UK Newswire Archive
British Heart Foundation May Be Withdrawing From Workfare
12-11-2012 18:14
Sussex Police in bed with the gangsters.
12-11-2012 10:31
Police corruption in Sussex goes to new heights. The elections for Police and CXrime Commissioner are taking place this week. Will the person appointed be able to stand up to the problems?Screening of film on the Corporation of London
12-11-2012 10:10
28th November 2012. 7pm
Centreprise booskhop evicted
11-11-2012 17:00
The Black community bookshop. cafe and centre, Centreprise, in Dalston, East London was evicted last week.
EDL thugs attack we are Norwich counter protesters
11-11-2012 11:17
Fash attackNo Hope In Norwich & Other Tales!
11-11-2012 09:20
Crivvens! Jings! And Help Ma Boab! Yet another weekend washout for the far right with 3 dismal demonstrations and lots of fallouts and embarrassing revelations for anti-fascists to savour then wonder ‘why don’t the English Defence League just give it up?’A good finale for 2012, a reason for joy in dismal times
10-11-2012 15:46
Interventionistische Linke and Ums Ganze! Alliance on the General Strike in southern Europe , November 14 and 16, 2012Sheffield's 2012 Transition Awards
10-11-2012 12:27
Barnados under regular pressure in Oxford
09-11-2012 23:20
Campaigners have been picketing and leafletting at the Barnados store in Oxford fairly regularly, in protest at their collusion with the migration-control system, specifically detention of children.Corrupt Police at Orgreave & Hillsborough
09-11-2012 23:18
Australia about to open uranium floodgates?
09-11-2012 22:05
The Australian government is about to decide whether Western Australia’s first uranium mine will go ahead, potentially setting a huge precedent for the rest of the country, where two other states have dropped decades-old uranium mining bans. Australia is the world's third-ranking producer, behind Kazakhstan and Canada and possesses 31% of the world’s reserves. Uranium and nuclear power is never much of a public issue in Australia in terms of the dangers.
Israeli state funded Batsheva Dance performance disrupted
09-11-2012 21:10
Disruption of Israeli state funded Batsheva Dance performance : Brighton Dome
Friday 9 November
Shooting the messengers to protect the powerful
09-11-2012 13:13
The north Wales child abuse scandal, whistleblowing in Wales and elsewhere, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and the need for transparency.
Julian Assange, Sex Crimes and the U.S. Proxies in Cuba.
09-11-2012 03:45
Young European politicians are now acting under the banner of activism with their governments' assent to support the United States 59 year de facto war with Cuba.Objection to Birklands Opencast Plan Submitted
08-11-2012 22:55
An objection to Hall Construction Servixes for an Opencast Mine at the Birklands site in Gateshead has now been submitted. The objection is based on a number of factors, the rate at which power stations are being closed or converted to burning biomass; that it is Government policy to encourage Power Generators to switch from burning coal to burning biomass; that the expected decline in the need for coal for power generation purposes is expected to drop by 34% by 2017 and how easy it is to ship any coal that is needed into the Port of tyne amongst other reason. The pres release also draws attention to problems with the Growth and Infrastructure Bill now before Parliament.
THE LOOSE ANTI OPEN-CAST NETWORK
BIRKLANDS LANE : WHY DESTROY WHAT’S THERE WHEN THE USE OF COAL FOR POWER GENERATION PURPOSES IS BECOMING HISTORY?
PR 2012 -12 8/11/12
In an objection to the proposal to quarry to take out 275,000 tonnes of coal from the Birklands Lane Opencast site in Sunnyside, Gateshead, the Loose Anti Opencast Network (LAON) makes the following points:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->By the end of 2016, six heavily polluting power stations which were using coal to produce electricity will be closed. This is equal to a third of the UK’s coal burning generating capacity. These power stations are Ferrybridge (Yorkshire), Ironbridge (Shropshire) Cockenzie (nr. Edinburgh), Kingsnorth (Kent), Tilbury (Essex) and Didcot (Oxfordshire)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->It is now Government policy to phase out the use of coal for Power generation purposes
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->It is also now Government policy to use a new subsidy system to encourage the remaining coal burning power stations to switch to burning biomass. As a consequence, Tilbury Power Station has already been converted to burning biomass, Ironbridge is to be converted. In addition, half of the UK’s biggest power station, Drax (Yorkshire) is to be converted by 2017 and another large power station Eggborough (Goole on Humberside) is also to be converted.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->New Department of Energy and Climate change figures predict what the consequence of these changes will be for the demand for coal for power generation purposes in the UK. In 2011 the UK used over 40.5m tonnes of coal. By 2017, the date by when coal extraction on the Birkland Lane site is most likely to finish if planning permission was granted anytime soon, demand is expected to have fallen to 26.6m tonnes, a drop of about 34%.
