Incinerator waste imports from Scotland?
Plus all the latest eco news including solar farm plans and pressure to divest from fossil fuels
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed, or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
Well, there was no doubt about the result of last week’s poll! 100% of you voted for the wilder, messier verge above as a preference! I snapped that particular verge when changing train in York so well done to the local council there on its choices!
We’ve got plenty more news from across the region this week including:
🐕 The latest in our In The Weeds campaign shares the alarming story of Nuke the dog whose owner believes he was poisoned by glyphosate
🚘 New data shows that the north needs a tenfold increase in chargers for Electric Vehicles (EVs)
☀️ The latest from campaigners who oppose the planned Stell Solar Farm
But we’ll start today with news from Fossil Free North Yorkshire….
Councils urged to stop investing in oil companies
Councillors meeting next week will face questions about how local taxpayers’ money is being spent on pension investments.
Fossil Free North Yorkshire has been campaigning for several years for the county council to stop its pension fund investing in oil companies.
It wants to see the proportion of the £4.6bn fund currently with oil companies, instead invested in renewables and next Friday will take the fight back to county hall.
Campaigner Howard Green has submitted three questions for the committee to consider in advance of the meeting:
Is the pension fund a partner of the council, if not what is it’s status?
How many members of the pension fund committee have had the climate change awareness training?
The council is working towards CO 2 mitigation. Simultaneously it’s pension fund is investing in fossil fuel producing industries (estimated at £75.9M here https://divest.platformlondon.org/fund/north-yorkshire-pension-fund), inevitably increasing global CO 2 – how does the committee justify this ‘institutional cognitive dissonance’?
Fossil Free North Yorkshire is part of a wider UK network of groups campaigning to persuade local government pension funds to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in sustainable activities.
The campaign is focused on the North Yorkshire pension fund and the pool to which North Yorkshire pension fund belongs, Border to Coast Pension Partnership. North Yorkshire pension fund is worth £4.6 billion, of which it is estimated that 1.8% (just under £76 million), is still invested in the fossil fuel industry.
The latest instalment as part of our In The Weeds campaign looks at the issue of glyphosate use in public parks and other spaces where pets could unwittingly become exposed to the pesticide. Over to….
Campaigner Kerri Fleming, Hamilton
Please note: The video below was filmed by Kerri to help her vet make a diagnosis but could be distressing to some viewers.
The three most clicked links from last week were:
Support local news providers to regenerate local news
Public Perceptions of Greenspace Management Amongst County Durham Residents
In other news
💦 Yorkshire has become the second region to enter drought status following the driest spring in 132 years. The Environment Agency announced the change in status last Thursday following declining river flows and groundwater levels because of the dry March, April and May. [Press Release]
Demand for environmental assessment at planned solar farm
The Stop Stell Solar Farm campaigners are urging people likely to be impacted by the proposed large scale green energy project to attend public meetings and contact their local councillors to object.
Tenfold increase to public EV chargers needed in the North
New information about the availability of driveways suitable to charge Electric Vehicles (EVs) has found significant regional differences which disadvantage households in the north.
⚠️ Up to 100 truckloads of Scotland's waste will be moved each day to England once a landfill ban comes in at the end of the year, Kevin Keane at BBC's Disclosure has been told. The news comes as campaigners in County Durham learned that the incinerator proposed for their village will be burning hazardous waste including body parts, organs and animal faeces.
⚠️ and talking of incinerators……Bill Edgar reports for the D&S on how council leaders in Darlington are continuing to support plans for a new Teesside incinerator. Waste from thousands of homes across the region, including Darlington and County Durham, will be burned at the facility; however, campaigners have warned it would be “unfair and dangerous”.
💦 Researchers from York University analysed samples from 32 rivers in all the UK's four nations and found traces of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) at 98% of the test locations, reports Jonah Fisher at the BBC.
💦 Helena Horton at The Guardian writes that bonuses and dividends for water company bosses and shareholders should be approved by the regulator before they are paid, as billpayer funds are being used irresponsibly, MPs have said.
🦀 A report by councillors into an incident which saw a mass wash-up of dead crustaceans on North-East beaches has criticised a lack of co-operation from Government agencies, writes Stuart Arnold at The Northern Echo.
There’s many events going on this month so do check here if you’re looking for something to do. This, on Friday 20th June, grabbed my attention: Wild Film Screening: Wilding at an off grid barn among stunning ancient woodlands at Bank Woods for a wonderfully wild nature-filled evening.
That’s it for this week but don’t forget there are updates on the website and via social media through the week too.
Have a great week!
Thank you for reading edition number 139 of The Northern Eco. I hope you’ve been enjoying being kept in know about environmental issues. We produce this newsletter on a Pay As You Feel basis so, if you feel it’s worth a few quid, now’s the perfect join our paying subscribers. The main newsletter is sent out at 7am every Tuesday and can’t exist without our paying subscribers . 🙏