Islington FOE AGM 2008

Islington Friends of the Earth held their AGM on 17th July 2008.

Please click on the links below to download the co-ordinator's and treasurer's report.

Islington FOE Coordinator report 2008.pdf
Islington FOE Treasurers Report 2008.pdf

Lighting up Highbury Fields

The manager of the very popular Oasis cafe on Highbury Field knows about climate change. At least that what he says. Unfortunately he switches on his arrays of 60 watt light bulbs on very hot sunny days and as well as dull overcast days.

Not much of an example to the many kids that visit the cafe who have been told at school that we need cut back on energy use to save the planet.

Update Sept 1st 2008. The Highbury Fields Ranger from the council's Greenspace department has got involved, the lights are off and the carbon footprint of the cafe is very much smaller now.

Bring back the bottle banks

That seems to be the message from the British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation on June 16th. If we put our bottles in the recycling box for commingled processing, very little of the glass is used to manufacture new bottles, it ends up in the foundations for roads instead. Their press release says:

“The result is that the cullet is not only being colour mixed, it is also being compacted and mixed with the other materials, possibly making the end product less suitable for new containers. The cullet from such activities is not only potentially unsuitable for container manufacture but could also affect fibre applications. The result is it is only suitable for low grade applications such as aggregate from which little or no carbon benefit is derived.”

The British Glass Manufacturers have been to visit the North London Waste Authority and explain this. So says Councillor George Allan, who has just stepped down from the NLWA Committee. He says that the glass in the recycling bins also contaminates the paper making that fairly low value as well.

The EC recycling targets have been a good thing in that recycling rates have been forced up. However, in carbon terms, the old system of sorting everything into different bins ourselves had a lot going for it.

The looming UK energy gap in 2015

M.P.s Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry were both at the bike breakfast this morning at the Angel. Both confirmed that they had asked for amendments for the climate change bill to include international aviation and shipping and an 80% (rather than 60%) reduction target by 2050.

But the topic I wanted to discuss with Jeremy was the looming energy gap. It looks as if the government is going to encourage/permit all the ageing nuclear power stations to be replaced. And more significantly, the government has indicated that it wants to significantly increase the amount of nuclear power. As vice chair of CND, Jeremy opposes nuclear power. In any event, little of this will be in place by 2015.

Jeremy thinks that the government has made a prejudiced argument in favour of nuclear power. But I pointed out that the government's view is shared by many others (such as the Royal Society). Jeremy thought that opposition in Parliament to nuclear power has been muted but it would get much stronger going forwards.

I argued that I would prefer to use nuclear power and have a local (UK) nuclear waste problem than to use biofuels, still seen as a solution by many politicians, which takes food from the mouths of the poorest people in the world.

Jeremy thinks that we can manage with far less energy (which I agreed with) and he thought that energy would be rationed by price in 2015. I argued that no government should allow this to happen. He suggested that customers would be given a discount for the first N units and then customers would pay a premium for additional units. I pointed out that that would be unfair to large families. He argues that allocation could be based on the number of individuals per household. I said this was pretty similar to introducing personal carbon allowances which Emily had said a few months ago, was unpopular with many MPs.

Jeremy also mentioned that he'd considered putting solar PV on his roof. But it was too expensive. I pointed out that some individuals had had solar PV installed on their roof funded entirely by the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and Islington Council. He said 'good on the council'.

NO to a third runway at Heathrow

Islington Friends of the Earth along with some other people created an enormous NO in the middle of this field in Sipson village, which will be tarmaced over if the third runway is built. Special thanks go to Debbie for climbing up a nearby tree to get this photo. She's down on the ground on the left of the next photo.




There is free entry to the next monthly meeting of Islington Friends of the Earth if you can spot the difference between these two photos.

Islington FOE Membership Leaflet

Joining Islington Friends of the Earth

By joining Islington Friends of the Earth, you are adding your voice to others campaigning to change how we live our lives to protect our environment locally, nationally and across the world.

Joining costs very little - anything between £5 and £10, or we accept offers of time and help as well. Just fill in the relevant bit on the form.

To join, download Islington FOE Membership leaflet and send to our membership secretary (full details on the form).

the North London Eco Park

Many years ago Islington Friends of the Earth visited the incinerator at Edmonton. In those days the people who ran the incinerator were proud of how much they could burn

These days it is all very different.

On 6th May we re-visited the former fiefdom of Martin Jones (ex boss of North London
Waste) - the scene of our famous foray in 1991.

