The Green Party today announced their candidate for the Kingswinford and South Staffordshire constituency at the coming the General Election. They have selected Claire McIlvenna.

Claire McIlvenna said, “I am honoured to have been chosen as the Green Party’s candidate for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire. In recent years, more and more people have realised that far from being just about the environment, the Green Party stands for a way of doing politics totally differently and for pragmatic, proven policies that can transform our country – and that Green politicians are different and can be trusted to have the integrity people expect – unlike the other stale parties.”

“It’s clear for everyone to see that our country is in a total mess: politics as usual hasn’t worked – we need a new approach. That’s why the Green Party has grown so rapidly – we’ve seen a surge in Green Party politicians elected at all levels over the last couple of years, and we can see the same at this General Election.”

“Only the Green Party has a credible plan to sort out all of the major problems we face. Tackling the cost of living crisis also means rapid action to tackle the climate emergency, and both of these things connect to building a much fairer Britain”

“If you agree with me that the time has come for a genuinely different approach that will get Britain back on its feet after the turmoil of recent years, please vote for me at the General Election..”

–Ends–

Notes for Editors

-More information about Green party policies are available at greenparty.org.uk

Contact:

Ian Sadler, 55 Wombourne Park, Wombourne

info@southstaffs.greenparty.org.uk

The post Green Party announce Claire McIlvenna as candidate for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire constituency at the General Election appeared first on South Staffordshire Green Party.

You can find out more and donate to our Crowdfunder campaign here

Any extra funds we raise over and above our target of £500 will be used to support the continued work in South Staffordshire.

The post DONATIONS WELCOME FOR GENERAL ELECTION CROWDFUNDER appeared first on South Staffordshire Green Party.

Please head over to the event page by clicking the button below to let us know you will be coming along.

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Andrew joined the party last year and has been an active and committed member, helping with our successful campaign in Bilbrook in 2023 and supporting Cannock Chase and Herefordshire Green Parties in their campaigns for forthcoming elections.

We welcome Andrew into this role and look forward to continuing to grow and achieve success in South Staffordshire.

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South Staffordshire Green Party Response and Next Steps

We welcome the Climate Change Action Plan developed by South Staffordshire.  The priorities proposed for council estate and commercial estate are impressive.  We applaud the council’s commitment to on an absolute reduction in carbon emissions rather than offsetting. We particularly welcome the willingness to work with and learn from other councils who have gone a little further on this journey. 

As Green Party Councillors, climate change is central to our thinking, and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the Plan with policy makers in South Staffordshire as it evolves.  We want to share our understanding and knowledge with the council to help achieve and exceed the council’s goals.

Having reviewed the Climate Strategy and Action Plan, we have set out below some points which could provide a starting place for further discussion and development. 

Scoping and monitoring

The presentation of evidence, targeting and monitoring needs strengthening to effectively communicate the breadth of the council’s achievement and ambition. 

The approach taken in the Stroud 2030 Strategy (click here) is powerful. For each sector, they present their position clearly under these headings:

Where are we now?   

Where do we want to be?    

What are we doing about it?

This makes it very easy to understand the current position and goals going forward. In the next iteration of the Strategy and Action Plan, SSDC should aim to do something similar. In order to introduce this level of clarity to the SSDC plan we recommend making some changes to the structure of the plan.

The council has already separated the plan into different areas of operation where the council hope to make reductions. For each of these, a more detailed overview should be presented. 

Council Operations is currently broken down really well into different aspects. Adding some figures into each aspect would help to demonstrate both internally and externally where the most effective savings can be made. 

Adding forecasts for each bullet point will show clearly which will give the best results, and allow progress to be measured. Data on both anticipated emissions reduction and improvements in energy efficiency should be presented. There is of course an argument to be made for cost savings too – if the council thought it was suitable, we feel including cost of implementation and projected financial savings could also be included. 

For each of the bullet points under Raising Awareness, Strategic Planning, Influencing Partners and Council Operations the following should be set out:

Where are we now?

First and foremost, the baseline for reporting should be taken from 2019 figures, not from 2010 figures. Reductions against 2010 are as a result of national or international level effects not local initiatives.  

To help identify priority areas, the plan needs to utilise and present quantitative data. 

The same exercise needs to be done for the ‘prior’ position on the council property/activities etc. such as the Hub, schools, waste management etc.

