Guest Blogger Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Eastbourne ECO Action Network

Cycle Lanes along the Seafront

Compromise, conciliation, and consultation, all seem such reasonable words, and opponents to cycling often use them against Bespoke Cycle Group. They are perhaps partly the reason that active travel (buses, cycling and walking) in Eastbourne is in decline.

The Eastbourne Cycling Plan makes reference to the need for a strategy, reducing congestion, pollution and improved public health, along with a network of cycle routes that includes the controversial one along the seafront from Fisherman’s Green to the Pier.

It all sounds familiar, until you realise that this is the 1994 version. Quite usefully it shows the data from 1981. The share of trips by car was 40%, bus 14% and cycle 4%. Now the shares are 70%, 5% and 2%. The current scheme that requires Bespoke to “compromise” is the Covid-19 seafront cycle lane. East Sussex County Council decided this week it wants further consultation. It is a difficult choice for Bespoke to make. The seaward side was bid through Covid-19 funds, and was a segregated, safe and secure route. In fact, probably the one specified over 25 years ago. The landward option, not shared with Bespoke, is mainly paint on the road. In its favour are a 20mph speed limit and some signage. Unfortunately, it will be like the rest of the cycle infrastructure in town and hardly fit for purpose.

But for Bespoke it may be “take it or leave it”. It is the type of poor solution that compromise, conciliation and consultation create. It looks like not all the Covid-19 money will be spent and there has been the suggestion that ESCC’s new bid for Tranche2 will partly fail. ESCC acknowledge that “whilst emphasis [from the national guidance expects] schemes which enable the reallocation of road space for pedestrians and cyclists” their bid is around “footway surfacing and kerbs”.

Because 70% of trips are undertaken by car, this dominates the whole approach to transport within the county. Even to the extent that councillors, businesses and shops overestimate the number of people using cars and their relative spend. Considering this it took a certain strength, perhaps against the views of some of the residents, for Councillor Tutt to support the seaward side, as he did at the Transport committee.

For all the ESCC investment, the gold standard test is the actual cycle numbers. The new DfT statistics by Local Authority show no improvement across the county in the last 4 years. For those who cycle once a month, East Sussex, as one of the 25 similar shire counties, has only one county that performs worse.

In conclusion, there is no evidence that the current approach, via consultation and compromise, with the most powerful groups getting their way, will achieve any significant changes in road congestion, public health, pollution and CO2. The requirement is still for a limited number of safe, segregated and secure routes into town. This would be in line with the new DfT guidance, where they clearly state that paint on the road is no longer enough.

Paul Humphreys

Bespoke & Cycle East Sussex

Photo credit: Paul Gillett

Eastbourne Businesses – What Can You Do?

The two biggest uses of carbon are buildings and transport. Energy used in buildings emits 63% of the carbon used in our town. Buildings use energy for electricity for powering lights, computers etc and for heating. Gas heating is in a large percentage of buildings for hot water and heating.

The two biggest uses of carbon are buildings and transport.

Energy used in buildings emits 63% of the carbon used in our town. Buildings use energy for electricity for powering lights, computers etc and for heating. Gas heating is in a large percentage of buildings for hot water and heating. Gas is a major emitter of carbon in Eastbourne. By looking at how you use these it is possible to cut energy use. Your business will be cutting its energy bill and saving money.

In rush hour and other busy times of the day Eastbourne has many traffic jams. Not only do these waste time, emit a large amount of carbon but stationary cars with engines running emit dangerous compounds which cause air pollution. Air pollution is a problem in Eastbourne and it causes many people health problems, and premature deaths. It is in everyone’s interests that traffic pollution is tackled.

There are three things you can do as a business.

Switch energy supplier

Switch your energy supply to one which provides 100% renewable energy to the national grid. The price of producing renewable energy has come down considerably in the last few years. There are some really good deals around at the moment.

Click here to compare companies for renewable electricity contracts for business.

