Successful Campaigns

21/09/18 ASTOUNDING RESULT- INCINERATOR THREAT THWARTED BY RESIDENTS as County Council says NO!!! The visually colossal ugly industrial waste incinerator proposed for the fen edge villages of Cambridge was this week stopped by county councillors. The application was refused 7 votes to 1 on grounds of landscape and heritage. Nearly 400 objections (against 3 supporting statements) were received by CCC, while a petition opposing the plans was signed by almost 3000 people and numerous people gave their day to airing their objections to the committee at what was an all day complex hearing meeting. Concerns included the impact on future and existing residents, landscape and impact on a crown jewel of fenland, the ancient heritage asset of Denny Abbey owned by English Heritage which sits next door to the proposed site, and Ely Cathedral (both Crown Jewels of the fens), highway capacity and road safety, noise, air quality, pollution and human health, the environment and whether the facility was needed in a country classified by global waste expert authority EUNOMIA and the EU as being at incineration saturation. We are delighted our voices and residents voices have been heard and we are grateful to the long standing hard work and suport provided by local parish councils who povideded strong objections, Conservative MPs Lucy Frazer and Heidi Allen who kept lsitening to us and formally objected several times, and to Waterbeach Labour, the Green party, CPRE, English Heritage, Cambridge Friends of the Earth who all backed us from the get-go and were relentless with their help. There was 11th hour support and objection from Lib Dem County councillor too. Not withstanding the champion fund raising by Jasmine Seamarks and public donations without we would not have been able to commission the key landscape report that was instrumental in today. Thanks also go out to campaign groups members in Bedford (CAIN), Horsham (NoIFH), Essex (PAIN), Norfolk (KLWIN) and expertise and sheer professional support from campaign group UKWIN (who we should say are working hard with central government to support innovative zero waste strategies). Thank you to all the councillors who voted today to refuse the application and listened to objectors. This was an outdated and inappropriate lump of technology for our city that prides itself on trailblazing innovation, and in the wrong place, squeezed next to an ancient heritage asset and potential new primary schools and new settlement. We are under no illusion that AMEY CESPA could appeal, such is the value of burning 12 counties waste on our door step to them and their share holders. But the decision today is a win for democracy and there were several moments along the way when we questioned whether democracy even existed. If they do then here’s a heads up- we’ll need even more hands on deck and support. Our communities were at a huge disadvantage when opposing such a technically complicated application and in the future access to knowledge and information and understanding the process needs to improve. Combined public information events and public debate meetings should be the preferred forum and less feared- they work well for communities who seek to understand and voice their thoughts. Goes to show if you care it counts! From Fellow concerned residents of CBWi.co.uk

UPDATE: Bunn Leisure contacted the 38 Degrees office. They said that as a family business they are a compassionate company and they have agreed to definitely issue a refund as soon as they receive the relevant paperwork. They are also going to change their refund policy so that this can never become an issue for anyone else in the future.

We won! HSBC have removed the anti-homeless spikes from outside the New Street branch. Read more here: https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2015/11/27/homeless-spikes-campaign-win-birmingham-hsbc/

We won! It's been announced that bus services on the popular Coasthopper route along the North Norfolk Coast will continue to run. http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2018-03-08/coasthopper-bus-service-saved/

10/04/19 We did it! Newcastle Council has declared a Climate Emergency, promising to make our city carbon neutral by 2030!! Thanks to your support for this campaign, climate change is back on our Council's agenda. But of course, the devil’s in the detail… Here’s the full story: We presented the almost 3,000-signature petition to Newcastle City Council’s meeting on Wednesday Evening. I asked Taymar Pitman from Newcastle Green Party to speak in support of the petition inside the Council’s chamber, since she’s been instrumental in helping me to understand Council procedures and has regularly joined me out on the street in freezing weather to gather signatures - along with many other Greens and supporters of the climate pressure group Extinction Rebellion, among fabulous others. Taymar explained to the council why each of the petition’s four points was critical to tackling the climate emergency. A crowd rallied outside the Civic Centre to push our Council to take climate action. We were also joined by supporters of Save Newcastle Wildlife’s campaign opposing a new open cast coal mine at Dewley Hill near Throckley, on the edge of Newcastle. Despite the Council delaying the debate about the climate emergency into ‘extra time’, we got a pledge from them to make Newcastle carbon neutral by 2030! However, the Council ignored the petition’s call to set specific targets for sectors such as housing and transport, and refused to commit to the annual progress reporting we’d asked for. Their ‘carbon neutral’ pledge (not ‘climate neutral’ as we’d asked) also ignores other climate-warming emissions such as methane and nitrous oxides. I’m glad the Council expressed a desire to divest their pension fund from fossil fuels, although again with no firm commitment. I very much hope that myself and other supporters of this petition will be invited to take part in the Council’s proposed new ‘Climate Change Convention’, bringing together businesses, residents, academics and the public sector to create a city-wide plan for action! The lack of commitment to a timeline worries me though, given that the Council have previously failed to meet the ambitions set out in their past climate change plans. Nonetheless, Newcastle Council’s recognition of the climate emergency opens up a window of opportunity to keep pressing them to take rapid, ambitious action to tackle the looming threat of climate breakdown… To continue to build momentum, I’ll be again joining the #YouthStrike4Climate’s #FridaysForFuture rally this Friday outside Newcastle Civic Centre (12 April 11am-2pm), as well as working alongside Newcastle Green Party, and Extinction Rebellion [I’ll be talking about their campaign at Jesmond Library on 25 April 6pm during their North East action week], to keep the pressure on our Council to urgently agree it’s plan for climate action! Newcastle Green Party also ask me to invite supporters of this petition to contribute their ideas for continuing the push for urgent action at their meeting tomorrow (Thurs 11 April 7pm at Commercial Union House, 39 Pilgrim Street NE1 6QE) or for a celebratory drink afterwards at the Tyneside Cinema Bar opposite (8.30pm). Friends, I thank all of you for signing, sharing and supporting this successful call on Newcastle Council to declare a Climate Emergency – together we have put climate change firmly back on our leaders’ agenda in Newcastle. I hope you will join me in continuing to push for urgent climate action, and thank you again for your support, Clare Petition link: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/declare-a-climate-emergency

We Won! The Royal Clarence Hotel and the Well House Tavern pub will be completely restored! https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/plans-major-royal-clarence-restoration-422486

15/05/18 - We won... mostly. The University is retaining the pension scheme for existing staff, but new staff from the start of next year will not be eligible to join. The petition was an important part of the campaign and certainly made a difference.

We did it! We got supermarkets to do the right thing and hand back their business rates relief back to the government. In total, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Asda, Morrisons, and Aldi, are returning £2bn in relief money. Though this money should never have been given to them in the first place, our win proves that by piling on the pressure, we can hold these big businesses to account. And that's not all: we've also influenced how other big retailers handle their relief money. This is huge. By showing support for this campaign, you've played an important role in how we recover from this crisis. Now that we've had £2bn handed back, we need to see this money distributed to the right causes. When we clapped for carers and other essential workers, we weren’t thinking of supermarket CEOs or shareholders, but the thousands of people working on shop floors around the country who took the greatest risks to keep the rest of us safe and well-supplied.

We won! Tony is allowed to stay in his Home

UPDATE - 12/01/15 - children’s community health services and the inpatient adolescent mental health unit in Bristol have, for now, been saved from privatisation! This is a massive victory for both NHS services in Bristol and the rest of the country. It shows what can be done when service users, staff, members of the public and councillors and MP's work together to hold the public bodies who make decisions about our NHS to account and let them know what we want for our health services.