouldn’t call an election, because it is an expensive business. But we believe that people’s right to vote for whoever they want is paramount.
"This country has a long tradition of democracy! My father fought in the Second World War to protect the democratic way of life and I resent deeply, the Liberal’s suggestion that we shouldn’t exercise that right at every available opportunity!
"The Liberals are basically saying that it is too expensive to have democracy in Barnstaple!
This by-election saw a particularly low turnout of 7%, and nearly a third of those were postal voters. Barnstaple's Town Council now has twenty-one Lib-Dems, two Conservatives, one Independent and one Green. The next full local elections will be in 2007.
The full results are available here.
South-east England's largest wind farm gets the go-ahead after Public Enquiry
Kent is set to make a major contribution in the battle against global warming following the Government's green light for a wind farm on Romney Marsh.
The 78MW wind farm scheme will be slightly larger and have taller turbines than that proposed for Fullabrook Down in North Devon. Local opposition to the scheme was backed by Michael Howard MP, the outgoing leader of the Conservative Party in whose constituency the wind farm site lies. The resulting Public Inquiry heard evidence from interested parties including Kent County Council, Shepway District Council, npower renewables, English Nature, the RSPB, Greenpeace, the Green Party and Friends of the Earth - as well as more than 100 letters of support from local residents.
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks announced the green-light for the scheme during a keynote speech at the British Wind Energy Association's annual conference in Cardiff.
He stressed the government's continuing commitment to "green" energy sources. Wicks said the commitment was "real and for the long term".
He added: "Renewables are here to stay and will continue to be a crucial part of the mix."
Npower renewables' managing director, Kevin McCullough said "The decision to give Little Cheyne Court the go-ahead is excellent news and shows that the Government is serious about tackling climate change - the most urgent issue facing the future of our planet. Once built, Little Cheyne Court will make a significant contribution towards the Government's renewable energy targets2, both nationally and in the South East, which, up to now, has had no major onshore wind energy sources."
"It will also help in the drive to diversify the UK's energy supplies at a time when North Sea gas is running out and oil prices have hit record highs."
North Devon Green Party's Climate Change campaigner Jon Hooper commented: "This decision sets a very encouraging precedent for other wind farms such as Fullabrook. which are also facing opposition from prominent local politicians. It's reassuring to know that the Energy Minister realises the urgent need to tackle Climate Change and recognises the importance of wind power as the most effective way of rapidly increasing our renewable energy capacity."
Best-selling
Climate Change Author visits North Devon with words of warning
North Devon College students were told that rising seas would bring floods to Barnstaple town centre and breach the pebble ridge at Northam Burrows when Mark Lynas, climate author and journalist, visited the College last week. Addressing several hundred humanities and science students and staff last Wednesday, Mark showed slides illustrating the impacts of climate change to date, including floods in UK, the washing away of low-lying pacific islands, expanding deserts, buildings and roads foundering in the melting permafrost of Alaska, and the shrinking of glaciers which feed the headwaters of the Amazon and supply cities such as Lima with fresh water.
Mark revealed that Global temperatures are set to rise by 1ºC because of the levels of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, higher than they have ever been while humans live on earth. "We breathe different air," said Mark, "from any previous generations." The destruction of the Great Barrier reef and parts of Bangladesh is already inevitable.
If global temperatures rise by 2ºC mass extinctions will occur with the loss of the rainforests of Northern Australia, Southern Africa, Costa Rica and Bangladesh, the last refuge of the Royal Bengal Tiger.
At 3ºC there will be mass migrations of environmental refugees as food production becomes impossible in many areas. The Greenland ice cap will melt - there is already a pool of water visible on its surface - leading to a sea level rise of 6-7 metres, the flooding of much of Florida, Manhattan Island, New Orleans, parts of London and most coastal cities of the UK including Barnstaple Town Centre. Most of Bangladesh will have disappeared, leaving 100 million homeless. Hurricanes will be ravaging coastlines, like Katarina, increased in intensity by the warmer oceans.
