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. The Forestry Commission poured 11,000 tonnes of earth recovering heat. Paints, coatings and preservatives have been kept up in the wind, is being erected onto the Brickfi elds site, readying it to be planted with mature trees. to a minimum or replaced with low toxic alternatives. on the banks of the River Mersey Small hills have been created, with leisure trails, wildfl ower meadows in Widnes. Different petals will and wetland habitats to follow. Residents’ groups are busy creating Flying black. A pair of ravens have returned to breed at a illuminate depending on the designs for four entrances. St Helens council is hoping the project Northwest oil refi nery for the fi fth consecutive year. Shell’s vast direction of the breeze, producing will improve the town’s image and so help secure economic Stanlow refi nery on the Mersey Estuary may not seem an obvious an “ever-changing and dynamic” investment. Funding was provided by the Northwest Regional wildlife haven, but in fact the site encompasses large areas of display, say the artwork’s creators. Development Agency and the Forestry Commission through the semi-wild land where nature fl ourishes undisturbed. Otters and As odd as the Future Flower may Newlands scheme. www.forestry.gov.uk/newlands longhorn cattle have also called the site home in recent years. sound, the regeneration bosses Stanlow’s wildlife consultant Malcolm Ingham, a wildlife offi cer with who launched a six-month The young ones. Not all students are living in rundown rental Wirral Borough Council, said: “This is fantastic news for the species. international search for the properties – 323 of the luckier ones recently moved into new Ravens are rare around the Wirral area, even scarcer than the

4 REGIONAL ROUND-UP State of the environment Snapshot of region’s environment reveals more good news than bad.

The Northwest’s environment is on the mend but faces challenges in UPS & every fi eld, says a new report from DOWNS the Environment Agency. AIR LAND BUSINESS Climate change is Over 80% of new homes The number of pollution being factored into Air and water quality are Industrial air pollution is substantially reduced built in the Northwest in incidents has halved policy decisions at the improving, wildlife is returning, and incidents of 2007 were on brownfi eld since 2002. regional level and the land, and the trend Northwest has a climate recycling is on the up, pollution has serious air pollution Many businesses are signifi cantly fewer should continue. change action plan. been cut and the rise in waste sent still do more little than in the past. Farmers are adopting more than meet their More renewable to landfi ll sites has slowed. energy is being installed, More cars, air travel Environmental minimum environmental But half a million people are and half a million new Stewardship schemes. requirements, meaning with more planned small businesses for the future. vulnerable to fl ooding, carbon homes will put pressure The Northwest still on air quality. has more derelict land often miss out on Greenhouse gas emissions are creeping up and water than any other region, opportunities to improve emissions from the WATER meters must be used more widely to along with many sites their resource effi ciency. region’s heavy industrial Water quality across sites have begun to encourage people to use less water. contaminated by WASTE the whole Northwest industry. creep back up. The Environment Agency’s continues to improve, Kerbside collections More cars, houses, with the clean up of the WILDLIFE have spurred a regional director, Tony Dean, said: fl ights and electrical Mersey a particular signifi cant increase Birds are fl ourishing equipment will lead “The State of the Environment success. in recycling. on the expanded salt to higher carbon report helps us to take stock of Most bathing waters marshes of the River Growth in waste sent emissions. the progress we’re making with our now meet minimum Ribble, an internationally to landfi ll sites has EU standards. important habitat. stabilised and less FLOODING partners towards improving the biodegradable waste Growth in the number of Otters are returning to Spending on fl ood is going to landfi ll. Northwest environment, but we’re homes will add to pollution. the region’s waterways. protection rose to More waste per person £54 million last year also working hard to prepare the Water quality in many Salmon are returning to is generated in the and will rise over the region for the impacts of climate rivers remains challenging, the River Mersey in ever Northwest than any next three years. especially in urban areas. increasing numbers. change.” other region, and All local authorities Stocks of eels and Nutrients washed off commercial waste now have strategic He added: “We want to freshwater pearls farmland continue is on the rise. fl ood risk policies. make sure the region’s growth is to upset the natural are declining. Drainage must be sustainable and delivered in such a balance of many Invasive species such CLIMATE CHANGE improved – the trend watercourses. as Signal crayfi sh Greenhouse gas way that the homes and businesses for paving over gardens threaten to decimate emissions from large of the future are fully equipped to Tighter standards increases fl ood risks. demanded by the native species. industrial sites have adapt to the inevitable impacts of EU Water Framework been decreasing since 1998. our changing climate.” Directive will be challenging to meet.

peregrine falcon, which has also bred 20 years, but an extra terrestrial visitor would be stretching describes it as a return to the original principles at the heart of what a at Stanlow in recent years.” the point. Unless they just really like the Beatles. Mosque should be. “The idea is inspired by the fi rst mosque in Islam, built by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina as the hub for a thriving, socially The truth is in there. Does an alien Light bulb moment. Kudos goes to the Northwest’s conscious community,” says Zahid Hussain, chief operating offi cer of spaceship lie undiscovered within the murky economic regeneration body, the Northwest Regional Regenesis². Like the Prophet’s mosque, EcoMosque emphasises self- depths of the River Mersey? The Ministry of Development Agency, for showing very visible leadership reliance and social enterprise while adding the new goal of sustainability. Defence has made public documents on environmental issues. And it has its own leadership detailing hundreds of alleged sightings of to thank. According to a press release it was none other Renewable assets. Cumbria’s woodlands, mountains, waterfalls, UFOs between 1978 and 1987. Among them than the agency’s chief executive, Steven Broomhead, rivers and lakes are a treasure trove of renewable energy sources and is a letter from a man who, having been whose idea it was to help power the Warrington head it’s time to reap the benefi ts of the county’s unique topography. That visited by aliens since the age of seven, offi ce using sustainable energy. Hence the 25m high was the urgent message from campaigning group Cumbria Green claims to have witnessed a UFO being shot wind turbine now feeding power directly into the building, Business Forum (CGBF) at a public meeting earlier this summer. The down over the River Mersey. Eventually, his saving nearly 10 tonnes of CO2 per year. group’s chair, former BBC environment journalist John Barwise, said: alien friend Algar agreed to meet government “Rising fuel bills and energy prices are beginning to bite but most of representatives, but was unfortunately slain EcoMosque. Britain’s fi rst EcoMosque will be built us still don’t know much about renewable energy or which systems by another alien race at the 11th hour. next to the University of Salford, on the banks of the River work best. Wind power, solar power, mini-hydro schemes and heat Admittedly, life has been steadily returning Irwell. EcoMosque is being developed by Regenesis², pumps are already being used across Cumbria, helping to cut fuel to the once grossly polluted river for over a Muslim social enterprise based in Manchester, which bills and reduce the effects of climate change.”

5 REGIONAL ROUND-UP Green award for industrialist

no other business leader has achieved more in mainstreaming the environment as a massive opportunity for business.” Dwek has been an infl uential chair of several regional environmental organisations, including Envirolink Northwest, ENWORKS and the Mersey Basin Campaign. He is a member of the board of the Northwest Regional Development Agency and leads its environment sub-committee. Todd Holden, director of ENWORKS, said: “Joe energetically stimulates and provokes debate, Admired industrialist and entrepreneur new thinking and – most important Joe Dwek has been crowned the Northwest’s of all – action. most inspirational business leader on “He continues to be a environmental issues. powerful advocate of the green Dwek took this year’s Environmental industrial revolution in the Leadership category of the Northwest interest of the Northwest region, Business Environment Awards. its environment, its businesses Walter Menzies, chief executive of the and its people.” Mersey Basin Campaign, which hosts the Other winners at the awards awards, said: “Joe Dwek is a force to be included Axion Recycling, Biwater reckoned with as a champion of Northwest Treatment, Senator International, The magic business and the environment. Southwaite Green eco-holiday “Through his advice to central government cottages and the Westmorland number and his many regional leadership roles Gazette.

Manchester based Co-operative Financial Services is the UK’s third greenest company, according to a survey by The Times. Water wheels Landing the number three slot is quite an achievement for a company with nearly 10,000 Manchester’s Metrolink has become the employees in over 140 offi ces around the country – fi rst tram system in the UK to be powered staff gave the company a score of 91 per cent for by hydro-electricity. its eco-activities. The trams produce no carbon emissions Two years ago the company completed the at ground level and Metrolink says the new transformation of the 120m, 25-storey landmark energy supply will make them even more Co-operative Insurance Solar Tower in Manchester environmentally friendly. with the installation of more than 7,000 photovoltaic A deal has been signed with Scottish panels, Britain’s largest solar power installation. and Southern Energy to supply the power. Last year it put 19 micro-wind turbines on the Philip Purdy, Metrolink director, said: “About roof of its 13-storey Portland Street building in a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions come the same city. from transport, and we want to do our bit The bank also offers a credit card that gives to reduce them. The new lines will cover almost consumers a lower rate of interest for designated “Anyone who travels on Metrolink instead 20 miles and should increase the ethical purchases and, the fi rst time they use it, of using their car is already helping to fi ght number of trips passengers make the Co-op pledges to buy and protect half an acre climate change as trams are nearly four times each day from 55,000 to more than of Brazilian rainforest in the customer’s name. better for the environment.” 90,000, helping tackle both carbon Metrolink is also launching a ‘big bang’ emissions and road congestion. expansion programme that will see it almost The project is being funded by double in size following government approval councils in Greater Manchester and of £575 million worth of funding. the Department for Transport.

