This article has been uploaded on behalf of the Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee.
The Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee had their monthly meeting last week to discuss their plans for the next year.
A Down District Fairtrade Poster is being drafted which will be distributed to those businesses in the Down District who have Fairtrade Products on sale or available to customers.
Chair of the Fairtrade Committee Helen Corry said, “Many businesses are already stocking Fairtrade Products so we feel the best way to support them is raising awareness of the Fairtrade brand and pointing out to the public where they can purchase these products.”
Helen continued, “If a business was provided with the poster, we are drafting, they can put it on their window so that passers by can see that their business is supporting the Fairtrade cause.”
Local Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright, a member of the committee, explained to those in attendance at the Fairtrade Meeting the process of putting a motion to the Down District Council in support of the Fairtrade Campaign.
Cllr Enright confirmed that he has received cross party support for the Fairtrade Campaign and councillors from different parties wishing to back the campaign at council. Cllr Enright also said there is a great interest from Down District Council Officials.
Fairtrade Chair Helen Corry concluded, “If anyone would like to get involved in the campaign please send us an email at downpatrickfairtrade@gmail.com”
This article was uploaded on behalf of the Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee.
The Downpatrick Fairtrade has been continuing its campaign to support local ethical business.
The Committee recently had a meeting in the Health Store Café Downpatrick. The Health Store stocks many Fairtrade products in its shop and café.
Julia Gill of the Health Store said, “The ethics of our Health Store is to stock local, organic, Fairtrade and ethically sourced foods and gifts. By doing so we hope to raise awareness of how the exploitation of many farmers across the world is still a major blight to many developing and third world countries.”
Helen Corry of the Fairtrade Committee said, “We had a very productive meeting and I was delighted to support the Health Store and learn more about the wide variety of Fairtrade and ethical products they have available.”
The Committee was joined by Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright and discussed the motion presently being prepared for the Down District Council which Cllr Enright has agreed to propose.
Cllr Enright said, “The Fairtrade committee were aware that a motion was already past a few years by the council in support of Fairtrade. The new motion will be to re-instate this support by aiding the Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee in its endeavour to make Downpatrick a Fairtrade Town.”
“I am delighted to see the enthusiasm for Fairtrade in Downpatrick and the Down District. I have agreed to host a directory of Fairtrade Business on my website www.downgreens.com as another way to support the efforts of the Fairtrade Committee in Downpatrick.”
Downpatrick Fairtrade Chairperson Helen Corry concluded, “Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers in developing and third world coutries. It is for this reason that the Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee supports those local businesses who have taken the step to introduce Fairtrade Products onto their shelves.”
The Down District Green Party, in its June meeting in Downpatrick, considered the planning application for the MX track between the Marshallstown and Bonecastle Road, and debated the pros and cons of this application and what attitude the local party should take towards it.
Retired Green Party Councillor Bill Corry pointed out that the planning application was in fact a retrospective planning application as it had been developed without permission outside of the planning process.
Although such a development would normally be in line with Green Party policy of farm diversification and rural development, however this particular MX track overlooks too many family homes.
One member of the Down Green Party, who lives on the and can see the MX track from her house confirmed that the angle of the hill on which the MX track has been built acts to project the noise towards local residents.
GREEN Party Cllr Cadogan Enright summarised the consensus of the meeting that the topology of the area projected the loud noise in the direction of local residents and that the local party should oppose this retrospective planning application.
Cllr Enright said “It was decided that whilst the concept of the application, in terms of the rural development, was good the location was wrong.”
Retired Cllr Bill Corry said “I feel that in principal all retrospective planning applications should be opposed as they have been implemented outside of the legal planning process.”
It was therefore resolved to oppose this retrospective planning application on the grounds that it was not suited to the area and because of the disregard shown to the planning process in the first place.
Pictured are Green Party Activists Helen Corry (L), Brenda Cooke (R) and Fairtrade Campaigner Emma Whitehead (C).
Following Fairtrade Fortnight 2008, Fairtrade campaigners in Downpatrick have decided to set up a Fairtrade Steering Committee to promote the Fairtrade message in the local area.
The campaign will focus on making Downpatrick a Fairtrade Town. Fairtrade is a tool for development that ensures disadvantaged farmers and workers in developing countries get a better deal through the use of the international FAIRTRADE Mark.
Fairtrade campaigners will be calling in to the local shops, businesses and schools giving information packs on how they can support the Fairtrade cause.
For more information on the campaign we would invite you to a meeting being hosted by the Down District Green Party on the 16th April in the St. Patricks Centre at 7pm where the Downpatrick Fairtrade Committee will be formed. Everyone is welcome!
Pictured is Helen Corry with Scottish Green Party Robin Harper MSP who supported Helen Corry in her election Campaign. Also pictured is Down District Cllr Cadogan Enright Helens Election Agent.
