COAL & POWER – SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME BAD…

The decision by power company EON to postpone construction of the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent  - New Kingsnorth coal plant delayed‎ - provides some good news, at the same time as the Government’s decision to allow UK Coal to develop an open cast mine in Shropshire provides some bad  : www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/630

Both decisions point to the inadequacy of sustainable energy planning in Britain, and indeed, the need for a UK-wide strategy in the context of devolved planning in Scotland and Wales, together with the prospect of Single Integrated Regional Strategies or SIRS  for the English Regions, albeit that these may not survive a change of government.

Key to such a national strategy will, of course, be the evidence-base, including forecasts and future scenarios. As someone opposed to both the nuclear option and indefinite dependence upon non-renewal resources, I nevertheless accept that there may be a transitional period between the present situation and a “clean energy” end state.

The key questions for me relate to the main components of this transitional period, it’s likely timescale and, most importantly, the likely spatial implications of these including remedial measures. I don’t sense that this information currently exists in any meaningful,coherent and accessible form, and therein lies another problem for energy planning : a rather more serious one in my view than so-called Nimbyism.

WMRSS Phase 2 Panel Report – of Semantics & Sustainability

I received notification yesterday that the Planning Inspectorate Panel  Report on the proposed West Midlands Spatial Strategy Phase 2 Revision had been published – Please see link to : www.gos.gov.uk/gowm/Planning/515750/panelreport09/

A full and proper reading of this document by me will have to await my return from a conference – not the Conservative Party’s ! - next weekend at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macynlleth, Wales. Please see : www.cat.org.uk

The CAT conference is entitled “Power & Place” and its subject is that much talked of (and rather less actioned) theme : locationally appropriate sustainable energy from renewable sources, from which might, incidentally, be derived the rather elegant acronym, LASERS…of which more later.

Returning to the WMRSS Phase 2 Panel Report, I note this refers to “Semantics”, with reference to my own submission, and “Uncertainties” with particular reference to the economy, and to which might be added “political”. However, the key question is whether the Panel’s recommendations are sustainable, according to the various meanings of the word.

Now I have to confess to enjoying the occasional semantic skirmish, and readers of my other blog @ http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com may see that I was both tickled and tantalised (as the late Ken Dodd might have said) by Lord Mandelson’s use of the words “Flibbertigibbet” with reference to Tory Party Leader David Cameron.

In own humble opinion, however, it is former Deputy Prime Minister, and before that Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions – both roles carrying the burden of the planning portfolio – John Prescott  who really conjures up the qualities of a “Flibbertigibbet”.

Partly as a consequence – civic servants and others must still carry some of the can  - quite  a lot of “Flibbertigibberish” (as they might have called it in Diddyland*) has found itself into New Labour planning policy, particularly where issues of sustainability are concerned, and must be cut through (as with LASERS – see above).

* Ken Dodd’s sustainable community for Diddymen

Collapse in Value of Quango Land Bank

The following article is taken from “Inside Housing” (25.9.2009).

“The 2008/09 accounts for English Partnerships – quietly posted in July on a website that has supposedly been defunct since December – reveal the financial devastation visited on the agency in its last eight months of existence, as it posted an operating loss of £492.2 million. It was so badly hit by the house market collapse it had to seek an extra £67 million of funding from the Communities and Local Government department to continue trading.

Its two divisions – the Commission for the New Towns and the Urban Regeneration Agency – were both absorbed by the Homes and Communities Agency in December. Each organisation prepared separate accounts.

The URA, the main land holding division, was particularly badly hit by the housing market downturn.

It was forced to wipe £263.7 million from the value of its land. Its operating deficit more than doubled from £200 million in 2008 to £406 million in 2009. The agency always ran at a deficit because of the way it was funded.

The Commission for New Towns made a £56 million write-down. It lost £12.6 million in a land deal after a developer which owed it £15 million became insolvent. It got the land back but its value had dropped to £2.3 million.

Overall, the value of the URA’s £719 million land bank in 2008 was slashed by a third over the eight months from 1 April to 30 November, leaving it £481 million of land assets to transfer to the HCA on 1 December 2008.

Communities secretary John Denham will face a barrage of questions over the revelations.

Conservative shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, said: ‘When Parliament returns I will be lining up a series of questions for the secretary of state to uncover the truth behind what looks like a very murky situation. When you find out these things months after the event it becomes difficult to hold the quango to account. Why weren’t we told about this at the time?’

The accounts raised a ‘host of questions’ about how EP assets were transferred to the HCA, he added. ‘I was critical of setting up a mega-quango because it is very difficult to track what is going on.’

An HCA spokesperson said the housing market downturn had left EP with ‘a deficit between anticipated receipts and spending commitments’.