6 AGENDA

July 28–29 Northern Urban Regeneration Exhibition and Conference Over 40 industry leaders lend their expertise, share their knowledge and bring lively debate to the proceedings as part of this inaugural two-day event examining the regeneration challenges facing Northern towns and cities. Venue: Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre More information: 01323 472467 www.nurec2008.com

September 6–11 BA Festival of Science Europe’s biggest celebration of science, engineering and technology this year visits Liverpool, promising talks, plays, debates, hands-on activities and more. Find out about the science of superheroes, which Beatles memory is most magical and what happens when science and culture collide. Hundreds of top Battling the bottle scientists reveal the latest developments in research. Venue: Various in Liverpool Responding to the rising environmental impact of bottled water, Northwest More information: Joanne Coleman 020 7019 4936 water supplier United Utilities has launched its Tap into Water campaign, hoping to persuade people to drink tap water instead. According to the campaign: September 17–19 Impacts of Pollution in a Changing Urban Environment • Bottled water creates around • Bottled water is 500 times more Conference looking at the need for integrated frameworks, policies, 1.5 million tonnes of plastic expensive than tap water – the Consumer methodologies, tools and solutions for sustainable management waste each year that can Council for Water says an adult drinking of pollution in changing urban environments. take up to 1,000 years to the recommended eight glasses a day Venue: University of Manchester biodegrade. would pay £1 a year from the tap compared More information: www.pureconference.org.uk to £500 for a mid-range bottled water. • Water is heavy and transporting it creates more • The Northwest boasts some of the October 3–12 MWH Mersey Basin Week than 33,500 tonnes of highest quality tap water anywhere in the Over 300 environmental projects, activities and events taking C02 emissions per year – world. Over 500,000 water samples are place throughout the Northwest. Ranging from guided walks and equivalent to the annual energy analysed each year – more than 99.9% of children’s activities to clean ups and woodland management. consumption of 6,000 homes. tests at customers’ taps meet stringent Small grants are available for local groups wanting to organise national and European standards. • The rising popularity of bottled their own events. water means around three • There are no proven health benefi ts of Venue: Various billion bottles are now bought bottled water over tap, although the More information: Bev Mitchell 0161 242 8212 annually in the UK. health benefi ts of keeping well hydrated www.merseybasin.org.uk are well understood. • Blind taste tests show that most people can’t tell the difference • Between 2000 and 2006 United Utilities October (TBC) Northwest Tidal Energy Conference between bottled water and tap. invested £700 million in improving One day conference examining the signifi cant untapped potential drinking water quality. for tidal renewable energy in the Northwest, and marking the launch of the Northwest Tidal Energy Group. Featuring presentations on the region’s leading tidal energy proposals, Winds of change to reveal a more complex pattern of heat including the Mersey Estuary, Solway Firth and Morecambe Bay. exchange between ocean and atmosphere Venue: TBC Natural variability in the Earth’s than initially expected. More information: Iain Taylor 0161 629 8366 atmosphere could be masking the Professor Ric Williams explained: overall effect of climate change, “We found that changes in the heat stored November 3–5 WaterfrontExpo say scientists from the University in the North Atlantic corresponded to changes The only platform for professionals involved in waterfront design, of Liverpool. in natural and cyclical winds above it. regeneration, development, construction and management to Researchers studying oceans “These local changes in heat storage meet, analyse and share current thinking and best practice on around the globe have previously are typically ten times larger than any global the wide range of issues confronting this specialised area. found that surface temperatures warming trend. We now need to look at why Venue: Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre have risen over the last 30 years changes are occurring in wind circulation, More information: www.waterfrontexpo.com in accord with global warming. as this in itself could be linked to global But new research focusing on warming effects.” the North Atlantic suggests that Although natural variability appears natural changes in the atmosphere to be masking global warming in the ocean, also play a role. scientists still believe that climate change Working with scientists in the is occurring, pointing to signs such as rising US, the Liverpool team analysed 50 surface and atmospheric temperatures, years of North Atlantic temperature reduced summer sea ice in the Arctic and records and used computer models melting glaciers. 7 BAZAAR

Why I love… my Blondie t-shirt. Why I hate… air conditioning. By Rachel Edwards, student By John Walker, partner at and club promoter. architects Walker Simpson.

There’s fabulous talent on the Manchester Climate change makes keeping cool more style scene, so together with my friend and more of a problem. When humans lived Harriet, I decided to start up a fashion club on the savannah, we’d go and sit under a night called Strut to showcase some of the tree to cool off. Caves are good too – the most creative labels and boutiques. thermal mass of the rock provides a stable That was popular, but you’re always environment that regulates air temperature, trying to think of something new to keep the which is one reason why caves have been punters coming. We had heard about ‘swishing’ parties that were used as shelters for thousands of years. Water works in much starting up in London, where, instead of always buying new stuff to the same way, gaining and losing heat relatively slowly, and cooling wear, people bring items of clothing to a party to swap. One London the air fl owing across it. club night called Swaparama Razamataz even has people literally Get to the 20th century however, and it was all about the taking their kit off, a piece at a time, and then – hopefully – fi nd white heat of technology and solving problems by mechanical something to replace it! Obviously there’s a recycling element to it, means. The diffi culty is that conditioning air with machines, as well as it being a fun night out where you get to go home with as we do now, uses lots of energy, which releases CO2. a new outfi t for free. What we’re looking to do now in designing buildings for the We decided to call our club night Swap Shop. We didn’t want 21st century is to replicate the cave system, the tree-shade to go quite as far as getting people to strip off – the idea was to system and the air-over-water system of cooling. That’s achieved bring a bag and take home a bag. We didn’t make the eco thing by a combination of methods: one is by designing in plenty of the main focus because we thought that might feel off-putting to thermal mass. This has traditionally been done by using big slabs our target audience. Instead, we advertised on the basis of great of rock or concrete in buildings, which works well but has its own bands and DJs and angled it as a brilliant night out where you problems: making cement is very energy hungry. But work is now might just pick up a really quirky, interesting piece of clothing being done on using friendlier aggregates in concrete, unfi red as well as getting rid of all that stuff you never wear cluttering clay bricks and ‘rammed earth’. up your wardrobe. You can also put small windows on the south facing sides We got far more people than we’d expected: 170 turned up of buildings and create shady courtyards. Then you build so as one night. Some brought suitcases and black bin liners full to to encourage the air to run across the cool courtyard, with maybe the brim. When midnight came, we poured all the bags onto the a small water feature in the middle – that creates a passive airfl ow fl oor and people just went nuts, with guys trying on girls’ stuff and system that cools and conditions the air without the need for everyone leaving dressed in something different to when they’d any machinery. arrived. My best swap was a really cool Blondie t-shirt. We need to stay cool without burning up the planet; revisiting www.myspace.com/strutmanchester and re-using the knowledge we’ve had for millennia, combined with generating energy using zero carbon sources, is a positive way forward.

One third 222 15,000 Amount of UK small businesses that Number of UK windfarms still at the Number of lorry journeys that could think – incorrectly – that the regulations planning stage, enough to produce 9,200 be taken off the road each year by of the Waste Electrical and Electronic MW of electricity. Gordon Brown has switching freight to the Manchester Ship Equipment Directive don’t apply to pledged to speed up the planning process. Canal, according to Seaborn Container them, according to research by the Line, thus reducing carbon emissions Environment Agency. £14 million and road congestion. Amount of business the Manchester 429 based Co-op Bank turned away in 2007 2 Number of Sites of Special Scientifi c because of its ethical policy on not The number of Demoiselle Crane chicks Interest in the Northwest. dealing with oppressive regimes, makers that hatched at Martin Mere wildfowl of military hardware and the like. and wetland reserve in Lancashire this summer, the fi rst time the centre has successfully bred the species. WORDS + NUMBERS

8 BAZAAR

Talking of...Britain’s rarest bird

I give up, what is Britain’s particular taste for tender young grouse. three harrier nests weree rarest bird? That dubious The same grouse that landowners pay a found on the moor – distinction is most probably held small fortune to ensure are well stocked on this year there were fi vee by the hen harrier, only 15 breeding their shooting estates. Which is where the nests with 38 eggs. One of the nests starred in a pairs of which are known to gamekeepers come in. webcast, with the chicks hatching live on camera in May. remain in England. Even that’s an improvement compared to 1900, Just doing their jobs, eh? Exactly so, but that My heart is soaring, but why Lancashire? As well when it clung on in just a few doesn’t satisfy the conservationists. The RSPB as being one of Britain’s loveliest upland landscapes, remote Scottish islands. claims hen harriers are the most persecuted huge swathes are in the hands of unusually birds in Britain. enlightened landowners, including the Queen… Who could harm such magnifi cent creatures? Surprisingly enough, My heart is sinking, is there any good God bless you, ma’am! …and those lovely people gamekeepers. It seems the hen news? Funny you should ask. Helped by at United Utilities and Natural England. The last two, harrier is most magnifi cent as Natural England and others, bird lovers and along with the RSPB and Lancashire County Council, a hunting machine, with a fi ve gamekeepers have brokered a truce in the are co-operating on the Hen Harrier Recovery Project. foot wing span and talons strong bird’s one stronghold in England – Bowland United Utilities in particular has some truly innovative enough to lift a small lamb. moor in Lancashire. It’s hoped that by land restoration projects underway on the moor. Unfortunately, it has an equally nurturing the birds here, they can begin to So here at least, the hen harrier’s prospects are magnifi cent appetite, with a spread out to the rest of the country. Last year taking off.

