Sustainable Haringey Gathering Sunday 31st January 2010

1pm - 5pm
Hornsey Vale Community Centre
60 Mayfield Rd., London, N8 9LP (Not far from Crouch End)

All welcome. Please come along and take part in this ever-growing and vital local movement! A report of the last Gathering is enclosed below.


Report of Sustainable Haringey Gathering - Autumn 2009
Sunday 25th October. 1pm - 5pm @ Tottenham Chances, 399 High Rd, N17


In summary, the Gathering…

- welcomed the Council's recent adoption of targets to reduce the borough's carbon footprint
- called for immediate practical action to achieve these targets, including a scheme for the mass insulation of all Haringey's homes
- launched preparations for a fortnight of 'We all live in Copenhagen' local events in December during historic United Nations global Climate Change summit in Copenhagen.


Present: 44 activists representing nearly 20 local community groups and green organisations including: Muswell Hill Sustainability Group, South Tottenham Going Green network, Wood Green Eco-Team, Highgate Climate Action Network, Sustainable Tottenham High Road / Wards Corner Coalition, Crouch End Area and Hornsey Transition Initiative, Transition Finsbury Park, Tree Trust for Haringey, Friends of the Earth, Haringey Federation of Residents Associations, Green Party, Friends of Parks groups, Living Streets, Haringey Solidarity Group, Haringey Council's Environmental Resources Unit, and a range of Sustainable Haringey working groups (eg Food, Transport, Homes, Lifestyles, and Economy).

1. Working Groups open meetings and general networking
The following SH working groups held meetings at the Gathering: food, economy, transport, homes, lifestyles.

2. Minutes of last SH Summer Gathering.
a. Agreed to be OK.
b. Matters arising: Sustainable Communities Act, no action taken yet by the Council

3. Very brief reports of recent activities / events SH people helped organise or attended

- Climate Camp: For a week in south east London. Many SH people attended (along with 5,000 others) and took part in many discussions, sustainable living/camping and protests. SH helped host discussion about developing local community networks.
- Low Carbon Communities countrywide conference: Pam attended on our behalf and shared / compared news and experiences of SH and similar local organisations around the UK..
- Lordship Rec festival: 4,000 attended. SH people helped out and did a couple of stalls.
- Local ‘flash mobs’ on Sept 21^st re Copenhagen: 10-15 people at Seven Sisters, and 40+ at Crouch End clock tower, held 5 minute ‘flash’ gatherings to flag up the need for real, effective action at Copenhagen. Thousands of such gatherings took place around the world.
- London Network of Borough-wide sustainability/transition networks: About 7 boroughs (including us) linked up at a networking meeting in Brent.
- Apple Day: ‘Absolutely marvellous’ celebration in Hornsey of all things apple, organised by SH food group, Tree Trust for Haringey and Crouch End/Hornsey Transition Initiative (CHATi). Hope to focus on Haringey-grown apples next year.
- Meadows Project: New community/therapeutic garden by Hornsey Health Centre.

4. Very brief updates from SH working groups and projects:

- Food (incl. Growing In Haringey): Members have attended the new ‘Haringey Sustainable Food Steering Group’ to liase with the Council and other key groups; also various ‘greener food’ conferences. Helped organise Apple Day event. Members setting up a new ‘Urban Harvest’ group.
- Homes (incl. EcoTeams): Following SH lobbying, energy meters/monitors can now be hired from libraries. New Ecoteam being set up in Wood Green.
- Transport: Members attend Transport Forum. Have backed a Council 'Sustainable Transport’ scrutiny review. Involved in the Green Lanes festival. Preparing proposals for the review of the Tottenham Hale gyratory. Promoting car-free development and zones. Group going well.
- Work/economy: SH and Trades Council held a joint rally and handed out 800 leaflets in Wood Green in solidarity with the Vestas wind turbine workers on the Isle of Wight who occupied their factory to prevent its closure. Group needs new people and revitalising.
- Lifestyles: Supporting Give & Take Days and interested in seeing permanent give/take stores and sites, and maybe a Haringey directory of such places, second hand, repair shops, ‘freecycle/freegle’ possibilities etc…Recycling centres should have a system for people to come and take away donated/dumped items if they wish. Group needs new people.
- Council Liason: We welcomed the Council's recent adoption of targets to reduce the borough's carbon footprint (by 10% by 2010, by 40% by 2020) following lobbying by local Friends of the Earth groups backed by the Sustainable Haringey network.

5. SH co-ordination/admin:

- SH e-lists: Over 950 on updates elist. Over 60 on internal activists list.
- SH website: Been updated all groups encouraged to use/update, including their own pages and the daily calendar. There’s also a regular blog.
- SH Monthly Co-ordination Meetings: These have continued on 3^rd Tues of each month, and have found to be crucial. But all local and working groups are urged to have members present.
- SH Winter 2010 Gathering: Yev and Pam agreed to co-ordinate at the end of Jan.
- Finances: Some fundraising done over the summer at events. Have around £1,000 now.

6. Locally-based green/sustainability groupswithin areas of Haringey

There were informative and inspiring presentations/updates from local groups present. This was followed by discussion on how such groups can develop, spread, & strengthen the network, and how can the network help them and vice versa. Groups involved included: Crouch End and Hornsey Area Transition Initiative; South Tottenham Going Green; Muswell Hill Sustainability Group; Highgate Climate Action Network; Transition Finsbury Park; SustTottenham (High Rd); Friends of the Earth (Muswell Hill + Tottenham/Wood Green); Friends of Down Lane Park; Tottenham Chances; Tree Trust for Haringey; Wards Corner Community Coalition.

All in all it seemed that activities were spreading and a vibrant, multi-faceted, well-connected grass roots sustainability movement was continue to grow throughout the borough.

7. LBH Energy Saving Fortnight
A Council officer present from the Better Haringey Team reported on the coming LBH Energy Saving Fortnight, which SH was also publicising

8. Break Delicious tea, savouries + cakes - brought along by participants to share - were tucked into.

9. Haringey Sustainability / Carbon Reduction Fortnight, December 5^th-18th

We had decided to call for a range of green activities locally during the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Programme of events to be well publicised. We were planning a ‘Carbon Action Now’ public meeting (organised jointly with the Campaign Against Climate Change) on Nov 24^th at Wood Green Library to publicise/launch the fortnight.

Events in Dec being planned included: ** active support for the national Climate Action central London demonstration on December 5^th local meet up pts Highgate and Turnpike Lane tube stations, 11am (with stalls on Sat before) ** a green/sustainability presence at the Crouch End Family Festival (Dec 6th) ** Lo Carbon Xmas Fayre in Hornsey (Dec 12th) ** Reel News possible live broadcast from Copenhagen direct to the Tottenham Chances community centre during the second week as it hots up there - Anna (SH) to Liaise with Shaun (ReelNews) ** Green Lens Sustainability Bike Ride around key sites in the borough ** Tree planting sessions (including nut and fruit trees) on various days

10. Mass insulation of homes - how can it be done?

There was a riveting talk from guest speaker, Andrew Cooper (Kirklees Councillor - Green Party), who explained why and how mass insulation and alternative energy was currently being implemented throughout his town. 55,000 homes (mostly already done), street by street, are being fitted with cavity wall and loft insulation. Private landlords and homes without cavity walls are biggest challenge. £21m scheme - £10 from Council, £11m from Scottish Power. £4.5m will go back into local economy. £150 average annual saving per home. 200 new jobs created. ‘We are creating an energy saving democracy’, he said. Full details are available of how Council’s can implement similar schemes.

Following many questions and discussion it was agreed that SH reps would meet up with the Council the following week to discuss proposals for developing such a scheme for all Haringey's homes.