Quarrying here will ruin village life. Heavy quarry lorries will be passing close by Alrewas but through Fradley, Kings Bromley, Yoxall and hamlets in between, poor air quality is inevitable and quarrying will ruin the beautiful countryside and kill wildlife. Best and fertile soil for the successful farming and agricultural industry in the area will be lost for good. There is a national shortage of infill and replacing the soil will be impossible. Do we want yet more lakes and water facilities as a result? Do we want to lose our farming and agricultural industry and put farmers out of work? There are safety issues concerning the large, high pressure gas pipelines that run beneath the earmarked area. Mistakes could be fatal and a quarry here will pose a serious security risk. The explosion of just one pipe could cause fatalities in nearby villages. Imagine what 8 could do! How do we manage the flows of people in and out of the area to keep the gas pipe safe against a terrorist attack? This is a popular area for tourists. This is because of the wonderful country views and open countryside, listed, historic buildings such as Wychnor Golf and Country Club, the Millennium Way and other public country walks, the canal and Fradley Junction, and historic villages and buildings used and visited by tourists from around the globe. 3 quarries will surely degrade the area, all of the above will be impacted, removing the attraction for tourists and cutting off valuable tourist income to the local communities. This area has suffered greatly from quarrying. There are already a number of quarries in Barton Under Needwood, Alrewas, Elford that are operational and being extended. Together with HS2, 3 more quarries will be devastating for the area. How much more can one small area take? We know the gravel has to be supplied from somewhere but there are other, more suitable areas that SCC should consider that will not impact villages, are not in areas already suffering from many years of quarrying and do not pose a safety and security risk. We would also argue that the UK does not recycle aggregate materials as much as it could and in comparison to other European countries our efforts are poor. If recycling was done properly and well, so many quarries would not be needed. Please help us stop the constant degradation of our environment and countryside. Make our government and local Council think about the impact on people, safety and local business. Please sign and stop quarrying in this area!

Jobs at risk The cost of solar panels since 2007 has fallen by over 70%. It is now the cheapest of all renewable technologies. This week, India announced the creation of 50 solar cities. Solar around the world is booming. In a few years, it won't need any support at all. But the UK Government seems to want to do everything it can to kill solar before we get to that point – and risk tens of thousands of jobs in the process. This is not the first time the Government has tried to kill the feed-in tariff, the scheme that pays people to feed clean electricity into the national grid from their solar panels. Back in 2011 Government tried to kill off 90% of the scheme with retrospective cuts. Friends of the Earth, together with the solar industry, took the Government to court - and won. Ministers were forced to backtrack. But once more, 35,000 jobs in the solar industry are on the line. (Quote from Friends of the Earth and image credit to intel free press)

Glyphosate is the most widely sold weedkiller in the world; you might know it as the active ingredient in Roundup. Government figures show its use in UK farming has increased by 400% in the last 20 years. Many farmers routinely use glyphosate and other herbicides to clear their fields of weeds before crops emerge in the spring. On the advice of the big chemical companies like Monsanto, farmers also use herbicides on crops shortly before they are harvested, in order to dry out the plants and make them easier to harvest. Tests by the Defra committee on Pesticide Residues in Food have found up to 30% of Britain's bread contained glyphosate. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation, identified glyphosate as a ‘probable carcinogen’ to humans. The safety regulators in the UK and EU only look at glyphosate on its own. But in the real world, glyphosate is always mixed with other chemicals to make sure the glyphosate sticks to, and penetrates the plants it’s sprayed on. Many of these other chemicals are toxic. According to recent research, some of these mixtures can be up to 1,000 times more toxic than glyphosate alone. A recent European study found 7 out of 10 people had traces of the weedkiller in their urine. Glyphosate has also been found in the breast milk of German women. We now know that glyphosate has potentially significant health implications for all of us. There is no excuse for glyphosate use. Please sign our petition and keep weedkiller out of our bread.

KCC’s Proposed modifications to the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan (MWLP) 2013-30. state that subject to certain conditions, planning permission will be granted for proposals associated with the exploration, appraisal and development of oil, gas and unconventional hydrocarbons. This blanket approach ignores the inherent risks of fracking which have been well documented around the world. The dangers are real and critical. Consultation on the subject has been buried in obscurely worded documents that will have successfully slipped below the radar of most of the residents of Kent. This is not an acceptable democratic approach. KCC must ensure they represent the views of the residents and land-owners of Kent before permitting any fracking activity to take place on Kentish soil.

