Anti fracking petition

Please sign the petition against fracking:
http://my.greenparty.org.uk/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=3

Ever higher rails fares, a problem we don’t need

Rail fares increased over the past decade even faster than house prices, according to the RMT union, which calculated that tickets across the network had increased 57.7% in the decade to January this year.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/aug/13/rail-fares-rise-january

We already have the most expensive rail fares in Europe – on average 40% higher. However for annual season tickets for typical commuter journeys (around 22 miles) our prices are up to 10 times that of comparable journeys on the continent.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2188244/Rail-fare-rises-UK-commuter-train-tickets-10-times-price-European-equivalents.html

In the meantime the real cost of motoring has remained steady or fallen in real terms.

http://economicsonline.co.uk/Market_failures/Road_congestion.html

So what would you choose expensive travel by rail or cheap travel by car? We know what most people in this country do because we have serious congestion and air quality problems.

http://www.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/infrastructure/bold-thinking-roads-report/infographic-traffic-congestion-now-and-in-2035/

At the same time we have so many roads we can’t keep up with the repairs. Have your nearest potholes been filled? Probably not unless you reported them. 

The solution from big business and this government: build more roads. The solution that would actually reduce congestion: make public transport cheaper, more attractive and easy to use.

Is this the best kept secret in Kent?

I recently discovered that Kent County Council runs a lift share scheme – did you know about this? 

Lift share schemes bring together people wanting lifts with people with spare capacity in their car. Run properly they have the potential to reduce road traffic by filling up the cars which are on the road and reducing the need for one person car journeys.

I have sent a Freedom of Information request to KCC asking about the uptake of this scheme in the first half of 2013. Let’s try and make sure that the uptake in the second half of this year is greater. Click here to get started:

https://kentcarshare.liftshare.com/default.asp.

Register and use it!

A tale of two taxes

France and the UK have both introduced taxes on HGVs which comply with EU requirements – but they are very different in the effect they are likely to have.

The French eco-tax is charged per kilometre and therefore designed to reduce the amount of freight carried by road and encourage rail, sea and river freight.

http://www.ecotaxe-france.com/eco-tax-what-you-need-to-know/what-is-hgv-eco-tax/

The UK HGV charge is charged by unit of time: by day, week, month or year. It will therefore have no effect on the distance freight is carried by road.

http://assets.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2012-03/hgv-charging-tax-information.pdf

The income from the French eco-tax will be used for green infrastructure projects to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.

The UK tax take will be used to repair roads thereby encouraging more road traffic.

http://news.stv.tv/politics/231411-scots-hauliers-could-face-1000-hgv-tax-after-independence/
 

http://www.transportengineer.org.uk/transport-engineer-news/hgv-road-user-levy-act-becomes-law-ready-for-2014/48312/

Need I say more?

Will fracking solve the UK’s energy problems?

This government is committed to promoting and encouraging fracking as a means of providing cheap gas for the UK. Are they right? Well first of all, a House of Lords investigation has said that fracking in the UK will have minimal impact on gas prices.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/fracking-unlikely-to-give-uk-cheap-gas-report-says-8582089.html

So no cheap gas. In that case is it still the answer to dwindling gas supplies? Apart from the uncertainty about just how much of the UK’s shale gas can be recovered in a  commercially viable manner, there is also a much better alternative from a  green perspective – biogas.

Biogas is produced via anaerobic digestion of waste materials – agricultural waste, food waste.

With proper government support – not even as much as they are giving undeservedly to the fracking industry – anaerobic digestion could produce more than 10% of UK domestic gas demand. At the same time it would create 35,000 new green jobs, reducing harmful emissions and improving energy and food security. http://www.adbiogas.co.uk/about-ad/goverment-policy/

By products of anaerobic digestion can be used as organic fertiliser thus increasing land fertility and crop yields. The gas produced can be used as gas, as fuel or to generate electricity. Anaerobic digesters can also be used as combined heat and power units.

Why can’t the government see this? Why are they backing completely the wrong ‘horse’ on energy? It couldn’t have anything to do with wanting directorships as sinecures when they leave parliament could it?

The face of Islam the tabloids won’t tell you about.

The Inclusive Mosque Initiative is an impressive organisation. Dedicated to creating truly inclusive and accessible places for prayer they welcome LGBT Muslims and campaign for joint prayer spaces for men and women as well as full accessibility for the disabled. Their management committee has a majority of women as members.

http://inclusivemosqueinitiative.org/about/

Within the theme of the widest possible inclusivity their next event is a vegetarian summer BBQ.

http://inclusivemosqueinitiative.org/events/

Their most recent event had an ecological theme, ecoislam in the park

http://inclusivemosqueinitiative.org/2013/06/ecoislam-in-the-parl-no-plastic-allowed/

I wish them a joyful Eid celebration for the end of Ramadan and all the best for the establishment of truly inclusive prayer spaces.