The EST’s Transport Bulletin is now on line with lots of news of low carbon travel including low carbon cars, fuel saving initiatives, and Bike Week 2010.
Follow the link for more news:-
http://www.yorkshireenergyservices.co.uk/data/page/fck/Transport%20Bulletin%20August%2020101.pdf
Give It A Go gardening club will be meeting on Sat 28 August at The Open Door, 225 Lidgett Lane. 10.00am to midday. Produce Swap – bring along your excess fruit, veg, jams and pickles and swap them for something else. Manure and Compost – advice and information on why and how to use, where to buy. Have a go at sowing late salads. Information corner and refreshments.
Join Our Growing Community
AUTUMN PLANT SWAP at the Farmers’ Market on 18 September. Start potting up those strawberry runners, fruit canes, excess winter veg plants, companion plants and bring them along to swap.
WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN IN AUGUST VEGETABLE GARDEN August
Working with the Energy Savings Trust, REAP will be launching further driving lessons, with a qualified instructor, in Autumn 2010. The lessons will be subsidised, with individuals paying a nominal contribution towards costs.
Each lesson will last about one hour, and will demonstrate techniques for using less fuel while driving.
The lessons will be for qualified drivers of all ages, and younger drivers will be particularly welcomed.
Watch this space for more information.
When: Wednesday 22 September 2010 at 19.30
Where: St Andrew’s Church Hall (Roundhay Room), Shaftesbury Avenue, Roundhay, LS8 1DS
AGENDA
19.30: Refreshments and an opportunity to view displays and discuss REAP’s objectives and achievements so far with the trustees
20.00: Guest speakers – local climate change activist Matt Carmichael and Leeds City Council’s Climate Change Officer George Munson – to discuss what Leeds City Council is doing about climate change and how REAP can help
20.45: Open discussion on REAP’s strategy and objectives for the coming year
21.15: REAP Annual General Meeting
21.30: Close
Come and join us for the evening – free admission and refreshments.
14th July 2010, 8pm
at St Andrew’s Church Hall (Roundhay Room) Shaftsbury Avenue
David Hall, Regional Director of SUSTRANS will be speaking at 8pm on:
“How SUSTRANS can be relevant to Roundhay”, including the latest on the proposed cycleway from Harewood to Temple Newsam.
The meeting with David Hall will be preceeded by a REAP Open Meeting from 7.15pm to 7.45pm to give the chance for a very brief update on REAP activity and plans in another busy year.
SUSTRANS is the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity, with many major new cycle routes and other transport initiatives created through its work.
REAP’s Give it a Go gardening club will be visiting Lidgett Lane Allotments on Saturday 24 July to see what we can grow to eat on a small plot. Meet at The Open Door, 225 Lidgett Lane at 10.00am for home grown raspberries and cream before we pop over the road for our escorted visit to the allotments. Next Garden Club meeting is then on 28 August. Pop it in your diary now!
Come and join us and be part of our growing community!
WHAT TO DO NOW IN THE VEGGIE GARDEN IN JULY: . Click here and find out more VEGETABLE GARDEN JULY
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Fabian Hamilton (Labour), Matthew Lobley (Conservative), David Pickering (Chair), Aqila Choudhry (Liberal Democrat), Celia Foote (Alliance for Green Socialism)
TRANSPORT GROUP
The Energy Saving Trust agreed with the Transport Group to fund eight lessons in how to drive more fuel efficiently. A hardy band of REAP volunteers – with a huge range of driving experience – duly turned out one Saturday to see what they could learn. The main messages were:-
• Back in not out! Reversing at slow speed with a cold engine is very heavy on fuel. It is best to drive off steadily on a cold engine first thing, and rely on backing in with a hot engine in the evening. The instructor estimated a fuel saving of £100.00 a year!
• Anticipation – gauge distances and come to a stop using existing momentum. If you are stopping, don’t race up and rely on braking at the last minute, but adjust your speed well in advance. Think what traffic lights are likely to do and adjust your speed accordingly. If it is obvious that an approaching car will block your way ahead through a narrow gap, adjust your speed to arrive after it has gone through.
• Gentle braking and delaying a gear shift – particularly when you are stopping, until just before the engine starts to shudder, will also save fuel. Change gear then, BUT:-
• Remember that car technology has moved on. Within limits, you can skip gears (for example from 2 to 4, or 4 to 2) in ways that were once frowned upon, provided that you are already travelling at a speed appropriate to a lower or higher speed.
• Stay in gear, and avoid the clutch when you safely can. Fuel consumption is usually averaged over a journey or a longer period and reflects a lot of starting and accelerating which uses a lot of fuel. But for those short periods when you are moving, but not applying the gas – for example coasting downhill in gear, fuel consumption can be as low as 999 miles per gallon. But if you go into neutral, or engage the clutch this will drop to perhaps 300 MPG.
All the volunteers believed that they had learned a great deal, and the Group is considering if we can support a few more subsidised lessons.
REAP is part of a world-wide movement for change.
This YouTube video explains more…