Not for those with upset stomachs!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-devon-49771859/sidmouth-fatberg-gives-up-hidden-secrets
Longer item on BBC 1 Inside Out tonight at 7.30 pm.
Category Archives: Environment (local)
Global Strike for Climate tomorrow – Exeter 11am and in Axminster
Exmouth is joining with Exeter,
Axminster is planning something:
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/climate-change-strikes-this-is-what-is-happening-in-axminster-1-6279310
Too late for Sidford: “Air pollution particles found on foetal side of placentas – study”
“Air pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.
The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It found thousands of the tiny particles per cubic millimetre of tissue in every placenta analysed.
The link between exposure to dirty air and increased miscarriages, premature births and low birth weights is well established. The research suggests the particles themselves may be the cause, not solely the inflammatory response the pollution produces in mothers.
Damage to foetuses has lifelong consequences and Prof Tim Nawrot at Hasselt University in Belgium, who led the study, said: “This is the most vulnerable period of life. All the organ systems are in development. For the protection of future generations, we have to reduce exposure.” He said governments had the responsibility of cutting air pollution but that people should avoid busy roads when possible.
A comprehensive global review concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body. Nanoparticles have also been found to cross the blood-brain barrier and billions have been found in the hearts of young city dwellers. …”
“Give up your car and get free bus pass, transport campaigners say”
“Drivers should get free bus passes if they agree to take a car off the road, campaigners say.
The Campaign for Better Transport says the idea could reverse the trend of declining bus use and help take polluting diesel and petrol cars off our streets.
The idea comes in a “manifesto” – The Future of the Bus – which has gone to the government as part of a national strategy to re-invest in Britain’s most popular form of public transport.
Bus services provide the “backbone” of the local public transport network, but savage cuts are leading to a reduction in bus use and services have shrunk every year for a decade. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/give-up-your-car-free-20068860
Development and climate emergency: the tale of Mr Fox, Badger and Peter Rabbit
An independent councillor reports on a meeting of Teignbridge Council discussing development in the age of climate emergency: hilarious, sad, worrying.
“Dealing with the Executive is a strange thing. If like me you have a young child and you’re forced to watch Peter Rabbit on CBeebies you’ll be familiar with the sort of relationship the Exec has with members from other parties.
Fox and Badger really want to eat Peter because he’s a.) a rabbit and b.) a twat but, for some intractable reason, they pass most days in cordial coexistence. Fox even helped Peter move a wheelbarrow full of acorns once. This working relationship, you would think, would make the idea of eventually killing, skinning, disembowling, roasting and eating Peter taboo to Fox and Badger but no – they’ll still have a go one day, right after saying ‘Good morning’ to him. I can’t work out if all the animals are congenitally insincere or just good at compartmentalising their impulses.
There’s a similar ominous détente going on around Mr McShear’s vegetable garden. Nobody’s helping us to carrots, but nobody has, as yet, stoved our heads in with a shovel, despite a clear conviction that we are both on the menu and twattish. Captain Hook, whose avuncular eagerness to have everyone on board is a thousand times better than the Count (I said COUNT) of Monte Christophers, helped me get a new ipad so my constituents can actually talk to me again (the IT people sent me a dozen helpful emails about fixing it to the ipad they were fixing??).
Now, you’ll remember, Newton Abbot has ‘won’ £150,000 to help it become a ‘Garden Town’, with up to £9 million more if it does exactly what its told. We at NSN think this is a con to suck TDC further into the houses-for-money bullshit that makes us all do what we’re told for handouts rather than being properly funded and able to self-determine our own projects, as the ’Localism’ Act once promised (well, promised a bit more of).
Councillor Daws made some excellent points about the Mission Creep that drags councils to do one thing after another – Incremental Development it seems to be called. I asked when the council was going to rename the Climate Emergency a Climate Inconvenience, since every other paragraph TDC produces mentions the Climate Change Emergency with all the heartfelt panic of a sloth on mogodone choosing a supermarket sandwich. These windows will mitigate the Climate Change Emergency …. these drainpipes are Climate-Change-Emergency-neutral … this massive new road is being approved because cars going faster will contribute less to the Climate Change Emergency… the phrase is no more than a verbal tic.