How to...erect a wind farm

“It’s just like putting together a big have a span of 45m and needed to be Meccarno set,” says Richard Dibley, transported by specialist trailers equipped development manager at Peel Wind to be fl exible in order to turn corners.” Once Power, of the project currently loaded onto ships the parts are transported underway to erect four giant new to the dockside in Liverpool, where specialist wind turbines at Liverpool docks. rigging is set up to lift them into place. “The At 135m tall from base to blade, base on which the turbines will stand is the the turbines will be the largest most diffi cult and time-consuming part of the onshore wind farm in the country. project, as we have to pile deep down into The combined 10 megawatts the bedrock before we can begin to build,” of electricity they are expected says Richard. “The blades at the end are to produce will be enough the fi nishing touches.” to supply around 6,000 This is the second wind farm to be de-commissioned and taken down” says Richard. homes – much of the power developed by Peel Wind Power, following the The wind farm should be fi nished by the end will be sold to a local supplier success of a six turbine farm built in 1999 at of 2008 and producing energy by spring 2009. serving nearby communities. the nearby Seaforth Dock, which generates And as long as Richard’s Meccarno analogy holds The four huge N90 turbines around 3.6 megawatts. true there shouldn’t be any problems – coincidentally, were built in Germany by Nordex. “The wind farm will have a lifespan the miniature metals kits were invented in Liverpool As Richard explains: “The blades of 25 years; after that the turbines are in 1898.

Coming...and Going

Manchester Enterprises, the the agency’s ‘mini Stern’ economic review wastewater company. Chris was formally the economic development agency for of the effect of climate change on economic company’s carbon manager – the fi rst post of its Greater Manchester, has appointed priorities for the city. Steve previously led kind at a UK water company. He said: “My job is to Steve Turner as head of carbon Lancashire County Council’s work on climate embed sustainable performance across the whole economy. The newly created role change and represented Northwest local of the company. I’ll be making sure that realistic but will address how the Manchester authorities on the UK Climate Impacts challenging plans are in place for biodiversity, carbon city-region can drive forward its Programme. management, waste management and sustainable economic development, whilst procurement, among others, with clear measures improving the uptake of renewable Chris Matthews has progressed to head that will tell us if we’re successful or not.” energy and reducing carbon of environment and sustainability at The company is currently recruiting for a emissions. He will also work on United Utilities, the Northwest’s water and replacement carbon manager.

9 CASE NOTES

Ghostriders in the park A Crewe park that nurtured Olympic ambitions is keeping kids off the streets. A local enthusiast shows off his skills. Ciara Leeming reports.

It may have produced an Olympic hopeful, “It was a regional Northwest race but Crewe’s BMX track had seen better days. with 100 competitors ranging in age The Tipkinder Park course was where 19-year-old from seven years old to adults,” Beijing Olympics contender Shanaze Reade – a three- says Peter. “You couldn’t have times world and eight-times European champion – had that kind of standard of meet honed her skills as a member of the Cheshire there before.” Ghostriders bike club. Shanaze for one is pleased with But developments within the sport meant the small the results, which she hopes will track was no longer suitable for training more advanced encourage more young people to get riders and could not host race meets. Local teens involved in BMXing – which remains a and children were also desperate for a skatepark. niche sport, albeit one that’s growing So when the time came for park improvements The fi rm with the highest score won the in popularity. three years ago, the two extreme sports were a key contract. About 10 youths stayed involved “BMX racing has taken me all part of the plan. through the building phase – attending over the world and I am confi dent Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council agreed to meetings, testing jumps and suggesting that I will be competing in this year’s put in £250,000 and brought in Groundwork Cheshire changes, until the facility was ready in Beijing Olympic Games,” she says. to manage the project. September 2006. “I hope to encourage and welcome The lack of skate provision in the town meant the While this was happening, Groundwork more local people to BMX racing with skatepark was prioritised, to give youngsters something was raising money for the track project, the Cheshire Ghostriders BMX Club.” to keep them off the streets. which could not be funded by the local authority. BMX racing is now an Olympic Beijing Olympics contender event. A demonstration sport in Athens four BEST & WORST years ago, it becomes a full sport for the fi rst Shanaze Reade honed her time this summer. Shanaze – who cut her BEST “Creating a BMX track isn’t a teeth at Tipkinder – has qualifi ed to compete perfect science and everyone BMX skills at the park. in Beijing. has completely different views It took six months of fundraising to fi nd on how the course should be, While the team got to work on surveys and drainage the necessary £200,000 from sources which meant making decisions investigations, detailed consultations were held with including Barclays Spaces For Sport, WREN could take longer than we young people to fi nd out what they needed. and Cheshire County Council. expected. Once we’d made Project manager Peter Heberlet says: “We made The Ghostriders were involved a decision we’d stick to it, as contact with about 50 young skaters aged between throughout, and Groundwork was in regular going back and fi ddling would about 10 and 20. We found some in and around town consultation with the sport’s governing body, cost more money.” while they were out on their skateboards, and contacted British Cycling, to ensure the work met its WORST others through websites. national standards. “The biggest problem turned “They talked to us about what they wanted from Two BMX riders worked closely with out to be the weather. The BMX a skatepark – which was important because there are designers, doing trial rides and agreeing minor project was fi nished almost six different sorts of skating. From that we decided what improvements. Shanaze – who travels the months late, and at one point kind of jumps to put in, and what surface to use. world for race meets – also tried the course we had to stop work for three “The young people wanted a range of levels – so out while it was being built. months because of the rain. little kids would to be able to use the park as well as The fl oodlit 300m track is now fi t for It was a challenge to keep the older skaters.” training for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, one the young people enthused The resulting brief was sent to companies. Their of only a handful in the region. It was offi cially when we had little to show for our work.” drawings and 3D images were then shown to the opened in January and hosted its fi rst race skaters, who were asked to rate each one. meet in May.

10 How green is my... school? Edwin Colyer puts Cockermouth School and its award winning eco-centre to the test.

It starts with Bob the Builder – Designs for the eco-centre topped a shortlist it with enthusiasm, and come up with a neat, “Reduce, reuse, recycle!” his team of 80 projects in the Teaching Environments interesting solution. chants to the watching toddlers. And for the Future scheme in 2003. Awarded “But it is not just sustainable performance with when they arrive at school, children a £1.3 million grant, the fi nished building respect to the environment, it is also sustainable now fi nd that the curriculum also comprises a 250-seater auditorium (able to in the community,” Burton continues. “It is a fl exible embraces environmental awareness, accommodate an entire year group), with space and its use is maximised by the school and and increasingly informs the ethos of ten teaching and learning ‘pods’ for smaller the local community.” schools themselves. groups. There is a staff resources room, Take Cockermouth School in kitchen, science preparation area and plenty “Mike wanted a new style Cumbria, for example. Here pupils of storage. And to one side a ‘mini Eden don’t just hear the green gospel, Project’ – four biomes stocked with plants of building that would they see it in action every day. The for Mediterranean, arid and local climates. Mike Wilde Eco-Centre, with its But whether it is the copper cladding inspire youngsters about the wind turbine, photovoltaic array and made from old domestic water tanks, or the segum grass roof, is unmissable. rainwater harvesting for toilet fl ushing and the environment, and to learn.” Offi cially opened last September, biomes, there is nothing in this building that Steve Pollington of consultants White Young Green, its innovative architecture, has not been scrutinised for its environmental who worked on the eco-centre, calculates that the construction and day-to-day running impact. The carpet is 85 per cent recycled building required 40 per cent less energy to make when are cleverly designed to minimise yarn; the chairs 95 per cent recycled plastics. compared to conventional construction materials and its environmental impact. Bob would Even your breath is recycled as the stale methods. And day-to-day it generates more energy than be proud. air from the auditorium is pumped into the it uses, supplying its surplus electricity to the school’s Mike Wilde, the school’s former biomes to enrich their atmosphere with carbon design and technology department. head who died last year of cancer, dioxide. And the pond doubles up as a green The green message that emanates from schools wanted an inspirational building. “It security feature (think castles and moats). has far reaching implications. Several schools in Cumbria was Mike’s dream,” says Joan Ellis, Unsurprisingly the building has won are looking at sustainable practices, whilst Cockermouth development manager at the school. several prizes, including an ENCAMS Eco- School now tries to apply environmental criteria to all its “Mike realised we needed more Schools Green Flag and, last month, a NW purchases. But superb as it is, Cockermouth School is space, but he wanted a new style Business Environment Award. Roger Burton, only one of a growing number that is taking inspiration of building. He wanted something from jmarchitects in Manchester, and one from the environment. Others, like Kingsmeade in that would inspire youngsters – not of the award’s judges, says that the building Cheshire and St Brigits in Manchester, can be found just about the environment and fully embraces sustainable construction. all around the Northwest. Thanks to schools like these sustainable buildings, but also “They have built something that works (and Bob the Builder, of course), the next generation inspire them to learn.” really well for the school. They’ve approached is learning to grow up green.

