Wind-power bonds offer 7.5% return.....

                                        Photograph taken with:
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

                                     Photograph by Drawsome.

ReBonds issue offers chance to invest in UK-based green energy venture.

The Wind Prospect Group aims to raise £10m to build a wind farm in Staffordshire.

If you are looking for a green investment with attractive returns, and are prepared to take a risk with your money, a corporate retail bond offered by a renewable energy company is promising to pay 7.5% annually for the next four years.

Wind Prospect Group, which has been operating for more than 15 years, has launched the bonds with the aim of raising £10m, which it will use to build a wind farm in Staffordshire. The minimum investment is £500.

Wind Prospect says its ReBonds are likely to appeal to investors looking for an opportunity to invest in green energy projects while supporting a UK-based, employee-owned business.

The bonds pay a fixed-rate return of 7.5% over a four-year initial investment period, with a slightly higher rate for larger investments. The offer is open until 20 July or it is fully subscribed.

Much of the money raised will be used to fund the first commercial wind turbines to be built in the West Midlands, on land owned by South Staffordshire College.

Crucially, the company says there is already planning consent for the two-turbine project, with construction due to start this summer. However, this is an investment for people who are happy to accept some risk.

Corporate bonds are essentially a loan to the company, where the money invested by the bondholders is repaid at maturity. If the firm went bust you could lose some or all of your cash. However, the return is better than those offered by deposit accounts.

The invitation document states: "It will not be possible to sell or realise ReBonds … [they] are an unsecured debt of the company, and there is no certainty or guarantee that [it] will be able to repay them." For more information go to rebonds.equiniti.com.

Meanwhile, Gossypium, a Fairtrade and organic cotton retailer, has launched a share offer which aims to raise at least £250,000. The money will be used to increase its range of products and franchise shops.

The shares will be issued by parent company Vericott, which is 90% owned by Gossypium founders Abi and Thomas Petit, and 10% owned by an Indian farmers' co-operative. The company aims to pay an annual dividend "that at least matches banks' savings rates", and shareholders also get 25% off Gossypium products.

The minimum outlay for private investors is £500.

Investors can register their interest on the company's website.

• British Gas has launched a green tariff open to any customer which is designed to raise money to help communities generate renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.

Customers signing up to the energyshare tariff will also get the electricity they use matched with electricity from 100% British renewable sources at the same price as the British Gas standard tariff, a spokesman says.

For every year a customer remains on the tariff the company will pay £10 into a fund which will raise money for local community energy projects. The tariff is a part of energyshare, a renewable energy "community" founded by the River Cottage food empire and British Gas.

• Printable version
• Send to a friend
• Share
• Clip
• Contact us

UK swimming beaches, lakes and rivers ranked and mapped....

Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC (Vibration Compensation) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

                                      Crosby Marine Lake.Photograph by Drawsome.

Europe has ranked every bathing place, beach and swimming area across the EU. How do the UK's beaches and lakes compare? Find which are great - and which are banned.
• Get the data
• Get the map

Do you like swimming outside? But how clean is your beach?

Since 1990, the European Union has been monitoring over 21,000 beaches, lakes and rivers across Europe - anywhere where swimmers go al fresco, in fact. So that huge dataset covers Brighton Beach, the Hamsptead swimming ponds and the classic Mediterranean beaches of the South of France, Spain and Greece.

So, what does the data, out today from the European Environment Agency, show for the UK? The overall figures are good - 96.8% of our swimming areas meet the legal standards, if not the full guidelines. This is down slightly on last year - but more swimming areas are now being surveyed.

But three beaches had to be closed because standards were not high enough, including Blackpool North, Newhaven in Sussex and Tywyn in Wales.

The rankings only include outside swimming places - not man-made lidos or pools.

This is how the data looks on a Google Fusion map:

Click on a bathing area to see how it scored. Green are the best ranked. Fullscreen version

Most British bathing areas do comply - but a significant number only meet the mandatory rules, not the wider-ranging guidelines.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2011/jun/16/uk-swimming-beaches-bathing

Pomegranate juice could reduce workplace stress.....

