Rushmoor Local Plan News

Blackwater Valley Friends of the Earth has helped to win a major victory for the local environment by saving Hawley Woods from development. In a surprise pronouncement, the Ministry of Defence, who own the woods in north Farnborough, said that they were withdrawing their plans to sell 70 acres. BVFoE had lodged objections to Rushmoor council plans to use 10 acres of the land to build 70 houses. These objections were due to be heard at the second half of the Local Plan Inquiry (due to start in September). The plans will now have to be dropped from the Local Plan and therefore our objections together with over 200 from our supporters and other members of the public will also be dropped.

Why the MoD decided to shelve the sell-off is unclear, but the number of objections must be a factor in the equation. This shows the strength of public pressure and for this our group must give itself a pat in the back as we along with other interested parties were instrumental in getting the public to file their mass of written objections to the inquiry last year.

This is the second local plan inquiry in a row which has resulted in a triumph in saving the woods. In the previous inquiry in 1991 the inspector turned down the council plans after hearing the objections. This time it didn’t even get as far as the inspector! Let’s make sure that the next inquiry in the new millennium does not even have to discuss Hawley Woods and leaves it as a green undeveloped area for all time.

The good news on Hawley Woods has been tempered by the uncertainty that there will be over the Farnborough Airfield. The first half of the Rushmoor Local Plan Inquiry has just taken place during the month of July and has been devoted entirely to the airfield. Representations from all parties were made of the objections to the council plans and now we have to wait anxiously to see how the DETR inspector has decided to act when he issues his report at the end of the year.

There were broadly three positions given at the inquiry. These can be summarised as follows:

• Our position along with Future Farnborough Aerodrome Group (FFAG) and supported by the majority of the objections from the members of the public is that there should be about the same level (or less preferably) of flights (about 8,000 movements a year). The planes should be limited to the current 35 tonne weight limit, which allows only the smaller business jets to use the airfield. If this means that the airfield is not a viable commercial proposition then the land should be returned to the people as ‘common land’ just as Newbury Council are doing with Greenham Common ex-US airforce base.

• The position taken by Rushmoor Council is that they believe that they are acceding to the government’s wishes in proposing that the number of movements at the airfield be increased so that commercial flying is viable. They want up to 20,000 movements a year and the aircraft weight limit increased to 50 tonnes. We have always challenged the assumption that this current government wants the airfield to be a commercial proposition since no such implicit statement has been made by them - Rushmoor Council are harking back to a statement made by the now defunct Dept. of Transport (it is of course now DETR) in 1996.

• The third position is taken by TAG the company (famous for its watches) that has been selected by the Ministry of Defence for the 99 year lease of the airfield. They (surprise, surprise) want no limit to the number of movements or the weight of aircraft. They are saying that the limit to the number of aircraft movements will be the average noise level which will not exceed that of 1997. Furthermore they are exerting undue pressure on the MoD and council (and hence the local plan inspector) by saying that if they don’t get their own way they will pull out of the leasing.

Well done, Adrian Ashurst, in giving an excellent verbal presentation of our objections to the inquiry. FFAG also gave notable testimony concentrating on the safety aspects of the airfield, particularly the close proximity of the end of the runway to Farnborough College. Adrian concentrated on the increased air pollution that will inevitably result from increased movements at the airfield. This pollution will not only be caused by the aircraft themselves but by the increased road traffic for servicing and ferrying passengers around, primarily on the already congested Farnborough Road.

We hope that the inspector takes FoE and FFAG inquiry objections into serious account when he gives his final verdict. There is also 400 odd written objections from the public and other interested local groups to give him extra food for thought. It will be a disgrace for the Local Plan democratic process if he decides to dismiss all this and give Rushmoor Council what they want or even worse give in to TAG.

The news that the respected medical journal The Lancet had published new research which showed that babies near certain types of rubbish tips were at risk caused a certain amount of concern and anxiety to the group recently. The reason being that one of the 400 nationwide tips on the list as reported in The Times and confirmed by national FoE was a local site up in Ash called East Wyke Farm owned by Sherwood Brothers.

