Friends of Earth - BaseCamp July

BASECAMP 2013

The Get-together for environmental activism
12-14 July, Hartington, Derbyshire

BASECAMP is one of three events we're running this year in place of our Annual Conference.
This won't be a top-down 'Conference'. BASECAMP is being developed and run as collaboratively as possible with an activist working group, local groups and the network more widely.
This is an event primarily for the Friends of the Earth network of local groups. We also very much welcome people who aren't Friends of the Earth members but are active on environmental issues. 
Join us at Basecamp to
• Skill up - share expertise, build and learn skills.
• Meet up - with a broad spectrum of people with a common goal. 
• Have your say - in how we can campaign together to achieve our ambitions.
• Rejuvenate - in the midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in Britain.
There'll be a range of creative, festival-inspired and thought-provoking activities throughout the weekend (suggestions and offers very welcome). And you can't fail to be inspired by our prize ceremony for local campaigning - the Earthmovers Awards.
Guest speakers confirmed so far include George Monbiot (Columnist and author) and Elías Díaz Peña (Friends of the Earth Paraguay) with more on the way.  
About the venue
The event will take place in Hartington - a village in the countryside between Buxton and Chesterfield, a short walk from world famous Dovedale. We hope to be inspired by this spectacular setting, so the weekend will have an outdoor feel. A lot of the sessions will be in the marquee and yurts, or rooms in the Youth Hostel with views of the nearby hills. We will be running shuttle buses from Buxton train station in time for the beginning and the end of the event. (We are looking into a shuttle from Chesterfield too).  
We have booked every bed in the area for the event, so there will be a range of accommodation for you to choose from - including riverside camping, dorm beds at the YHA, nearby B&Bs and a hotel.
Prices (all tickets are subsidised)
£30: Weekend ticket with food and camping
£60: Weekend ticket with food and dorm room
£105: Weekend  ticket with B & B
A limited number of free tickets are also available for local group members who would not be able to participate otherwise.
And if you have any questions or suggestions please do get in touch.

Kingsdown Beach Hut Campaign

Kingsdown Conservation Group have produced a campaign video to stop 12 beach huts being build on SSSI part of Kingsdown Beach.





See the video at this link http://youtu.be/IzoawsME_Xg

See the Campaigns web site at here

Two things you can do:

1) Sign the Online Petition here
2) Put an Objection on DDC planning site here (reference: 12/01016 )

Earth Hour 23rd March - Deal Event

Earth Hour at the Landmark - Sat 23rd March 2013 from 7:30pm

Earth Hour is the single, largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world. Born out of a hope that we could mobilize people to take action on climate change, Earth Hour now inspires a global community of millions of people in 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries to switch lights off for an hour as a massive show of concern for the environment.


Join us in Deal at the Landmark for an evening of Music from Driftwood and Sunshine Ukes, Quiz, Poetry and at 8:30 Big Switch off.  Please bring food to share
£2 entrance - Raffle for the Woodland Trust

Landmark Garden Cleared

Deal With It had a number of volunteers out on Saturday to help clear the Garden at the Landmark Community Centre on Saturday morning.

Deal With It is working with the Landmark Centre and bring the garden back into being a 'loved space' with flowers and veg maintained by a circle of volunteer gardeners

Massive thank you to all our volunteers : Judith, Alma, Sarah, Rose, Steve, Rosie, Vicki, Gill from the Landmark, Dave T (for doing a lot of work beforehand) and especially George and Imogen from Kitching Gardens for providing the transport and expertise - www.kitchingardens.co.uk

Any one interested in volunteering to help transform & maintain the Garden or getting other pop-up community gardens going in the town please contact Vicki Nicholls at info@dealwithit.org

Next steps is to talk to the local authority and tree surgeons about managing the trees at the front of the garden followed by a 'Big Dig' event later in the month

Cooking from Scratch at the Astor

Cooking From Scratch in Deal

The Astor was the place to be today if you wanted to savour a great variety of local food from the best school food (ever!), the most eco-pizza's produced in Deal, Cycle-powered Smoothies,a taste of wild food from our coastline and sublime chocolate.

Deal With It stall was busy with a lot of interest in our 'Grow Deal' initiative and all the other things we are doing. Thank you to our volunteers Charles, Vicki and Steve for running the stall.

It was a busy event with  several hundred attending and lots of hands on cooking for kids and adults. Local veg box scheme was there as well

The event was organised by Deal's own School Meals local enterprise - Whole School Meals - who is own by local schools, produces the food in the town with fresh fruit & veg and uses locally sourced produce.

Well done Stephanie and her team for organising

Dover & District Cycling Forum meeting this Thurs 14th

This is a reminder of the date fixed at the AGM: the Forum will meet at 11 Western Rd on Thursday 14th March 7.30pm - 9pm.

