Kingsway Villagers

Hi All,

I had a bit of a timely reminder about the importance of making sure your gardens are secure when I came home on Friday to find that my (still relatively new) bike had been stolen out of my back Garden.

So please learn from my mistake and check that all is secure in your garden.

Cheers
Barry

Calling all dog owners in Gloucester! Keep your eyes and ears open for Safer Gloucester’s new initiative Paws on Patrol!

We are inviting all dog owners to join the scheme, register yourself and your dog and be a “lookout” whilst you are walking in your neighbourhood each day.

Paws on Patrol will be launched in Gloucester Park at 12 noon on Saturday afternoon May 12th 2012.

The launch event will feature a demonstration of police dogs at work, an agility display and a novelty dog show as well as information stands that would be of interest to dog lovers to make it a family fun afternoon. The dog show categories will include the Prettiest Female, Most Handsome Male, the Cutest Pup (under 12 months), the Golden Oldie, the Waggiest Tail, Best Fancy Dress and the Best in Show. There will be many stands from caninne charities and businesses where you can get doggy training tips and beauty and massage tips, doggy photos and caricatures. We also have bouncy castles, face painting, balloon modelling, a fun agility course for children and small animals from the City Farm. It will be a great afternoon for all the family – bring your dog along to enter the show or try the fun agility course.

Dog owners can register in advance of the launch via the Safer Gloucester website by telephoning 01452 396984 and asking for a registration form to be sent out. The first 600 members attending the registration stand at the launch event will receive a goody bag containing a reflective dog collar, a poop bag and some crime prevention material – so come along and join us and bring your dog too!

Safer Gloucester recognises that dog walkers spend a lot of time out and about in their community and would be highly likely to recognise when something out of the ordinary is happening. We are asking Paws on Patrol members to be alert and report anything untoward that they see. At no time will they be asked to intervene in incidents – their role is simply to report and gather evidence. Members will be issued with a membership card that will hold all the necessary contact numbers including the Police non emergency numbers, Crimestoppers, the City Council and Highways.
Safer Gloucester Partnership is made up of Gloucester City Council, Gloucestershire County Council, the Police, Police Authority, Fire and Rescue Service, Probation and the Primary Care Trust.

Full details of the launch event can be found here.

At the recent Residents Association meeting, we were given a presentation by Peter Thorpe of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service regarding SkillZONE, a new state-of-the-art life size “village”, which is set to open in September 2012, in Tuffley Lane, Gloucester.

The “village” is a fully interactive learning environment or “Safety Education Centre”, designed to teach people of all ages how to recognise dangerous situations and stay safe. Small groups will be taken through each zone where their senses will be bombarded with sights, sounds and smells to make it a more realistic and memorable learning experience. There will be 16 zones, covering a range of scenarios including road, rail and water safety, an internet cafe, a building site and more, as well as opportunities to cover home and personal safety.

They need volunteer guides “to escort groups around the scenarios, encouraging visitors to identify dangers and actions to reduce / avoid the risk”, (candidates will receive training and will be required to give a minimum of two days per month).

For more information visit the Skillzone website.

Queens Jubilee Event 3rd June

Hi All,

The Residents Association is holding a Queens Jubilee Celebration on the 3rd June in the park land near Manor Farm.

Music is going to be central to this year’s event and as such we would like to include as many local bands as possible.

Unfortunately we are unable to pay any bands who play, however we will supply lunch and it’s some great exposure.

This is being made possible by Gloucester College so a big thanks to them.

If you are interested in playing then please contact paul@kingsway-villagers.co.uk

More information regarding the event, times etc will be posted shortly.

Also if you are interested in volunteering to help out on the day, we require people to help set up the area and also clear up afterwards. Please email the above address should you wish to help.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

…for assistance in leafleting and other PR activities against the incinerator at Javelin Park

Dear Kingsway Residents,

First of all, I would like to thank ‘wayofthekings’ for an excellent informative piece on the proposed mass burn incinerator at Javelin Park in Haresfield on 12th April 2012 (Editors Note: Here). Hopefully most of you are now well aware of the many reasons why the proposed incinerator should never be built.