For those not familiar with the Lancet article, it reported on a team of researchers who had picked 21 sites in Europe (including UK) and counted the numbers of any birth defects registered in the area over a number of years. This showed that mothers living within 3km of a hazardous waste site are one third more likely to have babies with birth defects than mothers living between 3 and 7km away. The further away from the landfill site that the mother lived, the smaller the likelihood of a child having a birth defect.

The local site at Ash has a licence from the Environment Agency to take wastes which "present difficulties in handling greater than household waste". A letter from the EA in West Ewell sent in response to a query from our group gave us details of the site. Apparently it consists of four lagoons and a clinker bed filter for the deposit of "liquids and slurries from cesspools and drain serving domestic premises". Groundwater is taken and analysed from boreholes outside the site by the EA and is apparently within limits for discharges of organics. However, heavy metals such as lead and cadmium have not been measured presumably because they are not expected in domestic waste.

This information has alleviated some immediate concerns that we had about toxics being dumped in the Blackwater Valley area, but the group will be keeping tabs on this site in the future. The fact that the amount of toxic waste in the UK grew by 25% between 1986 and 1998, with nearly one million tonnes deposited in landfill sites annually, means that sites such as the one at Ash may be encouraged in the future to take more dangerous substances.

1997 figures for recycling collection in Rushmoor supplied by James Woollhead :

Glass 668 tonnes

Newspapers 445 tonnes

Textiles 60 tonnes

Cans & plastic bottles 216 tonnes

Three of the group went to the conference this year - Jonathan, Les and myself. It was held at Bath University over a long weekend in September, and was attended by about 250 delegates of which 200 represented the many groups in England, Wales and N.Ireland.

As I was a conference ‘virgin’ I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and thought it might be like the one-day intensive workshops that are organised by FoE, except carrying on for three days! I was therefore pleasantly surprised that, yes, there was some serious stuff discussed over the time, but also some good fun including some lively light-hearted debates; chats with new and old friends alike; and not forgetting the party on the Saturday night until 2 am Sunday!

The motions debate was one of the more serious sides of the weekend. A summary of the motion highlights:

• An emergency motion for legal and personal support for Richard Dixon of Somer Valley FoE was passed unanimously. Richard was recently convicted and imprisoned on trumped up conspiracy charges arising from damage to quarry railway tracks in the Mendips.
• A motion to withdraw FoE support for ‘Right to Roam’ produced some good debating from both sides. At the final vote the motion fell as it was felt that we should encourage the freedom of individuals against the massive landowners in this country.
• Two motions were passed that effect our group. First was the consideration to give increased regional funding for Local Groups (i.e. decentralisation from Underwood St). Secondly our region, South Central, is going to get its own office at last. Up to now we have had to rely on the SE office in Brighton.
• Finally, the motion to provide a Youth & Education Officer for encouraging young people to join was passed.

I think we were all inspired by the excellent work going on by other local groups, including the Bill and Ben peat campaign by Leeds; the defeat of the field trials of GM crops by Malborough; and the N. Ireland FoE movement getting going at long last.

Finally, our now famous picture of the papers in Camberley was shown two days running. Good publicity, well done group!

The group was out in the centre of Camberley during a Saturday in the summer in order to get publicity for the Recycled Content of Newsprint Bill. We succeeded very well with not only getting a lot of attention from shoppers during the day, but getting excellent coverage in the Camberley News to boot.

The Bill is about setting legally binding targets for the amount of recycled paper that should be used in UK newsprint. Currently, despite the many boasting adverts you see in our papers, the average recycled content of the paper they are printed on is just 40%. This means that 60% is virgin newsprint mostly from the ancient forests of Scandinavia, Russia and Canada. As the UK is the world’s fifth highest consumer of paper, getting through 2.2 million tonnes per year, this means that we are getting through a lot of trees for our newspapers. This is having adverse effects in the exporting countries. In Sweden and Finland, for example, over 95% of the old, wildlife-rich natural forest has already been felled. The result is that in Sweden over 1700 forest-dwelling species are at risk and 700 in Finland. These species include the flying squirrel, the capercaillie and several woodpecker species. The way of life of the Saami people (natives of north Scandinavia) is also in jeopardy.

