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colchesterfoeNote: This site is under construction; you can still see the old one at colchesterfoe.org until the hosting expires later this year, by which time I hope to have all the important content transferred.
Friends of the Earth is the most extensive environmental network in the world, with almost one million supporters across five continents and 68 national organisations worldwide. Coming to the UK in the early 1970s, it is now the most influential national environmental campaigning organisation, with a unique network of over 200 campaigning local groups which include Colchester & North East Essex FoE (also known as Colchester FoE).
Friends of the Earth have had a presence in Colchester from the mid 1970s and our present group dates back over 25 years. We have run several big campaigns, notably on Waste, Energy and Transport.
One of our main campaigns is waste. Our battle against incinerators started in 1996 and has included taking Essex County Council to the High Court in 2002, and running two Parliamentary meetings at Westminster with rallies in front of the Houses of Parliament.
The campaign has involved fighting three massive waste disposal plants proposed at Stanway, Rivenhall Airfield and Basildon, with 25 year contracts. These are for various versions of MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants, which basically shred, destroy and dry huge tonnages of our valuable resources.
In 2006, as part of our campaign to reduce waste and encourage more recycling, CFoE visited three of the local stores of major supermarket chains for a 'Take Back Packaging' action. We asked them to provide recycling banks for the mixed plastic and juice cartons which were the two materials not collected in Colchester kerbside collections and also called for them to ban free plastic bags as Ireland did, which cut bag use by 95%.
We requested that packaging should be either suitable for composting or recycling, and made from the plastic polymers that can more easily be recycled. We are pleased to report that we had a very encouraging response and, allied with the fact that the WI have also had a national packaging campaign, that things seem to be changing.
When New Labour were in government, Minister Ben Bradshaw urged shoppers to take off excess packaging and leave it at the checkout as German housewives did many years ago. Some of us have returned washed and stacked packaging to the supermarket it came from for years, asking them to supply recycling banks.
See the Waste Campaign page
From summer 2005 we ran stalls gathering support for the windfarm near Bradwell and also tried to encourage support for another windfarm proposal at Earls Hall Farm, St Osyth.
We fought over many years for the closure of the Bradwell nuclear power station which is now being decommissioned, possibly over 130 years. We successfully campaigned to stop the burning of low-level radioactive wastes upwind of Mersea Island.
See the Energy Campaign page
Colchester FoE started the huge campaign to try to prevent the publicly-owned Colchester bus station site being built on and the bus station being unsuitably resited in the redevelopment of the St Botolph's area of the town. The Bus Users group and Save Our Bus Station joined the battle to no avail.
We have been vocal in our support for public transport and campaigned against removing the bus lane from North Hill. The loss of this has caused bus journey times to lengthen and the withdrawal of the extended bus link to Colchester Hospital from Mersea and Brightlingsea. The Mersea bus no longer goes to North Station during the daytime as it always used to.
In the past we have promoted public transport, including the Braintree to Stansted rail link, when we appeared at the public inquiries opposing the proposed major new A120 and A130 road schemes. These were environmentally-devastating sections of the future 'Outer M25' which FOE predicted in the Observer in 2003.
The long fight to try to save the ancient bluebell woods at Rettendon on the route of the proposed A130 included the longest underground tunnel occupation in the world - forty days and forty nights.
See the Transport Campaign page
We opposed the environmentally-damaging massive container port at Harwich, with the then newly-formed Stour & Orwell Estuary FoE group, at the Bathside Bay public inquiry. We were supported strongly by national FoE and the Regional Campaign Co-ordinator, Mary Edwards, who spearheaded a Portswatch group of environmental organisations including RSPB, CPREssex and many others.
Colchester FoE highlighted the traffic impact of at least 3,800 of the largest container lorries in the world thundering onto our Essex roads every day. We also showed the damage it would wreak on our sustainable tourist industry which provides a massive boost to the Essex economy, and many local jobs from the many tourists who come to Essex from the passenger ships.
We supported three local community groups with information, helping them successfully block GM planting at St Osyth after a referendum, and helped the Wivenhoe group to fight a local farmer's trial GM planting. We also supported a public meeting on this issue at Colchester Town Hall.
Tropical Rainforests has been another campaign area where Colchester FoE have been campaigning for years. Our High Street demo outside Williams & Griffin resulted in them changing their policy and avoiding furniture made from mahogany or teak. Hatfields unfortunately refused to stop stocking these. When purchasing furniture you can avoid buying tropical hardwoods and check if the timber originates from a sustainable source.
We ran a two-year pesticides campaign after the Co-ordinator, Paula Whitney, had been badly affected after walking through sprayed grass while teaching at school. The county council instigated an investigation. At around the same time a Colchester resident was badly affected after walking through sprayed grass at Hilly Fields. Colchester council refused to investigate.
Paula and Pat Green researched the pesticides used by Colchester council and proved that three-quarters of herbicides used by the council were banned or severely restricted in other countries. We eventually achieved a 100% vote of Colchester council, including the Mayor, to ban all such pesticides including those which were in doubt. This left them with only one herbicide they could use - Glyphosate - which itself is now causing problems in Denmark, as it leaches into water and contaminates it.
Over the years, Colchester FoE, along with many other local groups over the country, has turned out in support of many other campaigns run by the national organisation, on consciousness-raising Days of Action ranging from Palm Oil to Dirty Diesels to Climate Change. We have been out and about for many years at various stalls in the Colchester town centre and at community events like the Wivenhoe Fair and the Five Parishes Show.