The Impact tool gives an overview of both consumption and territorial emissions and gives a  clear insight into the biggest issues in the district as a whole.

In what way will this action have an impact?

In order to clearly see and evaluate the impact of each bullet point in the plan, it is important to specify in what way each action will contribute to tackling climate change. Each action should contribute in one or more of the following ways:

• Reduction of CO2e
• Improved energy efficiency
• Reduced energy use
• Generating clean energy
• Reduced use of Fossil Fuels

The inclusion of quantitative forecasts will make this information really tangible. 

For SSDC to show its commitment to local action on climate change, clarity is crucial. 

By making a clear distinction between energy use and emissions, and reporting these separately will enable the council to properly evaluate and reprioritise where necessary depending on the efficiency of the measures taken. 

How will this contribute to long term goals?

Setting out the key areas (as suggested above) where the council’s plan intends to have an impact enables longer term goals to be set – and a meaningful path laid towards a zero carbon footprint. 

For example, the Impact.org.uk tool reports South Staffordshire’s carbon footprint for mains gas as 2.4 t/a/household. As one of the key areas is to Reduce Use of Fossil Fuels – addressing the use of mains gas would have a massive impact. From this we can create at least two long term goals: 1. To improve insulation in homes to Reduce Energy Use and 2. To replace gas boilers with heat pumps which Reduce the Use of Fossil Fuels. The council can then work backwards to finding solutions on how these now manageable goals can be achieved. 

An Example

Below is an example of how the plan could be enhanced in the way described above. In bold is an action point taken from the current plan, from the section on Longer term Actions 2022-25. The addition of the information in italics creates a more robust and tangible plan.

Council Operations

Upgrading of Council’s external lighting to all its Commercial properties with LED lighting.

Where are we now?

100 x fluorescent tube fixtures with 2 tubes per fixture

Annual Energy Consumption: 75,336 kWh

In what way will this action have an impact?

• • Improved energy efficiency
  • Reduced energy use
  • Reduction of CO2e

How will this contribute to long term goals?

Replacing 100 x fluorescent tube fixtures with 2 tubes per fixture

with LED equivalent: 

Annual Energy Consumption: 28,032 kWh

Annual Energy Saving: 47,304 kWh

Saving 11t CO2e

(Figures are for demonstrative purposes only and not based on actual data)

Other Actions

While we recognise councils are not omnipotent, and financial and legislative support from central government is lacking, we feel some actions could be strengthened. 

Renewable Energy

The council’s stance on renewables, especially PV panels on new builds, council estate, commercial estate, could be strengthened. Installing renewables should become the default unless there are real practical obstacles, which should be rare on new developments. New houses can generate solar equivalent to their annual energy use, see NALU homes for an example.  

Has the potential for solar on schools etc been fully explored?  

Switching to truly green energy suppliers, where installing the facilities to generate on site is not possible, is an easy win to Reduce use of Fossil Fuels and supports the growth of this industry. 

By building in default use of renewables, the council can show true commitment to the journey to zero carbon. 

Zero-carbon builds

Many wonderful features have been built into the Hub. It would be good to see this reported and celebrated in terms of energy saving relative to standard build.  

Good building like this can act as practical examples for other developers, and hopefully ways will be found to do the same for other council estate and council-led developments.

On the council’s estate or commercial estate, set a requirement for a target energy use or a carbon budget. 

Biodiversity

Throughout the plan, there are actions which point towards the protection and enhancement of biodiversity. Whist biodiversity is of fundamental importance, it is a completely separate issue to that of reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency. We recommend pulling these points out from the CC Plan and creating a separate document or statement which outlines the council’s plan to support and increase biodiversity.

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SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE LOCAL PLAN REVIEW CONSULTATION RESPONSE

CONTENTS

Introduction

Release of Greenbelt

Housing numbers and Duty to Cooperate 

Climate Change Implications

Transport and Infrastructure

Population Growth

Introduction

South Staffordshire Green Party would like to make the following responses to the Local Plan Review in relation to the Preferred Options Consultation. South Staffordshire Green Party recognises the need for housing delivery in the district, but argues that this must be placed within the larger context of the climate crises which poses grave threats to us all. The exploration of all other available options regarding need for Greenbelt release must take precedence. Equally, housing must be built that is net zero carbon, and that is fit for a future world that no longer relies on fossil fuels. It is the responsibility of the Local Authority to deliver a climate-conscious local plan. 

