No to Ffos-y-fran - protest Sat 5th April - New Labour/Plaid greenwash

The politicans in the Welsh Assembly allowed this to happen. Then they make out they are 'green'
TIME TO SAY NO! Wrecking lives
speakers George Monbiot, Jill Evans, Gordon James, Terry Evans.

Sat 5th April
2pm March from Twyn y Rodyn nursery school, Parfitt Terrace.
3.15pm In front of the Civic Centre, speakers George Monbiot, Jill Evans, Gordon James, Terry Evans.
4-6pm Public meeting St David’s Church Hall.
8pm Music: Tracey Curtis and guests at The Great Escape.

Ffos-y-fran is the biggest open-cast mining scheme in the UK, and it looms over the town of Merthyr Tydfil. The edge of the pit will be just 36 metres from the nearest homes and close to a primary school nursery. Merthyr already has the worst health in Wales: the dust, smoke and noise will exacerbate it. The digging will last from 7am until 11pm, six days a week, for 17 years. Digging ourselves into a hole Coal produces more carbon dioxide when it burns than any other fuel, and the coal in Ffos-y-Fran will be responsible for almost 30 million tonnes of it. This is a disaster for the global climate and for our children’s future. We should be investing instead in offshore wind, tidal and wave energy schemes: the potential in Wales is tremendous. Let’s pull ourselves out of this hole. Let’s stop the digging at Ffos-y-Fran.“Reclamation scheme”Miller Argent, the consortium digging the pit, calls Ffos-y-fran a “land reclamation scheme”. This is a bad joke: you don’t need to dig a 1000-acre hole to clean up the site. The scheme will create some employment, but will also blight the area, keeping good jobs away.

No to Ffos-y-fran and open cast mining! A filthy business. Around 10,000 people in Merthyr signed petitions opposing it. But the council, the Labour assembly member and the Welsh Assembly have all failed the local people and backed big business before their constituents.http://www.stopffosyfran.co.uk/

Greenwash!!! from New Labour and Plaid
The 'New' Labour Party supported this crazy mining scheme and there they are fingerwagging dinosaurs hectoring children on how to behave!!!
Labour launches antisocial behaviour pledge about antisocial behaviour - seems to me it should be Rhodri Morgan getting an asbo for this anti social behaviour which is rather more serious!!
And Plaid jump on the green bandwagon.... Now Plaid tells voters to get on their bikes - icWales
...great but there is more to it than that............Call for a stop to this mining!!

Want to help email RAFF_Group@stopffosyfran.co.uk

AMSER DWEUD NA!
Na i fwyngloddio brig yn Ffos-y-Frân!
Dinistrio bywydau
Ffos-y-Frân yw’r cynllun mwyngloddio brig mwyaf ym Mhrydain, ac mae’n ffinio â Merthyr Tudful. Bydd y mwyn dim ond 36m o’r tai agosaf ac yn agos at ysgol feithrin. Mae gan Ferthyr eisoes yr ystadegau iechyd gwaethaf yng Nghymru: dim ond gwaethygu y gwnaiff y sefyllfa gyda’r holl sŵn a’r llwch. Bydd y cloddio yn digwydd o 7 y.b tan 11 y.h, 6 diwrnod yr wythnos, am 17 mlynedd.
Mewn twll
Mae glo yn cynhyrchu mwy o garbon deiocsid nag unrhyw danwydd arall, a bydd y glo yn Ffos-y-Frân yn gyfrifol am bron i 30 miliwn tunnell ohono. Mae hwn yn drychineb i’r hinsawdd ac i ddyfodol ein plant. Dylem fuddsoddi yn lle mewn cynlluniau egni adnewyddol: mae’r potensial yng Nghymru yn anferth.
"Cynllun adennill tir"
Mae Miller Argent, y cwmni mwngloddiol, yn galw Ffos-y-Frân yn ‘’gynllun adennill tir". Mae hwn yn chwerthinllyd: does dim angen cloddio twll 1000 o aceri er mwyn clirio’r safle. Bydd y cynllun yn creu rhai swyddi, ond bydd hefyd yn difetha’r ardal, gan fygwth swyddi lleol.
Chwarae budr
Mae tua 10,000 o bobl wedi arwyddo deisebau yn gwrthwynebu Ffos-y-Frân. Ond mae’r cyngor, aelod cynulliad o’r blaid Lafur a Llywodraeth y Cynulliad wedi bradychu’r boblogaeth leol ac wedi cefnogi byd masnach cyn eu hetholwyr.
2y.p Gorymdaith o feithrinfa Twyn y Rodyn, Parfitt Terrace (llai na 500m o safle mwynglawdd brig Ffos-y-Frân)
3.15y.p O flaen y Ganolfan Ddinesig: siaradwyr yn cynnwys George Monbiot, Jill Evans, Gordon James a Terry Evans
4-6y.p Cyfarfod cyhoeddus yn neuadd Eglwys St David’s. Dewch i drafod

Ffos-y-Fran Wales Dirty Deal

MERTHYR’S MONSTER MINE OCCUPIED
In the early hours of 5th December over 30 activists from around Wales joined local residents to occupy the site of the open cast mine at Ffos-y-Frân, near Merthyr Climbing on & chaining themselves to bulldozers & heavy machinery they’ve stopped excavation work on what is an extremely environmentally damaging project. As one of those involved said: “Coal is the filthiestfuel known to man & projects like this mine could destroy all our chances of tacklingglobal warming. The battle over this hilltop in Wales is a fight for the stability of the global climate & it epitomises this government’s hypocrisy on climate change.” Campaigners have stated they intend to do everything they can to stop this project.
Read Monbiot and how the Welsh government and Rhodri Morgan sold out

Green wash from Julie Morgan

I couldn't see any support from Julie Morgan MP there at all even if you presume she wrote it herself. Patronising twaddle!

