Climate Change Campaign Update - June 2019

Council meeting
Tomorrow Richard and Beatrice’s will be meeting with Sheffield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Streetscene and Climate Emergency, Cllr Lewis Dagnall

Context on the meeting - Lewis requested meeting with Extinction Rebellion and other climate groups. Beatrice is attending the meeting with Richard and will be discussing the Green Commitment for Sheffield which is now 2 years old and see what is progressing. Rachel for the Sheffield Climate Alliance will also be attending. Richard has been speaking with Simon Bowens, FOE rep for the North East about the key messages for the meeting. Group discussed sending out a press relase after the meeting to keep up the pressure.

Cycling

Dexter from Cycle Sheffield shared information about their campaigns for a cycle friendly city through enabled infrastructure. They responded to Sheffield’s transport strategy with the view that the climate change section was rather weak as did other charities but from their responses it has been improved so is now sounding a bit more ambitious on the walking and cycling plans. With transport producing the biggest amount of greenhouse gases there needs to be clear indicators on how they can decrease that.  Sheffield Council does not have the funds to do everything in the transport strategy priorities and the worry is that they will just continue to do road improvements. Sheffield Cycles advice to the council is to look at schemes such as in Nottingham where they have a Parking Levy for businesses for 10 or more car parking spaces at £400 per space. This is then used on sustainable transport. Lewis has said that this can’t work for Sheffield as it has a different distribution of businesses in the centre. We will raise these points  in discussions with the council.

Cycle Sheffield have a great article relating to transport in Sheffield. The link is here.

Picture Source: pixabay.com

HS2

FOE’s position on HS2 is that it is loads of money to spend instead of improving the current rail network. 

Trees
Webinar on doubling Tree Cover on the 1st of July –  Amy registered and to feedback to the group.
Richard discussed an idea for a schools student climate confrence. Sara discussed the event for young campaigners happening in Keele soon and will share info with the group.

Picture Source: pixabay.com

Air Pollution Campaign - April 2019

Graham provided an update on his monitoring kits which are now at many pollution hot spots (51 already on line providing data). Richard is providing Air Pollution activities in schools and liaising with media contacts who are interested in local school campaigns.

The pollution hot spots can be viewed using this link

The Hunters Bar School screening project was cited as a great example of schools and parents taking the initiative to protect their children from the effects of air pollution. Click here for more details of the project.

Air Pollution - Campaign Update March 2019

Monitoring kits/School Streets campaign -Richard has been working on this with Rachel Hand (Sheffield Climate Alliance) and Graham Turbull (Clean Air Parents’ Network). They are working with schools including Greystones who are keen to act on air pollution monitoring and Rivelin (who are interested in plastics as well as air pollution).  As well as consulting with head teachers on school strategies to reduce local air pollution by restricting traffic at the start and end of the school day. Richard has done both lessons with Year 5 students and a Clear Air school assembly and is planning to do further ones.

We discussed Extinction Rebellion's planned action for blocking the traffic at 8am on Tuesday outside Sheffield station.

Air Pollution Campaign Update - February 2019

We have various new materials from national FoE including fracking and air pollution posters and leaflets.

Monitoring kits – Graham has a strategy for collecting monitoring data across the city and event to make the kits is planned provisionally for 10-12am on 10th March at The Diamond (so long as parts arrive in time). Discussed how best to engage people across the city in making and installing kits.

School talk & School Streets campaign – Rachel Hand from SCA met with Richard and Graham to discuss the campaign last week. Graham did the petition last year for School Streets and took to the Council but as Jack Scott currently suspended, meeting with council is on hold but Graham will follow up with Cllr Jack Scott’s PA who had organised the meeting. He is also working with a number of schools interested in School Streets campaign and sharing information and support with monitoring kit, offering talks etc.

Sheffield FoE have “Clean Air “lessons and an assembly that we can deliver to any schools that  request it. Greystones Primary have taken up this offer in March.

Charging Points - Last week there was a City council announcement of 20 rapid charge points for Ultra-Low emission taxis “which will help more taxi drivers make the switch to low-pollution vehicles.”

Air Pollution Update - December 2018

A while back a FOI request was turned down by Sheffield City Council. National FOE is pursuing this and just keeping us informed.

The Clean Air Zone may not include private cars if required levels can be met without this although FoE’s policy is to continue to advocate their inclusion.

Client Earth – there is a potential contact which Richard will pick up who is interested in getting involved and potentially leading on air pollution.

Air Pollution Campaign Update - November 2018

Sheffield City Council has now announced that it plans to establish a Clean Air Zone by 2021 and it will apply to buses, coaches, HGVs, LGVs, vans, taxis and private hire vehicles but not cars. There will be a consultation from January 2019. More details can be found at the links below:

• https://sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/news/saving-lives-city-unites-around-bold-action-to-make-our-air-cleaner-and-safer/
• https://sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/news/what-people-across-sheffield-are-saying-about-new-clean-air-zone/
• https://sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/news/statement-bus-bosses-respond-to-clean-air-proposals/
• https://www.airqualitynews.com/2018/11/20/mixed-views-on-sheffields-caz-proposal/
• https://www.thestar.co.uk/our-towns-and-cities/sheffield/sheffield-city-centre-congestion-charge-set-for-buses-taxis-vans-and-lorries-1-9441222

At the time of the SCC announcement, Shaun produced a very good press release and Beatrice did an excellent interview to promote the issue. Client Earth have been in touch with Shaun as they would also like to work with us on this and contribute to the consultation when it opens. They have a parents’ network and Simon mentioned FoE have some new materials for schools and informed development of school “exclusion zones” for peak periods which have encouraged parents to walk their children to school.

Simon reported on national air quality campaigning and the progress in other cities announcing Clean Air Zones, eventually expecting about 20 cities to need to develop similar action plans.

The SCA AGM was devoted to Air Pollution and they have been campaigning for the Clean Air Zone over the summer. Drew will represent FoE at the SCA meeting tomorrow (20/11/18). There is another FoE teleconference during the week as well.

Related to transport and air pollution is the Supertram consultation. Individuals have contributed along with Sheffield Climate Alliance. The preferred option is to replace the system with new rails and trams rather than adhoc improvements or scrapping it altogether. There is also a petition for improving public transport. Please sign here https://www.change.org/p/save-our-south-yorks-buses 

Other News - October 2018

The group reviewed the updated Friends of the Earth ‘Trade mark license’ and ‘Local group charter’. Shaun suggested that it would be extremely useful if it was possible to donate to local groups through the national Friends of the Earth website.

The consultation regarding Sheffield Supertram ends on Monday 5th November. Sheffield City Council are considering several options. To have your say visit: https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/futuretram/

Air Pollution Campaign - September 2018 Update

Sheffield Climate Alliance are promoting their work on Air Pollution and Transport at their AGM on 16th October. Jenny Bates from Friends of the Earth will be speaking at the event.

Air pollution - May 2018

Shaun had responded to the Green Journeys press release. As a result of this Hallam FM contacted us and Beatrice gave an interview for the main news bulletin which went out at drive time.

Richard shared the latest council ideas for air pollution and transport - https://www.thestar.co.uk/our-towns-and-cities/sheffield/new-ideas-to-tackle-air-pollution-in-sheffield-1-9164372.

Air Pollution Update February 2018

Shaun mentioned that the future Friends of the Earth campaign is likely to focus on idling cars but we are awaiting strategy from Friends of the Earth.

Richard shared materials from Healthy Air Leeds campaign.

The big solutions to tackle air pollution in Sheffield at the moment are:
Bueses
£1.9m will be invested to retrofit 117 buses across the Sheffield network with emission reduction technology. Once upgraded, the buses will produce less NOx emissions per kilometre than many types of modern car. The retrofit will reduce NOx emissions of buses to Euro VI standard, complying with standards set out in the council’s Clean Air Strategy. Upgrade work will be prioritised on the bus routes that travel through the worst pollution corridors – particularly First’s routes 51, 52a, 75/76, 81/82, 95 and 97/98, plus the Stagecoach routes 7 and 25. These buses travel around 7.8 million kilometres each year (4.8m miles) and so this prioritisation will significantly improve air quality across the city. For more details see: http://www.sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/bus-investment/

Hydrogen Vans
Amey has two hydrogen powered vans at its depot at Olive Grove. It is gearing up to run another 15 electric vehicles to replace the current diesel vehicles. Hydrogen for the vehicles will be provided by ITM Power from their hydrogen station based at Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield – one of only a handful of hydrogen refueling stations outside of London. The hydrogen used is produced on site using renewable energy from a wind turbine. For more details see http://www.sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk/streetsaheadhydrogenvehicles/

Ofo Bikes
The Ofo bikes have been a huge success in Sheffield and hundrens more bikes are due soon. For more details see https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-set-to-get-hundreds-more-yellow-scan-and-ride-ofo-bikes-as-scheme-proves-big-hit-in-city-1-9017047

Air Pollution Campaign - January 2018

The National Clean Air Day will be on Thursday 21 June, but we should try to arrange a stunt on the Saturday before so we have time to get the media work completed ready for the actual day.
ACTION: We will create a plan nearer the time, but please put Saturday 16 June in your diary and let us know if you have any ideas or would like to get involved.

Sheffield City Council Strategy – Richard provided an update from meetings with Jack Scott on plans including current transport strategy for buses and trains. Green City Action Plan should in principle go to Cabinet soon.

There is an opportunity to run a workshop on air pollution for a Healthy Planet group who are holding a three day meeting in Hathersage
ACTION: Richard to put them in contact with Lauren

Air Pollution Update - November 2017

Clive Betts's letter to Beatrice has been circulated with agenda and sets out his views on a number of issues including the potential impact of electing a local mayor and a tram expansion. Since nationalising rail is Labour policy and there are other relevant issues (cycle lanes., HS2 etc) there is potential to get a dialogue with local MPs on the wider transport issues.

There is a free Air pollution kit for schools available from Friends of the Earth. See https://www.foe.co.uk/clean-air/clean-air-schools-educating-generation-about-air-pollution for more details. Please share this with interested schools.

Councillor Douglas Johnson from the City ward would like to get his residents involved with monitoring local air quality. He has a proposal to buy a large number of monitoring kits to monitor over a long period. It was suggested it was an excellent way to get local residents involved and the East End Project (Neil Parry) might be interested. If anyone from the city ward is interested then please get in touch with Douglas: douglas.johnson@sheffield.gov.uk

Beatrice was congratulated on her success in getting some good coverage of air pollution in the Yorkshire Post. See http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/it-s-time-to-clear-the-air-sheffield-wants-to-tackle-vehicle-pollution-1-8820497

There is a new Sheffield bike share scheme being launched in December and seems a positive development and the impact worth monitoring. Discussed whether potential for FoE to get involved. See http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/launch-of-city-bike-share-scheme-1-8854491 and https://www.ofo.com/

Events Update - November 2017

Zero Carbon Yorkshire
Richard reported on an event with a presentation from Centre for Alternative Technologies (CAT) on “Zero Carbon Britain” where we can power the country using existing technology. See http://zerocarbonbritain.com/en/ for more details.

Peace and Craft Fair
Several people from the group ran a stall at the Peace and Craft Fair with information leaflets about fracking and air pollution.

Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Monday 18 December 2017 at 7.30 pm and Christmas meal at 8pm. If you would like to join us then please contact Liddy on e.goyder@sheffield.ac.uk

Air Pollution Campaign Update - October 2017

The Politics of Air Pollution
Eamonn Ward from the Green Party came to give an overview of local air pollution issues and discussed the City Council’s current strategy (which is still under development). There is central government funding available to reduce congestion but he believes there is little political interest in this. He mentioned that Air pollution should be a priority in the East End rather than Meadowhall development. Many other places are ahead of Sheffield such as Oxford where that have a long term plan to go “car free”. Party political positioning (“anti-car” “pro-development”) is generally unhelpful.

Idling Cars
No representative from Sheffield Friends of the Earth was able to attend the meeting about cars idling outside schools and hospitals. It is felt that practically this could only have a very small impact compared to what is needed.


Labour Party Talk
A speaker is needed for a Labour branch requesting talk about air pollution.
ACTION: Shaun to contact potential speakers.


Next Steps
a new national FoE campaign action plan is due out in November and Shaun has circulated link to current consultation.
ACTION: Members should respond directly to FoE during October in order to inform the new plan.

Air Pollution Campaign - August 2017 Update

We discussed the Star's front page media coverage of our air pollution campaign and mentioned that local journalists were keen to cover local air pollution issues. National FoE sent an email to all local local members explaining what we have achieved.

Sheffield Climate Alliance met with Sheffield City Council cabinet member Jack Scott, where measures to tackle air pollution were discussed, including 20 m.p.h. speed limits. There are opportunities to do more with both council and local media.

Beatrice reported back on a reply from Louise Haigh received in response to a letter (sent to all local MPs); no response yet from councillors in response to similar letter.

Their is a day of action planned for the Midland Mainline Campaign on Sat 9th Sep at 16:03 - 16:18 for handover of a “green plug” at the station. There will be media opportunities to get our message across. If anyone would like to get involved then please let us know or turn up to the station at 3.30 pm. It was mentioned that Sheffield East End project has done a lot of work on air pollution and we should invite them to join us.

Laura's feedback on what solutions have been implemented in France to improve air quality has been deferred until the next meeting as laura was unable to attend.

Future for the campaign - We can focus on the Midland Mainline Electrification campaign whilst we are awaiting next steps in the national campaign. There is potential to work with/build on FoE's ongoing campaign (FoE plan to run it until at least June 2018.)

Other activities - Pollution levels being monitored by anti-fracking groups. Could also work with Neil Parry’s group and let them know what we are doing.

ACTIONS: 

• Monthly meetings offer from Jack Scott to Sheffield Climate Alliance. Richard to feedback progress on this. (next meeting in September)
• Beatrice to chase up MPs' responses to our letters
• Plan to meet at 15:30-15:45 at station on Saturday 9 Sept. 
• Laura to explain what actions have taken place in France to reduce air pollution.
• Let Neil Parry from Sheffield East End project know what we are doing (Richard)

Air Pollution Campaign - July Update

Results from our air pollution kits and letters to local MPs were discussed – both Richard and Beatrice have sent letters to their MPs and Beatrice has offered to send her letter more widely if this would not duplicate other peoples’ letters. It was agreed to ask her to do so.

Shaun agreed to send our air pollution results to the Sheffield Star which resulted in this article. It was then used in conjunction with a press release from Sheffield City Council to form a front page and a page 4 article on Saturday 29th July.

The council’s current strategy and plans (including fining drivers for idling engines outside schools) was discussed and ways of raising public awareness to create more pressure for effective action. To comment see the link.

We also discussed having contact numbers for the website for members who are happy to speak to media on different topics depending on their expertise. This was due to being contacted by Sky News and not being able to contact people quickly enough.

Actions:

• Beatrice to be asked to send letter to all Sheffield MPs.
• Shaun to send pres release to The Star.
• Members to asked to volunteer if they are happy to be named as media contacts.

Air Pollution Update - November 2016

National Foe will send us 10 kits for measuring pollution; plan to bring to a meeting so we can see how they are likely to be most effectively used to monitor/raise awareness of air pollution locally. Individuals can also order kits. Shaun has provided links to relevant petitions.

Air Pollution Campaign Update - August 2016

Friends of the Earth has an on-line appeal for funding the air pollution campaign which aims to provide members of the public with air pollution monitoring kits. If you can donate a few pounds then please visit the website.

Whilst we are waiting for the air monitoring kit to be launched we can't do much more so we are going to concentrate on the food campaign.

Liddy mentioned that there is plenty of evidence for authorities to act on air pollution, but they are not doing anything. Richard mentioned that in the 60s and 70s people were informed to look for lichens as a sign of clean air.

Air Pollution Update - March 2015

This campaign is still in the planning stage but its likely to be focused around children. A number of questions were raised about how and where monitoring takes place in Sheffield and what role the council takes. For example, some council's in Scotland actively monitor vehicles whereas others don't.

Discussion around congestion issues, promoting walking buses and how this sits with technological changes (such as electric and self driving cars).

We agreed to write to councillors - preferably to identify their manifesto commitments in run up to the local elections.

Midland Mainline Electrification

Sheffield Friends of the Earth were planning to welcome campaigners from around the country to the Sheffield station on Saturday 17 October. The idea was to perform a stunt to encourage the government to electrify the midland mainline. We believe the electrification work is essential if we want to remove dirty diesel trains and replace them with electric trains running on low carbon electricity.

Thankfully the government unpaused the electrification work and it will now take place - although not as soon as we would have liked. We decided not to go ahead with the stunt and concentrate our energy on other campaigns.