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Meetings about new nuclear build

Energy campaign 16 Nov. 2008

British Energy are holding public meetings about their proposals for two new nuclear power stations at Bradwell. They are at:

Tues 18 Nov: MICA hall, West Mersea - 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Wed 19 Nov: Bradwell village hall - 6.30pm to 9pm
Tues 25 Nov: Southminster Memorial hall - 2.30pm to 5pm
Wed 26 Nov: Steeple village hall - 10am to 12.30pm and Cold Norton village hall - 6.30pm to 9pm

Meetings about Rivenhall incinerator proposal

Waste campaign 7 Oct. 2008

There will be a public meeting on Friday Oct. 10th at Feering Community Centre, and another on Friday Oct. 17th at Bradwell Village Hall, to discuss the planning application for a regional waste site and waste incinerator at Rivenhall Airfield.

Each meeting starts at 7.30pm and is open to all. There will be an opportunity to view the full planning application documents and to receive a report on the implications of the development, as well as finding how to make representations. The deadline for objections is 29th October.

The meetings have been organised by District Councillors James Abbott and Philip Hughes and the Feering meeting is being supported by Kelvedon and Feering Heritage Society.

More details in Green Cllr James Abbott's announcement of the meetings.

CBC Cabinet meeting

Waste campaign 1 Oct. 2008

Colchester Borough Council's Cabinet met on 1st Oct. 2008 to officially withdraw the Council's support from Essex County Council's PFI bid associated with the MBT-based waste strategy.
You can download the papers from CBC's website here. The substantive business is in the Report on E.E.W.M.J. Committee - Memorandum of Undertstanding.

The three decisions in section 1 were all agreed by the Cabinet. In short:
• To rescind the Memorandum of Understanding signed on behalf of CBC on 19/7/07
• To repudiate the letter of support (from the various councils for the PFI project) previously approved on 17/7/07
• To inform ECC and DEFRA of these decisions (before DEFRA makes its decision on PFI funding this month).

Meeting at MICA Hall

Energy campaign 25 Sept. 2008

There was a CBC scrutiny panel meeting at the Mersea MICA hall on Tuesday 23rd September at 6pm, with speakers for and against nuclear power.
Press release from BANNG: Report on Bradwell meeting.

Meeting at Greenstead Community Centre

Energy campaign 28 Aug. 2008

On 2nd Sept. 2008, at 14:00 at Greenstead Community Centre, Greenstead, Colchester, there will be a meeting of the East Essex Area Forum. Attendees include John Jowers and Christopher Manning-Press of ECC. A copy of the agenda can be found here on the Essex County Council website.

Agenda item 6 is "Nuclear Power". Description in agenda:
To receive a presentation from Nigel Knee, British Energy, on the prospects for building new nuclear power stations in the UK, considering the potential of the Bradwell site for further development.

Forums have no decision-making powers, but submit reports on matters of local concern to the Council or its committees.

From the documentation:
There will be a period of up to 30 minutes where members of the public may raise oral or written questions [...] Members of the public are requested to contact the Committee Officer listed on the front of the agenda in advance of the meeting, should they require clarification of the procedure.

Change of waste policy at Colchester Borough Council

Waste campaign July 2008

In the May elections, the Conservatives lost control of Colchester Borough Council. The new administration, a LibDem/Labour/Independent coalition, had supported our campaign against the county council's waste strategy for a long time when in opposition.

They agreed a new waste policy which is opposed to Essex County Council's strategy of centralised sites with MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants shredding and drying 'black bag' waste to produce RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) or SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) for an incinerator. The new policy aims at Zero Waste, and is incompatible with the long contracts required for the proposed MBT plants and an incinerator.

They announced in the local weekly Standard that they were pulling out of the PFI bid to Government to help finance the 28.5 year contracts. However a more recent article in the daily Gazette announced they were staying "at the table" till Christmas by which time the PFI bid will have been agreed.

Read our letter to the Gazette.

Earls Hall Windfarm planning application

Energy Campaign June 2008

The Earls Hall windfarm application was rejected by Tendring District Council on 19th June. The next stage will probably be a public inquiry. Watch this space for further developments.

Site news

New page

12 August 2008

Added this news page. Each section will accumulate blog fashion, with the most recent at the top.

Printing

July 2008

If you use your browser's print function to print pages, you now get a version adjusted for printing, with a simplified header and no menus, so that the right-hand part of the page doesn't get cut off in Internet Explorer.

Redesign

June-July 2008

I changed all the page layouts. Major changes:
•Variable width. If your browser window is wider than the header graphic, pages will use more of the screen instead of a strip down the middle.
•Menu under the header changed so that it still works if you use a non-standard font size, and in a wider variety of browsers.
•Better support for text-only browsers and people who don't load images automatically.
•Text flows more smoothly round images in the main part of the page.

Page updated 16/11/08