What on Earth 57

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s supporters’ magazine Issue 57 Autumn / Winter 2011

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Contents

What on Earth 57 Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is: • Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation • An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland • Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups – covering every continent.

Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.

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Stan Blackley's first column for What on Earth since taking over as Chief Executive, on his hopes for reviving the organisation's grassroots.

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Editors: Davina Shiell and Per Fischer Picture Editor: Per Fischer Design: www.triggerpress.co.uk Advertising: Sheila Duffy Tel: 0131 243 2700 Cover Photo: Campaigners dressed as oil-addicted bankers protest at the RBS AGM 2011.

Photo: Richard Scott/MAVERICK

Local Groups and Activism We feature two of our star activists, and offer help on how to get a local group up and running.

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Politics We've been asking five new members of the Scottish Parliament about their awareness of green issues. Learn how each of them became environmentally aware.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442.

What on Earth is published by and copyrighted to: Friends of the Earth Scotland 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe-scotland.org.uk W: www.foe-scotland.org.uk

View from the Street

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Campaigns In recent months, we’ve been to Spain and Hungary, and, closer to home, dressed up as oily bankers. We also have news about our Young Friends of the Earth group.

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Focus: Access to Environmental Justice We take an in-depth look at our Access to Environmental Justice campaign, and how the issues affect ordinary people.

We also visit six communities to hear how they are fighting for environmental justice.

The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements.

15 1000 Huts

RE-USE AND SPREAD THE WORD When you have finished with this magazine, save it or pass it on to friends, a doctor’s surgery, school, student union, library or café. As a last resort recycle it.

16 Film Reviews and Your Support

Printed on Revive pure white silk 100% recycled paper

Introducing Reforesting Scotland's new campaign to promote ‘hutting culture’ in Scotland.

For this issue, we've gone to the cinema to review two new environmentally themed films. We have also news about this year's prize draw and a fundraising dinner.

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View from the Street

This is my first piece for What on Earth as the new Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland. It is a great privilege for me to join an organisation that I’ve personally supported for many years, and to be able to work alongside some of Scotland’s most impressive and effective environmental campaigners.

It is my hope that in the coming months and years we will be able to reinvigorate our organisation’s grassroots approach to campaigning, by building our local group and member networks, engaging new activists and supporters, and working in partnership with those communities and organisations throughout Scotland with whom we have a shared vision of a safe, just, low carbon Scotland.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Our campaigning work on environmental justice is more important and timely than ever before, as more and more Scottish communities are being forced to challenge poor planning decisions and inappropriate developments, fight to protect their local environment and put themselves at financial risk to gain access to the justice that they deserve.

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people of Scotland are willing to take action when required, but it’s also incredibly disappointing that they are forced to take that action in the first place.

These communities are our natural allies and we will continue to do everything we can to support and assist them, and you can help us to help them.

website, and consider signing up your friends, colleagues and family as new members of our organisation.

It is our strength in numbers that gives our organisation its influence, and it is the unrestricted income from membership subscriptions that allows us to continue to campaign for environmental justice and support community campaigns such as the ones featured in this magazine. Every action and every member really does count.

This edition of What on Earth contains a number of articles about just a few of these communities, who are challenging new dirty power plants and motorway schemes or who are fighting to protect community assets and their quality of life.

Their stories are inspiring yet depressing at the same time – it’s great that the

If you can, tell people you know about their campaigns, spread the message through your social networks, pass on this magazine to someone else when you’re finished with it, ask us for more free copies Happy reading.

Stan Blackley, Chief Executive and distribute them locally, take five minutes for a cyberaction through our

Welcome to our autumn/winter issue of What on Earth, where we are taking a deeper look at environmental justice and what it means to local people around Scotland.

On pages 8 to 13 you can read an overview of what the campaign is about, and many examples of how local campaigners are fighting for their environmental rights in their local areas.

Our work is funded by people like you and you can make a difference with as little as £2 a month.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Access to Environmental Justice campaign has been running for a while now, and the issues around it are important but sometimes difficult to grasp.

If you are reading this magazine and you are not a member of Friends of the Earth Scotland, please join us. We are Scotland’s leading independent environmental campaigning organisation.

With best wishes, Per Fischer, Editor whatonearth@foe-scotland.org.uk

www.foe-scotland.org.uk/join

Local Groups and Activism

“It’s good to campaign on local issues, and great to be in a crowd of people who feel the same way as you about it. It’s easier to do it in a crowd than it is to do it on your own.” – Annie Shirra, Falkirk Group.

Campaigning groups are made up of ordinary people who want to make their area greener and fairer. It’s a way of helping your town, city or village to connect to the wider world too, taking part in campaigns about issues that have an international impact.

Ana and Marcela have been working on our summer outreach project for over a year now.

They’ve planned and prepared the programme, and then tirelessly pitched up at festivals and chatted to people about Friends of the Earth Scotland campaigns.

