The government’s consultation on High Speed 2 has come to an end. Camden Friends of the Earth have submitted their answer [download as PDF 400Ko] opposing the current plans. We invite the Department for Transport to consider the following points:

1) investment in local transport schemes must not be jeopardised by high speed rail; we demand that the rate of investment in local sustainable transport must be twice the one in high speed rail;

2) an alternative scenario with a 125mph or 200mph maximum speed must be considered, where more stress is put into providing comfort and wifi/broadband on board;

3) the impact on the London transport system, especially around Euston, must be mitigated by the funding of an accessible network of tramways, trolleybus, walking and cycling routes;

4) the impact on the electric load must be mitigated by harvesting renewable energy along the line, to the amount which is required to run the trains.

We had a great time at the London Permaculture Festival on Saturday 16 July.

The event featured animation workshops, honeybee talks, forest gardening workshops, carbon conversations and more.

Alex, Natasha, Shiv and Susan ran our stall surveying people on energy issues for our Big Energy Conversation campaign (and we made a few paper windmills, too)!

If you didn’t make it to the fair, you can take our energy survey online here.

The Camden Transport Strategy 2011-2031 sets out how the Council will address a range of transport challenges. The strategy also forms the Local Implementation Plan, also called LIP, a key element to request funding from TfL.

Camden Friends of the Earth answered the consultation in February 2011, supporting most orientation but pushing for a more ambitious approach. Considering the financial difficulties the Council is facing, planning is critical. We have to set the priorities right. We must identify and support the future patterns of sustainable travel.

Amongst our many concerns, three key issues can be identified:

1) Camden must get serious about cutting excessive speeds in our neighbourhoods using physical measures such as speed tables and raised crossings;

2) The Council should explicitly stop supporting populist myths such as the “clean car for all” and the “lower emissions from smoother traffic flows”;

3) The strategy should plan for a legitimate steep increase in parking charges.

Our full answer can be downloaded here [PDF 500ko]. We are expecting Camden Council to publish a final version of their plan this month on this page: [Council's Transport Strategies and Plans]

Following on from our recent waste & recycling campaigning - asking David Cameron to talk half as much rubbish - Camden Friends of the Earth responded to the consultation on the North London Waste Plan.

The North London Waste Plan sets out a plan to manage the waste of seven north London boroughs; Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

Read our response to the consultation.

If you were at the Brunswick Centre last Wednesday afternoon (13 July) you might have seen something just a little bit different: ‘Save the Diva’, a new street opera with a green theme.

An artistic collaboration between award-winning touring opera company The Opera Group and Friends of the Earth, the street opera has been performed guerilla-style out on the streets of five UK cities this summer. The production explores environmental themes of climate change and consumerism and attracted a lot of attention at the Brunswick Centre!

Camden FoE members handed out ‘Don’t be a Diva‘ leaflets to the crowd who gathered to watch, which gave tips on how to ’save energy and save the planet’. We had some really positive feedback from passers-by who stopped to watch! You can watch the video of the performance below:

You can read more about the opera performances on the Friends of the Earth website.

Our co-coordinator Jess took part in a film-making workshop at the recent FoE South East Regional Gathering on 25 June. See her film-making debut below:

If you haven’t been to a regional gathering, it’s a great opportunity to network with other activists, find out more about campaigns and learn new skills (like film-making!) Find out more on the FoE website.

And if you’re looking for an eco-minded feature film to check out Just Do It is well worth watching - a look into the world of direct action including the Stop Kingsnorth protest, Copenhagen protests, Transition Town Heathrow.. and much more!

Camden Friends of the Earth visited the brilliant Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales from June 10-13.  Some highlights of our trip:

• the inspiring WISE building with its eclipse-like ceiling cover (to block out daylight when needed)
• sensory blindfold exploration of the woods (and river!)
• the water-balanced cliff railway
• a great example of solar PV panels working in wet cloudy rainy weather conditions!
• beautiful scenery, mountain, woodland walks, and pub gardens of Machynlleth

We had a great turn out over the weekend at the London Green Fair.

We ran an eco quiz and started our new Big Energy Conversation campaign with an energy survey, offered cakes, biscuits and jam for a donation. We spoke to lots of people and had a great time in the sunshine (and the rain!).

Thank you to everyone who helped out on the day and all those who stopped by our stall!

Download our quiz and test your eco-knowledge!
• Our eco-quiz - with answers (.doc)

Or see our (updated) review of the year:
• Camden Friends of the Earth 2010-2011 activities so far (pdf)

We’ll be appearing at more local fairs and festivals over the summer, if you’d like to get involved please get in touch!

Live in a shared house? Daniel from our group (who lives over the border in Haringey) shows that it’s possible to recycle lots with minimal effort - their household of 5 people recycles 66% of their rubbish, compared to the borough’s average recycling rate of 25%! -

We’re “talking rubbish” in this week’s Camden New Journal (19/5/2011):

New, costly, waste incinerators are not the answer to the waste that blight’s Camden’s streets (Why waste incinerators are a real disaster, 12 May).

The ‘Carrots and Sticks’ report released by the London Assembly this week says that in London we have the lowest recycling rate in the country, with a only third of waste being recycled. In Camden we recycle less than 30% of our waste - and we have a huge opportunity to cut down on the rubbish that litters our streets.

Camden Friends of the Earth has been campaigning for more support for local authorities to recycle and re-use more of our household waste, and for more products to be designed to be easy to re-use and recycle. We recently set up a stall at Camden Lock market asking David Cameron to talk “half as much rubbish” - asking the government for a nationwide goal to halve black bag waste by 2020.
Readers can support this aim at www.foe.co.uk/rubbish

Many people across Camden want to see a cleaner, greener London. The answer is for all of us to get the support and services we need to reuse, recycle and compost more, and for companies to cut down on packaging. New waste incinerators are not the solution!

This follows up Barnet & Enfield FoE’s letter on the North London Waste Authority (NWLA)’s proposal to build what would be one of the largest waste processing sites in northern Europe, in north London (read here).