Newsletter - Spring and Summer 2007

Changing Attitudes on climate change?

An article by Lois Rogers in the New Statesman (23 April 07) looked at the wide gulf in responses to global warming between the convinced 'liberal elite and political classes' and British consumers who 'continue flying, driving and buying with unchecked enthusiasm.'  According to MORI at the end of last year a third of us still knew little or nothing about climate change, and only 11% thought it was up to individuals to change their behaviour.  Despite a host of scary recent pronouncements, scepticism seems to be getting worse, encouraged by the Daily Mail and Channel 4.  Most of us welcome a warmer domestic climate, without considering the global consequences.  The 'success' of an anti-road-pricing petition also seems to confirm the extent of ignorance and of burying heads in sand.

Our leading politicians now seem to agree on the need to act, even adopting ambitious targets, but offer little in detail.  They are of course wary of upsetting the enthusiastic middle class spenders, always alert for 'stealth taxes', whose votes decide elections.  One wonders what it takes to persuade a democracy to take sufficiently effective actions involving some sacrifice of living standards.  Campaigns and messages via TV soaps and celebrities may help a little, but history suggests that it takes a crisis on the scale of the Second World War.  A succession of extreme natural disasters could upset financial markets, national economies and household incomes, requiring governments to act forcefully, but by then it could be too late, except at a far greater cost than action now.

Perhaps by the next General Election we can be worried enough to elect a party prepared to deliver an adequately resourced programme of measures that are sufficient to lead the way from catastrophe.  I wish I could be optimistic - fifteen years after Rio we seem to have made little progress.

GreenWeb and its member organisations will at least be trying to change the behaviour of many more in Monmouthshire than that 11%.

Dick Cole, Chairman, Monmouthshire GreenWeb       

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Celebrating Forest School in Monmouthshire
 

Over the last 3 years Monmouthshire has had a Forest School co-ordinator funded by the Big Lottery Fund. This has allowed people interested in outdoor education to gain experience and more importantly training and qualifications in order to lead Forest School in the county. The project helped 31 people become qualified as Forest School Leaders, and 35 have qualified as assistants.  There are 15 Forest School sites across the county for Forest School Leaders to use. 

The project has now come to an end and there will be no more project money for Forest School training in Monmouthshire. However, the Woodlands For Learning team at the Forestry Commission will be able to give advice on training.  For more information on training and Forest Education Initiative click here.

The Woodlands for Learning Team are having a celebration day at Whitestone in the Wye Valley on the 23rd May to mark the end of this phase of the Forest School initiative in Monmouthshire.  Everyone who has been Forest School trained in Monmouthshire has been invited and asked to bring along some of the children from their class.  There are plans for a storytelling, environmental art, circus skills and forest games to celebrate the success of the project.  It will all begin at 10am and finish at 2pm.

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Exciting times for Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust

These are exciting times on the canal in Wales. The Living Links bid for £25m is currently under way, as well as bids for Heritage Lottery money for the next two locks at the Fourteen Locks Flight.   The Trust is hoping to rubber stamp its formal "takeover" of the Fourteen Locks Canal Centre in May, with a new extension of offices and tea rooms scheduled to start in April this year.

The Bettws Lane Culvert replacement in Newport was opened on 1st March 2007 (St Davids Day) by the Mayor of Newport. The completion of this underpass leaves the M4 overpass at the base of Fourteen Locks as the only obstruction left on the Lower Newport section.  The Bettws Lane improvements mean that boats can now enter Bettws Lane Lock, completed in 2001.

The Trust has recently purchased a land rover thanks to an £8,000 grant from the Gannet Foundation, parent company of the South Wales Argus.

The maintenance of the vehicle has also been covered for the foreseeable future by an anonymous donation of £8,000 by a Trust member.
 

The Landrover will help reduce the wear and tear of volunteers vehicles, used to tow the Trust's trip boat to the various communities along the canal corridor.

The good news continues, with a grant of £75,000 to the Newport Unlimited regeneration company, by the Welsh Assembly Government.  Granted under the "Catching the Wave" program this money will fund further studies into the Crindau Marina proposals in Northern Newport at the new Crindau Gateway.  A Marina at Crindau on the River Usk will be multi purpose and the study will look into the link to the Mon & Brec Canal at Barrack Hill. It is hoped the marina can be in place for the 2010 Ryder Cup Golf Tournament that is being held in Newport.

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A shared responsibility

A Shared Responsibility is the title of the latest in a series of Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) reports changing the way local government will work with its partners, including the voluntary sector - or 'third sector' as it is now being called.

