Alexis Rowell with Maya de Souza (second left) and other Camden Green Party campaigners

If can help in the campaign contact Alexis at alexis.rowell@greenparty.org.uk

The Green Party has chosen former Liberal Democrat councillor and Camden Eco Champion, Alexis Rowell, as their candidate for the Highgate by-election on Thursday 15^th September.

The Green Party’s Maya de Souza topped the poll in Highgate ward in last year’s council elections and the Greens are going all out to get Alexis elected so that he can help Maya with the great work she does.

The by-election follows the resignation of a Labour councillor who was only elected last year.

Alexis was a leading Lib Dem councillor in Camden from 2006 to 2010, and is widely credited with having significantly raised the profile of environmental issues in the council and across the borough.

But, shortly after winning a national Sustainability Councillor of the Year award, he stood down at the May 2010 elections.

Alexis said: “I have been growing increasingly disillusioned with the Lib Dems since the party joined the coalition government. My principal reason for leaving was Chris Huhne’s support for nuclear power, but I have also been completely unimpressed with the coalition’s overall environmental record and appalled by what their policies and cuts are doing to the social fabric.”

In the past the Greens have held all three seats in Highgate.

Maya de Souza said: “We are delighted to have such an experienced and energetic candidate standing for us in Highgate. It is largely thanks to the work Alexis did last time he was a councillor that sustainability is such a key concern at Camden Council. But he’s also got a great track record as a ward councillor responding to residents’ concerns. His energy, enthusiasm and hard work will be a great asset to Highgate.”

The Chair of the Camden Green Party, Natalie Bennett, said: “At a time when the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are creating havoc nationally, and Camden Council’s Labour administration is closing libraries and playgroups, Alexis is a strong candidate for anyone who cares about the environment and progressive issues generally.”

The leader of the national Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP, said: “Alexis’s move from the Lib Dems to the Greens shows that it is the Greens who are leading the way on progressive and environmental politics in the UK. I encourage all Lib Dems to take a long hard look at what the coalition is doing and to ask themselves whether they really support what’s happening.”

You can make money by installing solar panels on your roof

Barnet Greens are backing a new local not-for-profit organisation which aims to bring people together and help them improve the energy efficiency of their homes or install solar panels. See: http://www.energisebarnet.org.uk.

As we have pointed out, houses with solar panels on their roofs can now actually make a profit from the Feed-In-Tariffs paid for electricity generated by the panels, so you could potentially make money by installing panels on your rooftop as well as reducing your carbon emissions.

Energise Barnet hasn’t officially launched yet but founder Nigel Farren hopes to hold the launch next month.

Meanwhile the organisation is already taking expressions of interest because as soon as it has 50 registered supporters it can start negotiating discounts with suppliers and installers.

We urge all readers of this posting have a look at the Energise Barnet site. If you would like to improve the energy efficiency of your home or would consider installing solar panels then please register by clicking on the icon near the top right corner of the home page. It is free and participation won’t cost you anything unless you eventually go ahead and decide to install solar panels or whatever.

Despite Barnet Green Party’s calls for Barnet Council to act on solar power it is clearly not going to do so and therefore schemes like Energise Barnet are the best way of helping people in the borough to reduce their carbon emissions from energy consumption.

Andrew Newby, who was Green candidate for Hendon in last year’s general election, said: “I myself have registered with Energise Barnet, of course. Seems a no-brainer to me.”

Barnet Green Party's 2010 council candidates at our campaign launch at Tally Ho corner

Barnet Green Party are calling for the introduction of congestion charges in busy and polluted areas such as Brent Cross and Tally Ho Corner. This is just one of the many ideas the party is putting forward to show how Barnet Council could balance its budget without resorting to welfare cuts or closing libraries.

Here are a few of the ideas we are submitting to Barnet Council:

Major ideas to bring in large revenues or save substantial sums of money:

• Introduce a road congestion charge in busy or polluted areas such as Brent Cross and North Finchley. This would have the double benefit of bringing in money and reducing pollution, with big health benefits. Average annual nitrogen dioxide levels at Tally Ho Corner have been above the World Health Organisation recommended maximum ever since a pollution monitor was installed there in the 1990s. The central London congestion charged had net revenues of 148 million pounds in the 2009/10 financial year, so Barnet could expect income of several tens of millions a year from congestion charge zones.