The Incinerator has now been rebranded the North London Eco Park and the incinerator is only allowed to burn "the residue we can't do anything else with". The I word isn't mentioned though as it's an energy centre and also on the site are ash recycling (for incinerator residue)wood chipping plants, bulky goods recycling and highly confidential waste recycling amongst other stuff.

A motley crew of us were taken on a school bus to see the composting facility. This has been functioning for two years and deals with the green and/or kitchen waste from the 7 boroughs making up North London Waste(Hackney, Camden, Islington, Barnet, Waltham Forest, Enfield and Haringay.)It handles 30,000 tons of waste per year and produces 15,000 tons of compost.

The food and green wastes are mixed together in a giant cement mixer type vehicle and then shredded in a monster shredder. Next they are taken to one of 16 tunnels where the composting takes place: bacteria break down the waste in the presence of moisture and oxygen producing CO2 and water as well as compost. If the waste is landfilled it decays anaerobically and produces methane, a much more potent climate changing gas. It reaches a temperature of 78-80C which kills pathogens and weeds. The whole process takes 12 weeks.

The tunnels are made of a Goretex material which keeps rain out but allows moisture and gases to pass out but keeps the smells in, following odour related complaints in 2006.

The compost we saw at the end had a lot of pine needles in from people's Christmas trees. They give it away to farms (over the last decade 15% of organic matter has been lost from agricultural land) within the M25 if possible and to allotments (hoping to give 4,000 tons to allotments in the 7 boroughs this year), the boroughs' Parks & Gardens and they have compost giveaways where people can come and help themselves.

Things have certainly moved on in the last seventeen years. Once upon a time it was considered okay to dig big holes in the ground and shove our waste in it. Then we thought we could burn it. Now slowly, slowly we have begun to realise that we cannot keep, almost literally, brushing the rubbish under the carpet. We have to deal with it. The transformation of Edmonton Incinerator into the North London Eco Park represents that change in attitude.

Flying blind?

Duncan plays the Prime Minister trying to ignore the exhortations of Debbie and John.



A climate change bill which excludes emissions from aviation is like going on a diet but eating all the chocolate you like. Or like introducing a drink driving law that excludes whiskey.

Other industries will have to play their part when the climate change bill becomes law. Why should the airline business be let off the hook?

Islington Friends of the Earth, along with FOE groups up and down the country, were out in force to remind Mr Brown that he must take into consideration aviation and shipping emissions in the climate change bill.


One of our members, Duncan, gamely volunteering to be our Gordon Brown for the day, tries to ignore the aeroplane John is launching at him, in the photo used in the Islington Gazette.

Today Newington Green - tomorrow the rest of Islington?

We are talking plastic bags here.
The pictures show you a few of the bags we saw littering Newington Green. If they were banned, then these kind of images would be a thing of the past.

We have joined forces with local residents of Newington Green to turn the area into a plastic bag free zone. Step one of the campaign kicked off with a survey on 29th March when we discovered that 94% of people questioned would be keen to see Newington Green go plastic bag free.

For more details on the campaign including more on why plastic bags are such a bad thing and how you can get involved, go to http://plasticbagfreenewingtongreen.blogspot.com

Stop Heathrow Expansion Public Meeting 7th February

Stop Heathrow Expansion Public Meeting

Thursday 7th February
7.30pm
Highbury Baptist Church
corner of Highbury Place and Baalbec Road N5
opposite Highbury Fields, Highbury

Click here for a map of the location

The campaign to stop the third runway at Heathrow Airport is holding a public meeting on Thursday 7th February in Highbury. It is the only meeting about this issue in North London and your chance to express about the government's misguided scheme to expand Heathrow Airport.

It is recognised that we need to take action now to cut CO2 emissions. After massive lobbying by Friends of the Earth and others the government has introduced a bill to create a legal framework to cut CO2 emissions.

If the third runway is built it will blow a hole in this government's plans to cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. Aviation already accounts for 34% of London's CO2 emissions. Expansion of Heathrow and more flights will mean that we will have to cut drastically other emissions such as heating our homes, travelling to work, and many other day to activities such as meet the planned cuts in CO2.

Further action

Find out more...
To find out more about the campaign and how else to get involved, go to http://www.stopheathrowexpansion.com/

Sign the petition...
Click here to sign a petition against the expansion

Respond to the government consultation...
The government is currently consulting on the third runway. If you would like to take part go to http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/heathrowconsultation/ The deadline is 27th February.


