SOUTH BEDFORDSHIRE FRIENDS OF THE EARTH NEWSLETTER FOR MAY 2008

FUTURE EVENTS

3 May FoE Groups Regional Gathering in Cambridge (Victoria 01525 385097)

14 May Dunstable meeting on Travel Plan – The Victoria Pub, Dunstable at 8pm (Ruth 01582 758483)

16-18 May Power Up weekend residential training on planning and your legal rights (Victoria)

31 May Regional gathering of FoE Local Groups in London (Victoria)

3 June Local Food Group meeting at 6 Malvern drive Leighton Buzzard (Stella 01525 370833)

7 June Waste Day of Action (Victoria)

25 June Trip to Beaufort Court, Kings Langley (Alison 01582 662467)

8 July Monthly Meeting 7.30 for 8.00pm at the Crown, Leighton Buzzard (Chris 01525 382343)

12 July Houghton Regis Carnival

27 July Dunstable Kite Festival

Subscriptions are now due. £5.00 (or £3.00 for concessions). Please pay to the Treasurer, Ken Barry, 97 Bideford Green, Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 2TJ as soon as possible.

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND MONTHLY MEETING FOR LEIGHTON BUZZARD GROUP ON 21 APRIL 2008

Present: Victoria Harvey (Facilitator), Stella Goddard, Chris Stevenson, Peter Hatswell, Sylvia Lay Flurrie, Michael Taylor, Barry Metcalfe, Ali Hines, Alison Heywood, Ken Barry.

Apologies: Charles Ullermeyer, Roger Pepworth, Jane Brown

Celebration of the year 2007-2008 a. Stella outlined how we had successfully stopped Beds CC from trialling the switch-off of traffic lights in Leighton Buzzard. After much campaigning the Council had responded by adopting our suggestion to have a “shared space” scheme similar to Borehamwood. The Council will be consulting further in May/June. b. Alison spoke about the Luton & Dunstable Hospital Travel Plan she had helped to formulate. She had achieved good liaison with Sustrans officers and Pauline Roby, Luton’s Cycling Office. They have obtained 6 new cycle stands, had celebrated National Cycle Week with a free breakfast and had put in a bid for a new cycle shed. More cycle lanes have been put in around the hospital and a bike users’ group has been set up. Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth had been shown to staff and more recycling had been achieved. c. Ali reported on the Big Ask campaign which we appear to be winning, as Gordon Brown is now reviewing annual targets. Recent action has been aimed at getting shipping and aviation included, and a very successful Day of Action had been held in Dunstable where 70 postcards had been signed. Members had met up with Bedford and Luton FoEs and anti-airport campaigners for a photo shot at Luton Airport. This had attracted a great deal of publicity in local press and on Chiltern Radio. A Big Ask Europe campaign has now been launched for larger targets for the EU. There is a public meeting at Friends House in London tomorrow. d. Chris and Victoria reported on the considerable number of successful projects started by the Greening Group. These included cleaning up Clipstone Brook and planting 150 trees on the bank, constructing 2 otter holts and putting up bird boxes. The Friends of Linslade Woods has now been formally established as a separate organisation with officers and a constitution. A number of working parties have been held and there is a Spring Wildlife Walk in the woods on Saturday 26 April. The Greening Group had also had good press coverage of its planting activities throughout Leighton Buzzard. e. Victoria had set up an I Love LB Campaign which developed out of the campaign to save the markets. They are selling Fairtrade bags to promote shopping locally. f. The massive demonstration at Wing Hill Roundabout with a mass cycle ride had achieved good TV and press coverage. This together with lots of lobbying had led to the announcement last week that funding had been achieved for a cycle bridge. g. A successful leafleting campaign had helped to stop the original development proposed for the Millers Dairy site. h. Planning Day of Action – 100 postcards had been signed at the Houghton Regis Carnival. i. The bus consultation meeting had led to lots more money for buses and a better bus service for Sandhills. j. There had been an excellent display on climate change at Nature’s Harvest, and Paul Brown had successfully convinced Adam Fahn that climate change was a real threat. k. Funding of £1million for the exemplar site had been achieved in October for buses, cycle facilities and information screen in houses. l. Pete Jardine had designed an excellent display on trees for the All Saints Christmas Tree Festival. m. Due to a lot of hard work, Victoria had managed to raise £20,000 towards the cost of the Alternatives Report for the Wing Bypass. Some excellent ideas were put forward by a number of academics and the report was well received by the Commission for Integrated Transport. Unfortunately the public meeting at Wing Hall had been disrupted by a group of badly behaved locals. n. A separate FoE Group for Dunstable had been set up at a meeting held on 3 March. o. For the future Stella is working on a bus display for Leighton Buzzard High Street, we are aiming to get 150 new cycle stands for the town plus another 50 stands at the railway station. Peter has started a Green Corner on our website, and Sylvia is writing to local papers etc about improving local bus services.