Get an energy audit on your building

Get an energy audit on your building. You can order one for free from East Sussex County Council. There is also a limited amount of money available in the form of a grant to help you reduce your energy costs. This is available on a first-come-first-served basis.

You can then start to make a plan of how to cut your carbon footprint at your workplace building. Get some quotes and make a plan. Actions may be something small and inexpensive like replacing all your electric bulbs to LEDs to something which requires more capital such as insulating your building.

Remote Working

Recent recent research by the Herman Miller Insight Group indicates that when asked about where employees want to work:

5% want to be back in the office;
19% love working from home;
53% want to work from home and their normal workplace.

Since the COVID crisis, we have already had many people working from home. This isn’t practical for all of the time but allowing staff to work at home for some of the time allows staff to achieve a better work/life balance and less stress. Less people commuting also has environmental impacts. Working flexibly where possible reduces the CO2 emissions from commuting. We recognise this needs an intelligent approach, and to ensure the well being of staff. Read the Home Working Guidance developed by the University of Bristol.

Using Active Transport

For journeys travelling to and from the workplace with a distance of 5 km or less than active transport should be encouraged. Walking or cycling to work not only has great health benefits for the person but fewer cars on the road mean fewer traffic jams for everyone and this in term improves air quality and everyone in Eastbourne benefits.

Take a look at the government’s bike to work scheme.

Or have a look at the Green Commute Initiative which allows for the cost of more expensive e-bikes.

There have been a lot of new ways of transport developed in recent years as alternatives to car transport.

Learn more about the e-bikes

Here is some really useful information about ebikes

Electric cargo bikes for business

Electric scooters

We are working towards a carbon neutral Eastbourne by 2030.

Miles Berkley

Executive Director, EEAN

Rachel Norris

Workplace Group, EEAN

Cleaning Eastbourne Beach – all 93, actually

Well, who would have expected so many people turning out for this event during a seriously concerning period! Not only did people come out in force to clean every single one of the 93 beaches alongside our seafront – volunteers also chose to clean our promenade, the coastline beyond our main beach eastwards beyond the Marina and westward towards Beachy Head. Others went into our parks and carried out park cleans.

This was a unique event, made possible by the fact that our beach is divided into 93 separate beaches by groynes. Each volunteer group was able to be completely socially distanced by cleaning just their own allocated beach.

Every group was asked to complete a Marine Conservation Society survey of the itemised debris collected. This is being collated and will form an invaluable database to help monitor our coastline.

This event has had a knock-on effect of groups wanting to get involved in cleaning on the Downs, more of our local parks and continuing with beach cleaning. One group, Catch22, is planning a further beach clean event next month. Well done all of you! What a great weekend it was too with the weather.

This event had two objectives: firstly, our beach was cleared of debris; secondly, our self-confidence and our sense of being able to work creatively and positively during this worrying era as a community was achieved. Eastbourne has a well-deserved reputation for rising to challenges and bringing about improvement to our town and to our surroundings.

Ways you can support us and find out more:

visit BHASSEXPLORE website where you will learn about the efforts to remove beach debris from a most inhospitable stretch of coastline where the iconic Beachy Head Lighthouse is standing.

offer to volunteer to help especially if you have relevant skills or interests.

lookout for the results of the photo competition using the photo record of our beach clean – the photos with this blog are just a small flavour of the excellent entry list. There are prizes too!

We are working towards a carbon neutral town by 2030.

Oliver Sterno

Community Leader, Plastic Free Eastbourne
Co-ordinator, Refill Eastbourne

Government Announces UK is Failing on CO2 Emissions

Eastbourne Borough Council, like many other local authorities, has committed to do all it can to reduce carbon emissions in the town to net-zero by 2030 and has declared a climate emergency. However, much of this cannot be achieved without Government initiatives. Their advisers this week are warning that the UK is falling behind on its own target to cut greenhouse gas emissions and risks an increase in CO2 emissions now that the COVID-19 lockdown is easing.