The main items on the agenda will be:

- follow-up to the successful '20s Plenty' public meeting held at Deal Town Hall on Wed 27th February, with Rod King

(the '20s Plenty for Deal' organising group are also invited to this meeting)

- resident's complaint that there is not enough cycle parking in Deal

see http://www.spokeseastkent.org.uk/maps/cycle-parking-heat-map/?zoom=17&lat=51.22354&lon=1.39954&layers=B0T

- progress on cycling facilities across the district

Please send me a note if there's anything else you'd like on the agenda,


best wishes,


Ian
Ian Killbery earlystart@me.com
Chair, Dover District Cycle Forum http://doverdistrictcycleforum.weebly.com/
representing everyone interested in cycling in Dover District
affiliated to SPOKES East Kent Cycle Campaign http://www.spokeseastkent.org.uk
Tel: 01304-362569

Happy IWD !

Happy International Women's Day to you all - remember that the Deal IWD Event gets going at the Astor today at 2pm....

If you cannot see the Leeds Union Vid from last year  video click here



and this year's Oxfam one:

Jeremy Iron Film 'Trashed' and EU moves on Plastic Bags

Caught Jeremy Irons on C4 News last night railing against the waste our society produces and moves in the EU to ban Plastic bags?

Here is trailer from the film mentioned in news item ... Trashed

If you cannot see the embedded video the link is here

Folding Bikes at Canterbury & Kent Rail Stations

from 'Kent News'

Folding bikes for Ashford, Maidstone, Tonbridge and Canterbury railway stations

Nick Ames Thursday, March 7, 2013
10:44 AM

Folding bicycles will soon be available at four railway stations across the county.
Ashford International, Canterbury West, Maidstone East and Tonbridge are the sites designated for lockers containing 20 bikes which will be available for rent.

The scheme is similar to the “Boris Bikes” available in London – but the major difference is that they can be kept and used for a much longer time, and even stored in a car or at home.
Brompton Dock is the company behind the project and it already has bikes in Manchester, Exeter and Bristol.

The Kent cycles will be in place in around a couple of months although no exact date has been set.
Brompton Dock is in partnership with rail company Southeastern, cycling charity Sustrans, Kent County Council and the Department of Transport, which has put up £124,000 to fund the project.

more see Kent News

Victoria's Green Matters - 7th March 2013

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

It is difficult to overstate the importance of soil. Some people will look upon it as 'dirt' - something to wash away quickly, something of no worth at all. If you are a gardener, and, particularly if you grow your own vegetables, you will value your soil very highly indeed.

Over 90% of our food depends on soil for its production. While this is obviously vital for our survival, it is not the only function for which soil is responsible; it is a great repository for carbon dioxide. Researchers have estimated that in the UK alone, the soil stores more carbon dioxide than all the trees in the forests of Europe. Soil also has great capacity to store water, vital for food productivity, particularly in times of water shortage.

Farming, of course, can harm soil. Consistent ploughing over generations exposes soil to the air and breaks down soil structure, making it vulnerable to erosion and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Around the world different techniques have started to be employed to deal with these effects. In the USA, farmers have realised what a valuable commodity soil is and have reduced ploughing, cutting erosion and reducing tractor fuel costs. In Kenya, a dramatic improvement in soil quality was achieved with a combination of compost, manure, mulch and crop rotation.

Focussing on soil quality means a threefold advantage: the land is more able to withstand any changes in climate, more food is produced and the soil absorbs more carbon dioxide.

Kinsdown Beach Huts - Online Petition

Our colleagues down in Kingdown have a online petition to stop the development of more beach huts in this fragile coastline

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/dover-district-council-save-kingsdown-white-cliffs-beach-from-development

Dance of the Honey Bee - Film

Nice film on Honey Bees ....



Dance of the Honey Bee from AbelCine on Vimeo.

Full link is here

New Fracking Film on the British Dash for Gas

New film on fracking from the Ecologist Film unit....

If you cannot see the embedded film click here for the link

Victoria's Green Matters 28th Feb 2013

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:Viewed from a safe distance, without any facts to hand and a warning from Ofgem this week of a future energy crunch, fracking for shale gas seems an obvious option - lots of cheap energy, thousands of new jobs and a fall in carbon emissions. What's not to like?

Perhaps we should ask some of the people who live amongst the fracking wells in Smithfield, Pennsylvania, USA. At first glance, fracking has brought increases in business in this small town, for example, the diner, opened three years ago, which has almost doubled its takings and a car dealership which sees the fracking companies buy fifteen vehicles at a time.

A US senator, visiting the area at the request of concerned residents, has apologised for the apparent 'cavalier attitude' of the gas companies where the regulatory framework is still being drawn up and no-one has any idea of the long term effects of shale gas extraction. Two official studies on the impact of fracking on water quality and radiation build up are not due to be completed until 2014.