11 Allotments are back in demand, thanks to a new breed of enthusiast. Trouble is, developers are also keen on a nice city plot. Over a million have been lost. BACK to the LAND

Kathryn Forster and Michael

12 Photographs Rebecca Lupton Words David Ward

Ron Smith

It’s Sunday afternoon and the Smith is taking his ease in one of two maroon Allotments in their present form have been with us for rain is coming down in Mancunian velour Parker Knoll armchairs (his is a recliner), about 150 years and were established to help the urban buckets. Down on the Ivygreen Road opening the occasional can of lager and poor provide food for their families. Estimates suggest that allotments in Chorlton, there’s not dreaming of his next camping trip to Canada there were almost a million and a half plots when Britain much you can do except shelter (hence the map). He talks of growing up in was digging for victory during the second world war but the beneath a humble roof, sit back Chorlton, of playing by the river and of how he present total is thought to be around 300,000, with many and watch your spuds grow. learned his gardening skills from his dad. already lost to developers who long to stick desirable semis Which is exactly what Ron Smith He relishes the joy of growing fi ne food where compost heaps once stood. There is a now an is doing. Except that his roof is not and eating it while it is as fresh as can be, of upswing of interest (hence the Ivygreen waiting list) fuelled all that humble. His hut at the far watching the birds on this green oasis just off in part by concerns about food quality and cost. side of the site (which, regularly a grid of terraced streets, of meeting all kinds washed by the nearby Mersey before of people from all kinds of backgrounds “I spend half an hour here and the fl ood defences were built, among the bean poles and fruit bushes. appears as fertile as the valley of He seems a very happy man. go home completely relaxed. the Nile) is not so much a shed as The hut is a social centre. Veteran a commodious villa constructed Ivygreener Jim Chapman used to pop in most It’s good for the soul.” entirely from materials retrieved from days for a whisky, before he died a couple of skips: green front door with stained years ago (his concrete greenhouse has been But the 21st century allotment appears to have another glass panel; double glazed windows; restored and re-erected on the site’s community function: it is a utopian refuge with a social structure newly constructed veranda; fi replace area). Now Greg Bowey, elderfl ower connoisseur, built on cooperation and collaboration. Or at the very (decorative only). and Mark Flowers (known as Potter for reasons least a place where you might enjoy swapping the On the wall hangs an ironic that are not entirely clear) drop in. odd vicia faba for a maris piper or two. And the new portrait of Bill and Ben, the fl owerpot Flowers took on his allotment fi ve years allotmenter does not fi t the stereotype of some old men, a map of southern Canada ago when about six plots were unused and bloke with loam under his nails, a cloth cap and a way and an image of a prize-winning demand was slack. Now Ivygreen has more with curly kale. Many, having put away their spades, racehorse. There is also a carpet than 60 eager gardeners on its waiting list. take to their computers to pass on tips and post proud beater, a cabinet bearing a bottle “The plot is not on a big enough scale to save pictures of sprouting carrots. of HP sauce, a table on which a me much money but you can’t beat the quality Catherine Braithwaite, a busy fi ne arts publicist with candle in a bottle burns and a shelf and taste,” says Flowers. “And you come down a large plot at the back of her garden in Flixton, Greater of gardening books. Plus a copy of and see good people. It’s a little bit of time to Manchester, got digging three years ago. “I agreed to Gray’s Anatomy, which suggests yourself. I can come straight from work – I’m take on the plot on a sunny day in August and said to that plot holders may come here a teacher – and spend half an hour here and myself, ‘Yes, I can do that’. It was overgrown with for a little basic surgery when the then go home completely relaxed. It’s good head-high grass and brambles, under which I discovered weather is bad. for the soul.” fruit bushes – raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants.

[CONTINUED OVER]

13 Josh Steiner & baby

Sarah Cobbe

Most of the allotment is cultivated now – we are just Back in Manchester and within a wreath’s in a few weeks ago and it looked as planting out the fi nal third and I have bought a second- throw of the immense Southern Cemetery, if they were never going to come up. hand greenhouse for £25. another project is exploring a collective Now there are fl owers on them. It’s “I try to go every weekend and perhaps pop out for approach to allotment cultivation. The Lost tremendous.” an hour or two on a working day through the week. It Plot, developed following permaculture Walker has become a Lost Plot sounds a bit hippyish, but there are only natural sounds workshops three years ago, is worked by a missionary. “We want to recruit more there and I feel a great sense of peace. My job can be group rather than an individual. “It’s a fl exible people to come in who wouldn’t quite stressful with editors and clients shouting at me. community model,’’ says Josh Steiner of normally know about allotments But when I go out and do some digging, I feel that the Manchester-based Action For Sustainable Living. or who wouldn’t think they had the connection with the soil is a very calming experience. “There are three or four really committed opportunity to go for one or wanted It seems now to be more about getting away from people involved at any one time and they take a go before taking on an allotment of everything than growing the veg. You are working with responsibility for watering. Now it’s up and their own.” people but not disturbed by them. It’s a very meditative running, I feel I will be connected to this piece The Lost Plot boasts a curious experience, as good as a yoga class for helping me of land for years to come. My baby’s placenta sculpture featuring a plant-fi lled switch off completely.” is buried there, with a tree to mark the spot.” bath, a loo and several washbasins. Ivygreen has nothing quite so “It’s a very meditative experience, as good as a yoga class.” dramatic on its well-tended acres but there are glimpses of allotmenter The therapeutic value of digging, hoeing, weeding and Clare Walker, standing by a shed containing individuality. Sarah Cobbe, site growing is recognised on Merseyside, where the Family two ancient volumes of the Popular secretary and plot holder for 15 Refugee Support Project has helped refugees and Encyclopaedia of Gardening, explains that she years, has potatoes growing out of asylum seekers fi nd some kind of inner peace through signed up in June 2007 after seeing a notice an old linen basket, French beans allotment work, while avoiding the enforced idleness in Unicorn, the grocery that is Chorlton’s shrine about to leap up the frame of an demanded by the asylum decision process. to organic broccoli and Fairtrade porridge. old patio umbrella and lettuces The scheme was established in 2001 by Swiss-born “I’d been chatting to friends about wanting to fl ourishing in cloches converted from psychotherapist Margrit Ruegg and had at one point do a bit more gardening – I’ve always grown old water cooler bottles. And then seven plots worked by 18 families from around the world tomatoes and wigwams of beans but I wanted there are her scarecrows: a couple who had suffered trauma or post-traumatic stress. to do more. There was a meeting the next day of pound-shop Easter bunnies with The scheme was featured in three short fi lms for so I thought ‘Wow – serendipity’. I went to the outsize ears which you would think Channel 4, out of which grew the 2007 feature fi lm meeting and came down here on a Sunday. would dive for cover at fi rst sight of Grow Your Own. Scripted by Carl Hunter and Liverpool “I want to be with people who know more a blue tit, let alone a crow. writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, the fi lm tells how a fi ctional than I do. And I love digging and weeding – I’m Perhaps they are a lucky charm, allotment tended by locals becomes a microcosm of not afraid of hard work. And the benefi t at bringing blessings on Cobbe’s Britain as Iranian, Zimbabwean and Chinese migrants the end is that you get to take home some two plots which each year deliver arrive to take over plots. fabulous fruit and veg. I put these broad beans strawberries, marrows, courgettes,

