Celebrations: Marking our first year!
Plus news of farm sewage clean up, climate politicians and solar farm controversy
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update, coming to you in a milestone month - we are now one year old!
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BREAKING NEWS: Minutes after we published this morning, the water regulator OFWAT announced that Yorkshire Water and Northumbria Water face huge fines click here to join the public consultation.
Where to start?! It’s been an incredible year and there’s far too much been going on to run through the entire 12 months but please, indulge me looking back over a few highlights:
We’ve heard from some amazing guest contributors including book recommendations from Claire and Alan at Wonky Tree, re-making hydro power with Adele Marshall and recycling art from Laura Davis. Thanks to all!
We’ve sent almost 1,000 click-thrus (traffic) through to other local media providers via the curated lists of stories. Why is this important? We believe in a healthy media ecosystem and so want to support other local journalists whenever we can.
After publishing many stories about the campaign to Save Our Swale(SOS) it would have been the ultimate achievement to be able to report a successful outcome today. But, while that day still looks to be a way off, there have still been so many significant moments to look back on with that issue:
Professor David Hall from the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), University of Greenwich told us about the years he has spent pouring over the books of the water companies.
The famous and fearless river campaigner Feargal Sharkey came to town!
In Wensleydale, Stop Ure Pollution started work to follow SOS’s lead.
Shop Eco?
Here’s something new as we start year two - as part of this anniversary celebration, we’ve opened a little pop-up online shop! There’s a few lovely items to choose from thanks to the wonderful female-founded business Kiss The Moon as well as copies of the incredible Electrify Everything: The clean energy colouring book. Please take a look here if you’re in the market for gifts and do let us know if there’s any eco related items you’d like us to stock in the future and we’ll do our best to source them.
If you’re in North Yorkshire, it would be great to see you at our stall at the Bedale Eco and Wellness event on August 31 at Bedale Hall too.
In the news….
🥦 Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council in West Yorkshire last week committed to 100% plant-based catering at internal meetings and events. They join three other councils in England to make the pledge as part of their climate emergency action and are the first in northern England to do so. Read our full our report on that and take part in our poll on this topic here.
🌏 The important role of North Yorkshire County Council’s climate lead has gone to a Tory egg farmer in a political shake up. Stuart Minting reports at the York Press on Hutton Rudby and Osmotherley division councillor David Hugill securing the position.
💦 Five years after unprecedented rainfall left destruction across Richmondshire, a £2.1m Dales floods project moves ahead, reports RichmondshireToday.
🌿 Beningbrough Hall’s new garden, by award-winning designer Andy Sturgeon, features more resilient plants and pollinator-friendly blooms to cope with changing climate writes Emily Beament at The Independent.
⚡️ Last week saw the official announcement by the Labour government of the establishment of GB Energy. So, what exactly is GB Energy and what might its establishment mean for North East England? Peter Sagar reports at Northeast Bylines.
🌞 Food security concerns have been raised over plans for a North Yorkshire solar farm bid. Local democracy reporter Stuart Minting writes at the D&S about the ambition to develop a large-scale solar farm on two sides of the A1(M) across Brompton on Swale farmland the equivalent area to 153 football pitches.
🐓 Plans for a 64,000-bird free-range egg farm in Yorkshire countryside are afoot. Details from Anttoni James Numminen at The Yorkshire Post.
🌳 Sprouting Sycamore! Delight as Sycamore Gap tree shows signs of regrowth, writes the National Trust.
River pollution latest
💩 Some good news of sorts - the farmer who had sewage pouring from a manhole cover onto his land has now had a promise of work from Yorkshire Water. Catch up with our story from last Wednesday here.
💩 A Darlington woman has been plagued by sewage coming up out of her sink and shower for three years and says her life has become "a nightmare". Tom Burgess from The Northern Echo reports.
💦 If you’re interested in the water issue from a historical basis, I’d recommend this long-read from two academics at The Conversation: Britain’s ‘broken’ water system: a history of death, denial and diarrhoea.
Help us become financially sustainable
The Northern Eco needs to be financially sustainable to continue. I started this last August with a passionate belief in the power of local news while also recognising that people care deeply about the environment. Can The Northern Eco bring bring both these things together? Can it expand to employ emerging journalists and upcoming writers, photographers or podcasters? That’s my dream for this - but I do need your support to get it on a sustainable footing first.
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The three most clicked links from last week were:
Action to tackle River Swale pollution wins unanimous support
Time for a cuppa?
I’d love to hear from you about how this newsletter fits into your life, any thoughts you have about about improving it and what you’d like to see more(or less) of. So how about joining me for a virtual coffee? I’ve put some time slots aside which you can book here for a quick cuppa and a chat but, if none of those suit, please let me know your availability via sarah@thenortherneco.com. I look forward to meeting you!
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See you next week when we’ll be talking to a woman who has turned her love of rural Northumberland into a business which is taking off across the UK.
Congratulations on the Northern Eco’s first anniversary! Are you doing anything to celebrate?
Thanks! We’ve got the little popup shop open and will be taking a stall at a local event later this month too :)