- Communities should have a REAL say in the places they live - save our land! - Our wildlife is in decline, we need to do everything we can to protect it. - Nature is vital for healthy ecosystems, food production and human wellbeing. - Harrogate District has 8% woodland cover compared to a national average of 12% and a European average of 36%. - Woodland planted by the community and destroyed by our own council and business gives the wrong message to children. - The Climate crisis is urgent and we need to reduce carbon emissions. Woodlands absorb carbon and destroying them goes against the Council's own carbon reduction plans. - People and planet over profit.

The routine and regular use of herbicides, especially ones containing glyphosate are not compatible with the need to safeguard and encourage flora and fauna and is an outdated and costly method that has hazardous implications for humans, domestic and wild creatures . Alternatives are possible and Plantlife Cymru can help and advise with the “Road verge Campaign”.

"We are at a unique stage in our history. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us" David Attenborough We are facing an unprecedented climate crisis and the UK government simply isn’t doing enough. We know that we are in an emergency, the next 10 years are critical to keeping global temperatures at a safe level, and we want the government to take immediate and urgent action. The CEE Bill has started on its path through parliament and was due to return for its second reading in March this year. It can help us change our course—making the government act with the urgency we need and involving everyday people in a Citizens’ Assembly that has real bite. If the CEE Bill is made law, the government would have to act fast, accounting for our entire carbon footprint while actively conserving nature here and overseas. The bill could set a precedent that can be replicated across the world. According to They Work for You, a website that documents MP voting records, our late local MP Cheryl Gillan “generally voted against measures to prevent climate change”. Please help to ensure that are new MP supports the CEE Bill. It is vital that local environmental groups and concerned citizens have the opportunity to convey to them the severity of the crisis we are facing so they can represent us in parliament. Encouraging them to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill would be a great start! Signing this petition will let our new MP know how concerned you, their constituents, are. We need the support of as many MPs as possible so that this bill can move forward - politicians need to step up. Sign this petition to call on our MP to back the CEE Bill! If you are not in Chesham & Amersham constituency, why not set up your own petition. For more information regarding the CEE bill, including the full wording of the bill, head over to https://www.ceebill.uk/ JOIN THE CEE BILL CAMPAIGN To join the campaign, go to the CEE Bill Alliance website for the sign up form and to find out more: https://www.ceebill.uk/campaign Sign this petition to ask the future MP for Chesham & Amersham constituency to support the CEE Bill

Thousands of people watched the BBC1 Countryfile programme on Sunday 25th October when it gave this information: Over 3,000 of our 7000 'Sites of Special Scientific Interest' across the UK, some 40% are in poor condition. In England over 70% of these sites have not been checked in the last 6 years, it is 30% in Scotland, Wales have 'no comprehensive monitoring', and the Northern Ireland authority didn't respond to the request for information. The budget of Natural England was £240M in 2010, but £100M in 2018 a dramatic fall necessitating a loss of a third of its staff. The Environment Agency (also responsible for flood protection), has lost two thirds of its staff since 2010, and last year only 4% of reported pollution incidents and other potential breaches of regulations were even investigated. We ask the Prime Minister to honour his pledge to tackle biodiversity loss and return the budgets of Natural England and the Environmental Agency to 2010 levels at the next budget, if not in his own words “now, right now!”, and to continue to fund Environmental Protection with increased and realistic budgets in the future, which meet the increasing environmental crisis.

Local campaigners have been opposing this plan on the grounds of intolerable climate and radiological damage since 2017. Her Majesty now has a direct role to play in either facilitating or stopping this plan in its tracks.  Her Majesty’s Crown Estate signed an Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining on 21st July 2017.  This agreement ran out on 2nd October 2020.
 
 Also on 2nd October 2020 Cumbria County Council were minded to approve West Cumbria Mining’s plan.  (The Secretary of State told the council they could refuse but not offer final approval for the plan, pending his decision) 
 Developers, West Cumbria Mining require Her Majesty to agree to an Exploitation agreement in order to extract the coal.
 
