South East Essex
Friends of the Earth

SEEFoE Meeting, 6th May 2008

Agenda for SEEFoE Meeting of 6th May 2008, 7:30pm

  1. Apologies for absence
  2. Minutes of last meeting
  3. Next Meeting
  4. Media Coverage
  5. Priory Crescent road scheme
  6. The Big Climate Meeting
  7. New Tesco in Town Centre
  8. Warrior Square Swimming Pool
  9. Biofuels Summer of Action
  10. Green Fair
  11. Forthcoming Events
  12. AOB

Minutes

  1. Apologies for absence:
    Michael Downer
    Present:
    Peter Walker (PW), Gabrielle Yeadell (GY), Michael Woolcott (MW), Denis Walker (DW), Jon Fuller (JF), Sarah Fuller (SF)
  2. Minutes of last meeting:
    Proposed: JF, Seconded: PW
  3. Next Meeting:
    3rd June, 7:30pm, including AGM. At 62 East Street.
  4. Media Coverage:
    Priory Crescent main thing. 20,000 leaflets. St Luke's hustings all about it. Tories lost 2 seats.
    MW - Paddy Ashdown apparently very eloquent about climate change.
  5. Priory Crescent road scheme:
    DW - last month working on it. Now dualling stops at Lookers. Are knocking own offices at front. All owned by Norwich Union. Cuckoo Corner to be traffic lights. A+S issues - carriageway 6.75m wide - below desirable standard of 7.3m - articulated lorries will have to straddle lanes. Govt unlikely to go for this - funding.
    Transition scheme, so council would have to put up 25%.
    £1bn for whole country.
    £2,060,000 wasted on the scheme so far. Figure obtained from FoI request. Echo covered £1.875m figure well (this was the figure from Parklife's previous FoI request to DfT).
    Southend Times - "Tidy up Camp Bling". Anna Waite being a pain.
    DW - Essex FM inaccurate. Wrote a complaint. Jessica Shidell got back to him + pulled the link from the website.
    PPPS AGM - 5th June 7:30pm, Temple Sutton. Letters sent out to arrive 1st May.
  6. The Big Climate Meeting:
    Event far too friendly. Didn't give politicians a hard time. BBC were the harshest.
    JF had a rant - Hilary Benn disagreed with him. Accused him of genocide.
    GY - at least 20,000 dead.
  7. New Tesco in Town Centre:
    Tesco now own old B&Q site + possibly buying Sorting Office. Want 900 space car park. Linked to Victoria Plaza on 1st floor. Would be bigger than the one on A127. Would cause gridlock.
    DW to go on Power Up course. MW not convinced - quite likes the idea. DW - can't do much atm - pre-planning.
  8. Warrior Square Swimming Pool:
    Campaign Group set up. DW proposes to get in touch + offer our support.
    Just spent money redoing roof
    JF agrees.
  9. Biofuels Summer of Action:
    During summer, not much we can do on climate change. Biofuels - false solution to climate change. Get MEPs to sign pledge against biofuels. Oil seed rape - 70% more CO2 equivalent than fossil fuels. Palm Oil - 15 yrs 98% of rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia gone at this rate. Postcard signing. Meet + lobby MEPs. Cover issue in local media. Link group (meet MEP) or satellite group (public campaigning targetted at MEP). June edition of CYW.
  10. Green Fair:
    Ashlyns Organic Farm. 32.6 miles from here. In North Weald. 21st June 10am-3pm.
  11. Forthcoming Events:
  12. AOB:
    Debate about where the Central Line ends. JF says Ongar, SF says Epping. Sarah is right!