I would like to thank Tony Abdy for pointing out the major misconception many people have about the Green Agenda.

We do not want to make life worse for everybody and certainly don’t want to return to medieval times. Unfortunately, our current way of living is heading us in that direction as climate change and nature depletion will lead to food and energy shortages, civil unrest, wars, and eventually the collapse of our civilisation if we do not urgently change course.

Our focus is not to campaign for a change in individual lifestyles but rather we need Governments and Corporations to change the system so it is easier for all of us to do the right thing for the planet. We have a vision for a much better society, where public transport is so good people prefer not to have a car, where everybody has a secure income to meet their needs, where schools are communities of learning, not exam factories, where agricultural land currently used to grow crops for livestock can be rewilded to save nature that is currently so threatened, where rich individuals and corporations pay a fair rate of tax to contribute to society.

To take his individual points, no, driving a car is not a shameful act. Our whole society has been built around car ownership and with public transport currently being cut even further, we acknowledge many people would currently find life impossible without a car.

But car use is a major contributor of greenhouse gases so we need Government to urgently improve the alternatives, with massive investment in public transport, including making this accessible for disabled people. Reclaiming streets for children to play in and cyclists and pedestrians to walk in leads to far healthier communities.

The way we heat our homes also has to change if we are to reach net zero emissions. Again it is the Government that needs to act to facilitate this. First priority should be a national street-by-street insulation programme because the cheapest bill is the one you don’t have to pay. Secondly, the Government must provide generous incentives to convert homes to heat pumps which are currently unaffordable for most people.

Meat eating too is a major source of emissions and the country does need to move to a more balanced diet. Education and school dinners need to play a major role in helping this transition.

In a  recent Jeremy Vine show sausage expert Mike Perry declared a vegan sausage delicious. He said he could taste the meatiness, it was luscious and lovely and tasted like the one he had this morning! So there are now plenty of good alternatives to meat for people to try.

Yours sincerely

Ash Routh

Walkley Green Party

 

Letter to the Sheffield Telegraph

 

Graham Wroe

Ian Wray is entitled to his point of view, that climate change is nothing to worry about. Whether or not the Telegraph should provide a prominent platform for these views is another matter entirely.

 

If a reader wrote suggesting that covid vaccinations are harmful, the editor would have qualms about publishing it. If someone else wrote suggesting wearing a seat belt in a car is dangerous, I don’t think the editor would publish. Suppose someone wrote explaining how smoking is good for you. Again, I think the editor would not give it space on the letters page. The editor would be sensible not to publish all these letters because printing them gives credibility to false ideas that will endanger lives if they are taken seriously.

 

The science is just as clear with climate change as with all these issues. The 2022 IPCC report found that climate impacts are already more widespread and severe than previously expected. Climate change is causing dangerous disruption in every region in the world with just 1.1 degrees C (2 degrees F) of warming.

Droughts, extreme heat and record floods already threaten food security and livelihoods for millions of people. Since 2008, devastating floods and storms have forced more than 20 million people from their homes each year. Since 1961, crop productivity growth in Africa shrunk by a third due to climate change.

We are locked into even worse impacts from climate change in the near term.

Even if the world rapidly decarbonizes, greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere and current emissions trends will make some very significant climate impacts unavoidable through 2040. The IPCC estimates that in the next decade alone, climate change will drive 32-132 million more people into extreme poverty. Global warming will jeopardize food security, as well as increase the incidence of heat-related mortality, heart disease and mental health challenges. Migration, between countries and within countries is bound to increase.

Cop 27 march for Climate Justice in Barkers Pool

We know risks will escalate quickly with higher temperatures, often causing irreversible impacts of climate change. For instance, with just 1.5 degrees C of global warming, many glaciers around the world will either disappear completely or lose most of their mass; an additional 350 million people will experience water scarcity by 2030, and as much as 14% of terrestrial species will face high risks of extinction.

 

There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity for Climate Action.

The science is unequivocal: Climate change endangers the well-being of people and the planet. Delayed action risks triggering impacts of climate change so catastrophic our world will become unrecognizable. Those that legitimise opinions questioning the need for climate action are endangering billions of lives.

Graham Wroe

Sheffield Green Party

 

Cllr Paul Turpin visiting local shops in Broomhill
Cllr Paul Turpin visiting local shops in Broomhill

On Small Business Saturday Sheffield Green Party is calling on both the national government and the Council to implement a series of measures to help small and independent businesses and social enterprises green their operations, improve employee welfare and make it easier for people to shop local.