Organising volunteers, travel and materials takes a lot of work, and Ana and Marcela have been a huge help. They also need to be up to speed about all of our campaigns and be able to communicate them in a relevant way to the public.

Their work has been priceless in getting our campaigns out and about. We’ve made contact with hundreds of new people who want to support a low carbon future in Scotland, or who care about access to environmental justice.

We’ve also found lots of new people who want to get involved in our network for young adults – Young Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Thank you Ana and Marcela!

Groups do all sorts of activities: reclaiming derelict land to make gardens, meeting with local councillors and MSPs, speaking to the media, putting on events and film screenings, promoting cycling, supporting renewable energy, tackling polluting developments and raising money for campaigns.

Being part of the Friends of the Earth Scotland network means you’re acting in solidarity with partners from all over the world. You also have access to experienced campaigners, researchers and communicators who can give you all you need to make your point locally.

Local groups are open to all. Starting one is easier than you think. We’ll help you get off to a flying start with training, resources, support and ideas.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Does your area need a Friends of the Earth Scotland group to kick-start some green living? Now is the time to get in touch and link up with other members.

There are people interested in starting a group in Perth and on the Isle of Skye, so call 0131 243 2700 to link up with them, or others in your own area.

The Dumfries group recently held a film screening to raise awareness about tar sands in Alberta, Canada. Tar sands are a form of oil found deep under the boreal forest in Canada and other countries. The extraction of tar sands causes even more

environmental damage and carbon emissions than conventional oil extraction.

The event attracted a good crowd of people who had an engaging discussion about how we can reduce our energy use, and the demand for environmentally destructive oil.

Campaigners in Inverness and Ross are asking shops and businesses to close their doors this winter to save energy, money and CO2. The group received a grant from the Scottish Government’s Climate

Challenge Fund and have employed a member of staff to run workshops, give out information, and keep their buildings nice and cosy.

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Politics

The Holyrood election in May delivered a landslide SNP victory and majority government. With 48 new politicians it also brought about the largest turnaround of MSPs since Parliament convened in 1999. Our Parliamentary Officer, Francis Stuart, has interviewed 5 of those tipped to make an impact over the next 5 years.

Q: What issue or event first made you environmentally aware?

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Ruth Davidson: I started becoming aware of big, world-wide environmental issues when I was at primary school, around 1988. I really remember drought and famine appeals in Africa (Ethiopia and Mozambique specifically) and also the Exxon Valdez disaster. These events made me realise that we couldn’t take the world around us for granted, that we are active agents in affecting things in our local area as well as on a global scale.

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Alison Johnstone: From an early age my younger brothers and I spent much of our lives playing outdoors, and I think this was when my love of green spaces began, long before I ever heard the term “urban environment”. Later on I became involved in distance running, and the great outdoors has always continued to be an integral part of my life.

Humza Yousaf: I can’t think of one single issue that made me sit up and take notice of environmental issues. But it is something that I’ve become acutely aware of through events particularly the 2010 floods in Pakistan when I fundraised and did some work for the relief effort by helping to arrange for essential provisions to be sent from Scotland. That was a time when the extent of the challenge we face around the environment and climate really hit me.

Q: What do you understand by the term environmental justice and what do you think should be done about it in Scotland?

Ruth Davidson: Environmental justice is about ensuring that the dividends and burdens of what we do with our world are shared equally - I think we need to see the Scottish Government’s renewable energy plans actually benefit the people of Scotland and not just the European companies that are bidding to make the hardware.

Jenny Marra: It was waste. I wondered as a child how the earth could eat up all these big bits of plastic and rubbish that we put in the bin. I liked to save and re-use things.

Alison Johnstone: Without true environmental justice, it will continue to be Scotland’s poorest communities that face the worst environmental blights, like high traffic volumes, neglected parks and new incinerators. Change will be needed across government, from better planning laws to improved access to the legal system.

Willie Rennie: Acid rain was a big concern when I was growing up. This combined with the disasters in Bhopal India and Chernobyl had an early effect on me.

Jenny Marra: That some people live in a worse environment because of other people’s actions. The biggest environmental justice issue facing Scotland is fuel poverty. We need urgent

Politics

Left to right: Ruth Davidson MSP, Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party.

Alison Johnstone MSP, Lothians, Scottish Green Party.

Jenny Marra MSP, North East Scotland, Scottish Labour.

Willie Rennie MSP, Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Humza Yousaf MSP, Glasgow, Scottish National Party.

action this autumn to make fuel prices fairer. The poorest pay the most for fuel while people who can take out direct debits pay the least. Fuel poverty could become a crisis this winter. Many people are choosing between warm homes and food. This shouldn’t be happening in Scotland in this day and age.

Willie Rennie: It’s the right of individuals and communities to have their voice heard on local planning or developments that may be affecting their environment or the wider environment.

We need to look at the ease and complexity of the current arrangements so that people can receive justice without creating a system that encourages those with a desire to only disrupt without real justification.

