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Reading Friends of the Earth |
Our Latest Bi-monthly Newsletter with news of recent activities and future stalls and events is available on this link. Other recent newsletters are available from this page.
Our Facebook Page which is more-frequently updated is here..
Website migration: this website is not 'secure' so we are in progress of moving to https://www.readingfoe.co.uk. If you cannot find what you want here please try our new site which is under development, or e-mail us info'at'readingfoe.org.uk .
New e-mail address: please note our new e-mail address is info'at'readingfoe.co.uk.
Reading FoE Meetings: We usually (but not in January 2025) meet on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. Often in Room 1 upstairs at RISC, 35-39 London Street, to which access is via side passage from the front to the back of the building, or in a bar in Reading, or on Zoom. Most meetings discuss plans and general topics, some have a particular focus or guest speakers. Meetings are open to all. We have recently gone to 'hybrid' meetings when at RISC - in person and on Zoom - so if you would like a Zoom link please contact us.
We continue to monitor Covid risks, regulations, and guidance. Meetings may be cancelled or go on-line-only at short notice due to Covid or availability of group officers. We suggest you check this website on the day for changes of plan - or phone or e-mail for confirmation (contacts in Newsletter).
Wednesday January 15th 2025 - (third Wednesday!) - 7:30 pm. Back room, Castle Tap, 120 Castle Street, RG1 7RJ. In person only. We will make plans for 2025.
Wednesday February 12th 2025 Our monthly meeting at 7:30 will be in Room 3 at RISC and on Zoom and will be a talk by John Sharpe on Sustainable Allotments. Please request a Zoom link if you need one.
Allotments can provide good locally produced food but traditional methods of horticulture, as in farming, have often ignored their environmental impact. Too often the results have relied on artificial fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides in an attempt to compensate for the damage caused to the soil biome by their practices. To steal a phrase from Iain Tolhurst, "I've realised that I am really creating biodiversity and my crops are a bi-product".
John has managed his two Bulmershe allotments organically for over 30 years. One as a top fruit orchard and the other for a mixture of vegetables and soft fruit. Over that time his methods have adapted in the light of changing knowledge. In the current iteration he has adopted the Vegan Organic Growing method of avoiding animal fertilisers as well as artificial ones. External inputs are minimised, requiring careful management of the soil to keep it healthy and productive. In this presentation John will outline the methods that he uses to grow, using these principles.
He has been a member of Garden Organic, previously called the Henry Doubleday Research Association, and the Heritage Seed Library throughout this time, and has participated in members' experiments. He is also a member of the Reading Food Growing Network where he actively supports the Seed Swap by propagating and saving seeds, especially Heritage varieties.
We hope other local experts and enthusiasts will join for discussion afterwards.
***********************************************************************Our Response to pre-submission Reading Local Plan Consultation is on this link.
***********************************************************************Reading For Warm Homes
Petition now closed - 198 signatures collected and e-mail sent to parliamentary candidates in all three constituencies in the Reading area. Two replies received - one Green (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) and one Labour (Earley and Woodley).
National FoE are continuing to support the 'United for Warm Homes' campaign for short-term and longer-term solutions to high energy prices, inefficient homes and fossil-fuel powered heating so there will be more for us to do on this.
Our Links Page with Links to other groups and web-pages and carbon footprint and air quality calculators is at http://www.www.anjoro.plus.com/RFOE/links.
Our Admin page with privacy policy, constitution, 'Charter' agreement with national FoE etc. is available on this link.
Contact us at info"at"readingfoe.co.uk
Greater Reading Environmental Network (GREN) website is www.gren.org.uk
***********************************************************************Reading's Transport Strategy Revision
Revision of strategy to 2040 has now been approved by the Council.
A note from Reading FoE was sent to the SEPT committee in February 2019 calling for the consultation on the Transport Plan to include simulations of different scenarios to show how the proposals would address climate change, air quality and congestion. This note is on this link.
However the adopted strategy - while including many good visions and policies - does not include this level of analysis and indicates expected CO2 emissions from transport to be only half of the present level. See more detail in our July 2024 newsletter.
***********************************************************************Clean Air Everywhere - In Reading.
Our "Clean Air Everywhere - In Reading" petition was presented to the Council on November 22nd 2017 at the SEPT Committee Meeting by Enrico Petrucco. By the meeting we had accrued over 400 signatures - around 250 on paper and 150 on-line. Thanks to everyone who signed, helped to collect signatures, and came to support us at the meeting.