Local Service Boards and Agreements will promote joint working between public sector bodies.  County councils will lead these partnerships of equals, and WAG will be represented.  Public services must be delivered by collaboration where this is necessary to meet citizens’ needs most effectively – for example between local government and the NHS, or across local authority boundaries, and at every level.

Councils’ performance will be scrutinised more effectively, with ‘back bench’ local ward members more responsible for championing the needs of their communities, perhaps with decision-making powers and budgets to allocate.

Vastly improved public engagement is expected in the design and delivery of council services.  Responding to the needs of citizens must be central in plans such as the Community Strategy, and satisfaction and council performance will be measured.  Community organisations and town or community councils should provide a stronger voice for citizens.

These changes seem to recognise that many of Wales’s county councils are too small to be efficient on their own; economies of scale must be achieved by joint working or we face yet another reorganisation of local government within a few years.

The number of plans that the councils have to prepare look set to fall from 32 to four – the Community Strategy, the Local Development Plan, and plans for Children and Young People and Health, Social Care and Wellbeing.  No doubt councils will consider others useful, but they will not be a statutory requirement.

The changes will be a challenge to everyone in public service in Wales, but the voluntary sector also needs to respond.  Another WAG report has consulted on ‘empowering active citizens to contribute to Wales’.  This aims to strengthen the ways voluntary organisations can themselves become more responsive to the views of their members and beneficiaries, and to maximise opportunities for these views to have an impact on the delivery of citizen-centred services.  In Monmouthshire this work will be led by the Voluntary Sector Liaison Partnership and GAVO would like to hear from anyone who would like to get involved – email simon.james@gavowales.org.uk.   

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Abergavenny & Crickhowell Friends of the Earth

On 13th April we organised a free screening in Abergavenny of Al Gore's film on the threat of climate change, 'An Inconvenient Truth'.  Over 140 people attended and many stayed for the subsequent discussion chaired by FoE Cymru Director Julian Rosser.  There will be another opportunity to see the film at Crickhowell on 30th June.  Everyone who sees the film is affected by it and leaves in no doubt that we face serious consequences if action on climate change is not taken now.

Gardens open at Llanthony
 

Four of the Llanthony & District Garden Club members are opening their gardens to the public under the National Gardens Scheme this summer.  All on Sunday 17th June (10.30 - 4.30pm), entry £4 for all four, proceeds to be shared between the Garden Club and the NGS.

Those open are:

• Mione (John & Yvonne O'Neill)

•  Mynydd Ardrem (Linda & Geoff Walsh)

•  Nant y Bedd (Sue & Ian Mabberley)

•  Perth y Crwn (Jim Keates) - Teas also available here.

See the NGS website for directions and more details (www.ngs.org.uk)

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Chepstow Friends of the Earth summer events

Monmouthshire GreenWeb's Green Directory

News in Brief

Monmouthshire Meadows Group Open Weekend
Last year's event was so successful that the Meadows Group has decided to throw open the gates to eight of its members meadows for a weekend instead of a single day.  All of the meadows are situated between Monmouth and Chepstow, and feature rare and beautiful flowering plants including various orchids, dyers greenweed, scabious and many others.  Insects, and especially butterflies abound.  The open days take place on June 9th and 10th, and provide a rare opportunity to see traditional flower rich hay meadows, once a common site in the small fields of the Wye Valley, but now sadly rare.

Gwent Badger Group rescues cubs
Gwent Badger Group has been involved in the rescue of two tiny badger cubs, found separately on local farms.  Both Bailey and Bramble were rescued in March.  Bramble was just two weeks old, blind and deaf, weighing just 15oz.  Although vets were not optimistic that the abandoned badger cub would survive, he has responded well, and is growing fast.  His survival is testament to the skill, experience and dedication of members of the Badger Group.  Bailey was discovered in a  hay barn, and was four weeks old.  Both badgers are now putting on weight, after receiving specially formulated milk with a high fat and protein content, and have recently begun weaning.  After this, they will undergo stringent tests for TB, and if the tests are negative they will be released back to the wild later this year.  For an update on this story please visit the Gwent Badger Group web site on www.gwentbadgergroup.org.uk/ 

Drivers are reminded to look out for badgers on our roads at night, as they are busy foraging for food to feed their cubs.  Spring is the time when the nocturnal badgers are most likely to be seen, and sadly, when many are killed on our roads.  Gwent Badger Group has erected signs on some roads where there have been many badger fatalities and injuries to let drivers know that they are likely to be seen there.

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