I mentioned the article on Bicester (see past posts) – the ’dog’s dinner’ garden town where, in the name of getting people to work where they live, houses abide in the shadow of warehouses. Gordon, who really does know his background material, said that was written in 2015 (he was right!) before Bicester got its ‘Garden Centre’, which had made everything all right now. I didn’t know what he meant by garden centre… has it got a Fermoys?? We are not allowed follow-up questions. But Bicester has been dog-breakfasted by hideous building. It hasn’t been unbreakfasted by building MORE buildings.
Gordon added that he was disappointed – or was it dismayed? One or the other – that I was calling such things as triple glazing mere ‘green cynicism’.
I think the problem is this: Gordon and co live in a world where the march toward the abyss is inescapable, so we might as well put on the nice new boots Westminster has given us and march slowly if we can. When I suggested that, if the Executive truly believed there to be an EMERGENCY (lets put it in capitals til that, too, just makes us shrug) then it should defy Westminster’s housing targets. An emergency doesn’t mean you carry on as normal. It doesn’t mean you stick slavishly to the script. The car is on fire. Shall we stop on the hard shoulder or shall we keep driving the fucking thing to Alton Towers?*
This made Deputy Alistair Dewhirst smirk contemptuously, which is his absolute number one favourite thing to do when talking to us (unless he’s online at midnight, in which case his favourite thing is to type things and then immediately delete them).
In keeping with his late-night ruminations Alistair said that Welwyn Garden City was the best example of a garden town, and that it is ‘the best, most pleasant place to live and work that it is possible to imagine’. Possibly Alistair visited a different Welwyn Garden City to me, or else he passed through on the Magic Bus in the Sixties. Because the Welwyn Garden City I have visited, several times, is an unmitigated shithole. The deputy’s assertion that ‘if Newton Abbot is to become like that, then we will be remembered’ should chill us all to the marrow but it is at least true. Oh, you will be remembered.
Councillor Jackie Hook, holder of the (Compostable) Portfolio For Climate Change, then announced that she had joined Extinction Rebellion and they ALL agreed that it was National Government that had to change its thinking, not local councils. She added that if anyone wanted to lie down in the path of a digger they were free to do so. In precis, all the change has to come from the Big Noise or the Little People. The muscled appendage of TDC, which might actually have some power in its elbow, is not going to flex, now or ever.
We do, at least, get treated gently by the Lib Dems; I suppose because we’re idealists like they used to be, possibly… once – before they got neutrally reprogrammed by procedure. Not so the Tories, who had just been very cheeky. Mr Hook produced an unsolicited letter from some local cohort of business worthies who said they fully supported being bundled into a garden town. ‘Isn’t Jackie on their panel?’ they enquired.
The Tories then lambasted the Lib Dem Council Tax relief calculations saying that they would hurt the very poorest. All were reminded of their excellent track record of voting specifically to hurt the very poorest by Cllr Connet, who called their remonstrations ‘absolute tosh’.
It was all a lot of fun. But the existential problem we have as members of this council – and I don’t see a way around it – is that we are there with a moral argument, in a body that wants only to discuss procedure. So we find ourselves asked to contribute to working groups on the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (our contribution: it belongs in the bin) and to the Local Plan (it belongs in the black bin, as no part of it is recyclable), and are constantly told NO. WE ARE MARCHING TO THE CLIFF EDGE TO THE TUNE OF THE BRITISH GRENADIERS* SO PLEASE JOIN IN WITH THE SINGING.
So what can we do, until we can get more of us onto council? I suppose we’ll just keep waiting for death and stealing carrots.
*Obviously I didn’t say the F word in the council chamber, as I don’t want to be in the MDA EVERY week for swearing.