Humza Yousaf: There is a real discrepancy between those countries that contribute most to climate change and environmental impact and those that bear the brunt of it. I think that’s a situation that has to be addressed and should serve as a real motivator for developed nations to take responsibility and take action.

producers should be required to act as quickly as possible - far too many goods are produced which cannot be recycled, reused or composted.

Jenny Marra: I have two but they work together. Making Scotland a zero waste country, and holding the government to its promise to reduce carbon emissions by 42%.

Willie Rennie: Monitoring the delivery of the strict targets that have been set for climate change and other environmental issues. The Scottish Parliament needs to be active to ensure these are met. As a liberal, environmental sustainability has always been central to our philosophy with our social conscience extending beyond those sharing our world today to those who will share it tomorrow.

Humza Yousaf: I’m very proud of the commitment the Scottish Government has taken to tackle emissions and hope that everyone in Scotland will get behind that effort.

Q: What is the one environmental issue you would like to see action on in the next session of Parliament?

Ruth Davidson: Retro-fitting social housing and government buildings to save energy. This can cut energy usage, help with fuel poverty and give a hand up to a struggling construction industry.

Alison Johnstone: If I could make one simple change today, it would be to cut down on waste at source. Suppliers and

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Campaigns

Our Parliamentary Officer, Francis Stuart, reports on his recent visits to Madrid and Budapest to share our experiences of campaigning for the Climate Change (Scotland) Act with Friends of the Earth groups that are pushing for similar laws in their own countries.

Although the groups in Spain and Hungary have been running excellent campaigns, they have their work cut out. The expected election in Spain of the centre-right party next year makes a climate law look less likely. In a country with 20% unemployment and people camping in the streets protesting against the political system, it is also unsurprising that climate change isn’t the public’s most pressing concern. Friends of the Earth Hungary almost achieved success last year but came up against a strong big business lobby that at the last hurdle crushed a law promising 40% reductions by 2020.

This made me reflect on why we were successful in Scotland.

I think there were four main factors to our success: • we worked effectively through the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition

Parliamentary Officer Francis Stuart speaking at the event in Spain.

• we used grassroots activism to ensure MSPs were lobbied by their constituents • we had a bit of political luck with a minority government • and perhaps most importantly of all, we captured the public’s imagination in the run up to the Copenhagen climate talks.

So what are the lessons for environmental campaigning in the countries we visited? Based on the need for capturing public opinion, Spain could probably have significant success campaigning for green jobs and investment – “a green new deal.” Hungary, where 80% of the population lives in fuel poverty, could have success campaigning for energy fair shares or an energy guarantee. Where does that take them in terms of getting a Climate Law? Not very far I’m afraid.

The good news is that Friends of the Earth Finland, who we visited back in February, have managed to get a climate law proposal into the programme for government following the recent election.

Paul Daly is an intern in our campaigns team and a member of the Young Friends of the Earth Europe steering group. He travelled to Hungary with two other volunteers to attend the Young Friends of the Earth Europe Summer camp.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

We met up with 50 other participants from 15 countries to share experiences and campaign strategies to help build the network in our own countries and across Europe.

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The venue was fantastic. We had full use of a school and its grounds as well as access to the town’s fortress, which was a stunning venue for seminars, presentations and watching thunderstorms. The local Mayor attended most days as the village Ónod had recently suffered from dramatic flooding which they attribute to climate change.

We are now ready to launch the first Young Friends of the Earth Scotland campaign. We will be working with Push Europe to encourage the European Union to strengthen its carbon emission reduction target to at least 30% by 2020 and keep global warming below 2 degrees.

WHAT YOU CAN DO If you are aged 18-30 get involved with Young Friends of the Earth Scotland by contacting Paul on pdaly@foe-scotland.org.uk Find us on Facebook – Young Friends of the Earth Scotland Follow us on Twitter – YFOES

Campaigns

Hard on the back of the widespread criticism of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s sponsorship of Climate Week that we generated earlier this year, we were back on to the tar sand-financing bank’s case at their Annual General Meeting in April.

Dressed as bankers addicted to oil to symbolise the problem banks like RBS have in weaning themselves off financing the fossil fuel industry, we headed down to RBS’s Gogarburn headquarters to hand out flyers to shareholders explaining what their money is really being spent on.

We were joined by activists from a coalition of environment and development groups, as well as representatives of the Canadian First Nations communities who are directly suffering from the effects of the tar sands industry.

While we courted the media outside, inside

During our summer outreach programme we made lots of new contacts amongst people who are willing to fight dirty developments in their local area and advocate clean energy. In the next stages of the campaign, we’ll be running community training sessions providing straight-forward information about energy supply, and are hoping to attend community council meetings in areas with high renewables potential.

the RBS Board faced the anger and emotion of our Canadian friends Jasmine Thomas, Melina Laboucan-Massimo and Clayton Thomas-Muller, who attended the meeting officially as proxy shareholders.

