Off Topic Politics Thread

The RSPB objects to any planning applications that are a threat to bird populations but generally supports them. They say wind farms should be located away from major migration routes and important feeding, breeding and roosting areas of birds. They can also kill bats I believe. Uninhabited Scottish islands may be breeding grounds for sea birds so that may stop that.

Like most things you have to think about where you are putting them and what damage they may or may not do.

 

They could probably put a wind farm outside my house on boxing day.

Should generate enough energy to power a small town for a fortnight.

 

On buying your Austin Allegro!!

 

Tbh, I don't mind wind farms. I wouldn't mind one locally. I can hear the M27 when the wind is in the wrong direction anyway. And the benefit of wind farms is that nobody can exploit the area for anything else, except perhaps grazing of sheep or cattle. I also quite like their aerodynamic shapes. To me it also what they represent, which is almost totally clean energy over their operating life, rather than what they look like. So I see them as a big positive overall.

However, we should perhaps all have one each on our own houses. Along with big solar arrays. Then we are less drain on the grid and no need for that overpriced, already obsolete Hinkley Point.

 

Absolutely. We had an application for a single turbine on a farm in Chilcoland a couple of years ago, and the principle objection was on the grounds of the noise it would make. It was gently pointed out that the only situation in which it would make enough noise to hear it 100 meters away would be when the wind was blowing strong enough to drown the noise from the turbine. Job done, passed, next please.

Personally I’m of the view that every single house in the country that has a tiled roof with a surface facing vaguely south should be given free PV roof tiles. These are now widely available, made of glass that looks exactly like roof tiles, but the equivalent area of tiles gives the same kWh output as a PV panel. No visual impact but free electricity to push into the grid. No brains required.

 

I agree. I think all new houses should be built with solar panels and maybe a wind turbine if practical. I would have both if it didn't cost so much. They are going to be building houses on some farmland near us and I'd much rather it was a wind turbine. It's all houses to sell, no social housing in these parts. Crazy planning.

 

100% on the solar panels. And surely it makes sense to provide them as a 100% grant. Not only that, but a whole major solar industry mushrooms in the UK, instead of one struggling to make any inroads. Instead the UK government wants us to accept the most expensive electricity there's to be if and when the new Hinkley Point is built.

I would also have an efficient, small wind turbine on every house. Nobody objected to TV aerials and nobody cares about SKY dishes, so why fret about something that's no bigger and will be of more benefit.

 

because no-one's making any money out of it!

 

Had to go to Louth twice last month and travel past it twice. Bloody kids and their football. Why can;t they just play local teams.

 

appreciate the bumpy landscape? Louth is in the wolds. It is bumpy. You disappear into a hollow as you enter Louth after miles of winding inbetween the highs of the wolds.

Most normal folks don;t mind this sort of thing. It is normally the ones that have a bit of land or money that object. Like posh folks that move to the countryside and then moan about the smell of the countryside.

 

I have said for a long time that Councils should install them on top of every council house. reduce energy bills for council tenants and the council makes money on what goes back into the grid. They won;t though because that would hurt profits of the big 6.

 

There was a lot of trouble with Sky dishes back when. You had to apply for planning permission back then to get a big white dish on the wall. Some areas didn;t let you have it.

 

I wouldn't let anyone have one right now. But that would be nothing to do with planning permission.

 

except for the guys that have to climb onto the roofs to clean the twice a year

 

Absolutely shocking interview by Victoria Derbyshire with the leader of Kensington Council. BBC needs to have a word with itself.

 

I thought the Council Leader came over rather badly, they still seem to be on a different planet from those involved in the tragedy.
Winced when she said one of the reasons why re-housing is going so slowly is because 'some residents with more than one generation are taking the opportunity to apply for a flat for Grandma". I hope such a wonderfull "opportunity" comes her way soon.

 

I think what she was trying to explain was that they were making exceptions to the normal rules where families were having to share and wait for "their turn" for siblings to get their own place. I didn't hear the "grandma" bit. What I heard and understood was that this was more about where kids have grown up and want their own place etc. Bit like me where I am waiting for a 3 bed because we only had 2 boys when we moved here.

The shocking bit was where VD kept trying to make her suggest that it was the resident's fault where the council leader was obviously trying to detail that they were trying to bend the rules to accommodate the sensitivity of this issue.

Then when VD went on the "how many houses do you own" angle I couldn't believe it. Pretty typical of her show though. They should send her to Sky.

I don't know why you think the Council Leader came across badly. She has performed a magic trick of buying 250 properties to replace the 120 that were in Grenfell. I am struggling to understand where this "300" figure has come from and how it is just stated as being the target needed.

 

I live in an AONB (North Devon Coast) IMO N. Devon and N. Cornwall have been blighted by turbine monstrosities.....as for Scottish Highlands, there are wind farms although ironically nowhere near Balmoral. Where I live several land owners/farmers with no environmental credibility are getting rich on the proceeds of turbines and we have to subsidise the infrastructure. I'm suspicious that during windless periods they take power out of the grid to keep the turbines rotating, whilst yesterday they were stationary as the wind is too strong.

 

There may be some in the Highlands but I can confirm they are not high up on the west coast where the country is at it's wildest and I hope there never is. Maybe they are on the flatter east side which we don't visit anymore (Inverness way). I think there are more than enough up the north of the UK already personally.

I have always thought it was weird that they have to turn them off when it's too windy. It seems some improvements wouldn't go amiss.