Yorkshire Ambulance Service boss says work has stalled on implications of proposed A&E closure

Posted on by
Reply

Andrew Simpson, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) Trust’s Head of A&E Operations for Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees, told a Calderdale Council “People’s Commission” meeting yesterday that Calderdale Royal Hospital is the destination of 95% of ambulance trips in Calderdale.

But in response to a question from a member of Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS campaign, he could not say if information had been collected about the extra number of ambulances and staff that would be needed if Halifax A&E closed – creating longer traveling times – and how much that would cost.

NHS Commissioners’ plans to make changes to community health and social care without public consultation have put both the Ambulance and the Hospitals Trusts on the back foot. Continue reading →

Government plans for a market in environmental “services” – part of the financialisation of everything

Posted on by
1

The 2011 National Environment White Paper is heavily business-oriented. It’s based on the 2011 National Ecosystem Assessment which puts a monetary value on all the “services” that we take from the natural environment.

For example, it identifies that parks and green spaces will enhance human wellbeing to the value of £290 per household per year in 2060.

The government spin is that putting a monetary value on the services we take from the environment will mean that businesses will have to take account of the costs of pollution and environmental damage that they cause, instead of ignoring them. But critics say that turning the natural environment into an accounting exercise is neoliberalism run mad. Continue reading →

Corporate-caused climate change – an intro

Posted on by
Reply

Corporate-influenced climate change is an unforeseen consequence of the industrial revolution, which used carbon-based fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) to replace human, animal and renewable energy in order to mechanise  farming, manufacturing, transport, housework, entertainment and just about any human activity you can think of.

While burning fossil fuels is the largest source of human-caused climate change, human (mostly corporate) land use activities such as deforestation, logging, and soil disturbance make up the second main source. Continue reading →

The right to environmental justice & how to exercise it

Posted on by
Reply

Because it has signed the Aarhus Convention, the UK government has a legal duty to protect the public’s right to environmental justice – but it’s failing in its duty. Groups like the Kent Environment and Community Network have challenged this failure and stood up for the public’s right to environmental justice.

The Aarhus Convention places a legal duty on the UK government to protect the public right to:

  • environmental information
  • participation in decision making about environmental issues.
  • easy and effective access to justice, if the rights to information and participation in decision making are denied

Continue reading →

A green myth – ethical consumerism and behaviour change

Posted on by
Reply

The government and many environmental groups  encourage the public to switch to products with low carbon footprints and to use less fossil-fuel energy. But Tim Jackson, part of the University of Surrey Research group on Lifestyles, Values and the Environment (RESOLVE), has concluded that (p15):

 ”banking on a market revolution driven by green consumers is a forlorn hope”.

This is mainly because, as individuals, we have a limited set of options.

Environmental justice and why it doesn’t exist

Posted on by
1

There is a lack of environmental justice in the UK. People living in the poorest neighbourhoods tend to be worst hit by environmental damage – for example, pollution. 82% of the cancer-causing chemicals emitted from large factories in England are from factories in the most deprived wards. And people in poorest areas don’t get a fair share of environmental benefits either, such as access to parks and open spaces.

Fuel poverty is high and rising, and the Big Six energy company pricing systems penalise people who can’t afford to use much electricity or gas – tariffs are high for low levels of consumption, and lower for higher levels of energy use. Continue reading →

Hebden Bridge Save Our Shops beats Sainsbury’s in Planning Committee battle this evening

Posted on by
Reply

Protesters from Hebden Bridge who want to save the town’s shops went head to head with Sainsbury’s tonight and won.

Meeting at Halifax Town Hall, Calderdale Council Planning Committee rejected  the shopping giant’s proposal to build in the town on the grounds that Sainsbury’s large delivery lorries could disrupt access, parking and traffic flow.

Sainsbury’s is expected to appeal against the decision.

A local group, SOS – Save Our Shops, has been campaigning for the last 9 months to preserve this ‘totally local’ town. They objected to the planning application at the Planning Committee meeting, along with Calder ward Councillor Dave Young and Hebden Royd parish council mayor, Cllr Jonathan Timbers. Continue reading →

Source public meeting on Upper Calder Valley water and land management

Posted on by
2

Organised by the Source, there is a public presentation on water and land management in the Upper Calder Valley on Tuesday 23rd September 2014, Waterside Room, Hebden Bridge Town Hall – 7pm – 9pm.

The speakers are Robin Gray (Pennine Prospects), Andrew Coen (Environment Agency) and Viki Hirst (University of Leeds). Continue reading →

Calderdale NHS Bosses’ AGM whitewash

Posted on by
2

Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group – the organisation that decides what NHS services people in Calderdale have access to, and which organisations provide them – gave a highly selective version of events at its first AGM, held at the Threeways centre in Ovenden yesterday.

The Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt has told NHS clinical staff that they owe a duty of candour to their patients and must tell them the truth.

Surely this duty applies to NHS commissioners as well?

Calderdale CCG failed this test at its AGM.

Airbrushed out – massive public opposition to planned hospital cuts never happened Continue reading →

Developer’s detailed plans for Copley Valley housing estate GenR8 controversy

Posted on by
1

The Taylor Wimpey exhibition of plans for 149 new houses in Copley Valley was open to the public for one day last week.

This was to allow the public to see the plans that will make up the detailed planning application for the housing development, that was due to go to Calderdale Council on Monday 8th September. Continue reading →