No Eco Twaddle- or other false policy (N.E.T): Renewables with a hefty price tag

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Renewables with a hefty price tag

Renewables target comes with a hefty price tag

'........The costs of green policies are out of control, and unaffordable. £9 billion here, £10 billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money..........'

Andrew Tyrie M.P.

According to an independent study commissioned in support of the Renewable Energy Strategy Consultation, £10 billion of new investment of our electricity network is needed to meet the 2020 renewables target, a cost incurred by transmission companies such as the National Grid. The cost of connecting offshore wind farms makes up around 75% of this figure, based on a 35% renewable electricity scenario.

A further £2.3 billion a year will be required to cover the cost of ancillary services to meet system balancing requirements. Meanwhile Open Europe reckons that the on-going cost of renewables policy will be £9 billion.

National Grid and Scottish Transmission Companies are currently busy pondering how they are to meet such targets by 2020 whilst delivering necessary network capacity.

The figure is confirmed in a written answer from the Department of Energy to a parliamentary question (PQ: 2007/4553) from Andrew Tyrie MP, which admits that the plans will also require an estimated £10 billion of new investment in the grid, plus an on-going £2.3 billion a year.

And there are good reasons to believe that the government's "35% renewables scenario" will simply not work in technical terms, even after this massive investment. The costs of green policies are out of control, and unaffordable. £9 billion here, £10 billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

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The mysterious homeless of East Lindsey

The mysterious East Lindsey Homeless.

Hi Councillors,

Based on the statements made by no less than Geremy Webb, Nigel Howells and Caroline Flint, the East Lindsey housing problems are still to be addressed. They will still be there; Eco-Town or not. They tell us that there are between 5000 and 6000 households to be accommodated. That is between 10,000 and 15000 people in East Lindsey in need of housing. Do you believe that? Where are they all now then?

Ok let's take them at their word. Developments such as Cades Field in Sutton on Sea, should not be allocated to anyone but current East Lindsey people until this backlog is cleared then! Not much point in building these places and then filling them with outsiders is there?

Keith Peat
www.notoecotown.com.

Now The Questions

Questions that now need asking:

Dear ELDC Councillors you have responded. 'No ECO Town' Bless those of you who had the courage to reflect the views of sense and democracy.

I apologise that my approach was strident and punchy but there was little public time to be much else.

Now we need an enquiry.
How did this most ambitious and threatening project get submitted without your say so?

How do we repair the damaging statements about East Lindsey, particularly the coastal towns, that were made within this bid?

Can we now compensate the areas most affected with infrastructure to reflect their previous expansion?
Do we make sure the sea defence is a priority?

And we should be aware that of the 57bids, 54 were private. Having drawn attention to ourselves, under new Government planning powers, could we now be faced with a private bid ECO Town on the same sites?

These issues should now be a follow up from your decision.

Regards

Keith Peat
www.notoecotown.com

Eco Town or Human Landfill?

Welcome to this new site especially provided to assist in a campaign against the big Eco Towns at an advanced stage in East Lindsey. The bids are already down to the last ten councils in the UK and East Lindsey are bidding.

These towns are about 5500 dwellings and the proposal is for the Strubby and Manby area. 12000/15000 people. Louth is about 16000 and Skegness 17000. So we are talking of the size of these towns.

How did we so silently get on this short list?

Why wasn't this mentioned at the local elections just a few months ago? Would you have voted for your councillor if he had openly supported this?

If not have you been robbed of an election?

Should we have a referendum?

Vote: For or against just scroll to bottom.

Vote in the No 10 petition too athttp://tinyurl.com/45zhsc

For Site Updates or to help, email me and I will add you to the update contact list.

News:

This site will stay open until it's really all over.

See what the Lincolnshire Marsh Protection Group had to say

at http://www.lincolnshire-marsh.org/

Make it up as we go Town. Trusthorpe 24th June

Make it up as we go along Town.

