On this page

Campaigning links

• Local groups
• Eco-Footprint and Overview
• Sustainable Living Policy
• Conservation
• Transport
• Energy

Local Groups

Malvern Greenpeace See the Greenpeace Malvern web pages for next meeting, contact and other info. Group Launched at the Homes4Now event October 2006, with Brigit Strawbridge doing the honours (Malvern Gazette launch news item, with pic).

Malvern Hills butterfly recorders have a section of the MEGA discussion forum to exchange notes.

Please see the Malvern Ethical and Green Alliance web pages for the network for Green and Ethical groups in the Malvern area, on the lines of one in Redditch.

Also see Local Groups Links in right-hand column.

• Duckworth Worcestershire Trust “dedicated to the conservation, protection and enhancement of the natural and built environments for the people of Worcestershire.”
• Herefordshire Friends of the Earth.
• Worcestershire Green Party, including Malvern Hills branch. Herefordshire Green Party.
• Ledbury’s Really Use Less Group (RUG) on Climatespace.

Eco-Footprint and Overview

• Greenpeace UK.

WWF-UK is producing a series of ‘ecological footprints’ for regions around Britain, assessing how much of the planet’s resources they are consuming. In the West Midlands region report, published June 2006, the Malvern Hills District Council area had the highest Footprint (impact) of 5.8 global hectares per capita (although the region as a whole doesn’t do too badly). See the WWF News item, or go to the Ecological Budget website to download the report. To counter-balance this, the county council says that Malvern District has the lowest level of waste collected, at 316kg per person, as opposed to 527kg county wide for 2005/06, and over eighty per cent of households are actively involved in recycling.

‘The Future starts here: the route to a low carbon economy’ is an important report, based upon research commissioned from The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester. How there is still time, just, to take real action. See Friends of the Earth press release, 15/9/06

Sustainable living policy

A Sustainable Community Strategy, an over-arching strategy which will influence other plans and strategies relating to the Malvern Hills District, has been updated by the Vision 21 ‘local strategic partnership’ for the period 2006-2021. Now what?

Worcestershire Partnership is responsible for producing the county’s Sustainable Community Strategy.

Worcestershire County Council has a Green directory section on their website (launched Aug 07).

See Green Life page for sustainable living ideas.

Conservation

Also see Natural World on MalvernTrail’s Sustainable Visits page.

• Arrow Valley Residents Association campaign against polytunnels taking over Herefordshire.
• Campaign to Protect Rural England – Herefordshire, Worcestershire – Malvern Hills branch.
• West Midlands Biodiversity Partnership.

Rare plant rescued by farmer – Malvern Gazette, 23/6/06:

A RARE plant has been rescued from the brink of extinction by a local farmer. The Cotswold Pennycress had nearly disappeared from a secret location near Malvern, which now has the UK’s largest population of around 10,000 plants.

When 5,000 plants of the delicate white flowers were discovered there in 1999, it was immediately recognised as being one of the best locations in the country.Cotswold Pennycress typically grows on limestone pastures, making the Malvern crop on arable farmland particularly unusual. Unfortunately, this was nearly its downfall, as the flower was inadvertently sprayed with herbicide, causing the population to plummet by 97 per cent.

Conservation charity Plantlife stepped in to help rescue the population, working alongside the landowner, English Nature and the local Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group. Tim Wilkins, Plantlife’s Co-ordinator for this project said: “Several years of negotiations have paid off and we are absolutely delighted with the results. “The site near Great Malvern is now home to probably the largest population of Cotswold Pennycress anywhere in Britain.”

Transport, Land use

• Rail for Herefordshire pressure group. Has a page (newish?) on Day Trips you can do by train from Hereford – some good ideas here.
• Cotswold Line Promotion Group.

Energy

Greenpeace is promoting decentralised energy production. There’s an 18 minute film, What are we waiting for, explaining why this is a good idea. Also a virtual world EfficienCity explaining the concept (new Feb 08).

Bransford Biofuels runs courses recycling cooking (vegetable) oil into diesel. They have stopped commercial production due to various practicalities.