South Staffordshire is described as a rural district, 80% of which lies within the West Midlands Greenbelt. There are 27 parishes and a handful of large villages but no dominant settlement. 

The preferred options as it stands projects a very large population growth, with little infrastructure  to support such growth. It presents the promise of climate change mitigation, but does not build this into the Local Plan. It considers a 30% reduction in the CO2e for new builds to be sufficient, at a time when any increase in emissions pushes us further toward catastrophic climate change. 

Release of Greenbelt

From the NPPF:

The government attaches great importance to Green Belts. The fundamental aim of Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; the essential characteristics of Green Belts are their openness and their permanence.

A local planning authority should regard the construction of new buildings as inappropriate in the Green Belt. 

Inappropriate development is, by definition, harmful to the Green Belt and should not be approved except in very special circumstances.

Whilst the government may have set huge housebuilding targets, and South Staffordshire Council wants to assist with reaching those targets, the “Very Special Circumstances” that must be present for release of land from the Greenbelt are not robustly met. 

Fundamentally, releasing Greenbelt land transforms land from a carbon sink, into a carbon source. 

Housing numbers and Duty to Cooperate

Significant concerns have been raised around the figures proposed by South Staffordshire Council to contribute to the housing shortfall in the GBHMA. The figure proposed by South Staffordshire Council to contribute to unmet housing need in Birmingham is 4000 dwellings. South Staffordshire considers the provision of almost an equal number of houses to its own housing need as a ‘proportionate and justified contribution’. 

Moreover the figure seems to have been arrived at either arbitrarily, or based on outdated figures. The first clear point of contention is that the housing figures for GBHMA include a 35% uplift, mandated by the government in relation to proposed planning reforms. However, this additional uplift should not be applied to housing that is delivered outside the twenty cities selected. The 35% uplift should be met within those chosen cities. 

Secondly, the most up to date calculations on demographic need have not been used to calculate Birmingham’s housing requirement in the first place. South Staffordshire have accepted the housing shortfall figures and worked from that, without evaluating more recent data or the changing circumstances.

In South Staffordshire itself, the Plan will in fact over-supply housing. 

Windfalls have been underestimated. According to the SHELAA, windfalls have consistently exceeded 100 d.p.a every year since 2006 (see page 27 of the SHELAA) which would amount to 1500 over the plan period. Including these more realistic windfall provisions, one can provide more than enough housing for the needs of South Staffordshire and make a more reasonable contribution to the Black Country shortfall.

Climate Change Implications

Though the climate change impacts of the development set out in the Local Plan Review are numerous, there are two major factors that emerge relating to Climate Change. Firstly – emissions generated by the new developments themselves both during construction and over the lifecycle of the buildings. Secondly – the significant increase in vehicular traffic, and associated emissions the addition of 8,881 new homes in the district as a whole will contribute to the already overburdened road network. These serious issues are exacerbated by the loss of greenbelt land and the inevitable destruction of trees, hedgerows and wildlife habitats that will occur in order to facilitate new development. 

The fact is, the energy involved in building and then operating every new UK home adds to the UK’s overall CO2 emissions at a time when there is an urgent need to reduce them.”

From the Staffordshire Baseline Report: 

Without a combination of grid decarbonisation and widespread switching to ULEVs (and the displacement of traditionally-fuelled vehicles) the district has no hope of reducing emissions. In fact the level of new development could result in up to a 7% increase in emissions.

Based on this, South Staffordshire, having declared a Climate Emergency and committed in their Climate Change Strategy to “ensuring that the district fully contributes to local efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change” the new Local Plan should address these three issues when setting out the planning framework for all new development in South Staffordshire. Regrettably, it does not. 

New buildings

Sizeable carbon emissions arising from the built environment are attributable not only to the use of built assets (operational emissions) but also to their construction (embodied emissions). Operational emissions result from energy consumption in the day-to-day running of a property, while embodied emissions arise from producing, procuring and installing the materials and components that make up a structure. These also include the lifetime emissions from maintenance, repair, replacement and ultimately demolition and disposal.

If the carbon inputs of all aspects of constructing, maintaining, operating, retrofitting, and demolishing buildings are not measured and not included in emission calculations, there is a significant danger that although targets may be met, carbon emissions are not in fact reduced and the risk of catastrophic climate change increases exponentially.