We went to the Trusthorpe Hall version of the ELDC ‘Consultation’ process –more like after the door is bolted process- last night and were mightily disappointed by the low turnout; considering the area is to have thousands of cheap social houses dumped on its doorstep and the nasty things portrayed in the Bid document about Mablethorpe and its ‘hinterland’.

Treated to the same ECO babble as the other meetings but the bossy Simon Machen, (Head of Planning) approach had been dropped this time for the much more affable (crafty) sweet talking Nigel Howels the head honcho. Simon, caged up behind his master, even bore the rottweiler expression of let me get at them boss and never once looked happy about Nigel’s softly softly tactics.

First Nigel was on about the ‘5500 households’ on the ELDC waiting lists. Then it was the ‘5500 people’. There is a vast difference Nigel; about 10,000 peoples worth. Later Simon confirmed that they meant 6000 households- so another 1000/1200 people became homeless as the meeting went on apparently? But there was more of this making it up as we go along approach to ECO Town by its salesmen to come.

Nigel kept saying how we ‘must look at this’, we must ‘examine all options’, the word ‘explore’ was liberally sprinkled everywhere. ‘But Nigel’ someone pointed out ‘the bid is in. We are down to the last 15 how did we get there? Who did it? Why wasn’t all this exploring done before a bid was made? Caroline Flint has even been here so far up the exploring road are we!!’ The only response was that ‘it’s not really a bid’ oh really? Bid is what it says on the cover mate and bid is what HMG call it too. Oh and according to Nigel ‘it was a council decision’. Funny how these un-elected officials see themselves as ‘The Council’ when they want to add weight to themselves. For your information Nigel, The Council is the 60 elected members when sitting so, when precisely did this Council meeting take place?

A local man spoke passionately about the damage that has been done to our area and property values by the statements about it made in this bid. Another pointed out that the Mablethorpe area was not the bleak wasteland portrayed in the bid with a ‘fragile economy’. Far from it. Thousands have brought hard cash here and invested their hard earned millions when they could have taken their money to Spain or France or Cyprus. Mablethorpe is now as large as Skegness and larger than Louth so instead of paying for infrastructure in an un-built place, it’s about time this district had some of ELDC’s overdue goodies. All these people didn’t move here to see it ruined by the kind of concrete wastelands that have always brought social problems and are precisely what they had all escaped from.

One minute insisting it was about the need for the 5500 households on the list in ‘unsuitable housing’. ‘So why can’t it be made suitable then?’ and then when it was pointed out that these mystical 12000/15000 on the ELDC list would take up all of ECO-Town, then, ‘it wasn’t about the housing list either’. And so it went on. The ever changing bid. The ever changing ECO-Town. But what stunned the meeting most of all was the statement by Simon Machen, that the BID that we all know, the one on the ELDC web site even now, is not the real thing. ‘No. It has changed’ said Simon. When? Who? How? Do the councillors know of this? This was discovered when Mr Machen, under questioning told us that 40ha would be added to the airfield to make ECO Town fit. But observed another questioner the airfield is to be expanded to 402ha (4xKm2) an increase of 237ha (2.3xKm2) not a mere 40ha. CLANG….. Under further interrogation, by now on this most important point Chief Howels was trying in vain to stop the questioner, it emerged that this ‘expansion’ was about Manby from the airfield’s 158ha to 275ha an increase of 117ha (1.17xKm2) NOT 40ha. So was this all being made up as we went along? Well the Planner in Chief was changing the numbers as we listened.

The Chief Honcho hates the Daily Mail and the Telegraph too. So that could explain all this. A Conservative Council run by Guardianistas? Who else believes in anything ECO? Who else believes in Social Concrete? Who else believes in spoiling life for those that have worked hard and saved for it? Roll on the next general election so that this ECO make believe can be killed off.

Why we believe it's Strubby, Withern and Maltby le Marsh

We have been looking at a number of towns from Ely to Boston, from Skegness to Louth and the HM Office of Statistics shows consistently, all are in the order of about 30 people per hectare. So taking 30 people per hectare as an acceptable level, we have looked at the ELDC papers on Manby and Strubby.