 Her Majesty has visited Sellafield, the world’s known riskiest nuclear waste site.  Sellafield would be just five miles from the deep undersea coal mine.  Mass void removal is known to induce seismicity.  As well as this certain seismic risk the mine would be directly below the radioactive sediments which have settled on the Irish Sea bed from decades of Sellafield discharges.  The radioactive sediment which includes plutonium is named as the Cumbrian Mud Patch. 
 There have been many peer reviewed and independent reports indicating that subsidence/disturbance of the Irish Sea bed will resuspend these decades of radioactive wastes into the sea.  It takes just 4 years for radioactive wastes from Sellafield’s discharge pipeline to reach the Arctic. Far less time to reach our own coasts. The New Scientist has reported that Sellafield "reprocessing plant has released 40 000 billion becquerels of caesium-137. “So far, about 15 000 billion becquerels have reached the Arctic. This is between two and three times more than the contamination from Chernobyl, which is reaching the Arctic via the Baltic and North Seas.”  https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15420811-400-sellafield-leaves-its-mark-on-the-frozen-north/
 
 
 Mike Berners-Lee the climate expert has said of the Council approval of the coal mine that "12 Cumbria County Councillors have serious climate blood on their hands after approving the coal mine yet again - even though the case for has been shown to be 100% bogus. Unlikely there is anything any of them can do in their lives to undo this much damage.”   
 
 For myself as a long time nuclear safety campaigner and the person who took on the legal challenge against the coal mine with the help of top lawyers Leigh Day,  I know that the climate impacts although massive, are the tip of the iceberg. The nuclear impacts are of a magnitude literally out of this world as it is well known that the high level radioactive wastes sitting at Sellafield could annihilate the planet many times over.  This and the certain risk of resuspension of the Cumbrian Mud Patch wastes means that this coal mine puts the whole planet at direct risk of a nuclear fall out there would be no coming back from. 
 
 
 Please be on the right side of history and refuse to sign the Crown Estate agreement with West Cumbria Mining for further Exploration and Exploitation of coal reserves under the Irish Sea 5 miles from Sellafield and directly beneath the Cumbrian Mud Patch.
 Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07143398/charges/lXWNTRigei_OaJQXhs2MwyKZ7ms Report into Radiological Impacts of the Coal Mine by Tim Deere Jones https://issuu.com/wildart/docs/west_cumbria_mining_-_radiological_implications_of

We are concerned that for Sheffield City Centre, this Development Framework in its current form would increase air pollution and carbon emissions and would diminish a vital city centre green space. Sheaf Valley Park has been widely commended as an innovative and essential part of our city centre infrastructure. The Development Framework’s proposal to drive a dual carriageway through this park is deeply damaging, retrogressive and contradictory to the Council’s own transport, carbon and air quality targets. How can building a new dual carriageway ( swapping the existing dual carriageway with the existing tram line ) in the centre of the city reduce carbon and improve air quality when most independent research clearly states that new roads increase traffic and carbon emissions? It will not contribute to improving air quality and in fact will make air quality worse for Sheffield City as well as residents of Park Hill and the wider neighbourhood. New roads increase carbon emissions: It will not contribute to lowering carbon emissions and will have a substantially negative impact on total net carbon emissions for the project. Of equal concern is the apparent lack of strategic linkage to a clear vision for Sheffield City Region and Sheffield City Centre. The Development Framework is predicated on a series of engineering and land-based asset assumptions. It does not respond to a long-term net carbon zero future for Sheffield nor does it comply with or respond to the City Council’s own multiple strategic and policy commitments. There is so much more which requires an approach that goes beyond specific sites, traffic circulation and engineering design. The whole document appears to be lodged in a 20th century car dominated policy framework, driven by trying to address historic road-based development objectives, without any balanced evaluation of the viability, practicality or value of these assumptions. It is a deeply retrogressive and old-fashioned perspective on city development. The regeneration of the Midland Station ought to be a beacon and demonstrator for Sheffield City Region, pioneering less car traffic on roads; more active transport infrastructure; more greening and a brave and ambitious commitment to integrated, zero carbon transport systems. Instead it feels like a throwback to the 1960s where ring-roads of polluting traffic encircled our cities and personal mobility trumped mass transit systems and where there was scant regard for the impact of fossil fuels and their impact on our natural environment. We welcome the principle of the grey to green conversion of multiple roads as part of the wider strategy. This should be the opportunity for our city of Sheffield to grasp taking a new direction rather than a process of retrogressive transport planning.