14 Chris Cyprus

gooseberries, asparagus, onions, Infl uenced by Van Gogh’s paintings of farm It’s not an isolated case. Diggers from the Eastleigh and sweet corn, broad beans, cherries, workers, he has introduced into his allotment Bishopstoke Allotments Association in Hampshire fought blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, paintings people with backs bent as they doggedly for almost fi ve years to stop their local council blackberries, herbs and almost any weed or lift a fork. “It’s like escapism, isn’t selling two sites to a developer. They went as far as other fruit or veg you can think of. it? I’m not into football or pubs or anything seeking leave for a judicial review but still lost, exposing “Sometimes I’ll come down in the like that. I was looking at society, at the rapid as far from perfect the legal protection allotments are evening intending to pick something over-development of the town where I live. supposed to enjoy. The council now has its eyes on a for tea. I intend being here for ten I found that the people on the allotment were third site. minutes and end up staying for three not chavs or anything. They are very relaxed, Meanwhile, on plots so far free from attack, the hours. On a summer’s evening you caring-sharing sort of people. Maybe I was digging, planting and harvesting goes happily on. By can be here till the sun goes down. doing a bit of soul searching underneath now the sun should have come out at Ivygreen and Ron It’s just really lovely. it all.” Smith will have risen from his Parker Knoll to do what “It’s enjoyable and nice to feel needs to be done. Perhaps, back home and taking his you are achieving something, being Developers long to ease after a Radox bath, he will have logged on and read close to the earth – all those sort this message from an anonymous blogger in Accrington: of cliché things really. I don’t do stick desirable semis “I saw a wren up the allotment today. It was only about it to save money but I’m sure I am four feet away from me whilst I was weeing.” We can when you think of the cost of soft where compost heaps only hope for the sake of the cabbages that he or she fruit. Yesterday I dug some new means weeding. potatoes up and cooked them for once stood. tea. It was great.” David Ward is one of the Northwest’s most experienced Artist Chris Cyprus, based in But the allotment world is not all Arcadian and respected journalists. For over 30 years he was Mossley, Tameside, would probably bliss because there are predators lurking at the Guardian’s Northern correspondent. He now divides enjoy the Lost Plot sculpture and the gates to the plots. In 1996, Manchester his time between freelance writing and working for the Cobbe’s bunnies. But they will have City Council declared as “surplus to Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. to wait. “I’ve always had this thing requirements” 88 allotments at Edge Lane about sheds – the colours, the in Openshaw. But the plot holders fought a shapes, the textures. They’re like long running battle and ministers eventually time capsules, aren’t they? Then I decided that the sale of the site was not started fi nding sheds on allotments. justifi ed. There is now a waiting list for It grew into an obsession and I plots and this year the rescue team won painted nothing else for two years. an Allotment Society cup for its resistance Now I’ve got an allotment myself.” campaign.

15 WEIR-ED AND WONDERFUL

It’s a case of back to the future for the carbon-cutting mill towns of the Northwest, which have huge potential for a modern version of waterpower.

Words Jason Teasdale

16 Steve Welsh of Water Power Enterprises

The Northwest’s latest hydro- operate 25 such schemes across the region The North’s former mill towns electricity project, now about to by 2015, enough to power 5,000 homes. generate its fi rst sparks of energy, This summer saw the chiefs of Britain’s could get their power not is a scheme both weir-ed and energy industry warn a Commons committee wonderful. that household bills could rise by 40 per from some distant fossil fuel The town of New Mills in cent. Around the same time, prime minister Derbyshire is the test site for a Gordon Brown announced moves to speed-up or nuclear plant, but from the technology that could revolutionise connection of renewable energy projects to the way the North’s former mill towns the national grid – a cause of huge delays in rivers at their heart. get their power; not from some proposed developments. distant fossil fuel or nuclear plant, h2oPE managing director Steve Welsh said topography: any hydroelectrical scheme’s output, whether but from the rivers at their heart. hydro schemes are well placed to benefi t: it be wheel, turbine or screw, depends on the water’s Last spring an Archimedean screw “Water contains much more energy than drop-height and its volume per second. The wet, hilly eight metres long and two and a half wind – the amount of time a wind power Northwest is ideal. metres wide arrived in New Mills to be scheme operates at full capacity is just twenty- The government hopes to get ten per cent of the UK’s winched into place among the ruins fi ve per cent, for hydro schemes that fi gure electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and fi fteen of Torr Mill – specifi cally, alongside its is forty-fi ve per cent. And hydro schemes last per cent by 2020. It currently stands at just two per cent. weir. It will transport some of the River around forty years whereas wind turbines Its main mechanism for doing this is the Renewable Goyt’s fl ow across the drop in water operate for only around twenty-fi ve years. For a Obligation Certifi cate (ROC). It works like this – power level, turning the screw as it would a £250,000 one-off cost you can power seventy suppliers must source an increasing proportion of turbine and generating 70kw of power homes for twenty-fi ve years.” electricity from renewables and, if they can’t produce in the process. In absolute terms the returns aren’t huge, it themselves, they must buy ROCs from those who do. The Torrs Hydro New Mills scheme but there is a strong case for using energy from Not doing so means potential fi nes. could provide a template for post- a local resource – up to seven per cent of the Small scale hydro projects (defi ned by the Environment industrial sites across the region and electricity generated at a power station is lost Agency as those with less than fi ve megawatts of bring back into use weirs built by in its transmission. generating capacity) should play a signifi cant part in long-gone mill owners who needed A report for the Northwest Regional meeting these targets, but there are fewer than you power for their spinning machines. Development Agency describes small scale might think. Water Power Enterprises (h2oPE) hydro power as “a potentially large opportunity manages the project and aims to for the region” due to its climate and [CONTINUED OVER]

17 Installation of the Archimedean Screw at Torr Mill Wier

“We are really just putting Richard Body, a director of Torrs Hydro New It’s a familiar tale for Body. He said Mills, said: “When income is low it will not be anyone planning such a scheme must back an updated form of the the community which suffers, it will be the anticipate reams of legal paperwork: shareholders! And I strongly support the idea “Everything has to be right; we did not technology that was here.” that the money we generate could be put into want to get ten years down the line feasibility studies and funding for another hydro and fi nd out that we never actually scheme in the same area. A lot of people are owned the scheme! Despite the apparent suitability of our region, data already asking if we plan to do this again. “It has meant a lot of work from 2006 recorded just 16 active hydro projects here. “The only opposition we have ever had for the directors, more than we Meanwhile the Environment Agency, which grants the was from one person who felt it was so small anticipated, but that is mainly necessary water abstraction papers, has issued around an amount of electricity that it was not worth because we wanted to be involved. 37 such licenses across the Northwest, though not all losing the view. But I think that, while the view We wanted local people to feel that may have been used. A recent report for Cheshire and has changed, it has been enhanced. We are the scheme belongs to them.” Warrington Economic Alliance found just two active really just putting back an updated form of the If those whose mill has long gone projects in the county and noted that even the potential technology that was here.” can do it, what of those still lucky in this slopeless landscape isn’t being met. More Such deep-seated community support enough to have a building in place? encouragingly, the report identifi ed 14 planned schemes is invaluable in overcoming physical and The fi rst records of a water wheel for the county. legal barriers to development. Even with an at Quarry Bank Mill near Wilmslow in Its author, Manchester University postgraduate encouraging feasibility report, such projects Cheshire date back to 1784 – it was student Evelyn Bateman, said development cash is the can whither when reality bites and enthusiasm once the largest and most powerful main obstacle and usually only stretches to a feasibility fades, Bateman said: “There are many different in the country. Over the centuries it study: “Funding is needed to push these schemes factors to a micro hydro scheme; cost-benefi t has been replaced several times and forward, but where you can get it is diffi cult to say – there analysis, fl ow engineering, how funding might the machinery remains intact and is no clear guidance.” work – it is quite complicated.” is still used for demonstrations. But One of the most interesting aspects of the Torrs To illustrate the point the Environment the National Trust, which runs the Hydro New Mills scheme is the way it was funded. Part Agency publishes a 50-page booklet to assist property, is keen on going further. of the £250,000 cost was met by a £135,000 grant and its staff with hydropower proposals. Although Bob Hardiker, visitor services a £61,000 loan, but the rest was raised through a share the agency insists it will “take a positive view of manager, said: “We intend to carry offer taken up by around 200, mainly local, people. A reasonable and well designed proposals” the out a feasibility study into the maximum of 7.5 per cent of the scheme’s profi ts can be booklet covers potential pitfalls in planning, land potential for generating electricity paid back to shareholders, while the rest will be poured ownership, environmental assessment, fi sheries, from the waterwheel. We hope to into a community fund that should generate an annual fl ooding, conservation, recreation, angling and have the results of the study within social dividend of around £6,000 and be used, for water resource and quality alterations. Little the next 12 months, leading to example, to fund energy saving grants. wonder so many projects fl ounder. power generation within two years.”

