WAGs “New M4” proposal enormous threat to wildlife

GNo new M4!

The Welsh Assembly Government is planning a new M4 motorway around Newport which would slice through the Gwent Levels SSSI, devastating this wonderful wetland landscape. Find out more and get involved in the Campaign Against the Levels Motorway at www.savethelevels.org.uk

Sign the petition at www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-new-m4 and tell your friends and family.

went Wildlife Trust sees the Welsh Assembly Government’s “New M4” proposal as an enormous threat to wildlife. This motorway would cut through the Gwent Levels SSSI – a nationally important wetland – wreaking five miles of destruction on grazing marsh and freshwater reens that teem with wildlife. I think there is every reason to hope that the Outline Business Case for the New M4 project (expected on the WAG Transport Minister’s desk in the New Year) will put the supposed benefits of the New M4 in doubt. In fact, I think it must do, given the relatively cheap and impact-free alternatives which exist to ease traffic problems and improve road safety in south Wales. And of course, the new road would be hugely expensive and deeply unaffordable, especially in the current economic climate.

Plaid Cymru’s national council voted unanimously to oppose the New M4 at the weekend – surely this is deeply significant given that Plaid Cymru’s Ieuan Wyn Jones is WAG Transport Minister. I would dearly love to know what the thinking is within the Labour Party right now. I think it is vital that Labour is encouraged to look at more sustainable alternatives – I suspect that now could be the vital time to make representations to Labour politicians. Please do what you can to encourage the powers that be to see sense. This scheme needs killed off forever, so we can concentrate on adapting Wales to a low-carbon economy, which will keep us economically vibrant into the long-term. The CALM website below gives more details of our concerns over this scheme, and links so you can find out how to contact your constituency Assembly Members, and the List assembly members for your region of Wales.

With regard to the Labour Party, surely there is no-one better to contact than First Minister, Rhodri Morgan. His e-mail address is: rhodri.morgan@wales.gov.uk. Here’s hoping that the One Wales Coalition government of Labour and Plaid Cymru will commit now to a sensible and value-for-money programme of transport investment, which doesn’t sacrifice the local and global environment. You may also wish to e-mail the Transport Minister, to welcome the clear commitment to sustainable development that has just been made by his party. His e-mail address is: ieuan.wynjones@wales.gov.uk www.gwentwildlife.org

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

Rhodri Morgan Greenwash

Monbiot.com

Rigged Posted: 11 Dec 2007 01:36 AM CST The climate talks are a stitch-up, as no one is talking about supply

Welsh Green Wash - Rhodri Morgan Shame as Welsh assembly give go ahead for the biggest blot on the landscape in modern times. How could they?

"The pit at Ffos-y-fran received planning permission after two ministers in the Westminster government jumped up and down on Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister in Wales. Stephen Timms at the department of trade and industry listed the benefits of the scheme and demanded that the application “hodriis resolved with the minimum of further delay” His successor, Mike O’Brien, warned of dire consequences if the pit was not granted permission. The coal extracted from Ffos-y-fran alone will produce 29.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide: equivalent, according to the latest figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to the sustainable emissions of 55m people for one year.

Last year British planning authorities considered twelve new applications for opencast coal mines. They approved all but two of them. Two weeks ago Hazel Blears, the secretary of state in charge of planning, overruled Northumberland County Council to grant permission for an opencast mine at Shotton, on the grounds that the scheme (which will produce 9.3m tonnes of CO2(6)) is “environmentally acceptable”