ProtectKent Conference on Water

Protect Kent will be looking forward to welcoming you to their November Conference:

“Planning for Drought – Is Kent In Crisis ?”

As a reminder … our full-day conference will be held on Monday 26^th November at the Kent County Showground, Detling, in the Clive Emerson building.

This promises to be a very informative and productive event, with 8 speakers from key organisations in the water and environment sector, including a keynote speech from Richard Benyon MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Further details are given on the attached flyer. Tickets can be booked at http://planningfordrought.eventbrite.co.uk . The take-up of places is progressing well, and we would recommend you book yours as soon as possible.

Victoria's Green Matters - 25th Oct 2012

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:It is heartbreaking to see that our ‘greenest government ever’ is once again denying the science that has been put before it and is going ahead with killing one of the nation’s favourite animals in an ill-advised badger cull.

TB was first discovered in badgers in the early 1970s and since then we have systematically been killing them in various horrible ways until the 10 year-long ‘Randomised Badger Culling Trial’ resulted in a 300 page report that concluded that ‘badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to the control of TB in cattle’. We were all delighted when the government at the time announced that there would be no more culling of badgers.

The proposed killing of 130,000 badgers over a number of years will result in a 30% reduction in the badger population nationally and up to a 50% reduction in the South West. Complex family groups which have been formed over generations will be disrupted and many individual badgers which have been injured will die slow and painful deaths.

 And for what? The problem of TB in cattle will not be addressed until the dairy industry looks to the way it farms. Ever more intensive methods of producing milk without thought for animal welfare must be considered to be one of the main reasons that TB continues to be the scourge it is.

Please help the campaign against this badger cull by visiting www.teambadger.org and only buy your milk from happy cows which are not intensely farmed.

Deal Insulation & Energy Fair 17th Nov....

“Keep warmer in Deal this winter”

Deal With It, Deal’s Local Green Community group, is organising an Insulation and Energy Fair at Deal Town Hall on Saturday 17th Nov between 1-4:30pm.

Rosie Rechter, Deal With It Co-ordinator said: “With rising fuel prices biting home this winter we want to show people how they can save money and energy.

We ran a similar successful event back in March which focussed upon energy generation. This time it is about getting the message on insulation out . How saving energy is good for us and good for the planet

We will have people on hand to explain what help is available, the options for retro-fitting older homes to make them more energy efficient, the practicalities of insulating you home by yourself, the details of the Government’s new ‘Green Deal’, Insulation and window specialists”

If you are interested in coming to the fair or interested in having a stall please contact Guy at energy@dealwithit.org

Transport & Air quality meeting ...

All - here are details of a meeting about Canterbury's transport and air quality problems.

Thursday, 8^th November, Dominican Priory, 7:30pm -

Lynn Sloman: Sustainable Transport Blueprint for Canterbury

Lynn Sloman is one of the country’s leading experts on sustainable transport and is a director of Transport for Quality of Life, (www.transportforqualityoflife.com). She was one of the authors of the report to the DfT in 2010, ‘The Effects of Smarter Choice Programmes in the Sustainable Travel Towns: Summary Report’, which led to the creation of the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

Canterbury’s traffic and air quality problems are much debated. Here might be some advice and solutions that could help cut congestion, improve air quality in the city and lower the city's carbon footprint.

Dover District Cycle Forum this Weds....

DOVER DISTRICT CYCLE FORUM:

meeting 7.30pm Wednesday 17th October 2012

***** Please see the temporary website for relevant background papers *****

http://doverdistrictcycleforum.weebly.com/

1. Apologies

2. Minutes of last meeting 3rd July 2012

Matters arising (except as listed below)

3. - reports of maintenance issues affecting cyclists (please bring your photos of issues we should take up)

- New "pinch point schemes" and how they affect cyclists

4. Seafront Improvement Project - developments since last meeting

5. "Twenty's Plenty" - campaign for town-wide 20mph limit
- 20sPlenty Campaign and what happened at Dover's Joint Transport Board

- Suggested public meeting

6. Cycling signing on the A2 - Spokes campaign

- Google's new directions for cyclists (directs cyclist up the A2)

- new path at Dover cliffs;

- issues with safety of Dour Greenway

- updates on the Dover District Cycle Strategy,

7. Deal Town Team: update on cycling aspects

- nomination of 1 representative
- cycle parking
- maps, leaflets and information online
- completing gaps in the cycle network
- "Cycle Chic"

8. Bikes on Trains

- report on Spokes submission to Southeastern consultation; - bikes on trains: flashback to the Olympics
- Train Operators' "Cyclist Toolkit" - local action proposed (a new grading scheme for cycle facilities at stations)

9. AOB as agreed at start of meeting

10. Date of next meeting:
(we have no more meetings planned for this calendar year - we need 4 new dates to cover 2013, the first being the AGM)

=============================================

Ian Killbery earlystart@me.com
Chair, Dover District Cycle Forum
representing everyone interested in cycling in Dover District
affiliated to SPOKES East Kent Cycle Campaign http://www.spokeseastkent.org.uk
Please email Ian for venue...

Chocolate sessions at the Astor

Deal's first chocolate week came to a sucessful end with several sessions by Chocolution's Kieran Renihan at the Astor today.

The week had seen Kieran speak at several sessions in local schools like Castle and Hornbeam. Attendees at several sessions at the Astor heard from Kieran what chocolate was, how it is produced and how its production can vary its taste and how healthy it is for us. The tasting was particularly well recieved ....

