Update August 12

PeoplePower Blue Mountains - Update August 12

In this update:

- Welcome

- Upcoming events

- Climate Torch Relay

- Public Forum Report

- Draft Community Charter on Electricity

- Super Saturday August 16

- Penrith Show

- PeoplePower Blog!

- What you can do

Welcome

A big welcome to all the new members of our mailing list coming out of the successful Forum last Sunday, a report of which is below. We look forward to seeing as many community members as possible involved in developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Past updates and the latest information on the campaign can be found on our blog at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com

Upcoming Events

August

Saturday 16 - 'Super Saturday' anti-power privatisation street stalls in Penrith, email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to be a part of securing your electricity future

Tuesday 19 - People Power meeting, 7:30pm, upstairs, Blackburn's Family Hotel. Come along and get involved as we develop our community charter for the future of electricity!

Saturday/Sunday August 30/31 - We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

September

Saturday 13 - Local council elections

Climate Torch relay

PeoplePower received a notice from the local GetUp group regarding the Climate Torch relay in Katoomba this Thursday August 14. An event is also being held today (August 12) in Springwood organised by local peoplepower activist Trevor Guymer, a full report of which should be in next week's Gazette, as well as on the PeoplePower blog. More information on the Relay is available at httpo://www.climatetorch.com

Hello Everyone

Katoomba is going ahead. Rosemary and I are gathering support for an event at the 3 Sisters (Echo Point) at 3:00pm after school.

We are attempting to organize representatives from all schools in the Upper Mountains (Hazelbrook to Mt Victoria) to be present with their school banners for a photo with the 3 Sisters and Jamison Valley in the background.

We have Katoomba Primary, Katoomba High and Lawson Primary interested and will also get support from Wentworth Falls and more than likely Blackheath. There should also be quite a few tourist around as well.

View the torch at www.climatetorch.com

Please call us for more information. It's rushed, it's sketchy but it will happen.

Arthur and Rosemary

0408 57 2511

47572511

Contact Arthur or Rosemary on the numbers above for more information on how you can get involved.

Public Forum

The Community Forum held on August 10th at Katoomba Civic Centre was a huge success; with about 80 people in attendance listening to a range of interesting speakers spread over two forums.

Video of last Sunday's Forum will be going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

The forum was a great springboard for developing our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity in the Blue Mountains. A draft of the Charter will be circulated within the next day to begin discussion. Your input will be greatly appreciated. We will also be discussing this draft charter at our next meeting.

Once this Charter is adopted we can lobby our elected representatives to adopt it as the basis for policy surrounding our electricity needs.

If you missed Mark Diesendorf he is speaking on Wednesday 13 (tomorrow night) at Parramatta Riverside Theatre at an event put on by the Whitlam Institute. Admission is $15 ($10 concession)

Super Saturday - August 16

This coming Saturday sees the anti-privatisation campaign being rolled out across the community with a day of stalls and petitions. Given the success we have had with lobbying our local member we decided at the last PeoplePower meeting to put our energy into lobbying the community around Penrith.

Email peoplepowerbm@gmail.com if you'd like to help.

Penrith Show

We have booked a stall at the Penrith Show on Saturday and Sunday the 30th and 31st of August. Rex Drummond is the contact person for this event and his number is 0439 581 413.

Local council elections

We will be writing to all declared council election candidates for the Blue Mountains City Council asking them to support both our plebiscite and keeping electricity in full public ownership.

At the Public Forum on Sunday the following Ward 1 candidates declared their opposition to privatisation, either in person or by statements forwarded to the meeting:

Eleanor Gibbs (Greens)

Terri Hamilton (Independent)

Kilner Mason (Liberal)

Janet Mays (Independent)

Naomi Parry (ALP)

Robert Stock (Independent)

A number of candidate forums are scheduled in upcoming weeks and these are a good opportunity to question candidates about electricity privatisation.

PeoplePower member peter Hack, who will be attending one of the forums, has suggested that we ask council candidates if they will support local renewable electricity generation (such as wind farms and solar). Locally based "micro" power generators are one of the great suggestions to come our of last Sunday's forum. If you support this initiative then ask council candidates where they stand on this issue.

Candidate forums have been scheduled for:

Monday, August 18th - 6.15pm

Blackheath Chamber of Commerce

Blackheath Mt Victoria RSL Sub-branch Hall, 2 Bundarra Street, Blackheath

All welcome - RSVP 4787 8155

Saturday, August 30th - 2.00pm

Politics in the Pub

Family Hotel, Parke Street, Katoomba

All welcome

Wednesday, Sept 3rd - 7.30pm

Blackheath Neighbourhood Centre, Gardiner Cres, Blackheath

All welcome

(arranged in conjunction with the Katoomba Neighbourhood Centre and the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre)

Council also voted unanimously at its August meeting to oppose power privatisation on a motion from Ward 1 councillor Terri Hamilton. This is a fantastic show of support by our community against the privatisation of our power

People Power Blog!

We now have our very own Blog, which is full of all the latest news on power privatisation. Check it out at http://peoplepowerbm.blogspot.com/

Links to info on local power generation from the UK will be going up soon, as well as the discussion draft of our Community Charter For The Future Of Electricity.

Video of last Sunday's Forum going on our YouTube page on Wednesday/Thursday at http://www.youtube.com/PeoplePowerBlueMtns

What you can do

Get involved now! Take action! Make a difference! The person that stands between Costa and Iemma and Power Privatisation is YOU.

Things that you can do include:

Tell Phil Koperberg you support his opposition to power privatisation

Contact Phil Koperberg:

Phone (02) 4751 3298

Fax (02) 4751 1245

bluemountains@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Write to the Gazette

It only takes a few minutes and has a BIG impact. You can email your letters to: editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com

Or post them to:

Letters to the Editor

Blue Mountains Gazette

274 Macquarie Road

Springwood 2777