Parliament declared a Climate Emergency over a year ago - and still not enough is being done to stop the worst effects of the climate crisis - in the UK and across the world. The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, which already has the support of 70+ MPs, calls for the UK to make and enact a serious plan to cut our emissions, protect our nature, and give ordinary people a real say on the way forward, through a citizens’ assembly. The climate and ecological crisis is the biggest threat to all life on Earth we have ever faced, it is vital we act now and this bill would be a very encouraging step. But for this Bill to stand a chance of becoming law, a majority of MPs need to support it. That’s why I am calling on our MP Rushanara Ali to please support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. Please join me! You can find out more about the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill here: https://www.ceebill.uk/

***New coal mines = climate crisis*** This mine will create 9 million tonnes of CO2 every year through coal burned in UK and European steelworks.That's three times what all the people of Cumbria produce every year [1]. It's 2% of the UK's carbon footprint, which makes it a decision of national importance. Top economists and energy experts agree that this mine cannot be 'carbon neutral' as Cumbria County Council claim, instead it will worsen the climate crisis. [2] ***Breaking the law*** The Heathrow judgement showed that the Paris Agreement [3] must be taken into account in decisions about new high-carbon projects, which is why Robert Jenrick must step in. The UK will host the UN climate summit COP26 in 2021, so starting a mega-polluting coal mine would undermine these vital talks ***No more coal for steel*** The UK's two steelworks are the biggest single-site emitters in the country[4] because of their current reliance on coal, but you can make steel without coal. The mine will lock the steel industry in the UK and Europe into using coal for decades to come, instead of switching to viable alternatives, when instead a transition to clean steel could begin right now.[5] ***The impacts on Cumbria*** The impacts of climate change fall first and hardest on communities in the global south, who are already being impacted. But Cumbria itself is also vulnerable to increasing sea level rise and flooding, which are predicted to get more severe if we don't keep global temperatures under 1.5 degrees [6]. The economic impact of the jobs the mine would provide would be far outweighed by climate impacts on the local economy. [7] As Communities Secretary, it's Robert Jenrick's job to refuse permission to projects that are harmful to communities and that conflict with the UK's international commitments on climate change. It's his job to promote alternatives that would be better for communities. We need a Green Recovery that invests in our futures, instead of being forced to rely on polluting projects for jobs. THANK YOU Learn more about the local groups leading the fight to stop this mega-polluting project: https://www.coalaction.org.uk/2020/09/07/campaigns-to-stop-woodhouse-colliery-cumbria/ REFERENCES [1] Small World Consulting: A Carbon Baseline for Cumbria https://slacc.org.uk/cumbria-carbon-baseline/ [2] UCL: Top Economists & Energy Experts claim Ministers mislead over coal & climate https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/sustainable/news/2020/sep/coal-and-climate-ministers-need-reject-misinformation-new-coal-mines [3] Heathrow Third Runway Ruled Illeagal Over Climate Change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/heathrow-third-runway-ruled-illegal-over-climate-change [4] EU ETS Emissions 2019 https://ember-climate.org/project/ets-2019-release/ [5] Materials Processing Institute Report Coal & Steel June 2020 https://slacc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SLACC_Appendix-2_MPI-Report_11-06-2020.pdf [6] Areas in Cumbria that could end up underwater due to global warming https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/areas-cumbria-could-end-up-18256314 [7] Presentation by Duncan Pollard on WCM https://slacc.org.uk/new-presentation-by-duncan-pollard-on-wcm/

Since the 1930s, our traditional wildflower meadows have declined due to human practices - we now have a responsibility to regenerate land wherever we can; from adding natural verges, and wildflower areas to tree planting and halting the use of pesticides. If managed sensitively, the Stray can add to a local diverse and ecologically complex environment to help reverse the decline of insects, including essential pollinators.