"We don't have to go there!" says Climate Author
With a temperature rise of 4º the polar ice and the polar bear will be no more, the Amazon rainforest will dry out and burn. At 6º mass extinctions would affect most species, including people, just as the last episode of runaway global warming wiped out 95% of all then existing species at the end of the Permian age, through the release of hydrogen sulphide gas from the dying seas.
"We don't have to go there" Lynas told his audience. We can keep global temperatures below a rise of 2º, if greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced within 10 or 20 years.
Climate Author Quizzes North Devon College
After the presentation, Mark Lynas started off the questions by asking: "Is North Devon College on green electricity?" No-one knew!
When asked what in his opinion were the most important five actions to take, Mark suggested:
- Switch to an electricity tariff which supplies all your energy from renewable sources.
- See that your house is well insulated.
- Give up flying. A flight to West Coast USA causes as much greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for a year.
- Find alternatives to car travel.
- Support windfarms and other renewable energy sources. Mark's view was that all possible sources will be needed.
Mark was sceptical about the effectiveness of carbon sequestration. When asked his views on nuclear power, he said that he has changed his mind more than once on this issue! There is an ongoing discussion about nuclear power and other topics on his website www.marklynas.org
As a prelude to Mark's talk, history lecturer and Green Councillor Peter Christie gave a local angle on Climate Change, describing the first major effects that we'll see in North Devon: Northam Burrows going underwater, shortly followed by Saunton and Braunton Burrows, and also the loss of our surfing beaches.
Gill Westcott spoke about ARCC (Action to Reduce Climate Change), a North Devon group, meeting to find out more about climate change, support each other in changing lifestyles, and encourage safe, sustainable practices in this area. Contact 01271 858517 and 863319, or e-mail jonhooper@northdevongreens.org.uk.
Mark's book High Tide: The truth about our Climate Crisis was published by Picador, 2004, 0-312-30365-3. See also www.marklynas.org.
Probably
most effective thing you can do to tackle Climate Change!
The North Devon Green Party are campaigning for letters to be written in support of the proposed wind farm at Fullabrook. The wind farm will, if built, provide clean renewable energy for an estimated 37,000 homes [1] - that's most of the homes in North Devon. There's an abundance of wind, wave and tidal power in North Devon just waiting to be tapped, but practically all of our electricity still comes from outside the County, and 97% of that is from non-renewable sources.
The planning application for Fullabrook is being assessed by the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI], who will take into account the views of local people. Every single letter sent to the DTI could prove vital in securing the Green light for this wind farm, potentially North Devon's most significant renewable energy scheme this decade. The 66MW wind farm will take us almost halfway towards meeting Devon's target of 151MW of renewable energy by 2010 [2].
Please take five minutes to write an email to walter.gusmag@dti.gov.uk or a letter to Walter Gusmag Esq, Department of Trade & Industry, Bay 2123, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET. Give a few reasons why you support the Wind Farm, and most importantly include your name and address and quote "Proposed Wind Farm at Fullabrook, North Devon."
Various surveys have consistently shown that eight out of ten people support Wind Farms [3]. Last year the North Devon Green Party conducted its own survey of over 600 local residents and found that 78% of them supported the Fullabrook proposal. If you support the Fullabrook wind farm, it's vitally important that you express your support in a letter to the DTI, or your voice will go unheard.
You can find out more about the Wind Farm proposed for Fullabrook at www.devonwindpower.co.uk, or general wind power information at www.yes2wind.com. To keep track of how much wind energy is being produced in the UK, visit the British Wind Energy Association's UK Wind Energy Database www.bwea.com/ukwed/. Also see our other Renewable Energy links.
Less than three per cent of British voters have a fair share of democratic power
Greens renewed their appeals for electoral reform as the New Economics Foundation's 'democratic index' found that only 3 percent of voters have any fair say. It also discovered that the entire system had an 'inbuilt inertia to change', with the beneficiaries of the safest seats likely to be members of the party already in power.
