Friends of the Earth
Action Briefing Oct 99/Nov 99
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Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Oct 99/Nov 99 |
The draft Regional Economic Strategy for the West Midlands Creating Advantage was published on 14th July and consultation finished on 17th September. Friends of the Earth West Midlands responded to the process with a hard hitting critique of the document. In our criticism, we emphasised the RDA's responsibility to support sustainable development and look away from the traditional smash and grab the green belt economic development model. The support for the BNRR, further development of the airport, more roads, and sites such as Peddimore ran roughshod over all the good words on community regeneration, sustainable development and supporting local economies.
When push comes to shove, how will the dice fall? In a region of great extremes of wealth and poverty, we called on the RDA to look towards the region to redistribute this wealth around the region, and for the region to become less dependent upon the globe's resources for its future prosperity. We along with other FOE groups will continue to monitor the progress of regionalisation in the West Midlands. We are also supporting the ongoing development of the West Midlands Regional Sustainability Forum, who produced a sustainability audit of the strategy. This can be accessed on the Birmingham FOE web site at http://www.beep.dial.pipex.com/wmrsf/susaudit.htm.