February Meeting
Talk: Land Grabbing in West Papua – Sacred Lands
We were pleased to welcome Benny Wenda of the Free West Papua Campaign as our guest speaker. Benny gave a moving overview of the threats faced by the indiginous people of West Papua and their land in the face of Indonesian occupation, including logging, mining and palm oil plantations. Look out for information about the campaign on our stalls later in the year. Lesley has blogged about the talk.
Big Green Bike Ride
The Big Green Bike Ride is a sponsored cycle ride from London to Edinburgh from 6 – 11 May to raise money for Friends of the Earth. OxFoE member Karl has signed up to take part in the full ride, and Fiona & Tim have signed up for the first day (London to Cambridge). Karl needs to raise £999 in sponsorship by 26 February in order to secure his place, so please consider sponsoring him if you can at JustGiving.com/KarlOxfoe. Further details, including alternative ways to donate, are on the attached flyer. Many thanks to those of you who have already done so – please spread the word. There are plans for a fundraising pub quiz, about which we will hear more at the next meeting.
Feedback from Regional Gathering
Tim, Fiona & Glyn recently attended this meeting of FoE groups in the South East. They learnt about next steps in the Final Demand climate change campaign, including making a short campaign video. There was also information about the new campaign on bees, to be launched later in the year. Fiona offered to lead our efforts on this. Tim attended a workshop on using social media such as Twitter, which we plan to use in our fundraising efforts for the Big Green Bike Ride.
Climate change campaign
We will discuss the climate campaign in more detail at our next meeting on 14 March. As well as looking at the Final Demand campign, we will be joined by Wendy Twist of the Low Carbon Hub, who will tell us about plans for a “People’s Power Station” in Oxfordshire.
Transport campaign
Jake told us about his new website cyclingoxford.net, designed as a hub for all sorts of information about cycling locally.
Next meeting
Wednesday 14 March, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles. Focus on the climate change campaign, including guest speaker Wendy Twist of the Low Carbon Hub. Chair: Jacky. If you have any items for the agenda, please send them to Glyn at info@oxfoe.co.uk at least a week before the meeting.
January Meeting
Here are the highlights of this month’s Oxford Friends of the Earth held on 11 January.
Waste campaign
Andrew reported that there is a planning application for an incinerator at Chieveley, West Berkshire, which is open for objections until 31 January.
Transport campaign
Jacky’s report about the Transport Symposium organised by the Oxford Civic society in November is now on the OxFoE website.
Climate change campaign
Friends of the Earth won its legal challenge to the Government’s changes to the solar feed-in tariffs, although the Government has appealed. The Court of Appeal’s decision is expected in the next few weeks. At the next meeting we will spend some time planning how to take forward the Final Demand campaign.
Big Green Bike Ride
The Big Green Bike Ride is a sponsored cycle ride from London to Edinburgh from 6 – 11 May to raise money for Friends of the Earth. OxFoE member Karl has signed up to take part in the full ride, and Fiona has signed up for the first day (London to Cambridge). We spent the bulk of the meeting discussing ideas for how the group can get involved in their fundraising efforts. 20% of what they raise, after the costs of the event, will go to Oxford FoE, the rest to the national organisation, so this will be our main fundraising effort as a group this year. Fiona has written up notes of this discussion separately and circulated them to those involved, but meanwhile please sponsor Karl at JustGiving.com/KarlOxfoe, and encourage other to do so as well.
Next meeting
Wednesday 8 February, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles. Chair: Lesley. If you have any items for the agenda, please send them to Glyn at info@oxfoe.co.uk at least a week before the meeting.
December Meeting
Here are the highlights of the November Oxford Friends of the Earth meeting this wee
Waste campaign
Sadly, Ardley Against the Incinerator’s request to seek leave to appeal was rejected at the oral hearing held at the Royal Courts of Justice on 10 November. In a nutshell Judge Richards upheld the views of Judges Howell and Sullivan with respect to four of the grounds on which they sought leave. A fifth ground based on “risk” rather than “harm” – but clearly related to the “harm” argument – had merit, but was considered “new” by the Judge and, as such, he would not entertain it. This means the legal fight is now over, but AAI still has to raise money to cover their legal costs. To help with that OxFoE has contributed £100.
