Landmark Garden Update 30th March

General tidying up continues at the Landmark. Started getting the compost mulish down on the prepared beds and made a start on on market side bed and the south facing beds.

Imogen did a big measure up today for the rest of the plan... looks like we leave the Limes until next year

Gill's done sterling work in getting the shed moved around

Hopefully the notice board will be moved sone ... planting starts soon.

The Landmark Community Garden meets at the Landmark on Weds at 2:30pm and Saturday at 10:30am - All Welcome

Greening the Local economy roots jobs and work in our community

Interesting one from Totnes Transition Town who have published 'Local Ecomonic Blueprint' this week:



See video at http://youtu.be/iEVrc86Aig8

Economic localisation has often been argued from a range of perspectives, such as being a better way forward and being more sustainable, but rarely has the economic case to back it up been clearly set out.  The Blueprint concludes that:

• Although nationally 97% of grocery sales go through just 8,000 supermarkets - in Totnes 26% of money spent on food is already spent with a thriving web of local businesses. Plans to bring just 10% of the £22 million that currently leaves the local food economy to local businesses by targeting everyday items that could be bought cheaper locally would provide a £2.2 million boost to the local economy;
• Making homes in the area more energy efficient could be worth between £26 and £75 million: preparing local businesses to deliver just 10% of this value would be worth at least £2.6 million to the local economy;
• Developing local renewable energy potential could generate £6.4 million energy each year: building local demand and preparing local businesses to deliver as much of the supply chain as possible for just 10% of this potential contributes over £600k per year to our local economy.

This is all before the local economic multiplier is taken into effect, which could make the changes worth far more to the local economy.  When combined, this 10% target totals over £5 million which could remain locally and stimulate new jobs, new businesses and a new economy.  This is the economic case for seeing community resilience as a form of economic development, indeed as a form of economic development that is far more appropriate to the current economic situation than most of the other ideas being proposed elsewhere.

Full report is here

Follow the story at the transition network site

Victoria's Green Matters - 28th March 2013

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury

What a missed opportunity! The UK’s growing green economy was completely ignored in the recent budget and with it the chance to create many much needed jobs and a cleaner, low carbon society.

It always used to be that the polluter paid but Chancellor George Osborne has concentrated all his efforts on subsidies for fracking for shale gas, tax breaks for oil companies and exemptions from carbon targets for dirty industries.

The low carbon sector of the economy is doing incredibly well. It is growing at a rate of 5% per year, employs a million people and exports £5 billion more than it imports. This means that it makes up 9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The worldwide market for green goods and services is worth £3 trillion per year.

The best way to lessen the continually increasing demand for energy would be to invest in a massive building renovation scheme. This is supposed to be the government’s ‘Green Deal’ but consumers now have to borrow money at interest rates of 7-8% if they want to retro-fit their homes to present insulation targets. If you borrow money for one of these schemes in Germany, it is at an interest rate of 1%. The ‘Green Deal’ was supposed to encourage homeowners to insulate their homes thereby saving enough money on their energy bills to easily pay off a low interest loan and so leading to a smaller carbon footprint for the household.

What a shame that we lag so far behind our European colleagues!

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Kingsdown Beach statement...

Some of you may already know that Tingdene has withdrawn its planning application to install huge huts on Kingsdown White Cliff's beach, which is excellent news.

Those that signed the DDC website will have received a letter from DDC. This follows an intense period of work by Kingsdown Conservation Group who liaised with key expert bodies such as Natural England, National Trust, Kent AONB leading to these organisations filing strong objections plus KCG's own submission of a robust rebuttal which debunked the planners assertion that the huts would not damage this section of wild beach.

This combined with worldwide condemnation of the plans from 700+ who signed and commented through the online petition.

Whilst all of this is great news, we are aware that we still need to be vigilant about future plans, so KCG and others are keeping a watchful eye on future applications. If needed, we can reactivate the petition, review the rebuttal and get going once again.

Thanks so much for all your support during the last 3 weeks.

For more information on this campaign look at www.kingsdownconservationgroup.wordpress.com or www.kentbeachcomber.blogspot.co.uk

Deal Earth Hour

Despite some lousy cold weather a warm time was had at the Landmark on Saturday at The Deal 'Earth Hour' event. 

 

We have short talk on 'Earth Hour;  Rosie from Deal With It spoke about what DWI is doing locally and some of the Green issues facing our community, Poetry, a Green Quiz, Great food to share, Raffle for the Tree Sisters and

fantastic music from Sunshine Ukes Band and Driftwood.

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor's 'Jam' with the Sunshine Ukes was a great highlight watch this space for the video

Eileen Rowbotham

Many thanks for everyone who took part and especially to Eileen for organising.

Link to Tree Sisters is here

Driftwood

DWI's Rosie Rechter

Landmark Garden update

Our volunteers braved the arctic conditions today in Deal to get some of the beds serviceable at the Landmark. Well done all.

