Jenny Jones in Croydon Town Centre

A better quality video was filmed by Croydon TV Click on The Today Show -------------------------------------------------- Tags croydon, greenparty

London Road residents and shopkeepers have had enough

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article from the Croydon Advertiser

There is a lot of anger and frustration on London Road, Croydon. I attended a recent meeting where it was decided to hold a march on Sunday May 13th from Mayday Hospital to Croydon Town hall.

Tags croydon, greenparty

The future's orange

Borrowed from http://www.londonelects.org.uk/im-voter/how-vote

It would be brilliant if Gordon Ross was elected Assembly member for Croydon and Sutton. Equally, it would be a fantastic if Jenny Jones was elected Mayor on May 4th. However, both results are realistically beyond reach when using the FPTP voting system. 

The London-wide Assembly member ballot is a different story. Brendan Walsh takes a look at the value of the orange ballot paper in Croydon.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Olympics is a corporate event

I was asked to comment on the dearth of local people invloved in the torch relay. That said I was pleased to see only my teacher from Woodcote High School selected.

Link to online version of the article that appeared in the Croydon Advertiser

Crucifixion along side our stall

Link to video

I shot this video using my mobile phone on Saturday.

Many passers by mentioned seeing Jenny Jones' excellent performance on Newsnight.

Croydon town centre is becoming well known for its steel bands, Ahmadi stalls, chuggers, preachers, pan pipe players, and now crucifixions. In terms of grabbing the attention of shoppers, I can't imagine many local parties across the country encounter competition this varied!
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Tags croydon, greenparty

Dog used to win votes.

GLA candidate Gordon Ross with Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones

East London Lines have been interviewing the various Croydon and Sutton GLA candidates. Gordon has done a thorough piece to camera. I've also noticed that AM for Croydon and Sutton, Steve O'Connell, the present incumbent and Conservative candidate, has an image with his dog amongst the photo montage. Is this a case of animal exploitation? Poor dog may not want his image used for political purposes.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Can Ken throw out the incinerator?

Ken Livingstone was questioned about his views on the proposed incinerator during his visit to Croydon. I have seen varied reporting on what he said, but it appears he did say that he would oppose this particular application. However, I wondered why he didn't come out and say he would throw the application out.

It turns out that Ken may have actually said too much and prejudiced himself in the event he wins the mayoral race, and 'calls in' the application. AM member for Steve O'Connell clarifies this in an article in the Croydon Advertiser:

Croydon Advertiser online

When initially asked by the reporter for my views on Ken's comments, I responded by saying, I would be in a better position to answer the question after the London Green Party's extraordinary meeting with Ken (last week). Last Monday (26th March), after a Q and A session, a vote was taken on whether to recommend Ken as second preference choice in the vote for Mayor of London.

Sadly the meeting clashed with our local monthly meeting. However, I did ask a colleague to ask Ken the following question:

The planned incinerator in Beddington, on the borders of Croydon and Sutton, not only affects these two boroughs but also Kingston and Merton, who are also part of the South London Waste Partnership, and Lambeth which is downwind. Why didn't you say (in your comments to the papers) you would throw out the Viridor application which is expected to be lodged with Sutton Council in June? And, can you assure (cast iron guarantee preferred) over 950,000 residents that you can and will throw out the application, even it is lodged in early June? What circumstances do you envisage that you will not be able to throw out the application if you are elected Mayor?

Ken's response included a bit about the planning process, but he did advise the meeting that his past action and chosen technologies for tackling waste in London should assure us that he will do the correct thing.

Ken fielded various other questions regarding his record and policy, and after a discussion amongst the 70 members present, it was agreed to recommended Ken as second preference. And so the slogan, #jenthenken was born. I think I would have preferred Jenny Thenny Kenny!!

Borrowed from http://teengreenmusings.blogspot.co.uk/

You will read from my comments in the Advertiser article that our local party was satisfied that Ken would "do the correct thing."

However, at the recent Viridor public exhibition I did ask their team what would happen if Ken got elected and 'called in' the application. Their town planning consultant indicated that they would appeal to a higher authority, namely the government. Sigh.

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Health Impact Assessment for the incinerator

Incinerator emissions map as produced by ERM, consultants appointed by Sutton Council

On 19 March, a few of us went to the Beddington Conference Centre to be presented with a rather one-sided view of the health impacts of the proposed incinerator. I recorded some of the meeting with ERM's Roger Barrowcliff on my mobile (above). The meeting overran by 1 hour 20 minutes such was the desire to register our point of view. Jim Duffy was sufficiently moved to send in a letter to the local papers almost instantly.

Dear Sir

Viridor may have made a mistake in contracting someone with strong pro-incinerator views to conduct its own Health Impact Assessment as this may backfire on them. At its recent workshop in Beddington an Energy-from-Waste expert attacked scientists voicing criticism of polluting incinerators as akin to climate-change deniers. This is an extreme view.

Climate change-deniers typically have a financial incentive in making their claims or are backed by commercial companies. On the other hand scientists who condemn incinerator emissions as harmful to health do so from a position of concern, often about local communities such as ours and forgoing lucrative contracts from commercial companies due to their views.

The meeting, unlike most workshops which have an egalitarian approach, centred on the speaker's comments and was mostly an unchaired question-and-answer session. There were no interactions amongst the participants whereby for example the group could build up a consensus on key concerns. Instead the speaker batted back concerns raised one at a time. Three local businessmen walked out midway declaring contempt for the biased view of the speaker.

Despite his unflinching assertion that incinerators were safe he did however show concern at South London Waste Plan's permission to burn radioactive and hazardous waste at the incinerator. He said the high population should have ruled this out but participants gave examples of city incinerators which do burn streams of radioactive waste.

When asked if a baseline study of local health would be set up using Government data against which any health effects in coming years could be measured he was vague and merely offered a 'social and health profile'.

If, as participants fear, Viridor's Health Impact Assessment turns out to be a whitewash that may prove more provocative than helpful.

Jim Duffy

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Tags croydon, greenparty