The measures include national government insulation grants for businesses, reform of business rates to incentivise greener business practices, an introduction of differential VAT rates in favour of small businesses, and an immediate suspension of Covid loan repayments

“Small and independent businesses and enterprises are the lifeblood of many local communities. And as many large corporations decline and abandon our city, small businesses can help revitalise our high streets.  

Councillor Paul Turpin, Group Spokesperson for the Economic Development and Skills Policy Committee said:

“Local businesses and enterprises help bring diversity to our city, providing it with a distinctive and unique character. They are also vitally important in providing jobs and keeping money circulating in the local area.

“We know many small businesses are struggling with the cost of living and high energy bills, and their running costs are set to increase again in March when the government’s short-term support will end. 

“That’s why, this Small Business Saturday, we are calling on the government to introduce insulation grants for businesses as a proper solution to their high bills. This would benefit small businesses massively, reducing their energy use, operating costs, and emissions.”

“The Green Party has long championed a nationwide insulation programme and other measures to support small business, including the reform of business rates. We are proud to be the party of small business; we want to see them thrive, and provided support to do so.”

This Small Business Saturday the Green Party are calling for:

  1. Grants to insulate small businesses to cut energy bills and emissions. Government should provide businesses with grants to insulate their premises to reduce their running costs, energy use, and emissions for good.
  2. Higher business rate exemption for small businesses that green their operations. Businesses should be incentivised to green their operations by not having to pay higher business rates as a result of taking sustainable measures such as installing solar panels.
  3. Support for small businesses to improve employee wellbeing. Government must support businesses to improve the wellbeing of their employees. Measures should include exempting all childcare providers in England from business rates.
  4. Reform of VAT to support small businesses and suspension of Covid repayments. The government must reform our VAT system so that it differentially supports smaller shops and businesses compared to larger and online businesses. Likewise, there should be an immediate suspension of Covid loan repayments to provide much needed relief for businesses.
  5. Creation of Virtual High Streets. Councils should work with small and independent businesses so residents can use an online portal to buy from participating local shops and have items delivered on the same or next day.

Small Business Saturday is a grassroots campaign held on the first Saturday of December. This year it is 03/12/22. Sheffield Green Party are calling for a range of measures to help small business, from insulation grants to online portals making shopping local easier.

Peter Gilbert from Ecclesall Green Party wanted to shine the spotlight on a local business and how important it is to the local community. He spoke to Karim Akbari Ghalehnovi, who runs the Persian Bakery at Banner Cross. Karim is proud to have the only bread oven of its kind in the UK. Business has been difficult and the cost of living crisis is only making things worse. He worries that the shop will have to close.

Persian Bakery at Banner Cross on Ecclesall Road. 

Posters in the bakery window about the Iranian protests.

Karim Akbari Ghalehnovi with bread fresh from the oven.

The Evans family of Nether Edge are regulars to the Persian Bakery.

 

Small Business Saturday is a grassroots campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities. It takes place on the first Saturday in December each year, but the campaign aims to have a lasting impact.

 

Karim Akbari Ghalehnovi runs the Persian Bakery at Banner Cross, Ecclesall Road. He is proud to have the only bread oven of its kind in the UK, baking his ‘sangak’ flatbreads on a rotating bed of little stones heated by flames. He came to Sheffield over 10 years ago and opened his bakery two and a half years ago. At first he complimented the baking with an Iranian grocery but this summer changed his business model to a deli offering coffee, tea and sandwiches with fillings such as pistachio salami and Persian meat patties.

 

Despite being in the heart of one of the most affluent areas in Sheffield, the shopkeepers of Banner Cross are struggling, with reports of sales down by up to 50%. For this year’s Small Business Saturday, Peter Gilbert from Ecclesall Green Party wanted to shine the spotlight on one of these businesses, and spent a morning talking with Karim and his customers. “These are my local shops,” says Peter, “I want them to thrive. Variety is the spice of life and I was very excited when the Persian Bakery opened close to my house. I also thought it was brave as it opened during Covid.”

 

Karim says that business has been difficult and the cost of living crisis is only making things worse. He worries that he will have to close, which would be a great loss to Sheffield’s significant Iranian community and all the local residents that have got a taste for his unique bread. He said that local businesses’ sales are down by as much as 50%. For him it is down 30% – 40%. Karim said, “At this rate I can only go on for 2 – 3 months. If it doesn’t go up, maybe I am closing.”

