13th September – Cumbria Coal Mine and a Court decision is preceded by a wide survey of Conferences (political big ones & little locals)
With a much warmer week predicted ahead, I hope it will keep the swallows here a while longer. They will be doing everything possible to gain weight and more insects on the wing will be perfect for them. My son Tom inherited his love of these birds more from my mother than me, but it can definitely be called a family trait as I wrote a song about them twenty years ago!
Picking up the thread regarding digestive health from last week, I chose the 3rd image because every autumn I take the heads off my fennel and save the seeds for cooking. I find that is a really lovely way to add flavour, with benefits. The quote below had to be quite substantially corrected for poor grammar and I felt, whilst doing so, a sense perhaps this isn’t an entirely trustworthy source. But still of interest, hopefully, if only a part of it is true.
Nutritional Facts:- Dried fennel or saunf is a storehouse of vital nutrients. Low on calories and abundant in vitamin C, fennel seeds bolster the immune system, stimulate collagen production and act as a potent antioxidant that scavenges the free radicals. Rich in manganese, fennel seeds activate the enzymes, trigger metabolism, regulate blood sugar and strengthen bones. Besides these, a notable amount of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and selenium promotes skin health, controls blood pressure and treats anaemia.
Fennel seeds also comprise more than 87 volatile compounds including polyphenol antioxidants such as rosmarinic acid, chlorogenic acid, quercetin, and apigenin. Several studies have disclosed that a diet rich in antioxidants lowers the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular, cancer and neurological diseases.
Correspondence
Reader, Jason, happily nurturing his grandson in the mud of the farm near Bodmin, wrote in
I have seen the “40% of soils are degraded” statistic before, but it was referring to US soils in that case. In the UK the figure is different; the question is “what percentage of the UK is cropped compared to grazed, and what percentage of this is degraded?”
An interesting source is the YouTube channel, Harry’s Farm https://www.youtube.com/@harrysfarmvids He has a few films about beef farming and one compares US and UK (but I can’t find it for you!).
Let me also raise some questions about wheat. Is the drop in protein a result of yields increasing from 1 ton per acre in the 1960s to 4 tonnes per acre now? And a similar question about milk, if you look to compare through the changing decades: – in the 60s the yield was about 4.5K litres a year per cow, with butterfat of at least 5%, whereas today the amazing yield of 12K a year is linked to butterfat of less than 4%. Quantity far outweighing quality ☹ .
Keep writing gal! Thanks.
Another message arrived from one of our most frequent contributors, Bruce from Cambridgeshire: – Thanks for another interesting edition.
The return to farming methods which improve rather than deplete soil quality is something I am interested in and have links to the local Cambridgeshire initiatives. I think I mentioned to you the “six inches of soil” films.
I wish that I had taken more care to follow this film, because it was on tour to Exeter. Looks really interesting https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00014212/green-screen-tour-six-inches-of-soil-panel?comingsoon=true
I am also reminded of the Cornwall Climate Care films; there are references to soil health in a number of these, but the most obvious is Food for Thought at 19 mins 15 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55iNDmjjKM
Conference Season
The Green Party had their conference last weekend, yet there is precious little reporting on what happened in the media. When you have a hunt, though, I believe there is a marked change from previous years as the party is tackling non green issues, across a variety of themes. The most important without doubt being the stance they have taken against the methods being adopted by Israel in retaliation for the nightmare that unfolded at the hands of Hamas on October 7th.
“Greens for Palestine, comprising passionate people from across the Green Party, have worked tirelessly for this and are beyond elated.”
The Green Party of England and Wales has voted to recognise Israel‘s actions in Gaza as a genocide, becoming the first major British political party to do so.
Having made Gaza a prominent plank of its campaign in several areas during the July general election, the party won an unprecedented four seats in parliament.
The motion, which was passed at the party’s annual conference on Sunday afternoon, branded Israel’s assault on Gaza a “genocide” – and declared support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
It said: “We affirm our commitment to explicitly supporting BDS in our internal and external communications going forward.
“Supporting the BDS movement is essential to holding Israel accountable, to supporting Palestinians’ rights to equality and self-determination, and to demonstrating that our support, as a nation, is not performative.”
In his conference speech on Friday, party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP slammed the Labour government’s partial suspension on arms sales to Israel as “half-hearted”.
