The IEA, as opposed to the IEA

Link to 'Lack of Environment' web site

"As any intellectual property rights consultant will tell you, when you register an Internet domain name, you should also register any obvious similar names, to avoid any potential confusion and/or prevent direct competitors doing so in the future.

"Clearly, when someone at the International Energy Agency registered the URL iea.org in 1996, they did not think to do this, because sometime later the Institute of Economic Affairs registered iea.org.uk.

"... As the British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Chris Huhne MP, flies off to attend the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP17) in Durban, it must be hoped that he has been reading the World Energy Report (2011) rather than Colin Robinson’s Climate Change Policy: Challenging the Policy Activists."

Enfield Advertiser

It may be easier to enlarge this image by clicking a second time in a new window:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWd7BshwLG0CAct0rNTkJJHTHhYnlqkbexCzSnSGGs73IRC6OTlSsbKT422sER_Zv9oBT192rV0utsY7TTDujVT3IgrzGyPK6Wi3F6erH_kARtDBYwXrv_qWepxjTSmghcSCsI0GtfC2U/s1600/2011-11-30+Enfield+Advertiser.jpg

'Trial by Jeory' site: "London’s Olympics and the 'blood of Bhopal' "

Link to 'Trial by Jeory' web site

"I’ve written this article in today’s Sunday Express about the extraordinary decision by Seb Coe’s Locog to allow Dow Chemical to sponsor part of the 2012 Olympic stadium. Dow will be paying for a £7million 'wrap' (that’s a sort of colourful curtain wrapped around the outside of the stadium to make it more attractive). Dow’s name will be emblazoned on it in the months leading up to the Games next year.

"The Bhopal victims’ groups are to complain to the Indian PM; they want him to write to David Cameron. (Sports Minister Hugh Robertson welcomed the decision, saying he was 'delighted'!) I wonder what possessed usually sure-footed Coe to make such a gaffe as he entered the home straight."

---

(The web site includes comment that land contamination is the current main issue, rather than just the aftermath of the poisonous gas escape.)

Secretary of State's Special Day

Link to "Political Scrapbook" web site (and comments)

"As union-bashing Michael Gove accused teachers of taking 'militant' strike action over pension cuts, Scrapbook thought it apposite to revisit the photo above of a certain bespectacled trainee journalist.

"The image depicts the education secretary alongside union colleagues from Aberdeen’s Press and Journal, distributed across the northern counties of Scotland. Liberal Conspiracy reports that he went on a strike for as long as four months after his employers de-recognised the National Union of Journalists.

"Indeed, Gove was described by his former shop steward as quite the firebrand:

“He was an active striker, willingly taking his turn on picket duty, and going on a small delegation to Strasbourg to press the union’s case.”

Second Pinkham Way Alliance music event in a week!

"The Pinkham Way Alliance presented their first ever rock night at the Bank Pub in New Southgate. Daddy Those Men Scare Me, headed the bill and were supported by Beatles tribute band Nowhere Men.

"Nowhere Men kicked off with some classic Beatles numbers, and there was a powerful rendition of Neil Diamond’s classic Love on the Rocks by Dave Watts.

"The Daddies put on a fantastic show, reworking some iconic early punk classics as well as doing themselves proud with their own fantastic homegrown produce! 

"They ‘were amazing, a really tight band’, said local resident Emma Burnett.

"They closed with their new anthem F*ck it. Burn it, an energetic diatribe denouncing current thinking on Energy From Waste (EfW), aptly focusing the crowd on the reason that all were there in the first place - to help raise awareness about the inappropriate proposals for Pinkham Wood being pushed by Barnet Council and the North London Waste Authority."

 

How and Why Haringey's Pinkham Way concerns Barnet and Enfield

(The 'Planning Advisory Service' is part of the 'Local Government Group'. 
It is funded directly by the Department of Communities and Local Government.)

---

Click above for web page

"Noddy's Simple Guide to Strategic Planning and the 'Duty to Co-operate' " [We made the Noddy bit up.]

"Section 109 of the Localism Act gives Government the powers to revoke the eight Regional Strategies outside London. In London, the Mayor’s London Plan will continue to provide the strategic context for local plans produced by the Boroughs. However, both the Mayor and individual London Boroughs will be required to co-operate with surrounding councils to address issues of common concern.