Even the people with a financial interest in fracking - wells can generate up to $20,000 a month in royalties - have expressed concerns and doubts about the safety of the process. A local farmer with 13 wells on his land has admitted that 'the wells are unsightly; they make noise and don't smell good'.

Be very clear about what you'll get if you say 'yes' to fracking!

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

Cooking from Scratch at the Astor - 9th March

Deal's own school meals social enterprise, WholeSchool Meals is running a 'Cooking from Scratch' day at the Astor on Saturday 9th March.

The day will be a mixture of demonstrations and talks on to get started cooking, on a budget and using fresh local produce

Its all free...

If you have any questions please contact us by telephone on 01304 611010 or by email to
steph@wholeschoolmeals.co.uk.
www.wholeschoolmeals.co.uk

Deal Railway Community Garden Project Update

Hi all - We in the Station Community Gardening Group are starting to get quite excited 

 

Our Planters which are being built by the RippleVale School are due for delivery in 10 days :) 

 

We have had super generous donations from lovely people and groups to be announced later - it's looking v good for generous donations of topsoil and compost (donors tba later) .

 

There's still time to sign up to be part of this TEL 389553 to reserve your place on our lovely rota! are there any spare watering cans / spades /trowels looking for a good home?

 

We may need some spare barrows /hands for 12 - 3 Saturday 16th March BUT please telephone  389553 first.

 

Many hands should make light work and a delicious blooming Deal !!

 

food@dealwithit.org 

 

 

Kingdown Beach Huts

Kingsdown ConservationGroup

KINGSDOWN CONSERVATION GROUP BULLETIN NUMBER 16 – FEBRUARY 2013
URGENT – URGENT -- URGENT PLANNING

However busy you are, this development on Kingsdown Beach requires your urgent attention, please. It will take you only a minute to read.

An application has been made to install 12 wheeled huts on Kingsdown beach. They are 5.5 metres long and will be used exclusively by chalet owners from Kingsdown holiday park. The planning applicant is a firm called Tingdene; you can look them up on www.tingdene.co.uk.. They make mobile homes. This is what their huts will look like:


And this is where the huts will be installed. The beach is a legally-protected Site of Special Scientific Interest and it’s immediately overlooked by the Kent Downs AONB and Kingsdown Conservation Area

You may know that Kingsdown Holiday Park is owned by Tingdene. But did you realise that they also own Kingsdown beach (outlined in black above)?

Many villagers are saying already that, if successful, this application will eventually lead to the destruction of all that we love so much about our precious, unspoilt bit of seaside – where we meet up with friends, walk our dogs, play with our kids or quietly sit and dream.

Full details of the application can be found on DDC’s website www.dover.gov.uk. Navigate to the Planning Section and then submitting comments on planning applications. The reference number is DOV/12/01016.
If you want to do something about this development, please remember that no-one will fight our corner for us; least of all our local planning committee.

We have to do it ourselves. So please think about what it means to you and, when you are ready, hit the Dover website and record your comments – the deadline is March 15.

Other KCG news will follow soon.
Regards
Philip Evemy
Chairman
email philip@kingsdownconservation.org.uk
web www. kingsdownconservation.org.uk

'20s Plenty for Deal' meeting 27th Feb

Speaker Rod King from 20's Plenty

20's Plenty for Deal campaign have their launch this Wednesday at the Deal Town Hall. The meeting starts at 7pm

The key idea of the group is that a lower speed limit for where people live will save lives losted and damaged. The group has an online petition hosted at their website.

This is one of the most shocking maps of Deal - one of road causilities over the ten years to 2010

For more information see the campaign's website or come to the meeting on the 27th Feb http://www.20splentyfordeal.org.uk/

International Women's Day @the Astor March 8th

Celebrate IWD in Deal in 2013

There is a full celebration of International Women's Day at the Astor Community Theatre on Friday 8th March from 2:30pm to 5pm

Music, Stalls, food - all welcome!

Deal Fairtrade Fortnight 2013

From East Kent Mercury

"Fairtrade supporters in the Dover and Deal area will be campaigning from Sunday at  schools, businesses, coffee mornings and lunches to kick-start this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight.

There will also be a chance to take part in a meeting with Henry Matenda from Kasinthula Sugar Cane Growers’ Association in Malawi, south east Africa.
Pam Brivio, secretary of Dover Fairtrade Town Network, said: “These Meet the Producer events are a wonderful opportunity to hear about the lives of producers and the difference that Fairtrade makes to their communities.”

Fairtrade Fortnight continues until March 10 and, following on from 2012’s Take a Step theme, the slogan for this year is Go Further for Fairtrade in 2013. ... full story here