The new Index of Democratic Power (IDP) is based on analysis of British voters’ ability to influence the results of elections from 1954 to 2005, and shows that the democratic power that we have in Britain is very unevenly distributed: the most powerful electors in Britain have 50 times more power in an election that the least powerful. The calculations were based on whether a person's vote had the potential to influence who was elected in their constituency.
And there is significant evidence that the democratic deficit at the heart of the British electoral system is making us unhappy. The 2001 post election survey shows that there is a strong link between levels of personal well-being, the health of communities and voting behaviour. People who voted in the election tended to be more trusting, have higher levels of civic duty, were more engaged in their local communities and were happier than people who didn ’t vote.
Keith Taylor, Green Party Principal Speaker, commented further:
"The LibDems used to be in favour of electoral reform as well, but it seems that now they are part of the Westminster 'big three' it has dropped off their agenda completely - and the idea of true democracy has gone with it. People have lost confidence in our electoral system - that's why almost half of them don't vote at all. They don't believe in a system which is prejudiced in favour of those already in power. The Greens are now the only party with a true commitment to reforming our electoral system. "
Forches and Whiddon Valley Election Results
Green candidate Earl came third in the Forches and Whiddon Valley District Council by-election, narrowly beating the Independent candidate. The Lib-Dems won the seat, with over twice as many votes as the Conservatives. Less than one in six people turned out to vote; the Lib-Dems won on the votes of less than 10% of the electorate. Full results are available here.
Standing alone against the Lib-Dem candidate in the Town Council by-election, Earl received 19% of the votes. Full results are available here.
Green
artist and recycling expert stands for Forches and Whiddon Valley by-election
Earl Bramley-Howard is our Green candidate for the Town and District Council by-election in the Forches and Whiddon Valley ward on the 15th September.
"I am a 45 years old artist. I was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa and came to England when I was 3 years old; when my parents fled the apartheid regime after my stepfather was imprisoned along with Nelson Mandela in 1963 and was accused of being a terrorist. He claimed and received asylum in the UK and lived and worked here until he died in 1974, having built up a successful publishing company. I was educated here and grew up proud to be a full British Citizen. I trained as an artist at Isleworth Polytechnic and went on to be a sign writer for many years. I have lived in North Devon for the last 25 years and have been involved with the Green movement in one way or another, for most of that time.
"I was deeply involved with South Molton Recycle from the mid 80’s to early 90’s when it was still a community charity and I was their transport manager up until 1993 when the council began funding recycling through them. Much has been achieved in the years since then but there is still much to be done in the field of recycling in our county and I believe bureaucracy still prevents effective recycling of both trade and domestic waste. The division of responsibility between the County and District councils leaves both passing the buck of responsibility to the other instead of looking for ways to co-operate and ensure that we minimise the amount of waste ending up in landfill sites. The true cost of land filling waste has to be taken into account when we look at long-term solutions to this problem and if elected I would work towards a unified approach to waste disposal with the County and District Councils. The recent cut of services - dressed up as recycling - has led to an increase in the rat population and is a public health issue. If elected I will seek to find ways for the councils to work closer together when it come to waste management so that we can make genuine progress in finding a solution to this huge problem whilst maintaining the highest standards for our community.
"I have been left disabled with reduced mobility for the last 5 years which has given me a personal insight into the issues that face disabled people both locally and within society as a whole. I would fight to ensure that disabled rights aren’t eroded any further in Devon, as I believe the true mark of a civilised society can be determined by how it treats its disadvantaged members and minority groups.
"I have two children aged 23 and 17. My youngest son lives with me and attends North Devon College, where he is doing an IT course. As a parent I am naturally concerned about the issues facing children and teenagers in today’s society and on a local level, would seek to improve facilities for young people and would support initiatives to improve the quality of education, for all children and teachers within our community.
"I also believe it is important to recognise the needs of single people and ensure that they are remembered, as they are a growing section of society whose needs are all too often neglected by politicians. I will fight to ensure that their voice is heard.
The Green Party is already respresented on Barnstaple Town Council by Green Councillor Ricky Knight, who alongside Earl and other local Greens has helped to draw up the "GREEN AGENDA" of policies for North Devon - our local manifesto.
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