The use of coal for power generation purposes is becoming history and for the foreseeable future this trend will continue as Power Generating companies continue to reduce the country’s capacity to burn coal.
In addition, the objection points out how easy it is to import coal.
“ All the years of disturbance and nuisance local people will suffer could be avoided if 4 loads of 76,000 tonnes of coal could, instead, be unloaded in the Port of Tyne and transported by a far more environmentally friendly method of transport, rail, to the power stations where it is needed.
This would also mean that the current generation of residents would not have to wait for 23 years before the site began to look mature, assuming that this was in fact a 3.5 year ‘Green to Green’ proposal, with no submission of a future plan to extend the site.”
Steve Leary, who wrote the submission, is the Co-ordinator of the Loose Anti Opencast Network. He has addressed groups elsewhere on planning issues to do with opencast coal applications and recently submitted evidence, which was accepted, to the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government on inadequacies in the way the present planning system deals with opencast mine applications.
He commented
“We in LAON have decided to lodge this objection to make the public, planners and Councillor’s aware to the results of our research. We are entering a new era as far as power generation is concerned and coal will not be part of that picture for the foreseeable future. - Coal for power generation purposes is becoming history. Therefore one of the questions which Gateshead Councillors will face is knowing that this is the case, is 4 shiploads of coal worth saving local people from 3.5 years of disturbance plus innumerable traffic movements by road, if account is also taken of journeys made by employees and suppliers servicing the site in addition to the known estimated heavy lorry movements. This is a stark choice that the Planning Authority has to take. The case being put here is that protecting local people from the loss of amenity caused by working this site, if permission is given, is worth 4shiploads of coal, especially when the use of coal for such a purpose is becoming history.
LAON also has to alert local people to another threat which may impinge on the decision about Kirkland Lane. Currently, the Government is seeking further changes in the planning system that might make it easier for such proposals such as Kirkland Lane to gain planning permission. In the Growth and Infrastructure Bill currently before Parliament, Clause 21 will give the Secretary Of State power to define certain developments as ‘Major Infrastructure Projects’. If quarrying and surface mining are so defined, as some commentators think is possible, then the decision will be made by means of a Public Inquiry and not by the local planning authority, thus making it far more difficult for local people to object to such proposals. So far The Government has refused to define what it means by ‘Major Infrastructure Projects’. It would be deeply ironic if that were to be case in view of the predicted decline in the use of coal.”
The Loose Anti Opencast Network would be willing to work with those who have already objected to this application to ensure that planning permission is not granted.
About LAON
The Loose Anti-Opencast Network (LAON) has been in existence since 2009. It functions as a medium through which to oppose open cast mine applications. At present LAON links individuals and groups in N Ireland (Just Say No to Lignite), Scotland (Coal Action Scotland), Wales (Green Valleys Alliance, The Merthyr Tydfil Anti Opencast Campaign), England, (Coal Action Network), Northumberland, (Whittonstall Action Group, North Pennine Protection Group) Co Durham (Pont Valley Network), Leeds, Sheffield (Cowley Residents Action Group), Kirklees, (Skelmansthorpe Action Group) Nottinghamshire (Shortwood Farm Opencast Opposition), Derbyshire (West Hallum Environment Group, Smalley Action Group and Hilltop Action Group) , Leicestershire (Minorca Opencast Protest Group) and Walsall (Alumwell Action Group).
Contacting LAON
Steve Leary LAON’Ss Co-ordinator, at infoatlaon@yahoo.com
You can now follow LAON on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/Seftonchase
>> 21 Nov 2012 << London Protest >>
08-11-2012 21:55
http://www.demo2012.org.uk/
You lock up kids you get locked out
08-11-2012 17:32
On the night of the 7th November 2012, unknown activists superglued the locks of Barnardo's shop in Cardiff and left a message to protest against the cooperation of Barnardo s with Cedars detention who are not even refraining from locking up children in their detention center.The action was probably part of the action day against Barnardo s that was held today in different places all over UK.
Leicester - Smash Workfare Saturday!
08-11-2012 17:31
Leicester action against workfare, from 9.30 am, this Saturday 10th November. Claimants, workers, waged, unwaged... all welcome to get involved.