gerran

Believer in equality and the power of human kindness, oh and art lover!

[Jody McIntyre @jodymcintyre_]

This is the MP Andy Burnham just appointed as Chair of the Labour Party.

But did you know that Bridget Phillipson received £80,000 from an individual linked to Israeli military intelligence?

I’ve discovered some documents that Phillipson might not want you to know about…🧵

[gerran @gerran14]

@supertanskiii @Patrici89225734 It’s heartbreaking. They didn’t cause this but they suffer because of our actions.

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

‘It’s irreplaceable’: Fury over Reform plans to expand quarry in ancient Kent woodland.

Reform don’t give a shit about England's gree and pleasant land.

Forty hectares of Oaken Wood could be razed after it was identified as potential site of expansion by Reform-run council

It was at the confluence of seven forest paths that Allison Sweetman came to a stop. Trees rose on all sides, save for a recently coppiced section to the north-east. The noon heat had silenced most birds, but the quiet was peaceful.

“This is what they call Seven Wents,” she said. For centuries, the people of Kent had travelled this way, from East Malling to Barming, from Ditton to Teston, for church, commerce and friends. “It’s on maps going back 400 years.”

That may be about to end. Seven Wents is part of Oaken Wood, 40 hectares (100 acres) of which is all but condemned to be razed.

Developers want the stone beneath.

Kent county council, led by Reform UK, this month voted to include it in their mineral sites plan. That makes it a potential site of expansion for the quarry next door.

The council said its decision does not yet amount to planning permission as the plan needs government approval before that can happen. However, it does mean that they have identified the ground beneath the forest as an essential source of stone for building and restoration projects. Now, campaigners are on the march.

Continuously wooded since at least 1600, Oaken Wood is a plantation on ancient woodland site (paws), which means it is the site of an ancient forest that has been replanted. For centuries it has been worked as a sweet chestnut coppice, with whole sections felled in rotation, allowing the stumps to regrow.

The sun shone almost directly overhead, but the air was cool beneath the forest canopy. Sweetman, who knows the wood intimately and is a Green party councillor for the local area, led the way through green corridors flanked by almost impenetrable stands of plantation forest to another recently coppiced site.

With her were Rachel Rodwell, also a Green councillor; Julie Read, a campaigner; and Brontie Ansell, the managing director of Lawyers for Nature, who has been supporting their campaign to save the woods.

“It takes about seven years before they’re ready to be coppiced again,” Sweetman said. “And in the time they grow they’re actually absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than a fully grown tree… Likewise their roots continue to grow, and that absorbs the surface water from rain.”

The wood is also a critical ecological site, supporting wildlife including dormice, nightjars and owls.

Alongside the sweet chestnut coppices stand veteran trees, including old oaks. Bluebells and other wildflowers bloom here. The soil itself, bound by a mycorrhizal network that has built up over aeons, is a seed bank and a carbon sink, says Kent Wildlife Trust.

Opponents of the plan to raze the area say it is wrong to place the conservation of the built environment over the conservation of nature.

There is little to distinguish Oaken Wood from any other ancient woodland site, said Ansell. “It’s protected in exactly the same way, legally, because it’s not just about the fact that there’s newish growth of trees,” she said. “You’ve got all the soils, you’ve got the fungi, you’ve got all of the wildlife.” But, she added: “It is still irreplaceable. You couldn’t just create this somewhere else.”

The Gallagher Group runs the Hermitage quarry.

Last year, more than 25,000 voiced their concerns in a consultation on the plan. The Woodland Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust are opposed. Maidstone borough council, on which Sweetman and Rodwell sit, passed a rights of nature motion in April.

“We’re treating nature as a commodity or a resource and we’re forgetting we’re part of the same system. And it’s this sense of entitlement that we can just strip it away and plunder it,” added Rodwell. “It’s replicated across the country, across the globe.”

https://t.co/v3TCOue7Il

[Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc]

Police arrest an elderly woman in a wheelchair for opposing the israeli genocide: she faces 14yrs in jail — a life sentence | @DefendOurJuries

[Tom Dune 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🚀🤘 @TheTomDune]

This is absolutely incredible. The #SaveJodrellBank petition campaign now has 37k signatures across all petitions! I think this shows how much people of the UK value science in this country and why @UKRI_News need to look at the error of thir ways!
#SaveBritishScience

[gerran @gerran14]

@DefendOurJuries This is absolutely awful. @andyburnham please stop this travesty.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Half of the country is in "exceptionally serious drought" - putting us at more risk of wildfires and threatening our food security.

Meanwhile water companies are wasting a staggering 2.87 billion litres of water every day through leaky pipes.

Time to end water privatisation.

[gerran @gerran14]

@ZackPolanski Way past time. I cannot understand why the Government refuses to renationalise water. It’s a matter of security of supply and it doesn’t have to be expensive despite water the water industry says.

[gerran @gerran14]

@implausibleblog He never stops whining does he. Professional victim.

[Prof. Peter Strachan @ProfStrachan]

A deeply troubling read.

"Over the past century, England and Wales have lost 98% of wildflower meadows. We have also destroyed half of Britain’s ancient woodland, half of lowland ponds, 90% of freshwater wetlands and 62% of all 'farmland' wild birds."

We must do better. We are better than this.

#Biodiversity #England #Wales #Nature #Birds

https://t.co/kf9rxSdd5X

[gerran @gerran14]

@kalanighost Cambridge is one of my favourite places. I'm so glad you went there. Loving the reviews by the way.

[gerran @gerran14]

@vicderbyshire Good. Waste of police time.

[gerran @gerran14]

@BBCBreaking Good.

[gerran @gerran14]

@ChirpyChet They all look delicious 😊

[gerran @gerran14]

@supertanskiii @Patrici89225734 He didn’t do too well in Cable Street in 1936 either 😊

[Joel Montfort @jmontforttx]

The plan is to erase physical knowledge so they can monetize it.

[Patrick J. Wolf @PatWolf]

Buy old books
Save old books

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

CEO of Anglian Water, England's worst-polluting water company, handed extra £1.3m despite ban on bonuses for failing firms.

Companies circumvent rules to reward execs for dumping sewage, fleecing customers, neglecting investment.

Govt/Ofwat do nothing.
https://t.co/hLB34ECuky

[gerran @gerran14]

@premnsikka This can’t be allowed to go on. We’ve had enough.

[gerran @gerran14]

Save science at Jodrell Bank and the iconic Lovell Telescope - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/eR5dKHb932 via @UKChange