*This in keeping with the 30th anniversary of the Second World War, in which the Germans redesigned our towns to look more like Welwyn Garden City.”
“Have your say on the management of East Devon’s Jurassic Coast”
A Jurrasic Coast National Park from Studland Bay to Exmouth? Surely our new ruling group will be keen on that won’t they?
“The organisation that looks after the Jurassic Coast is inviting input from people in East Devon, as it sets out its management plan for the next five years.
A draft plan has been drawn up, and consultation days will be held in Exmouth, Sidmouth and Seaton for people to learn about the proposals and have their say.
The Jurassic Coast Trust’s work includes putting out information about rock falls and landslips, promoting responsible fossil collecting, educating the public through museums and visitor centres, and giving guidance to local organisations, to ensure that development and tourism does not harm the Jurassic Coast.
Public consultation days will take place on
Tuesday, September 10,
at Exmouth Library;
Thursday, September 19,
at Sidmouth Library; and
Wednesday, September 25,
at Seaton Jurassic.
Members of the trust’s staff will be on hand between 10am and 3pm to talk through the draft plan and answer questions.
Following the consultation, the plan is due to be published in the next few months.”
“Stop the Coup Protest: this Saturday 7 September, Exeter, Bedford Square, 2 pm
Saturday 7 September 2019
Stop the Coup
Exeter
Bedford Square
2 pm.
Other events in Exeter coming up:
Saturday 14 September 2019
Extinction Rebellion – Fight for the Planet
“Extinction Rebellion Exeter are again taking to the streets to march for the planet 10:30am on Saturday 14 September, meeting in Southernhay. Rebels will be marching in blue to represent a wave of water. This is to highlight:
– the global water crisis: as the climate warms, rains become erratic – lands flood with undrinkable water and water stress leads to water crisis for millions of individuals
– rising sea levels due to climate crisis: the threat of too much water. If the sea rises as it is projected to, the greatest achievement of the last two hundred years, our sewage system, will be swept aside; all the drinking water Exeter will be able to rely on will from the ancient medieval water course.
Friday 20 September 2019
Global Strike for Climate – Exeter
Hosted by Exeter Global Strike for Climate and 4 others
Friday, 20 September 2019 from 11:00-14:00
Bedford Square, Exeter
17 High Street, Exeter, Devon
Local “Experts” win the day in the battle of Woodbury Power Plant (but the war is not yet over)
From a correspondent – as positive as it is, Plutus Energy will almost certainly appeal so we must await a final outcome.
“East Devon District Council has rejected plans for the construction of 20 gas-fired electricity generators on grounds including that the scheme would be “inappropriate development in the open countryside”.
Acting against the recommendation of Planning officer EDDC`s Development Management committee, refused permission for the construction of “20 self-contained natural gas engine driven electricity generators”.
The scheme, proposed by applicant Plutus Energy, would have been built on land close to Woodbury Business Park, Woodbury.
The Key to the decision was Strategy 39 of the council’s local plan, which states the authority’s commitment to promoting the use of renewables and low carbon energy, as grounds for refusing the plans.
The planning report said that the proposed development “would be powered by natural gas and therefore it is important to recognise that this technology is a “facilitator of renewable energy” rather than a renewable technology or low carbon energy project itself and therefore there is little direct policy support within Strategy 39 for this proposal.”
However, it added that “whilst Strategy 39 of the local plan promotes renewable and low carbon energy, it does not in itself provide an “in principle” reason to refuse proposals for fossil fuel energy development.
Therefore, on balance, the Planning Officer considered that the adverse impacts from the scheme would “not significantly or demonstrably outweigh the benefits that would be derived from the scheme which would support the delivery of renewable and low carbon energy by providing back-up generation to help achieve the transition to a sustainable, low carbon future.”