HS2 U Turn
Members of the Green Party of England and Wales have forced a reversal of their party’s position on HS2. At the party’s autumn conference in Manchester, party members endorsed a motion entitled ‘Green rail strategy for the Midlands and the North’, which explicitly called for HS2 to be funded and completed in full.
The motion sees the Green Party’s official policy on HS2 reversed. Prior to the conference, the party had opposed the construction of HS2, with a number of high profile Green Party figures being outspoken on the issue.
The former Green Party leader and member of the House of Lords Natalie Bennett was among those to speak against the motion at the conference. In the debate, she described HS2 as a ‘chaotic mess’ and ‘an enormous gravy train’.
The Green Party now supports building the entirety of HS2, including the legs to Manchester and Leeds, which were cancelled by Rishi Sunak’s government.
My own feeling is that Natalie Bennett is right. The way the project was conceived was a shambles and the rationale for it was never adequately explained. My friend who drives 125 trains between Bristol and Portsmouth took time to explain for me, ‘shaving 15 minutes off a journey between London and Birmingham was never the point. It is the lack of capacity … to take all the freight demand and grow passenger services we pretty much need to double today’s capacity’.
This leaves the Elephant in the Room, which when I simply searched for headlines about the conference did not show at all.
No to Pylons say Green Party
Had to keep hunting a long time to find a report that a) won’t lead to yet another fine for using a photo (the last bill came in initially at £450 😊, which I bashed down and down to be £50 in the end, for a picture of a squirrel!) and b) describes matters in a way that is good to read. The image I chose comes from a new source, and looks really interesting, even though the article is a bit out of date. I will quote you some sections in a moment, https://bright-green.org/2023/11/07/greens-need-to-fall-on-the-right-side-of-the-coming-pylon-wars/
One of the 4 new Green MPs, Adrian Ramsey of Waveney Valley in East Anglia, has come out as opposed to the corridor of electricity pylons needed for conveying power from the North Sea to London. The Independent newspaper review immediately says that he is a hypocrite and I agree. Here are the options:-
- Pylons, which are not pretty but involve least disruption to the ground and least cost
- Underground cable, big disruption and loss of farmland for a lot of time, in the heart of our food growing area for the whole country. Add to that damage to soil and release of CO2 plus higher costs
- Undersea cable, well that is just not acceptable on either level – damage to environment and cost
Low and often zero marginal costs from renewables promise a future of potentially very, very cheap energy. But people don’t like pylons.
The point is that this will require new electricity infrastructure. The more people object to this, the slower its introduction will be, and given the necessity to stop burning natural gas and coal, the more damage will be done. The National Grid suggests: “over the next seven years, five times as many transmission lines — via overhead pylons or (a more expensive option) underground cables — will need to be built than in the past three decades combined. Crucially, the new overhead lines making this possible will often be strung across picturesque countryside locations.”
A green movement that objects to energy infrastructure might look like a movement protecting local communities and wildlife habitats but the more such objections slow the energy transition the worse the effects will be of climate change.
A pro-pylon Green Party would no doubt lose votes, at least in some rural areas, but an anti-pylon Green Party could be the most potent reason that Britain’s transition to a low or zero carbon economy doesn’t occur. The machinations of Sunak, the retreats of Starmer on green commitments and the advocacy of coal on the part of the Reform Party are all dismaying but a green movement focused on resisting energy infrastructure could be even more devastating. We all know there is a special place in hell for politicians who object to solar farms and other renewable projects. But perhaps the hottest part might be reserved for those who seek to slow pylons and other forms of electricity transmission, they keep us on course for a burning world.
The next political conference will be the Lib Dems in Brighton. If you would like to see all of the dates and programmes, find them here: –
https://www.local.gov.uk/parliament/party-conferences-autumn-2024
Mini Green Conference, Chacewater
This was the first official type event where I arrived and parked up in my dual-fuelled car. I was sorry to miss the morning session but found quite a bit to interest me in the afternoon. Immediately I was delighted to greet John Weedon, of Mitchell and Webber, who had a very large display about HVO for heating. I have tried to insert you a link to an article about John in fueloilnews.co.uk but it looks like this will be blocked by my website, for some reason. Sorry.