It’s no wonder they were angry. Figures published in April show that RBS has raised £5.6bn for companies operating in the Canadian tar sands industry since it was bailed out by taxpayers money in 2008.

That’s £5.6bn into what is described as the most destructive industrial project on Earth, money that could have gone towards projects that the proposed Green Investment Bank will support to create the transition to a vitally needed low carbon economy.

The good news is that as a result of all this activity, an RBS Board member and

sustainability staff met with Jasmine, Melina and Clayton immediately after the AGM. They emphasised that they were keen to learn more about why extracting oil from tar sands is a bad idea, and develop policies on the matter.

This is of course welcome, but the bank must pick up the pace and start treating the issues we are highlighting more seriously. With human rights and the environment at stake, there is no time for dawdling.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Email business secretary Vince Cable now to demand that he ensures the activities of the bailed out banks don’t undermine the objectives of the Green Investment Bank. http://bit.ly/rbsaction

WHAT YOU CAN DO If you would like to support us by standing up for clean energy developments in your local area, contact Hannah Kitchen on 0131 243 2700 or email hkitchen@foe-scotland.org.uk

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Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice

Campaigner Mary Church explains our Access to Environmental Justice campaign.

Decisions are made by public authorities every day that impact on individuals, communities and our environment. It might be the decision to approve a planning application for a new road or a bridge, or to grant a licence for toxic waste disposal.

If such decisions are poorly made, they can have a serious impact on our environment and on our human rights. The environment can’t take a public authority or company to court, so it’s up to local people or organisations such as Friends of the Earth Scotland to take action and stand up for our right to a healthy environment.

The odds are so stacked against the ordinary citizen who wants to challenge an environmentally damaging decision or act, that going to court to defend a healthy and clean environment has become a luxury that effectively only the very time and money rich can afford.

Environmental Rights The good news is that there is an international treaty – the Aarhus Convention – that enshrines the right of people not only to be informed about and involved in decision-making that impacts on their environment, but also to have access to the courts if they suspect a poor decision has been made, or an environmental law has been broken.

The right for individuals and communities to be informed about and listened to in planning decisions is particularly important, as this helps to shift the balance of power away from well-resourced and experienced developers, towards the communities who are affected by these decisions. In the context of climate change, affected communities can mean all of us when it comes to dirty developments like new coal fired power stations.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Individuals, communities and non governmental organisations (NGOs) often feel that they haven’t been properly engaged in decision-making, and this is where the right to access justice comes in. If people have easy, affordable access to the courts to challenge decisions that harm the environment and human rights, then there is an opportunity for such decisions to be overturned.

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Unfortunately, we are failing in this respect in Scotland. We have freedom of information legislation, and planning regulations that demand community consultation and strategic environmental assessments of developments, but we do not have broad and affordable access to the courts.

Barriers to accessing justice All kinds of barriers stand in the way for people, communities and NGOs who want to challenge poor decision-making by public authorities. For example, if you want to judicially review a

decision, you have to prove to the court that you can pay not only your own legal costs if you lose, but also the other side’s.

These costs can amount to over £100,000, as in the ongoing case challenging the development of a new coal fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire.

You also have to convince the courts that you have ‘standing’, the right to have your case heard. In Scotland we have a particular restrictive test of ‘title and interest’ that means even apparently clear-cut cases can fail on this point. For example, the court ruled that Mary Forbes, whose home is under threat from Donald Trump’s golf course development in Aberdeenshire, did not have standing to seek review of the decision to grant him planning permission.

The odds are so stacked against the ordinary citizen who wants to challenge an environmentally damaging decision or act, that going to court to defend a healthy and clean environment has become a luxury that effectively only the very time and money rich can afford.

Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice

Launch event for the "Tipping the Scales" report at Holyrood Hotel.

Petitions Committee has taken up the issues we raised with the Scottish Government. The Committee was not content with the Scottish Government’s response, which denied that Scotland is in breach of the Aarhus Convention. The Committee recommended that the new Parliament takes up the case after summer recess, and we hope that they will initiate an inquiry into the matter.

In June we held an event to launch a new report ‘Tipping the Scales’ on complying with the Aarhus Convention. The event was well attended by legal stakeholders, MSPs and people directly affected by environmental injustice, including many of those whose case studies are featured in this issue of What on Earth.

What needs to change Our Access to Environmental Justice campaign is calling on the Scottish Government to make it easier for individuals, communities and NGOs to challenge poor decisions by introducing changes to ensure that: • the process of challenging breaches of environmental law or poor decision-making is free or inexpensive, so that people and communities are not put off taking action by the threat of huge costs • people, communities and NGOs are able to take cases to court if they demonstrate ‘sufficient interest’ in the issue, or are acting in the collective interest of people and the environment • the merit or substance of decisions can be examined by the courts, not just whether due process has been followed • public legal education is improved, and the court system is made more user-friendly so that people learn to recognise problems and injustices that may have a potential legal solution.