"Section 110 of the Localism Act sets out a new ‘duty to co-operate’. This applies to all local planning authorities, national park authorities and county councils in England – and to a number of other public bodies. The new duty:

• relates to sustainable development or use of land that would have a significant impact on at least two local planning areas or on a planning matter that falls within the remit of a county council;
• requires that councils set out planning policies to address such issues;
• requires that councils and public bodies to ‘engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis’ to develop strategic policies; and
• requires councils to consider joint approaches to plan making.

"Co-operation on strategic issues is nothing new. Councils have a long history of working together and with other bodies to address planning issues of common concern. However, up to now this kind of work as been undertaken mainly to deliver policy objectives set out in structure plans or regional plans. In the future, the scope of such arrangements will need to be determining locally to meet local circumstances. 

"New approaches, such as non-statutory ‘local investment plans’ or ‘local strategic statements’ may also be required. More importantly, all councils will need to further develop partnership working skills at both officer and member levels for effective co-operation to work. Strong political leadership by councillors will be particularly important and will be a key determinant of success."

Haringey Journal: "Renowned soprano joins fight against Muswell Hill waste plant"

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Link to Haringey Journal

"Dame Emma Kirkby added her powerful voice on 20 November, to the fight against building a waste plant in Muswell Hill.

"Sakina Chenot, who lives in Bounds Green and came up with the idea of inviting Dame Emma to sing, said:

"It was really good of Dame Emma to sing for us, especially in view of her throat infection. She obviously realises what a long and costly battle this is going to be, if we are to challenge this threat to our local environment."

Financial Times: "UK growth review: On a perilous path"

Link to Financial Times
(registration requested)

"David Cameron declared last week that “getting debt under control is proving harder than anyone envisaged”. But as Britain’s coalition government prepares to confront its stark economic predicament, some in the prime minister’s Conservative party deploy more vivid language. “The train is heading over the cliff,” says one member of parliament.

"The man at the controls is George Osborne, the 40-year-old chancellor of the exchequer, Mr Cameron’s best friend in politics, his party’s chief political strategist and – if all goes to plan – the next prime minister. Much is at stake as Mr Osborne prepares to tell the nation how he hopes to put Britain on the path to recovery."

BBC: "CO2 climate sensitivity 'overestimated' "

Link to BBC web site

"Global temperatures could be less sensitive to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels than previously thought, a study suggests.

"The researchers said people should still expect to see 'drastic changes' in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent. The results are published in Science."

"Gabriele Hegerl, from the University of Edinburgh, is cautious about the result, in her perspective piece published in the same issue of Science.

Barnet Conservative Councillor, condemned Pinkham Way, now wins case against fellow councillor

Report from Mrs Angry's 'Broken Barnet' web site:

[Yesterday's hearing, brought by Kate Salinger (left)] was in Hendon Town Hall. Mrs Angry thought, as she sat idly musing throughout the six-hour epic meeting, it was really a trial of old-style values. The idea of public service for its own sake and integrity in the democratic processes of local government, [was facing up to] the mutant brand of brutal, self serving conservatism that we have here in Broken Barnet.

The Amusing

... Andreas Tambourides, the subject of the complaint, introduced himself and reminded everyone that he was a member of the very same standards sub-committee which was hearing the complaint against him. Mrs Angry tried not to laugh.

Several times during this hearing, in fact, a certain legal officer turned round to look disapprovingly at Mrs Angry, just for sniggering very quietly in her seat. Mrs Angry would like to point out to the same officer that it is very rude to slip your shoes off under the table in the middle of a serious council meeting, and twiddle your bare toes as if you were at the seaside.

The Serious

Let's reduce all the arguments and processes - six hours of them - down to the essential points. The investigation found that Tambourides [right] had breached the council code in not showing respect, and in misusing council resources.

He was ordered to attend a course of appropriate training in the members code of conduct. He must also submit a written apology to Kate Salinger, for the distress he has caused her.

Kate Salinger was the only Tory who had the courage and integrity to refuse to support the abominable allowance rise vote last year. After doing so, she was treated in the most vile fashion by each and every other member of her own party, who stood by and allowed her to be subjected to an immediate public humiliation, a ritual punishment, the vengeful stripping of all her council posts. They were positions that I have no doubt she undertook with commitment, honesty and dedication, unlike so many other of her lazy, greedy, feckless Conservative colleagues.

