On 27th October, Frack Free Calderdale folk gathered in St George’s Square, Hebden Bridge, to tell Yorkshire Water that fracking waste water is dangerous, and they are unhappy with the prospect of fracking waste water being treated at Yorkshire Water’s Knostrop Waste Water Treatment Works in Leeds.
Local frack-free campaigners went to Calderdale Council’s Cabinet meeting on Monday 4th September to ask the Council to remove its support for fracking exploration and commercial exploitation from its draft Local Plan.
The Draft Local Plan goes against the full Council resolution in 2014 that Calderdale is a frack-free zone and that the Council would ‘take all possible steps’ to oppose fracking. Continue reading
Calderdale Council has awarded a new waste and recycling collection contract, with an estimated value of between £110,000,000 and £130,000,000, to a global company, SUEZ, that puts profits above the human right to water and other vital utilities, leading to massive protests in Argentina and Bolivia.
A SUEZ subsidiary, Sita, has been collecting our waste and recycling for years, under a previous Calderdale Council outsourcing contract that kicked aside the community recycling collection company, Kerbside.
If you are a Calderdale resident, please consider signing and sharing the Calderdale Public Service Users Petition.
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This is the final update to this post summarising info about the volunteer-run flood relief effort across Calder Valley. I have been updating this post often, to try and keep information about what help is needed and being offered as current as possible. But now (8th Jan) things have changed so much since the initial amazing, volunteer- run emergency response that this is the last update I’ll be making to this post, although I’ll leave it up with material that’s still current after this date. Any new info I’ll post in individual posts. Most recent update: 12 noon Friday 8th Jan. Here is the Calderdale Council Flood FAQs page for info on Council flood relief
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The government have published their plans for reducing air pollution and they’re out for public consultation until this Friday, 6th November.
It’s high time the government got its act together and reduced air pollution, but its plans aren’t up to doing the job and the public consultation is a chance to tell them that they have to come up with a plan that will WORK.
If you haven’t already, please respond to the consultation and tell the government they need to come up with better plans, because they’re simply not going to work.
You can use this online form prepared by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT). If you agree with the points the CBT is making on their form, you can just add your name and email address, and click ‘submit’. Continue reading
Hebden Bridge resident Myra James reports on Mark Avery’s talk at the Trades Club on 14th October 2015
Conservationist and campaigner Mark Avery came to Hebden Bridge Trades Club to speak to a sizeable audience, hosted by Ban the Burn, about his new book, Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands and his campaign for driven grouse shooting to be banned. Continue reading
An air quality monitoring contraption has popped up on Market Street outside the Hebden Bridge Coop.
This is in one of Calderdale’s seven Air Quality Management Areas, where traffic- caused air pollution exceeds legal limits for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Particulate Matter (PMn).
Calderdale Council’s Director of Public Health says air pollution is responsible for approximately 180 deaths per year in Calderdale – second only to smoking as the leading cause of death in our area. Continue reading
Frack Free Calderdale campaigners are concerned that some of Calderdale’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are under threat from fracking, as the government has performed a U turn on its promise to protect these areas.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, said:
“The government’s U-turn on protecting the UK’s most precious wildlife sites from fracking is outrageous. It’s yet another illustration that ministers simply cannot be trusted when it comes to fracking.”
Following the GMB’s 8th June fracking charter with Offshore Gas and Oil Trade Association, on 18th June GMB Northern Region issued a press release welcoming a briefing on fracking from the Chemical Industry Association. Here it is:
Given the fragility of the oil and gas sector due to price pressures, diversification through shale gas could well become a key employer within the energy sector says GMB Northern Region.
GMB Northern Region welcome a briefing to businesses on fracking which took place in Newcastle upon Tyne today (18th June 2015). See notes to editors 1 for copy of press release from the Chemical Industry Association. Continue reading
Here is a press release from the GMB about its new charter with Offshore Oil and Gas, which describes itself as:
“the leading representative body for the UK offshore oil and gas industry.”
UKOOG and GMB Reach Landmark Agreement on Shale Gas
UKOOG and the GMB have today (8th June 2015) announced the agreement of a joint charter on shale gas, focusing on safety, skills and supply chain development. Continue reading