On Thursday (19th June) the government announced a scheme investing £100m into 12 chosen "Cycling Towns/Cities" to improve cycling infrastructure and facilities in those urban areas. But it appears that the money is going to places that already have good cycling infrastructure (like Cambridge)! Friday's EDP newspaper was very critical of Norfolk County Council for failing to even bid for a share of this funding, despite both Norwich and Yarmouth being qualified and Kings Lynn expressing an intrest, because "funds would have to be taken from other transport budgets to match any funding award made" (quoting EDP article).
Rupert Read (Green Party Transport spokesman) says in the EDP that "its about time we took the initiative on getting the key improvements made to road junctions. The more people we can encourage on to their bikes, the less congested the road network will be - and the more people will be saving money, by travelling in a way that is immune to fuel price increases."
SO WHAT IS Norfolk County Council playing at??? We need serious investment into forms of transport (like cycling) that do not depend on damaging and dwindling fossil fuels like oil. Dereham is wofully lacking in cycling infrastructure like cycle lanes/paths, cyclist priority at junctions, and good sheltered cycle racks around the town.
I regularly cycle to the City College learning Station at Trafalgar Business Park, Rashes Green. But there are no proper bike racks there at all! So I have to lock my bike to some rather exposed railings. Service providers (like the Learning Station), employers, and particularly planners at Breckland must do far more to ensure that the infrastructure is there to facilitate cycling. And if there is money out there that the County Council can go for to help fund this then they really MUST GO FOR IT!
The County Council (and others) must get their act together and start investing into our carbon-free transport future, rather than linguring in our dying, oil-adicted transport past! Lets see safe dedicated cycle routes being developed to link Dereham town centre to all the surounding housing areas and on out to all the surounding villages.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been swanning around in Jeddah over the weekend trying to talk Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries into giving us back some of the trillions of dollars that we're spending, buying their oil. But Gordon wants them to invest all that money that they're making out of us due to soaring oil prices, back into the UK by financing new nuclear power stations! IDIOT! Nuclear is clearly NOT the solution!
Frankly we would much sooner solve these problems if we were to stop pouring our money away to Saudi's in the first place by not buying their oil! Then we would instead have that money ourselves, to invest into finding zero-carbon solutions, reducing our energy use and rebuilding more resillent and re-localised economies.
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Thursday 19 June 2008
Response in the Dereham Times
In reply to my last letter (5th June), today's Dereham Times carries a letter by Rupert Read, a Norwich City Councillor and the Green Party's lead candidate for the Eastern Region in the 2009 European elections, in which he says that "the Green way is ever-increasingly the affordable way". I wholly agree with Rupert's letter and I'm e-mailing him to invite him to view this blog.
Rupert has a blog at http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/
and the Norwich Green Party website is at www.norwichgreenparty.org/
Rupert has a blog at http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/
and the Norwich Green Party website is at www.norwichgreenparty.org/
Current fuel prices; Record 2
4 weeks after my first fuel price record (Mon, 19th May) I have been round Dereham's petrol stations again on the afternoon of Monday 16th June and here's what I found;
Morrisons supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 117.9p (up 6 pence or 5.36%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 8 pence or 6.51%*)
BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, Dereham
Unleaded; 117.9p (up 4p or 3.51%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 6p or 4.8%*)
Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 118.9p (up 5p or 4.39%*)
Diesel; 131.9p (up 6p or 4.76%*)
* increase from Mon, 19th May (4 weeks/28 days ago)
Morrisons supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 117.9p (up 6 pence or 5.36%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 8 pence or 6.51%*)
BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, DerehamUnleaded; 117.9p (up 4p or 3.51%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 6p or 4.8%*)
Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 118.9p (up 5p or 4.39%*)
Diesel; 131.9p (up 6p or 4.76%*)
* increase from Mon, 19th May (4 weeks/28 days ago)
Monday 16 June 2008
Shopping locally
Saturday's Eastern Daily Press (14th June 2008) has the right message. Its front-page headline says "WE'RE STILL GOING LOCAL; Consumers say it's more economical".