Come along to the mass rally at Central Hall in Westminster on 25 February

Islington FOE triumph at Ecology Centre Quiz

In their spare time some members of Islington FOE just love doing pub quizzes. On Friday 16th November all that extra-curricular activity paid off when we triumphed over several other teams to win the Islington Ecology Centre Quiz.

The quiz included questions on general knowledge, food and drink and Islington. There was also a section on the environment (taken from Nicola Baird's book, Save Cash and Save the Planet). Luckily we didn't embarrass ourselves too much on that bit!

It was a nail-biting finish as it came down to a tie-breaker but in the event we won through.

The event was organised to help raise funds for next year's Gillespie Park Festival

Islington FOE activities this autumn

We are planning a series of campaigning activities over the coming months:

The Big Ask campaign - we will be out and about putting the message across that the Climate Change Bill needs to be tougher

Recycling picks - following our recycling picks at the Emirates stadium last season we are planning further picks elsewhere in the borough, rescuing rubbish that would otherwise go to landfill

Camapaign Against Climate Change March and Rally - and we will joining many others on the Campaign Against Climate Change March on 8th December

There will also be our regular monthly meetings and no doubt we will organising a Christmas gathering to round off the year's campaigning.

If you would like to get involved in any of these activities, get in touch with our co-ordinator. Email sltaylor001@yahoo.co.uk

Islington FOE at the Canal Festival

The sun shone for us at the Angel Canal Festival



Jenny, Debbie and Andrew


We were much in demand by local politicians. John chatted to several Liberal Democrat councillors and Stephen found himself in demand to have his photograph taken with...


... Bridget Fox, formerly local councillor and current prospective parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems in Islington South

and...



Sarah Ludford MEP

All Lib Dems. It's good to see they support the Big Ask campaign.

Another eighty five people came by to sign Big Ask postcards, as well as Sarah and Bridget.

Islington FOE at the Canal and Gillespie Park Festivals

Islington Friends of the Earth will be running stalls at the Islington Canal Festival and the Gillespie Park Festival on the 2nd and 9th September.

The Climate Change Bill may come before Parliament this autumn so we will be using the opportunity to encourage people to send a message to our local MPs asking for it to be a strong bill that actually cuts greenhouse emissions.

The Canal Festival runs from 11am until 5pm at City Road Basin. Gillespie Park Festival is at the Ecology Centre from 2pm to 6pm.

If you are planning to attend either event do come along and say hello.

AGM 2007

Our Annual General Meeting took a record breaking fifteen minutes to complete.
There were three items on the Agenda:
Review of the year
Treasurer's report
Election of officers

Click on the links below to see the review of the year and the treasurer's report.



Islington Friends of the Earth has three officers (current occupants in the brackets):
Co-ordinator (Stephen Taylor)
Treasurer (Debbie Haigh)
Membership Secretary (Andrew Fuller)

All the current occupants were re-elected unopposed.

Arguing for Higher Parking Permit Charges at Speakers Corner

Well Islington Council set up a mock Speakers Corner complete with some Emily Pankhurst lookalikes on Tuesday 5th on Islington Green and Roger Lawson from the Association of British Drivers and I used megapahones to shout at each other. Needless to say the ABD are against higher charges but seemed to drop their previous stand that climate change wasn't happening. Anyway it was all pretty relaxed. Be interesting to see what the local papers make of it. Let's hope more people go out and vote.

The Big Art

The Big Art exhibition Monday 4th - 17th June 2007

The exhibition opened at 6.30pm on Monday 4th June, with a speech by Martyn Williams, Parliamentary Campaigner for Friends of the Earth. Several councillors attended including Lucy Watt, lead councillor for the environment. Tea and cakes were supplied courtesy of Islington WI.

We would like to thank the N1 Centre for allowing us the space for the exhibition, Islington WI for organising the catering and the children of Islington Arts Factory for creating the works of art.

The exhibition, was run in conjunction with N1 WI (Islington Women's Institute) and Islington Arts Factory, is supporting Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign to call for a tougher climate change bill and to raise awareness of the personal responsibility we all must take to reduce our carbon footprint

We welcome the fact that the government has introduced the bill but feel that it needs to be much stronger.

We want to see:
Bigger cuts The Government propose a 60 per cent cut of carbon dioxide by 2050. We need reductions of at least 80 per cent.
Annual targets The Government want five year budgets for CO2. We want shorter targets - to hold the current Parliament to account.
Aviation and shipping International flights and shipping emissions are excluded. We want these included.