When this was done, and Kate Salinger left the chamber in tears, significantly, it was a female Labour councillor who came to her assistance, and offered her support. What does it say about the bullies, whimpering cowards and absolute bastards who constitute the rest of the Conservative group on Barnet Council, that they could stand by and let this happen? That they continued to lack the courage to support her openly, even though some of them later privately expressed their horror at what had happened?

---

Link to additional report in the 'Barnet Press'. 

---

June 2011:
Statement from Cllr Kate Salinger, Coppetts Ward, Barnet Council:

Kate Salinger

"I am opposed to Pinkham Way for many reasons: for instance, there are 40 schools within 1500 m radius of the site, and 27 recreational facilities. It is, in my view, likely that there will be odour and fumes from the waste plant, which may well spread even wider than this radius. The fumes, including from the extra traffic, will be noxious.

"The proliferation of heavily-used roads in that area is great. We have Colney Hatch Lane, Station Road, Friern Barnet Road, Bowes Road and the North Circular itself. The extra 1200 traffic movements that we will have, if the scheme is passed, will not be small cars. Most of them will be large lorries, with all the accompanying exhaust fumes that they bring.

"Scientific studies have proved that people who live close to excess traffic fumes are more likely to have lung and breathing disorders, heart problems, low birth weights, and lower than average mortality. Coppetts Ward already has the earliest mortality rate in Barnet. Pinkham Way will most certainly not help that sorry statistic, if the waste facility is built.

"We are used to gridlock in the Tesco area, and the extra traffic movements will certainly not alleviate that. The morning and evening rush hours last for more than an hour each, and there is no doubt in my mind that the traffic will become an even greater problem for local people, than it already is.

"Tesco has to shut its car park at least once a week, as traffic surrounding it draws to a standstill. Already their sales are down since last year. This may not be a great concern to me, as I am a fan of local shops, but it does indicate that there is already a problem in the area.

"I voted in full Council against Barnet adopting the ‘North London Waste Plan’, as I did not agree that there should be a waste disposal facility built on the Pinkham Way site, as it is far too close to residential homes. There is no proof that living close to these facilities is safe. The science may be there, proving it one way or the other, in 50 years time, but it is not there yet!

"I could not vote for anything that might adversely affect people’s health. I have never voted for a mobile phone mast to be erected anywhere near residential accommodation, for the same reason."

"I have actually mentioned the proposal to build the site in three of my newsletters since October 2009. I held a meeting to discuss the matter in late 2009 in Coppetts Ward. I leafleted locally about the consultations NLWA held earlier this year. I really HAVE tried to communicate this matter to the residents of the ward.

"Theresa Villiers and I produced a leaflet telling people we were against the scheme, which highlighted the recent meeting, organised by David Burrowes MP. We paid for it to be delivered to the whole ward earlier that week. We haven’t yet found anyone who received it. Heads may roll!"

---

Link to 'Conservatives: "North London Waste Plan Public Exhibitions"',

and to 'Statement from Barnet Councillor Kate Salinger, Coppetts Ward'.

---

Link to HOME (see all posts).

The Guardian: "Chris Huhne: a new global climate change treaty is not a luxury"

Link to The Guardian

"Chris Huhne robustly defended the need for a new global treaty on climate change on Thursday, in an attack on governments and advisors who want to opt for a weaker commitment that would not be legally binding.

"... Citing [Ernst & Young] research showing that a majority of large global businesses were in favour of a deal, Huhne told an audience at Imperial College London:

"A global deal covering all major economies is not a luxury. It is not an optional extra. It is an absolute necessity."

... UNEP's chief scientist, Joseph Alcamo, said:

"Every year it becomes more difficult to keep within 2C. Every year, we build more power plants. Every year, we build more buildings that are not efficient. Every year, our options [to avoid climate change] get less and less."

---

Link to web site

"The invitation to today’s event says the Fourth Carbon Budget will be ‘a defining issue for British industry in the medium term’.

"Strong stuff. And I agree, with one caveat: cutting carbon out of our economy won’t just affect industry. It will be much bigger than that. Halving our emissions to hit the Fourth Carbon Budget will mean changing the very fabric of our economy.

As the Grantham Research Institute said recently, if the Government sticks to its plan – and I quote:

"The UK is poised for two decades of aggressive decarbonisation, in the power sector and elsewhere."

