The Public Relations Fight-back from the Waste Industry!

Link to Proteus (PDF document)

"A specialist environmental communications 

and issues management consultancy"

"MICHAEL BUERK. Tony Robinson. Stephen Fry. All TV personalities. All intellects (Baldrick aside). All trusted by the public. And, as such, all perfect to lead a pro-incineration campaign.

"At least that was the idea touted by one of the government’s most trusted PR agencies last year: Munro & Foster’s brief was to show how the public could be convinced that energy from waste (to use the correct terminology) was an essential part of the UK’s waste reduction mix. Unfortunately, Friends of the Earth (FoE) got hold of the agency’s presentation, and gave it to the press; the ideas were quickly buried deep within Defra HQ (or perhaps burnt?). The incident was unfortunate – not just for red-faced government officials, but for the waste industry generally.

"FoE, meanwhile, has been instrumental in mobilising UKWin (UK Without incineration) with the tools to bring many waste infrastructure plans to a stuttering halt. So, what can the waste industry do to overcome the protesters? And, more importantly, what can they learn from them?"

BBC report: Barnet Press, Enfield Gazette & Advertiser, and Haringey Advertiser staff protest outside Tindle Newspaper's Farnham HQ

Link to BBC web site

"Union members staged a street party picket outside the headquarters of a Farnham-based newspaper group in a strike over staffing levels.

The journalists, who work on a series of newspapers in north London, travelled to Surrey to protest outside owners Tindle Newspapers on Thursday.

Anaerobic Digestion News

Link to web site

"Biomethane produced during the anaerobic digestion process should be integrated into the National Grid energy supply, according to an industry expert. This would encourage the best use of biogas for meeting the UK's renewable energy targets."

Plus: "Regulations Which Apply to UK Biogas Plant Developments."

Not to mention: "Why are we excited about Anaerobic Digestion just now?"

Lynne Featherstone's letter on Pinkham Way

 (Click to enlarge, and usually again to magnify)

[Our comment: But what about a "Zero Waste" strategy from the NLWA, instead of burning our waste for the next 25 to 35 years?]

'Energise Barnet' initiative

Link to web site

"Energise Barnet is a community initiative run by local residents to improve the energy efficiency of housing and the environmental wellbeing of the London Borough of Barnet. Our philosophy is simple - to enable the community to save and make money by going 'green'. In turn, this will lead to lower carbon emissions and help protect the environment.

"We help homeowners, schools, churches and businesses etc. reduce energy bills, generate income, maximise their return on investment, and increase property value, by helping them install their own renewable energy systems and insulate homes and buildings."

Barnet Times, and Barnet Press (strike edition!), Haringey Independent (from last Friday)

 (Click to enlarge, and usually again to magnify)

New website: 'Pinkham Panthers' (and they ain't no pussy-cats)

Link to web site

"The 'Pinkham Panthers' is a group of Haringey residents who have been actively supporting the Pinkham Way Alliance, and raising awareness in the area of the NLWA plans to build a Mechanical and Biological Treatment plant at the Pinkham Way site.

"We have been handing out leaflets and information door-to-door where we live, and regularly in Muswell Hill, outside Tesco Colney Hatch, and at the Farmer's Market at Ally Pally. You will find us there most weekends. Please come along and say hello, and let us know if you can help in any way.

"Contact us at info@pinkhampanthers.org."

Wastewatch Charity

"Waste Watch is a practical charity inspiring and helping people to waste less. No-one likes waste. No-one wants waste. So we help people waste less. For us, it’s about showing what we can all do to change the way we produce, buy, use and dispose of things.

"Our vision is a world where we use resources effectively, live sustainably and make a positive contribution to the environment."

Link to 'Wastewatch' web site

Want to record the NLWA's meeting on 28 June?

"Click above to see the whites of our eyes"

Statement today from the NLWA

"A.11 of the Authority's Standing Orders states that – 'No part of any Authority meeting shall be filmed, recorded by tape or cassette or broadcast in any manner, without the express permission of the Authority'. Permission was not granted for filming or recording of the meeting held on 5 April.
  