Lord Deben, chair of the committee on climate change (CCC), published its progress report to parliament this week and it states that ministers must act fast to avoid a carbon rebound. Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, said: “Without central and integrated leadership we will fail in our task”.

These initiatives would include more active travel, new schemes to insulate homes, raising carbon taxes, switching to electric vehicles and ensuring reliable broadband to allow working from home.

Much of this can be supported by the local authorities. Taken from the best examples in the UK is the Friends of the Earth, Ashden, 31 climate actions for councils. This outlines practical suggestions to reduce carbon at a local level in areas that local authorities have either direct control of or could influence.

So how much progress is being made? This week the latest CO2 statistics for Local Authorities were published by the Government. Eastbourne, for geographic and industrial reasons, tends to have a lower than average carbon footprint.

The latest data is for 2018 and shows a 1.4% decline from 2017. The carbon footprint for Eastbourne is now 293,000 tonnes per annum or around 3 tonnes per person. This reflects the steady improvement across the UK, over the last 10 years, with less coal and more renewables. So for example, one challenge for the town is natural gas, which is over 40% of all our carbon emissions.

Locally, as across the rest of the UK, commercial and residential sectors have shown significant reductions with only transport remaining stubbornly at around 80,000 tonnes p.a. The report also states that nearly all of Eastbourne’s footprint is within “the scope of influence of the local authority”.

With 2030 only 10 years away there will need to be a major change in strategy to even begin to approach the net-zero carbon target.

Read Delivering a Better Eastbourne by EEAN Transport Group outlining some suggestions for improving our town’s carbon emissions.

Paul Humphreys

EEAN, Transport Group

Img Veeterzy, Unsplash.

Big Summer Beach Clean

Plastic Free Eastbourne wants to encourage everyone to join our whole-town Summer Beach Clean in July. The event will be fully COVID-19 aware.

Now the lockdown is being gradually eased and people can gather in small groups in their gardens and public places, we can begin to regain the momentum and actions to make Eastbourne cleaner and more sustainable.

Plastic Free Eastbourne wants to encourage everyone to join our whole-town Summer Beach Clean. The event will be fully COVID-aware.

Dates of the Summer Beach Clean

Friday 10 July
Saturday 11 July
Sunday 12 July

The time would be individualised and it will be up to you when you take part.

What you need to do

To comply with the current regulations, your volunteering group should not include more than 6 participants.

Check the map below and decide how many beaches you and your group want to clean. Select the stretch of beach by identifying the groyne numbers at each end of your choice. See the detailed map here.

Groynes are the wooden walls dividing our beach into sections. They have been set up to reduce the shingle beach material from being washed away by wave action.

Register your attendance by emailing your names, ages if under 18, time and date you wish to participate along with your chosen groyne numbers. Send this all to plasticfreeeastbourne@gmail.com. or phone for further details 07971 909454.

You will be sent a confirmation email along with a Risk Assessment and Safety Briefing, as well as a list of items you should bring. This will include protective gloves, which you can order for free, face-covering (COVID-19 regulation), suitable clothing, refillable water bottles, sun protection, hand sanitiser.

On the day and before the start of your chosen time, sufficient debris bags will be left on top of the lowest numbered groyne you have chosen for you to collect.

We hope you will be able to record the amount and type of debris you have collected and perhaps take a photo or two for sharing. You might also like to write a short piece to tell us about your experience.

If you want to purchase litter pickers at £5 each, please order them in your email. They will be awaiting your arrival at your chosen groyne. Payments will be accepted online.

When you finish collecting, please tie up your bag of debris and leave it next to (not in) the nearest waste bin. The local council will collect the bags afterwards.

Overall, this event is intended to make our beach clear of debris. Equally, it is intended to provide a whole-town experience to raise our self-confidence and our sense of being able to work creatively and positively during this worrying era.

Eastbourne has a well-deserved reputation for rising to challenges and bringing about improvement to our town and to our surroundings. Join us!