Whilst Section 6 of the Local Plan Review Preferred Options document commits to achieve a 31% carbon reduction, in line with the government’s interim uplift in standards, effective from June 2022, it does not make clear whether it will commit to a reduction in both operational and embodied emissions. As described above, addressing only operational emissions (which is implied from the discussions around energy generation) potentially ignores 50% of the life cycle emissions of residential buildings. Even with a 31% reduction in emissions the housing numbers proposed in the new Local Plan will generate in the region of half a million tonnes of CO2e in the construction phase alone.

Relying on National Planning Regulations to dictate standards is insufficient. The 2018 Hackitt Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety identified worrying deficiencies in the current system of Building Regulations. Compliance is weak, and there is indifference around build quality and confusion over roles and responsibilities. The exploitation of loopholes means new homes are still being built which do not meet even the current minimum standards: Just 1% of new homes in 2018 were Energy Performance Certificate band A. 

The new Local Plan must embed significantly higher standards for new-build homes to ensure that all new homes in South Staffordshire are ready for net zero by having a high standard of energy efficiency and low carbon heating installed as standard to be ready to comply with 2025 the Future Homes Standard. There is consensus that By 2025 at the latest, no new homes should connect to the gas grid.Instead they should have low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps and low-carbon heat networks. These obligations should be built into the Local Plan. In the South Staffordshire Council Climate Change Strategy, the council cites the preparation of the Local Plan as an opportunity to minimise the climate impact of growth. The strategic planning responsibilities referred to in the document include; promoting sustainable design in buildings and wider developments, promoting climate resilient buildings and using planning mechanisms and obligations to contribute to climate actions. The new Local Plan does not address these strategic responsibilities.  The Preferred Options document states:

It is critical that the new Local Plan provides greater ambition and measures for mitigating and adapting to climate change than previous Local Plans.

There is however, no analysis of the climate change impact of the plan, let alone a strategy for how to mitigate those impacts. 

The impact of removing land from Greenbelt for development goes further than the five purposes set out in the NPPF – it turns land that acts as a carbon sink into a carbon source. It is vital therefore from a climate change perspective to keep the release of Greenbelt land to an absolute minimum. 

Current housing need figures for GBHMA should be more comprehensively assessed, and vacant dwellings and vacant social housing (which in 2018 in the West Midlands number 28,293 

and 1,714 respectively) included in the assessment to provide a more thorough picture of the real housing need in the GBHMA. In order to minimise the climate change impact of new developments, release of greenbelt for urban fringe sites should be under moratorium until all sites in the GBHMA have been exhausted, not only through the planning process, but to delivery.

There must be a comprehensive assessment of vacant dwellings in South Staffordshire that could be brought forward for refurbishment. In 2018 there were 1,079 vacant dwellings in South Staffordshire.  As former president of the American Institute of Architects, Carl Elefante, consistently points out: “The greenest building is the one that is already built”. Refurbishing and retrofitting existing buildings can not only reduce the need to sacrifice greenbelt land in South Staffordshire for new buildings; Heritage Counts research shows that when a typical historic building is responsibly refurbished and retrofitted, when the whole life of the building is considered, it will emit less carbon by 2050 than a new building.

Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.

It is clearer than ever following the most recent IPCC report, every opportunity to save on CO2e must be taken.  

There are several serious omissions in the Local Plan relating to Strategic Objective 12:

Ensure that our communities are resilient and adaptable to the effects of climate change. Deliver appropriate climate change mitigation through renewable energy generation and ensuring that developments are designed and located in a way that delivers greater energy conservation and reduces carbon emissions.

The detail provided on the design and location of developments in insufficient and does not suggest this objective has been approached with any gravity. There is no mention of sites allocated for the renewable energy generation on which the objective seems to rely completely for mitigation. 

Planning applications for Battery Storage Sites have been received in Lower Penn which require the release of Greenbelt land. Since decarbonisation of the grid is an essential part of climate change mitigation, Strategic Objective 12 should mean that BSSs and other renewable energy generation sites that are needed to facilitate the decarbonisation of the electricity grid must be integrated into the Local Plan. 

