South East Essex
Friends of the Earth

SEEFoE Meeting, 4th March 2008

Agenda for SEEFoE Meeting of 4th March 2008, 7:30pm

  1. Apologies for absence
  2. Minutes of last meeting
  3. Mary Edwards
  4. East of England: Strategic Plan 2
  5. Media coverage
  6. Big Ask
  7. Aviation
  8. Renaissance Southend
  9. Update on Cycling in Basildon (PW)
  10. Report on Milton Ward Transport meeting (MD)
  11. Pi Project
  12. Forthcoming Events
    • 27/03 7pm - Dolphins across the Med - a lecture
      Royal Geographic Society, London SW7
    • 02/04 6:30pm - The Business Response to Climate Change
      Cecil Sharpe House, London NW1 7AY
    • 05/04 - The Big Ask Day of Action
    • 16-18/05 - Power Up (Rights & Justice weekend)
      Harborne Hall, Birmingham - http://community.foe.co.uk/events/power_up/
  13. Next meeting
  14. AOB

Minutes

  1. Apologies for absence:
    Michael Woollcott, Jon Fuller
    Present:
    Sarah Fuller (SF), Peter Walker (PW), Denis Walker (DW), Gabrielle Yiddell (GY), Michael Downer (MD) and Mary Edwards (ME)
  2. Minutes of last meeting:
    Proposed GY, second MD
  3. Mary Edwards:
    Any questions/ points for her? And strategic plan version 2. DW only heard of it with the information he got yesterday. ME worried that we don’t know anything about it. Needs to be set by June. Next 5 year plan. Will be launched in September. Need group consultation beforehand. Want regional meeting in April/May. 11 aims; biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate change (including low carbon communities), sustainable economies and resource use, rights, nations and regions (sustainable development), international, reputation and reach (communications), supporter development, activism, fundraising, organisational development. Incineration is ME’s big thing, going to work on it nationally. Particularly interested in our views on low carbon communities- want Las to do more. MD- what is the European view on incineration? Apparently they recently changed their minds. Are now saying incinerators are eligible for renewables obligation certificates. Need to work more on unitary authorities. Cornwall have abolished district councils and reorganised into county and parish councils. Want them to have statutory obligation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But haven’t decided how they want to work this out. Martin Williams FoEs parliamentary dude. SF; what bill will this be introduced as? ME doesn’t know the name of it yet. DW; our major problem is engaging with Southend Council, PW agrees. ME; planning bill should unshackle councillors- means they can put forward their opinions, so we would know who to lobby in advance. PW; Priory Park, 1000 protestors + 25,000 signatures on a petition but council still determined to build. Went through the story, getting local people to stand for election etc. DW; Southend Council’s relationship with Renaissance Southend. Anna Waite doesn’t like them. Imposed by government. So SBC can blame government for what goes wrong. Renaissance Southend is impossible to get hold of. Next step talk to council. ME suggests newspaper, ask them to broker meeting with Renaissance Southend. What can councils do to lower emissions- wants ideas. Council communication poor. SF- it is possible for councils to go green, e.g. Woking, Merton etc. ME; power up May 16-18th worth attending. DW explanation of alternative plan- front page yellow advertiser, sent to all councillors etc. ME; can paper broker a deal? Need to paint a vision, heard of “planning for real” process of getting local community around maps of area and working through issues- put things on map. Everyone is given a role to play, but not their normal one. Think outside the box and empathise with others. In the end they all tend to want the same thing. Then have to work out how they achieve this. Local groups fund. Facilitators are the expensive part. Can run a series of days. DW; start off with schools, PW; Frank Gully at Temple Sutton. ME; how did we find the big ask? PW and DW; at times felt FoE watered it down. Wanted it stronger. ME; government agreed to annual reporting, not as good as targets but better than we thought we’d get. FoE quite happy with commission so far. When bill goes to commons and committees, then will refocus. Still no aviation and shipping. Regional meeting either 3rd or 10th May. All Saturdays.
  4. East of England: Strategic Plan 2
  5. Media coverage:
    Advertisement for Cliffs by Tory MPs, 13th Feb.
  6. Big Ask:
    Next stall 22nd March. Big climate meeting 22/4/08. Euston. Hilary Benn plus Tory and lib dem equivalents. Big ask day of action, DW has materials, planes, Gordon brown masks etc. Photo shoot- aim is for media coverage. 5th April. PW volunteers to be Gordon brown. Will be at tower by pier. 2 weeks before DW to send press release, 1 week before will chase up and prepare. SF; should we invite mid Essex down? DW suggests we do both sites at different times. DW will also take our own pictures to send to press. DW to e-mail potential Grays residents so we can deliver postcards to Andrew Mackinlay.
  7. Aviation:
    Open skies- Independent Saturday. JFs page. Carole Shorney suggests we mention road traffic on it as well. Link on front of website.
  8. Renaissance Southend:
    Still no returns. Giles Tofield- still not replying. Also tried e-mailing. PW; where is the office? Turn up with press. SF what if we make it more of a community plan, do our consultation, make one up on them. DW; Greenpeace, Sheena Davies. DW; open street map, plot your local area. PW; offers to cycle round town and plot it.
  9. Update on Cycling in Basildon (PW):
    Bala says tough. Basically telling him to walk. Raised this with rights officer at CTC. DW; don’t have members out of Southend to take this up in Basildon.
  10. Report on Milton Ward Transport meeting (MD):
    Arriva, first, Southend bus users group. Informative. No support from council. Council have withdrawn some funding- don’t give enough money. PW certain someone said that the council gives no financial support to buses, but MD says they do, it’s just not sufficient. Too much congestion
  11. Pi Project:
    Yacht club will cover the sea bit. Are prepared to let us promote. 12th April 7.45-8pm. www.pi-project.co.uk.
  12. Forthcoming Events
    • 27/03 7pm - Dolphins across the Med - a lecture
      Royal Geographic Society, London SW7
    • 02/04 6:30pm - The Business Response to Climate Change
      Cecil Sharpe House, London NW1 7AY
    • 05/04 - The Big Ask Day of Action
    • 16-18/05 - Power Up (Rights & Justice weekend)
      Harborne Hall, Birmingham - http://community.foe.co.uk/events/power_up/
  13. Next meeting:
    15th April, 7.30pm.
  14. AOB