Oliver Sterno

Plastic Free Eastbourne , SEA~SurvivalEqualsAction

Everybody’s Business

When you think about it, there is so much you can do which will not add any time or effort to your day. If you go out on a walk, there is nothing stopping you from putting some gloves on and picking up as much litter as you can. There are no excuses. COVID-19 had to grind the Earth to a halt, and now it is the best time to reform the Earth into a state where future generations will not have to suffer from an irreversible hell. This is our home; this is everybody’s business.

My name is Oliver, I am 12, and although I don’t have to do it, I pick up litter.

Midway through April, I started the account @uklitterpickers on Instagram. I was generally eco-aware before, but there is a difference between awareness and activism. I didn’t quite know how bad the situation with litter was on our planet, but by learning from other people and following various social media accounts I realised that the reality was much worse than I ever thought. I started picking up litter on walks from time to time and I got a good reception from my friends. This motivated me to launch my account – I feel I need to do something about the current climate crisis we are in.

Whenever I go on a litter picking walk, I always count my litter and take a photo at the end of it helping me to keep track of how much litter has been picked up in my area. At the beginning of May, I joined a group called the 1 PIECE Army (@1piecearmy on Instagram) uniting people from different countries across the world who pick up litter. Their mission is to collect 1 million pieces by the end of 2020. At the time of writing, we have just surpassed 100k pieces across 15 weeks and over 20 countries.

The group is amazing and is growing at an incredible rate, and an all-round pleasure to be in. I also volunteer making a graph and a map every week for their impact report, as well as working closely with the director of the group giving ideas and helping out generally. I have also designed their group logo.

This journey has taught me communication skills, social media management and different ways to help the environment. I want to take this opportunity to talk about some accounts that I have interacted with who helped me along my journey.

@ecoplanetpedia is a group which posts environmental news and motivates me to post more. I have talked with them many times about issues and discussed environmental problems. @cleansomethingfornothing is an amazing account which reposts people’s litter picking using their hashtags. I have also worked closely with this account. Finally, @thebethechangecommunity who has been close to the 1 PIECE Army and are celebrating their one year of litter-picking. If you are interested to support these guys’ work, you might like to check out and follow their accounts.

One noticeable difference is that before this work seeing a piece of litter on the ground didn’t bother me. I would look at a bottle on the floor and not take notice of it and think that it’s just another piece of litter and it’s not my business. Now, I realise that each plastic bottle has a story behind it. One bottle can tell you what kind of person has dropped it, when they dropped it, and why they dropped it. That is why I can feel a pain inside when I see a bottle on the floor, and an even bigger one when I can’t pick it up.

Oliver Witts

Eco Activist, @uklitterpickers

Photos by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash, Oliver Witts

Will People of Eastbourne Celebrate With Plastic?

Now the lockdown is being gradually eased and people can gather in small groups in their gardens and public places, will people of Eastbourne be planning a celebration?

Plastic Free Eastbourne wants to encourage all communities to hold celebrations should they wish to when this pandemic has allowed us all to gather and mingle once again in groups.

But while we were in the lockdown, our town has changed. It has the cleanest air for a long time. Our wildlife is enjoying the lowest levels of pollution in their habitats for decades. We can hear birdsong and nature in clear conditions. Our streets and open spaces are as free of litter as ever before. We would like to retain these conditions from now on.

One big way of retaining this newly obtained environment is to make sure wherever possible that any gathering remains single-use plastic free, which is in line with Eastbourne’s status as a Plastic Free Community since December 2019, fully supported by Eastbourne Borough Council.

The examples of single-use plastic hugely damaging for the environment include but are not limited to:

balloons,
plastic single-use water bottles
clingfilm
plastic cutlery
single-use plastic packaging
lighted lanterns

Instead, we should try to celebrate like we saw people doing in the newsreels during VE Day in 1945. Not one balloon was visible and yet, they obviously were having a great time!

So what are the alternatives? We have some suggestions for you:

planting a tree communally
ribbon dancers
banners and streamers
kites and spinners
tissue paper pompoms
light a candle
drumming
seed bombs to name just a few.

