Save The Ribble Blog Nominated for Award - Congratulations to all Ribbleside residents!

Our Save The Ribble Blog has been nominated for a New Statesman New Media Award 2006, in the Innovation category. So congratulations to all Ribbleside residents for making the Blog such a successful forum!
The theme of this year's New Media awards are "ingenuity, modernisation and accessibility", and the Innovation award will 'go to the best new media innovation that improves public life'. The New Statesman, one of Britain's leading political magazines, in association with IT services company Atos Origin, intend to award 'those who have achieved something of benefit to others, whether in their community or in society at large'.
"Society has always been promised a great deal by the digital revolution", says John Kampfner, editor of the New Statesman. "The 2006 New Media Awards will highlight the projects that have really delivered on that promise".
See www.newstatesman.co.uk/nma/nma2006

Thanks to all of you for your stories, comments, concerns, information, research, photographs, and poems, all of which have made this blog what it is. It is your concerns about and opposition to the inappropriate Riverworks "vision" for our river and green spaces which have made this blog an exciting, and ultimately rewarding experience for all of us - and more local residents are contacting us every day.

The strength of opposition to the Riverworks proposals is overwhelming, most residents who have so far contacted us are extremely concerned about the environmental impact of the proposed barrage and "Central Park" building development, above and beyond their other concerns about increased floodrisk and loss of quality of life.
The barrage involves stopping the free-flow of water and silts upon which the entire Ribble ecosystem depends, losing the up-river mudflats forever and starving the down-river estuarine habitat, putting one of the most important wetland habitats in Europe at risk, losing the ever-changing moods and tides of the Ribble forever, for the sake of speedboats and cruisers and economic gain for a few. The "Central Park" development involves building thousands of new houses, businesses, and a formal park on local green belt land, losing meadows, woodlands, a Nature Reserve, amateur league football fields, a broad range of wildlife habitats and local amenities, with our local allotments also at risk in the long-term Preston City Council Composite Masterplan.

Your ideas of an alternative vision for the future of the Ribble and our local green belt have already started coming in, with eco-tourism - such as promoting the Ribble Way and the Pennine Way, the Nature Reserves and places of special interest along the Ribble corridor - top of the agenda so far!

Keep sending in your own ideas and suggestions for promoting the Ribble and green belt in their natural glory, and more local stories for the Tales from the Riverbank Residents' views, comments, and connections posts, and congratulations to all of you for a brilliant community forum!

Contact the editorial team at savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk
or Save the Ribble Campaign, PO Box 1104 Penwortham, Preston, PR2 0DB.