• Raise revenue from electricity feed-in-tariffs by installing solar panels on Barnet Council’s office buildings, schools and social housing. Payback can be 10 percent a year, so Barnet Council could envisage income of 10 million pounds a year if it invested 100 million pounds a year, the amount Birmingham Council is spending on solar power and energy efficiency. Or it could perhaps even avoid any capital outlay by outsourcing the scheme in return for annual rent on the council’s roofs.

• Save hundreds of thousands of pounds by seeking the advice of local community groups instead of issuing valuable contracts to consultants. The only reason Barnet Council’s administration won’t like it is that the community groups will tell them the truth whereas the consultants say things the Conservative administration are pleased to hear, such as: “How about putting some money into Icelandic banks. Form selected panels of volunteer advisers, like the former Community Health Councils.

Some other ideas for more modest savings and new revenues, among the many possibilities:

Barnet Green Party's Andrew Newby checks the solar panel at his former home in Nicosia

Here’s Barnet GreenParty’s proposal: Abandon the dogma about ‘cuts’ and about ‘privatisation’, which might end up costing more money rather than creating savings. If they want genuine buzz words we suggest ‘sustainability’ and ‘solar panels’.

Birmingham Council has agreed a 100 million pounds scheme to create jobs and sharply reduce the city’s carbon emissions. The project will start by giving an energy efficiency upgrade to 10,000 existing homes and energy savings in the retrofitted homes will generate funding for similar work on thousands more homes in the city. Solar panels are already being fitted to homes in four areas of the city. (http://birminghamnewsroom.com/?p=12704)

Birmingham is a Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration so why can’t Barnet’s Tories come up with a similar plan that would create jobs, improve the lives of occupants of the improved homes and lead to a sharp reduction in energy costs and carbon emissions?

Before anyone asks where Barnet would get the initial funding, can we point out that Birmingham Council itself is only putting up 25 million pounds, ie roughly the amount that Barnet Council handed over to Icelandic banks.

Banks (British not Icelandic ones please!) would be eager to lend Barnet Council the money for an equivalent energy savings scheme and there might be ways of reducing the council’s proportion to an even smaller percentage of costs.

The feed-in-tariffs which energy companies pay for power from sustainable sources mean, for instance, that photovoltaic panels can generate surplus electricity every year worth up to 10 percent of the cost of their installation. After ten years the panels are paid for and the electricity is pure profit.

Companies and syndicates are starting to spring up to develop rooftop “sun harvesting” operations and Barnet Council’s thousands of homes, schools and other buildings would be an extremely attractive resource.

That’s the kind of project that Future Shape should be looking at: dynamic, exciting, forward-looking, job-creating, sustainable and potentially highly profitable after an initial investment.

Noel Lynch (left) outside City Hall alongside Green London Assembly Member Darren Johnson (centre) and Andrew Newby, Green parliamentary candidate for Hendon in 2010 general election (right)

Barnet Green Party is calling on voters to object to Boris Johnson’s plans to remove part of the London congestion charge zone.

Transport for London (TfL) has opened up a consultation asking Londoners for their views on the proposed removal of the western congestion charging zone in central London.

Barnet Green Party is urging people to voice their opinion and urge the Mayor to keep the scheme.

“The zone has been successful in reducing the number of trips by polluting vehicles, and making the roads a safer and more pleasant environment for those travelling on foot or by bicycle.” said Noel Lynch, chair of Barnet Green Party and the co-ordinator of the London Federation of Green Parties.

“Coming just a few days after accident statistics showed a dramatic increase in vehicle collisions in pro-car Barnet, removing part of the C-charge zone doesn’t make any sense, both environmentally and in terms of safety” Lynch added. “Boris Johnson claims to be passionate about cycling, but by pandering to wealthy west London residents he will do nothing for cycling in that part of the capital”.

View the consultation and submit your views on the TfL website. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 2 August 2010.

The western C-charge zone is less than 2 miles from the southern boundary of Barnet, in Cricklewood.

Andrew Newby, Kate Tansley and Donal Lyven, our local Green parliamentary candidates

Barnet Green Party urges local people to follow your conscience and vote Green both in Thursday’s general election and in the Barnet Council election on the same day, May 6th.

