Banner Sends Message That Fight for Trees at Bradwell Hospital Goes On.

 

Campaigners fighting to protect trees on land adjacent to Bradwell Hospital have put up a banner to tell developers they haven’t given up their struggle.

 

The trees have been under threat since early last year due to plans by developers Seddon to build 85 homes on the site. Residents fearing the loss of a green space valued by the community have joined with Save Newcastle’s Green Sites to oppose the plans.

 

The Banner, which is twenty feet long and reads ‘Save Our Trees- All Life Matters was put up overnight and is clearly visible to passing traffic.

 

Bradwell is only one of several sites including the former Keele Golf Course that have come under threat of development as part of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council’s plans to meet increased need for housing in the area.

 

Campaigners fear that in doing so habitats that are vital to wildlife will be lost, this will have a detrimental impact on already declining biodiversity. They are also concerned at the harm losing a green space they use for recreation will do to the wellbeing of people living nearby.

 

A spokesperson for Save Newcastle’s Green Sites said, ‘we recognize the need for more housing in the borough, but the council are going about delivering it in the wrong way’.

 

Adding that ‘the first options should be to build on brownfield sites and repurpose existing buildings that are standing empty’.

 

The group has repeatedly challenged the council on the way it has conducted the consultation into its ‘strategic options’ for building housing in the borough, particularly in relation to how difficult they have made it for people to raise objections.

 

Speaking about the banner the spokesperson said it was a ‘demonstration of our determination to work with communities to protect the green spaces they value from thoughtless development’.

Fresh Air Bears Come To Town with a Serious Message.

 

If you go down to Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre on Saturday 26th February, you'll be in for a big surprise.

 

Community group Stop the Stink/Cap it Off are holding a family event in Queens Gardens to highlight the impact of the 'stink' from Walley's Quarry on the health of local children.

 

The event will begin with a march through the town centre starting from Bridge Street at 10:30am.

 

There will be music and comedy at various points along the march, followed by speakers and activities for children in Queen's Gardens.

 

These will include an opportunity for young people to express how they feel about the: stink' and other environmental issues by writing and drawing in 'Fresh Air Bears' to be used to decorate a special tree.

 

Speakers at the event will include consultant in children's medicine Dr Iain Sinha and families living in near to the quarry describing their experiences.

 

Other speakers will include representatives from groups campaigning to protect green spaces in the borough and local trades unions.

 

Refreshments will be available from a stall in Queen’s Gardens run by Better Together.

 

The event will be advertised by a powerful social media campaign using dramatic images to represent the lived experience of families living near to Walley’s Quarry.

 

There will be a special guest appearance by a yet to be named celebrity, full details will be announced later this week.

 

The event will conclude at 3pm (approximate).

 

Updates and information are available at the Stop the Stink/Cap It Off Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/191757102657715

 

 

 

The Cost-of-Living Crisis Will Result in Thousands of Entirely Avoidable Deaths.

 

On Saturday 12th February activists from North Staffs Green Party took part in a protest against the raising of the cap on energy prices.

 

The event took place outside Hanley bus station and was organised by Staffordshire People's Assembly. Also represented were local trades unions, and groups campaigning for asylum seekers and disability rights.

 

The protest was part of a national day of action with similar events taking place in twenty-five towns across the county including London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

 

Speaking to the Guardian on Saturday General Secretary of the People’s Assembly and former Labour MP Laura Pidcock said there was ‘real anger’ over the rising cost of living and the government’s failure to take effective action.

 

She added that “Working people could not be working harder and yet life is getting so much more difficult,” and that as a result “Older people will be cold in their homes, people will be struggling to feed their children, when none of this is a crisis of their making”. [1]

 

Speaking at the protest a representative of North Staffs Greens said that poverty was a 'contagion' in our society, and that it had a devastating impact on people's physical and mental health.

 

Zoe Nicholson, the leader of Lewes District Council and Green Party spokesperson for the Green New Deal said earlier this month of government support for people struggling to pay their bills "At a time when millions of people across the country are facing unprecedented rises in energy prices, the government's solution fails to respond to the seriousness of either the cost-of-living crisis or the climate crisis”.

 

She went on to say “Instead of a simple and effective payment to everybody as we suggested, he has put forward a buy-now pay-later scheme which will create an additional burden for those on the lowest incomes further down the line”.

 

Adding that “At the same time he has done nothing to help reduce bills and reduce carbon emissions by insulating people’s homes, and instead opted to prop up the fossil fuel companies whose profits are sky-rocketing at the expense of all of us as well as the environment [2]”.

 

The Green Party has put forward a five-point plan for addressing the cost-of-living crisis.

