“Growing Change” – A Remarkable Good News Film

Myra James,  a member of Incredible Edible Mytholm’s management committee, reviews Simon Cunich’s film Growing Change: a journey inside Venezuela’s food revolution. Venezuela is one of only a handful of countries that have made food sovereignty a national policy.

The screening in the Unitarian Church, Todmorden on Sunday 1st September 2013 was jointly hosted by Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) and the recently re-launched Calderdale branch of the World Development Movement (WDM).
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EU meeting to regulate food speculation

This World Development Movement (WDM) video explains how food price speculation is increasing and has thrown millions into poverty, and that government regulation is essential to stop this. They are proposing “position limits” – limits that cap the proportion of commodity markets that speculators can hold.
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Todmorden and Halifax walk in centres – Freedom of Information reply

At the end of July Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker asked the question, What next for privatised walk-in GP centres in Tod and Halifax?

On behalf of NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), West and South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit has now replied to my Freedom of Information request about the saga with Care UK over the contract to run the two privatised GP walk-in centres.
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UK needs twice as much forest – and 40k new forestry jobs

16 year olds who’ve just had their GCSE results and are wondering what to do next might be interested in following up the idea that the UK could see the creation of up to 40K new jobs in forestry and in primary wood processing (work in timber haulage, sawmills, pulp mills and wood based panel mills).

This prediction is made in the recently-published report, Zero Carbon Britain – Rethinking the Future (ZCB RTF), from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.
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Council Leader would oppose any fracking in Calderdale

A Calderdale Green Party survey of Calderdale Councillors’ and MPs’ views on fracking has found that  some Labour and Liberal Democrat Calderdale Councillors are prepared to oppose fracking at both the national and local levels.
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H.B. Public meeting this evening! Fracking: a future we don’t want or need

Calderdale Green Party is hosting a Public Meeting in Hebden Bridge Town Hall on Tuesday 10th September, 7.30pm, to explain its policy that fracking isn’t necessary or desirable.

The speaker is Kirklees Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper.

Andrew is also the Green Party lead candidate for the Yorkshire and Humber region in the European Elections 2014 and the national party’s Energy spokesperson.

(Header photo credit: Green Party)

Reject speculative planning application’s retail impact statement!

The former Mytholm Works site is too important to be kicked around in a speculative planning application aimed solely at increasing the site owners’ profits by driving up the value of the land.

This is what Incredible Edible Mytholm has said in its objection to Belmont Homes’ retail impact statement (and its revisions) that estimates the effects a supermarket on King Street would have on local businesses.

Except no supermarket wants to open on King Street. The would-be developer’s retail impact statement confesses that no supermarket is associated with the planning application.
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Calderdale Council PFI waste incinerator – financial & business info is exempt from public disclosure

On March 12th 2013 I sent a Freedom of Information request about the Private Finance Initiative-funded waste incinerator to Ian Hughes, Head of Democratic and Partnership Services at Calderdale Council. As of yesterday, I still hadn’t received a reply.

Public bodies are supposed to reply to Freedom of Information requests within 20 working days.

But since it turns out that, under the 1972 Local Government Act, local authorities are legally entitled to withhold crucial information from the public, what’s the point?

Today, after chasing up the FOI request yesterday with Calderdale Council, I have received the reply, along with an email saying that the Council originally sent it to me on June 4th.

The Council really needn’t have bothered – it turns out that for most of the questions I asked,

“disclosure…could affect the Council’s negotiations with PRR and similarly PRR’s negotiations with other potential lenders.”

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