The group is meeting up on Weds afternoon from 2pm and Sat Mornings from 10am.

Hope to have another digging session for the main beds next Saturday plus we have some compost arriving to mulish the beds.

Please contact Rosie or Vicki if you want get involved

FOE Fracking workshop in Sussex

Fight fracking and support Clean British Energy

FREE training event

Saturday 20 April, 10.30 am - 5pm

Clair Hall, Perrymount Road
Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3DN

Ø Want to know more about Fracking?

Ø Want to learn about clean energy alternatives?

Join Friends of the Earth campaigners, including Senior Energy Campaigner Tony Bosworth to find out

·       Where Fracking is happening

·       How to influence your council

·       How to raise awareness

·       What the solutions to energy issues are including Community renewables

·       How to use your local papers and social media to support your campaigns

Lunch provided

To book or for info:

Email: nikki.packham@foe.co.uk

Tel: 020 7566 1676

Victoria's Green Matters - 21st March 2013

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury

There was a worrying report last week concerning our cross channel ferries. Shipping companies are going to be required to reduce the emissions from their ferries in line with a global maritime pollution convention that requires sulphur emissions on the seas to the east and south of Britain to be reduced from 2015.

Sulphur emissions are responsible for many thousands of premature deaths each year. The low grade fuel that is used by ships has 2,000 times the sulphur content of the diesel used by British cars and ferries will be forced to use much cleaner fuel or fit expensive technology to clean up emissions in the near future. The cleaner fuel will cost up to 30% more and shipping companies will obviously pass on this increase to customers.

For those of us who commit to ‘no fly’ holidays and enjoy trips across the Channel to France and onward, this will be a great disappointment. It will also encourage people to fly on more short journeys because, for one reason, it will be cheaper. One of the main reasons that air travel is cheaper, of course, is that aviation fuel is not subject to tax like other fuels. If the tax levels were equalled there would be no cheap flights. Our commitment to a cleaner environment for all should mean that cleaner fuel should be available without the penalty of extra cost for all, no matter which form of transport we take.

Deal Station Garden ... Big thank you to our volunteers

Our Community Garden at Deal Rail Station is beginning to take shape. 

Today we had 13 DWI volunteers out to move some 5 tonnes of topsoil and compost and get 5 plaform planters ready for veg & fruit planting as soon as Spring finally decides to arrive.

Lots of thanks to everyone who have donated so far - Jewsons on Deal for the top soil, Deal Garden Centre for the compost, RippleValeSchool for making the 5 planters and donating one of them, Rotary Club of Deal for sponsoring one and several Deal With It supporters who have been very generous.


Special thank you for the SE Rail staff at the station who have been very supportive and have managed to train us in health & safety awareness at the station.

We still need more volunteers and help for the project - veg plants, time, money and expertise all welcome.

Please contact Sarah and Alan at food@dealwithit.org or phone 01304 389553 to get involved.

Planting is planned to start early in April as long as weather improves and have an 'offical openning' in May.

Lastly big thanks to the team today - Rose, David, Alan,Tracy, Roisin, Wendy, Vicki, Sally, Ros, Alison, Peter, Sarah and Steve

DWI Meeting: The Impact of closure of Richborough Recycling on Deal

Deal With It's March Open Meeting is on March 27th at 7:30pm at the Town Hall.

It going to on the environmental impact of the threaten closure by KCC of the Richborough Recycling Centre nr Sandwich this coming August.

We have Jeffrey Loffman from the Richborough Action Group and we have also asked KCC for a speaker.

All Welcome

http://www.saverichboroughtip.co.uk/

Victoria's Green Matters - 14th March 2013

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury

Have you ever given a thought to the consequences of eating imported food? We have become very used to buying any variety of food and vegetable, whatever the season, without thinking about how it was produced and where it has come from.

A very worrying report last week revealed that a dead sperm whale had been washed up on the south coast of Spain and it had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste. On investigation, it was discovered that most of this plastic had originated from the greenhouses in Almeria and Granada that are used to grow vegetables to export to the UK. Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose are all valued customers.

While most of the waste from these greenhouses is treated in special centres some escapes into local river beds and because the greenhouses are built right up to the shoreline, some inevitably ends up in the sea.

Because we can buy all these imported foods in our supermarkets we have forgotten how to eat in a seasonal way and forgotten the extra pleasure of looking forward to when fruits and vegetables are in season. Another effect of imported food being available all year round is, of course, that locally produced items are competing in a crowded market.

We also need to remember the extra carbon emissions or food miles associated with the transport of imported items and we need to cut our carbon emissions as much as possible.

So, when shopping, remember, eat seasonal, eat local, eat fruit and vegetables!



Victoria Nicholls Transition Deal