Bakewell Green is a free service, launched today, for residents, visitors and anyone with even just the most remote connection with the town of Bakewell, which nestles in the valley of Derbyshire's river Wye in the heart of the Peak District.
Use Bakewell Green to make your views known by simply clicking on "comments" and making your own comments in the window. You can comment anonymously if you wish but your comments will have more impact if you care to say who you are. It's entirely up to you.
A number of issues have come to light recently, that show the need for a more accountable environmental body based in Bakewell. The new group will not be acting as a Community Interest Company (CIC) with share capital, and will not be driven by the need for profit or paying its shareholders. In addition anyone who feels they have something to offer a truly equitable and green movement is free to join. The local environment will not be forced into compromise and the local wildlife and natural resources will be not be harmed.
There are few towns in England with residents so in touch with their environment as Bakewell. The river gives us safe, cool paddling on hot summer days, laughs with the raft and duck races and continual wonder at the size of trout. The countryside offers some fantastic walks, up Combs, up Intake, along the trail or up to Ashford. Curlew and Lapwing can be heard and seen on the tops while the sparrow hawk raids gardens back in town.
One should only take the workable and renewable resources from the treasury that is Nature and put back when we can. We are currently experiencing the policy of a previous Government, which rushed to avoid fines and set unreachable renewable energy targets. Everyone wants to do their bit but what seems to be a good idea on the face of it is putting Nature in danger for fifty years and so we are not going to allow the same BAD HYDRO decisions that have been made in New Mills and other places, to be made in Bakewell.
About time too!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing what you have to say. Well done on kicking this off.
ReplyDeleteI'll help in any way I can, keep me posted with any news.
ReplyDeleteSteve Cullen
This blog is a bit like standing in the middle of a meadow and shouting - no-one will hear what you have to say.
ReplyDeleteYou need to have an organised presence in the social media, in places where decision makers and influencers and their associated PR machines hang out.
So this is a nice thought but, in its present form, an ineffective one.
Why not contact the 'CEO' of this proposed company direct with your thoughts? Or perhaps a link to this blog, so he has an opportunity to respond.
ReplyDeleteHere, from the public domain, is his email address
dan@advantage-mgmt.co.uk
If you look at his website (www.advantage-mgmt.co.uk) you will see that he has absolutely no experience of implementing a scheme like this - no qualfications relevant to environmental impact.
Here's another link from:-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.planningforclimatechange.org.uk/sustainable-bakewells-hydro-study-tour/
QUOTE:
<> Yes, Dan, you bet we want to get updates... please sign up now, let him know your thoughts. Remember fact based reasoning is more effective than emotion.
Here's a piece about New Mills Hydro.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/nhQ6Ak
It all looks very positive note that it is a different commercial model to the Bakewell proposal.
Does anyone know any more about it?
Here, for instance is a forum thread on this very subject
http://bit.ly/r9p2PI
note in particular the post from The Woodman with some useful facts and figures. Can anyone do the sums for the Wye and show whether it will ever be profitable or not?
There's a hydro in place already on the Wye - seems to be ok
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haddonestate.co.uk/renewable/hydro.php
What's the problem with putting another one in?
You have to start somewhere. I fully support the view that the cost here of only 4Kw is ridiculously high. The more support the better, so try and get others to show support on their blogs, I will. Suggest also that you involve the WTT.
ReplyDeleteIf you sign up for more information I bet you become a member.
ReplyDeleteNow that's the kind of info you don't get with the normal 'spin' and hype. Useful, thanks
ReplyDeleteRun of river micro hydro has been abandoned as uneconomical in Sweden (in all but two rivers that run down 45 degree mountainsides!). When you factor in the ecological cost on top of the lack of financial viability, this just does not stack up. It is also conning the investors to sell it as a "green" option.
ReplyDeleteThe above post that was removed was an admin mistake. According to a local businessman overlooking the Torrs project, who classed it as a nightmare and the planners grossly overestimated the cost. The turbine keeps blocking up with silt, gravel and rubbish and there has been extra work carried out to quieten the screw. What materials were needed to make the 40' long screw, ship the screen from Germany and run tractor trailers constantly for 6 months? The project ran 10x over budget and you might as well lit the fire with the business plan'.
ReplyDelete