18 Elsewhere, Staveley Mill Yard in for 300 years. It’s common sense and that’s work at the moment. There are a number of companies Cumbria, a thriving business park why we have done it.” active in this fi eld here in the UK and each will see at founded in 1995 by David Brockbank He isn’t keen on the term ‘green’ but sees least 100 schemes each year from a feasibility point of on the back of his family’s declining his role more in terms of shepherding a local view. Anywhere where there used to be a mill… could be cotton business, has been green resource: “We live in a beautiful part of the brought back into service.” for generations. world, we have lived here all our lives and we Brett puts the resurgence down to the green energy respect and understand it.” push, but added: “There is some resistance to wind Cumbria’s River Brockbank says the present turbine turbines which were, until recently, seen as a panacea, produces 25kw of power that can be exported while solar and photovoltaic energy will never do much Kent may be the to the grid: “But we now use all our own power here in the UK. So that leaves water and there is a lot because there is a bakery operating 24 hours of potential here in the Northwest. You won’t fi nd any best source of small a day on site. At night a hundred per cent of massive schemes like Glendoe [a 100MW scheme now the energy we use is produced here, during being built in Scotland] but the government is pushing scale hydropower the day time just ten per cent, so we have to for distributed energy rather than centrally produced, import power.” so there is an opportunity for schemes dotted around in England. Sadly it’s not the only form of importation the Northwest to make their own contribution.” associated with such small scale projects. From August, New Mills will begin making its The nearby River Kent has been New Mills had to ship in its Archimedean screw contribution. An agreement has just been signed to providing power to the area’s mills from Germany, and a strong euro meant it cost supply the town’s Co-op supermarket, but Body says since the 1600s and is said to be £10,000 more than planned. that even before the screw makes its fi rst revolution it among the most powerful in England It’s a shame so much innovation is taking will be fulfi lling a purpose. “I hoped that we would inspire – dropping from the greatest height place overseas, but specialist industries that others and kick start a debate over the use of weirs. You over the shortest distance. No grew up in this part of the world to service can argue that it is not a great deal of electricity, and wonder that 30 mills once hugged hydropower schemes do exist. Companies like that is true, but it is not just about clean energy – it is its banks. Now only Staveley remains Kendal-based Gilkes, which installed its fi rst also an income that the community will be getting. There but, even in its present guise, it water turbine in 1856. The company has since is a great deal of pride here in New Mills at this scheme.” has use for the Kent’s power – the worked in more than 80 countries and has second hand water turbine installed offi ces in Texas and Japan. by Brockbank’s father 50 years ago Chris Brett, design engineer at is still running today. neighbouring Inter Hydro Technology, Brockbank shares his father’s which acted as design consultants for the Jason Teasdale has worked on regional newspapers pragmatic view of the river: “You Backbarrow Hydro Scheme on Cumbria’s River including the Liverpool Post and the Liverpool Echo. might as well use it since it’s fl owing Leven, confi rmed the industry is enjoying a He is the former environment correspondent at the past the door. We have been doing it renaissance. “We are seeing an increase in Northwest Enquirer.

19 SPOTLIGHT Interview Mark Hillsdon

Time for change He spent almost 20 years helping to mould environmentalism in the UK – now Tony Juniper elucidates the movement’s future.

Tony Juniper is feeding his chickens when I call. most people won’t even do the basic things. The government says it doesn’t want You’d be forgiven for thinking that, as he prepares Most people are still fl ying a lot, they are still to have those numbers in the carbon to call time on his six years as executive director buying 4x4 cars, some people are still resistant budget; we think that’s mad and of Friends of the Earth, the chickens will be seeing to recycling, some people don’t even have I’m confi dent we can still win that a lot more of Juniper over the coming months. energy effi cient light bulbs. argument.” Juniper certainly isn’t leaving Friends of the Earth And no amount of public awareness raising One way of helping to infl uence under a cloud. When he hands over to Andy Atkins, who is going to change that. So we need laws the argument is, of course, to do arrives from the Tearfund later this summer, Juniper’s to change the cars, the light bulbs, and the so from within. And Juniper doesn’t passion for the environment, and the movement that aviation policy for them, so they naturally rule out standing for parliament he’s done so much to shape, will be as great as ever. start to do the right thing. one day – intriguingly he joined the It’s a passion that was sparked in 1990 when he Green party for the fi rst time earlier visited Brazil in search of the last wild Spix’s Macaw “ Even when politicians this year. (he’s a world authority on macaws). He found the bird, “It’s possible,” he says. “I’m but the journey brought him face-to-face with the reality won’t lead, they very certainly going to be staying with of what was happening to the world’s rainforests. It’s a the issues and may think about moment he describes as his epiphany. often follow.” going towards politics.” Later that year he joined Friends of the Earth’s Until then Juniper’s diary is full. rainforest campaign, and so began an 18-year “But the policies won’t change, and In between speaking engagements commitment to the organisation. It has spanned an era government won’t put in the new rules, and writing commissions, he’ll be of unprecedented change in the public’s perception of until there’s public consent.” working for the Prince of Wales’ environmental issues, with the green agenda edging in In the past, says Juniper, green victories Rainforest Project, as well as a new from the fringes to the centre of British politics. over issues such as acid rain and CFCs didn’t sustainability group at Cambridge really affect the day-to-day lives of most people. University. Which is all good news Public support is crucial if Climate change is different – as shown for the environment, but perhaps by Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign, not such good news for his chickens. the movement is to take its which despite political resistance has delivered a new act of parliament on climate Tony Juniper on Manchester’s next great leap forward. change and the fi rst legal framework of its proposed £3 billion transport kind in the world. revolution, which includes “One thing that I think we’ve really achieved is to “The government wasn’t keen on this idea congestion charging: reposition the environmental agenda,” explains Juniper to begin with and the case was made through from his home in Cambridge, where he lives with his wife a combination of good argument and, crucially, “If we want motorists in and three children. “I think a fantastic mainstreaming massive public backing for change. So even Manchester to drive less, there must be an improvement has taken place.” when politicians won’t lead, they very often in alternatives to the car such And this public support, he argues, is crucial if the follow. And if we can create the conditions as better public transport movement is to take its next great leap forward. whereby the public will see the need for and cycling facilities. We must “One of the great debates within the environmental change, I think we can do an awful lot.” wean ourselves off our addiction movement over the last few years has been whether Of course Juniper is pragmatic enough to oil. Congestion charging can to put efforts into getting individuals to make to know that this is only the beginning. play a signifi cant role in lifestyle changes or whether we should be arguing for “Yes there are going to be defi ciencies with developing a clean, safe governments to enact new polices,” he says. this bill and one of the things we are fi ghting and prosperous future.” “It needs to be both – one of the things that is very hard for at the moment is the inclusion of clear, even given heightened public awareness, is that international aviation and shipping (emissions).

20 BUSINESS Words Jo Birtwistle

Pump it up heat pump cost him £12,000. “The heat pump got his gas bill down to £1,500 a year. I kept fi ddling with it and got that down further to £750 a year,” says Thompson. Engineer David Thompson spotted a gap in The company is now partnering with Worcester Bosch, which puts sales leads through to it. Thompson the market to help cut people’s heating bills says Bosch is after volume sales and the unit price of a heat pump has come down considerably. using renewable energy. Now his Bolton based Groundheat Installations has also opened a showroom for customers to see how the equipment company is growing fast. works. “We have large prints of all the installations and demos with the equipment so that people know what to expect,” says Thompson. The company has worked with schools and health David Thompson, a heating engineer client base, Thompson set up Groundheat clubs and Thompson is keen to do more commercial with over 30 years experience, Installations in 2006, focusing solely on work. He says that businesses could make considerable started Groundheat Installations installing and fi tting the ground heat pumps. cost savings, particularly with rising energy prices. when he spotted a need for an The Horwich-based company has grown But the architects employed by clients can be a installation company with expertise fast – from a turnover of £60,000 in 2006 hurdle because, according to Thompson, they have in ground heat pump technology. to £250,000 in 2007. It employs four and preconceived ideas about the technology. Four years ago he repaired his a half staff. “They’ve heard of heat pumps that have been fi tted fi rst ground heat pump while working incorrectly or in unsuitable situations and rubbish them for a central heating and plumbing Turnover has grown fast straight away. I’m just a heating engineer as far as company in Bolton. they are concerned. That’s why we need the gallery to “I spoke to the heat pump – to £250,000 in 2007 demonstrate how it all works,” he says. “But we are still supplier, while fi xing it. They had the on a learning curve because there are always different sole import license from Sweden and “We installed twenty units over the fi rst applications.” they invited me to Oxford to see the couple of years, but we’ve installed another Thompson is in the process of patenting the use of product – at the time the supplier twenty in the last twelve months alone,” says solar panels to re-heat the ground in winter, combining was only selling fi ve a month,” says Thompson. “And we had no mark up on units the two technologies in a novel way to maintain the Thompson. themselves in that fi rst year while developing effi ciency of the system throughout the year. Thompson started selling and business.” “It can be used when there isn’t the space to lay fi tting heat pumps for his employer. One barrier was that the heat pump’s reams of piping along the ground. So rather then digging Back then, the supplier’s mark up manufacturer lacked experience at fi tting three 50 meter trenches, now I can do it with two 15 meant the units were expensive – only them. Thompson found he was able to make meter trenches and heat with solar,” says Thompson. customers using the pumps to heat the pumps work more effi ciently by improving a large swimming pool could expect the way they are installed, cutting the payback a pay back. time. One client was paying £3,000 a year on Joanne Birtwistle is a reporter for Crain’s Manchester Despite the seemingly niche gas to heat his swimming pool – installing a Business magazine.

How it works A metre down, the heat in the ground This extracts the heat at high temperature and uses maintains a temperature of ten degrees. it to warm water for radiators, for example. The This ground heat can be collected using cooled antifreeze then circulates to warm up again. pipes in either horizontal trenches or vertical The same process can also be used to extract heat boreholes. A liquid similar to antifreeze is from ground water such as lakes. pumped through the pipes and warms up For every unit of energy used to power the system, before passing through a compressor unit. around three and a half units are produced. And heat pumps have a 25-year lifespan, 15 more than a condensing boiler. Correct installation is vital for the technology to work at its optimum. “The liquid in the pipes chills the ground, so if you get the ground loops or bore holes wrong it can freeze the ground and the effi ciency of the system will drop right off. That’s where the expertise comes in,” says Thompson.