"In transport, heating, and industry, in generation and efficiency, we must renegotiate the terms of our relationship with energy. If we succeed, our climate will be safer, and our economy more competitive."

The Independent: "We're throwing out less food – but still too much"

Link to The Independent

"British households are throwing away a lot less food than they were four years ago – but they're still wasting millions of tonnes of it every year, new figures reveal.

"The amount of household food waste has dropped by 13 per cent, or 1.1 million tonnes, since 2006-07, when the first major survey was done, according to the Government's Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap). The waste saved would be more than enough to fill Wembley Stadium."

Daily Telegraph: " 'Gigatonne gap' risks dangerous global warming"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The United Nations (UN) brought together more than 50 scientists, to calculate the so-called ‘gigatonne gap’ between how much countries have pledged to cut carbon, and what the science says is needed to avoid devastating global warming.

"The report found that if the world wants to limit temperature rise to 2C, the point at which it is generally agreed climate change will cause more floods, droughts and other problems, then global emissions should peak at 44 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2020."

"Daddy, Those NLWA and Barnet people scare me"

As a climax to the 'European Week for Waste Reduction': 

Further details:

Link to the Pinkham Way Alliance.

Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian: "Our anger over runaway top pay is more about merit than money"

---

Link above to The Guardian: Jonathan Freedland.

How the other half lives: wartime cartoon by David Langdon, 1914-2011.

Link to today's Guardian obituary here.

"Ask people to pinpoint the problem and they might struggle to be specific. They just find it appalling that, as the commission found, today's CEO is often paid 70, 80 or over 100 times the salary of their average worker, when three decades ago the ratio usually stood at 13 to 1. A gap has turned into a vast, ever-widening chasm.

"... Strikingly, the commission found that even the mega-earners do not kid themselves they deserve their pay. They admitted that they had got lucky, that they worked no harder and risked no more than those earning much less. But they did think they were 'entitled' to what they got. Hargreaves draws no parallel with the August rioters, except that they 'showed that same sense of entitlement, that they could take trainers or a TV, as those bankers who thought they could take a bonus, even if they had brought a bank to its knees'."

Fowl air: Chickens coming home to roost

Link to Bounds Green & District Residents Association

"If anyone is still unsure quite why the bgdra and the Pinkham Way Alliance are fighting the Pinkham Wood proposal quite so hard, then they should read this article. The North London Waste Authority plans will undoubtedly make the pollution in our district even worse than it is currently. Not only will thousands of extra traffic movements bring extra filth to our air, but the NLWA wants to build an 80ft stack (chimney to you) to deal with all the extra pollution it will inevitably generate on site.

"To make things worse, the Government report highlights that commercial needs are outweighing public health needs as this extract shows:

“30,000 deaths in the UK were linked to air pollution in 2008 – with 4,000 in London alone. But business plans produced by the Department for Transport and Defra do not even mention air quality – despite a commitment in the Coalition agreement to work towards full compliance with EU air quality standards.”

"The fact remains that thousands are dying in London because of air borne pollution and the NLWA plans will almost certainly make it worse for all of us in Bounds Green. We will keep fighting against the Pinkham Way plans, and keep fighting for good air quality."

Haringey Independent: "Call for dangerous junctions to be named after nearly 100 cyclists injured in 2010"

"A POLITICIAN has asked cyclists to name the borough's accident hotspots, after figures showed nearly 100 were injured on roads last year.

"Joanne McCartney, London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey, said she wanted to know where road users thought the most dangerous junctions and roundabouts were."

Link to Haringey Independent.

---

Link to Haringey Council

Haringey Council: "Studies in London have revealed that, over short distances at least, the pedal cycle in all its forms is capable of being the fastest, most inexpensive, reliable and beneficial form of wheeled transport.

"The pedal cycle is particularly suitable for local trips, a third of which are under a mile long and 85 percent of which are less than five miles in length. Cycling, together with other measures such as travel plans, traffic restraint, and initiatives to encourage more walking are crucial to reducing congestion, improving the environment, and promoting social inclusion and better health.

"Haringey has a network of cycle routes across the borough including cycle lanes on main roads, separated cycle lanes, and special fully signed, quiet routes."

Mrs Angry: Angry spirits, and the anti-Pinkham Way Councillor Kate Salinger

Link to 'Broken Barnet'

"Let's introduce a new occasional service from Broken Barnet: 'Mrs Angry Predicts' .... This will eventually be part of a subscription-only clairvoyant and fortune-telling service for the discerning reader.