Future of the Group A separate FoE group had been set up in Dunstable, but it was agreed that we would stay as a joint group at present and have separate meeting for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard and joint campaigns for issues affecting both areas. For the future it was suggested that that we have sub-group meetings with full meeting taking place every two months. Suggested groups were Local Food (led by Stella), Waste, National Issues, Traffic Lights, Big Green Challenge and Eastern LB. The date for the meeting of the Local Food Group was arranged for Tuesday 3 June at Stella’s house. Victoria will lead the Traffic Lights Group and a meeting will be arranged once a date has been set. A Waste Day of Action was agreed for Saturday 7 June. Ali agreed to lead the National Issues group and Victoria will lead the Big Green Challenge with help on research from Peter, Chris and Ali.

Voting for Officers Co-ordinator: Victoria proposed by Chris seconded by Alison Climate Change Co-ordinator: Peter proposed by Michael and seconded by Ali National Campaigns Co-ordinator: Ali proposed by Victoria and seconded by Chris Treasurer: Ken proposed by Peter and seconded by Victoria Secretary: Chris proposed by Barry and seconded by Ali Dunstable Membership Secretary: Ruth Harris-Small proposed by Victoria and seconded by Peter.

Three Important Dates 22 April 7.30pm Climate change meeting at Friends House, Euston Road, London With Hilary Benn (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Peter Ainsworth (Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Environment, Food and Rural Affair); contact Howard Whitehead 0207 566 4083

22 April 7.30pm Greening Group Meeting at the White House

25 June Trip to Beaufort Court, Kings Langley

It was reluctantly decided that we could not go ahead with our stall at the May Fayre. A lot of our members are involved with other stalls and there had not been time to devise a game.

Other Dates 3 May FoE Regional gathering in Cambridge Power Up 16-18 May (Victoria has details) 31 May FoE Regional gathering in London 8 July Leighton Buzzard Members Meeting at the Crown 12 July Houghton Regis Carnival Paul Brown is speaking on Global Warming at a meeting of the Leighton Buzzard Society at 7.30 on 24 April at the Gables Hall, Wing Road, Linslade. Cycle Forum/FoE Day of Action is on 27 April.

Eastern Leighton Buzzard, Green Energy and the Big Green Challenge A serious discussion was held but no firm details were decided.

Other Business Roger has met with representatives of the County Council concerning the future of the Paddocks, Dunstable. They informed him that they want to develop it into an “ecological worthwhile site”.

CONTACTS Officers Co-ordinator: VICTORIA HARVEY, 41 Corbet Ride, Leighton Buzzard LU7 2SJ 01525-385097 [email protected] Treasurer: KEN BARRY, 97 Bideford Green, Leighton Buzzard LU7 2TJ 01525-372036 [email protected] Climate Change Co-ordinator PETER HATSWELL, 86 Half Moon Lane, Dunstable LU5 4AD 01582 663915 [email protected] Secretary: CHRIS STEVENSON tel 01525 382343 [email protected] Publicity Officer: ANDY GAYLER [email protected] Dunstable contact RUTH HARRIS SMALL, [email protected] Tel 01582 758 483

South Beds FOE Website: www.southbedsfoe.org.uk