Transport and Infrastructure

In 6.15 and 6.23 the document refers to transport as being ‘a significant source of the District’s carbon emissions’ it is unclear whether it is referring to the emissions of the council’s own estate and operations, or emissions in South Staffordshire as a whole. The only mitigation that seems to be presented in the Local Plan Review in relation to emissions from transport is to install single EV charging points at all new build homes, and for only 20% of parking spaces at residential flats, institutional accommodation and commercial developments. Given that car ownership in South Staffordshire is 1.47 cars per household and that 3.7% of households own more than 4 cars or vans, installing only one EV charging point is insufficient. Whilst some prediction could be made that car ownership will fall, the public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure in South Staffordshire is currently far too weak to support alternative transport types. 

The new Local Plan hopes that the transition to ULEVs will mitigate the huge impact on emissions of tens of thousands of new car journeys. However, ownership of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV) currently in Staffordshire varies between Local Authorities, although in all cases, ownership levels are under 1% of all licenced vehicles. In order to meet Net Zero transport emissions by 2050, the uptake of ULEVs will need to significantly increase (to c.45,000 vehicles across Staffordshire by 2025) beyond its current rate of adoption (which anticipates less than 5,000 vehicles by 2025).  In South Staffordshire as of 2019 only 0.32% of total registered vehicles are classed as ULEVs. 

In addition, a large-scale shift to the use of electric vehicles must also be accompanied by a significant modal shift towards walking, cycling, ridesharing, and an increase in the use of public transport. 

The Staffordshire Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan unfortunately focuses on the networks in and immediately around the main towns in Staffordshire: Burton upon Trent, Cannock, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford and Tamworth. There is nothing in the plan to deliver any cycling or walking infrastructure in South Staffordshire. Data in the LCWIP shows that South Staffordshire has the lowest level of walking and cycling for travel to work in the county. This strongly suggests that at present, these transport options are simply not feasible for residents. Development in the district therefore locks in car use for what could over the period of the plan amount to more than 18,000 new residents. 

It is highly likely that the future residents will be moving from areas served by better public transport and with better cycling and walking opportunities to this site, where car use is the only viable transport option for most journeys. A strategy that causes people to have to travel less sustainably cannot be the best one. 

From DFT Gear Change: A bold vision for cycling and walking:

The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. We expect sustainable transport issues to be considered from the earliest stages of plan-making and development proposals, so that opportunities to promote cycling and walking are pursued. Planning policies should already provide for high quality cycling and walking networks, green spaces and green routes, and supporting facilities such as cycle parking (drawing on Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans).

Moreover: 

Increasing cycling and walking can help tackle some of the most challenging issues we face as a society – improving air quality, combatting climate change, improving health and wellbeing, addressing inequalities and tackling congestion on our roads.

Without significant investment and planning of a comprehensive Zero Carbon transport network, most of the proposed sites in South Staffordshire are unsustainable in terms of transport infrastructure. 

Population Growth

Whilst the projected population growth for South Staffordshire over the Local Plan period is generally in line with projected population growth for England as a whole over the plan period, adding the additional 4000 houses that have been put forward as a contribution to the GBHMA pushes the growth for South Staffordshire well over the national average. Population growth for England is projected at 5% between 2018 and 2028, and at 10.3% between 2018 and 2043.  Based on the average household size in South Staffordshire at 2018, these housing numbers equate to an increase in population of 20,781 – an increase of 18.7%. We believe this level of population growth in South Staffordshire is unsustainable and the infrastructure to support that level of growth does not exist and, moreover, is not laid out in the Local Plan. How South Staffordshire can support and would attract a significantly higher rate of population growth than England as a whole is not acknowledged. 

¹ Energy Saving Trust: Zero Carbon New Build – nine principles to underpin building standards

² Baseline Report Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Staffordshire County Council October 2020

³ RICS professional standards and guidance, UK Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment 1st edition, November, 2017 

⁴ There’s No Place Like Old Homes: Re-use and Recycle to Reduce Carbon. Heritage Counts 2019

⁵ RICS professional standards and guidance, UK Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment 1st edition, November, 2017 

⁶ Based on construction emissions of 80tonnes CO2e per two bed cottage. 

⁷ MHCLG (2018) Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: final report. 