"Now then. Shhh ... listen ... my spirit guide is whispering in my ear ... yes ... I have a message coming through the ether for someone worried about the future ... is there an outsourcing company in the audience tonight? Someone keen to muscle in on £750 million of business from the London Borough of Barnet? I'm listening ... oh dear. I see. Is it you, dear, over there, with the worried look on your face?

[More is available by following the link.]

---

[and on the following post to that, on
the 'Broken Barnet' web site, is the 
main point of our post...]

"Broken Barnet's Night of the Long Knives" - Part One: "That's discipline for you..." 

"On Thursday morning, at 10 am, there will be a meeting of Barnet Council's standards' sub-committee.

"This meeting will formally consider the findings of a report by an officer appointed to investigate a complaint made by a Conservative councillor, Kate Salinger, member for Coppetts Ward." 

"...  Councillor Kate Salinger alleges that an article was forwarded in its entirety in order to denigrate and ridicule her to other Conservative councillors and anyone else a particular email may have been forwarded [to]." 

---

[And our post from May 2011...]

Link to Kate Salinger's statement
about Pinkham Way, last May

[The picture shows Councillor Kate Salinger (and her fellow councillor husband) obtaining heavyweight support in summer 2010, during Barnet's 'Allowancegate' scandal.]

"I wish to make it very clear that I am not in favour of the part of the plan that identifies the site at Pinkham Way as a waste disposal facility.

"From the moment I heard this mooted (Autumn 2009) I felt that the implications for the traffic in the area, apart from many other considerations, were horrendous."

'carteruncut': Ally Pally, Andy Pandy, and so on.

Link to 'carteruncut' web site

with links to many other sites

"Hello Radiolympia. This is direct television from the studios at Alexandra Palace!" *

THESE were the immortal words spoken to camera by Elizabeth Cowell, on 2 November 1936.

Alexandra Palace was the birthplace of regular, public, "high" definition television broadcasting in the UK and arguably, the world.

BBC Studios A & B are the world's oldest surviving television studios.

* Radiolympia was the big radio exhibition, concurrent at Olympia,

19-27 November: Enjoy the Pinkham Way Alliance music events - because it's also the "European Week for Waste Reduction"!

(Click above for details - in Scotland!)

And the

NORTH LONDON WASTE AUTHORITY

is celebrating in style!

For details of the exciting NLWA events, click on Chair Clyde Loakes's tea-cup below (Councillor Loakes is the one on the right).

European Week for Waste Reduction 2011
"Love Food Hate Waste!
Come along to one of the NLWA's free interactive information stalls
to find out how to lunch for free!"
(this separate picture is from the NLWA's 'Watch Your Waste Week' 2009)

Oh Dear! Did you not find:

"Lunch for free with Love Food Hate Waste. Come along to one of our free interactive information stalls this month, to find out how to lunch for free! Advisors from the NLWA and the north London b..."

http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/waste_&_resources/get_involved/european_week_for_waste_reduction_2011 

Perhaps the NLWA doesn't want us to "get involved" after all!

Anyway, we only do it for the children, don't we?

So let's try for another 'European Week for Waste Reduction 2011' web page (although admittedly the web address is not as explicit as last time): 

"Celebrate the European Week for Waste Reduction 2011 with Great Taste Less Waste Shows! To celebrate the European Week for Waste Reduction from 19-27 November 2011, we are working with Circ..."

http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/waste_&_resources/information_for_schools/waste_prevention

No luck again?

---

Actually, the situation is not QUITE as bad as it seems. There ARE some events after all:

This is the timetable of 'Love Food Hate Waste' sessions:

Date	Time	Venue	Borough
Monday 21 November	10:00-13:00	Morrisons, Holloway 10 Hertslet Road Holloway , N7 6PL	Islington
Monday 21 November	14:00-17:00	Morrisons, Wood Green High Road, Wood Green, N22 6DR	Haringey
Wednesday 23 November	11:30-14:30	Enfield Civic Centre Silver Street, EN1 3XY	Enfield
Thursday 24 November	10:00-13:00	Waitrose, Whetstone 1305 High Road, Whetstone, N20 9HX	Barnet
Thursday 24 November	14:00-17:00	Hackney Service Centre 1 Hillman Street, E8 1DY	Hackney
Friday 25 November	10:00-13:00	Morrisons, Camden Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AA	Camden
Friday 25 November	14:00-17:00	Sainsbury's, Low Hall 11 Walthamstow Avenue, E4 8ST	Waltham Forest

This table is on a real, actual 'European Week for Waste Reduction' web page, on the NLWA web site - but we leave you to find it. You certainly cannot search for it, and it's not under "News"!