PA

Monday, 6 June 2011

Pomegranate juice could reduce stress in the workplace, according to new research.

The study found that having the drink every day resulted in lower stress hormones and a reduction in blood pressure.

Researchers at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, studied the physiological effect of daily consumption of 500ml of Pomegreat Pure pomegranate juice over a two-week period.

They found that all 60 volunteers - from a range of working environments - reported being more enthusiastic and less distressed after having the drink.

Dr Emad Al-Dujaili, who led the study, said: "On the basis of these findings there is a justified argument for busy workers to drink pomegranate juice to help alleviate chronic stress and maintain good health.

"There is a growing body of evidence that pomegranate juice delivers wide-ranging health benefits that merit further research.

"It is very rare indeed for an all-natural juice to offer the range of health benefits that we are seeing in pomegranate juice."

The study was funded by the Pomegreat drinks company.

Private Medical Cover from £30 per month with Independent Compare

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/pomegranate-juice-could-reduce-workplace-stress-2293638.html

Britain's rivers 'being ruined by demands of water companies'....

                            Photograph taken with:
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC (Vibration Compensation) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

                               Photograph by Drawsome.
Study says extraction causing harm, but warns cost of remedy may be passed to consumers

By Jane Merrick, Political Editor.

Water companies are draining the nation's most at-risk rivers dry, causing environmental damage, death to wildlife and the build-up of chemicals that upset fragile aquatic ecosystems, all of which could result in ever-higher bills for consumers, a damning report will say tomorrow.

Current abstraction by firms from rivers and groundwater sources is so high that it would take the equivalent of 23 million people to stop using water every day to get back to environmentally sustainable levels.

The report by Policy Exchange, David Cameron's favourite think-tank, calls for the UK's water companies to be charged more for using the most environmentally vulnerable rivers and boreholes, with cheaper rates for those that frequently flood.

Related articles

• Air pollution killing tens of thousands each year
• Search the news archive for more stories

This would force companies to use the most at-risk sources less often, and allow those rivers to eventually return to environmentally sustainable levels, the report argues. There would also be higher charges for abstraction during droughts.

Without action, the report says, current practices will cause "serious damage to river and wetland ecologies" and water bills will soar.

The study, by Dr Simon Less, a former director of Ofwat, also recommends households be fitted with smart meters charging higher rates for water at peak times and when water is most scarce, during summer and droughts.

 A White Paper to be published in November is expected to propose smart metering in homes.

The calls for higher charges for abstraction are bound to prompt fears that water companies will try to pass on the cost to consumers.

 Average water bills are already set to rise by around 4.6 per cent to £356 this year, yet the report says there should be no extra cost to firms if the charging regime is simply restructured.

The driest spring for decades has left several rivers, mainly in the south and east of England, dry and has triggered an increase in deaths to wildlife and eradicated banks of wild flowers. It was reported last week that 200 swans have died on the Thames alone in the past six months from drought and other factors.

But the report, Untapped Potential, argues that even before this spring, the long-term effects of climate change and increasing demand by soaring population rates have caused water levels to drop significantly.

Some rivers dry up completely for long periods of the year, and just 15 per cent of the country's river network is in a condition to support a "healthy ecosystem", Dr Less, head of Policy Exchange's Environment and Energy Unit, told The Independent on Sunday last night.

The report says: "Many rivers and natural environments are suffering damage on a regular basis as a result of over-abstraction of water, and not leaving enough to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Some rivers are drying up completely at certain times, which can be fatal for the wildlife that relies on them. But also significant water-level drops can mean sewage and chemical contaminants become more concentrated, rivers slow down, fill up with sediment and may get warmer, all of which severely affect habitats for fish, insects, animals and plants, sometimes irreversibly."

At present, the UK's 26 water companies are permitted, for a fee, to take water from rivers whether they are environmentally at risk or not.

The Environment Agency operates around 20,000 abstraction licences in England and Wales, with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency operating a similar system that allows holders to take water from rivers or boreholes.

The report says the "cheapest sources of water are generally exploited first" – with water companies using rivers and boreholes close to infrastructure, regardless of how low the levels are, rather than reservoirs further away, which is more expensive to transport.

