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The Bradworthy Wind Turbines
Councillor
Christie's Weblog
From your Torridge District Councillor Peter Christie
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9th December '07
It is fascinating what one hears in passing. A few weeks ago at a council meeting the local police were reporting on the state of crime in the town. We heard about the problem of vagrants sleeping rough, the ongoing issues with graffiti and school crossing patrols at East-the-Water. Mention of the last place prompted questions as to when the two long promised and now finally paid for CCTV cameras would be erected? The answer was not at the moment as there was a severe shortage of the steel mounting poles for them as China has apparently been buying up all the iron in the world to fuel its explosive industrial growth – thus leaving none for Bideford! So before you rush out and buy those cheap Chinese made Christmas presents ask yourself ‘am I exacerbating crime levels in Bideford by purchasing these goods?’ Let’s hope that by the time you read this the powers that be will have located a few steel poles that the Chinese haven’t managed to purchase.
The current drive announced by the government to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming is admirable – but as so often it is not that easy to turn political rhetoric into practical results on the ground – especially when it comes to house building firms. How do you build a ‘low carbon’ house? Well luckily for local builders Regen South West the government backed group pushing the renewables agenda in this area is putting on a competition ‘looking to reward the five biggest and most ambitious new housing schemes in the region by giving winners specialist technical support.’ What this means in reality is that the winners will get help preparing energy plans for their new developments that do actually cut the ‘carbon footprint’. The closing date for entries is 21 December and an application form is available from www.regensw.co.uk/press/docs-index.asp. I mention this as with the huge new housing developments planned at East-the-Water it would be good to think that the builders concerned are taking a long term and sustainable view of their responsibilities – and in any case ‘low carbon’ houses mean significant savings in energy use – surely a good selling point? Unfortunately planning departments cannot yet insist on new developments meeting these new aspirational targets but again this could be something our MP might like to take up and push for.
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