“We know Green policies are popular. Our national policies are in first place in the giant survey of more than 250,000 people on vote for policies, way ahead of Labour, LibDems and Tories. Our main challenge is to persuade voters that there is a chance of us being elected and that a Green vote is a worthwhile vote,” said Noel Lynch, Barnet Green Party chairman and a candidate for the target ward of East Finchley in the council election.

In the parliamentary elections, Donald Lyven is standing for the Greens in Finchley & Golders Green, with Kate Tansley the Green candidate in Chipping Barnet and Andrew Newby the Green man in Hendon constituency.

Newby said: “We call on local people to vote Green in all three constituencies. There is no point in trying to be tactical in order to achieve a hung parliament. You will just end up with an MP from one of the three tired old traditional parties.”

Only the Greens among the national parties would scrap Trident and all British nuclear weapons, saving up to 100 billion pounds. The Greens would also pull out of Afghanistan immediately, saving five billion pounds a year, and would cancel ID cards and other wasteful ‘Big Brother projects’, potentially saving as much as 50 billion pounds.

The Greens are the originators of the Green New Deal project which aims to create a million new jobs by investing in sustainable industries such as renewable energy and insulation.

Locally, the Greens are very much targeting seats on Barnet Council after achieving a strong score last time which would have brought them six seats  if the vote had been held under proportional representation.

“We believe we have a particularly strong chance in East Finchley ward,” said Lynch, who is campaigning with Newby and local stalwart Steve Norman for the three East Finchley seats on the council.

Hopes are also high for Mill Hill ward, where twins Dilan and Dilem Kurt have teamed up with former Barnet councillor David Williams to mount a strong bid for votes.

Newby (left) and Lyven with Kate Tansley, Green candidate for Chipping Barnet

If you are ready for some light relief amid the election campaigning why not join us for kite flying on Sunday at Clitterhouse playing fields near Brent Cross?

Anyone who would like to bring their own kites to fly alongside ours will be especially welcome.

Next Sunday, April 18^th, Donald Lyven, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, and Andrew Newby, Green Party candidate for Hendon, will attempt to fly a kite to 140 metres, the height of the chimney at the incinerator which the developers of the 4.5 billion pounds Brent Cross Cricklewood project propose to build.

The attempt will take place at Clitterhouse Playing Fields (Claremont Road, NW2) at 1.00 pm. Media have been invited. (Contact Donald Lyven on 07727 748209 or Andrew Newby on 07947 402945 or andrewnewby1@gmail.com).

Lyven and Newby’s kite flying plan aims to mock the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers’ denial that the 140 metre chimney will spew fumes across the whole of North London.

“Of course it will,” said Lyven. “140 metres is an enormous height. The legal maximum height for flying a kite is less than half of that – 60 metres in fact. If anyone tries to stop us we’ll ask how come the developers expect to get away with building a polluting chimney 140 metres tall when we can only fly a kite to 60 metres.”

NB: The Civil Aviation Authority has given approval for Lyven to fly the kite to 140m so there should be no trouble.

Andrew Saffrey, Golders Green candidate for the Green Party in the coming Barnet Council elections, believes the incinerator will blight Golders Green and spread pollution far and wide.

The waste incinerator has been dressed up in the consultation material as a “gasification plant” or a “CHP station”. Whatever it is called, it will emit large quantities of harmful emissions from a 140-metre chimney into the suburbs of North London,” he said.

With prevailing winds taking these emissions to the east, the Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest would also be affected, as would the Counties of Essex and Hertfordshire,” he said.

Newby said: “When the Brent Cross Cricklewood plans came before Barnet Planning Committee its Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the planning committee all just rolled over and let their tummies be tickled by the developers.

They approved the plans almost on the nod when the sheer number of objectors and the broad scope of the various objections – the incinerator is just one of many problems – meant that the only truly democratic decision would have been to call a public enquiry,” he said.

Giant Cody box kite to be flown on Sunday

Barnet Council needs a strong Green group to hold the administration to account not just on environmental policy but on jobs, housing, social issues and certainly planning,” said Newby.

Labour’s Communities Minister John Denham may have blocked the development for the moment but he has not ruled out approving the scheme after the election, still without the vital public inquiry needed to expose the many flaws in the scheme. For kite enthusiasts, the kite is a Giant Cody Box kite made of Ripstop Nylon & Fibreglass. Size 245 x 145cm. Speed 5-18mph.