"Authorities like the NLWA are allowed to set their own rules as to conduct within meetings. The standing order is a standard one which you will find in most Councils' standing orders. The penalty would be removal from the meeting and possible confiscation of the film etc. and should someone repeatedly seek to breach the rule, injunctive action. However, the NLWA has not had to resort to such action in the past, and it should be noted that permission can be sought."

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Just Fancy That:

Click above for BBC report:

"Let bloggers film meetings,

Eric Pickles tells councils"

Carbon-neutral Brent Cross EcoTown? Not with Barnet and Hammerson in charge!

Link to The Guardian

"A dusty construction site on the edge of an Arabian desert is an unlikely place for a model of green living. But this is Masdar City, an $18bn (£11bn) Norman Foster-designed project where just a few hundred people are guinea pigs in the world's most advanced laboratory for hi-tech environmental technology."

Images of Masdar

"Here, residents live with driverless electric cars, shaded streets cooled by a huge wind tower and a Big Brother-style "green policeman" monitoring their energy use."

Evening Standard: Criticism of current Lord Mayor of London (the Pinkham Way incinerator-fuel will travel to his Brent Cross Incinerator)

(Click above for Barnet Times)

Barnet Times: "Finchley civil engineer Michael Bear, who is a top executive at Hammerson plc, a partnership company behind the Brent Cross Cricklewood development, has been elected Lord Mayor of the City of London"

Edgelands: "Wilderness that is much closer than you think"

BBC iPlayer, week of 15 April 2011

Author: Michael Symmons Roberts, Paul Farley

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9780224089029

Published: 17 February 2011

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd

"Edgelands explores a wilderness that is much closer than you think: a debatable zone, neither the city nor the countryside, but a place in-between - so familiar it is never seen for looking. Passed through, negotiated, unnamed, ignored, the edgelands have become the great wild places on our doorsteps, places so difficult to acknowledge they barely exist.

"Edgelands forms a critique of what we value as 'wild', and allows our allotments, railways, motorways, wasteland and water a presence in the world, and a strange beauty all of their own. Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts - both well-known poets - have lived and worked and known these places all their lives, and in Edgelands their journeying prose fuses, in the anonymous tradition, to allow this in-between world to speak up for itself.

"They write about mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites in the same way the Romantic writers forged a way of looking at an overlooked - but now familiar - landscape of hills and lakes and rivers. England, the first country to industrialise, now offers the world's most mature post-industrial terrain, and is still in a state of flux: Edgelands takes the reader on a journey through its forgotten spaces, so that we can marvel at this richly mysterious, cheek-by-jowl region in our midst."

The Guardian: " 'I'm-happy-I'm-green' consensus won't placate our lust for novelty"

Link to The Guardian

"A whole range of sciences is telling us that our high-consumption economies are structured to satisfy only one half of our nature (the selfish, novelty-seeking part). Shouldn't we rearrange things to cater to the other half (altruistic and tradition-loving)?

"Humans truly thrive when they are able to act freely, to master skills they choose to master, and can take non-fatal risks under conditions of ultimate security. A green politics has to be thinking passionately about zones of creativity and innovation for human beings, as well as the constraints and duties of low-carbon living. Otherwise the transforming dimension of our own nature will end up repressed and frustrated."

60-year anniversary of the 'Festival of Britain'

Link to video of 'The Observer' film: 'Brief City' (1952)

"It may have taught the men who are building our cities something. It may have given an impetus to a new approach to building, here in Britain. But for ordinary people, it was fun."

Link to 'The Guardian'

"The Festival of Britain is remembered as an uplifting moment for a nation recovering from war. Iain Sinclair, who visited it aged eight, reflects on the celebrations to mark its 60th anniversary, in our age of corporate sponsorship and Olympics mania.

"The documentary Brief City' brought the Festival of Britain right back to me. The voice-over speaks of 'fierce little boys filled with their secret purposes'. School caps, ties, white shirts, grey shorts. The men are layered in gabardine, puffing on pipes. The women carry large white bags, as they hobble in difficult shoes.

Awkward youths, not yet assigned as teenagers, sport uniform, open-neck shirts, under blazers with badges. They peer intently at pistons and cogs, operated by boffins who wear greasy ties, under long, brown lab coats. This was a festival of doleful enlightenment, self-improving recreation."

"North London Arts Guide covers Barnet, Enfield and Haringey"

And Putting the boot into Barnet.

Saturday 30 April: Café Swap at 128 Myddleton Road

Bring along your unwanted items, e.g. Books, CDs, Clothes, Plants, Kitchen Items, to OneTwoEight’s Café Swap!

  

Meet your neighbours, have a cup of tea, and Swap any items you need, for free.

Please remember to take any leftover items you bring which are not swapped back home with you!

The next Café Swap event takes at 128 Myddleton Road on Saturday 30 April (and then Saturday 28 May) between 3pm and 5pm.

Do you have more items that need a new home?  Keep an eye out on the website  www.bowespark.org.uk for details of our next Give or Take Event in June…

Want to get involved?

We are always grateful for help from volunteers.  If you would like to help organise and run future Café Swap and Give or Take Events in Bowes Park, please contact Adam: telephone 07841 457243, or email adampaul128@gmail.com

Lionel Ferer of Bowes Park Community Association talks about the regular Give or Take Events, in this Bowes and Bounds Connected video.

Click for HOME (ALL POSTS).

Alliance members meet Councillor

"Haringey LibDem Councillor for Alexandra Ward Juliet Solomon kindly gave up her Good Friday morning to talk and listen to both Barnet and Haringey residents from all around the proposed site. She has already spoken out very loudly and publicly about her opposition to this plan, and told us of her fact-finding and lobbying within the council on our behalf.

"We took her to the boundaries of the proposed site in Hollickwood Park where everyone was able to give their thoughts and opinions, and in return we were offered good advice from her years of lobbying and stopping [alleged] lunacy within her council.

"The other pictures uploaded are taken from within the site. I'm sure you'll agree that we are potentially losing something very beautiful. The view back to Princess Park Manor also shows the lovely view that they will have in return! A big thank-you to Juliet Solomon for giving up her free time to listen."

Bowes Park is green

Flutter there, using this map

"Bowes Park Community Garden is situated on Myddleton Road, and is a welcoming green space situated near a parade of shops. It is enjoyed by everyone from local children and older people, to shoppers and staff of the nearby businesses.

"The site features mixed planting of shrubs, trees and perennials with an emphasis on sustainable planting with year-round interest. A path gives access via foot or wheelchair round one side of the garden to four benches.

"To find out more about the garden and our forthcoming events please see the website of the Bowes Park Community Association."

Friends of the Earth: Reducing waste, and boosting recycling and reuse

And the web site.

Pinkham Way Alliance - "Myth and Reality"

Link to 'Global Renewables' web site

"In March 2007, Global Renewables Lancashire Ltd, Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council signed a £2billion, 25-year agreement, to process the household waste of 1.4m people in Lancashire.

"From the moment of delivery, every aspect of the Farington facility takes place indoors, making it the UK’s first fully enclosed waste treatment facility. ... Every part of the process is connected to the air management system, which has been designed so that fresh air is constantly being sucked into the building. Therefore, when the doors are opened briefly to allow trucks access, air flows in, not out, owing to the fact that there is a slightly lower air pressure inside the building."

Link to 'Leyland Guardian' web site

Residents’ fury at ‘broken promises’ of waste firm

"More than 70 people vented their anger about the Farington Waste Recovery Park, which they blame for producing awful smells and plumes of steam, at a meeting on Monday.

"Resident Pauline Clarke said: 'It smells like a swamp, and it’s on my curtains, my bedding, my hair. It’s vile.'

"Colin Bell said: 'I think it’s in the wrong place. It’s too close to houses, and now we’ve got trouble with these terrible smells. I thought it was the drains at first.' "

Capel Manor - free entry for Enfield residents on Saturday 7 May

Link to web site

"As part of our ongoing support of the London Borough of Enfield, we’re opening our doors once again and offering FREE ENTRY to residents of Enfield. Simply bring with you a utility bill or item with proof of address to the OPEN DAY on Saturday 7th May, and 30 acres of Capel's colourful and scented gardens are yours to explore for FREE! Plus enjoy the sounds of the Enfield Brass Band.

"It’s also the College Open Day, a perfect opportunity to see Capel’s courses in action with demonstrations from each of our schools; Horticulture, Garden Design, Arboriculture (the study of trees), Countryside & the Environment, Saddlery, Floristry and Animal Care. "

Filth and squalor in Muswell Hill. (No, just joking)

'Barnet Press/Enfield Gazette/Haringey Advertiser' staff yesterday, 'Barnet Times' NLWA letter, and Haringey Journal letters

Click to enlarge Barnet Times (and maybe again to magnify)
Reply in a letter to timesletters@london.newsquest.co.uk
(include your full address, and phone number, if poss.)

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As a result of that NLWA letter, an email winged its way to the NLWA:

"In order to avoid any misunderstanding, plaese confirm the following:

1. Waste will only be received at Pinkham Way from "Barnet, western Haringey and western Enfield".
   
   Does that mean that all waste from consolidation sites (transferring from dustcarts to larger lorries) at Hornsey, and conceivably at a new facility at Hendon, will never go to Pinkham Way for processing? This implies this waste (from other boroughs) will always be driven past Pinkham Way, on its way to Edmonton.
   
   Also, since Hendon currently takes some of west London's waste (presumably from Brent and/or Harrow), please confirm that none of that will ever go to Pinkham Way either.
   
   Will you be putting your quoted statement above in your planning application? Will your statement apply for the lifetime of any contract?
 
2. The creation of incinerator fuel at Pinkham Way helps north London residents dispose of waste in a "more sustainable way".
   
   Consider the waste stream remaining, after mechanical and biological treatment at Pinkham Way to remove some recyclables and food waste. How is the burning of the materials in the residual waste "sustainable", or does the sustainabilty comment not apply to that material?
   
   Does it, for instance, contain waste that might, through better technologies and behavioural changes, be capable of recycling, such as paper and plastics, but is deliberately kept in this fuel stream, so that the calorific value is sufficiently high for the incinerator contract?
   
   Does the supply of waste at Pinkham Way and Edmonton over the next "25 to 35 years" have to be maintained at a minimum tonnage, and a particular calorific value, by the NLWA, for the avoidance of financial penalties? Will you be stating what those minmum levels will be, in your Pinkham Way planning application?
 
3. Are you satisified you can seek approval of planning permission for Pinkham Way, without it necessarily being compliant with the submission copy of the 'North London Waste Plan'?
   
   The submitted NLWP has not yet been published, consulted on, publicly examined, or approved by government.
   
   Has the NLWA carried out a risk analysis, in case you are left with a rather expensive nature reserve at Pinkham Way? Is that risk analysis in the public domain?

Bounds Green and District hair styles

Link to Bounds Green and District
Residents Association

Comment from 14 April: "Barnet Council decided to push forward with their planning application to build the Pinkham Way 'Eco Park'. However, we mustn’t be put off, as there are many more opportunities to express our objections.

"The next full council meeting for Haringey is on 23rd May, so keep an eye out for details of further demos."

'Barnet Press, Enfield Gazette, Haringey Advertiser' journalists hold 'Death of Local Journalism' Rally, and get on Radio 2

Link to journalists' web site

"The Grim Reaper, a priest, pall-bearers carrying a coffin and more than a hundred mourners took part in a mass demonstration through Enfield Town at lunchtime today.