The proposed Bill would set a mandatory target of 80% recycled content by 2010. This would be phased in by making a target of 65% by 2003, and 70% by 2006. The Bill has already been presented to the House of Commons as a ‘Presentation Bill’- this is a way of starting to generate interest, but bills introduced in this way have very little chance of becoming law. To become law it will be necessary for the Bill to be reproposed this autumn as a Private Members Bill. To ensure that an MP who wins a place in the Private Members ballot takes the Bill, we need to show that there is widespread support in Westminster from other MPs.

One of the objectives from our local action day was to collect signatures from the Surrey Heath electorate in support of the Bill. These would then be used to persuade the MP, Nick Hawkins, to sign the Early Day Motion, EDM 883, which is a way of the MPs showing their support. We collected more than 100 signatures during our 4 hours at the table.

However Nick Hawkins has so far declined to sign the EDM. The letter he sent the group explained that he "rarely signs EDMs" as there "are now so many that their value is often minimal".

Admittedly there are 1817 EDMs to date this session, however this does not explain why (according to the House of Commons web site) Mr Hawkins has signed 46 so far this year!

The Bill would also ensure a guaranteed market for the newspaper collected in our local recycling banks. At the moment the market for waste paper is very volatile due to no large stable domestic market. For example, in 1986 prices of recycled newspapers were so high that collected papers were being stolen if they were left lying around! Now they are so low, councils are having to pay to have them collected. This price fluctuation is inhibiting our local councils from planning further expansion of the paper banks.

If all these good green issues are not enough to convince our local MPs to support it, finally another improvement important to everyone that should result from the Bill is to the economy. It has been estimated that by 2010 the 80% recycling target would mean an additional 10,000 jobs in the UK. And that is not all, relying on UK produced recycled newsprint would mean fewer imports, potentially saving £175 million a year!

An appropriately sunny day in Farnborough saw us gathering in the town centre with three brave volunteers from the group - Emily, James and Jonathan - dressing up as daisies!

It was all in aid of the Wildlife Day of Action a vital part of the FoE campaign to get stronger legal protection for wildlife especially for the nation’s most important wildlife areas, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), of which our area has a number around the Basingstoke Canal and Ministry of Defence lands.

There are a total of 6,500 SSSIs in the UK, but because in a lot of cases the private landowners are not caring properly for them, over 300 are getting damaged every year and nearly 800 are under threat from development or agricultural purposes. This is because the existing law - the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 - does not have enough teeth to compel the owner to manage the area.

National FoE has joined forces with 21 other national environmental groups to produce the Wildlife Charter (Contact Rick for a copy) which calls for a set of amendments to the existing Act. There is also an Early Day Motion, EDM 559, currently before Parliament which calls on MPs to support the Charter. We are hoping that these changes will be incorporated in a Wildlife Bill initiated in the next Queen’s Speech this autumn.

A main aim of the Day of Action was to try and convince the MP for Aldershot, Gerald Howarth, to sign the EDM. Unfortunately we could only guess at his opinion to a new Wildlife Bill since the letter we wrote to him some weeks before the day had gone unanswered.

The way that we showed concern from the Farnborough public on the day was by getting them to sign a cardboard daisy which pledged support to our campaign - hence our volunteer daisies. And what a success!! with nearly 200 signed in 3 hours there was obviously seen a need by the local people to protect the most precious of our few remaining green sites in Rushmoor. These daisies were then stapled together to form an impressive 5 metre long cardboard daisy chain suspended across Queensmead !!

After the day, as contact had still not been able to be made with Mr Howarth, it was decided to send the Daisy Chain to him with an accompanying plea for him to sign EDM 559 as so many of his constituents were concerned about the disappearing SSSIs and wanted increased protection. Unfortunately this package brought no response from him, not even an acknowledgement to say thanks for the lovely daisy chain that must surely be adorning has Westminster office now!

However the good news is that although Mr Howarth will not sign, 289 MPs had signed the EDM up to early September. Even better news was that Michael Meacher (Environment Minister) has now acknowledged that more protection is required and has made some specific proposals. It is now up to Downing Street to make sure that these appear in the Queen’s speech in October as a Wildlife Bill for next year.

Incidentally, for those of you on the internet, the FoE has an excellent guide to SSSIs. It is called the FoE Wild Places! web site and the address is:

<http://www.foe.co.uk/wildplaces>

E-mail : julie@kimber.u-net.com

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