Climate change campaign
The Oxford Times published an article about the Feed-In Tariff changes last month. There were a number of letters in response to this, including one from Karl. FoE have drafted a “joint statement” on this, which we will ask Nicola Blackwood MP, and possibly others, to sign. Meanwhile we continue to get signatures on the “Final Demand” petition – this featured heavily on our stall at the Green Fair.
Food and land use campaign
The proposed Foston mega pig farm in Derbyshire, which FoE has been campaigning against, was rejected by South Derbyshire District Council, although Derbyshire County Council have yet to make a decision, so the campaign continues. Closer to home, the Oxford Real Farming Conference takes place on 5 & 6 January. See their websitefor details of the programme and booking.
Transport update
Jacky attended a symposium on transport organised by Oxford Civic Society, and gave a full report about it at the OxFoE meeting. She will write up some notes about the day for the OxFoE website in the New Year. Meanwhile, it has been announced that the Oxford – Bedford rail link will go ahead and should be in place by 2017.
Stalls & fundraising
Green Fair
We had a successful stall at the Green Fair, including the extra attraction of our pledge tree. We discussed how best to use the completed pledge leaves and the tree itself at future events. Many thanks to all those who helped.
Big Green Bike Ride
Karl has signed up to cycle from London to Edinburgh in the Big Green Bike Ride next May to raise money for FoE (including a proportion for OxFoE). You can sponsor him at JustGiving.com/KarlOxfoe. Tim & Fiona may join him for the first day (London to Cambridge). At next month’s meeting we will discuss how OxFoE can best use this opportunity for raising funds and the group’s profile.
South East Regional Gathering
This meeting for FoE local groups in the region is on Saturday 4 February in London. Details are on the FoE website. If you would like to be part of the OxFoE delegation, please contact Glyn at info@oxfoe.co.uk.
Christmas gifts
We have been asked to pass on details of two books by George Marshall, who many of you will know, which may make good Christmas presents: The Earth Party: Love and Revolution at a Time of Climate Change (ISBN 978-1-906710-11-8) Earth Cell(ISBN 978-1-905621-08-6)
Next meeting
Wednesday 11 January, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles. Chair: Fiona. If you have any items for the agenda, please send them to Glyn at info@oxfoe.co.ukat least a week before the meeting.
Finally, a very happy Christmas to all OxFoE members and supporters, and best wishes for successful campaigning in 2012!
November Meeting
Here are the highlights of the November Oxford Friends of the Earth meeting this week:
Waste campaign
Andrew brought us up to date with the latest developments in Ardley. The residents group, Ardley Against the Incinerator,
was unsuccessful in its Statutory Appeal against the Secretary of State’s granting of planning permission to Viridor back in July. They since entered a written application to seek leave to appeal, which was declined by Appeal Judge John Sullivan. Thay have now appointed a new solicitor, Richard Buxton, who believes he has found a gap in the argument that was presented to the Statutory Appeal and which he believes he can “plug” at an Oral Hearing, due to be held on 10 November. This is the last legal avenue open to AAI, so it was agreed that OxFoE would make a donation of £100 towards their legal costs, which has now been sent.
Climate change campaign
Feed-in Tariff review
The government annouced on 31 October that the rates paid by the feed-in tariff to households generating their own electricity will be drastically reduced on 12 December, and that from April 2012 new barriers will be introduced in that only houses with an energy efficiency rating of C or above will be eligible. The situation is more serious for larger projects, and this will adversely affect many community schemes. FoE are lobbying MPs about this, and Nicola Blackwood is one of their targets. Other local groups such Low Carbon Oxford North met Nicola Blackwood recently about this, so she is well aware of the issues. We agreed to invite Nicola Blackwood to sign FoE’s “Joint Statement” about this. Depending on her response, this may lead to some press work. We also agreed to explore the possibility of writing an article for the local press.
Final Demand
The new FoE energy campaign “Final Demand” calls for a public inquiry on the power of the Big Six energy companies, through a petition to David Cameron. We are holding a stall in Cornmarket to get signatures on 12 November from 12 noon to 2pm, so please join us if you are in town. You can also sign the petition online.
Leave a comment
Comments feed for this article