Campaign to date Since handing in our campaign petition – with over a thousand signatures – to the Scottish Parliament last year, the Public

We also worked with the Environmental Law Centre Scotland to produce what’s known as an ‘intervention’ in a high profile case at the UK Supreme Court, which could have significant implications for access to justice in the Scottish courts as it deals directly with issues around standing.

Technical as it sounds, this is all pretty groundbreaking. There’s a good chance that this test case will have an impact on current cases in Scotland, such as the Hunterston judicial review.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to put pressure on the Scottish Government to ensure that the broader moves they are planning to reform our justice system take account of the distinct problems and needs relating to environmental justice.

With many thanks to the The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for funding this campaign.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Download our report at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/tippingthescales to find out more about the intervention, and the barriers to justice. Ask the Justice Secretary to act now, at http://tinyurl.com/a2ejaction

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Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice CASE STUDIES

Campaigns intern Emilia Hannah speaks to six communities that are fighting for environmental justice on their doorsteps.

These cases highlight the importance of Scotland complying with the Aarhus Convention so that communities and individuals

have easy access to inexpensive review procedures to challenge flawed decision-making that impacts on our environment.

For over three years, Coal Action Scotland has been supporting South Lanarkshire communities in the Douglas Valley in their efforts to stop new open cast coal mine developments by Scottish Coal, and to seek justice for the decades of ill health and negative impact that they have experienced because of Scottish Coal's operations. They are also working with other community groups to oppose the development of a new coal fired power station at Hunterson in Ayrshire.

just 1.5km south of Douglas, and close to both Douglas and Glespin Primary Schools. Most of the Glentaggart East site is blanket bog – protected habitat under EU law, a vastly important carbon sink, and home to an abundance of bird life. For each year of operation at Glentaggart East, the equivalent of over 7% of Scotland's total CO2 emissions will be emitted.

Coal Action Scotland aims to directly challenge the use of coal as an energy source because of its devastating environmental impacts both locally and globally, and to work in solidarity with communities experiencing the social injustice of high emissions industries and the planning process. They have linked up coalmining communities in South Lanarkshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire with those in Colombia, Appalachia (USA) and Indonesia.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

The group’s latest campaign is to oppose Scottish Coal's plan to mine four million tonnes of coal from a site at Glentaggart East,

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In 2005 committed environmentalists in St Andrews became concerned that natural areas in and around St Andrews were at risk when they saw that local authority development plans proposed building 1000 new homes. They were concerned that the new developments would destroy the outstanding natural beauty of St Andrews.

The land at Glentaggart East is wholly owned by Douglas and Angus Estates, the estate of local land owner Lord Home. As was the case with Mainshill and other open casts in the area, Lord Home stands to make around £7m from this application through leasing the land to Scottish Coal, totally against the wishes of the community.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Object to the application to mine coal at Glentaggart East on Coal Action Scotland’s website www.coalactionscotland.org.uk

Members of the St Andrews Preservation Trust, a charity established in 1937 to secure and safeguard the amenities and historic character of St Andrews, have been actively campaigning for the redrafting of the development plan over the last few years. The plans are currently subject to an examination, but campaigners are concerned that there may not

Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice CASE STUDIES

be a public hearing and their views will not be taken into account.

The group believes that they have a good case to take Fife Council to Court but they cannot afford the costs they would face if they lost, and would put other key activities of the Trust at risk.

However, one member, Penny Uprichard, felt so outraged by the proposals that she lodged a legal challenge on her own. She went to court relying on her own funds as well as raising over £40,000 through a public appeal. Her case was heard in court in January 2010, but dismissed six months later by Judge Lord Uist. Penny lodged an appeal, which was heard by three judges

in July 2011. If she loses the appeal, she will have to pay the costs of the original case and the appeal, but the total amount for which she would be liable in that case will not be known until after the decision.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Read the outcome of Penny Uprichard’s first court case at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2010CSOH105.html Find out more about the St Andrews Preservation Trust at http://www.sapt.demon.co.uk/

Dear Green Place. Glaswegians enjoying the fruits of their labour.

Nestled between two streets in Glasgow’s Maryhill lies North Kelvin Meadow. It boasts wild woodland, a large grassy space, community composting facilities, and a vegetable garden bursting with life. Over the years, North Kelvin Meadow has come under continual threat, and it is only thanks to the enthusiastic work of local volunteers that it is flourishing today.

Only a few years ago, the site was a degenerated wasteland, used as an illegal dumping ground, with rubbish, old sofas, and broken televisions strewn across the land. In 2008, local residents learned that Glasgow City Council planned to sell off the land to a developer who wanted to erect 115 flats on the site.

