Victoria's Green Matters - 15th January 2015

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: It is interesting to follow the effects of the reduced oil prices that are prevailing at the moment. The most notable, of course, is the price of petrol and diesel at the pumps. It was difficult to imagine such a situation this time last year.

The decreased cost of transport should lead to lower prices in the shops, particularly food but it will also mean that more fuel is being used as drivers travel more. Unfortunately, this means increased carbon emissions which is bad news for the environment.

We all know that the only way we can avoid disastrous climate change is to limit our carbon emissions and the only way to do this is to reduce our use of fossil fuels. A new report from University College London (UCL) states that a large percentage of the world’s reserves of fossil fuels need to be left in the ground if we are to avoid even a 2⁰C increase in global temperatures.

We are often hearing about how much the oil companies are putting into exploration for new oil and gas reserves – £443bn as recently as 2013 – but we must question why they are doing this when we cannot burn known reserves, never mind new ones. If there is to be global agreement at the Climate Summit in December this year, developing countries must be persuaded to leave their fossil fuel reserves in the ground and encouraged to develop renewable sources of energy, with help and investment from the developed world.

THE GARDEN OF THE POOR OLD WOMAN - Astor 22nd Thursday

THURS EVENING 22nd JANUARY AT THE ASTOR THEATRE DEAL

THERE WILL BE A SHOWING OF '' THE GARDEN OF THE POOR OLD WOMAN ''

A PORTRAIT OF PLANET EARTH IN VIDEO , PHOTOGRAPHY AND POETRY
BY DEAL ARTIST ADRIAN O


THIS PRESENTATION IN AID OF CANCER RESEARCH

WILL BE FURTHER ENHANCED BY THE WONDERFUL HARMONY SINGING OF LOCAL SINGERS SUE WATSON AND LIZZI STEPHENS. SUPERB HARMONICA BY AL CLARK
AND INSTRUMENTAL BACKING MUSIC BY CHRIS TAYLOR AND CHRIS SADLER.

THE EVENINGS STARTS AT 7.30, AND WILL FEATURE A SUPPORT ACT, BY YOUNG EMERGING TALENT, SINGER/GUITARIST SHIOBHA SUMMERS


£5 on the DOOR, ALL IN AID OF CANCER RESEARCH.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR SUPPORT IF YOU CAN MAKE IT,
BEST WISHES, ADRIAN O

Deal gathers in solidarity and unity for #JeSuisCharlie

Deal gathered on Sunday at the Pier in a show of solidarity and unity with the massive ‘Je Suis Charlie’ rally in Paris. 

Over 200 people attended at the informal gathering hosted by Deal With It.

Adrian Sullivan, from Deal With It said “We had a fantastic response from the community in Deal with over 200 attended the Gathering and many, many more sending messages of support. It was Deal at its finest.

We had only floated the idea of a community gathering, to coincide with the rally in Paris, on Saturday Lunch time.

I was great to see that many people had made their own posters and placards.

The community really came together on Sunday; we had several churches, local community groups, representatives from all the political parties and many individuals who just wanted to express their quiet support for the victims.

One of the many privileges of living in Deal is that on most days you see France ; in the last week France has been closer to us.”

Adrian Sullivan Photo Harold Wyld

All our photos can be found here

Victoria's Green Matters - 8th January 2015

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: It seems a very sad state of affairs when we find that one in ten of England’s wildlife havens have been damaged or lost during the last five years.

Local Wildlife Sites (LWS)are not like national reserves and sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)which are protected by law; they only have limited protection under planning rules but provide homes for a wide selection of wildlife ranging from frog orchids and marsh gentians to grass snakes, harvest mice and water voles.

These sites are vitally important for both people and wildlife. Local communities find benefits for health, well-being and education by having access to nature in their local area and a network of corridors connects wild spaces.

Many of these sites are quiet, unnoticed wild places where nature thrives but a study of nearly 7,000 of these places found that around 700 of them had been lost between 2009 and 2013.

It is not surprising that these habitats are being threatened when local authorities are under pressure to build more and more houses. There are many brownfield sites around the country that could successfully be used to build new homes near to town and village centres but builders do not want to invest in the clean-up of once industrial sites and prefer the ease of building on ‘new’ land. There is no denying that new homes are needed but permission is being granted for building without proper consideration for all the effects that ensue and much more care is needed.

Deal Gathering Sunday 2pm Je Suis Charlie

Je Suis Charlie.

We want to mark the dreadful events in Paris this week.

In solidarity with the massive rally there on Sunday, there will be a gathering in Deal at Deal Pier from 2pm

One community to another ... for all communities

Please bring posters, candles etc.

Next Deal Beach Clean 18th January 2015

We have our first Deal Beach Clean of 2015 on Sunday 18th January. 

This will be at 10am and meet at Deal Pier.

This is part of our quarterly series of beach cleans which part of the Marine Conservation Society monitoring of what rubbish we recover from our beach so the Society can gain a picture of what is happening around the UK's coastline.

It is bound to be cold so please dress with lots of layers, bring a hot drink and only do as much as you are comfortable with!


We have had feedback from volunteers from previous cleans on having a later start time and looking at non-MCS recording pop-up cleans as well

Victoria's Green Matters - 1st January 2015

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: Remember ‘quantitative easing’? It seems a long time ago that these were the buzz words of the moment but back in the years between 2009 and 2012 the Bank of England e-printed £375billion of cash to help out the ailing banks and investors at the height of the economic meltdown.

Just give a thought to what could be achieved if some more quantitative easing were used to stimulate the economy, tackle climate change and boost employment.

A new programme could undertake the building of affordable, highly insulated new homes on mostly brown field sites and work towards making the UK’s 30million existing buildings super energy efficient, so reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy bills and fuel poverty. This would cost about £50billion a year – not much in comparison to the bailing out of the banks.

The recent autumn statement from the Chancellor promised us nothing for the long term benefit of the nation. The government is looking only as far as the election in May next year and has no thought for investment for the further future. The ‘Green Economy’ which, so far, has developed with little help from the government, already has created several thousand jobs around the country. Many thousands more jobs could be developed if a programme of energy efficiency was adopted nationwide.

This programme would take place in every city, town, village or hamlet in the country and provide job security, create local business opportunities and overall, aid the economy and help the climate too. Victoria Nicholls