This week: A volunteer opportunity, the Spatial Strategy scrapped, a Bath Transportation Package protest, a BP logo competition, a World Ocean Day warning, wellies, and much more...
VOLUNTEER WEB ADMINISTRATOR REQUIRED
Greenbath needs a volunteer to help administer the website. The site is currently running Drupal to administer all the groups. We need someone to help administer the site, moderate users and discussions, write faqs and help to drive the site forward. We reckon that 1-2 hours a week from someone with an idea of what they are doing, or a willingness to learn would make the site much easier to use. Greenbath is a free service offered to campaigning groups in the Bath & North East Somerset area to manage their email and subscriber lists and publicise their events. It was created with seeding money from Bath & North East Somerset Council and is now maintained by local publishers Faragher Jones out of the goodness of their hearts. If you're interested email Steve Faragher at steve@faragherjones.com. This is a great opportunity to grow and administer a community website that really does some good.
GREEN BELT-THREATENING REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY SCRAPPED
New communities secretary Eric Pickles has written to Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset councils telling them to ditch Labour's controversial Regional Spatial Strategy housing targets. A bill in the Queen's speech will "return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils".
http://tinyurl.com/RSS-scrapped
BATH TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE DEMO AT GUILDHALL
Opponents of the proposed Bus Rapid Transit route are teaming up with opponents of a Bathampton Meadows park & ride site are planning a protest next Monday 14 June, 9am at Guildhall. There a meeting is due to take place to look at the required compulsory purchase orders. The protesters are hoping the new Government's so-called 'Star Chamber' examining public spending commitments will either delay the Bath Transportation Package or even "consign it to history".
http://response2route.co.uk
http://savebathamptonmeadows.org.uk
OLD & LISTED BUILDING ENERGY AUDITING COURSE
This one-day beginners course will show you how to carry out a basic energy audit of a community building, focusing specifically on old or listed buildings. Topics covered include monitoring consumption and identifying appropriate energy efficiency measures and the potential savings that can be made. The course takes place on Thursday 17th June (at a venue in Bath to be confirmed) from 9.45am for a 10.00am start to 4.30pm. To book your place, call Jamie Colston on 01225 851377 or email jamiecolston@gmail.com.
BP LOGO COMPETITION
Green news from further afield. As US government figures show that twice as much oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico than earlier estimations suggested, the creative and satirical among you may be interested to hear of a Greenpeace-sponsored competition to redesign BP's logo...
http://tinyurl.com/BP-logo-comp
FIRST "GREEN GAS" PIPED TO BRITAIN
Green energy supplier Ecotricity has revealed it has started to deliver "green gas" made from composted organic waste to British customers, making it the first UK energy firm to successfully provide gas generated using anaerobic digestion.
http://tinyurl.com/green-gas-arrives
OCEAN DAY WARNING
June 6 was World Ocean Day, and the WWF used the occasion to warn that overfishing at the current rate will have "dire implications" for both food security and people's livelihoods.
http://tinyurl.com/ocean-day-warning
BRITAIN DOESN'T TRUST NUCLEAR
Just 38 per cent of respondents to a Cardiff University/MORI poll believed the benefits of nuclear power outweighed the risks and only 39 per cent trusted the industry to run the plants safely.
http://tinyurl.com/nuclear-no-thanks
BILLS TO RISE 60 PER CENT
Thinking of joining the feed-in tariff scheme? Well Ofgem is warning that fuel prices could rise by up to 60 per cent by 2016...
http://tinyurl.com/energy-price-rise
GREENWASH OF THE WEEK
As part of its strategy to salvage its public image, BP has bought the top Google and Yahoo! search result for terms like "oil spill" so that the first result directs you to the company's official "Gulf of Mexico Response" web page...
http://tinyurl.com/gulf-guff
GREEN INVENTION OF THE WEEK
A bit of gimmick really, but Orange has a solution for festival-goers whose mobile phones need recharging – wellies that are fitted with a sole that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current. “Welectricity” they are calling it...
http://tinyurl.com/welectricity
NOT EVERYONE A FAN OF MANCHESTER UNITED STAR'S ECO GAFFE
Despite opposition from neighbours, Bolton Council is expected to give the go-ahead to Manchester United star Gary Neville's £6m subterranean 'carbon zero mansion'.
http://tinyurl.com/red-is-green
"TELLY OKAY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT"
Put your feet up folks: Mike Berners-Lee, author of 'How bad are bananas? The carbon cost of everything', says watching the telly is a "low carbon leisure activity". In an interesting article about so-called "environmental nasties", he has also calculates that getting cremated is likely to create less than a 10,000th of your life's carbon footprint...
http://tinyurl.com/enviro-nasties
The weekly Green Bath News digest is compiled by Gideon Kibblewhite. Let Gideon know if you've seen a story you think he should cover. To subscribe visit greenbath.org/og, create a user id if you don't already have one and subscribe to Bath Green News.
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