The NLWA has already set up a separate, attractive NLWA 'Love Food Hate Waste' web site, which contains a similar table, for events last summer. The web page that links to it has this text:

Love Food Hate Waste is a national campaign aimed at raising awareness of the need to reduce food waste. The campaign shows that by doing some easy, practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will benefit our purses and the environment too.

This summer, we attended community events to meet local people and spread the Love Food Hate Waste message even further. Food waste experts from the NLWA and its constituent boroughs were on hand to offer advice on portion control, storage, date labels and smart shopping.

We also exchanged some fantastic tips and rescue recipes with north London residents. We hope you enjoyed the events and picked up some new information to help you save money and food. There will be more Love Food Hate Waste activities during the European Week for Waste Reduction, November 2011. So watch this space! [We are still watching.]

http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/yourwaste/get_involved/love_food_hate_waste_2011


So, overall, there is evidence of planned school initiatives that are not happening, and a special web site that has not been updated and mobilised for newer events.

Try emailing post@nlwa.gov.uk and asking the NLWA what happened to all their planned 'European Week of Waste Reduction 2011' events and publicity.

A fuller series of events on waste reduction, clearly planned at some stage, would marginally have reduced the need for an incinerator-fuel plant at Pinkham Wood, or anywhere else.
So it's a NLWA budget cut!

UPDATE: It's a bit better now.

---

Link to HOME (see all posts).

We used to be werewolves, but we're alright now-ooooo!

(Link to BBC for the science)

The Guardian: "Capitalism has many guises. Pigeonholing protesters will only allow those who are against reform to avoid the issue"

Link to The Guardian

"The Occupy London movement is marking its first month this week. It is routinely described as anti-capitalist, but this label is highly misleading. As I found out when I gave a lecture at its Tent City University last weekend, many of its participants are not against capitalism. They just want it better regulated so that it benefits the greatest possible majority.

"In Britain, as already physically identified by the Occupy movement, it is clear the key reforms should be made in the City of London. The fact that the Occupy movement does not have an agreed list of reforms should not be used as an excuse not to engage with it. I'm told there is an economics committee working on it and, more importantly, there are already many financial reform proposals floating around, often supported by very 'establishment' figures like Adair Turner, the Financial Services Authority chairman, George Soros, the Open Society Foundations chairman, and Andy Haldane, the Bank of England's executive director for financial stability."

Now, over to our studios at Alexandra Palace...

Link to Haringey Journal

Haringey Journal:

'Now or never’ to set up TV museum in Alexandra Palace

"Campaigners are hoping that public support, following the 75th Anniversary of the first ever broadcast from the Palace, will be enough to persuade its bosses and the BBC to set up a permanent installation there.

"And at a time when the venue is working on a masterplan to regenerate the Grade II listed building, its supporters say it is 'now or never' for their ambitious plans to get off the ground."

Enfield Advertiser

(Click to enlarge)

"And on Sunday 20 and Saturday 26 November, there's a choice of listening ..."

Further details:

Link to the Pinkham Way Alliance.

The Guardian: "Air pollution in Britain: state-sanctioned mass poisoning"

Link to The Guardian

"Successive governments have found that the simplest way to end urban poverty is to encourage poor people to live near congested roads. Apart from war and fags, nothing is more certain to shorten human life than to make people breathe a daily dose of poisons, especially sooty particles known as PM10s and nitrogen oxides that largely come from traffic and factories.

"The minute particles of partially burned diesel fuel and tyres travel deep into lungs, and the gases trigger respiratory diseases. If you already have heart disease or asthma, then just living near a main road can be a death sentence."

---

Link to The Guardian

Plus (on a different subject):
The Guardian:

"Discussion round up: the commercialisation of waste"

"Those who have direct responsibility for waste within organisations are all too aware of the need to think about it as a resource and consider how to derive value from waste streams.