As a mother-of-two, resident in Stonehouse, I am also very, very concerned that we may not prevent the incinerator being built next year if there are not enough Gloucestershire residents opposing this officially.

If you have not already done so, please send in a letter of objection to the planning application submitted by Urbaser Balfour Beatty, or object on-line via the GlosVAIN website or directly via the Gloucestershire County Council website as soon as possible. When I spoke to Ben Gilpin, the Senior Planning Officer of the Planning & Development Unit at Shire Hall on Monday 16th April, he confirmed that the original deadline of 17th April has been extended to Monday 21st May 2012. All objections submitted up to the new deadline of 21st May will definitely to be considered by the County Council Planning Committee. Furthermore, the Planning Committee must also consider any relevant objections raised after that date, as long as the objections are submitted before the Planning Committee meeting which determines the outcome of the planning application (Original determination date was in June, but this may now be postponed – possibly to late Summer or the Autumn).

For further information, you may wish to visit either or both of the websites below:

www.glosvain.info    …    www.gloucestershire-against-incinerators.org.uk

I am writing to appeal, on behalf of both anti-incinerator groups, GlosVAIN, and GlosAIN, for assistance in leafleting and other PR activities, particularly in Gloucester. We have had many volunteers assisting us in Stroud, Stonehouse, Quedgeley etc. but it has not been easy to find assistance in Gloucester city itself. There is a tentative plan to put up a small stand and banner at The Cross in Gloucester during a Farmers Market on a Friday, sometime over the next 4 weeks. In recent weeks, we have successfully obtained a few hundred signed standard letters of objection by asking members of the general public outside Tesco’s in Quedgeley & the Farmers Market in Stroud to sign letters of objection for submission to GCC. If nothing else, these signed standard letters of objection help show GCC the strength of local opposition to this unpopuler £500m project.

If you are able to assist in any way, please contact GlosVAIN as soon as possible by email: pr@glosvain.info

Best wishes,

Concerned resident in Stonehouse

URGENT – Re: Javelin Park – Mass Burn Incinerator – Last Chance To Take Action.

Dear Kingsway Resident,

Residents in and around Kingsway may be aware through reports in the local media that the County Council has received the planning application for the development of a mass burn incinerator on the Javelin Park site in nearby Haresfield. To put this in to geographical context, the Kingsway local centre is less than 4 miles ‘downwind’ of this facility which would operate for 25 years, if licensed to operate. It should be noted that the Bristish Isles receives a prevailing South Westerly wind off the Atlantic Ocean and the Severn Vale funnels this naturally in our direction.

In effect, nature will help to transmit the plume and its emissions over Kingsway and a significant swathe of the Gloucester, Stroud and Cheltenham Districts. Unlike council areas, however, emissions do not coveniently stop at administative boundaries and we should, for the sake of current and future generations, consider the wider effects on the atmosphere and how this is likely to influence air quality and climate change.

The Association and residents individually have an opportunity to express any objections, concerns or comments, however, these need to be submitted ASAP. The Council have been ambiguous over submission deadlines, origially citing 17^th April as the deadline. However, the Council must consider all comments right up until the time in which they formally consider the application at ‘planning committee’. This is likely to be JUNE but residents are advised to make their submission ASAP given the gravity of concerns expressed across Gloucestershire and the wider country on the issue of incineration. Individualised comments are considered to be more powerful and it’s important that residents publicly raise these concerns either online or by other means.

There are a great many concerns about this facility, primarily around emissions and their effects on children whose organs are still in development. Elderly adults and those with respiratory issues are also vulnerable as are those adults where there has been any history of Cancer in their family of origin. These may take many years to incubate and it is difficult to directly link incineration with poorer health outcomes. However, research has been, and continues to be carried out, and there is growing concern amongst medical professionals and people who live in close proximity to incinerators. This concern is based on research that links ‘morbidity’ and infant mortality to emissions from modern incinerators (or ‘Energy from Waste’ facilities to coin the industry’s term). It should be noted that health monitoring around incinerators is not carried out continuously and moreover, is placed in the hands of the plant operator who will have a vested commercial interest – please refer to the attached article in Private Eye which provides some thorough journalistic insight.