Highlighting their own "Shop Here" campaign, supporting locally owned independent shops, the EDP cites its own new survey which says that "consumers still back their local shops - and say it is actually more economical to shop locally, cut back on trips to out-of-town supermarkets and conserve their own fuel." The article includes comments from a number of local Norfolk producers who all appear to be reporting growing demand for their produce despite having to increase their prices to pass on some of their rising fuel costs to their customers.
The EDP article by Kathryn Cross also reports that "Russian oil giant Gazprom predicts that the price per barrel [of oil] could hit $250 before 2009 is over, which would catapult the cost of a
litre of unleaded petrol to an incredible 230p and push energy prices sky-high." I'm not at all surprised at these figures! But it should make everyone think; how will we cope IF in a year from now fuel prices are nearly twice what they are today (on Saturday 14th at both Morrisons and BP prices are 117.9p for unleaded and 130.9p for diesel)?
Will we all half our car use? Will we be wasting less good food and buying less heavily processed (energy intensive) food in less excessive, oil based and environmentally damaging packaging? Will we all be growing more of our own food in our own back gardens or in a vast number of new allotment plots that the council is going to have to provide for us somewhere (probably instead of the possible 3500 houses that the Breckland LDF has identified space for around Dereham)?
We WILL ALL have to change our ways to adapt to the soaring cost of energy. Is it not far better to start planning for these things now and begin to implement the changes we need to make, rather than wait until crisis forces us to react? And if we wait for the crisis the resources and options we have to deal with the issues will be severely limited.
With the Shell tanker drivers strike this last weekend and the threat of another 4 day stoppage this next weekend, coupled with increasing road haulier demos against high taxes, I suspect that it may not be long before we get at least a short taste of what life after oil will look like unless we do something about it!
The EDP's Shop Here listing is here
The EDP article mentioned above can be read on their website here
The EDP website www.edp24.co.uk
Highlighting their own "Shop Here" campaign, supporting locally owned independent shops, the EDP cites its own new survey which says that "consumers still back their local shops - and say it is actually more economical to shop locally, cut back on trips to out-of-town supermarkets and conserve their own fuel." The article includes comments from a number of local Norfolk producers who all appear to be reporting growing demand for their produce despite having to increase their prices to pass on some of their rising fuel costs to their customers.
The EDP article by Kathryn Cross also reports that "Russian oil giant Gazprom predicts that the price per barrel [of oil] could hit $250 before 2009 is over, which would catapult the cost of a
litre of unleaded petrol to an incredible 230p and push energy prices sky-high." I'm not at all surprised at these figures! But it should make everyone think; how will we cope IF in a year from now fuel prices are nearly twice what they are today (on Saturday 14th at both Morrisons and BP prices are 117.9p for unleaded and 130.9p for diesel)?Will we all half our car use? Will we be wasting less good food and buying less heavily processed (energy intensive) food in less excessive, oil based and environmentally damaging packaging? Will we all be growing more of our own food in our own back gardens or in a vast number of new allotment plots that the council is going to have to provide for us somewhere (probably instead of the possible 3500 houses that the Breckland LDF has identified space for around Dereham)?
We WILL ALL have to change our ways to adapt to the soaring cost of energy. Is it not far better to start planning for these things now and begin to implement the changes we need to make, rather than wait until crisis forces us to react? And if we wait for the crisis the resources and options we have to deal with the issues will be severely limited.
With the Shell tanker drivers strike this last weekend and the threat of another 4 day stoppage this next weekend, coupled with increasing road haulier demos against high taxes, I suspect that it may not be long before we get at least a short taste of what life after oil will look like unless we do something about it!
The EDP's Shop Here listing is here
The EDP article mentioned above can be read on their website here
The EDP website www.edp24.co.uk
Thursday 5 June 2008
Letter in today's Dereham Times
Today (Thurs 5th June 2008) I have a letter printed in the Dereham Times in reply (in large part) to the comments made by Mr David Milburn of North Elmham in a letter in last week's Times. The Times has not printed my letter in full and I'm particularly disappointed that they have missed off my last paragraph which gave details of this blog. How will everyone find this blog to continue the debate if the Times refuses to publish the details of the blog address?
