FixMyTransport website for solving public transport problems

Posted on July 11, 2012 by jenny

If you have problems with poor public transport, you can use FixMyTransport website to report them to the transport operator.

You can use this site to contact any transport operator in the UK – the FixMyTransport admin people will send your message direct to the transport operator’s Customer Services department. They put your message online, too. That way, others can read your problems, and offer support and advice. And you can share the online report with friends, twitter followers and other passengers with the same problem, to help build a campaign.

FixMyTransport says the process works:

“Take a look at some of our recently fixed problems and find out why our users are saying:

Public Calderdale Council Scrutiny Panel meeting about aftermath of floods

Posted on July 10, 2012 by jenny

All members of the public are welcome to attend the next meeting of Calderdale Council’s Economy and Environment Scrutiny Panel, on 26^th July at 6pm in Todmorden Town Hall. The Calder Valley floods will be the only item on the agenda.
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We need a different kind of flood alleviation scheme now

Posted on July 10, 2012 by jenny

By the afternoon of Friday 22nd June, the tops above the Upper Calder Valley couldn’t absorb any more rain from the relentless downpour that had been falling all day. Roads to the valley turned into torrents, as water gushed out of field gateways and off the moors. According to Steve Sweeney, Calderdale Councillor for Todmorden Ward, this runoff caused the Burnley Road flooding in Todmorden.

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Not strictly local – Manchester’s climate change plan seems to have stalled

Posted on July 3, 2012 by jenny

News from Manchester Climate Monthly about (lack of) progress with Manchester Council’s climate change plan .

“A few fun facts;
The target for endorsements of that plan was 1000.
After two and a half years, the number of endorsers stands at … roughly 230 (including organisations that no longer exist).
Of those 230 or so endorsers the number that have actually produced their own Implementation Plan stands at… 2. (Manchester City Council and its offshoot Northwards Housing.)”

Oh dear. What’s going on?

Good practice in reporting floods from You Tube user-generated content

Posted on July 2, 2012 by jenny

Ed Walker’s blog posting about reporting on floods on the basis of user-generated content from You Tube is really useful – I wish I’d known all those good practice procedures before reporting on the Todmorden floods.

He reflects on his experience of fact-checking user-generated video on You Tube when reporting for Chronicle Live on the North East’s floods last week, and reports on what he learned in the process about making contact with the people who filmed and uploaded the video, and getting the bigger story behind the video.

DCarb Upper Calder Valley news June 2012

Posted on July 1, 2012 by jenny

The DCarb meeting on 27th June mainly focussed on:

improving home energy efficiency and reducing household carbon emissions
Emma Appleton’s update about Calderdale’s Energy Future progress
Polly’s update on Calderdale Community Energy and Power from the Landscape

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UK risks breaking legally binding carbon budget

Posted on June 29, 2012 by jenny

The Climate Change Committee’s 4th Progress Report, published at the end of June 2012, shows that the UK’s in danger of breaking its legally binding carbon emissions reduction targets.

Since the Climate Change Committee’s 4th Carbon Budget Report in 2010, the UK has a statutory greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target for 2025, of 50% of the 1990 GHG emissions.

In order to stay within the law set down in the Climate Change Act, the UK needs to reduce its emissions by 3% each year, through actions like increasing renewable energy generation and building insulation. To hit this target, the UK will have to up its carbon reduction game times four.
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What do you think of Leeds City Region’s Local Economic Partnership? A Parliamentary Group wants to know

Posted on June 29, 2012 by jenny

The Leeds City Region group of local authorities has set up a Local Economic Partnership (LEP) which in turn has set up a Green Economy Panel, which as far as I can understand Is responsible for “growing” the green economy in the region, which includes Calderdale.

So if you have anything to say about the effectiveness or otherwise of the LEP or the Green Economy Panel, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Local Growth, LEPs and Enterprise Zones “warmly invites” your comments.

Updated 1 Oct 2012

The All Party Parliamentary Group has now published its Report on Local Growth, LEPs and Enterprise Zones.

I’ve also just found out from the people who answer the phone for media enquiries about Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership that no Green Economy Panel (GEP) minutes or agendas are on the LCR website because a) it’s a new Panel and no-one’s got round to putting the GEP papers on the website b) it’s a private group and its meetings are private and “not something LCR would publicise“.

So much for democracy.

Call for members for new Calderdale Energy Future Panel

Posted on June 28, 2012 by jenny

At the 27th June DCarb Upper Calder Valley meeting, Emma Appleton, Calderdale Council’s Environmental Officer, gave an update on Calderdale’s Energy Future (CEF) Strategy since it came into effect on 1st April this year.

Work has been going on figuring out how to resource the commitments in the Strategy. The role of the new Calderdale Energy Future Panel is now clear and Calderdale Council is calling for members.

The kind of members Calderdale Council’s looking for

Calderdale Council is looking to appoint ten CEF Panel members. They will come from community groups, businesses (both small & medium enterprises, and large businesses), universities etc.
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Calderdale Council Partnerships – including Environmental Partnerships

Posted on June 27, 2012 by jenny

In the Calderdale Council section of the Who’s Who page, I’ve been trying to figure out what all the Council talk of partnerships means – particularly in terms of what environmental partnership means and how that bears on Calderdale’s Energy Future vision.

The Calderdale Council Partnerships Support Team has now kindly cleared up a lot of questions:

What are Calderdale Council partners?

Calderdale Council partners can refer to organisations and businesses where the Council has entered into a legal partnership with one or more bodies. There is a wider definition which describes partners as those organisations, bodies or agencies where they and the Council have jointly agreed to work towards common aims. Thus the wide definition would include all those local and regional organisations that the Council works with to deliver agreed objectives.
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Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing."

Author Archives: jenny