As an area that benefits from a lot of modern, affordable and social housing, Kingsway is especially vulnerable. Its demographic profile is more comparable with a city like Birmingham or Leicester than Gloucestershire and the UK as a whole. This is especially true if you consider the number of families, children and average age as a whole. Kingsway is well within the incinerator’s area of outfall for emissions which will carry some very toxic emissions. Some of these are known to be carcinogenic, a fact that no credible scientist, government official or politician can refute. However, incinerators tend to be situated in poorer urban areas with higher ‘background’ emissions from industry and traffic and this is enabling the plant operators to gain planning approval in some areas, even where there has been strong and well marshalled public opposition. It is part of a well rehearsed, stealthy, successful but morally corrupt strategy.

The incinerator firms are generally large multi-nationals backed by City financial institutions and it’s possible that during a time when the public are starting to come to terms with the scale of corruption in financial, journalistic and political circles, that standing governments and some of their political representatives are secretly benefitting from these deals which are being brokered privately and in the face of strong public opposition. This makes a mockery of the UK Government’s so-called Localism Agenda and is fundamentally undemocratic. Whilst this may seem unfair to many, it does help to account for the wrong-minded support amongst members of the Gloucestershire Conservative Party, who are primarily interested in scaremongering ‘tax payers’ about landfill taxes and austerity measures. In short, their personal, political and commercial interests outweigh any of the serious and authentic concerns that exist over public health. Those politicians clearly value their careers more than the legitimate concerns expressed by their constituents.

In every aspect, this £500mn project is risk positive; on commercial, environmental and ecological grounds. If you care about your health and well being, I strongly advise fellow residents to familiarise themselves with this proposition. Many of the politicians, officials and business people responsible for this project live many miles from Haresfield and Kingsway, yet they are gambling with YOUR future.

If, like me, you are very busy, the easiest way to raise an objection is through the automated online response embedded within Glosvain’s web site. This can take as little as one minute and transmits a generic objection which covers many of the concerns expressed above and by other Kingsway and Gloucestershire residents. These will be officially received and recorded by the Council’s planning department and legally, they have to be considered before any decision is made. You are free to adapt this objection as you see fit.

THIS IS THE LINK FROM WHICH TO RAISE OBJECTION.

ALTERNATIVELY, COMMENTS CAN BE RAISED DIRECTLY THROUGH THE COUNCIL’S OFFICIAL WEB SITE – THIS MAY TAKE A LITTLE LONGER BUT IS COMPARATIVELY EASY TO USE:

Step 1 – Visit This Page.

Step 2 – Click on “I have read the Important and Copyright Notices below and agree to the terms”.

Step 3 – Type “Javelin Park” into the search (less the speech quotes).

Step 4 – Click on “Proposed development of an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility….”.

Step 5 – Click on ‘Make a Public Comment’.

Step 6 – Populate the web form and submit your comments.

Finally, I would advise residents to remain sceptical about comments they may have read or heard about this being a “done deal”. This is not only undemocratic, but factually incorrect. If Urbaser are granted planning approval, the battle will intensify and the evidence base will only expand in favour of those who value their health, the environment…and the depth of their pockets.

My sincere best wishes to you and your family.

Concerned Kingsway Resident.

Enclosed: (1) Private Eye article

Editors Note: Previous posts on this subject:
Javelin Park Incinerator – Bidders’ Consultation – Exhibition 2
Kingsway RA Public Meeting
Infant Deaths Three to Four Times Higher Downwind of Incinerators
Have You Voted Yet?
Meeting with Richard Graham and Fred Wood
March Against Incineration – Saturday 18 April 2009

Related Documents:
Residents Association Minutes 23rd November 2011
Glosvain Presentation to Residents Association Meeting (23rd November 2011)