As usual, in this village, the lead was taken by the very impressive John Carley. He took the decision to put a spotlight on the new Labour party’s GB Energy and the 4 new Cornwall MPs, who were certainly smarting from widespread critcism of the decision to scrap the Winter Fuel allowance:-
Labour’s Perran Moon, the MP for Camborne and Redruth, Jayne Kirkham, MP for Truro and Falmouth, Noah Law, MP for St Austell and Newquay and Anna Gelderd, the MP for South East Cornwall, all voted against a Conservative motion which would have blocked the government’s plans to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
The Labour government won a vote over the plan to restrict the payments to all but the poorest pensioners by 348 votes to 228 – a majority of 120. Fifty-two Labour MPs did not take part in the vote, including seven ministers, but it is not clear how many deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for another reason.
By the time I got there Noah had been and gone. My MP, Anna, seems not to have attended and this reinforces messages of disatisfaction with her performance, that I see on Facebook. She appointed a person to exchange a couple of emails with me a month ago, regarding shocking failures of the Environment Agency, but I wanted a chance to meet at a ‘surgery’; this was not offered and the response seemed limp, to say the least.
It is definitely a complex situation and the information is very helpful.
Neither Anna nor Noah would be able to compel officials to act in a certain way or attend a panel as an MP does not have power over them. (Why not?? What is the point if they can’t intervene?) However, we can definitely contact organisations to ask some questions about the sewage and flooding issues in Luxulyan.
Best wishes, Brendon Office of Anna Gelderd MP Labour Member of Parliament for South East Cornwall
TBH I don’t expect any further result from this exchange, but felt better about Perran and Jayne when they were being grilled about GB Energy. Jayne especially was strong on the potential for small, locally managed and consumed energy schemes. We need her to sit down with Anna and tell her a thing or 2!
Before leaving this event, I confess to having directly challenged another speaker. He wasn’t known to me but began with the shock message, that the UN has flagged up we have just 2 years left to save the world. As it happened, my own turn to speak followed straight on after he eventually subsided, and I simply said ‘I am the opposite of you, totally. I believe people must feel there is a route to making change happen, otherwise no one will even bother to get out of bed. Surely that tone in a message is counter-productive?’ My question was left hanging in the air!
Micro-size event, in St Blazey
Attendance at Chacewater was strong, a full hall, but they have been going a lot of years. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for our own meeting last evening, however, there were at least 2 ‘new shoots’, which look very possible to nurture and grow. One is the support of 2 parish councils who have been put off in the past, and the other is a totally unexpected interest of Youth, teenage girls interested in science, to be specific. We made a start enabling local people to vote on 5 targets for the years 2025 to 2030 in Our Valley.
We went through the 5 action points, watching films on Meadow Barns YouTube channel, that illustrate our points, and debating the best strategy for making these changes happen. The picture bottom left corner of the display above is where I made a comparison with Tamar Valley. It is in the World Heritage Site for very similar reasons and has some wonderful areas of natural beauty and a crowning impressive viaduct. What I have discovered is that their status as part of Cornwall’s AONB (National Landscape) gives them a dedicated full-time officer, and funding sources, for big money. And it is absolutely possible for that money to improve mining heritage, on privately owned land. This is just what we need for Par River Valley too.
Tamar Valley team also have a wonderfully open approach to working with locals, scheduling 9 public meetings, displays in all local libraries and online opportunities this autumn. If they can do it for their next management plan, why is it not happening for us? Please feel free to copy and paste these targets into an email, add your vote for each one, plus any comments, and send to me ASAP. The format we used was:-
1) To improve access and safety, both travelling to and exploring within the valley.
2) To arrive at an appropriate amount of motor vehicle access, in depth of valley. For us, appropriate means very few cars allowed.
3) To achieve an appropriate balance between wildness of nature and something tidier, that enables new hydro and new, wider, clean access paths. This is a big section covering everything from future beaver ponds to best practice in woodland management using heavy horses, new bridle paths, tram trail footpaths and much more.
4) To nurture, support and empower volunteers, as a vital element in a future programme of restoration and management.
5) To review the scope of existing organisations and possibility that we will need a new CIC, to enable bids for funding and an ambitious programme of restoration and renewal.
6) To consider best options for collaboration with Charlestown, where we share many interests and concerns.
Back to the event. Possibly the best outcome of all, certainly the most unexpected, was attracting the attention and support of those 2 teenage girls, who ticked the boxes on our questionnaire to show strong agreement with our proposals and a willingness to take an active role! Based on their interest and hoping very much to develop a bigger group of Youth, I am now playing about with a fresh concept and design for a CIC, which might be called OV2 e.g. OV twice, Our Valley .. Our Vision
I love the idea that the adults will continue working through official channels, which may eventually require an organisation to be onolled (annulled) and the Young Ones will definitely have tactics of annoyance ONOY!! That looks like a good plan.
