Febuary 2016 Newsletter

A round up of news and views

Permaculture Course starts on Saturday 19th March - There are still a few places left! We'd love you to join us - it's lots of fun and you are guaranteed to learn something new about the science of growing stuff. View the full 10-session programme here...

Then write to us at:  permaculture@transitionmarlborough.org to book your place.

Air Quality Meeting - This was held in the Town Hall on the same day that Wiltshire Council approved the new housing development on Salisbury Road. The meeting was well attended by local residents and some town councillors - read the Marlborough News online report here...  There was lively debate about TM's eight recommendations for improving air quality and participants were encouraged to write down their views on post-it notes. Unfortunately, residents who had attended the planning meeting at Trowbridge, earlier in the day reported that WC's planning committee had down-played the existing traffic congestion and poor air quality on the Salisbury Road (A346) when giving the go-ahead to the new housing development (click here... to read Peter Ridal's views on the idea of building a new 'relief road'). Several residents pointed out that nothing would change unless the source of the pollution, i.e. the heavy traffic including HGVs on the A346, was addressed. They wanted to know why the A346 had not been 'de-primed' so that restrictions on HGVs and vehicle emissions could be brought in. This led us to investigate this issue and we discovered that, despite the efforts of some individual councillors, failure to de-prime the A346 is due to a series of missed opportunities and inaction, on the part of both WC and town councillors. We will present evidence to support this conclusion at the next Area Board meeting, on Tuesday 22nd March (7.30pm in the Town Hall).

Meanwhile, air pollution on the A346, as measured by the particulate monitor on London Road, shot up to an all time high on Wednesday 24th February. The graph below shows that the level of PM10 reached 300 micrograms per cubic metre, when the safe limit according to the EU/World Health Organisation is just 50 micrograms/cubic metre. This should be of serious concern to parents of children who attend St Peter's School.

You can see the most recent readings on the London Road particulate monitor, here...

Environmental Film club - We will be kicking off with: In Transition 2.0: A Story of Resilience & Hope in Extraordinary Times on Thursday 28th April, probably upstairs in the Bear Hotel. Entrance will be free and there will be free pop-corn, so keep a note in your diary!

Fund-raising - TM runs on a shoe-string budget, however we do need to spend money occasionally on awareness-raising leaflets, hosting the website or hiring venues for film nights or other events. There is a Paypal button for donations on the front page of the TM website or you can make a transfer to the TM account: 08-92-99, 65550430. All of our income/expenditure is accounted for at our AGM. Thanks for your support.

Thanks

The Transition Marlborough team