It just dawned on me that the electorate in Uxbridge may well have voted for, Boris Johnson as MP Boris Johnson as PM Boris Johnson's manifesto A white Eton educated toff like them A male who talks like them Since then they've had a woman who claims to be from a poor background and a duff school, a man who celebrates his Indian background and has a tax dodging wife, two entirely different manifestos and a PM who introduced a NI Brexit compromise that Boris was totally opposed to. And to make matters worse Boris's own cabinet and colleagues kicked him out as PM then went on to kick him out of politics entirely with only a handful of MPs supporting him ... ... isn't our democracy wonderful
Beadnell is beautiful, we sometimes do the walk along the tops from Low Newton to Beadnell and back again. I would recommend a visit to Low Newton if you get the opportunity, the Ship Inn is excellent and they have a micro brewery if you are into real ale.
We (Northumbrian water customers) should have one of the lowest water rates in the country, wasn’t to long ago they were acting all billy big b******** shouting from the rooftops about Kielder water and transportation of water to other parts of the country during droughts, probably making more revenue……f****** scandalous
The amount of questions wasted on name-calling in PMQs is an absolute scandal. And only helps one person.
One of the most beautiful coasts in the country . How do these people sleep at night - they obviously do not live there .
I remember in 1990 when we had a major crisis of this type. It was meant to not happen again. What always gets me is when we get rain this happens. It is as if everyone is surprised we get a bit of rain in this country. We have a massive under investment in our sewerage infrastructure by all accounts. What I dont understand is why we dont look at the green alternatives. If the problem is caused by rain run off then create more green and wet space to avoid run off, or channel run off to. They have done this really successfully in China and in some European cities where flooding is an issue. The idea is simple, slow the run off by having space to absorb / collect water. There are some really interesting projects around things like roof gardens, city blue and green scapes. Not sure we are being inventive enough in this country. The problem will get worse unless politicians join the dots on policy. We need more houses built. That means more infrastructure like sewers. There is a big push round here to build on green belt land (I might glue myself to a gatepost to block that) but independant studies have shown the sewer systems are already beyond capacity. Adding more houses, without upgrading that, will be a disaster. When Labour get in they will give councils power to greenlight housebuilding projects. I just hope there are rules about necessary infrastructure standards.
Of course not, they're in Hong Kong and the USA .... .... award themselves millions, say it's too expensive to do anything and pay insignificant fines. They're taking us all for mugs, simple as that, and the government just sit back twiddling their thumbs.
Ironic ( if I’m right in thinking) that the Chinese own NWL ! On infrastructure standards , the planners as well as the sewers and drainage need to start looking at resident parking availability , local road capacity , local shops parking and prob loads of other things .
Not wishing to get dragged into politics, but Green and Blue Roofing is becoming more and more important in Construction Projects in the UK, its been around and "dabbled" at but there is a huge push now for it, especially the Blue Roof Rainwater Attenuation. Trouble is they are really simple systems, but as with anything new people are trying to profiteer on the back of them or make them unbelievably complicated. It also staggers me who so called professional qualified people seem to think that Green Roof areas can somehow perform differently and without the basic needs a living garden needs or that its a good odea to have things like swings and see-saws on a 7th floor play area
Good to hear that. It surely has a big part to play, without letting water companies off the hook. We have one where I work, on top of a 8 story building. It is a cracking little spot with seats and a variety of shrubs and beds. Some staff have even put in vegetable beds and grow stuff they donate to a local charity.
They can be amazing spaces, habitats for wildlife, play areas for kids, terraces to relax on. All come at a cost obviously but massively underused and architects and developers expect the earth but not the cost. Rain / stormwater attenuation is a no-brainer for me in city centres and big developments. Goes against the grain of what people want by actively storing water on the roof, but done properly it reduces the flow of water to not much more of a drip. Sorry I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to this as it's my specialist field. I was actually involved in the first blue roof in the country in Bristol
Great info mate. I am really interested in this sort of stuff. One thing is for sure we cant just keep building big storage tanks like the one at Blackpool. That seems like a false economy to me.
Yeah. There are some well off people round here who have funded a number of independant studies about the impact building on green belt will have. The cost of road and sewers alone will be a barrier, unless they just ignore it all of course, which I suspect will be the answer. There is loads of brown belt land, with much better road infrastructure and space for parking etc, but they are not too interested in that, maddeningly. There is some magic wildlife where they want to build. I might have to find myself a crested newt, cant build where they live.
You would like to think it's cheaper than huge attenuation tanks underground but developers would rather a fancy facade that looks good but serves no purpose than a roof with brilliant environmental savings. Instead of digging a huge hole for rainwater storage / distribution they could put parking in or a play area
Another interest rate rise coming tomorrow. Some are even suggesting the BofE will have to create a forced recession to get inflation under control. Gloomy times.
I am not so sure the private swimming pool bit is necessary. I dont like that sort of politics much. But dear oh dear, as someone who loves our rivers more than any of our natural assets, this requires real action and not words.
I guess the point is we have someone who pretends he cares but very little affects him in reality due to his multi millionaire alternative universe.