"Journalists on strike at the North London & Herts branch of Tindle Newspapers are taking two weeks’ action over a lack of staff and resources, leaving them unable to provide quality newspapers."

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From Wikipedia: According to The Elements of Journalism, a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, there are nine elements of journalism. In order for a journalist to fulfill their duty of providing the people with the information, they need to be free and self-governing. They must follow these guidelines:

1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
3. Its essence is discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to make the news significant, interesting, and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Current state of journalism: Even in more optimistic scenarios, no one has a business model to sustain digital journalism beyond a small number of self-supporting services. The attempts of newspapers to shift their operations online have been commercial failures, as they trade old media dollars for new media pennies. ... The Internet can help democratize our media and politics. But it does not replace skilled journalists on the ground covering the events of the day, and doing investigative reporting. Indeed, the Internet cannot achieve its revolutionary potential as a citizens’ forum without such journalism.

The collapse of journalism and the democratic infrastructure it sustains is not a development that anyone, except perhaps corrupt politicians and the interests they serve, looks forward to. Such a crisis demands solutions equal to the task.

Scroll one hour, ten minutes into the recording

"66% of the residual waste CAN be recycled, so that 90% recycling rate should be possible”

Link to short press release

Link to 'Waste in Wales'

Jane Davidson Environment Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government said:

"My ambition is for Wales to recycle 70% of its waste by 2025, and be zero waste by 2050."

Two minutes of 'Friends of the Earth'

The web reference mentioned is here.

Barnet Times: " Two Government ministers admit 'concern' over waste site planned for A406 Pinkham Way"

Link to Barnet Times

"A GOVERNMENT minister and MP for Chipping Barnet says she has 'concerns' about the traffic impact of a £100m waste plant, planned on the fringes of the borough.

"Ms Villiers has been joined by fellow Minister and Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Lynne Featherstone in criticising the plans."

Astonishing NLWA allegation: You are all crooks!

Click to enlarge. 
Even this letter was only supplied as an image!

Pinkham Way Alliance: spread the message

Pinkham Way Alliance: new poster

Bowes Park Community Association now a charity (please give generously)

Link to web site

"On 1 April, the BPCA became a charitable company, limited by guarantee. We can now apply to grant-giving trusts that will only support charities, and we hope that, as a registered charity, we will be better able to continue working towards improving our local environment.

"... 'OneTwoEight Myddleton Road' is a community space for all local people and the whole community to use and enjoy. Thanks to the continued support of volunteers and groups from the local area, there is a fantastic range of classes, activities and information available. ... The pilot year for the community space ends on 30 April, and so does the grant - but we have put in applications to grant funding bodies..."

Click for details of this project to engage both younger and older people
from the Bowes Park area, with a particular focus on Myddleton Road.

Friends of the Earth: "Talking half as much rubbish"

Link to 'Friends of the Earth'

"We need to show that the majority of people want to throw away less rubbish, and have more and better recycling services instead.

Join Friends of the Earth's campaign for a goal to:

'halve household black-bag waste
by 2020'.

To paraphrase Monty Python, ...

Do you want the thirty seconds of Filthy London...

Or the full one hour?

(Click above for BBC web site)

10.30am, Saturday 16 April (free) seminars: Avoid the NEED for Pinkham Way - 'Moving towards Zero Waste'!

Click above to enlarge
(map)

"The 'Zero Waste Alliance UK' aims to protect, preserve, and improve the environment, for the benefit of the public, by the development, provision, and promotion of sustainable waste management practices. It also seeks to educate the public in all matters relating to this.

"Sustainable waste management practices include:

• waste minimisation, 
• minimisation of pollution and harm from waste, 
• reuse of waste, recycling of waste, 
• waste recovery activities, and 
• recovery of pollutants from contaminated land,

in accordance with 'Waste Strategy for England' 2007 [now being revised].

"We seek a better environment by encouraging a cleaner and healthier way of dealing with waste issues."