Of course, all of these should be plastic-free, made from recycled materials, or for more than one use. Hygienic packaging of food and drink should be washable and reusable, such as plastic reusable boxes with lids. Alternatively, products made from Vegware or similar should be chosen.

We would like to build on the great work which we as a town have done together to reduce single-use plastic already. We have the reputation for being at the forefront of developing a Plastic Free Community. If we all agree, we can take our campaign up to the next level and contribute greatly to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

And above all – we will keep our town and our coastline free of plastic for the next generations to enjoy.

Oliver Sterno

Plastic Free Eastbourne, EEAN Education Group

Photos by Brian Yurasits , Eleni Koureas on Unsplash.

Cycling in Eastbourne during COVID-19

Emergency protected cycle lane proposals: from the railway station to DGH via King’s Drive.

Emergency protected cycle lane proposal: from the railway station to DGH via King’s Drive

King’s Drive (and Lewes Road) is one of Eastbourne’s busiest arteries, linking the town centre and seafront with several large residential areas: Upperton, Ratton, Hampden Park, Willingdon and beyond to Polegate and Hailsham. It also connects to the hospital (DGH), East Sussex College, various schools, David Lloyd sports club and retail parks.

King’s Drive runs along the edge of flood meadows, it is essentially flat and it provides the quickest, most direct North-South route. Sadly, the good news for cyclists ends there. As anyone who has attempted to ride along King’s Drive knows, the sheer volume and speed of traffic feel uncomfortable and at times it’s downright dangerous. Data from Crashmap bears this out. Not surprisingly, few people attempt to use their bicycles here and most opt for the car, even for short trips.

Solutions

Bespoke Cycle Group has long argued for a separate cycleway to be constructed along the meadow to the east of St Thomas A Becket school (see below) and behind Weavers Close. It would continue to the DGH roundabout and join up with the existing cycle path alongside Cross Levels Way.

Sustrans echoed this idea in its draft recommendations (310.2) to ESCC in 2017, but signs of progress have not been detected. In the meantime, the COVID-19 pandemic has swept in, forcing local authorities around the world to wake up to the importance of cycling and walking as genuine alternatives to cars and public transport in urban areas.

It is surely the time for ESCC to construct temporary protected cycle lanes here. Bespoke propose one-way 2m wide lanes (in line with the traffic) on each side of King’s Drive and Lewes Road, extending from the DGH roundabout to the junction of Tutt’s Barn Lane for southbound cyclists and from the junction with Upper Avenue to the DGH roundabout for northbound cyclists.

Here, a cycle lane could replace the grass verge, or take up part of the road next to it.

In this section of King’s Drive, temporary bollards could be placed on the road 2m from the kerb.

The same applies here, by St Thomas A Becket school, so this dad and his daughter wouldn’t need to be on the pavement.

Southbound cyclists could turn left into Tutt’s Barn Lane, then continue along the quiet Gorringe Road.

At the junction with Lewes Road, there could be a combined pedestrian and cycle crossing to Upper Avenue – ideally to the pavement on the north side (on the right of this picture).

This pavement could be widened, or space reclaimed from the road to accommodate a two-way cycle lane:

The grassy area could be narrowed to accommodate a two-way cycle lane.

There’s plenty of space on this corner of Upper Avenue:

A new crossing for pedestrians and cycles here on Upper Avenue, opposite St Mary’s House, would enable safe passage to and from St Leonard’s Road.

The quiet St Leonard’s Road probably wouldn’t need any cycle infrastructure.

Nor would St Ann’s Road, on the left in this photo.

St Ann’s Road leads to the station car park – for access to trains, the Enterprise Centre, town centre and seafront.

Robert McGowan

Transport Group, Bespoke

The bus is here,
but not quite yet!

Recently the Department of Transport has issued its vision for transport Decarbonising Transport report, which it hopes to achieve by 2050. One of the main threads of their vision is to reduce our dependence on petrol and diesel car.