"Bringing about this shift in mindset is more challenging for those less directly involved and requires different approached for different audiences: 

• For big businesses action is often driven by reputation risks, and consumer boycott campaigns can be effective in leveraging this. In addition, financial directors also recognise the financial and commercial 
• For SMEs difficulties can arise as a result of competing priorities. However, where the benefits are made clear, SMEs tend to adopt changes quickly as they can lead to improvements to the bottom line in the short term. 
• Individuals are more challenging as the financial benefit and the action tend to be disconnected. It will be hard to get people to see waste as a resource until it actually is; that is when they are paid for it."

Meanwhile, the Sauf London Incinerators ...

Link to web site

"An official announcement a major waste management facility containing an incinerator is proposed for Beddington is expected to occur within weeks.

"Viridor is being presented by the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP), as its preferred bidder for a controversial new waste management plant for Croydon, Merton, Kingston and Sutton. It wants to build its facility in Beddington Lane.

"Sources have said its plans involve an energy recovery facility, which campaigners believe will be an incinerator where waste is burned to produce electricity, The facility could produce enough energy to power thousands of homes, processing more than 200,000 tonnes of waste a year from the four boroughs."

Link to Viridor web site

---

Link to later Beddington Lane post.

---

Plus the 'Croydon Guardian', about another site: 

"An environmentalist claims a new energy generation facility would turn Belvedere into a 'dumping ground' "

Link to Croydon Guardian

"Cyclamax is proposing to build the facility at Burts Wharf Resource Park, off Crabtree Manorway North, creating more than 40 jobs. It would recycle commercial and industrial waste, which would produce low carbon renewable energy using gasification technology.

"Belvedere ward councillor, Sean Newman, said:

"What people's problem will be is if the refuse comes through the road network, and if there are emissions and smells.

The residents of Belvedere have had a history of bad smells and emissions, we don't want to add to that problem."

Mrs Angry is, well, ANGRY - with "The Regulators" in Broken Barnet

Link to 'Broken Barnet'

"It seems that once again, the best efforts of the leadership and senior management of the London Borough of Broken Barnet to silence the voice of the local bloggers has gone horribly, comically awry.

"This really is an unbelievable story: or at least it would be to anyone with no knowledge of the resolutely undemocratic culture that pervades the administration of Barnet Council."

---

Then she starts name-dropping a lot, and also makes legitimate sarcastic comments about women bloggers ("It is true that our little fluffy heads cannot sustain an interest in the blokey world of politics, or blogging, and anyway it is time to put my apron on and scrub the kitchen floor, so do excuse me.")

---

Monday 21, Wednesday 23, Thursday 24 November:
By the way, try raising Pinkham Way at a Barnet Residents Forum. They will not let you (this is Barnet, after all) but you could ask about what changes would be needed at a particular road junction to accomodate the extra traffic.) 

(Click to enlarge)

Parliament: "Environmental Audit Committee publishes report on air quality"

Link to parliament.uk

"The Government is putting thousands of lives at risk by trying to water down EU air quality rules instead of prioritising action to cut pollution on UK roads – according to Parliament's green watchdog (the Commons Environmental Audit Committee).

"Chair of the Committee, Joan Walley MP, said:

"It is a national scandal that thousands of people are still dying from air pollution in the UK in 2011 – and the government is taking no responsibility for this.

It is often the poorest people in our cities who live near the busiest roads and breath in diesel fumes, dangerous chemicals and bits of tyre every day."

Earth: time-lapse photography over two months from the International Space Station

(Go full-screen!)

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

No to an incinerator-fuel plant at Pinkham Way! (and Barnet can put its dustcarts somewhere else - in Barnet)

Link to 'UKWIN'

"The alternatives to incineration are cheaper, more flexible, quicker to implement and better for the environment. Rather than incinerating waste, local authorities should focus on maximising recycling and providing a weekly separate food waste collection for treatment by composting or anaerobic digestion (AD). Recyclables and biodegradables should be separated from the small amount of residue material. This residue should be stabilised by composting and then sent to landfill."

Link to 'UKWIN'

"Incinerators (and their feed plants like Pinkham Way):

• Depresses recycling and wastes resources
• Releases greenhouse gasses
• Is often forced through against strong public opposition
• Relies on exaggerating future quantities of waste instead of strongly increased recycling and composting
• Creates toxic emissions and hazardous ash
• Poses significant health risks