News
TRH visit Manchester
4th February 2010
The Prince of Wales launched a new sustainability initiative in Manchester today aimed at helping people make a start towards a greener way of living.
Watch the video below:
His Royal Highness made the speech on a visit to Manchester to launch a new initiative called Start to provide the public with advice on how to lead more environmentally sustainable lives and to show what a more energy efficient, cleaner and healthier future could look like.
The initiative has been established by The Prince’s Charities with the support of some of the country’s biggest businesses and the help of public and private sector organisations.
The Prince spoke after arriving with The Duchess of Cornwall by Royal Train pulled by a coal-fired steam locomotive, named the Tornado, which was rebuilt from a 1948 design.
Before delivering his speech, The Prince toured the Museum of Science and Industry to see an exhibition of steam engines used by trains and in local cotton mills in and around Manchester, which he called the “cradle” of the Industrial Revolution.
He added: “But I trust we do all know that these wonderful innovations carried with them a long-term cost that nobody at the time could possibly have foreseen.”
The Prince informed his audience that carbon dioxide levels are forty per cent higher now than they were before the Industrial Revolution and spoke of the “alarming messages” from explorers like Pen Hadow about the melting polar regions of Earth.
He continued: “But to those who seek to persuade us that there is no such thing as climate change, in the face of the now overwhelming peer-reviewed scientific evidence, I would ask just one question. Are you prepared to take the risk of being wrong?”
The Prince said the poorest people on the planet would “suffer first and worst” if the problem was not tackled.
He added: “I don't know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I happen to mind very much about the sort of world in which my children and grandchildren - and yours - will be living.
“For all of them, I believe we have a great responsibility to do the right thing by them and so I, for one, am not prepared to play some sort of Russian roulette with their futures.”
Meanwhile, The Duchess of Cornwall visited the set of Coronation Street to mark the programme’s 50th anniversary year.
The Duchess walked along the cobbles of Weatherfield before stopping at the Rover’s Return during her tour of the Granada Studios set.
After watching the cast film a scene which will be broadcast in April, she accepted an invitation to try out the beer tap.
She said: “I hope I'm not going to spill it. Who is going to drink this afterwards? Any takers?”
Ryan Thomas, who plays builder Jason Grimshaw, opted to try the royal pint, after checking it was “on the house”.
“In the 10 years I have been here it is the best pint I have had,” he told a beaming Duchess, who follows the soap whenever she can.
William Roache OBE, who plays Ken Barlow, was chosen to greet her when she arrived, as the only original cast member.
The Duchess called him by his character name, saying: “Ah, Ken, how nice to see you. I am so glad you are still here.”
“I have been here for 50 years,” he said.
“Well, that is when I started watching,” The Duchess replied.
She met several other cast members, including Beverley Callard, who plays Rovers landlady Liz McDonald.
The Duchess also met Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt.
She told him: “You are the tearaway. You are probably much nicer in real life.”
Before leaving, The Duchess said “It is a wonderful British institution, isn't it? What would we do without it?”
Later, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall together visited the historic John Rylands University Library in the centre of Manchester.
They looked at the manuscripts and exhibitions, including a small fragment of St John's Gospel, thought to be the earliest surviving piece of the New Testament.
Nine firefighters from Greater Manchester who recently returned from the disaster zone in Haiti, following the devastating earthquake, were at the library to meet Their Royal Highnesses.
John Hughes, 38, of Salford Fire Station, spoke of the moment the team rescued a two-year-old girl trapped in the ruins of her nursery.
Little Mia was reunited with her mother after they hauled her from the rubble.
Mr Hughes, who has been a firefighter for 12 years, said: "She had been down there for three days, I just don't know how she survived.
"When we pulled her out it was a fantastic feeling, there were lots of tears, and not just from her mum."
Afterwards, The Prince and The Duchess undertook separate engagements, with The Prince touring the factory at M&I Materials in Trafford Park, which develops specialist materials for industry and science. The company has a strong environmental policy and has made significant reductions in waste and scrap.
Also celebrating environmental innovations, The Duchess met pupils and teachers at Canon Burrows Primary School.
Based in Ashton-Under-Lyme, the school has been dedicated to environmental work for more than 25 years and has achieved a number of awards in recognition of its work.
The school recently won ‘Wipe Out Waste’ - a national competition organised by Footprint Friends which challenged schools to think of ways to reduce carbon emissions.
Realising how many small pencils were thrown away throughout schools across the country, a group of Year Six pupils invented ‘The Pencil Hugger’ which extends the life of the pencils, therefore reducing the number of pencils thrown away.
On the final engagement of the day, The Prince of Wales was clapped and cheered as he visited members of the Sufi Muslim community at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium.
He was also entertained by a display of Whirling Dervishes, accompanied by Arabic music and drums, after meeting delegations of Sufi Muslims from Britain, Kosovo, Pakistan and Somalia.
Today's event marked the launch of the Centre for Spirituality and Cultural Advancement, a Sufi charity to be based in London.
Click here to read The Prince's speech launching the Start initiative.
Click here to visit the Start website.