Below is my letter to the Dereham Times in full. The Times has titled my letter "Attitudes to oil use must alter" (which I'm much happier with than the title they gave to my previous letter!). The parts in italics are what the Times has printed;
In reply to David Milburn (letters, May 29), I wish to stress that my previous letter (May 22) NEVER said "We can live without cars"! That was a headline invented by the Times' editor which I believe misrepresented what I had to say! I fully accept that some people would find things very difficult without cars, especially considering our government's failure to ensure that we have access to high quality public transport.
The fact remains that soaring global demand for oil at a time when "cheap oil has gone forever" (Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Shell) and production is set to begin a terminal decline will continue to drive fuel prices ever higher. A cut in UK fuel tax may provide some temporary respite for drivers. But it would likely have to be offset by other tax rises (say income tax!) and it would send quite the wrong message - that we can all continue to consume oil as usual (which we can't)! Mr Milburn suggests that that fuel taxes should be reduced to the point where "... few people would be worried about the cost of filling their tank..." This view is frankly shocking! We should all be "worried", not least by the environmental costs of burning so much fossil fuel.
So you see Mr Milburn, I am quite firmly on planet Earth!
Our economic and social structures over the last 60 years have been built on the liberal use of energy from relatively cheap and apparently limitless supplies of fossil fuels. But we must now realise that we have hit the finite limits of these resources and our attitudes must change! We will have to make big reductions in our energy use and switch to sustainable alternative energy sources like wind and micro hydro-electric. The use of oil for transport is the greatest and most challenging part of this transition due to its pervasiveness, our high dependency on motorised transport, and a lack of ready alternatives to oil based fuel!
Think back to the last fuel price protest blockades, and how shops were empty and much of the country ground to a halt within a few days without oil! Now imaging what happens to us when global conditions severely restrict the amount of fuel available to the UK! If we are to prevent this from causing severe crisis then we must start building resilient communities that are far less dependent on the consumption of oil to get along. We need better local services, reversing the closures of village schools and post offices. We need to create local jobs so that people don't have to commute large distances, and we need to promote the local consumption of local produce and products that haven't been transported vast distances (with the escalating fuel costs that that transportation entails).
We have a choice;
EITHER we plan for higher oil prices and reduced availability, taking steps to reduce our high dependence on oil (and through this we can also improve our genuine quality of life as we go),
OR we can ignore the warning signs and wait until severe crisis hits and forces us to react, by which time we will have lost the chance to do many positive things and be prepared!
I've created a blog to encourage further local discussion about these issues at; http://transitiondereham.blogspot.com. I believe that the focus on UK fuel taxes is an unnecessary distraction from the far more serious global issues around Peak Oil and its impacts, along with Climate Change, which require us all to make very big cuts in our use of fossil fuels.
Matt Walker
Below is my letter to the Dereham Times in full. The Times has titled my letter "Attitudes to oil use must alter" (which I'm much happier with than the title they gave to my previous letter!). The parts in italics are what the Times has printed;
In reply to David Milburn (letters, May 29), I wish to stress that my previous letter (May 22) NEVER said "We can live without cars"! That was a headline invented by the Times' editor which I believe misrepresented what I had to say! I fully accept that some people would find things very difficult without cars, especially considering our government's failure to ensure that we have access to high quality public transport.
The fact remains that soaring global demand for oil at a time when "cheap oil has gone forever" (Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Shell) and production is set to begin a terminal decline will continue to drive fuel prices ever higher. A cut in UK fuel tax may provide some temporary respite for drivers. But it would likely have to be offset by other tax rises (say income tax!) and it would send quite the wrong message - that we can all continue to consume oil as usual (which we can't)! Mr Milburn suggests that that fuel taxes should be reduced to the point where "... few people would be worried about the cost of filling their tank..." This view is frankly shocking! We should all be "worried", not least by the environmental costs of burning so much fossil fuel.
So you see Mr Milburn, I am quite firmly on planet Earth!
Our economic and social structures over the last 60 years have been built on the liberal use of energy from relatively cheap and apparently limitless supplies of fossil fuels. But we must now realise that we have hit the finite limits of these resources and our attitudes must change! We will have to make big reductions in our energy use and switch to sustainable alternative energy sources like wind and micro hydro-electric. The use of oil for transport is the greatest and most challenging part of this transition due to its pervasiveness, our high dependency on motorised transport, and a lack of ready alternatives to oil based fuel!
Think back to the last fuel price protest blockades, and how shops were empty and much of the country ground to a halt within a few days without oil! Now imaging what happens to us when global conditions severely restrict the amount of fuel available to the UK! If we are to prevent this from causing severe crisis then we must start building resilient communities that are far less dependent on the consumption of oil to get along. We need better local services, reversing the closures of village schools and post offices. We need to create local jobs so that people don't have to commute large distances, and we need to promote the local consumption of local produce and products that haven't been transported vast distances (with the escalating fuel costs that that transportation entails).
We have a choice;
EITHER we plan for higher oil prices and reduced availability, taking steps to reduce our high dependence on oil (and through this we can also improve our genuine quality of life as we go),
OR we can ignore the warning signs and wait until severe crisis hits and forces us to react, by which time we will have lost the chance to do many positive things and be prepared!
I've created a blog to encourage further local discussion about these issues at; http://transitiondereham.blogspot.com. I believe that the focus on UK fuel taxes is an unnecessary distraction from the far more serious global issues around Peak Oil and its impacts, along with Climate Change, which require us all to make very big cuts in our use of fossil fuels.
Matt Walker
Wednesday 4 June 2008
10 Downing Street petition against fuel tax cuts
In reaction to a Facebook group that I came across yesterday promoting a petition on the 10 Downing Street website that calls for fuel tax cuts, I have created a petition calling on the Prime Minister to resist these calls of road hauliers (and others) over fuel taxes, and to maintain the current policies of high taxes to help deter unnecessary use of private vehicles and excessive transportation of goods.
I believe that any tax cut at this time would send quite the wrong message – that we can go on consuming oil as usual! We can’t. In light of Peak Oil we need radical action to reduce our dependence on oil. High fuel taxes are one of the measures we need to help deter unnecessary use of fuel.
Please sign this petition at;
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/maintainfueltax/
I believe that any tax cut at this time would send quite the wrong message – that we can go on consuming oil as usual! We can’t. In light of Peak Oil we need radical action to reduce our dependence on oil. High fuel taxes are one of the measures we need to help deter unnecessary use of fuel.
Please sign this petition at;
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/maintainfueltax/
Monday 2 June 2008
Responses in the Dereham Times
Just to note that in this week's Dereham Times (Thursday 29th May) there was one letter in response to my letter the previous week. David Milburn of North Elmham majored on fuel taxes, saying that they should come down, and in response to my comments on fuel taxes asks "which planet [am I] living on?" Well I'm quite firmly on planet Earth thank you very much!
Mr Milburn also fails to differentiate between my letter and the exaggerated title given to it by the Dereham Times' editor! I have drafted a reply to Mr Milburn to send to the Times.
Mr Milburn also fails to differentiate between my letter and the exaggerated title given to it by the Dereham Times' editor! I have drafted a reply to Mr Milburn to send to the Times.
Good on-line videos about Peak Oil and Transition Towns
I would like to recommend that people take a look at the following two on-line videos;
"The Video - More Peak Oil"
on Darren Workman's Blog; Green Desires and Intentions. A very good 13 minute film explaining what Peak Oil is, featuring Geologist and author Dr Jeremy Leggett.
and;
Rob Hopkins - founder of the Transition movement, talking about his new book "The Transition Handbook" (5 minutes: 46)
see Green Books or YouTube
Enjoy.
"The Video - More Peak Oil"
on Darren Workman's Blog; Green Desires and Intentions. A very good 13 minute film explaining what Peak Oil is, featuring Geologist and author Dr Jeremy Leggett.
and;
Rob Hopkins - founder of the Transition movement, talking about his new book "The Transition Handbook" (5 minutes: 46)
see Green Books or YouTube
Enjoy.
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