The report says: "Signalling environmental costs through the structure of abstraction charges would influence water companies' operational decisions. Where they had a choice of sources, companies might be incentivised to use environmentally sensitive, but cheap, sources less often."

The report suggests that the overall cost of abstraction licences to water companies, around £95m in total, would not need to change.

Dr Less said: "Only 15 per cent by length of UK rivers are in a condition to support a healthy, vibrant ecosystem. At the current rate of progress in tackling over-abstraction, it could take centuries to address current problems. On top of that, population increases and potential changes in rainfall patterns risk more rivers drying up and greater ecosystem damage within the next couple of decades."

How can I help save our bees?

The British bee is still in decline, but home hives may not be the answer.

THE DILEMMA I'm terrified by the news that the honey bee is in decline. I live in a town and have limited space, but should I set up a hive to help the bees?


The quote (often attributed to Einstein) "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live" is no doubt ringing in your ears. Given that experts suggest that one-third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, this is not hyperbole. Wipe out bee pollination and we lose about 35% of our calories, for starters.

In America, bee colony populations are thought to have halved through Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which the worker bees from a hive suddenly disappear. Campaigners seem convinced that CCD has been triggered by the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are thought to impair bees' ability to forage. Retailer and activist Sam Roddick and nealsyardremedies.com have launched a campaign and petition to ban neonics under the Bee Lovely banner.

Four years ago British beekeepers were losing one in three hives. This rate has slowed, but there's no cause for celebration: the annual survey measuring losses over winter puts this year's bee losses at 13.6%. The British bee decline is often attributed to a resistant parasitic mite, the varroa, that spreads viruses among bee colonies. But researchers, such as those at Newcastle University, think the principal threat is the intensification of agricultural environments.

So it's tempting to don a beekeeping suit and offer a live/work unit to these hard-working insects. However, when the London mayoral office launched Capital Bee, aka Boris's bees, to promote inner-city beekeeping, beekeepers threw up their smokers in horror. Inexperienced urban beekeeping wouldn't help, they said.
Actually Capital Bee has promoted 50 community hives and new London beekeepers are in training, but there is a lesson here. We would have more answers to CCD and other causes of downturns in bee populations if research hadn't been so woefully underfunded. That's why I like the British beekeepers association's AdoptaBeehive.co.uk programme, where you can support research and experienced beekeeping.

So don't set up a hive. If you have a garden, your responsibility lies in making it bee friendly. Set your lawn mower on a higher setting so it won't cut down clover (bees love clover), plant native garden flowers and wildflowers rather than imported species that offer little nectar or pollen, and leave gardens ungroomed, with bits of rotting wood and mouse nests that may be used by nesting bees.

Given that only one in six pots of honey eaten in the UK is from British bees, buying local honey in order to support local beekeepers gives you a short and sweet remedy.


Lucy Siegle's book To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? (£12.99, Fourth Estate) is out now in paperback

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/03/lucy-siegle-british-bee-hive

Liverpool....the worlds biggest village....

        Liverpool. Albert Dock, looking north. Photograph:Paul Hughes.

MatthewWorthington.

Liverpool is the biggest village in the world. It is big enough to feel like a city, and small enough to feel welcoming. Despite the stereotypes, Liverpool is a city that entertains you just by walking around it, and listening to people talk.

Everyone I know is suprised when they come to Liverpool, by the fact it's so small, so friendly, and so modern. They all agree that the best thing about this city, apart from its people, is the nightlife, and this is certainly true. Whether you want hip neon-lit, chrome bars, spit and sawdust pubs, old men's boozers, or student cheese, then you will find it in Liverpool.

Afternoon pint? no problem. All night dancing, follow me mate! Oh, and you are never short of a drinking buddy or two...

http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/places/united-kingdom/liverpool/profile.jsp

Counting the true cost of the arts cuts.......

                           Photograph by Paul Hughes. Liverpool Central Library.