 

In his shop window there are posters relating to Iran’s civil unrest. Asked about them Karim becomes thoughtful. “We have a gathering in the city centre, more than 200 people are coming. They are protesting against our government. This is not just one time, they started two months ago. Every weekend. I have been twice, but not today, I am working.”

 

As Karim removes hot loaves from his oven Farzaneh Alizdeh who lives in Fulwood comes into the shop smiling. “I am here to buy some bread,” she says. “Fresh bread. This is nostalgic bread actually for us. We used to buy this bread all the time in Iran when we were living there. And now we are lucky to have the same type of bread here. Previously it was brought from other cities, London, Manchester. You know, it’s bread, so you want it fresh. So, yeah, that’s why I am here, to get some fresh bread.”

 

Next in line are the Evans family of Nether Edge: Oscar, Katherine and their 2-year-old Cedric. They have been many times before and say it is the fantastic bread that keeps them coming back for more. “I’ve got a slightly Middle Eastern inspired brunch that we are going to cook with halloumi and garlic mushrooms and eggs and stuff when we get home” says Oscar. “The bread is just the perfect accompaniment. I might make a lamb curry, dipping the bread in there so, yeah, it just kinda goes with a lot of the kind of weekend cuisine that we were hoping to eat.”

 

Katherine says of the bakery, “It has changed since we were last in. It was more like a shop, whereas now they are selling sandwiches. It looks delicious and I love all the dips that they make. They have an aubergine dip and really good hummus. We’ve seen around the area lots of small business closing, independent business, so it’s nice to keep them alive”

 

After the customers have gone Karim shows Peter his bins behind the shop. They are full of leftover bread; it doesn’t keep long and if it isn’t sold it is thrown out. Peter says that he will connect Karim up with one of the city’s food waste upcycling projects, like Food Works Sheffield, that offer a free collection service to food businesses with stock they are not able to make use of. 

 

Peter Gilbert concludes, “Our small businesses are struggling. We are lucky to have them, they are the backbone of our communities and they add richness to our lives. We need to support them. Shop local. Shop independent. Rather than buying your bread in plastic packaging from a supermarket, get it freshly baked.”

A letter to the Star and Telegraph

Under the Boris Johnson Government, the two Green Peers,  Natalie Bennett and Jenny Jones,  had to fight tooth and nail to amend the dreadful Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. This Bill became law, but the peers successfully voted down 14 of the worst parts of the bill.

 

Now Home Secretary Suella Braverman has brought back even more dangerous legislation, the Public Order Bill. Leading human rights groups say this would align the UK’s anti-protest laws with those in Russia and Belarus. The Public Order Bill has already passed a final vote in the Commons, so the House of Lords has a last chance to try to amend it before it becomes law. Under this law for instance the tree protesters in Sheffield would have been locked up or intimidated and Sheffield would have lost all 17500 trees planned for felling.

 

The new bill means the police can arrest anyone at a protest. This is because “noise” is now to be defined as serious disruption. What is the point of a demonstration if nobody hears you?

 

Writer George Monbiot says “Perhaps the most sinister part of the Bill is what it calls Serious Disruption Prevention Orders. These are orders that can be served on anyone who has been to a protest in the past 5 years or encouraged anyone else to go to a protest in the last five years or in any way has supported a protest in the last five years.” Protesters will be subjected to the kind of restraints that dangerous criminals face when released from prison on probation. They would have to regularly report to the police, they would not be allowed to associate with certain people, they would not be allowed to go to a protest or encourage a protest or possibly even look at protest-related materials online. They could be forced to wear an electronic tag and have monitoring equipment installed in their home.

 

This could apply to all the Green Party activists I can think of. We could all end up wearing tags! Attacking opponents like this is how fascism begins.

 

Unfortunately, Keir Starmer is not speaking out against this bill, even though the whole Labour movement was built on protest. It shows how far to the right the Labour Party has moved.

 

There are now 37 environmental protesters in UK prisons, all arrested for non-violent direct action. Some activists were recently arrested for simply carrying a banner.

 

Our friends at Greenpeace have organised a petition against the Public Order Bill. https://action.greenpeace.org.uk/public-order-bill Please support it.

 

Peter Gilbert

Ecclesall Green Party

Green councillors are demanding a firm commitment to action on air pollution.

The call comes as Labour councillors are threatening further delay to the millions in grants ready for taxi drivers and local businesses to help improve the poor air quality across Sheffield.

Cllr Christine Gilligan Kubo, deputy chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Change Committee, said,

“Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, with between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths a year attributed to long-term exposure – that’s 500 early deaths a year just in Sheffield, through coronary heart disease, strokes, respiratory disease, lung cancer and asthma.