The notes do not mention other than the 158 ha of the Manby airfield. So if there are to be a minimum of 12000 souls in ECO-Town, then 12000/158 = 76 people per hectare. Unless the villages of Manby and Grimoldby are included too, this figure is too high so the 158ha site would have to be extended like the Strubby bid too but that isn't suggested.

Strubby has 165ha but the bid openly says this will be extended to take in Maltby le Marsh, Strubby and Withern to 402ha. What do you get when you divide 12000 by 402? 29.8; just about right!! So it looks like Strubby to us.

Who is kidding who about Manby or Strubby?

Manby and Strubby together are only about 323 Hectares.
Mablethorpe, a town of 6000 people, is about 1200 ha.
5500 proposed dwellings will have a minmum of 12000 people but more likely 15000+. So how will this town fit on these two sites, never mind one of them? An area of between 2300 and 2600 ha, based on Mablethorpe population/area , about 8 to 10 square miles, fits nicely from Maltby le Marsh to Manby. So now go figure how!!

The above statement is incorrect. Why? Because it was based on East Lindsey figures. So the only thing I trusted from their briefing notes and foolishly quoted too, turned out to be bunkum!!

ECO-Town Consultation response

East Lindsey ECO-Town Bid

I am Keith Peat, founder of N.E.T. No Eco Town and my profile can be found on our web site, www.notoecotown.com.

We are a group of 6 East Lindsey based residents who realised as late as the beginning of June 2008 that a bid had been made to H.M. Minister for Housing for an ECO-Town and that from an original 57 bidders, East Lindsey was now on a short list of 15 bids. It was clear to us, like many others who knew nothing of this bid until media reports, that there had been no consultation when the bid was made on our behalf and here we were already down to the last 15 and so involved, that Caroline Flint had been here to view the proposed sites. Most of us knew nothing of this until after she had gone. So a central focus point was needed to coordinate, albeit late in the day, public disquiet about these proposals and here we are. We are also working with the Lincolnshire Marsh Protection Group, who are objecting partly for other reasons but also for lack of consultation or the Council authority to make an approach or submit the bid. http://www.lincolnshire-marsh.org/

Consultation:

East Lindsey District Council have now been conducting badly publicised local ‘consultation meetings’ where the audience are not being consulted at all, but hectored and patronised and least of all being listened to. A local poll is currently showing 94% against ECO-Town and the three meetings I have attended were packed out and recorded 100% against the proposal. I am now told that these gatherings are no longer invited to vote.

It has also been revealed that almost all of the East Lindsey Councillors had no knowledge whatsoever of the East Lindsey bid which had apparently been instigated and processed by one official and one councillor. This project would be the largest ever undertaken by East Lindsey and in the future too, and this makes the lack of democratic involvement of its people and its councillors all the more incredible.

The question being asked is how did this get so far in secret? It is our view that East Lindsey should withdraw the unauthorised bid. There is a full meeting of East Lindsey Councillors on the 25th June but I fear that they will be whipped for a retrospective endorsement. In view of the enormity of this proposal for our area, this form of endorsement would be highly inappropriate when it should have been sought after proper consultation with residents before a bid was made.

The Bid.

Misleading statements and contradictions:

Floods and flooding:

The cases of flooding cited are from local rivers and mostly because of a failure to maintain drains or poor planning.

The 1953 coastal flood was not specific to this area, most fatalities were in the south and Holland was also flooded and never think of abandoning coastal areas. The defences in this area have been upgraded to such extent that the sea, which has cleverly been pushed back, very rarely reaches the sea wall and even then now only inches deep without power. Last year, when there were alerts along the east coast because of exceptionally high tides and north easterly winds, there were never any threats here.

There is no acceptance by most people that there is Global Warming and although the term Climate Change is now used it is clear that it is warming that is being used to predict higher sea levels for within your own ECO-Towns Living greener Future, at 6. Future Climate Change, you say, ‘this will mean taking account of predicted changes in increased temperature in building design and construction’. But now we know there has been no warming since 1998 but there has been cooling. In fact it is predicted that we are entering another very cold era which will have a reverse effect on tides too. Who has predicted 1m rise in local sea levels in the next 100 years? The worst scenario I have found is 3mm per year and that would only give a 300mm after 100 years. There are 30,000 eminent world wide scientists and climatologists, among them 9000 phds, who disagree totally with the A.G.W. global warming religion. Given that science never was a consensus issue- often in history only one needed to be correct- why should we be spoiling whole areas when the matter is very much contested? In any case the total C02 output of the UK is only 2% of all man made C02. So if we switched off all UK, the developing countries will have taken our emissions up within eighteen months.

So take the ECO out of the title. Most people do not believe it; it insults their intelligence and discredits the project.

Call it what it is. New Labour social housing projects.

The impression of Mablethorpe:

Mablethorpe and its ‘hinterland’ is nothing like its portrayal in the Bid.

ELDC seem to be trying to have it both ways. There is confusion as to when they are talking of Mablethorpe proper or the local political town of Mablethorpe, Trusthorpe Sutton on Sea and Sandilands. To read this Bid one can be forgiven for thinking that this is a wasteland. No mention is made of the shops and post offices etc that serve this extended Mablethorpe or the thousands of new dwellings; at least two large estates, currently under construction as I write. An area of over 4 square miles with 7000 residents. Yes I agree that this area is already over developed considering that the infrastructure to support it, police, fire, doctors, hospitals have not been provided. Now that it is here, then the money should be spent to ensure the sea defences are maintained at a high standard and to improve this infrastructure too. Why would these residents, who came to Lincolnshire because of its low population, like to see good taxpayer’s money being spent creating the kind of development nearby that they have tried to escape from? They could have taken their cash to Spain or France or Greece; this is what they get for investing in East Lindsey UK is it?

Apart from the two stores mentioned, there are other large supermarkets and a large factory outlet too while Sutton on Sea has very good local shops and its own supermarket. I will be quite happy to show Caroline Flint around the area so we can both compare the Bid with the reality.

Areas and dimensions.

How can a project which will house 12000/16000 people and with all of the infrastructure being promised, schools, town centre, garages, shops, factory estates, bus station, fit on to a total of 402 hectares, (Strubby Park page 20 Bid) &(page 22)? Or worse still, the other location Manby Park, only (158 hectares page 14 Bid)? How can there be such a size difference in one ECO-Town with the same amount of dwellings? Unless of course it is only a question of name and the town will really include both sites. This bid fails to address that question but there is a clue in ECO-Towns Living a Greener Future under 5. The 15 bids going forward, East Midlands Manby. They have been told that ‘Development is proposed mainly at Manby (and some at Strubby)-both have large elements of Brownfield land. ’So lets try to make sense of this. We know that Mablethorpe and its ‘hinterland’ has 6000/7000 residents and that is on 1200 hectares. How on earth can 12000/15000 possibly fit on 402 hectares? By scale, so long as it were not denser, there would clearly be a need for 2300/2500 hectares for this proposal. Smack bang in the middle of good agricultural land? Some 8/10 square miles of development!! Now it just so happens that if we take a straight line between Maltby le Marsh / Strubby and Manby it is about 4 to 4.5 miles so an area 2x4.5 Miles, taking in both Strubby and Manby and outlying villages like Withern and Reston would provide the area required for such a large town.

(Note: The ECO-Town Team have now been informed of the basis of the foregoing and the misleading East Lindsey Mablethorpe figures on which it is based.)

So this bid is fundamentally flawed. The dimensions given do not make sense and this is not a matter where the true dimensions need to be expressed by other than the bidder for the bid to make sense. This is not a private company but a district council where its constituent’s views should be represented. Because this bid has been so secret there are too many ambiguities for a publicly owned document be acceptable.