Friends of the Earth is the most extensive environmental network in the world, with almost one million supporters across five continents and 68 national organisations worldwide. Coming to the UK in the early 1970s, it is now the most influential national environmental campaigning organisation, with a unique network of over 200 campaigning local groups which include Colchester & North East Essex FoE (also known as Colchester FoE).
Friends of the Earth have had a presence in Colchester from the mid 1970s and our present group dates back over 25 years. We have run several big campaigns, notably on Waste, Energy and Transport.
Waste and recycling
One of our main campaigns is waste. Our battle against incinerators started in 1996 and has included taking Essex County Council to the High Court in 2002, and running two Parliamentary meetings at Westminster with rallies in front of the Houses of Parliament.
The campaign has involved fighting three massive waste disposal plants proposed at Stanway, Rivenhall Airfield and Basildon, with 25 year contracts. These are for various versions of MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants, which basically shred, destroy and dry huge tonnages of our valuable resources.
In 2006, as part of our campaign to reduce waste and encourage more recycling, CFoE visited three of the local stores of major supermarket chains for a 'Take Back Packaging' action. We asked them to provide recycling banks for the mixed plastic and juice cartons which were the two materials not collected in Colchester kerbside collections and also called for them to ban free plastic bags as Ireland did, which cut bag use by 95%.
We requested that packaging should be either suitable for composting or recycling, and made from the plastic polymers that can more easily be recycled. We are pleased to report that we had a very encouraging response and, allied with the fact that the WI have also had a national packaging campaign, that things seem to be changing.
When New Labour were in government, Minister Ben Bradshaw urged shoppers to take off excess packaging and leave it at the checkout as German housewives did many years ago. Some of us have returned washed and stacked packaging to the supermarket it came from for years, asking them to supply recycling banks.
See the Waste Campaign page
Energy
From summer 2005 we ran stalls gathering support for the windfarm near Bradwell and also tried to encourage support for another windfarm proposal at Earls Hall Farm, St Osyth.
We fought over many years for the closure of the Bradwell nuclear power station which is now being decommissioned, possibly over 130 years. We successfully campaigned to stop the burning of low-level radioactive wastes upwind of Mersea Island.
See the Energy Campaign page
Transport
Colchester FoE started the huge campaign to try to prevent the publicly-owned Colchester bus station site being built on and the bus station being unsuitably resited in the redevelopment of the St Botolph's area of the town. The Bus Users group and Save Our Bus Station joined the battle to no avail.
We have been vocal in our support for public transport and campaigned against removing the bus lane from North Hill. The loss of this has caused bus journey times to lengthen and the withdrawal of the extended bus link to Colchester Hospital from Mersea and Brightlingsea. The Mersea bus no longer goes to North Station during the daytime as it always used to.
In the past we have promoted public transport, including the Braintree to Stansted rail link, when we appeared at the public inquiries opposing the proposed major new A120 and A130 road schemes. These were environmentally-devastating sections of the future 'Outer M25' which FOE predicted in the Observer in 2003.
The long fight to try to save the ancient bluebell woods at Rettendon on the route of the proposed A130 included the longest underground tunnel occupation in the world - forty days and forty nights.
See the Transport Campaign page
Bathside Bay Container Port
We opposed the environmentally-damaging massive container port at Harwich, with the then newly-formed Stour & Orwell Estuary FoE group, at the Bathside Bay public inquiry. We were supported strongly by national FoE and the Regional Campaign Co-ordinator, Mary Edwards, who spearheaded a Portswatch group of environmental organisations including RSPB, CPREssex and many others.
Colchester FoE highlighted the traffic impact of at least 3,800 of the largest container lorries in the world thundering onto our Essex roads every day. We also showed the damage it would wreak on our sustainable tourist industry which provides a massive boost to the Essex economy, and many local jobs from the many tourists who come to Essex from the passenger ships.
Local GM action
We supported three local community groups with information, helping them successfully block GM planting at St Osyth after a referendum, and helped the Wivenhoe group to fight a local farmer's trial GM planting. We also supported a public meeting on this issue at Colchester Town Hall.
Tropical Rainforests
Tropical Rainforests has been another campaign area where Colchester FoE have been campaigning for years. Our High Street demo outside Williams & Griffin resulted in them changing their policy and avoiding furniture made from mahogany or teak. Hatfields unfortunately refused to stop stocking these. When purchasing furniture you can avoid buying tropical hardwoods and check if the timber originates from a sustainable source.
Pesticides campaign
We ran a two-year pesticides campaign after the Co-ordinator, Paula Whitney, had been badly affected after walking through sprayed grass while teaching at school. The county council instigated an investigation. At around the same time a Colchester resident was badly affected after walking through sprayed grass at Hilly Fields. Colchester council refused to investigate.
Paula and Pat Green researched the pesticides used by Colchester council and proved that three-quarters of herbicides used by the council were banned or severely restricted in other countries. We eventually achieved a 100% vote of Colchester council, including the Mayor, to ban all such pesticides including those which were in doubt. This left them with only one herbicide they could use - Glyphosate - which itself is now causing problems in Denmark, as it leaches into water and contaminates it.
Days of Action
Over the years, Colchester FoE, along with many other local groups over the country, has turned out in support of many other campaigns run by the national organisation, on consciousness-raising Days of Action ranging from Palm Oil to Dirty Diesels to Climate Change. We have been out and about for many years at various stalls in the Colchester town centre and at community events like the Wivenhoe Fair and the Five Parishes Show.
