Welcome to Medway!

Well it seems as if Kingsnorth is going to hit the national headlines again! First Greenpeace painted the chimney: now Climate Camp are paying a visit. This is fantastic news and will be as influential, I hope, in opposing Eon's proposals as RSPB's influence was in stopping the Hoo peninsula airport proposals.

We are gearing up as a group to inform local people about Kingsnorth and to help co-ordinate Medway's opposition. The Climate Camp can only help, and we look forward to welcoming them to our lovely area!

Richard Martin, WDM Medway campaigner

Great expectations of stopping Kingsnorth

Medway is Dickens territory. Twice a year we have a Dickens Festival which attracts coachloads from all over the South of England and from the continent. Dickens used his novels to highlight abuses of power and the suffering of the poor with such passion and success that government decisions were affected. He showed the lives of the poor, hidden to most of his readers in real life, with great compassion and empathy.

The proposed replacement coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth is perhaps something he would write about today (though I suspect that he'd write scripts for Eastenders rather than novels). It is an abuse of power: we do not have to take the easy route of replacing like with like, but Medway Council has given planning permission (whilst calling for a Public
Enquiry) on the grounds that it will bring jobs to the area. This may be true but must be balanced against the effect on the air quality in Medway (and therefore the health of its residents).

Kingsnorth also impacts upon the lives of those poor people hidden from us in our daily lives. If Kingsnorth is allowed, it sets a precedent for similar replacements. This will increase the UK's CO2 emissions at a time when the Climate Change Bill promises to reduce them by 60% (and hopefully 80%). It will harm the environment, and we know that the people who suffer disproportionately from Climate Change are the poorest people on earth.

As this is Lent I am trying to implement some of the ideas in TEARfund's Carbon Fast. One of them is to write to the Government requesting more decisive action on Climate change. Whatever our religious beliefs, I'd like to think we can all make that little sacrifice of time and effort before Easter to support WDM's call for a Public Enquiry on this issue. I think Dickens would be leading the way.

Richard Martin, WDM Medway group Co-ordinator

Local opposition to the new Kingsnorth power station

The story goes that my step-grandfather, who was very deaf, used to drive his steam-roller through the streets of Medway on his way to various building sites. He was oblivious to the tailbacks behind him. For one job, he had to drive it across Rochester bridge, through Strood town centre, up Frindsbury Hill, and out onto the Hoo Peninsula – and then back again at teatime. This went on for many months. Why? He was part of the construction team at the then new Kingsnorth coal-fired power station.

Every Saturday my daughter and I walk from Gillingham to the Riverside Country Park, along the banks of the Medway. In the foreground is the ever-changing flow of water, which at high tide comes right up to the banks but at low-tide exposes a vast expanse of mud. Although the full river is very attractive, it is the low tide that makes the area important: here hundreds of thousands of migratory birds make feeding stops en route to their destinations. Yesterday at the Country Park the RSPB had an “Aren’t Birds Brilliant?” event for children: so far this week they have spotted 54 different species. The mud flats, and the bird life they sustain, are what persuaded the government to abandon plans to build the third London airport on the Isle of Grain. All this natural beauty and wildlife is in the foreground as we walk.

If we raise our eyes across to the far bank of the river, what do we see? None other than the Kingsnorth power station. It is now virtually obsolete: as obsolete as a steam-roller. And yet, if E.ON get their way, it is going to be replaced with another coal-fired power station. No doubt the construction techniques will be as modern and efficient as possible. Yet the technology inside it will not be modern: in fact it won’t be any less polluting than the current one.

Thankfully, I now have a chance to stop these plans. The people of Medway, supported by national campaigns from groups like the RSPB, and with the support of our MPs, defeated the airport plans. We now need to galvanise people to oppose the new Kingsnorth. Through WDM’s expertise, our local group can hopefully play a big part in this. I know we can succeed. Let’s drive a steam-roller through these plans!

Richard Martin, WDM Medway group Co-ordinator

Visit WDM Medway group's web page

Take action: email John Hutton and demand a public inquiry

Photo: Peter Cook (creative commons)

Stop Kingsnorth - No New Coal (from Indymedia)

Around 50 demonstrators protested against the proposed building of a new coalfired power station at Kingsnorth on the Medway estuary in north Kent, outside the offices of E.ON UK in Pall Mall on Friday afternoon (more may have arrived after I left early to go to another event.) The demo was initiated by socialist youth and students group Revolution, and LSE Green Party students, but supported by other organisations.

Medway Council have given their approval, but it has still to get the go-ahead from the government. It's a development that would seem to directly contradict their environmental polices, but that probably won't affect the decision.

As the Green Alliance have said: "If John Hutton allows construction of this power station to go ahead without doing so, he will chronically undermine the government's ambitions outlined in the climate bill that is passing through parliament. When passed, this will set legally binding targets for the reduction in CO2 emissions to 2020 and 2050. Set against the background of rising UK emissions the building of Kingsnorth as planned will set a very damaging precedent for future energy generation that will make these targets challenging or impossible."

See the original story on Indymedia including photographs from the event.