21 Words and Photographs James Fair

It’s exactly a century since Wind in the Willows became a childhood classic. Since then, the animal that inspired one of its best-loved characters, ‘dear old Ratty’, has all but disappeared. James Fair visits two schemes working to protect the beguiling water vole.

22 Coming off the M6 at junction 25 I arrive here on a warm June morning to For Richard, who will spend the best part of the next and taking the A49 into Wigan isn’t be met by Richard Gardner, one of two three years surveying sites for signs of water voles all the most obvious path to tread for conservation offi cers working for the North over Cheshire and Lancashire, fi nding droppings will be a heart-warming nature ramble. West Lowlands Water Vole Project. his fastest route to building up a picture of where they A few miles before you reach the Wigan Flashes consists of willow and birch are present and where they are not. Water voles leave town centre, you peel off to the copses, reedbeds, ditches and the open lakes the droppings as territorial markers, a signal to others right and head down Carr Lane, (or fl ashes). We set off down a path and soon that they are around – for males, it may be a question a redbrick housing estate offering come to a concrete bridge that spans a slow of warding off potential rivals, for females a way of little hope that a wildlife wonderland moving stream with tall sedges growing from pulling in suitors. is just around the corner. the riverbed and dense rushes and grasses The project has been funded through the Sita The sharp-eyed traveller, however, on either side. Trust, the Landfi ll Communities Fund, the Esmée might notice gangs of shimmering Fairbairn Foundation, the Greater Manchester Ecology starlings foraging for grubs on the The surest sign that Unit, United Utilities and the Environment Agency. And well-kept lawns, and wonder where as well as surveying sites, Richard is offering advice they came from. water voles are about to landowners about how best to manage areas for At the end of Carr Lane is water voles, with grants available through higher-level Hawkley Hall High School, a are their droppings. environmental stewardship schemes. specialist engineering college. We have barely gone a few yards along the stream Nearby Westwood power station was In the middle of the stream lies a wooden when Richard points to the ground. “There’s your demolished as recently as 1989, plank, something not entirely unexpected in second sign,” he says, and I see a hole in the ground while Ince Moss Colliery closed in this post-industrial landscape. “There’s your where the vegetation within a 10cm radius is short and 1962. Remote and rural Lancashire fi rst sign that water voles are present,” Richard brown. It’s a water vole burrow, and the short grass this isn’t: one of the last places says; and as I peer a little closer, I see the shows where they have been feeding. As we carry on, you’d expect to be a hotspot plank has two or three small piles of brown, there are burrows every few yards (some of them will for Britain’s fastest declining lozenge-shaped droppings. “A latrine,” he be part of the same network). “This is great,” says mammal – the water vole, or Ratty adds with satisfaction. Richard. “Last time I was here, there were only fi ve of Wind in the Willows fame, whose Having worked as a journalist for BBC burrows, so it shows they are doing well.” hundredth birthday publishers are Wildlife magazine for the best part of nine celebrating this year. years, I am now accustomed to the boundless [CONTINUED OVER] Behind the school is a series of pleasure that anyone involved in studying large lakes, which formed when the wildlife gets from fi nding animal poop – indeed, ground above the colliery subsided, I feel a surge of excitement myself, these days, and which now make up a local at the simple discovery of a fox scat. It goes nature reserve called Wigan Flashes. with the territory.

Wigan Flashes Water vole droppings

23 Jenny Holden

The calamitous decline of the once-common water vole A week earlier, and nearly a hundred miles in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century north, I found myself visiting an equally unlikely epitomises just how unthinkingly ignorant we were – and site in which to fi nd a rare, shy British mammal. still are, in some cases – about our impact on wildlife. There’s gunfi re going off in short bursts, We destroyed their habitat by concreting riverbanks; which echoes disturbingly off a distant fell. we overstocked pastures so that their burrows caved I’m standing by a small, mountain stream in in and their food source was grazed; and fi nally – just the MOD’s training estate of Warcop in the to make sure – we released thousands of non-native Eden river valley. With me is Jenny Holden, A data-logger American mink, which unlike native predators such who runs the Cumbria Water Vole Project. as otters or stoats, could both get into their burrows While Richard Gardner has been employed to eat their kits and hunt them in the water. Poor Ratty to survey the Wigan area for water voles, up It’s Jenny, of course, who sees the didn’t stand a chance, and at the beginning of the here Jenny has a different task. It’s already water vole fi rst. The best way to see twenty-fi rst century, it was estimated the water vole known that water voles have disappeared from them is just to sit by the side of the had disappeared from 94 per cent of its range. most of Cumbria, apart from a few isolated stream and wait, so as the day populations in the northern Pennines. But warms up, that’s just what we do. There’s gunfi re echoing off a sites like Warcop – military training exercises But I’m having one of those horrible, not withstanding – provide excellent habitat myopic moments that would distant fell – an unlikely place for them, so Jenny is in the second year cause me to miss an elephant in of a three-year project to release captive- a fl owerbed. to fi nd a rare, shy mammal. bred water voles. The hope is that they will Thankfully, the creature recolonise the area and eventually spread into obligingly swims out into the centre The fact that water voles are thriving here in Wigan other sites within the Eden catchment. of the stream, and even though Flashes suggests, then, that mink are largely absent. Jenny is putting out some data-loggers I am staring at its backside, I can And while most people who come out for an early today, so that she can get some information immediately tell from the small, morning stroll with their dog probably won’t glimpse on what the 71 water voles she released here rounded ears and short, furry tail a water vole, there are those that do. “Some people a couple of weeks ago are up to. Each animal that this isn’t a rat. It pulls into an are really fascinated by them,” Richard says. “They’re has had a microprocessor inserted under its overhanging ledge and out of sight. very cute, and to see them munching away is really skin. If and when it passes through a metal Later, we encounter another water something. I think it’s important that people connect loop (carefully placed by a latrine, so there’s vole (or possibly the same one), with them – there is a danger that they could be seen a good chance at least one water vole will), which dives into the stream with the as a cost, because they are a protected species.” this will be recorded by the logger. distinctive, diagnostic ‘plop’. Wigan Flashes isn’t just important for its water voles, either. With 70 hectares of reedbed, it has 0.5 per cent Jenny sees the water vole fi rst – the best of the entire freshwater reedbed habitat in the UK. The site is also being managed for bitterns, and they way is to just sit by the river and wait. are starting to have some success. Cetti’s warblers, a nationally scarce migrant, are here too, and in the winter “The reason this site was chosen was because “Did you enjoy that?” Jenny asks, it’s a congregating spot for wildfowl. “Only ten or fi fteen the MOD is not about to go anywhere and it but since I’m grinning like a loon, years ago, this place was like the Wild West,” reserve is committed to its conservation activity,” it’s pretty obvious what the answer warden Helen Sephton tells me. “People thought they could Jenny says. One aspect of this is mink control, is. It’s the fi rst time I’ve seen a use it as they liked. There was hunting, shooting, fi shing which the MOD is carrying out, in part because water vole, and there’s something and burnt-out cars.” So, it’s also evidence that a community it has a black grouse project that’s dependent undeniably life affi rming about can ‘retake’ an area and fi nd pride in their wildlife. on reducing predator numbers. watching a small, furry mammal .

24 The sighting is proof, in some small way, that environmental ills can be redressed.

Setting up a data-logger

that swims like a clockwork toy. But it’s more than that – the sighting HOW TO SPOT A WATER VOLE WATER VOLE FACTS is proof, in some small way, that First, you need to fi nd a slow moving river Like rats and mice, water voles are environmental ills can be redressed. or stream with lush bankside vegetation. rodents. As their name suggests, they are Later, we drive up to Alston Moor Look for reeds, sedges, bullrushes and at home in water, and would have once to see if we can fi nd any of that grasses, though water voles are catholic inhabited slow moving rivers and streams North Pennine population. Though in their taste and are known to feed on at throughout mainland Britain. we have no luck there, on the least 227 different plant species. way back we stop in the village of Research carried out in the late 1980s Melmerby, best known for its organic Ideally, the bank will be quite steep, so fi rst pointed to the water vole’s dramatic bakery and café. Just down the that they can dig burrows into it, with decline. It showed they had disappeared road, there’s a lovely babbling brook small ledge-like mudfl ats at the bottom, from 67 per cent of their traditional where they can feed. But upland water with verdant grass and wildfl owers habitat and estimated they would have voles will do well in faster-moving water gone from 94 per cent of their range by growing profusely on either side. courses, while lowland water voles can the end of the 20th century, with habitat It feels like a throwback to a distant also live alongside canals. era, and sure enough, as we inspect loss and predation by American mink being the main factors in their the site, two water voles – this year’s Second, look for burrows along the youngsters, Jenny thinks – appear riverbank. There may be two or three close plummeting numbers. briefl y, a sign of the future in more together (part of a network) and they will There are two distinctive water vole races ways than one. have a diameter of about 10 to 15cm. If the vegetation around the burrow has in the UK. Lowland water voles are the kind found in Lancashire and Cheshire, James Fair has worked for BBC been closely cropped, you’re in luck. while upland water voles are found in the Wildlife magazine for the past The surest sign that water voles are about North Pennines and areas of Scotland. nine years and has also written are their droppings, which they often travel articles for the Sunday Times, leave in large piles (known as latrines) on Earlier this year, Defra amended the Telegraph and Guardian. In a previous stones and rocks in the middle of streams Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, life, he ran a rainforest reserve as territorial markers. The droppings are extending protection to include water in Ecuador and brought up a baby smooth, lozenge-shaped and greenish- voles themselves – prior to this only bear in Bolivia. brown (though the colour is quite variable). the water vole’s habitat was protected, Rat droppings are larger, darker and more despite the huge population loss in the knobbly. past two decades. They are now a Biodiversity Action Plan species, and Finally – if you are confi dent there are the aim is to restore them to their former water voles about – sit and wait. They widespread distribution by 2010. make a distinctive plop when they dive (rats don’t), and despite their name, they On average, a water vole will only live for don’t swim especially well. They are about fi ve months, with an estimated 70 to 80 the size of a brown rat, but with a much per cent mortality over the winter. But a blunter nose, smaller, more rounded ears female water vole can have several litters and a shorter, furry (not scaly) tail. a year with up to fi ve kits in a litter, and those born early in the year may even be breeding towards the end of the season.

