Adrian Hollister

I can empathise with the frustration demonstrated by the striking Royal Mail postal workers. For too long the Conservatives and now New Labour have tried to introduce business competition to our national assets as an excuse to improve efficiency or introduce innovation. Royal Mail was caught up in this and had stifling competition rules imposed upon it. These rules were designed to disable Royal Mail's ability to fairly compete and have forced the business to contract.

I struggle to find an example where this competitive business model has actually benefited us directly. In many cases it is clear to see that the lining of shareholders pockets or directors bonus' takes precedence over the citizens of this country. The water companies have demonstrated this over and over again by skimping on investment. Banks have also demonstrated that the concept of competition in a market place can easily lead to corrupting and destabilising greed and inefficiency.

It is time the government recognised that the selling off of our national services to introduce competition is flawed and unworkable. It is time for the government to remove the competitive disadvantages imposed on Royal Mail. With these shackles off and with a positive Royal Mail management, there would be no need for our postal workers to be in dispute - for their jobs would be safe and their compensation and conditions could reflect those of any healthy business.

So I wish the postal workers the best. They are part of a great public service that could so easily be an exemplar for the rest of government.

I would like to think that there is a bit of a race going on here. A race to see who can be the greenest, the most efficient and the ones with the most vision. Councils, towns and authorities are included. Who will be the first to host a commercial renewable energy system to compliment to supplement a good deal of local power consumption. Oxford City spoke about this a while ago now, but I've not seen any progress to date (early days); and at the beginning of the year Bristol City also announced their intention to do something.

All of this is being championed by Friends of the Earth with their Get Serious About CO2 campaign.

There are all quite large scale systems with large budgets and large expectations. I wonder if there are a number of much smaller opportunities that should be explored first - several smaller microgeneration systems would help local people and businesses understand how it could be achieved. Sustainable Newbury discussed some excellent ideas about using the weirs in Newbury to add less than 10KW to the grid each. Not much you may think, but it's local generation (and not subject to the 40% or so loss experienced across the national grid) and would be an excellent exemplar not just for the local area but to much of the south.

What a great day at the think green act green day at Thatchams Discovery Centre. Great bacon butties too - thanks to Catherine at Royal Berkshire pork. We took over 100 new signatures for our support renewable campaign and gave out over 200 wind mills to kids. Met some great like minded people there too.

Free event at Thatcham's Nature Discovery Centre will feature activities, displays and ideas on being green - from the Newbury Today web site.

Article follows:

AN environmental event organised by West Berkshire Council will be held tomorrow (Saturday). The event, called Think Green, Act Green, will be held at the Nature Discovery Centre in Thatcham and will include activities, demonstrations, and ideas on show to help local people think about saving the environment. Activities will include pedal powered generators, fuel efficient transport, puppet shows, face painting, wildlife displays, live music, and lots of local foods on display and refreshments for sale.
Waitrose, Volvo, Hill View Farm produce, 'WRAP' composting activities, and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust are just some of the featured names taking part in the event. West Berkshire executive councillor Graham Pask (Con, Bucklebury), said: "Green issues are now firmly in the spotlight, and this is a great chance to get some ideas on how to help make a difference."

The event is being held from 11am until 4.30pm, all are welcome and entrance is free.

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