Unions launch 'Lost Arts' website to record in detail everything we're losing because of the arts cuts

A very good thing, the Lost Arts website, was launched on Thursday in Westminster with the aim of of recording all the organisations, initiatives, projects, commissions, tours and more that will be lost due to cuts in public spending on the arts.

It will also keep a running total of money lost to the arts and the money lost to the Treasury as a consequence.

The initiative is a collaboration between eight unions: the Musicians' Union (MU), Equity, The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the NUJ, Bectu, Unite, Prospect and PCS.

The shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the campaign marked the end of too much silence from people in the arts and culture community. John Smith of the Musicians' Union, who is also president of the Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU), said the cuts defied logic, given the money generated by the arts sector. The actor Maggie Steed, speaking for Equity, talked about the arts sector coming under unprecedented attack.

The website is encouraging people to add cuts you about. Don't forget you can also take part in the Guardian's Cutswatch project here.

Here are some extracts from the speeches. Long ones, I grant you, but worth reading.

Smith (FEU) said:

"I do not intend listing the cuts that have already been imposed as a result of the short-sighted ideologically driven policies of the Tory-led coalition. But it's going to be a while before we can assess their full impact, as we know Arts Council England has announced its 3-year plan which becomes operative next year. However, the full impact of the cuts in local authority funding is still far from clear. Just recently Arts Development UK released the results of a survey which demonstrated that the average local authority's arts & culture budget has already fallen by 38% since 2008, 93% of local arts services are expecting severe cuts next year with 10% of them expecting closure. Add this to the Arts Council cuts and we can see that we are in a sorry place indeed.

"But all of this defies logic; we know that we work in one of the truly successful areas of the UK economy. A study by Arts and Business has demonstrated that for every pound that's spent on culture more than two pounds is returned as, what economists call, Gross Added Value to the Economy

"We've got to get away from the use of language and the discourse that surrounds this subject. Central and local governments don't subsidise the arts – they invest in a successful revenue generating industry.

"The trade union movement faces one of its biggest challenges at the moment. We know what is happening across the public sector – attacks on education, attacks on the pay of already low paid public service workers, and attacks on their pensions. The attack on arts and culture is slightly different, on the one hand we're told how valuable we are – how we drive tourism, how we make the world a better place, but at the same time we're told that we have to pay our way, so the very essence and fabric that the cultural sector is built on is been undermined and could be terminally damaged. This is not just about jobs and falls in standards of living of our members. This is an attack on our civilisation itself, turning the clock back so that arts and cultural become the preserve of the rich elite – back to the 18th century when authors, composers, painters, actors and musicians were treated as no more than servants.

"But we will fight back. And today we launch a joint union campaign that bears the title of this rally - Lost Arts. When we get to the end of this three-year funding period we can be pretty sure that we won't get the money that's been cut back. So we will have to be in a position to remind the public just what this nation has lost, and we'll spell it out company by company, orchestra by orchestra, museum by museum.

"The Lost Arts website will be live for the three-year period; it will catalogue everything that we've suffered; everything that's been lost – every regional tour, every exhibition, every education and community project, every commission of a new work and every new production. But you and your colleagues must play your part. The website will need constant updating which means that when you next hear of a cut – however small – you log it. With your help we will grow an incredible and irrefutable record of what affect these savage and brutal cuts have had."

Ivan Lewis said this of the campaign:

"It signals the end of a period of silence from too many in the art and culture sector who have acquiesced to a narrative which says in an age of austerity at a time when the NHS, Education and policing face cuts the arts have no right to a voice.

"If that is the case we lose the right to feel passionately about the way culture transforms individuals' lives, creates jobs and growth for our economy, has been at the heart of transforming many of our towns and cities and brings communities together.

"I am immensely proud of Labour's record in Government on arts policy and funding. But I would never suggest that under Labour there would have been no cuts.

"There would have been because our top national priority has to be to reduce the deficit alongside a credible plan for jobs and growth. But we would have done it differently. The cuts being imposed by this Conservative Led Government are too fast and too deep. They are disproportionate when you consider the combined impact of a 30% cut to the Arts Council budget, severe frontloaded local Government cuts and the abolition of the Regional development agencies. They take no account of the commercial gain which frequently flows from public investment in the arts.

