Rio Connection - Rio 20+ Summit 20th - 22nd June 2012

This summer, 20 years on from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, government representatives from around the world will meet at a ‘Rio+20’ summit from 20th - 22nd June 2012 to discuss sustainable development.

Since 1992, there has been a realisation that economic and social progress is dependant on protecting the environment rather than being in conflict with each other.  However, we now need to remind our politicians of the importance of sustainable development, having a green economy and facing the challenges of the future.

A coalition of groups including Friends of the Earth within the Stop Climate Chaos coalition are supporting this initiative.

For more information, please visit www.rio-connection.org .

Revised National Policy Planning Framework published (NPPF) - Solihull FOE gives cautious welcome to changes made to draft version and adopts a 'wait, monitor and see' approach

The Government's NPPF which has condensed thousands of pages of planning policy into just fifty pages has been published today. You can find a copy of the NPPF via http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/2115939.pdf.

The draft version had included removing the requirement to consider building on brownfield land first and was generally heavily schewed towards a building 'free for all' and many different groups including Solihull FOE were right to strongly oppose it (For more information, you can read about the problems with the draft NPPF via comments made by various groups including Friends of the Earth and explained in just about every media outlet). Furthermore, it was not clear what the definition of 'sustainable development' meant.

Changes have now been made with the requirement to build on brownfield land first now reinstated, with Protection of the Green Belt, sites of special scientific interest and national parks retained and the Government has said that these can't be overridden by the presumption of yes to 'sustainable development'  The instrinsic beauty of non-Green Belt land has to also be recognised though with the presumption to 'sustainable development' in practice, it remains to be seen how much weight this consideration has when assessing whether a proposed development is 'sustainable' and therefore whether it should take place. However, we do welcome the specific protection for playing fields which help towards achieving important social goals as well as the pledge to prevent garden grabbing for development since we believe that inner cities have to be healthy places to live rather than turned into concrete jungles which are to the detriment of the environment.

The government's definition of 'Sustainable Development are the UN's five 'guiding principles' of sustainable development", which encompass environmental limits, a "strong, healthy and just society", a sustainable economy, good governance and good science.

Overall, we cautiously welcome some of the changes made to the draft NPPF. However, we are still very concerned about what the presumption for Sustainable Development means in practice. This NPPF is still very vague and therefore we have to monitor how it all works out. Although it is improved from its draft form, it is certainly still not a document that one can say is completely satisfactory to us but it's better than it was in theory at least.

Solihull Friends of the Earth recognises the housing shortage, particularly in parts of Solihull where there is a shortage of social housing and therefore are in favour of appropriate house building (Brownfield sites) which should be aimed to be low or even zero carbon and not at the expense of the environment (e.g. green spaces, woods, parks etc...). We also recognise the important role that businesses can play in the community to create much needed jobs and hope that further support can be given to firms who are in the renewable energy industry and those who want to operate via low or zero carbon.

However, if uncontrolled and unsuitable developments begins to arise as a result of the NPPF, then it will have proven to have still been a 'developer's charter' Therefore, we intend to continue to see how everything works in practice. This is why why we are only giving a cautious welcome to the revised version of the NPPF and our position is 'wait, monitor and see.'

What is your assessment of the NPPF ? All comments welcome...

Friends of the Earth Final Demand Campaign !!

BREAKING NEWS: 'White Elephant' HS2 project is given go ahead

News has just broken in the last few minutes that unsurprisingly, the government is giving the go ahead to their HS2 project.

Solihull Friends of the Earth would like to express their absolute disappointment at this short-sighted decision given by the government without serious consideration of the actual facts. As we have constantly made clear, the actual facts make it very clear that there is no business or environmental case. For more information, please see the response we gave to the HS2 consultation; http://solihullfoe.blogspot.com/2011/07/solihull-friends-of-earth-submit-their.html

Solihull Friends of the Earth will give a much more thorough response to this decision as more details emerge within the next few weeks.

What is your reaction to this decision ? Please feel free to leave any comments you may have on here. If you prefer, you can also email us your views on solihullfoe@gmail.com .

The Eco-Build, Solihull 

Solihull residents Peter and Paula Knott are currently in the midst of a back land development, of two green eco-homes with a predicted completion of 2013. The homes will have green roofs, rain water harvesting, photovoltaic and solar thermal panels, mechanical ventilation, heat recovery, ground to air heat pipes and heat pump technology. 

The couple are owners of a beautiful home on The Crescent in Solihull. Over the years they have been approached by property developers wishing to buy their land with the intent of building a development of 4-5 homes over this area. They however did not want to inflict such a development on themselves, or the neighbourhood, but they had found they had outgrown their home, with all their children having flown the nest. From this, an idea was born, to build their own smaller development on their land, preventing large scale property developers. The couple feel strongly about waste and improper use of energy resources, both having  backgrounds in chemical engineering and past experience in their own small scale property developments, the idea of the eco built came to them.  

Moving from imaginative idea to working progress has not been a smooth course. The original planning permission was initially turned down; however permission was eventually gained after lengthy consultation, with all points for which it was denied, being overturned by the inspectorate. General council support has been negative with comments such as “do tree huggers have this sort of money” and other issues such the effect of the development on the character and appearance of the area. However with the build being a back land development its impact is very minimal, especially garden roofs.  The majority of the neighbourhood have had no objections and the couple have been very sensitive to any issues that have arisen. The Knotts are completely dedicated to the project and intend to sell their house and move into a caravan on site until one of the homes is finished. Once both homes are finished they will reside in one and the other will be put on the market.  

The build began in July 2010, and is predicted to be complete sometime in 2013. A contributing factor towards the build was the Feed-In Tariffs, the government scheme that pays people for creating their own "green electricity”. Already within the space of the build, changes to this scheme have arisen meaning that the government intends to slash incentives for household solar electricity, and although disappointed the build may not see the benefits of the scheme Peter states that they are still fulfilling their aims to “live in a comfortable home and do the right thing”. 

Looking closely at one of the two homes, it will be fitted with 9 PV-T (photovoltaic and solar thermal) panels; these panels are a single solar collector which produces electricity, heating and domestic hot water. Predicted figures show that they will produce an average of 5.23 kWh/day of electrical energy and 8.75 kWh/day of thermal energy, with a combined carbon offset of 1416 Kg per an annum from the panels alone.  The building insulation will also be approximately double the current building regulations, and much of the water will be recycled within the property. The running cost of the house is predicted to be around 30 % less than a conventionally built home.  

When asked to comment on the issue of climate change Peter stated; “Global warming is happening, even if some disagree about the causes. It seems obvious to me that we should do what we can to make our lives sustainable, and that includes building houses of quality which minimise the use of all our precious resources. From our point of view the local authority have shown passing interest in our housing development, but have missed an opportunity to learn more and perhaps use it as a means to encourage others to do the same”. 

More information on the built can be found at www.at38thecrescent.co.uk/