“The Green Party has long campaigned to improve air quality in Sheffield.  We are fully behind the implementation of Clean Air Zones.  Thanks to long-running national campaigns on air pollution, these are now a legal requirement in cities like Sheffield, to improve the quality of life for residents in the shortest possible time.

“Removing polluting vehicles from the inner ring road will have a positive impact on the health of residents across the whole city. It will also save the hard-pressed and under-funded NHS from treating people with chronic respiratory conditions.

“Millions of pounds in grant funding have sat in the council’s bank account due to prevarication.  We want this money to be allocated without further delay to taxi and van drivers so that we are meeting our legal commitments on air quality and getting important cash to local businesses.”

Cllr Douglas Johnson added,

Douglas Johnson in Abbeyfield Park
Cllr Douglas Johnson

“As the former Executive Member responsible for promoting the Clean Air Zone, I was very pleased when the Labour–Green Executive approved the CAZ in October 2021 and accepted £24 million of government money to offer grants to upgrade taxis, buses and vans to cleaner vehicles.  It is disappointing that these grants to small businesses are now being delayed again after sitting in the council’s bank account since 2020.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact Douglas Johnson on 07981 860 662 or at douglas.johnson@sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

  1. The council’s executive approved the Clean Air Plan  on 26 October 2021 – see https://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=24042
  2. Sheffield City Councill approved a Class C Clean Air Zone. This does not involve charging private cars.
Thomas Atkin
Thomas Atkin

Reading of the experience of Deborah Fairclough, the blind woman from Crosspool who fell from a train, doesn’t surprise me. We live in a world designed by able-bodied men for able-bodied men. From the huge steps down from trains to the lack of ramps in hilly cities, such as Sheffield, to only having one wheelchair space on the bus, the way we design our world largely neglects the needs of disabled people. Other countries are taking steps to rectify this, from appointing more disabled town planners to raising train station platforms to have level access, yet here in England, we make little progress.

A few months ago I was in Edinburgh with my dad, who has Multiple Sclerosis and is in a wheelchair. They got a lot of things right, but equally a lot wrong. Their buses have two wheelchair spaces, an audio-visual system to indicate upcoming stops and fold-down rollover bars, but even on the shallower hills, it was impossible to get wheelchairs into shops, meaning we had to go back to Edinburgh station to have lunch. We have much the same problems in Sheffield.

Take Esperanto Place, for example, there are stairs and grass to make it easier to get between Arundel Gate and Pond St, but no ramp. We design accessible homes that are still difficult to get around and we cut vital social care to save money. Until the need to centre accessibility at the heart of decision-making is accepted and written into law, those of us who are disabled, 18% of the UK population, will continue to be excluded

Thomas Atkin

Graves Park Green Party


Letter to the Sheffield Star

In his Autumn statement, Jeremy Hunt has taken £30bn away from people during a cost of living crisis–both directly and through cuts in services. There is enough wealth in this country for us to avoid the dire economic situation this Conservative government is forcing us into. The problem is that wealth is concentrated in too few hands when it should be spread throughout the economy to the benefit of everybody. The Green Party demand a 1% wealth tax on the super-rich and increases in taxes on unearned income to ensure there is sufficient money to fund the public services we deserve.

I welcome the government’s belated recognition of the importance of home insulation in getting people’s fuel bills down and reducing emissions – but where’s the urgency? We need street-by-street action now to make homes more energy efficient, reduce our demand for gas and reduce our bills and emissions.

Yours faithfully

Bev Bennett

Nether Edge and Sharrow Green Party


A letter to the Star and Telegraph

Toby Mallinson

Sheffield Green Party offer the nurses our full solidarity in winning the pay award they deserve. It is appalling that they have been forced to vote for strike action

The Tory Government failed to properly fund the NHS for a decade, flip-flopped on funding training for new nurses, and have no long-term plan for health and social care. Short staffing and poor working conditions are piling pressure on the nurses who are left, leading many to leave the service. The NHS is filling the gaps with agency workers who cost up to £2500 a day. Patients who should be discharged are taking up hospital beds because there isn’t funding for enough carers to look after them at home. This is a crisis made in Westminster.

The British people, and particularly the wealthiest amongst us, can fund the 5% real-term pay rise that nurses are asking for. We can fund a minimum wage of £15 per hour to give social care staff a decent standard of living. Nurses and social care staff give so much and make a huge difference to the lives of so many; we have a responsibility to provide the pay and conditions they deserve.

Toby Mallinson

Hillsborough Green Party