VOTERS from Dromore to Ballyward are being urged to “send a message to the big parties” in the forthcoming local by-election.
The call comes from Green Party candidate Helen Corry, who said that, if elected, she would offer the people of Dromore a fresh approach.
“There are real issues affecting our planet, our futures and our children’s futures that the other parties are not taking seriously,” she said. “Only the Green Party has the international experience and understanding to deal with these problems.”
“If I am elected to Banbridge District Council I will bring a fresh approach for the people of Dromore, a new angle on politics that we have not had here to date. The issues which are of day-to-day concern to local people should not be argued over in the context of the old divisions but should be dealt with to the benefit of us all.”
New mother Mrs. Corry said she knew the importance of children and would work to ensure there were proper childcare facilities and sports opportunities for young people, to encourage a healthier, happier future.
She added, “The cut in bus services in Dromore town has also had a detrimental effect on those people who rely on public transport from rural areas and I would ensure that the bus routes are reinstated.
“The assembly administration is ignoring opportunities for local agricultural industry and jobs arising from the need to tackle global warming.
“We need to learn from Scandinavia, Germany and Austria in order to create value-adding jobs in Northern Ireland while saving the planet. This is a great opportunity for the Council to take the lead in encouraging alternative energy and a more sustainable approach to local government.
“Climate change may be a global problem but the solution starts locally. Send a message – Vote Green No.1 in this Election.”
Green Party by-election candidate Helen Corry said she was enjoying the shock of other parties at the higher quality of Green Party posters, leaflets and other material.
“They ask me how I can do it within the confines of a £1,000 budget allowed for this election,” she said. “The answer is simple – recycling”.
Helen said that unlike other partiesthe Green Party recycled its posters, designing them to be used in more than one election. “All my posters were up around the Banbridge Council area for the MLA elections last year,” she said, “and we managed to recover most of them for this election. Thus I don’t have to buy posters and can so afford better materials in this election.”
“My election agent has even perfected a device for getting ties down from poles undamaged to allow them be used again as well. Green economics beat the disposable consumer culture every time.
“They have seen nothing yet, we have more where they came from – I hope that the demonstration of the effectiveness of recycling of posters by the Green Party will inspire the other parties to take down their posters, store them flat and recycle them in future elections; their ties too, I hate to see the way they leave them on poles after the elections.”
Mrs. Corry is asking people to vote Green with their 1st vote, and then transfer to their usual party No. 2.
“We need all the parties to understand that their voters want them to take on the Green agenda – this is a simple way to send them a message,” she said.
“Helen Corry is the bright young hope for politics from Dromore to Leitrim in this election” said Green Party MLA, Brian Wilson.
“Helen supports local food and opposes food imports from countries like Brazil and Malaysia with no trace-ability or environmental controls and with appalling records on disease management”, he said.
Helen Corry was nominated by a local beef farmer, a mushroom farmer and a chicken farmer.
The Green Party MLA continued, “She supports local energy companies like Balcas and Thermomax who are using local grown crops from Northern Ireland farmers to create cheap, clean energy and is totally opposed to any plans for nuclear energy, which is an expensive danger to us all.”
“Green Policies mean quality local food, local employment and freedom from energy insecurity- Vote Helen Corry Number 1!” he concluded.
GREEN Party election candidate Helen Corry has said of her campaign that she will be be championing the rights of decent working families to build up sustainable businesses in farming, renewable energy, plumbing and electrical trades.
“These hard working people have the tools and skills to save the planet from global warming,” she said, pledging to fight the influence of those trying to stop Northern Ireland from playing its part in combating climate change.
Employed by Royal Mail, Helen Corry also jointly manages an NGO with her father, focussing on planting trees in waste ground thoughout Northern Ireland. To date they have succeeded in planting over 230,000 trees and have laid hedges and planted forests from Ballyward to Gransha and up to Dromore and Quilly.
Helen polled more than 1,000 first-preference votes in the elections last march and said she expected to considerably improve on that performance in the coming by-election.
She had been nominated, she said, primarily by people working in the agricultural sector and angered by recent DUP ministerial decisions diverting money from the farming and renewable sectors.
“The decision by Minister Dodds to discontinue the Reconnect scheme,” she said, “will badly affect NI companies like Balcas, producing wood-pellet central heating fuel from raw materials produced by Northern Irish Farmers at a time the industry is only developing.”
“To add insult to injury, minister Robinson last week declared that he will be opting out of UK building standards championed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and ex-Secretary of State Peter Hain. The farming and renewable energy sectors were not consulted before the decision was made. Sixty-eight companies in Co. Down are threatened by this notorious decision and at a meeting hosted by the Green Party last week we counted 180 jobs at threat in Down.”
Important: Please note. In order to donate to a political party in Ireland a private individual must be either a citizen of Ireland, or be a registered voter anywhere in Great Britain or Northern Ireland.