For the 2nd time in 6 years a planning application for an 18-hole international golf course threatens Coul Links, within Loch Fleet Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Loch Fleet & Dornoch Firth Special Protection Area (SPA) & Ramsar wetland. Councillors approved of this Groundhog application by a whisker on 6 Dec 2023, but Scottish Government called it in on 8 Feb 2024 for review. The Screening Request was from a councillor on behalf of a defunct football club, but Scoping & Full application were adopted by an astroturfing & greenwashing stalking horse, Communities for Coul (C4C), purporting to represent local populace (see Updates ↓ of 16 June 2021 & 27 Aug 2023) but representing golf & tourism interests in coastal Sutherland, appointing same developer, applicant of 1st failed planning application, & intending to dissolve! The 2023 golf course plan is similar to the ‘environmentally friendly’ design of previous Coul Links Ltd planning saga, first mooted in Oct 2015, approved almost unanimously by councillors, but refused in 2020 after Scottish Government intervention. The decision followed crucial objection by government agency Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot); recommended refusal by Highland Council’s Planning Officer; 1864 planning objections, a campaign by Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife, RSPB, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Ramblers, Scotways & Not Coul (all objecting again); a Wembley Stadium capacity 38Degrees petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/conserve-coul-links-for-nature-not-golf-1 (please sign); & 4 weeks of Public Local Inquiry, whose Report recommended refusal.   Scottish Ministers summarised in Feb 2020: “Reporters have concluded that the harmful impacts of this development to protected habitats & species would outweigh the potential socio-economic benefits. This proposal does not comply with the relevant provisions of the Highland Wide Local Development Plan & runs contrary to Scottish planning policy’s emphasis on protecting natural heritage sites & world class environmental assets. The Scottish Government has considered the reporter’s findings carefully & agree with the recommendation that planning permission should be refused”.   The developer to re-emerge is Mike Keiser of Bandon Dunes Oregon, Cabot Nova Scotia (NS) & Cabot Highlands UK. He was a funder of Heartland climate change denial Institute https://littlesis.org/person/42895-Michael_Keiser & doesn’t have an impeccable conservation record in Oregon: https://oregoncoastalliance.org/bandon-dunesbiota-bulldoze-roads-and-dig-bore-holes-in-bandon-state-natural-area/. Cabot NS failed to obtain a lease to convert wild protected public dunes to a golf course: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/west-mabou-beach-provincial-park-cabot-golf-tory-rushton-1.6817243. The only substantial improvement to the previous course design is abandonment of the major juniper translocation experiment within the SSSI. Assertions common to both planning applications & their inadequate Environmental Impact Assessments were refuted by Inquiry. One is that golf will only impact 1% of the SSSI, which is predominantly tidal estuary & contains substantial areas of beach, saltmarsh & native pinewood. This ignores effects of retreating coastline, expanding wetlands, golf management & disturbance beyond constructed tees & greens of biopoverty lawns, & intensively mown fairways, & effects of habitat fragmentation on ecological integrity. Tees & greens would be excavated, recontoured, turfed with amenity grassland, fertilised & irrigated. Fairways, ostensibly to preserve biodiversity & naturalness, would be mown weekly during growing season, compacting irregular topography & gradually reducing any sward to the most mower & trampling-tolerant (from 25,000 rounds per annum) grasses & mosses, with no opportunity for surviving herbs to flower. Dune heath, chiefly of heathers, mosses & lichens, with sparser & tussocky grasses, would be obliterated by mowing, leaving habitat susceptible to more wind erosion than desirable. Mowing would nowhere produce a world-class playing surface & eroded areas would likely be patched up with introduced grasses, & 'weeds' treated with herbicide. C4C claims that golf development is the only way to fund conserving Coul Links for nature, with golf management ending management neglect (by the landowner, a 2017 developer), initiating removal of ‘invasive’ species. This is untrue, as a land management agreement with NatureScot has commenced & funds are available for future work. Gorse, birches, Bracken, Meadowsweet & Burnet Rose are all perceived by the development team as undesirables to be severely controlled, despite their collectively supporting numerous insects & some nesting birds. While some control of first three species is desirable to preserve more valuable habitats, they are all natural & native components of dune vegetation. Bracken supports Stonechats & insects including: https://butterfly-conservation.org/sites/default/files/habitat-bracken-for-butterflies.pdf. Coul Links is one of the most biodiverse & intact dune habitat systems surviving in Scotland, where much has already been lost to golf. Naturalness, supported by size, is a chief criterion for SSSI evaluation & selection. Golf would destroy that integrity. 50% of the anticipated market for Coul Links golf would be from USA, jetting to Scotland to contribute to climate warming emissions & coastal erosion. DPEA Hearing: Scottish Government - DPEA - Case Details (scotland.gov.uk) Planning: https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/ ref. 23/00580/FUL Not Coul: https://notcoul.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnm7krCGoGQ&t=4s Coastal Erosion Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Zpr6c1elI&list=LL Information: https://www.coullinksgolf.com/ Coul photos: https://twitter.com/VisitGroatbury/status/1636675680938217472 'Community' propaganda: https://www.communities4coul.scot/

We are facing an unprecedented climate crisis crisis and the UK government simply isn’t doing enough. The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill can help us change our course—making the government act with the urgency we need and involving everyday people in a Citizens’ Assembly that has real bite. If the CEE Bill is made law, the government would have to act fast, accounting for our entire carbon footprint while actively conserving nature here and overseas. The bill could set a precedent that can be replicated across the world. According to They Work for You, a website that documents MP voting records, Alister Jack "generally voted against measures to prevent climate change". Recently he refused to meet with a constituent to discuss environmental issues on the basis that he'd "already had discussions with an environmental group this year". It is vital that local environmental groups and concerned citizens have the opportunity to convey to Alister Jack the severity of the crisis we are facing and to demand his representation in parliament. Encouraging him to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill would be a great start!

The tree is part of Goat Street and the only street tree we have. It is important for the environment, for the quality of air we breath, for the nesting birds and great source of pollen for the bees in spring.