Residents wanted to save the land and turn it into a green space that the community could enjoy. So, in 2008 the Save North Kelvin Meadow Campaign was born, gaining the support of an overwhelming 96% of local residents.

Rather than waiting for the fate of the land to be determined through a lengthy planning process, volunteers got stuck in straight away. In just three years, they have cleared the land of

rubbish, put in 20 raised beds to grow vegetables enjoyed by over 20 families, and hosted outdoor events.

But the council still wants to sell the land, and a developer can put in an application to build the block of flats at any time. The campaign has shown resilience in the face of being served with eviction orders by the council, and two members being taken to court for attempting to build raised beds.

Douglas Peacock, chairman of the Save North Kelvin Meadow Campaign says that the council is in breach of its own planning policy. However, although Peacock believes there may be grounds for taking the council to court if it eventually approves the development, he feels sure that the high costs of going to court would make this impossible in practice.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Find out more and get involved if you live locally: http://northkelvinmeadow.com/ www.facebook.com/northkelvinmeadow

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Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice CASE STUDIES

Road Sense is a community-led organisation based in the north east of Scotland that has spent the last six years campaigning against the construction of the proposed Aberdeen Bypass (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route).

Road Sense campaigners claim that the proposed 46 km road is not a sustainable solution to the transport and traffic problems of the North East, that it will increase carbon emissions and pollution levels, and that it will cause severe irreversible damage to protected landscapes and species if built. They claim that the projected £400m cost is unrealistic, and that the money should be spent on improving public transport services instead.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Campaigners have consistently challenged the proposal through a flawed consultation process, a Public Local Inquiry where the scope and remit considered were limited by Scottish Ministers, and more recently through a judicial review case in the Court of Session.

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hundreds of thousands of pounds, and if you don’t have the funds you are simply stuck. Complainants have to cover their own costs, and if they lose, they are faced with paying the other side’s costs too. This acts as a huge disincentive for people to challenge poor process or decision-making, or environmental injustices.”

Even with a Protective Expenses Order of £40,000 in place, which limits William Walton and Road Sense’s liability for costs, their exposure lies in the region of £80,000 – £100,000, a sum that many individuals or organisations could not afford.

At the time of going to press, the Road Sense campaigners had just lost their latest legal challenge against the new road.

However, they are seeking legal opinion and are investigating a further challenge in the Supreme Court.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

William Walton, Road Sense chair, says: “Taking our case to court was no small matter. The costs of going to court can run to

Find out more about Road Sense at www.road-sense.org

Forth Energy has plans to build four biomass plants in Grangemouth, Leith, Rosyth and Dundee, which will burn wood residue to convert it into electrical energy. If approved, the plants will run counter to the Scottish Government’s efforts to mitigate climate change, as well as putting the health of local people

living near the plants at risk. The biomass plants would rely predominantly on virgin wood imported from overseas.

If approved, the Forth Energy plant proposed for Grangemouth would be built in an area which has already been declared to

Campaign focus: Access to Environmental Justice CASE STUDIES

have excessive amounts of pollution by European standards.

Grangemouth is home to one of the largest oil refineries in Europe, and residents are concerned that the pollution caused by the combustion of biomass will only worsen their quality of life.

Grangemouth Community Council has been campaigning since 2010 to make sure that the plant does not get built.

Walter Inglis, Community Council Convenor, explains, “Our sole aim has been to ensure that our local community environment is not further degraded in pursuit of a perceived national economic gain. Grangemouth and its residents have over many decades paid a high price in environmental terms to sustain national

One of the most notorious and well-known cases of environmental injustice in Scotland is that of business tycoon and American celebrity Donald Trump’s golf course. In 2006, Trump bought up 1400 acres of land in the Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, with the aim of turning the land into the Trump International Golf Links – a £750m development with two golf courses, a 450-room hotel, 950 holiday apartments and 500 residential homes. Work began on the course in 2010.

From the outset, the development has been embroiled with controversy. The golf course threatens a protected sand dune system, and impinges on the land and livelihoods of local residents. Residents and environmentalists set up the ‘Tripping up Trump’ campaign to oppose the development.

Planning permission for the development was originally refused by the local planning subcommittee, but was approved following a planning inquiry in November 2008 after Scottish Ministers ‘called in’ the decision. Controversially, the inquiry found that the economic and social benefits of the golf resort outweighed the environmental damage caused by its development.

In 2009, Donald Trump was given permission by Aberdeenshire Council to apply for compulsory purchase orders to move people out of their homes on the Menie Estate. These included four family-owned properties, one of which is a former coastguard station adjacent to the new course belonging to David and Moira Milne.

Not only have the Milnes feared a threat of compulsory purchase, but also, large banks of earth were built around their house by the venture, so that their property was not visible from the course. The banks have now been replaced by Sitka Spruce and Scots Pine which were planted around the house. “We’re pretty well hemmed in at the moment,” says David Milne.

economic growth associated with the oil and chemical industries.”