 

They call for grants to help people at risk of falling into fuel poverty insulate their homes, an extension to winter fuel payments, more investment in renewable energy and for the hike in National Insurance payments to be scrapped.

 

This would be paid for through a windfall tax on energy companies including BP, who this week announced profits exceeding £9.5billion.

 

Speaking at the protest the Green Party representative said they stood in solidarity with 'children having to go to school with holes in their shoes, parents going hungry so their kids can eat and old people who have worked all their lives, and now can't heat their homes'.

 

Speakers from other groups also expressed concern about the impact of rising energy prices and other pressures on household budgets.

 

Blythe Taylor, a member of Stoke and Crewe Socialist Workers Party said it was an 'attack on the living standards of working-class people'.

 

A representative of Staffordshire Disabled People Against Cuts said combined with the difficulties they face due to Universal Credit a rise in household heating costs risked causing 'untold numbers of entirely avoidable deaths.

 

A speaker from Acorn, a group campaigning on housing and other community issues urged people to follow the example set by the Diggers, Chartists and Suffragettes by organising and fighting back.

 

The People's Assembly have announced dates for two further national protests, these will be held on 2nd March and 5th April.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said the event in Hanley had 'shown the depth of public concern around an issue that will have an impact on everyone'.

 

Adding that they party would be 'working with local trades unions and the People's Assembly to make the next two events bigger and better. Things do not have to be like this, through partnership and organisation we can bring about change'.

 

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/12/uk-cost-of-living-protesters-demonstrate-peoples-assembly

 

[2]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/02/03/government%E2%80%99s-response-to-energy-crisis-creates-future-risk-rather-than-future-proofing,-greens-warn/

 

We Must All Work Together to Protect Vulnerable Households from the Cost-of-Living Crisis.

 North Staffs Green Party has put its support behind a campaign run jointly by Staffordshire People’s Assembly and North Staffordshire Trades Union Council calling for energy bills to be capped.

 

Last week energy regulator OFGEM announced that it would raise the price cap on household energy bills by more than 50%, seeing costs for the average household rise to £1,277 this winter, on top of a previous increase of 12% announced in August last year [1].

 

Attempting to avoid negative publicity at a time when the government is stumbling from one crisis to the next the Treasury announced measures to soften the blow of rising energy prices. These included a £200 rebate on energy bills for every household, this would then be paid back through bills in subsequent years.

 

Fuel poverty campaign groups have expressed disappointment at the measures put in place, a spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition told the Guardian the rise in the price cap would be “be somewhere between devastating and catastrophic for millions of people across the country, could very quickly wipe out any support these loans can provide [2]”.

 

Also speaking to the Guardian Claire Moriarty chief executive of Citizens Advice said that around the country frontline advisers were hearing “desperate stories of families living in just one room to keep warm, people turning off their fridges to save money and others relying on hot-water bottles instead of heating due to fears about mounting bills.”

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said “the cost-of-living crisis is driving families who are doing all they can to get by into poverty and in the very worst cases destitution. The package of measures put forward by the Treasury do not even come close to meeting the scale of need. There is a very real risk that if action is not taken lives will be lost”.

 

The rise to the cap on energy prices comes at a time when households are facing increasing pressure on their finances. Rising inflation rates, predicted to be above £% by April next year mean everyone will be hit by rising prices, but low-income households will be hit hardest due to having less of a financial ‘buffer’ against unexpected expenses [3].

 

In January the Green Party put forward a five-point plan to address rising fuel costs and the impending climate crisis.

 

The plan calls for emergency grants to help those at risk of fuel poverty to insulate their homes, an extension to winter fuel payments, a windfall tax on the profits of oil and as companies, higher investment in renewable energy and scrapping the proposed increase in National Insurance payments [4].

 

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said the plan represented the “sort of positive and radical action we need to protect the most vulnerable in society and ensure that we can all live a more comfortable life, at the same time as taking real action on climate change to provide longer-term security”

 

The campaign will see activists take to the streets across the county to protest against the rise to the price cap and to call for the government to provide more support to struggling households.

 

In a statement made on Facebook the organisers say: “The Government has failed. Join the protests outside Hanley Bus Station on Lidice Way! Bring friends, workmates, placards, banners and noise!”

 

Groups represented at the Stoke-on-Trent protest include North Staffs Climate Coalition and Stoke XR, other participants will be announced on the day.

 

The spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said: “we stand with the Trades Council, the People’s Assembly and all other groups involved in calling for an energy policy that leaves nobody out in the cold”.

 

The protest will take place on Lidice Way, outside Hanley Bus Station at 13:00pm.