For more on the Big Ask campaign, visit http://www.thebigask.com/

Some of the children's artwork

The artwork on display after the hanging

Councillors at the opening

Islington's Draft Core Strategy

Islington council have recently consulted on their draft Core Strategy. This document will underpin the council's decisions on planning applications so it is crucially important to include measures in new developments that will help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Islington Friends of the Earth have responded to the consultation exercise. You can view our response, click on the link below.



For more on the Core Strategy consultation process visit Islington Council's website at http://www.islington.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/PlanningPolicy/CoreStrategy/

Recycling at the Emirates Stadium - an update

Whilst Manchester United were struggling to retain their lofty position at the top of the Premiership on Sunday afternoon, a gang of us were outside their opponents, Arsenal's ground collecting tin cans discarded by the fans. By half time we had collected 350 drinks cans that would otherwise have gone to landfill or incineration.

This was the third collection we have done this season to highlight the lamentable lack of recycling facilities at Arsenal's new stadium, the Emirates. In October we had collected 18 kilos of tin cans, and glass and plastic bottles. Back in December some 700 drinks cans were collected during the entire match. This is the tip of the iceberg however.

On every occasion we observe Islington council's street cleaners doing a magnificent job collecting rubbish abandoned by the fans on the way to the match. Unfortunately everything they collect will go to landfill or incinerated, adding to the amount of waste the UK throws away.

And recycling saves energy as well. Recycling aluminium cans saves 95% of the energy that would be used to make them out of raw material. The amount of energy to make a glass bottle is 50% less if the source is recycled material. And glass is 100% recyclable. 85% of PET plastic bottles end up in landfill but every single bottle that is recycled saves nearly half a kilogram of carbon emissions.

It is time that Arsenal took its environmental responsibilities seriously. Many of the European clubs they play have recycling facilities for their fans. Other UK clubs from Manchester City to Dartford FC have built new stadiums with environmental sustainability in mind.

Arsenal scored an own goal when they chose to behave like an environmental dinosaur over the building of their new stadium.

Click here to view more photos of our recycling pick

Gas Guzzlers in Islington - an update

An update to our earlier story on gas guzzling cars

Following the news that Richmond Council are planning to introduce variable parking rates based upon vehicle emissions, Islington Friends of the Earth put out the following press release:

PRESS RELEASE: Islington FOE demands a £1000 per year parking permit charge for gas guzzlers

Islington Friends of the Earth urges Islington Council to link the cost of residents' on road and estate parking permits to their vehicles' CO2 emissions [1] [2]. The initial top rate charge should be set at £1000 and the charge should be adjusted annually in line with targets to cut CO2 emissions in the borough.

Both Labour and LibDem parties made commitments about maintaining or reducing or parking charges[3] [4]. However, Islington FOE believes that these commitments should be abandoned in light of recent reports and recommendations on climate change. The Stern report due to be published Monday 30th, forecasts economic depression if we fail to tackle climate change seriously.

Islington FOE coordinator, Stephen Taylor said, "Climate Change is real and happening now. Motor vehicles of all types already contribute about a third of all CO2 emissions. Gas guzzling vehicles make the situation worse. Action must be taken now or our children and grandchildren will have to pay for our wasted opportunities today. Drivers of gas guzzling vehicles, like all of us, need to be aware of the consequences of their actions on future generations. If they do not, then they must be made to pay."

Islington FOE coordinator, Stephen Taylor said "The use of gas guzzling cars in an inner London borough such as Islington is abhorent. They are far too big, taking up too much space when they are moving and when they are parked, adding to Islington's congestion. When parked on the road they take up far too much parking space that is already at a premium in London. On the move, their sheer bulk can intimidate other more vulnerable road users."

Islington FOE campaigner, John Ackers said "Many of Islington's educated and affluent residents read about climate change and tipping points every week in the Guardian. Yet they still go out and buy these dreadful vehicles. The council must send a clear message to these residents that these vehicles have no place in Islington."

The story was carried in the Islington Tribune quoting Islington's Labour environment spokesman, James Murray, "In principle it's a good idea just as long as increasing charges for gas guzzlers is a genuine move to improve the environmnet, and not another opportunity by the Lib Dems to make more money." Like Richmond, Islington is a Liberal Democrat controlled council. With both main parties backing such a scheme it can only be a matter of time before variable parking rates are introduced in Islington.

Click here to view the full story