The hard work of the Community Council led to over 900 letters of objection being submitted to the Scottish Government, and was instrumental in Falkirk Council’s planning committee opposing the proposals.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Support the work of the Grangemouth Community Council by calling or emailing your MSP or local representative to talk to them about biomass today.

Mary Forbes, another resident faced with compulsory purchase of her property, wanted to challenge the decision to grant planning permission for the course, but unbelievably, the court ruled that she didn’t have a case. In Scotland, to take a case to court, petitioners must demonstrate that they have ‘title and interest’ to sue, but the judge found that Mrs Forbes had failed to show that she was “affected in some identifiable way” by the works. Mrs Forbes – a pensioner – has now been waiting for months to hear whether she will be found liable for Trump’s and the Council’s legal costs.

Local resident Mike Forbes came up with a plan to allow members of the public to enter into joint ownership of a 1 acre piece of land, known as ‘the bunker,’ making it practically impossible for the land to be bought. “Within two weeks of launching the bunker, about 5000 people owned a portion of it,” explains Milne. “It essentially has put a hold on things. It is possible that as a result of the bunker, Trump will not go ahead with the plans for the hotel and housing.”

Indeed, Trump’s developments are currently on hold. Citing the economic recession as the reason, Trump announced in June that his golf course would not be open by next year.

WHAT YOU CAN DO For more information about local campaign efforts against the developments, or to purchase a piece of the bunker, visit Tripping up Trump at http://www.trippinguptrump.com/ You can also visit http://www.menielinks.com/ Find out about the 2011 film, ‘You’ve Been Trumped,’ at http://www.youvebeentrumped.com/

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Eco–building

Angus Calder is a project architect on an innovative low energy eco-house now nearing completion in West Edinburgh.

Our firm, Edinburgh’s Simpson & Brown Architects, was commissioned to design an eco-house in the grounds of an existing Victorian villa in South West Edinburgh.

The house is compact, super-insulated and airtight, incorporating a sensible mix of renewables. Above all, it will be airy, light and beautiful.

The client was from the outset very committed to making the house deeply sustainable. She also required the house to support the possibility of future limited mobility, which, in practical terms, involved providing a certain amount of core accommodation at street level, with other, additional, spaces on the other levels.

The restricted site access and considerations of build quality suggested that a prefabricated build would be advantageous. A lightweight, timber based, prefabricated panel system was chosen.

The overall strategy we adopted to ensure energy efficiency was simple: first get the building fabric itself right, thereby reducing energy demand, and only then supply any residual demand using low carbon sources.

Reducing demand for energy was vital.

The house was built to maximise natural light and solar gain by orientating glazing to the South and West, and it is compact to reduce heat loss. The walls are very heavily insulated (they are almost half a metre thick) and, and the fabric is super airtight.

This project has been a fantastic proof that small does not necessarily mean simple. The steeply sloping site in particular has been a real challenge, with the expected bedrock to which the house was to be fastened proving elusive, requiring a last minute rethink on the foundations while the project was already underway.

The performance of the house is to be evaluated for up to two years after occupation, to test the success of the design strategies, and construction methods used. Funding for this is being sought under the Government Technology Strategy Board’s ‘Building Performance Evaluation’ scheme.

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Sustainability measures that were included:

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Thermal Mass 100mm unfired clay bricks were proposed to form the rear wall (a load bearing internal partition) in the main one-and-ahalf storey living space. This wall, together with the tiled and screeded floor, provides sufficient thermal mass to smooth out internal temperature fluctuations.

Airtightness Ensuring a very high level of airtightness required a ruthless focus on the detailed design and specification at openings, junctions, and penetrations.

Heating The Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) system supplies the minimal amount of space heating necessary in the house. Estimated annual space heating costs are £50 a year (perhaps 1/6th of an average 2010 building regulations compliant dwelling).

well as quantifying payments due under the Feed-in-Tariff scheme.

Solar Photovoltaics (PV) PV was chosen over Solar Thermal (hot water) panels as a better match for a single person household with very low, and intermittent, hot water requirements.

The feed-in meter allows excess electricity to be exported to the grid, as

Healthy Materials Extensive use was made of natural/sustainable materials (timber frame, Scottish Larch cladding, recycled glass insulation, low VOC paints etc). As a consequence, the house will have excellent indoor air quality.

Surface Water The planted roof helps to reduce and slow the flow of surface water off the roof, before it is stored in rainwater butts for garden use.

Eco-building

Reforesting Scotland recently launched a campaign to promote hutting culture in Scotland. Their Director, Ninian Stuart, explains the ethos behind it.

A Thousand Huts is a campaign centred around the simple hut as a place, an experience, an endeavour, an ideal for all to enjoy. In contrast to many other European countries, Scotland has a modest historic tradition of hutting whilst in Nordic nations hutting is well established as a way of life.

Building huts with local timber can strengthen community resilience and revive skills that all rural communities once took for granted.