The Conservatives running B&NES have ignored the strong objections of local people and put forward three terrible sites for a Park & Ride, all of them on the beautiful meadows. The options would all wreck the views enjoyed by residents and visitors and ruin our recreational use of the valley. The size of the sites are all too small and on their own won’t do much about the horrendous jams on London Road.

300 football pitches an hour of forest are being lost to Palm Oil producers. It's in half of the products in the supermarkets and no one is doing anything to stop it or make the big companies accountable. Orangutans amongst the other forest dwelling animals are losing their homes and lives.

Scotland has the most concentrated land ownership in the developed world. Just 432 people own half of the private land. Land prices are far too high - this is why rents are extortionate, and why young people are leaving when they can't even get a scrap of land for housing. For Scotland to flourish and every community to have a say over their resources and their future, we need a strong land reform bill that really tackles all these issues. We're up against a wealthy landowning lobby who want to water down the Scottish government's proposals - so we must make our voice heard! Tell your MSPs to back the five demands of the #OurLand campaign and make sure we get a bill that can change Scotland for the better. The Our Land Campaign was set up by Common Weal, Women for Independence, the Scottish Land Action Movement and campaigners Andy Wightman and Lesley Riddoch to highlight the way unavailable and unaffordable land blights development in the countryside and cities.

Whilst we accept that more houses are needed in the Beverley area, we are deeply concerned about the scale of housing developments proposed for Beverley, as detailed by ERYC in various documents, including the emerging East Riding Local Plan: 3,000 houses are proposed in a town with a current population of 30,000. Most recently, the Draft Masterplan for the South West of Beverley shows a level of housing density well in excess of the existing housing in the vicinity: 1,900 houses, which is equivalent to approximately 35 houses per hectare, as opposed to the current 20 houses per hectare in the neighbouring Lincoln Way development, in other words, not in keeping with the character for the area. In 2011 the Beverley Renaissance Partnership called for a large area of open space for public recreational use, a new common, tentatively called Southwood, to complement the existing pastures elsewhere in Beverley, something the new Draft Masterplan has now omitted. Currently only 10 hectares of the 80 hectare development are proposed as green space and this is in small patches scattered around the development. This area needs to be larger and joined up into a coherent chunk of land that will provide a useful recreational space, a green lung for the town, and ensure that Beverley does not become just another suburb of Hull. We call on ERYC to amend the above Draft Masterplan to reflect a level of development more in keeping with the area. We also ask that Beverley retain the existing quality of life for present and future residents by preserving and expanding its green spaces for recreational use and, in the process, protect and preserve our local wildlife.

Unconventional gas exploitation - "fracking" - is a ridiculous idea. The Government's arguments used to justify fracking are as follows: That it will create jobs, that it’ll bring down energy bills, that it’s good for our energy security and it's a transition fuel to a green energy economy. 1. That it will create jobs. A Department for the Environment and Climate Change’s (DECC) report estimated a maximum of 24,300 of them. Yet 400,000 jobs could be created by 2020 by investment in the clean energy sector. 2. That it’ll bring down energy bills like it has in the US. But the UK’s geology is more complex than in the US, which means that the process here will be uneconomic. Even if that wasn’t the case, unlike the US, the UK exports gas as part of a European gas market, and as fracking companies will sell to the highest bidder of these European countries, there could never be a guarantee that UK energy users would be the beneficiaries. 3. That it’s good for our energy security A House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee recommendation was that shale gas should not be relied on to contribute to energy security. An energy security expert has said the best way to reduce energy security risks is to promote renewable power generation, improve energy efficiency and reduce overall energy demand. 4. A transition fuel to a green energy economy. Department for Energy and Climate Change-commissioned report on fracking’s greenhouse gas emissions has been shown to be based on poor data and exaggeration. When the actual figures are factored-in, the report shows that burning shale gas to produce electricity is about as bad as, or very possibly even worse than burning coal! The arguments against fracking are so numerous: The UK’s geology is too complex for fracking to be safe or economic. The UK’s geography means we don’t have America’s wide open spaces away from the population or agriculture. Water contamination. The UN has listed seven different ways this can occur. The huge quantities of water required. The carcinogenic properties of the chemicals used. Air pollution. Earthquakes. Industrialisation of countryside and loss of agricultural land to roads, well-pads, pipelines, compressor stations and so on. Traffic/chemical spills/noise and light pollution. Impact on tourism. Even if none of the above applied this doesn’t discount the big one – climate change. A growing number of climate change scientists are recognising that to have any chance of us staying below the two degree increase in global temperature that is required to avoid catastrophic climate change, we have to leave 80% of all already discovered fossil fuels in the ground. So why does this government want to find more of the stuff if we can’t burn it? Not all governments are hell bent on fracking - far from it. There are bans or moratoriums on fracking in France, Germany, many American states, and at least twelve other countries worldwide. And there are attractive alternatives, particularly for the UK as we have the best renewable energy resources in Europe. That’s where our energy security is - and the 400,000 jobs to get our economy back on track. A policy of support for fracking is a vote-loser. As elected representatives of Hyndburn we the community call on you to say no to fracking and yes to keeping Hyndburn frack free?