"Simultaneously, we have the attack on arts and humanities degrees in Higher Education, the scrapping of school based creative partnerships and the squeezing out of art and creativity as part of Michael Gove's ideologically driven re-engineering of our education system. At a time when the future success of UK PLC in a competitive global economy and the desire to have excellent public services means we will need creative workers, managers and leaders more than ever before. This vision for our education system is ill conceived and damaging to our long term national interest.

"So the Government's disproportionate cuts and backward looking view of education are wrong but equally Jeremy Hunt has no vision for the future of art and culture. He has sought to remain above the fray leaving others such as the Arts Council to take responsibility for ministerial cuts. What is their commitment to access, participation and excellence? Where does the balance of their priorities lie? Why have they failed so dismally to make the case for the arts with their colleagues in DFE, CLG, BiS and the Treasury? What are they doing to support the export of our culture across the world?

"For the three years prior to the election they made strenuous efforts to persuade the arts world their party had changed in relation to public investment. After only a year it is clear that was a con and it's the same old Tories. Disproportionate cuts coupled with a claim that philanthropy and the national lottery will plug the gap. The extra income from the lottery is a drop in the ocean relative to the scale of the cuts and while we welcome measures to incentivise philanthropy Jeremy Hunt has conceded it will take a generation to achieve a step change in giving. As for the Lib Dems they are a silent partner when it comes to the arts.

"Finally, I urge this campaign to use language and stories which not only preach to the converted but win the hearts and minds of the public and commentators.

"Government funding for the arts is not subsidy but investment. Relatively small amounts of seedcorn funding have fuelled major commercial successes such as Enron, Jerusalem and Warhorse. Our creative industries have been a great UK PLC success story.

"Many of our great actors and artists started their careers in publically funded projects. Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Gateshead and Newcastle have been regenerated through art and cultural investment.

"For so many of our young people the arts are the catalyst for their talent, ambition and dreams. For many people with mental health problems art has helped improve their state of mind. Witness the impact of art and music on older dementia sufferers and their carers. People feel passionately about our great national institutions but also their local theatres, galleries, festivals and community projects.

"Let us use this campaign to mobilise support not simply as a vehicle for protest but as a catalyst for the ideas, vision and passion which can transform public discourse about the importance of the arts to the social and economic renewal of our country."

The acor Maggie Steed said this:

"It is right and proper and very timely for us to make a stand collectively against this unprecedented attack on arts and culture funding.

"The problems we face are coming from so many different angles. We've already witnessed huge central government cuts to the Arts Council, museums, libraries and the BBC. And many of us have been fighting shocking reductions in local authority funding for regional theatres, music services and orchestras across the country. Sadly, I fear, the worst is to come.

"Earlier we heard from John about the purpose of Lost Arts. The website launched today will serve as a vital evidence base as we seek to educate the general public, politicians and policy makers not just about the crisis faced by our sector but also about the real economic and social benefits of the arts.

"Over the next three years it is our responsibility to work together to get the Government to realise its mistake: Arts and culture funding is not a sunk cost, it's a savvy investment. Lost Arts is very modest about the impact that art can make on the economy. The calculations on the website use the widely accepted formula that £1 invested in the arts and culture leverages £2 from elsewhere.

"However, if you ask local authority arts officers and bodies like Arts Development UK they will tell you that investment in the arts can bring in a return of 6 to 1. Not bad. The economic argument for cultural subsidy is easy and obvious. You'd think that a Cabinet full of clever graduates and millionaires would be able to grasp it. Apparently not. It begs the question – are these cuts simply ideological?

"If we are going to win this, we need to take our campaign to our audience members and our communities. We need to build a strong and united voice to resist job cuts and closures wherever they happen. We must involve all those politicians who will listen and talk to us, all those organisations under pressure and our students and young people hoping to one day get a decent job in our wonderful creative industries. I believe this kind of relationship is what a true Coalition should be. Let's work together to show that such a thing can bring a positive outcome.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/culture-cuts-blog/2011/jun/15/arts-funding-public-sector-cuts?INTCMP=SRCH