However a team of local residents including an expert from commercial finance, a Professor who is recognised as a world expert of climate change, a solicitor, local councillors, planning experts spoke at the planning meeting with a very detailed forensic exposé of the proposed development that exposed that the far from “facilitating renewable energy it was would block any renewable energy being added to the National Grid, and rather than running at “only a few hours a day in winter time it would actually run over 3000 Hours a year, having a devastating effect on the area.
After a short debate, where the Legal Officer of the council recommended a referral because of the further information the committee voted against the proposal and the Legal Officers recommendation.
A statement from the council said the application had “proved controversial with the local community who raised a number of concerns regarding noise and pollution from the facility, as well as fears that a low carbon energy generation and storage facility was not being proposed, which would be consistent with addressing the climate change emergency declared by the council only a few weeks earlier.”
It added that the committee resolved to refuse the application on the basis that “it would be inappropriate development in the open countryside, with local plan policies only supporting renewable and low carbon energy projects in the open countryside” and a further reason for “related to concerns about the impact of the proposal on air quality in the locality.”
Carters Woodbury power plant refused by EDDC Development Management Committee
Of course, it will be appealed – too much profit (for them, not the village) at stake :
“East Devon councillors have rejected plans for a power plant near Exeter.
Plutus Energy Limited had proposed building 20 generators near Woodbury Business Park in a bid to provide additional power to nearby homes and businesses at peak times.
Campaigners against the plans said the system would be extremely harmful to the environment, pumping out 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
Before the meeting, Plutus had told the BBC the development was “not a renewable technology, but an essential component in supporting the increase in renewable and low carbon energy”.
About 100 people attended the meeting which saw it turned down.
A planning report recommended approval of the scheme, with conditions. There were also suggestions the decision be deferred for further investigation.
However, councillors said they had heard enough to be concerned the scheme went against the local plan and against the authority’s declared climate emergency.
Ten councillors refused it, while three voted for a deferral.”
Save our planet
“Councils not including carbon targets in Local Plans risk legal action”
More desecration of agricultural land by the Carters in Woodbury despite more than 100 objections
As earlier application reported here:
… “£4.46 million a year from the 1.7 acre site – better than storing caravans or rearing cattle. Its a pity none of the money goes to the actual residents of Woodbury, or the wider community, who have to live with the noise and pollution.”
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2019/05/02/the-woodbury-power-plant-a-nice-little-earner/
The application:
“An application to install 20 self-contained generators on land south of Woodbury Business Park could be given the go-ahead next week.
On Tuesday (September 3) East Devon District Council’s development management committee is set to discuss the proposal submitted on behalf of Plutus Energy Ltd.
If committee members approve of the application, which has had more than 100 objections, 20 natural gas engine driven electricity generators will be installed on storage land near a substation in Woodbury.
In a report to the committee, planning officers have recommended approval, despite the application falling outside the East Devon Local Plan.
The planning officer’s report said that while the proposal is a ‘departure’ from the local plan, there is support within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The report said: “On balance it is considered that the adverse impacts from the proposed gas fuelled standby electricity plant do not significantly or demonstrably outweigh the benefits that would be derived from the scheme.
“Accordingly it is recommended that permission be granted subject to the conditions set out.”
If given the go-ahead, the generators would provide an additional 40 megawatts of energy to the National Grid at peak times for the next 25 years.
The existing access to the site would be retained and the equipment will only be operated between 7am and 10.30pm.
Each generator will be housed within an acoustically insulated weather-proof steel container.
Strategy 39 of the East Devon Local Plan says renewable or low-carbon energy products will, in principle, be supported and encouraged.
The officer’s report said the local plan does not provide a principle reason to refuse proposals for fossil fuel energy and the NPPF supports the transition from fossil fuels.
The report added: “While the proposal is not a renewable energy source itself, as identified above it clearly encourages and supports the use of renewable energy generation by supporting the transition from fossil fuels.
“It achieves this by being a back-up to energy supply at times when the renewable energy struggles to meet demand.”
