THE LAND Is the Northwest Hydropower Heaven? Why We Love Our Allotments
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ISSUE SEVENTEEN SUMMER 2008 PUBLISHED BY THE MERSEY BASIN CAMPAIGN WWW.MERSEYBASIN.ORG.UK SAVING RATTY In search of the humble water vole. BACK TO WEIR-ED AND WONDERFUL THE LAND Is the Northwest hydropower heaven? Why we love our allotments. www.merseybasin.org.uk Unilever Dragonfl y Awards 2008 Nomination Form Do you know an unsung Unilever & the Mersey Basin Campaign As well as the category winners, are looking for this year’s best the judges will select an overall hero who deserves a pat on environmental volunteers – groups and winner, who will receive a unique the back? Could your school individuals who’ve shown exceptional trophy and a cheque for £2500. or voluntary group use a commitment, worked with their Category winners will each receive cash prize to put towards community, and delivered an innovative a trophy and £1000 towards their or exciting project in their area. work. All nominees must be based an environmental project? in the Mersey or Ribble river areas. The judges have £6000 worth of prize money to hand out to help volunteers HOW TO ENTER fund new and ongoing projects that support the aims of the Mersey Basin We’ve tried to keep the nomination Campaign; improved water quality, process simple. Just use the boxes waterside regeneration and community below to tell us who you are, who you’d engagement. like to nominate, and why you think they should win an award. Feel free to add extra sheets if you need them, and to We’re looking for nominations send us photos, reports, press cuttings in three categories: or anything else you think will help the 1 Young people. judges to build up a picture of the work 2 Individual. that’s being done. 3 Group. NOMINATIONS PART ONE: About yourself PART TWO: About your nominee(s) If you would like to Name Name of the group or individual you’d like to nominate make a nomination please complete and return this form by Address 12th September 2008. Please return your Category you’re entering (please tick one) completed form to: Bev Mitchell, Community YOUNG INDIVIDUAL GROUP Support Coordinator, PEOPLE Mersey Basin Campaign, Fourways House, 57 Hilton Street, Finally, please use additional sheets to explain why you think they deserve an award. Manchester M1 2EJ. Telephone Send your sheet, along with this form to Bev Mitchel or email to: using the contact details to the left of these boxes. b.mitchell@ merseybasin.org.uk Email SourceNW is the magazine of the Mersey Basin Campaign. The campaign works towards better water quality and sustainable waterside regeneration for the rivers and waterways of England’s Northwest. www.merseybasin.org.uk The late great Tony Wilson and his partner Yvette Livesey once graced CONTENTS the cover of Features Regulars this magazine. They are the only celebrities I’ve ever managed to 12 BACK TO THE LAND 4 REGIONAL ROUND UP News, sound bites, people, places, facts & fi gures and feature in Source, and Wilson fi red Once about as trendy as a bale of twine, more from around the Northwest. Plus Love and Hate. off the most expletive fi lled email allotments are enjoying a remarkable I have ever received in my life resurgence. David Ward reports on the 10 CASE NOTES because of it. battle to save them from development How Tipkinder Park helped a budding Olympian He was right, too. We’d and meets the people who have fallen with her BMX dreams. reviewed a report he and Livesey under the allotment spell. had produced on the regeneration 11 HOW GREEN IS MY…SCHOOL? of East Lancashire, in which we 16 WEIR-ED AND WONDERFUL How a Cumbria school aced its eco-exams. were gently mocking of some The Northwest has huge untapped potential of their ideas. We had, however, for low carbon energy – by returning to its 20 SPOTLIGHT completely failed to talk to waterpowered roots. Jason Teasdale reports One of Britain’s leading environmentalists tells us either of them. And then put from New Mills. where the environmental movement is heading. them on the cover. Hence Tony’s typically forthright 22 SAVING RATTY 21 BUSINESS email. I kept it, of course, and am How rising global oil prices are creating opportunities One of Britain’s most threatened species now oddly proud of it. It taught me for one Northwest business. is enjoying a cautious recovery thanks to to take my editorial responsibilities dedicated protection. Jim Fair searches both far more seriously. 