Ofgem reinstates wind energy coop’s Feed In Tariff payments

After difficult negotiations with the energy regulator Ofgem about the suspension of their Feed In Tariff (FIT) payments, Pennine Community Power (PCP) has now had their FIT payments reinstated and backdated to when the suspension took place, in January 2013.

PCP has just been paid £5,432 for the period January to September 2013.
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Journalists and the Greenpeace Arctic 30 – Calderdale NUJ Public Meeting 5th Dec

Reporting Environmental Protest:  Journalists and the Greenpeace Arctic 30

Photographer Steve Morgan & Greenpeace staff member Paul Morozzo will discuss this topic at a public meeting at 7.30pm, Thurs Dec 5th in the Terrace Room, Hebden Bridge Town Hall.

All are welcome.
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National crisis in A&E is being felt in Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals

At its meeting on Thursday 14th November, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body faced questions from the public about A&E.

Presenting his Report, the Chief Officer, Dr Matt Walsh, said that the national crisis in Accident and Emergency (A&E) is being felt in the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT).
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Changing More Than LIghtbulbs is dead! Long live Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker!

As a start to the process of upgrading and developing this website, with support from  Coops UK and the Carnegie Trust UK via their Make Your Local News Work initiative, we’ve changed the name from Changing More Than Lightbulbs to Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker.

We hope you like it. It says what we do, and where we do it.
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Hebden Bridge writer Rachel Tansey exposes corporate capture of COP19 climate talks

Former Calder High student Rachel Tansey is at the COP 19 climate talks in Warsaw. Thanks to her COP19 Guide to corporate lobbying, published by the Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute, it’s clear that the Polish government hosting COP19 is criminally complicit with a large number of fossil fuel companies that it has invited to sponsor and attend the climate talks – giving them free rein to bend and capture the agenda to serve their own interests.
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Why did Craig Whittaker MP dodge today’s vote on repeal of Bedroom Tax?

Dr Eoin Clarke has tweeted a list of MPs who voted against the Labour motion to repeal the Bedroom Tax today. Although our MP Craig Whittaker voted in favour of the Bedroom Tax when it was first introduced, this time he’s not on the list.

Is the list wrong? Or did Mr Whittaker do a runner like Ian Duncan Smith, the minister responsible for the Bedroom Tax? Despite being an avowed Euro-sceptic, IDS took himself off to a meeting in Paris, avoiding the debate and the vote.

Where was Mr Whittaker? I tweeted him to find out. Update 14th Nov: Mr Whittaker has not replied – but another, full list of how all MPs voted (or didn’t vote) has come to light, with our MP among those who didn’t vote.
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UN Climate talks in Poland open with tears and fasting

By Climate News Network editor Paul Brown in Warsaw

One topic dominated the opening the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Philippines delegation said,

“We cannot manage this abomination on our own.”

In an emotional opening to the new round of climate talks in Poland, Yeb Sano, the chief of the Philippines delegation, with tears rolling down his cheeks, said he would not eat before the end of the two weeks of negotiations until a substantial deal had been done to help countries deal with the effects of climate change.
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Craig Whittaker MP: no human rights-abusing regimes attended arms fair

Craig Whittaker MP denies that the UK government invited human rights-abusing regimes to London to shop for weapons at the Defence & Security Equipment International arms fair, held in September.

This is despite the fact that nine invited delegations are on the Foreign Office list of countries with the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns  – Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. 14 others are recognised as authoritarian regimes, such as Bahrain.
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Craig Whittaker MP: “no one has to struggle to meet their basic needs”

Craig Whittaker MP writes that,

“The welfare system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed so no-one has to struggle to meet their basic needs.”

So why is Jobcentre Plus referring claimants to food banks? Which our MP is “pleased” about.
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