‘This was constantly monitored by EP and the CLG,’ he added. ‘To ensure EP did not breach its allocated budget, additional capital budget cover was requested.’

The extra £67 million of funding was approved at the end of last year. The spokesperson said EP had ‘short-term budget issues’ which the HCA had inherited. ‘Short-term operating budget pressures are not the same as technical insolvency. EP passed £1.8 billion of assets to the HCA on 1 December so was clearly not insolvent.’ A link to EPs’ accounts was posted on the HCA’s website.

A history of EP

• 1961 Commission for the New Towns created
• 1993 The Urban Regeneration Agency established
• May 1999 English Partnerships set up to run the agency and commission
• November 2008 Both organisations cease trading
• December 2008 Homes and Communities Agency launched”

A New Midland Bank ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_Bank

 

The subject of regional banking is of considerable interest just now, and I wonder whether a New Midland Bank (see above) might be the best way forward for Central England, as part of the re-organisation of the regions proposed by the Conservative Party (see below).

East Midlands MP, current Shadow Business Secretary and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke might be a good person to progress such a venture, which would, of course, need to be headquartered in Birmingham.

WMRSS Phase 2 Revision EIP CLOSING SUBMISSION

My written closing submission is provided below :

This submission comprises 2 parts :
1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination
2. A New Mercian Hymn (for WMRSS) based on A Re-Construction of the opening to Geoffrey Hill’s Mercian Hymns*

1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination

My original response to the WMRSS Phase 2 Spatial Options Consultation (2007) identified the need to align the development of options with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and expressed scepticism about the potential scale of housing-based growth, even prior to the subsequent economic downturn.

In the event, the issues of SEA compliance, in relation to the development of spatial options in both the West Midlands Regional Assembly’s Preferred Option and subsequent work for the Government Office by Nathaniel Litchfield and Partners, have been highlighted during the Examination Process.

2. A New Mercian Hymn (for the Regional Spatial Strategy)

King of the West Midlands Heritage, Local Distinctiveness :
Overlord for Sustainable Transport : Architect of
Renaissance in the Major Urban Areas and Telford,
Regeneration in the North Staffordshire Conurbation :
Master of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment :
Protector of Natural Habitats : Contractor to Location
Appropriate Place-Making in the Shire Counties :
Financier : Manufacturer : Commissioner for Rural
Communities : Friend of the Social Landlord, the Old
And New Economies.

“I like that” said Offa, “SEA EU again”.**

* In the original poem a metaphorical King Offa is part-humorously invoked as the Genius Loci of Mercia/the West Midlands Region
** My poem is also an invocation to Offa, this time re-constructed as Contractor for Eco-Logical Infrastructure and Low-Carbon Development, and, indeed as “Sewer King” – re-calling the Fisher King of Ancient British and Anglo-Celtic Arthurian Myth – to allay the Welsh Assembly’s and others’ concerns about “Water Issues”.

24 June 2009

Further posts (3 & 16 June)  on King Offa & Mercian Hymns can be found @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com

An Olympic-sized Saving : End of the Road for Thames Gateway Bridge

Transport for London scraps plans for six-lane road bridge

London Mayor Boris Johnson scraps scheme amid strong opposition from environmental campaigners

• John Vidal and Dan Milmo
• From The Guardian, Thursday November 6 2008 11.48 GMT

One proposed design for the six-lane east London crossing

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, has shelved £3.5bn of transport schemes in the capital, including the Thames Gateway bridge, as part of multibillion-pound cost cuts.

Johnson said today the move ended the “deception” of his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who had ordered officials to draw up plans for the Thames Gateway project amid strong opposition from environmental campaigners.

“I am stopping the deception of keeping hopes alive when there is no funding for these schemes,” said Johnson….

Alastair Darling’s “Sybil” on Global & UK Economic Outlook

 

“Sybil is free to roam wherever she wants”

www.telegraph.co.uk

Following an interview with former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on BBC Radio 4 this morning, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s cat, Sybil, has decided to break her silence on the Cat Waves : a facility whereby moggies are able to communicate over long distances.

Sybil offers a more balanced view of the global and UK economic outlook than Mr Prescott. “We are looking at conditions more akin to the 1970s than the 1920s”, she said. ”References to the financial crises of the late 1920s are intended to cover up the basic (in fact, core) incompetences of present day bankers and government  regulators”, argues Sybil, ” and to distract attention away from the mistakes made by the Chancellor’s predecessor and his advisers. The banking sector is also due some much needed re-structuring”, she added, ” along with the wider British economy. This will be uncomfortable for us all in the short-medium term, but necessary for longer-term economic and, equally important, environmental sustainability. Similar adjustments are required in the global context”. With these words, Sybil resumed stalking the gardens of Downing Street.