The Camberwell Cemeteries are rich in biodiversity. Over 10 acres of rare designated Grade 1 SINC woodland are immediately under threat in Camberwell Old Cemetery. These woods are full of flora, fauna and protected species, as well as Ancient and Veteran Oaks and Hawthorns. Southwark council also want to fell a virgin native broadleaf wooded hilltop in Camberwell New Cemetery, another rare landscape for London. Over 9,000 people have signed a petition online and on paper to declare the Camberwell Cemeteries Nature Reserves. These biodiverse areas of Metropolitan Open Land on the Green Chain Walk are hugely valuable social and environmental assets - for mental and physical health and wellbeing, access to wild nature, cleaning the air, absorbing storm water, cooling the city, and providing beautiful, historical places to be in nature. Southwark's proposals will cause enormous negative impacts to nature and people. They have done no Environmental Impact Assessment, no Public Consultation, no CAVAT or I-Tree assessment, no Cost Benefit Analysis or financial, social or environmental comparison with alternatives put forward by the community. Many other vital pieces of information are either being withheld or are unavailable. These woodlands and graveyards should be valued and protected as Memorial Park Nature Reserves, and treated with the sensitivity and respect they deserve for future generations - not destroyed for a few years of inner city burial not accessible to all faiths. Help us save these woods and create natures reserves for all of London. For more information and means to object: www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk

The iconic copper beech in St. John's churchyard is scheduled to be felled ASAP. Recent survey work has found increasing levels of decay, and Mendip District Council health and safety have decided they would rather fell the tree to avoid liability, than manage it properly. There are several options which could be considered, including further crown reductions, excluding access to prevent soil compaction, and applying mulches to improve root growth. Hollow trees are very common. As trees become older, hollows or cavities can form due to a variety of factors - often through the work of fungi. This is a natural part of the life of a tree. Hollow trees can continue to live for a long time despite having large central cavities, and this does not usually cause them to become dangerous. This report from the Woodland Trust has lots of useful information about hollow trees. http://goo.gl/FTSF4E The report states: "Hollowing trees are also not necessarily structurally unsound, indeed the great storm of 1987 showed hollow trees may be as strong, if not stronger, than younger solid trees because they are more flexible." Hollow trees provide a fantastic and declining habitat for wildlife species including bats, birds and invertebrates. These important ecosystems are becoming more and more rare, partly because of the over-cautious felling of trees as they reach this life stage and begin to show evidence of decay. This iconic tree is a landmark feature of Frome. Though surveys have found the decay in the trunk is significant, the tree appears outwardly healthy and is in a sheltered location. Felling the tree now would be over-cautious, and would be a tragedy for Frome.

The poplars along the east side of Blakes Walk in Lewes East Sussex are to be cut down as part of the new development on the land adjoining Southdowns Road (Ref. SDNP/15/01303/FUL). For context, these are the tall trees to the east of the recreation ground at South Malling, on the opposite side to the river. Grid Ref. 541756,110897. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of this development, this destruction of trees, described as "poor" by the East Sussex County Landscape Architect Virginia Pullan, is completely unjustified and will substantially alter the character of this public footpath, used by the residents of Malling to walk into town. Her views, based on those given by James Newmarch, the Highway Tree Officer at East Sussex County Council, have been passed on to Stephen Cantwell at the South Downs National Park Authority. You can read her opinion, and decide for yourself HERE: http://planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=NL6WUXTUFIG00 (Document dated 7/8/15 entitled 'ESCC Landscape Architect) However according to Town and District Councillor Daisy Cooper, in a quote provided specifically for this petition: “The proposal to fell some of the poplar trees on Blake's Walk flies in the face of British Standards that require processes of demolition and construction to put tree care at their heart. The tree survey recommended retention and protection, and residents staunchly oppose the destruction of trees planted in memory of a valued member of the community. The 79 units got the go ahead but the decision on the trees was bounced back to the County Council who owns them - it's not too late for the County to agree a scheme to protect all the poplar trees on Blake's Walk." Contact details: Virginia Pullan: [email protected] James Newmarch: [email protected] Stephen Cantwell: [email protected]