FFS what sort of madman can even start to think that new trees are equivalent to ancient woodland. Just for a start the biodiversity is completely different.
Ramblers (formerly the Ramblers Association) and Walking for Health are holding their Festival of Winter Walks over Christmas and New Year, 21 December 2013 to 5 January 2014.
The Festival of Winter Walks is a great opportunity to discover the pleasures and benefits of walking while making the best of winter days and kick-starting those New Year’s resolutions!
Free, fun and open to everyone walks will take place around the country during the festival. Chosen and led by Ramblers and Walking for Health volunteers, the walks showcase Britain at its wintry best. Many of the walks are short and family-friendly, although there are always plenty of longer walks for the seasoned hiker too.
As always there is a lot more over on the Ramblers website at www.ramblers.org.uk/what-we-do/events-index/2013/december/festival-of-winter-walks.aspx
18-24 November is National Road Safety Week.
We’re all human: we daydream, get side-tracked, run late and make mistakes. But on roads, distractions can be fatal. National Road Safety Week 2013 focuses on the theme of tuning in to road safety and avoiding distractions.
When using roads, we all need to tune in to road safety and give it our full attention — particularly if we’re at the wheel, but also when we’re walking, cycling, skating, running, you name it — to keep ourselves and each other safe.
Starting tomorrow there are four days of Heritage Open Days (so that’s Thursday 12 through Sunday 15 September).
Heritage Open Days celebrates England’s fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to places that are usually closed to the public or normally charge for admission.
Every year on four days in September, buildings of every age, style and function throw open their doors. It is a once-a-year chance to discover architectural treasures and enjoy a wide range of tours, events and activities that bring local history and culture to life.
Starting next Monday we bring you National Zero Waste Week which runs from 2 to 8 September.
National Zero Waste Week, which is now in its sixth year, invites you to reduce landfill waste and save money. This year they will be concentrating on tackling food waste. There is research which suggests that on average in the UK we bin a quarter of all the food which is produced. That is northing short of scandalous!
So who should be most in favour of HS2, the proposed high-speed rail connection from London to Birmingham and the north?
Well if it is as essential to the economy as we are told it is, business should be lobbying hard in its favour.
Are they? … No, they are not!
Businesses know value for money when they see it, and our research shows that they don’t see it in the Government’s case for HS2 … The IoD cannot support the Government’s current economic case for HS2 … We agree with the need for key infrastructure spending, but the business case for HS2 simply is not there. The money would be far better spent elsewhere and in a way that will benefit much more of the country. Investment in the West and East Coast main lines, combined with a variety of other infrastructure projects, would be a far more sensible option.
[Simon Walker, IoD Director-General]
Interestingly there was another report in the Telegraph last December (which I had not previously picked up) exposing the fact that the projected passenger numbers also do not stack up with the business case.
Hurrah for some common sense! I’ve been saying this since HS2 was first mooted. Cynically I’d say that HS2 is the rail industry willy-waving and indulging in self-aggrandisement to distract from the fact that is hasn’t/can’t sort out the current rail infrastructure and get that working efficiently — something which should cost a lot less than the currently projected £50billion price tag for HS2. Let’s sort out what we have first and then see if we still need such a massive, environmentally and financially destructive project as HS2.
And anyway, in the current economic climate, do we really have this amount of money to throw around?
5-11 August is National Allotment Week.
National Allotments Garden Trust and the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners will be teaming up with local authorities to recognise the importance of allotments — not just locally, but nationally too.
Following on from the success of the 2012 event they are bringing back their ‘Party on the Plot’ and inviting allotment societies across the country to dust off their bunting and BBQs, spread the word and hold a jolly good knees-up!
Love Parks Week runs during the usual extended week of 27 July to 4 August.
Quality green spaces are essential to healthy, happy communities. And Love Parks Week celebrates and showcases just this as well as campaigning for continual reinvestment in green space.
The Love Parks Week website lists over 400 events taking place across the UK — everything from sports days and picnics to brass bands and Shakespeare — so there should be something happening near you.
A long overdue instalment in my occasional series documenting some of the underbelly of Britain. Britain which we wouldn’t like visitors to see and which we wish wasn’t there. The trash, abused, decaying, destitute and otherwise buggered parts of our environment. Those parts which symbolise the current economic malaise; parts which, were the country flourishing, wouldn’t be there, would be better cared for, or made less inconvenient.
These delightful properties are in the parade of shops next to Greenford underground station. Apparently the boarded up shop has been acquired by Tesco and will be opening as a Tesco Express store — although it’s anyone’s guess as to when this might be as it has already been in this state for most of this year.
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Buggered Britain 16
Greenford; 18 June 2013