In Scotland, hutting is predominantly associated with a working class movement that developed early in the 20th century when small holiday huts began to be built on land close to Scotland’s main industrial cities. The best known site is at Carbeth in Stirlingshire.

broadcaster Lesley Riddoch and others, has launched the Thousand Huts campaign to promote huts and hutting for living, working and recreation in the countryside. This will be achieved by securing a change of culture, attitude and reform of the law to enable more hut building and usage in the countryside.

The campaign will focus on: • raising awareness and publishing research • encouraging urban and rural community, youth and cultural groups to build and use more huts in the countryside • working with landowners to develop woodland hutting communities or retreats for people who don’t own land • promoting good hut design and building techniques • lobbying for legal protection against eviction for existing hutters • campaigning for a change in planning legislation to create a “hutting consent” and a new building class of “hut” within building regulations.

Reforesting Scotland, with the support of land rights expert Andy Wightman,

WHAT YOU CAN DO For more information or to get involved visit ww.thousandhuts.org or email huts@reforestingscotland.org – Twitter @thousandhuts

Rachel Farey and her husband Robert Chalmers are delighted with the hut that they have rented in the Lothians. They plan to share the accommodation with friends and use it for rest, relaxation and a place for Robert, an architect, to learn more about off-grid technologies.

Rachel speaks enthusiastically about the development of a hutting culture in Scotland. “For a harassed family living in a city tenement with no garden it could be a lifeline, an ideal place to escape to for a peaceful weekend listening to the birds and the wind.”

Rachel and Robert have rented their hut from a farmer who has several huts on her land dating from before the war, when people used to go there to get a breather from the city. The hut has a bedroom, a living room and a WC with water coming from a butt and flushing into a septic tank.

They plan to introduce electricity with a solar panel and perhaps a small wood burner later. The tenants are responsible for the upkeep of the huts and can decorate them how they like inside.

Previous tenants left behind a propane gas fridge and cooker.

Rachel hopes that the Thousand Huts campaign will change government attitudes to encourage them to make provision for rural huts and open up opportunities for landowners to provide land.

15

Film reviews

Your support

By Hannah Kitchen This is a beautiful, kind, funny, hopeful and rousing film that left the sellout audience amazed. ‘You’ve Been Trumped’ gently listens to the residents’ histories – of what the dunes and the coast have meant to them and their families, and the difficulties they’ve experienced since the Trump development has started.

This film highlights why we’re campaigning for access to environmental justice – so that people with money can’t just tread over things that we hold dear without even being challenged on it by those with less. If you get a chance to watch the film, it comes highly recommended.

You can now help support our work by donating your old CDs and DVDs and games. Send them to us at our office then we will forward them to Music Magpie who will give us a donation for them.

Please see foe-scotland.org.uk/musicmagpie for more information on what can and cannot be accepted.

Following on from last years successful collaboration with Henderson’s vegetarian restaurant we are holding another fundraising dinner in October 2011. For details and booking: foe-scotland.org.uk/dinner

It’s that time of year again for our annual prize draw. Again, we have some wonderful prizes including £150 worth of vouchers for the online store Green People, solar charge backpacks from Infinit and of course our first prize of a long week end (or 4 day midweek break) at the beautiful Cruenbeg Highland Holiday Cottages near Aviemore.

By Natascha Deininger

What on Earth Autumn/Winter 2011

Countdown to Zero is unabashed about being an activist film, calling for the immediate reduction and eventual abolition of nuclear weapons, its release kick-started a summit on nuclear proliferation and called for the mobilisation of a civic campaign to reduce nuclear weapons to zero.

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The film immediately confronts the viewer with the profound reality of a nuclear threat – be it from terrorists acquiring a nuclear weapon, or from a control room accident. The message throughout is clear: unless the number of nuclear weapons is zero, a nuclear accident or attack, however small its probability might be, will occur.

The film, however, completely ignores the issue of nuclear power. The film neither explicitly opposes or supports nuclear power and wishes to remove its own cause from the nuclear power dialogue completely.

Ticket stubs must be returned to us by 1 December 2011 to be included in the draw. If you don’t find a book of tickets in this magazine and would like some please call 0131 243 2724 to get them sent to you. By buying or selling our prize draw tickets you are ensuring that 100% of the money raised will go directly toward our activities to promote a clean, healthy environment for all. foe-scotland.org.uk/prizedraw2011

At the end of July we held a craft fair in Edinburgh and despite it being the most gloriously sunny day we had a really good turn out. There were 25 different exhibitors with crafts ranging form jewellery and beads, gourmet marshmallows, scented candles and hand made cards to name a few.

We are holding another craft fair in the same venue the Eric Liddell Centre, Morningside Road, Edinburgh, on Saturday 12 November from 10:30 to 3:30. Come along for unique Christmas gifts and have a tea or coffee with some delicious home baking. foe-scotland.org.uk/craftfair

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