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| Newsletter | June 2000 |
The answer is so obvious that it hardly seems worthwhile asking the question.
The people of Farnborough have not been asked if they want an airfield on their doorstep. They have not been asked because the answer would be a resounding NO. Rushmoor Borough Council could then no longer claim it was wanted. Though on past track record it unlikely they would give a damn whatever the answer.
Public meetings have been held, but these have all been held outside of Farnborough. The meetings were a propaganda platform for TAG, with no alternative view available, even though these were not TAG meetings. Rushmoor officials and councillors dare not hold a meeting in Farnborough as they know what the public reaction would be.
Responses to the Local Plan were an overwhelming no to an expanded business airport. Responses to the TAG planning application for a Business Airport at Farnborough (minimum of 25,000 movements) generated a large volume of objections.
Farnborough College of Technology lodged a strong objection to the TAG proposals. Falling student numbers would make the place economically unviable. Students don't want to study in a death trap. The noise would make teaching and study impossible. The pollution does not sit well with a college that desires a national reputation for its environmental courses. Were the college to fold or relocate a loss of 1200 jobs to the area. Rushmoor officials sat on the college objections. The college has threatened legal action if Rushmoor fails to heed the Public Inquiry recommendations. We have seen a copy of the college objections and they are dynamite.
The Local Plan Inquiry Inspector's recommendations had a mixed reception. He did suggest an increase above the current flight movements (currently around 12,000, the Local Plan 20,000). His most important recommendation was on public safety. The risk contours should not extend into residential Farnborough, societal risk should not extend over the college. The TAG planning application fails to meet the Inspector's safety recommendations.
Rushmoor Councillors, following recommendations by officials (that could have been written by TAG), have decided to throw out the Inspector's recommendations. No convincing grounds were given. Rushmoor's recommendations will lead to a doubling of noise, more flights (limit now 28,000), safety to be ignored in the favour of the commercial interest of the airfield operators. The local community are being sold down the river in the interest of a foreign company.
Thanks to the lack of publicity, only 97 objections have been received to the Rushmoor changes, about 3/4 airfield related. If you have not yet objected please send your objections to Rushmoor Borough Council.
Why is Rushmoor so gung-ho in favour of the airfield? It cannot be because there are any benefits to the area because there are none. The speech by William Hague supporting TAG and airfield expansion, the use of the TAG facilities for the meeting with Hague may be pointers in the right direction. The local Tory MP Gerald Howarth has made no secret of his support for TAG and has been lobbying hard on their behalf.
The election of Patrick Kirby as an Independent in a safe Tory seat, in the process rendering the Tory group leaderless, has put at least one person on the council who will act in the interest of the local community. Not surprising has been the reaction of his fellow councillors to blackball him from relevant committees. More ominous has been the action by the Borough Solicitor to have him gagged. Action we understand to have been instigated by the Tory group well before the local elections. The Tories have also been running a smear campaign in the local press.
There will be meetings of Rushmoor council (7pm 29 June 2000), a planning meeting ten days before (evening 19 June 2000), to rubber stamp the changes to the Local Plan. Everyone should make the effort to attend. There is no local democracy without public participation.
If the TAG-driven changes to the Local Plan are allowed through they will jam open the door for approval of the TAG planning application.
Blackwater Valley Friends of the Earth has a lot of useful information on the airfield on their web site. We are pleased to see it has been reconstructed following its recent trashing. And yes, we know who trashed it and why.
There is a growing body of international evidence of the dangers of low level non-ionising radiation from mobile phones and their base station transmitters. Local people are understandably concerned at the siting of these masts, especially when they are close to schools and residential areas. One of the worst examples is the Vodaphone mast in North Camp sitting at the bottom of a residential garden. The mast is actually sited on land belonging to St John Ambulance. It is difficult to believe the hypocrisy of the St John Ambulance who are supposedly working to save lives or the disgraceful and cavalier manner in which they have treated the justifiable fears of local residents. We expect to see tobacco sponsorship of their ambulances next. Local people should remember their disgraceful behaviour when they next rattle their begging tins.
Hart are trying to take a tough stand on the masts but their hands are tied by the planning regulations. Rushmoor appears to be indifferent to the fears of local residents. If it's good for big business, then it must be good. Whilst we have little confidence in local politicians serving the needs of local people we do nevertheless see the need to bring the siting of these masts back into the planning process, where at least in theory the local community will have a say.
Congratulations to the people of North Camp who took on the mighty Vodaphone and won. Vodaphone have agreed to relocate the mast, though there is a catch. Vodaphone will only relocate when they have found a suitable site. Several months have now elapsed and the mast has shown no signs of being moved. Vodaphone should now do the decent thing and set a deadline, the latest by which the mast will be moved.
Given an affordable choice no one wants to eat contaminated food produced under inhumane conditions.
It is reasonable to expect our food to be free of antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides and other toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic cocktails. It is reasonable to expect, for those of us who are still carnivores, for animals to be raised and slaughtered in humane conditions. It is reasonable to expect our food not to be transgenic mutations straight out of Frankenstein's laboratory. Such food should be affordable to everybody, not the privilege of the rich.
Currently the demand for organic food far outstrips supply. 70-80% has to be imported. This in part explains the price premium, but there is also the good old British rip-off at work. But even the poorest families should be able to afford the occasional organic item at least once a week, especially if they look out for special offers and date-stamped reductions.
Babies deserve the best start in life. Currently 1 in 3 babies are fed organic food. Test on non-organic baby foods have shown that a third are ten times over the EU limit for pesticide residues, many are high in sugar and salt.
The UK government spends a few paltry tens of millions on organic farm conversions, a drop in the ocean compared with the amount force fed to the biotech companies.