Thank you for James at the Astor for supporting the event and Rose & Charles from Deal With IT for helping on the day...

Kieran will be publishing his plans for more community chocolate - so watch this space

Rosie is off to Brussels ...

Deal With It's coordinator - Rosie Rechter - Is off to Brussels tomorrow to present a petition on the regulations around fracking to the EU Parliament's petition committee

Rosie's petition is focussed on loose regulatory framework there is for this process. In the UK the regulations are essentially the same used in the North Sea. Hint: not many people live in the North sea ...
Good luck Rosie from us all ... more on this later in the week

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing of shale and coal layers to produce methane gas. A mix of water [lots of it], sand and a cocktail of some not very nice chemical is pumped at high pressure deep underground to explode the rock and release gas.

20mph is plenty for Deal....

20 is plenty for Deal.....

Alan's Letter in this week's EKM:
"
How right Mr. Finney* is in calling for a 20 mph speed limit on all residential roads in Deal.

There has grown up in Deal a culture of quite reckless speeding – a blight on our town, and a real danger to cyclists, pedestrians – and motorists themselves.

Thirty years ago I saw a young cyclist knocked down and killed by a speeding motorist. Regularly, memories of that day come back to haunt me. If I cannot forget, what dreadful sorrow and regret must overshadow both the family of the dead child, and the motorist?

Every age of history, civilised in most ways, has its own moral blind-spot, based on the mistaken pseudo-philosophy of: “Well, everybody else is doing it.”  Remember the use of slaves in the American cotton-fields, and Victorian child chimney-sweeps.  Today, we allow many motorists, largely unchallenged, to drive among us at speeds that spell almost certain death for any cyclist or pedestrian who makes a single false move. Motorists, too, are capable of mistakes, with potentially fatal consequences – perhaps for themselves.

I do understand the problem from both sides. I sometimes drive a car too, and in the past I have not always rigorously obeyed speed limits. But in my best, rational mind I know that it is right for life-saving speed limits to be imposed, and rigorously enforced. Now is the time to remove our blind spot.

I am seeking to form a pressure group to campaign for the introduction of 20 mph speed limits on all the residential roads in Deal. If you would like to join in, please contact me using the email address: alangleave@yahoo.co.uk. 

Alan Gleave

* Mr. Finney’s letter was published in last week’s paper."

 http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/

Rippledown Permaculture Intro course Nov

Introduction to Permaculture @ Rippledown 
(just outside of Deal - Ringwould)
Three Day Weekend course

Learn to live more sustainably. This introductory course will give you a ‘taster’ of how permaculture design and principles can be applied to your own life and work.

Date(s)
Friday–Sunday 9-11 November 2012

Cost
Residential £175 including all meals & refreshments
Non-residential £135 includes lunch & refreshments

http://rippledown.com/eco-courses-kent/introduction-to-permaculture/

Astor Open day this saturday....

One of Deal's great community resources - the Astor Community Theatre - is opening its doors to show the fruits of the recent investment this Saturday.


The Astor Theatre will be hosting an Open Day on Saturday 6th October from 2pm through to the evening. The Astor has recently had a complete transformation of its stage with a state of the art lighting rig plus new comfy chairs.

A professional recording studio has been installed with an Internet Radio Station and music school to be launched this year.

The Astor has returned to becoming very much the centre point of Deal with a true community spirit, which embraces workshops, classes and courses in many topics.

It is also launching “Hidden Stores of the Astor”, an opportunity for the town to get involved in capturing the history of this unique building.

Deal Chocolate Week 8th - 14th October

“Deal Chocolate week is coming!”

Deal’s own local community chocolatier ‘Chocolution’ is launching a celebration of real chocolate at the beginning of October. 

During National Chocolate Week, 8th - 14th October, The Chocolution is undertaking a number of talks and workshops in Deal, exploring all aspects of chocolate from its history, to production and issues of fair trade.

Pure chocolate has long been recognized as containing the potential to improve heart health, a fact which is supported by current scientific research.

Kieran Renihan, Chocolution’s Founder said: “We aim to provide opportunities for everyone in Deal to understand what benefits they will have by upgrading their chocolate. Most commercially sold chocolate has been heavily processed and no longer contains the beneficial antioxidant flavanols. Also important is the peace of mind that chocolate is coming from sustainable sources which trade fairly with producers.

We see the Chocolate Week as a great opportunity to reconnect people with healthy chocolate and the world around them so that we can change the chocolate industry for the better.”

Kieran is doing several sessions at local schools during the week. He has also got public sessions on Friday 12^th October 10am to 12 at Café Eden, St Richard’s Church Mill Hill and three sessions at the Astor Community Theatre on Saturday 13^th October at 11am, 12:30pm and 2pm. All sessions involve a talk, tasting and demonstration of real chocolate making. All sessions are free.

The Deal based social business, The Chocolution, sources its raw ingredients ethically with a direct relationship with the Cocao producers and is registered with the Soil Association.

Chocolution’s products, are all hand-made here in the town; in a variety of ad-hoc production sites such as kitchens in local churches, theatres and schools and sold via a number of local independent outlets. It also has a distinct passion for educating people about what real chocolate is and where it comes from.

If you would like more information and / or your community group or school wants to hold a talk / workshop please contact Kieran Renihan: Phone 07846 094220, email kieran@thechocolution.com or see website at http://thechocolution.com/