25 ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPION

She Bikes MCR

Source talks to Nes Brierley of I Bike MCR, a grassroots group of Manchester cyclists who stage an annual bike festival. Nes is a cycling advocate, instructor and enthusiast, as well as being Bike It offi cer for Sustrans.

So, how much of your life is lived in the saddle? don’t tend to feel alienated. Events like the I each of us to cut down on our car I’m a volunteer for I Bike MCR, organising the annual Bike MCR festival, bike polo matches and the journeys – and instead to walk, cycle festival, an independent event that aims to strengthen monthly Critical Mass rides (which depart or take the train. the cycling community in the city as well as raising the from the Central Library at 6pm on the last It can be a really empowering issues that concern Manchester’s cyclists. We work Friday of each month) mean that it’s easy to thing to take action like this, towards a car and capitalist-free city. get involved and feel supported. especially for children, in a world On top of that, I regularly organise free bike I think society sometimes makes us where it’s easy to feel as though maintenance classes, cycle skills lessons and feel that we’ve got to rush around and get there’s too much to do for one bike-building workshops, as well as other activities everywhere quickly, but if you count the cost, person to make a difference. promoting cycling. it really isn’t worth it. But it doesn’t stop there. For light relief I founded So, it’s time to be honest, the Manchester Dropouts bike polo team, which I still What about younger cyclists? Well, that’s how many bikes have you play for. I also initiated The Spokes – the UK’s only my day job. I work as the Bike It Offi cer for actually got? Around twelve. But bicycle dance troupe. We’re a group of women who Rochdale and Stockport. Research has shown they’re all really necessary! I’ve are passionate about encouraging cycling, especially that 90 per cent of kids own a bike, and 30 got one for bike polo, one for cycle amongst women and girls. per cent WANT to cycle to school, but only one touring, a racing bike, a mountain per cent actually do it. I work with children and bike, a lovely little shopper, a How did you fi rst get involved in sustainable teachers in twelve schools to help identify social bike (also known as a pub transport? I’ve always been passionate about it, but what’s stopping the other 29 per cent, and bike…), a road bike and an old particularly since I fi rst went cycle touring. Using my encourage them to overcome those barriers. Pashley post bike. There are a few bike to travel around Ireland – over the mountains more, and then I’ve got at least and through beautiful valleys – gave me a chance to Why is sustainable transport so twelve kids’ bikes for The Spokes experience how special riding a bike can be. A bike important? That’s a huge question! I guess bicycle dance troupe. gives you a connection with your surroundings, because we all need to take responsibility letting you feel the wind in your face, and smell the for our own actions. We need to start taking Before you cycle off into new-mown grass or the salty sea air. It encourages you sustainability seriously, and stop looking for the sunset, what’s your vision to socialise with strangers, and to go places that a car someone else to clean up our mess. for the future? I hope to create just can’t take you. It’s really a refl ection of how I want The average Briton travelled 5,354 miles a stronger, supportive bicycle to live my life – to the full, experiencing and truly living per year by car between 1999 and 2001 – and community in Manchester – one every moment rather than letting it all go by in a blur. a quarter of those trips were under two miles, that demands some respect from an easy walk or bike ride. Traffi c is increasing other road users, which I don’t How easy is it to bike Manchester? Is it really all the time, and the government’s response think we get now. I dream of a accessible to everyone? It’s very easy really. It’s fl at, is to build more roads. But the simplest way less car-dominated city, with more and there are lots of other bike riders around, so you to reduce both traffi c and road use is for people biking Manchester.

26 THE SHARP END

Steve Connor examines the Steve Connor is CEO of Creative Concern, Manchester’s leading issues-based communications phenomenon of greenwash, the consultancy, working with clients in the private, public and voluntary sectors. emergence of eco-brands and the status of the sustainable corporation. BRAND EARTH

In 1970 the arch monetarist Milton dialogue on corporate responsibility has been Innocent and Divine, are telling. They are brands – and Friedman delivered a hefty thwack ongoing since King Magnus IV of Sweden products – that are constructed from the ground up around the head to the burgeoning created the oldest limited company – Stora as ‘eco-brands’. They tap into a market appetite for social responsibility movement. His Kopparberg mining corp – in 1347. sustainable products that has clearly entered now famous essay, required reading the mainstream. for rapacious business students We live in a dissonant So can all of this be labelled ‘greenwash’? From worldwide, appeared in the New York the corporation that uses the gobbledygook of CSR Times. Milton stated: “there is one fug for too much of ‘benchmarking’ or ‘continued improvement matrices’ and only one social responsibility to the conspicuous consumption that makes us feel of business, to use its resources the time and yet still better about using more of the Earth’s resources, is this and engage in activities designed another infl ection of the free market capitalism which to increase its profi ts so long as it reserve the right to judge Friedman so adored but which a massive 82 per cent stays within the rules of the game.” of us still view with suspicion? Ethical Corporation magazine – corporations. Perhaps. If you want to take a more empowered a good read – spoke on his death look at what is or isn’t greenwash, then I’d urge you in 2006 of the service Friedman There is nothing new in corporations to download the greenwash guide recently published had done for the world of corporate seeking profi t but that pursuit has, from day by our good friends at Futerra. As ever it’s a pleasing social responsibility (CSR). He made one, been set against a context of wider social combination of intelligent analysis with a tip-strip you progressives in business sharpen good. As a society we continue to fasten a can bluetack to your computer screen. My closing up their act and add some rigour to judgemental eye on corporations. A poll by GdK comment would be this, however. their thinking, said the magazine. NOP in May revealed that consumers rank the It’s not just corporations that have a contract with They’re probably right and in Northwest’s very own Co-operative Group as society: we have one too. People drive cars, eat meat, some ways I may even be with Friedman on this one (at which point We are powerful, but we have to exert that power. my oldest friends and colleagues will no doubt faint). My only major shift the most ethical corporation, retaining the top buy cheap clothes and do too little to refl ect their own would be in what defi nes the ‘rules spot that it held in 2007. Next up come the values in their daily lives. We live in a dissonant fug for of the game’. Friedman’s stricture Body Shop and M&S, with Innocent Drinks and too much of the time and yet still reserve the right to was legal compliance; mine would Divine entering the top ten for the fi rst time. judge corporations. If we shift our behaviour then the be about the corporation’s wider Importantly though, the survey reveals marketplace changes too. The brightest and the best in contract with society. some skepticism in the marketplace: just 18 the business world know this. When you read the latest news per cent of the 3,000 consumers interviewed, We are powerful, but we have to exert that power. report on ‘green brands’ or ‘ethical compared to 21 per cent in 2007, believed We are complicit, and that should be in our frame of consumers’ or ‘fashionistas who that business ethics have improved in Britain. reference too. It’s a hippy mantra but Ghandi was right: wear hemp’ you realise that this Those two new entries into the top ten, you must be the change you wish to see in the world.

27 CONFERENCE EXHIBITION 3–5 NOVEMBER 4–5 NOVEMBER

Liverpool – the perfect host for WaterfrontExpo 2008

Connecting The famous Liverpool The expo takes place this This year’s conference will waterfront is a UNESCO year at the award winning cover topics including leisure, people with World Heritage Site, Liverpool new Kings Dock conference tourism, retail, residential the waterfront is the European Capital of centre, one of Europe’s and commercial property, Culture 2008, and the Port of most impressive and infrastructure, transport and 3–5 November Liverpool is the UK’s largest environmentally friendly communications. 2008 Freeport Zone, handling facilities. in excess of 34 million WaterfrontExpo is the only tonnes annually. To fi nd out more about platform for professionals attending or exhibiting at But especially signifi cant involved in waterfront design, WaterfrontExpo 2008 visit is that the waterfront lies regeneration, development, www.waterfrontexpo.com at the heart of a major construction and management or contact Andy Ballagh city-wide urban regeneration to meet, analyse and share on 01423 524 583. and development programme current thinking and best with a range of projects practice on the wide range guaranteed to whet the of issues confronting this appetite of anyone with specialised area. a professional interest in waterfront development.