Brent Cross plan needs improvement, say Greens

Barnet Green Party is calling for major improvements to the developers' proposals for the Brent Cross Cricklewood Regeneration Area.

The party has submitted these recommendations in response to the developers' consultation exercise:

1. All commercial and residential buildings should be carbon neutral. Micro-generation projects should be included in both residential and commercial developments so that as little electricity and gas as possible should be drawn from the grid system. The maximum possible energy conservation measures should be included.
Carbon neutral buildings will be more expensive to construct but will be considerably cheaper to occupy.

2. The improved bus station and the new bus station are welcome. Access for pedestrians, cyclists and buses should be prioritised over cars. Customers of Brent Cross should be encouraged to go there by foot, cycle, bus or train. The new railway station needs to be easily accessible and convenient for local people and shoppers.
Thought should be given to improving pedestrian and cycling access from adjoining residential and neighbourhood shopping areas, and also to pedestrian access from Brent Cross tube station to the shopping centre, which is almost impossible at the moment. The best solution would be a closer tube station with direct pedestrian access.

3. Nothing should be done that might have a harmful impact on existing neighbourhood shopping centres. Panels should be set up inside Brent Cross shopping centre promoting nearby shopping centres and giving directions to services which are available at those centres and not at Brent Cross, eg banks, post offices, libraries, internet cafes, public houses.

4. The parks and open spaces should be laid out in the way described, either before or at least at the same time as any other work begins on the development. They must not be delayed or forgotten about. There is a chance to enhance the Brent river as it passes through the development area and the upgrade must be carried out in such a way as to be attractive to people and beneficial to wildlife. A nature reserve should be set aside where plants, birds and animals can live undisturbed.

5. New allotments should be provided, for occupants of the new residential developments. The allotment site should be big enough to have a trading hut and to be self-managed by a volunteer committee.
For further details or to comment contact andrewnewby1@gmail.com
To find out more about the developers' plans go to: http://www.brentcrosscricklewood.com/

What US spending on Iraq war would have bought

The New York Times says the money spent by the US government on the war in Iraq would have paid for universal healthcare in the US, nursery education for all three and four-year-olds in the country, immunisation for children round the world against a host of diseases, and still leave about half of the money left over.

Bush increasing defence spending, cutting welfare

In the US federal budget for the year to September 2008, George W Bush is proposing to an increase of 49 billion dollars or 11.3 per cent in the defence budget, to 481.4 billion dollars excluding the cost of the occupation of Iraq and the broad war on terror.

Including Iraq and the war in terror, the president is asking for a total of 716.5 billion dollars for defence in the coming financial year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Given that the US already spends a greater proportion of national income on defence than any other country, next year's US defence budget therefore includes at least 284.1 billion dollars in unnecessary spending on defence.

In the same budget, Bush wants to slash 95.9 billion dollars from major benefit programs including Medicare, the federal healthcare programme for the elderly and disabled.

Needless to say, Bush want to continue with tax cuts for the wealthy which he introduced at the start of his presidency.

Barnet Council's unethical investments

Barnet Green Party is calling on Barnet Council's pension fund to scrap its immoral investment policy and to adopt the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.

The council stated last year that it holds 724,575 shares in BAE Systems, the weapons manufacturer which has recently been the subject of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in relation to alleged bribery.

Year-end figures show that the fund's holding of BAE shares brought a poorer return in 2006 than if the money had been put into ethical investments. Growth in the FTSE4Good Global 100 index, a leading tracker of ethical investments, was much greater in the past 12 months than the rise in BAE shares.

"Barnet Council's previous excuse was that the pension fund has to achieve the best possible investment returns for its members. These figures show that investing in BAE makes poor investment sense as well as being immoral," says Gardi Vaswani, chair of Barnet Green Party.

BAE stock ended the year 11 pct higher than on 31st December 2005, as institutional investors cynically welcomed the government's decision to order the SFA to end its bribery inquiries.

However, the FTSE4Good Global 100 index did much better, surging nearly 20 pct during 2006, justly rewarding people who chose to invest in a principled way. Some other measures of ethical investment even outshone the FTSE4Good Global index, depending on the method of calculation. The Dow Jones EURO STOXX Sustainability 40 has soared more than 26 pct in the past year.

The FTSE4Good Global Index achieved a similar outperformance against the FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares, which gained about 10 pct in 2006. The more narrowly-focussed FTSE4Good UK index matched the FTSE 100's gain, despite the limited number of companies in the UK from which the ethical index's components can be selected.

The UK has trailed behind other European countries in developing ethically acceptable and environmentally friendly industries, undermined by attitudes such as that of the Barnet Council pension fund. This means that Britain is lagging behind in obtaining the economic benefits that such industries are bringing to more forward-looking countries, both in terms of job creation and return on investment.

For instance, Denmark is home to Vestas Wind Systems, the world's biggest manfacturer of wind turbines. Vestas employs 11,900 people and has seen its share price more than double in 2006, to 229 euros from 104.5 .

If Barnet Council's pension fund adopted a more ethical policy, such as by following the UN guidelines, it could achieve a double benefit of improving the fund's investment returns and, if it invested in appropriate UK companies, it could help encourage faster growth in ethical business sectors in this country.

The introduction of the guidelines also deals with the council's previous concern that there was no standard set of ethical investment rules which it could follow. The BBC is among organisations which have adopted the UN rules, so there is no reason why another public body such as Barnet Council should not do the same.