 

 

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/feb/02/energy-bills-rise-ofgem-price-cap

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/02/treasury-preparing-11th-hour-package-to-soften-national-cost-of-living-crisis?link_id=19&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-wed-2-feb&email_referrer=email_1430737&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-thurs-3-feb

[3]https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2022?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JRF%20Newsletter%2021%20January%202022&utm_content=JRF%20Newsletter%2021%20January%202022+CID_c53a2a4fb4087b0d36a1112428db940f&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Read%20the%20report

[4]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/01/06/green-party-five-point-plan-for-warm-homes,-lower-bills-and-a-safer-climate/?link_id=2&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next&email_referrer=email_1426825&email_subject=carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next

Leadership Team Mark Their First One Hundred Days with Ambitious Plan to Tackle the Cost-of-Living Crisis.

 

Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey have marked their first one hundred days in office by setting out plans to tackle the cost-of- living crisis [1].

 

Figures produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 66% of adults in the UK reported their cost of living had risen over the past month, driven by sharply rising fuel prices [2]

 

This will hit hardest those households living on lower incomes making them more likely to experience fuel poverty, in 2019 an estimated 3.18 million people in the UK who were struggling to pay for household energy [3]. The ONS statistics show 72% of respondents citing higher gas and electricity charges as making it harder to make ends meet.

 

Following decisions made at their autumn conference the Green Party will be backing councillors in all the local authorities where they have representation to call for a ‘retrofit revolution,’ which will provide insulation for thousands of homes, reducing harm to the environment and helping families who are struggling to pay their heating bills this winter.

 

Carla Denyer said, “Once again, this government is doing nothing while millions of people in England and Wales are left facing the prospect of having to choose between eating and heating, and things look like they are only going to get worse.”

 

Adding that, “Greens are not sitting around waiting for the Government to make a move. We are taking the lead from the ground up. Green Party councillors will ask their local authorities to trial a scheme which should ensure that families across the country have warmer homes and cheaper bills”.

 

Green Party councillors in Lewes are working with six other local authorities to mobilise £1billion to retrofit 40,000 homes. This approach if multiplied by the six hundred councillors the Green Party has at all levels of local government in England and Wales could bring about significant and beneficial changes.

 

Zoe Nicholson, Green leader of Lewes District Council said, “Working with other councils means that we can move faster on retrofitting, solve the skills crisis in the workforce by developing a guaranteed pipeline of work for the renewable industry, and form local retrofit taskforces that will help those in private rented accommodation and homeowners.” 

 

Speaking about the work in Lewes Adrian Ramsay said, “If councils pool resources and look to work collaboratively, it will not only create a huge demand for jobs, it will also help the millions of people who are forced to live with the incredible stress of not knowing how they are going to pay their bills”.

 

Adding that “On top of that, this is a serious boost to tackling climate change. Energy is the biggest carbon emitter in the UK. As Greens we are determined to do everything we can to create warm homes, cheaper bills and a safer environment."

 

Green councillors will also push local authorities to do more to work with colleges and universities to develop the workforce of the future by providing training in skills useful to the green economy.

 

The co-leaders also marked their first milestone in office by calling for the government to reverse the removal of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit, this would provide support worth £1000 a year to struggling households.

 

This is part of plans to deal with the problem of climate change whilst providing warm homes and manageable bill for struggling households set out by the party at the start of January.

 

In a five-point plan they call for an emergency grant to fund insulation and other home improvements for those at risk of fuel poverty, an extension to winter fuel payments, a windfall tax on the profits of polluting oil and gas companies, increased investment in renewable energy, and scrapping the proposed increase to National Insurance payments.

 

Launching the policy in January Carla Denyer said, “This is the sort of positive and radical action we need to protect the most vulnerable in society and ensure that we can all live a more comfortable life, at the same time as taking real action on climate change to provide longer-term security” [4].

 

Speaking about the plans to launch a ‘retrofit revolution’ and to continue the party’s calls for action to be taken on the cost-of-living crisis Adrian Ramsey said the Greens were ‘leading the way’.

 

Co-leader Carla Denyer added that, “Work like this shows why it is so important to elect Green representatives at every level of government. A Green in the room makes a difference.”

 

[1]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/01/31/green-party-leaders-set-out-plans-to-tackle-cost-of-living-crisis-to-mark-first-100-days/?link_id=1&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next&email_referrer=email_1426825&email_subject=carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/energypricesandtheireffectonhouseholds/2022-02-01

[3]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966509/Annual_Fuel_Poverty_Statistics_LILEE_Report_2021__2019_data_.pdf

[4]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/01/06/green-party-five-point-plan-for-warm-homes,-lower-bills-and-a-safer-climate/?link_id=2&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next&email_referrer=email_1426825&email_subject=carla-adrians-100-days-in-office-whats-next