Category: Environment

Get Growing! – Barton Alleys Get Fresh Look for the New Year

Could it be done here?

Over 200 households backing onto 9 alleyways in Barton, Salford are receiving an exciting green makeover thanks to a project supported by the Big Lottery Fund that has been running in the area over recent months.

Groundwork MSSTT (Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Trafford and Tameside) Based at Trafford Ecology Park in our very own Gorse Hill Ward. Project lead for the scheme.

Photograph published with kind permission of Groundwork MSSTT

It’s very disappointing that the High Court has confirmed the decision of the Planning Inspectorate allowing the incinerator to go ahead at Barton. I’m disappointed, but not totally surprised. The legal grounds presented in argument always seemed shaky at best and centred around the sustainability of a wood waste supply.

There is a finite supply of wood waste, but had the appeal been won, it would be difficult to see any future plant being developed no matter what the technology.

My main argument against this plant is that we live in an overly polluted area. The site of the Barton Plant is adjacent to the M60, one of our busiest motorways. We’ve allowed a shopping mall to be built there that’s almost impenetrable to any mode of transport except the car; certainly pedestrians and cyclists are deterred. The Environment Agency accepts that as a consequence, primarily through road transport, the pollution levels exceed the allowable levels all the way along the M60 here. Yet we’re not allowed to challenge the ludicrous decision of the Environment Agency to still permit the plant to operate at Barton.

And now we’re being subjected to a rogue’s gallery of Conservative candidates protesting how disappointed they are with the decision. This is the same Conservative Party that destroyed the buses, privatised the railways and built places like the Trafford Centre. Is it surprising the system is so rigged that we must not try to tackle air quality? We can tiptoe round the edges and ask how much wood-waste they can get their hands on. But don’t whatever you do suggest that the Tory way of travel is affecting our health. Because it is.

So has the process of opposing been worthwhile? Absolutely Yes! In my view it’s been a coming of age. There’s been an exponential growth in awareness of  environmental consequences and far more readiness to fight the next battle.

When Cameron is this desperate, you know the Tories want to deflect the sunlight.

Cameron’s yard-dogs have been blaming everyone during the Somerset floods. They’ve been smearing and leaking about the Environment Agency; they’ve been pointing the fingers at Councils, even Conservative run Councils; and they’ve been desperately dredging for reasons to blame anyone.

The Tories were right to be worried as there’s a devastating piece in the Guardian today pinning the blame squarely at Cameron.

The article explains:

• Changing demand has led to increased Maize production for animal feed
• The nature of Maize means that: Farmers have been ploughing land that was previously untilled and switching from spring to winter sowing, leaving the soil bare during the rainy season. And thanks to a wholesale change in the way the land is cultivated, the water – instead of percolating into the ground – is now pouring off the field.

Labour saw it coming. In 2005 it warned, “increased run-off and sediment deposition can also increase flood hazard in rivers”.

Labour turned this advice into conditions attached to farm subsidies. Ground cover crops should be sown under the maize and the land should be ploughed, then resown with winter cover plants within 10 days of harvesting, to prevent water from sheeting off.

“Because the current government dropped the conditions. Sorry, not just dropped them. It issued – wait for it – a specific exemption for maize cultivation from all soil conservation measures.”

So why isn’t this happening in Somerset?

“It’s hard to get your head round this. The crop which causes most floods and does most damage to soils is the only one which is completely unregulated.

Severe flooding on the road to Fitzroy by Roger Cornfoot, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons