News UK March 2010

Bristol City Council e-Participatory budgeting Pilot Goes Live, 29-03-2010 delib blog, 29-03-2010 place
*Jamie Oliver's school dinners shown to have improved academic results, 29 March guardian.co.uk, 29 March 2010 topic, topic
Residents, green groups and councils celebrate High Court ruling that ministers' decision to give a green light to the proposed Heathrow third runway does not hold any weight, 26 March. greenpeace.org.uk, 26 March 2010 The judge dismissed the Government’s claims to the contrary as ‘untenable in law and common sense’. "Government’s Heathrow policy is in tatters", Greenpeace topic
Provisional estimates for 2009 greenhouse gas emissions show a decline of 8.6% during 2009, 25 March decc.gov.uk, 25 March 2010 topic
Sustainable Livestock Bill presented to the House of Commons, 23 March Friends of the Earth, 23 March 2010 Friends of the Earth's 2009 Early Day Motion 845, outlining the need for action to reduce the environmental impact of the UK's meat and dairy consumption, has been supported by 259 MPs. topic
Prime Minister talks of UK as "world leader in the new politics where..." the "...voice for feedback and deliberative decisions can transform the way we make local and national policies and decisions." 22 March number10.gov.uk, 22 March 2010 £30m to support the creation of an institute of web science headed by Sir Tim Berners Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt. "The web and the internet offers us a chance to reinvent “deliberative democracy” for the modern age. Digital government will help open the door to new ways of enabling people to influence and even decide public policy." topic
Peterborough launches Smarter City Project aiming to transform the city into the leading sustainable city in the UK, 16 Mar IBM Press room, 16 Mar 2010 Opportunity Peterborough, Peterborough City Council, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Royal Haskoning and Green Ventures announce a new collaboration. The collaboration has outlined plans to launch a Sustainable City Visualisation project, which will initially focus on building a new online platform to monitor and analyze data on Peterborough's energy, water, transport and waste systems. This data will be used to produce a real-time, integrated view of the city's environmental performance. Residents and city officials will be able to log on to the web portal and easily access the necessary information to make more informed decisions about resource usage. For example, the city will be able to make suggestions to improve home water and energy usage, while being able to work more effectively with the utilities to plan the long term energy and water infrastructure that is needed for a sustainable future. For the first time, utilities, government agencies and local businesses will be able to share information for a more comprehensive view of the city's ecosystem. This will enable the various agencies to streamline and make more effective, ecologically-minded decisions and strategies to maximize sustainability. The system will also allow Peterborough residents to provide feedback and offer suggestions for improvement. topic, place
Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill runs out of time near final House of Commons stage, 16 March News Transition Exeter, 16 March 2010 
‘Noise Action Plans’ to be set up in the following 23 urban areas, or ‘agglomerations’: Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Coventry, Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, The Potteries (including Cheshire East, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke on Trent), Preston, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend, Teeside, Tyneside, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Process of establishing Quiet Areas will begin in July 2010. 15 March Defra, 15 March 2010 topic
UK first country to confirm legislation to require all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016, with all other buildings to meet the standard from 2019. The amendments to building regulations announced today will come into force in October, giving builders 6 months to prepare. 12 March Communities and Local Government, 12 March 2010 topic
High speed rail proposals announced, March 11 Department for Transport, March 11 2010 'Y'-shaped network would bring the West Midlands within about half an hour of London, and deliver journey times of 75 minutes or less from Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester to the capital. Construction expected to start after the Crossrail scheme is completed from 2017 with the high speed network opening in phases from 2026. topic
"Further progress by "second wave" of eco towns", 9 March Communities and Local Government, 9 March 2010 
Insect predator to be released to help control the spread of non-native invasive plant Japanese Knotweed, 9 March Defra, 9 March 2010 topic
Complete phase out of peat from the amateur gardener market by 2020 aimed for by campaign, 8 March Defra, 8 March 2010 topic
Sheringham wins in appeal against superstore, 4 March Campaign to Protect Rural England, 4 March 2010 place, topic, topic
Government to set up national community land bank to act as a broker between land-holders and community groups who want somewhere to grow food, 3 March Communities and Local Government, 3 March 2010 topic
Government to legislate to allow ‘pay as you save’ green loans to be tied to the property and so avoid the up-front cost of eco upgrades. 2 March 2010 Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2 March 2010 topic
References
Category:News UK 2010