27 SHARP END town and country for the reclusive water vole. One of those ideas that raised Reject the glib green promises of ‘greenwash’, urges Steve Connor. a chuckle at the time was that the earthy allotment owners of towns like Blackburn and Burnley and Bolton might be encouraged to erect designer sheds on their plots. Regeneration by allotment beautifi cation seemed a truly novel concept. Almost inevitably, Wilson was right all along. Now, three years after their report, Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire, he and Livesey’s insight has proved visionary, and allotments are 12 16 22 enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Our original reporter Subscriptions: Fouzia Bhatti, 0161 242 8200 Website: www.merseybasin.org.uk revisits the theme in a wonderful [email protected] Design: Hemisphere, Manchester story starting on page 12. Contributors: Jo Birtwistle, Edwin Colyer, Jim Fair, Kate Fox, Print: Gyroscope, Manchester Mark Hillsdon, Ciara Leeming, Louise Tickle, David Ward. SourceNW is published quarterly by the Mersey Basin Campaign. Matthew Sutcliffe, editor Photography: Rebecca Lupton. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the [email protected] Address: Mersey Basin Campaign, Fourways House, publishers. Comments, letters and corrections are welcomed and should be 57 Hilton Street, Manchester M1 2EJ addressed to the editor. SourceNW is printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. SourceNW is sponsored by Mersey Basin Campaign corporate sponsors include REGIONAL ROUND-UP Kiss me quick How do Northwest beaches rank against the best in the country this summer? The organisation behind the world’s most prestigious “Now is the time for the English to rekindle This year’s guide shows a ten percent seaside awards says its time for holidaymakers their passion for traditional beach holidays in fall in the number of beaches around to fall back in love with our traditional English this country. “We are challenging people to the country reaching the highest resorts – despite not granting a single Blue Flag avoid overseas air travel and be kind to the water quality standards – the largest award to a Northwest beach. environment by holidaying at home.” drop in the guide’s 21-year history. Keep Britain Tidy, which runs the international Air travel is one of the fastest growing sources Thomas Bell, MCS coastal awards scheme in the UK, handed out a near-record of carbon emissions. pollution offi cer, said: “These latest 82 Blue Flags this summer, but none in the Northwest. The number awarded around the country has nearly Beaches at Southport, Ainsdale and Blackpool doubled in the last six years, but was three less have won Quality Beach Awards. than last year. Dickie Felton, media manager at Keep Britain results buck the long term trend “ Now is the time for the Tidy, added: “We’d love to see beaches like of cleaner bathing water but we’re Blackpool and Southport getting Blue Flags pinning the blame squarely on last English to rekindle their and there’s every chance they will do in the summer’s exceptionally bad weather. passion for traditional beach near future.” “Heavy rain sweeps pollutants According the Marine Conservation Society like raw sewage, street debris and holidays in this country.” (MCS), which produces the country’s other animal waste directly from the land beach bible, the Good Beach Guide, last year’s into rivers and the sea. Blue Flags are only given to beaches that are record breaking wet summer was to blame for The latest Good Beach Guide litter-free and have good access, top-notch facilities falling water quality. still manages to recommend 443 and clean seawater. beaches – more than double the However, three Northwest beaches, Blackpool number recommended in the 2000 South, Ainsdale and Southport, did win Quality Beach edition, suggesting that the £20 Awards. These are given to the best beaches in the billion invested by the water industry country that are well managed but may not reach has brought permanent benefi t to Blue Flag standards for water quality. Britain’s beaches. Keep Britain Tidy chief executive, Phil Barton, said: It also welcomes the completion “We keep being told that our love affair with the seaside by United Utilities of storm water has been on the rocks. But as far as we are concerned storage schemes at Southport, England’s beach resorts go from strength to strength. New Brighton and Preesall. SOUND BITES £125,000 design may be onto a winner. The company behind the eco-friendly rooms at the University of Lancaster. The timber framed fl ower, London-based Tonkin Liu, is best known for its award winning townhouses and fl ats were built using a low waste, energy effi cient Mellow yellow. A 12m high, Singing Ringing Tree panopticon overlooking Burnley. process, and the scheme includes rooftop solar thermal panels bright yellow fl ower sculpture to heat water. The wood used in the construction comes from topped with a 3m wide bloom Tipped over. An old dumping ground in St Helens is disappearing sustainably managed forests and the buildings are highly insulated. made of yellow Perspex petals beneath lush woodland as part of a £2.1 million regeneration Inside, a smart ventilation system supplies fresh air whilst also which gently fl utter and light scheme.