The development management committee meeting will discuss the application at Blackdown House, in Honiton, from 10am.
https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/woodbury-gas-power-plant-recommended-for-approval-1-6242265
“£1.5 million funding gap in Sidmouth’s preferred coastal protection plan”
How WE can help to get to zero carbon emissions
“People must use less transport, eat less red meat and buy fewer clothes if the UK is to virtually halt greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the government’s chief environment scientist has warned.
Prof Sir Ian Boyd said the public had little idea of the scale of the challenge from the so-called Net Zero emissions target.
However, he said technology would help.
The conundrum facing the UK – and elsewhere – was how we shift ourselves away from consuming, he added.
In an interview with BBC News, Sir Ian warned that persuasive political leadership was needed to carry the public through the challenge.
Asked whether Boris Johnson would deliver that leadership, he declined to comment.
Mr Johnson has already been accused by environmentalists of talking up electric cars whilst reputedly planning a cut in driving taxes that would increase emissions and undermine the electric car market. …”
Make your voice heard on climate emergency – Exeter, 20 September 11 am
The fight to protect East Budleigh bats – but no need to fight in Beer
Owl says: And, of course, our old friends, Clinton Devon Estates is involved …
“Quiet, quaint and colourful, East Budleigh is a picture-perfect Devon village.
But behind the beautiful, flower-lined streets and cottages with thatched roofs and statue of world-famous explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, there is a simmering row which has enveloped much of the community.
It is a classic David-versus-Goliath story of concerned local residents against a major land developer, and revolves around bats, a barn and a new building.
Hidden behind some trees just off Middle Street sits The Pound – an old, dilapidated barn which apparently acquired its name as a shelter for stray animals in the area.
Ironically, it is the presence of animals there today which is causing the problem: it is believed to house at least 14 different species of bat.
Among their number are grey long-eared bats, which are known to be exceptionally rare in the UK. One estimate puts their number at just 1000 in the UK, while the Bat Conservation Trust claims they are ‘extremely rare’.
The barn is also believed to be home to at least one live badger sett, as well as hazel dormice.
Sitting on a pretty, grassy patch of land and shaded by horse chestnut trees, The Pound is a popular spot where East Budleigh residents can enjoy the wildlife. There is a bench were locals can sit and chat, while next to it is a trailer said to have been left by American airmen after World War Two which is now full of bright flowers in full bloom.
But The Pound’s prime spot also makes it ripe for developement.
East Budleigh – Raleigh’s birthplace – is an affluent town – according to Rightmove.com, the average value of each house sold this year was just under £480,000. It is little wonder then that landowners Clinton Devon Homes have ear-marked the area for major work. They applied for planning permission which would see The Pound’s barn knocked down and a large, modern house built in its place.
Local residents were furious, mounting stiff opposition to the move and appealing to keep the barn in order to protect the bats.
An initial East Devon District Council development management committee meeting saw councillors defer a decision pending additional information from Natural England about wildlife mitigation on the site. Various concessions were made – including a separate ‘bat barn’ for the barn’s current inhabitants – and, at a subsequent meeting in April, the green light was given by eight votes to five.
A ‘licence to kill’ was how one councillor described the decision.
Upon hearing the result, one member of the public shouted: “The bats will all be dead within six months.”
Many East Budleigh residents, though, are not giving up that easily. “It’s heart-breaking,” said Kathy Moyle. “We have so few natural areas around here. As well as the rare bats, there is also a badger set here, as well as hazel dormice. “We are battling with our hands tied behind our backs. “We have certainly put a thorn in their flesh but I am not sure it is enough. We all just want it to be left alone.”
In a remarkable act of defiance, when the plans were first announced Kathy set up the the East Budleigh Parish Nature and Wildlife Conservation Group to try and find out just what – and how many – animals call The Pound their home.
Now, every Friday night, a dedicated group go out to monitor the comings and goings.