Recently the Department of Transport has issued its vision for transport Decarbonising Transport report, which it hopes to achieve by 2050. One of the main threads of their vision is to reduce our dependence on petrol and diesel car.

The burning of petrol and diesel in cars produces carbon dioxide which goes into the atmosphere and significantly contributes to climate change. The gases emitted by these vehicles also produce pollutants damaging people’s health, causing breathing problems, skin reactions and having a particularly bad effect on people with respiratory problems.

One way of achieving a reduction in these gases is to encourage the use of electric cars. But these are expensive to buy, need a new charging infrastructure and a lot of energy, which produces more pollution.

One of the government’s aims is to reduce the number of car trips that we all make. They hope to do this by:

Provide frequent and reliable public transport (buses) so that we don’t have to use our cars.
To get us to lead healthier life styles by walking and cycling rather than driving.

But how do you get people to abandon such a convenient form of transport as the car? This will require a lot of changes in our everyday life and our mentality. EEAN is convinced that tackling transport pollution and achieving a culture change in societal attitudes to transport is one of the crucial elements in reducing the effects of climate change.

See the summary of the Decarbonising Transport report in our Library.

David Everson

Transport Group

Cleaner air and healthier food beyond the pandemic

The COVID19 pandemic is an unintentional real-time experiment in how our economy and society can cope with and adapt to a profound shock. There are already many lessons to learn from it about how to build a more resilient and sustainable economy in the future, one that also better protects people’s health and wellbeing.

Some of the environmental effects of the pandemic have been significant, such as a cleaner, more breathable air as a result of the collapse in traffic levels and a resurgence in wildlife and nature as a result of the lockdown of the entire communities. The citizen science air quality monitoring project led by the volunteers of Clean Air Eastbourne has already recorded a 70% drop in particulate air pollution during March 2020 compared with March of 2019, confirming that air pollution can decrease rapidly in Eastbourne if road traffic levels drop far enough and stay reduced for long enough.

This is leading to calls from across Eastbourne, mirrored across the rest of the country, for more safe cycle lanes and better walking infrastructure now, even if only on a temporary basis, so as to ensure that the much needed modal shift to active travel – a shift already accepted as necessary by Eastbourne Borough Council in its draft local plan – can be accelerated during the pandemic, and sustained after it. The UK government is responding to these calls by introducing new statutory regulations authorising those local councils responsible for local highways to introduce such cycling and walking infrastructure and providing a £2 billion fund to facilitate their construction.

The pandemic has also highlighted many of the issues around food supply and delivery in a crisis and the difficulties involved in ensuring that everybody has all the food they need, an issue that may get more urgent over the coming year given the acute shortage of foreign labour to help bring in the summer harvests. The Climate Adaptation and Food working Groups of the EEAN, in collaboration with the Eastbourne Food Partnership, organised a joint visit, just before the pandemic, to two ecological community farms at Arlington – Aweside Farm and Fanfield Farm – which are about to start providing fresh organic sustainably produced food for local delivery.

More such local farms, together with the already existing local organic farms and horticultural nurseries, will surely be needed as the large commercial farms begin to struggle and the international food supply chains start to fracture during the upcoming global recession. According to Sustain, only 1-2% of all the food we consume comes from local food chains. So bringing local food producers and suppliers into a resilient local food network to provide local people with a diverse range of fresh, healthy local food is an essential part of any strategy to create a truly sustainable local food economy in the Eastbourne area, cutting down food miles, reducing food and plastic waste, reducing overdependence on fragile international food chains, and reducing carbon emissions through the sustainable care of soils practised by organic growers.

The pandemic may be a time of great tragedy and suffering, but it is also a time in which the positive changes previously thought too difficult to introduce are now becoming possible, helping to improve health and wellbeing in the long run. The EEAN aims to promote and facilitate those changes through collaboration across all sectors of our local community.

Andrew Durling

Climate Adaptation Group, EEAN Director