Calderdale Protest Against the Bedroom Tax is demonstrating against ATOS at 10am on 19th February outside the Job Centre at Crossfield House, St James Road, HX1 1YS and all are welcome to take part.
Protesters will gather peacefully at the Job Centre which is used by ATOS to carry out discredited Work Capability Assessments.
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A price survey for a representative basket of grocery and household items, carried out last week by SOS Hebden Bridge, has found that the Hebden Bridge Coop is the clear winner on price, with the basket of goods costing £28.58. This is 24% cheaper than at Sainsbury’s Local in Mytholmroyd.
The SOS Hebden Bridge survey report says,
“Overall, the same basket cost most at Sainsbury’s in Mytholmroyd (£35.46) then One Stop (£34.84), then Oasis (£34.23). then cheapest, by quite a margin, £28.58 at the Co-op. This is £6.88 (or 24%) cheaper than Sainsbury’s.”
Hebden Bridge flood activist group Ban the Burn has raised two cheers for Natural England’s new guidance that restoration of all degraded blanket bog is possible and that landowners should phase out blanket bog burning because of the damage it causes.
The group is sending Natural England its comments on the draft guidance, and hopes that as many people as possible who are affected by the way blanket bogs are managed will also read the draft guidance (embedded further down this page) and email their views in to Natural England.
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Dear Craig Whittaker,
I question your statement, reported in the Hebden Bridge Times, that a proposed new supermarket to be developed on the Mytholm Works site will create new jobs.
In fact, new large supermarkets destroy more jobs than they create. One source of evidence for this is the paper “Superstores and Employment in Retailing” by Dr David Thorpe, Head of Research, John Lewis Partnership, October 1999.
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Richard Armitage, Housing Projects Manager at Calderdale Council, answers UCV Plain Speaker’s questions about whether the increase in Green Deal Communities funding, announced last week as part of the government’s new Community Energy Strategy, is likely to help his team’s work of improving home energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty. Richard also outlines how this might tie in with the work of the Calderdale Community Energy community benefit society, which the Council is to set up in partnership with local third sector organisations.
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The International Centre for Participation Studies at Bradford University is holding an event on 20th February: Making a difference to the neighbourhood? A new politics?
The event is a conversation about community organising in Britain. It takes place on Thursday, 20 February 2014 from 13:00 to 19:30 at the Delius Arts & Cultural Centre,
29 Great Horton Road, Bradford, BD7 1AA. (View map)
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This video is from the Guardian. It reports on a Job Centre whistleblower who reveals that it is now routine for Job Centre staff to trick vulnerable claimants out of benefits, and also reports on the experiences of sanctioned claimants in Wigan, who have felt the brunt of this practice.
Hebden Royd Town Council has voted to refuse a planning application for a Sainsbury’s Local and five townhouses on the old fire station site on Valley Road.
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On Monday 27th January, Calderdale Council Cabinet voted to accept proposals for the Council to set up a community benefit society, Calderdale Community Energy, in partnership with local third sector organisations like Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre and Pennine Community Power.
Calderdale Community Energy will support the development of community renewable energy projects in Calderdale.
David Cameron has announced that his government is ripping up more than 3,000 environmental protection regulations, including building standards relating to demands for renewable energy sources.
Environmental campaigner and journalist George Monbiot tweeted that weakening building regulations in a cold country is a recipe for “either misery or spending a fortune on fuel bills”.
On the same day, Monday 27th January, the Coalition government published its Community Energy Strategy (CES). This requires local authorities to support community renewable energy schemes, provides some increased funding for such schemes, and aims to reduce people’s fuel bills.
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