Why can't she say I support all those who wrote to me concerned about our planet and what exactly she supports and what ACTION she is going to take. You could fall into the trap of wishful thinking and falling for politicians spin - she has responded in this way to the huge number of cards/letters from constituents and I dare say this is much the same as the letter she send them individually and so she appears to commiserate without commmitting to anything and leaving out those vital ACTION points?!

She does slag off lib dems in Cardiff for the lowest rates of recycling when the labour party were in power for many years before and are working with the lib dems ...it is only under the lib dems that we get recycling bins for garden rubbish so they have done something. The new labour party in Cardiff was opposing reorganising High Street - St Mary Street and higher parking charges. It costs £3.00 for a day BUS ticket in Cardiff - more from outside Cardiff and they reduce the day parking charge from £5.00 down to £3.00 making it cheaper to drive in and park! What sort of policy is that?

Note that the NEW LABOUR group on Cardiff council demanded immediate changes to the “ill-thought-out” St Mary Street traffic ban. Cardiff council’s New Labour leader, John Sheppard, said the ban was “badly-timed, ill-thought-out and has been the subject o

http://inconsiderateparking.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-labour-turn-its-back-on-cleaner-and.html

Ask what she drives?Does her office recycle anything as I know for a fact they didn't - She could recycle the large number of newspapers and magazines that she gets - shred paper - use recycled paper in the office, not use plastic bags etc so why not visit her office with an environmental audit and check out her green credentials? Perhaps she will invite you to her home to view her green life style!?

Julie praises gordon browns leadership on environmental policy? Is this the same person who because more people want to use the railway supports charges going up and if more people want to fly we should be building and expanding Heathrow? Not to mention suporting building more roads and nuclear power stations? What sort of leadership is that?

After all as she quoted Ghandi ..SHE should be the change in her own world e.g at home and at the office.

The new labour party is responsible for appalling huge open cast mining in Merthyr yards from peoples homes, as they supported and lobbied for it.

New Labour, New Environment? -report slams Labour’s green claims 20.07.07 New Labour New Environment?

Outdated figures have been hiding the full extent of climate change. But I am still advocating action, and not despair George Monbiot Tuesday December 4, 2007 The Guardian

The government proposes to cut the UK's carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. This target is based on a report published in 2000. That report was based on an assessment published in 1995, which drew on scientific papers published a few years earlier. The UK's policy, in other words, is based on papers some 15 years old.www.monbiot.com

British Energy draws up new reactor plans Guardian Unlimited, Wednesday November 28 2007 Terry Macalister

British Energy is looking at building four nuclear power plants at its sites in the south of England. But it admitted flood defences would be needed to protect them from rising sea levels. Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent, Hinkley Point in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex are the preferred sites for the new reactors. British Energy said it had already reached agreement (...)

(...) own carbon reduction targets". The report comes barely a week after Gordon Brown said Britain was committed to the European Union target of (...)

Goron brown as Chancellor failed to make any significant contribution to reducing UK carbon dioxide emissions.

• In the eight years before Labour came to power green taxes (as a percentage of overall taxes) rose from 7.8% to 9.4 %. But by 2005 (the latest year which information is available) Gordon Brown had let this percentage fall to 7.7 %.
• The Chancellor abandoned the Fuel Price Escalator (an above inflation increase in fuel tax) and has frequently frozen duty on fuel. In December last year, the Government admitted that the cost of motoring has fallen in real terms by over 8% since it came to power. Meanwhile the cost of public transport has risen: bus fares by 14 % and rail fares by 5 %.
• Meanwhile carbon dioxide emissions have risen under Labour, despite repeated manifesto promises of substantial cuts. The Government's target of a 20 per cent cut in carbon dioxide (based on 1990 levels) by 2010, will not be met.

FOE ..He must demonstrate that he has the political courage to lead the UK towards a low carbon economy. And he can start by making it cheaper and easier for people to cut their emissions. This must include cutting road tax for more of the most fuel efficient cars and substantially increasing it for gas-guzzlers, and a package of measures that provides strong financial incentives for householders to save energy and cut emissions. We need action not words."

Assembly election and New Labour Environmental Policy

ASSEMBLY ELECTION TIME 2007
Labour CLAIM THEY will meet head on the challenge of climate change, by building a sustainable Wales that is cleaner and greener by minimising Wales’ carbon footprint, supporting environmental technology and developing an integrated public transport network. Not managed much so far. Traffic Congestion? Want to cycle, not if the Welsh Assembly can help it, they don't do cycle lanes - they do do roads. See below the campaign for a cycle/pedestrian bridge over the river Ely.

Don't do traffic wardens either - Can we travel in Wales from South to North qickly. Highspeed trains in Europe have been in the news this week - it takes a hour to get to Merthyr Tydfil from Cardiff and try getting to Brecon by bus, you could be away all day but don't reckon on getting back. Want to go to from Cardiff to Caerphilly by bus, not after 6.30 or on a Sunday. Lousy public transport may affect the economy as well!!!
New Labour promise to increase fines for litter and graffiti and to ensure the establishment of an Anti Social Behaviour Unit (big brother) in every local authority area but this will NOT include tackling more dangerous antisocial behaviour such as inconsiderate parking, parking on the pavement, blocking access to schools for pedestrains and cyclists, parking on cycle lanes, speeding ..Life is hard for the pedestrain or cylist ..See the pictures of Cardiff Bay this weekend above