The Council responded that it would like to introduce a Low Emission Zone, but must await government funding.
Our Press Release about the presentation, with pictures and a link to the video coverage, is at Petition_Presentation_to_Cllrs_PR.
The speaker's notes for the presentation are at SEPT Presentation notes.
Following government intervention, seeking conformance with EU legal requirements, in October 2018 the Council has said it will be funded to upgrade its buses to Euro VI standard and expects to comply with EU standards for NO2 by end 2021.
In November 2018 we asked a Question at the SEPT Committee - reminding the Council of our petition and asking about PM2.5. The Council said that it estimated that in one location PM2.5 concentration was about 60% above WHO guidelines, and that it would publish a revised draft Local Transport Plan in 2019. See our January 2019 newsletter
In November 2019 we asked a Question at the SEPT Committee - reminding the Council of our petition and asking about health impacts of PM2.5. The Council said that it estimated that in 2016 particulates had contributed to 63 deaths in Reading, and that it would review its Air Quality Action Plan in 2020. See SEPT Papers
Local Air Quality exceeding WHO guidelines was the subject of our Questions to Strategic Environment Planning and Transport Committee on 16th November 2021. For details see our Press Release.
By June 2024 there has been no progress on LEZ and NO2 is still above UK legal limit in 2023 in at least one location and neither UK nor Council has adopted latest WHO guidance on NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations. But it was good to learn PM2.5 monitoring is to be increased in Reading. See our July 2024 newsletter.
***********************************************************************Reading Climate Festival 2023 ran from 10th to 21st June. We gave an on-line presentation on our Reading for Warm Homes campaign.
***********************************************************************Reading Climate Festival 2022 ran from 24th September to 2nd October 2022. Once again good on-line events and some in-person events. See everything on this link.Unfortunately recordings are not yet available.
Two Reading FoE supporters took part in a webinar on energy saving in the home.
***********************************************************************Reading Climate Festival 2021 ran from 20th to 26th September 2021 with lots of informative on-line events and some in-person events.
Reading FoE sponsored two events - links to recordings now available.
Reading's Climate Emergency Declaration was in February 2019
Reading Borough Council celebrated the second anniversary of its Climate Emergency Declaration on 26th February 2021. Reading Chronicle took up our Press Release with inputs from other groups to produce this report.
***********************************************************************Reading Climate Festival 2020 ran from 9th to 15th November with lots of informative on-line events.
Reading FoE sponsored two events - links to slides are below.
Why Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage is Essential to Net Zero. The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change says that Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage is essential to preventing catastrophic climate change and predicts it providing 9% of emissions reductions
required for Net Zero by 2050.
Local expert Suzie Ferguson presented the fundamentals of the technology and why it is needed and described active programmes in UK.
Local Transport: Climate Change, Clean Air, and Congestion. A review of Readings emerging fourth
Local Transport Strategy with reference to Transport for the South East's Strategy, and the governments Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
Are there environmental limits to traffic growth? How can we make the polluters pay? John Booth for Reading Friends of the Earth.
Our Campaign against M4 Widening web-page is www.anjoro.plus.com/RFOE/m4. After the Public Examination in 2016 the government gave permission for this to go ahead. Official projections to the Examination were that traffic would rise resulting in slower journeys and more CO2 emissions.
New concerns over safety of 'All Lane Running' have arisen after some nasty accidents on other 'Smart Motorways' - see March-April 2021 newsletter for more details. Our local section - J8/9 to J12 - is now open. This was expected in 'spring 2021' but was postponed until 'Stopped Vehicle Detection' had been implemented.
In 2024 work began to install additional refuges on the J11 to J12 section causing speed limits to be set to 50 mph as M4 reduced to 3 lanes only, and restrictions on on/off lanes.
A presentation dating from 2016 giving a summary of impacts on safety, climate change, congestion, air quality and noise is at Impacts of Smart M4.
***********************************************************************Recycling at Home
Reading's recycling is done by re3. The first stop for local guidance is https://re3.fccenvironment.co.uk/.
***********************************************************************Green Jobs Flashmob
We had good local press coverage for our Flashmob for Green Jobs on Saturday 13th October 2012 - many thanks to everyone who braved the rain and especially to the Greenpeace Polar Bear who really helped to get attention from press and public! Doug's great video - with sound-track from Seize the Day - can be seen on this link.
Here is a still (Photo: Anne Booth) of the bear calmly putting the case against the Chancellor's proposals to
continue to burn unabated gas until 2030 and to give tax breaks to 'fracking' for natural gas extraction.