Regeneration:

How does East Lindsey imagine, when there are large towns like Grimsby and Hull, with rail, motorway networks, the Humber Bridge between the Town and Hull, an airport and yet still suffer from large areas of social depravation, that a large town in the middle of nowhere will not? Surely central government would best invest in them before creating another concrete wasteland.

Summary

Lack of proper consultation and secrecy prior to the bid.

Flood risk and climate change is not a given. The people don’t fall for that. The total C02 output of UK is a mere 2% of global C02.

Misleading and incorrect statements about the area.

Misleading statements about sea defences.

Unclear about the location.

Unrealistic about size.

Regeneration? It isn’t in Grimsby where there is existing infrastructure. Why would it occur in East Lindsey fields?

Grimoldby Public Meeting 13th June

If you missed the public meeting of the 13th June in Grimoldby Village Hall, then you didn't miss much. Not because the meeting was a dud, far from it but because you simply would not have got into the place. Heaving at the seams, the public were trailing out into the car park and crammed into the lobby, ears straining, to take at least some part in the proceedings.

The meeting was opened by the founder of the Lincolnshire Marsh Protection Group Derek Turner and what an unassuming, gentle, unlikely campaigner, he looks too. Clearly an example of the quiet determination that makes this country great. Derek gave us a background, as if the seething throng didn’t know the basics of the issue, and a short history of his group. Boy they have come a long way in the few weeks it has been formed. Their really professional web site, the meeting, the august personages on the platform, the leafleting. Wow what an achievement for such a new group that gives the impression it has always been around.

First thing that happened, TV cameras rolling, Derek invited the ELDC official to join the platform- she declined as she was just ‘observing’- to a loud eruption from the hall. The poor woman sank into her power suit so low that she looked like a Henry the 8th Victim. Did the News boys get it? I hope so!!

First speaker was Peter Dryburgh of the CPRE (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.) Not against new homes or even ECO Towns in the right place, but against such a town here in rural England. Fertile land for food shortage where apparently Manby is now not just some wasteland but an agricultural farming site. The BBC Look North, who seem to be biased for ECO Town, filmed one of the advocates of it in front of one of Manby’s derelict buildings with no mention of the posh and smart ELDC buildings on the very same site. Are the ELDC honchos looking for a new headquarters in the middle of their new town as well as the Ks and inevitable salary rises that will go with it? Arise Dame Stephenson.

George Lee, Conservative M.E.P. in waiting as it were had stood in for Roger Helmer M.E.P. (a victim of the fuel crisis), knew his stuff too. The sort of chap we want in our gang and unlike Derek, who needed a mike almost up his nose to be heard, played with the audience ‘can you hear me? Do I need a mike?’ He knew full well he didn’t. What a contrast. It was as if someone was gradually turning the meeting’s volume knob up as it went on. He spoke about what needed to be done and deadlines too. The meeting warmed to him and he afterwards intervened with further snippets for them until the end.

Between speakers the matter was opened to the floor and some very good points were being made all through.

Then the moment we all knew would come. Sir Peter. The father of the house, who had sat throughout thoroughly enjoying the various contributions from the platform and floor alike, rose, Churchillian in stature and began to address the throng. One of the few MPs a true parliamentarian, and I swear would have been another Churchill had it been his time. No messing around our Peter. No soft on single mums and immigrants like Peter Levy and the BBC. Not for Peter Tapsell the policy of Peter L (That is ‘reward miscreants with new houses at the expense of my viewing public’ )- I feel we should put more pressure on the BBC news teams about this- Hell no, our Peter went for every jugular there was; including that of the Honcho that had got us all in this mess. ‘Irresponsible’ he said of the ELDC notion that Mabo and Sandilands would be abandoned to the sea. He had fought his whole political life for Lincolnshire’s sea defenses and he sure wasn’t to stop now. Talk about ‘we will fight them on the beaches’ this was it. He told the meeting they must change the mind of ELDC and that would help him with ministers. You must get them to withdraw the bid said George Lee, still adding his two pennorth (about 5p). Sir Peter regretted the absence of so many local councillors, although he wasn’t to know of one or two skulking in the room. After a suggestion that they must all declare where they are on this, a lady Louth Councillor declared her opposition to the crowd but unfortunately cant make the council meeting. Not much use there then really!!