Max 20 - that's plenty

Barnet Greens are calling for a 20 mph default speed limit on residential and shopping streets across the borough, using as a “case study” the problems in East Finchley’s Church Lane.

As well as cutting the number of accidents, a 20 mph limit would be “good for children, cyclists and the planet,” said Andrew Newby, who will be a candidate in East Finchley ward in the borough elections on May 6th.

Barnet Council’s Conservative administration has had no credible road safety strategy for several years since Councillor Brian Coleman unilaterally decided to abolish speed humps, Newby said.

Peacemeal traffic calming controls remain in place on some streets but residents of many neighbourhoods across the borough are increasingly angry that their pleas for increased road safety measures near their homes and schools have fallen on deaf ears.

Barnet Green Party has decided to address the issue by proposing a 20 mph speed limit on all residential and shopping streets in the borough, in line with decisions already approved by Camden council, amongst others.

Barnet Greens have prepared a report on the proposal and will submit it to Barnet Council and ask councillors to back the idea.

“A 20 mph speed limit is proven to reduce accidents and also makes cycling or walking much more pleasant, such as for children going to school, if speeding traffic is no longer rushing by,” Newby said.

To see the full report, click here

An artist's impression of the proposed Brent Cross development

Barnet Green Party is urging local people to write in the next seven days to Communities Secretary John Denham to demand a public inquiry into the the 4.5 billion pounds Brent Cross Cricklewood redevelopment.

Objectors have only until March 12^th to make their views known to Denham, who will then decide whether to over-rule Barnet Council’s approval and call in the plan for further assessment.

“The whole scheme is monstrously unsustainable and would have a damaging effect on wide swathes of North London well beyond the boundaries of Barnet borough,” said Andrew Newby, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Hendon.

“The housing programmes need major revision to make them sustainable and the planned expansion of Brent Cross shopping centre should be halted completely, having already been rejected at a previous public inquiry.”

Andrew Saffrey, Golders Green candidate for the party in the coming Barnet Council elections, is particularly unhappy at plans for an incinerator, which he believes will blight Golders Green and spread pollution far and wide.

an incinerator in Sheffield

“The waste incinerator has been dressed up in the consultation material as a “gasification plant” or a “CHP station”. Whatever it is called, it will emit large quantities of harmful pollutants from a 140-metre chimney into the suburbs of North London,” he said.

Newby said in a letter to Denham: “Even supposing the developers fulfill their pledges of high standards for all aspects of their monstrous proposals, the scheme is so enormous that it will have an impact on the national target of an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

“The BXC plans include only token sustainability measures, so the expanded shopping centre, the new homes and the other buildings are likely to churn out hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 in their many decades of existence. Residential buildings will only achieve level three (out of six) under the Code for Sustainable Homes although the government’s target is for all buildings be carbon neutral (level six) by 2016.

“This scheme is an ideal opportunity to install energy conservation measures and sustainable power facilities right from the beginning. There is plenty of scope on the site for enough wind turbines, solar arrays and ground source heat pumps to make the whole area carbon negative, never mind carbon neutral. Yet the requirement for 20% renewable energy is proposed to be met entirely by burning domestic waste. Not a single solar panel or wind turbine is proposed.”

Newby also says: “Any expansion of Brent Cross would undoubtedly have further harmful affects on the several shopping areas within a few miles of the development.

“Shopping districts likely to suffer from would include Golders Green, Hendon, Temple Fortune and Finchley Central. Many businesses in those areas are already struggling under the impact of the recession and Barnet Council should not have approved the BXC plans without studying their likely impact on local communities and implementing measures needed to support those communities.

Saffrey said in his submission to the ministry: “With an estimated 29,000 vehicle trips a day predicted to be generated by this development, clearly this project is seriously jeopardising efforts to control and reduce CO2 emissions.”

“Suggestions that a light-rail system is sorely needed to serve Brent Cross have been derided by Conservative councillors yet providing light rail has been enormously successful in other large-scale development projects, notably Canary Wharf,” said Saffrey.

Newby said: “With a general election coming up and a number of marginal labour seats nearby there is a good chance of Denham calling in the plan if enough people write in.”

If you want to ask the minister to call in the plans, send a message to: john.denham@communities.gsi.gov.uk

or send a letter to:

The Rt. Hon John Denham MP
Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House, Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU