How many butterflies can we find in Brent?

The Big Butterfly Count starts this weekend and you only need to find a sunny 15 minutes to take part.Numbers of butterflies and day flying moths are a good indicator of the health of our environment and can be an early indicator of problems.

The website includes a downloadable identification chart as well as easy ways to record your observations. There is still time for schools to take part in the last week of term. The Count will finish on July 31st.

LINK

Air pollution - the stealthy killer

Keith Taylor, the Green MEP for South East England will today launch a report about air pollution and its health impacts. Each year in the UK air pollution causes 29,000 deaths and contributes to over 200,000 premature deaths, yet public awareness of this killer is very low. Keith Taylor aims to raise awareness of the issues with his new report, ‘Air Pollution: The Invisible Killer’. The report asserts that air pollution is creating an invisible public health crisis which is not being addressed by the UK government.

Dirty air has a greater health impact than many high profile public health issues, such as passive smoking and obesity, yet unlike the smog of the 1950s it is an invisible killer. Long term exposure to air pollution is associated with heart and lung disease. The report includes recent research from California which has shown that children growing up near motorways can suffer permanently reduced lung capacity. This is an extremely worrying finding which highlights the desperate need for more research into the health effects of air pollution. Government figures show that the health costs of just one pollutant, PM2.5, are already £15 billion each year.

The UK government is currently failing to implement legally binding EU levels on air quality. In 2009 the EU started legal action against the UK for breaching safe levels of pollutants, but the government has now been granted more time to meet the EU’s deadline. If the UK doesn’t comply with safe levels the government risks being fined up to £3000.

The UK government is currently preparing to report on Nitrogen Dioxide levels to the European Commission in September and has indicated that it is likely that safe levels will not be achieved in many areas. ‘Air Pollution: The Invisible Killer’ contains a map which shows that air pollution is widespread across London and South East England. Many local authorities in the region have declared that they are likely to exceed the required EU safe levels for pollutants. Keith believes that this inertia on such an important health issue is unacceptable.

Up to 70% of air pollution in urban areas is from road transport. Keith’s air pollution campaign is calling for national government to provide adequate funding to local authorities to invest in public transport, promoting walking and cycling and introduce public information systems to alert people to air pollution.

Keith said: “The right to breathe clean air is fundamental. Yet thousands of lives in the South East are being shortened because air is heavily polluted in many places, mostly by traffic. Government data shows that air pollution contributes to over 200,000 premature deaths every year in the UK. This is an invisible public health crisis which urgently needs to be tackled. ”

“This is a widespread problem which is getting worse. The UK government has recently admitted that they will not meet the required EU limits for Nitrogen Dioxide and must now explain this sorry state of affairs to the European Commission. The EU air quality standards have been put in place and agreed on by Member States, including the UK, because they set safe limits for the air we breathe. I am putting pressure on the European Commission to make sure that they do not allow the UK government to shirk its responsibility. The Commission must take urgent action to address air pollution and its harmful effects in areas where the UK is breaching, or likely to breach, EU limits.”

Kingsbury High Governors vote for academy conversion despite massive staff opposition

Kingsbury High School governors decided last night to seek academy status by 15 votes to 3 despite being given the result of the staff ballot which showed 84.5% of staff were opposed to the move.  The three unions in the school will call a public meeting about the decision in September and have already notified the school that they will be balloting for strike action.

Shedding light on MUGA proposal

 Click on image to enlarge

Plans have now been published for what appears on Brent's website as a 'hockey pitch' but according to the plans is a MUGA (multi-use games area) at Preston Manor Primary School. It is clearly an excellent resource for the children but may well encounter opposition from nearby residents.

The plans include six 14.5 metre high floodlights and a three metre high fence surrounding the pitch. The application, made by Brent Council's Major Projects and Regeneration Department, states that the hours of operation of the facility are currently unknown.

Full details available HERE

Get down to Kingsbury High School Tonight to Oppose Academy

Following on my warning in last week's Willesden and Brent Times of a last minute Summer term rush to academy status I have received the following message from a local parent:

This evening, at the Upper School Site, Princes Avenue (6th Form Building, Block D)  the Kingsbury High School governors will vote on whether to turn KHS into an academy.

Parents and public have been invited to attend as observers. Unfortunately some of us cannot attend as the meeting clashes with an important event at Oliver Goldsmith School.

Please could as many of you as possible attend this meeting so that governors can see how strongly people feel about this issue.

Staff have been balloted and the result is being kept from staff and parents until the meeting. Staff were also unhappy about the way in which the ballot was conducted and have very deep concerns. We understand that during the meeting, a pupil petition will be passed to governors along with minutes of the parents' meetings and results of the staff ballot. Plus any parent email responses to the proposal. The presence of parents at the meeting will ensure that we are fully informed about exactly what information is given to governors before they vote.

If governors vote "yes" tonight, it will almost certainly lead to divisions in the school, including possible strike action from staff. If they vote "no" or to postpone the decision, we can welcome this as an opportunity to have a more thorough consultation with parents, including a ballot.

Please do your very best to be there!

Anne Gray, Green Activist, Returns Home after Israel Incarceration

Many thanks to Haringey Greens for this blog

Veteran peace and Green party activist Anne Gray , one of twelve Britons arrested and jailed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv last Friday 8th July, was released late last night and placed on a deportation flight from Tel Aviv after spending five gruelling days of incarceration in a filthy cramped cell. Six other British activists were also aboard the flight which landed at Luton airport around midnight last night.

Ms Gray, who is well known in Haringey for her tireless community activism and campaigning as the Green Party parliamentary election candidate for Tottenham last year, had planned to stay in Palestine until July 16th, as part of an international 'Welcome to Palestine' initiative, working with Palestinian NGOs to support and improve the daily lives of local people.
Gray,
Just hours after arriving back in London, Anne Gray said:
“As soon as we said we were visiting Palestine, the airport authorities branded us, and several hundred other travellers, as troublemakers intent on demonstrating and disrupting the airport. We were given no chance of explaining who we were and the purpose of our trip.

“Our mission was entirely peaceful. We simply wanted to study and work with Palestinian NGOs, listening and observing and lending support with things like negotiating checkpoints and taking children to school through areas with hostile settlers. The organisations we were planning to visit do cultural activities like dance, theatre, and education in human rights law, drawing youth away from stone throwing into other forms of political expression.

“I’m furious at the way we have been treated. We were denied entry to Palestine for no good reason at all – it was all stereotyping, a total smear campaign by the Israeli government and media.”

Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, Pippa Bartolotti, is still being detained in Israel with three other women from Wales after refusing to be deported. The British consul in Tel Aviv was speaking with them in the jail when Anne Gray and others were taken to the airport yesterday.

So, at least for Anne and the majority of British activists, their ordeal is over. They have succeeded in publicising the plight of the Palestinian people and the belligerent attitude of the Israeli authorities to peaceful protests.

" Israel's contempt for human rights" - Green Party Trade Union Group:

The Green Party Trade Union Group fully supports the recent statements of Caroline Lucas , Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (letter to William Hague), calling for the release of the international campaigners arrested and unjustly imprisoned by the Israeli government. We also want ALL these campaigners to be released and for them to be able to proceed to Palestine as they had intended, but we would like especially to send our solidarity and support to , Pippa Bartolotti, Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, and to Ann Gray of Haringey Green Party a supporter of GPTU and a member of Green Left.

Unjustified arrest is relatively mild by the standards of many of the actions that Israel has taken against Palestine, nonetheless it shows the contempt which the Israeli government seems to show for the human rights of Palestinians and their supporters, Pippa and Ann are quite right to take part in a protest against this and in no way deserve any unlawful punishment for doing so.

The People of Tower Hamlets Speak Out on Cuts