The meeting ended with the vote that has now been stopped at the ‘consultation meetings’ I presume because how can councillors consult, get a negative and then ignore it? Best not to ask. Well this meeting did and it was a resounding verbal ‘NO’ followed by a show of hands for the stone deaf. Unanimous against ECO town.

Greedy East Lindsey Council.

This is what the head of planning told the Maltby meeting. That 'newcomers can't complain about even more newcomers'.

Let me remind greedy East Lindsey, that thousands of newcomers brought with them millions of pounds and added it to the East Lindsey economy and have been buying and investing here and spending a fortune with local trade. Now East Lindsey want it both ways. Having had all our money, it's not enough for them. They want to spoil it for us all for even more money. All these people moved here because they like it and they have paid enough to keep liking it too!!

False premise

Most schemes that officials wish to impose on people are based on false premise. Eco Town is.

Watch out for:

Global Warming: The planet has not warmed for over ten years and has been cooling. The warming has simply been because we are still climbing from the Mini Ice Age and we appear to be heading back to one. The fault has been based on readings from out of date and misplaced ground stations that have been put into a computer model.

Sea levels: Are not rising either. There is a tectonic tilt going on where yes the south east of England including London is at risk.

Social Housing: The planners are lying. Houses are allocated on a points system where low paid couples who could not afford the houses and who do not fit the criteria would not get on the list. So most of the occupants are bound to be a further drain on East Lindsey Infrastructure not a benefit. How will low paid buyers be able to buy these houses unless we rate payers are subsidizing them?

Public Meeting Maltby Village Hall

I have just returned from a packed so called 'public consultation' meeting which seemed to say that, we the servants, will tell you what we are going to do. Greeted by a waiting screen depicting rustic windmills, blue skies, meadows, white fluffy clouds and flowers when what would have been more pertinent would have been burned out car bodies, and old mattresses on the lawn to a wag, was a portent of things to come. That type of subliminal message simply doesn't wash on the good and canny folk of Lincolnshire and only 'on message' official types would imagine it would. They still haven’t got it. They cannot get it into their heads that working folk haven't fallen for the rising oceans and global warming either.

It turns out that we have been put up for this, without the 60 elected councillors knowing anything about it, by one official, one of our paid servants who adopted a superior 'I am right and you are wrong approach', and a mysterious folio holder and 'now we’re stuck with it' says Councillor Geremy Webb, he red in the face, veins bursting at his collar, in his vain attempt to force the idea on us. 'Stuck with it'? No we are not if you 60 send it back to Caroline Flint to stick it where the Sun don't shine mate. If 490 other councils don’t have to have it, why do we?

What is clear is that Councillor Geremy Webb and the officials are trying to fool us that this is consultation when he kept saying that they would decide 'on conscience of course' for us. 'No we want to decide' the crowd shouted back. 'We want a referendum'. They clearly smelled a knighthood or a Damehood behind this as well as the empire building rise in salary for the top honcho too.

Anyway from a packed hall only one voted for the proposal and the rest against. The local councillor Chairman began to say 'Well they have seen the vote and they.....' Will ignore it shouted a wag. And that summed up the object of these meetings.

MP Finder by post code: http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/

CURACAO

What is CURACAO?

Well it is an EU system for local officials to get what they want, overrule and tame the voters and bend their minds to support any proposal.

The worst advice is.

To make people feel something is going to happen regardless and cause a feeling of hoplessness. But worse it also creates what they call dissonance where people actually start to tell themselves the idea is good rather than admit they are helpless.

Another? Dont allow a vote on the subject.

Another? Let the project have a political Champion to lead it. (Council Leader Doreen Stephenson?)

All these elements can be found in the way East Lindsey have progressed ECO Town.

Vote below.