People power has forced GM of the supermarket shelves but it has the habit of appearing via the back door in animal feed. Two steps forward, one step backward. We see the same with organic foods. The Farnborough branch of Sainsbury's has organic coconuts shrink-wrapped in plastic!
Food should be produced locally wherever possible. More Farmers Markets are needed to reconnect suppliers and consumers. There is an excellent Farmers Market at Milford (a little pricey but quality good). Attempts by local people to get a Farmers Market in Farnborough have been sabotaged by Rushmoor.
Only buy food in season. Avoid fish-farmed salmon. Only buy shrimps and prawns if the supermarkets can demonstrate they come from a sustainable source. Cheap-out-of-season imported food bears a high price in human rights abuse and environmental degradation.
The UK should be declared a GM-free zone. No more flawed GM trials whose only purpose is to contaminate our food and the countryside. Already there are EU moves to allow 1% GM contamination of seeds and food. 1% may sound low but it is not for a biological active dominant gene which will not only cross-pollinate its fellows in the field and those in adjacent fields but also wild relatives and volunteers (self-sown seeds). 1% contamination of food is extremely high if that contaminant is an allergen, a toxin, a mutagen or carcinogen.
Real food comes from family farms, not factories or monoculture deserts. Real food is fairly traded. Real food is affordable. Real food is not heavily processed, bulked out with fats, water, salt and sugar, seasoned with a condiment of artificial chemicals. Real food tastes good. Real food is good for people and planet. With real food we all win.
Real food week (17-25 June) gives you the consumer the opportunity to tell the supermarkets what you think. FoE have produced lots of over-glossy leaflets to help you. The June issue of The Ecologist features food and agriculture. Look out for the BVFoE Real Food stall in Farnborough town centre (Sat 24 June).
Asda 0500 100 055 Sainsbury's 0800 636 262 Co-op 0800 317 827 Safeway 01622 712 987 Iceland 01244 842 675 Somerfield 0117 935 6669 M&S 020 7268 1234 Tesco 0800 505 555 Morrison 01924 870 000 Waitrose 0800 188 884
Patrick Kirby is a person of integrity, well respected within the local community. A person who has fought tirelessly on behalf of the local community against vested interests. At times one of the few lone voices prepared to speak out against the commercial expansion of Farnborough Airfield.
It has therefore come as no surprise that Patrick Kirby won a resounding victory in a safe Tory seat, and in the process toppled the leader of the Tory group. The Tories for days were running around like headless chickens, and even today they are wandering around with dazed expressions having yet to come to terms with the reality of it all. The election generated a very high turn out. What it shows, as with the election of Ken Livingstone for Mayor of London, is that when the people are given a real choice they will make the effort to vote.
What has come as no surprise since the election is the ganging up on Patrick Kirby by his fellow councillors and the blackballing from relevant committees. According to one Tory councillor, committee membership is chosen on the basis of 'seniority', or in other words perks for long-serving councillors, jobs for the boys. We would expect committee membership to be chosen on the basis of the expertise the councillor can bring to the committee.
More ominous since the election has been the revelation that the Borough Solicitor has been in contact with the Local Authority Ombudsman to have Patrick Kirby gagged. The grounds for this gag is that Patrick Kirby has a 'vested interest', ie he represents the local community. Our understanding is that this approach was made some time before the local elections, before Patrick Kirby had even declared himself as a candidate.
We are aware of a councillor approaching TAG and asking if they had any spare money sloshing around, if yes, could some of it come his way. He also suggested they may like to take his car in when it required servicing. We are also aware of a senior planning official flashing his business card and requesting the local library remove any material critical of TAG. He expressed great horror at material from BVFoE being present and called it 'rubbish'. It brings into question the impartiality of Rushmoor planning department, but that is another issue. The only material allowed to be available to the public in the local library is the TAG planning application and studies approved or commissioned by Rushmoor or TAG. No other material is allowed, no independent information, certainly no critical analysis. We are not aware of any action by the Borough Solicitor in either of these cases. In the first case the councillor was apparently 'joking', in the second the official was apparently 'mistaken', acting on his own private initiative outside of office hours.
The Tory group have made no secret of their support for TAG or commercial expansion of the airport. The local Tory MP Gerald Howarth is a powerful one-man lobby for TAG. To bolster flagging local election performance, Tory leader William Hague had to be flown in to give his support. He gave a speech in support of TAG. The Tory group have not excluded themselves from any discussion of TAG or the airfield (as the Code of Conduct would require them to), nor has the Borough Solicitor taken action to gag them.
The Tories are poor losers. Post-election they have been running a smear campaign in the local press against Patrick Kirby, suggesting he ran a vicious campaign, that he misled the electorate with his facts on the airfield, that he lacks an open mind. When will they learn? If they start to act for the local community not vested business interests, stop attacking a popular councillor who is acting for the local community, then maybe people will listen to them.
Julie has been trying hard for some time to get a local Womens Environmental Network off the ground. If you don't like the macho-chauvinist organisation of some environmental groups and prefer a more feminine, Gaian, natural approach, then this may be just what you have been looking for.
The nearest local WEN operates across the border in Surrey, based around the Guildford Godalming area. They organised a very successful little stall on GM at last years Green Picnic in Guildford and more than held there own in a debate on GM at the picnic.
More info: 01252 510424 julie@bvfoe.freeserve.co.uk
Do or Die No 8
This excellent handbook is now in its 8th edition. A collection of essays and contacts, everything you would ever want to know, or didn't even know you wanted to know, about the environment and direct action.
A book that no environmental activist can be seen dead without.
Only available from (£5-00, non-UK £6-00):
Do or Die c/o Prior House 6 Tilbury Place Brighton Sussex BN2 2GY England
@nti copyright - information for education and action - copy and distribute