⁸ Data to the end of September 2018 for England and Wales. MHCLG (2018) Live tables on Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates

⁹ South Staffordshire Council: Climate Change Strategy  2020 

¹0 Vacant dwellings by local authority district: England. Source: council tax base (CTB) – statistical release: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics

¹1 SA of SSDC Preferred Option Plan – Appendix B 

¹2 Vacant Dwelllings by Local Authority. England. Source: council tax base (CTB) – statistical release: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics

¹3 There’s No Place Like Old Homes: Re-use and Recycle to Reduce Carbon. Heritage Counts 2019

¹4 IPPC Sixth Assessment Report. Headline Statements from the Summary for Policymakers  9 August 2021 

¹5 IPPC AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Pub. August 2021

¹6 HC12 – Parking Standards South Staffordshire Council Local Plan Review – Preferred Options 

¹7 RAC Foundation Car ownership rates per local authority in England and Wales Source: 2001 Census and 2011 Census Date: December 2012 

¹8 Baseline Report Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Staffordshire County Council 16 October 2020

¹9 Table 3.1: DC7701EWla – Method of travel to work by distance travelled ONS Crown Copyright Reserved

²0 ONS Statistical Bulletin; National population projections: 2018-based

²1 South Staffordshire Council Locality Profile 2018

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Here in South Staffordshire we increased our vote share considerably in the majority of divisions. Overall we received 10% of the total votes cast: a significant increase on 2017 the vote share of 6%. We beat the Labour candidate in both Codsall and Kinver. Whilst we didn’t win any county seats (we didn’t expect to) it is heartening to see that we’re slowly getting more and more support in this area. South Staffordshire Green Party has one of the highest ratios of councillors to members in the West Midlands!

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Photo: Gary and another volunteer at the Bilbrook Initiatives Hub putting together food boxes for local residents in need.

All through the period of lockdown, Gary continued to respond to people’s everyday concerns, as well as working on the new challenges many people faced. You may have seen him out and about litter picking as usual.

During the strictest part of lockdown, Gary got involved as a volunteer delivering shopping to people who found it difficult getting their own. As well as helping with groceries, he also picked up prescriptions from the pharmacy. This delivery service was an initiative of Rev. Simon Douglas, the Vicar of Holy Cross Church. Gary also volunteered for the Bilbrook Initiatives Hub. The project provided boxes of food every other Monday over a period of six weeks to families who needed a little help at a difficult time.

When restrictions began to ease, and the Bilbrook tip re-opened for the first time, a long queue of cars built up on Pendeford Mill Lane. Together with another concerned resident, he informed drivers of the long wait and helped ease the congestion that went on for three days. Gary says:

“My work for the community of Bilbrook is my first priority. I have seen how people have pulled together to make this difficult time easier for each other. It has been a privilege to help out in any way I could.”

Gary is not alone in this. Green Party councillors and volunteers have been helping out throughout the South Staffordshire District, and around the country. For many of them, helping local people is an important contribution to communities. Working together will help improve our communities after the COVID19 crisis.

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As many of you know, I’m the Green Parish Councillor for Bilbrook East. However, my daytime full-time job is a student support worker for the City of Wolverhampton College. I have held this post from as recently as February 2020. It is a job that I am very passionate about, having spent all of my career in education as a primary school teacher. I was very excited to be back in education and taking on the new challenge of working in further education.

When I first heard that we were heading for a lockdown due to Covid-19 I was actually relieved. I had spent the week leading up to 23^rd March (the day it was announced) feeling very scared as I travelled to work on the bus; afraid to touch people, afraid if someone sat next to me and, like everyone else, leaping 3 feet backwards if someone coughed or sneezed! At the college we had already been given the option of wearing masks and some students had chosen this option, so it was all starting to feel very strange anyway.

Then came the announcement that schools and colleges would shut to all students apart from those with parents as key workers and the most vulnerable. Because I live with my elderly father, I was advised to stay at home and work from there. After a week or so, we were able to close our college entirely to students because we were able to provide home support for our vulnerable pupils. I feel very lucky that I have been able to continue to work at full pay because the college has provided continuous online lessons through Microsoft Teams, which I have been able to attend and so I have still managed to support my students remotely, although I do miss their faces. Overall, continued support from the college has been very successful for the students.

Like many others, I’m looking forward to going back to work in September, and supporting the students. I know that there are going to be challenges ahead but we can do it. If lockdown has taught me anything, it’s taught me to appreciate the simple things more fully. It’s taught me to appreciate silence, nature and birdsong even more. I have seen and heard of many acts of kindness in our community – people delivering food to neighbours, phoning each other and checking that everything is ok, and making use of their time to care for outdoor areas. I myself became an NHS volunteer and supported a few elderly people who just wanted to talk, and this was a great privilege.

My intention is to encourage this community spirit to continue post-lockdown as we emerge into our new society.

Brigid

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