To conclude, as promised, a few reports pro and con, about the ruling by a High Court judge, that
Cumbria – thou shalt not re-open a Coal Mine
The Guardian tells us
New fossil fuel projects are thought to be on shakier legal ground after the precedent set by a landmark supreme court decision that quashed planning permission granted for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill on the Weald in Surrey. The judgment found the climate impact of burning coal, oil and gas must be taken into account when deciding whether to approve projects. This was the first court decision on plans for a new fossil fuel development since the Horse Hill, Surrey oil well, ruling.
Holgate agreed with Friends of the Earth that Michael Gove, when he was secretary of state for levelling up, acted unlawfully in accepting a claim by West Cumbria Mining (WCM) that the mine would be “net zero” and have no impact on the country’s ability to meet the emissions cuts required under the Climate Change Act 2008, because it was relying on offsetting through purchasing carbon credits from abroad. UK government policy does not allow for reliance on international offsets to meet carbon budgets.
The new Labour government this year withdrew its support from the Whitehaven mine in the Cumbria legal case. Lawyers acting for Angela Rayner, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said there had been an “error in law” in the decision to grant planning permission for the mine in December 2022.
Withdrawing its defence against two legal challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change, the government instead informed the court that the planning permission should be quashed. The case proceeded as the developer of the mine, WCM, still wanted to defend the original decision to approve it.
Emissions from the burning of the coal from the proposed Whitehaven mine were not included in the developer’s climate assessment. The mine’s total lifetime emissions, to come almost entirely from the burning of the coal, were forecast to exceed 220m tonnes of CO2 equivalent, an amount equal to more than half of the UK’s total emissions in 2022.
During the hearing, lawyers acting for Friends of the Earth said that given the decision by the supreme court in the Surrey case, the climate impact of burning coal, oil and gas should have been taken into account when deciding whether to approve the project.
“WCM … failed to quantify or assess the downstream combustion emissions from the coal extracted from the mine,” they submitted.
The Cumberland News reports on similar lines to the above, but then also gives space for locals:-
The coal mine has been a divisive topic in the area since the plans were put forward in 2017, supporters argue that there is a need for job opportunities in Whitehaven and that the mine would be a boost to the local economy.
Former mayor of Copeland Mike Starkie, who has been a long-time supporter of the mine, said: “Today is a dark day for West Cumbria.
“I think it’s an absolute travesty. That after all this time and all the money and the processes and hurdles that have been cleared, that this can even happen.
“The prosperity and the opportunity this would have brought to West Cumbria was phenomenal.
“I’m angry and I think the people of West Cumbria are angry over this. And for this new government, hot on the heels of stealing the winter fuel allowance off 18,000 West Cumbrian pensioners to then take the future away from our potential workforce is devastating.”
Former Workington MP Mark Jenkinson remarked on Facebook: “Labour are playing games with West Cumbria’s future.”
“Not content with holding West Cumbria back for decades, they continue to prove they don’t care about employment and growth in West Cumbria.
“One of their first acts in Government was to drop their defence of the planning decision to allow a private company to build the Woodhouse Colliery, with no taxpayer subsidy required. The judge has now put that decision back on Angela Rayners desk.”
For those who oppose the coal mine, Friday’s ruling was welcomed as a step in the right direction on climate change.
There is a much greater push among them to see ‘green’ jobs brought into the area instead.
Josh MacAlister, MP for Workington and Whitehaven, said: “The High Court’s finding that the decision by the previous Tory government on the coal mine was ‘legally flawed’ comes as a surprise to no one. The Tories knew it themselves, which is why they were against it before they were for it. They made a cynical political decision to back it, not one based on a sound proposition or any care for our community. It’s the latest in a long list of messes the Tories left for someone else to clean up.
“I was clear about my view on the coal mine before the election and it hasn’t changed since then. I’ve always been skeptical about whether the business case stacked up for a product that there is no domestic market for now the Tories have shut down the blast furnaces and with them our virgin steel-making capability. (I believe Labour are contesting some of this with TATA?)
The jobs the mine promised to create would be wholly reliant on a volatile global export market in which prices for coking coal are trending downwards. They wouldn’t have lasted and then local families would have been let down again.
Did anyone ever imagine our transition to greener energy would be a smooth one? Clearly not a chance!
