Thursday 16th December - Stockport Hydro's Open Evening

Directors of Stockport Hydro Ltd invited guests to Stockport Town Hall for mince pies and a glass of wine as they re-launched Stockport hydro's share offer.

Stockport Hydro still need to raise another £100K to be able to produce clean, green electricity at Greater Manchester's first community-owned hydro.

h2oPE, have been very busy getting another community-owned hydro up and running in Bainbridge in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. MD Steve Welsh showed slides of work to date and demonstrated just how rapidly the hydro progressed once the go-ahead was given.   More info

Tuesday 14th December - SkFoE Membership Christmas Meal

Another enjoyable Christmas meal with friends, this year with excellent food, wine and hot toddies at Hewitts in Romiley.

Friday 10th December - International Human Rights Day

Stockport Amnesty group ran a stall in Stockport Town Centre.

An opportunity to pop out during lunch hour and send a greetings card to a victim of human rights abuses to let them know you are thinking of them at this time of year.

Sunday 5th December - Cale Green Christmas Market

1pm - 4pm Cale Green Park.

Entertainment included The Elmfield Brass Band, Hillcrest School children singing, Swingboat rides, Face painting and Circus skills.

Thanks to everyone who went along.

Saturday 20th November - Stockport Fair Trade Fair

10.30 - 4pm, Stockport College, Wellington Rd South, Stockport

Always a lovely event to be involved with.

Thanks to everyone who came to help on the stall - Stephen, Jess, Tom, May, Hasan, David and Phoebe.

..and thanks to all those who signed our petition in support of the wind turbine application at Marple Bridge, too.

Saturday 30th October - Public Meeting in Marple

      The Greenest Government Ever: Starts in Stockport?

Over 60 people filled the Marple Senior Citizens Hall on Saturday afternoon to ask Andrew Stunell MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Communities and Local Government, what his department was doing to champion action on climate change?

Mike Childs, Head of Climate Change at Friends of the Earth, opened the discussion and spoke of the challenge of delivery on climate change - and that it must happen in communities. Local Authorities must be at the centre of action on climate change - for example on transport, energy - and there are many examples of leadership - but many are doing nothing. Every authority must take decisive action.

Andrew Stunell started by outlining his ministerial responsibility for the sustainability of new buildings, and the PMB on the subject that he steered through Parliament, the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act. He spoke about 3 phases of the coalition's action on the environment - what's happened so far, what's next and what's coming up in the future. When asked what the Government was doing to live up to its promise of being the greenest ever, he compared the Coalition Government's 5 year term in office to a football match - of the 90 minutes, we're only 9 minutes in so far.

Chair, Rev Graham Hawley of Marple Energy Saving Strategy was excellent and kept the discussion and Q and A moving really well. Questions asked were on a wide variety of social justice and environmental issues including spending cuts to bus and train subsidies, the absence of many British manufacturers of solar panels, and the extent to which the Big Society was inclusive.

Kate of Stockport Friends of the Earth said:"The meeting was a great success. It was clear that many members of the audience were passionate about the environment, and Andrew Stunell had the opportunity to hear the strength of feeling amongst his constituents that we need to tackle climate change locally."

Please see the Winter 2010 edition of 'Stockport Matters' for detailed information on the meeting.

Thanks to everyone who participated, credits