Their findings included three grey long-eared bats, with evidence to suggest a maternity roost. In theory, this would strengthen their claim that the barn should not be knocked down, although Kathy is sceptical.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/village-being-sent-bat-shed-3242036
MEANWHILE, IN BEER:
“... Beer has been officially named a ‘Bat Friendly Community’ – only the second place in Devon to achieve the accolade.
The award is for the community’s work to conserve the endangered greater horseshoe bat. …
“Rivers used as ‘open sewers’, says WWF charity”
As a district well-provided with rivers and estuaries, a worrying issue:
“Targets for 75% of rivers to be healthy by 2027 are “very unlikely” to be met in England, a charity has warned.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says rivers are “used as open sewers”.
The Environment Agency predicts 75% of rivers in England and along the Scottish and Welsh borders will meet EU expectations by 2027, compared with just 14% now.
It is planning an autumn consultation on “challenges and choices” faced in cleaning up water. The agency said it would review the target based on “what can realistically be achieved”.
Sewage discharging into rivers has been one of the most common reasons for ecological health tests being failed, while water companies in England have been told their efforts to protect the environment were “unacceptable”. …”
Fracking: shale gas reserves vastly over-estimated
Owl says: But just enough to desecreate the countryside and line a few pockets.
“The UK’s underground shale gas reserves may deliver only a fraction of the gas promised by fracking firms and government ministers, according to a study.
Research by the University of Nottingham found that early estimates may have exaggerated the UK’s shale reserves up to sixfold.
Last week government officials hinted that a review could be launched looking into loosening UK limits on fracking because shale “could be an important new domestic energy source”.
The University of Nottingham said it had used a new technique to measure the shale gas trapped in the Bowland shale basin in central England and found significantly lower levels than was suggested by a widely quoted study six years ago.
In 2013 the British Geological Survey (BGS) found there were likely to be 1,300tn cubic feet of gas. The latest study found there may be 200tn cubic feet, enough to meet the UK’s gas demand for around a decade.
Prof Colin Snape, of the University of Nottingham, said the BGS’s study had involved desk-based research based on the findings of shale developers in the US rather than actual reserves. The new research was based on studies of actual UK shales, using gas absorption data and field data, he said.
“We have made great strides in developing a laboratory test procedure to determine shale gas potential,” Snape said. “This can only serve to improve people’s understanding and government decisions around the future of what role shale gas can make to the UK’s energy demand as we move to being carbon neutral by 2050.”
It is the second major study in recent years to cast doubt on economic claims made by the shale gas industry. Researchers at Heriot-Watt University said the UK’s most promising shale gas reservoirs had been warped by tectonic shifts that could thwart efforts to tap them. …”
“What’s in our water? Report warns of growing ‘invisible’ crisis of pollution”
“… We find that water pollution is a problem that affects both rich and poor countries, however the cocktail of chemicals changes as countries develop. In poor countries it is faecal bacteria and as GDP increases then nitrogen [from fertilisers] becomes the issue.”
“Clean water is a key factor for economic growth,” added the World Bank Group president, David Malpass.
“Deteriorating water quality is stalling economic growth, worsening health conditions, reducing food production, and exacerbating poverty in many countries.
“Their governments must take urgent actions to help tackle water pollution so that countries can grow faster in equitable and environmentally sustainable ways.”
“Health and safety at risk as watchdog budgets halve”
“Rules to protect air quality, food safety, the workplace and animal welfare are at risk because watchdog budgets have halved over the past decade, whistleblowers have warned.
Since 2009-10 the number of air pollution inspections by councils fell by 37 per cent, there were 32 per cent fewer meat inspections by the Food Standards Agency, the number of prosecutions of fly-tippers by local authorities dropped by 36 per cent and inspections by the Gangmaster and the Labour Abuse Authority fell by 43 per cent.
Prosecutions for wildlife crime were down by 57 per cent and almost half of sites of special scientific interest have not been checked by Natural England in the past six years. …”
Source Times (pay wall)
East Devon Watch 