County

Scrutiny

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This month we looked at the problems with alcohol consumption.  Many of us enjoy a social drink but a minority take consumption to excess.  I am sure we have all seen pictures of young people staggering about town centres and fights outside pubs and clubs. 

We tried to get a better grasp of the issue, particularly the cost to the individuals, the health service and the economy.  Of these the cost of long term health problems was the most significant, some £26 Million for hospital admissions and £729,000 for A & E visits.

A number of Health Service programmes are underway to identify people at risk earlier and get them the help they need.

We were impressed by the trading standards actions to reduce sales to those under age and the responsible attitude of the Co-Op who are making their staff training programmes available to smaller retailers.

The most obvious area for County activity is education.  Schools, both primary and secondary have PSHE (Personal Social & Health Education), which covers issues like a sensible approach to alcohol, in the curriculum.  Unfortunately it is not mandatory so some schools, we were told, don’t spend much time on it.  We will be emphasising the importance of the subject to school governors.

Energy, Gt_Blakenham

Pylon Lines

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National Grid have been under pressure in Somerset as well as Suffolk to consider seriously a wider range range of options for reinforcing the grid.  They have just released the following news release that shows some movement.  Keep your fingures crossed.

NATIONAL GRID TO PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION ON HINKLEY POINT CONNECTION PROJECT

National Grid has announced plans to hold a series of events to further explain the background to its proposals for a new overhead electricity line between Bridgwater and Avonmouth.  

The first phase of consultation on two potential route corridors for a new overhead line to connect the proposed new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station ended on 22 January.

Since then the company has been analysing the extensive feedback received from local residents.  The 14-week consultation period prompted more than 2000 feedback forms, 1100 emails and letters and 100 telephone calls to the project helpline.  Around 4500 people attended the 17 public exhibitions held along the potential routes. 

From the feedback received, it has become clear that many people would like more information on the background to the project and the other connection options which National Grid considered before publishing its proposals.

In particular it is apparent that people want more information about alternatives to overhead power lines, such as underground or subsea cables.

National Grid is now planning to publish more information to explain how it arrived at its proposals, and will also provide new opportunities for local people to discuss them with the project team.

We will send information to all 37,000 homes within the original consultation area, and hold further briefings to local councils and public information events.   Full details of when these events will take place will be announced shortly. 

National Grid’s major project manager David Mercer said:  “We are grateful to everyone who responded to our consultation. The opinions of residents are very important to us and will play a vital role in any decisions we make.

“Since the initial consultation period ended we have been looking at all the feedback and reflecting on the issues it has raised, and it is very clear that people need more information about alternatives to overhead power lines and pylons. 

“In response to these concerns, we have decided to provide both written information and further opportunities for local people to meet the project team, and would welcome further public comments.”

A new power line is needed to connect the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C.  Depending upon the final route, the new line would be approximately 37 miles long and is planned to be constructed in 2016. 

Gt_Blakenham, Waste

Waste and Our Environment

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I have visited one Incinerator at Heath Road Hospital and one MBT Plant at Donarbon in Cambridge http://www.donarbon.com/  How sad can you get?

Our visit to Donarbon in Cambridge was interesting.  The plant is still in its test phase prior to handover but was clean tidy, except for the festoons of video tape and from the outside looked like any other modern industrial building.  

Cambridge re-cycles high portion of waste through Peterborough and GT Blakenham.  It treats garden waste by windrow composting and kitchen waste by in vessel composting.  The output is sold to farmers and gardeners as the process is certified safe. 

Their “black bin” residual waste is processed by an MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plant to avoid paying LATS (Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme) penalties by stabilising the waste, reducing biological activity by 70%, as measured by oxygen take up.  Suffolk has never appeared clear that this is so but it is:  I checked the regulations.  MBT plant output can be stabilised waste or refuse derived fuel that can be sold.  We were that there is a market and this fuel and it is classed biomass as recyclate has been removed before burning takes place. 

The cost of the MBT plant is about £40 M under a PFI.  Suffolk’s large mass burn Incinerator (sorry, Energy from Waste Plant) will cost a lot more in a 30 year £600 M PFI contract.  Expensive flue gas clean up is required as black bin waste has a number of contaminants that must be extracted from the flue gas to tight EU regulations.  (Three chears for the European Union).  We were told that the best way to build a mass burn system is to go through MBT first taking the pollutants out before burning rather than spend a fortune extracting them afterwards. 

Ironically the number of large incinerators built is causing a shortage of waste and Incinerator operators in Europe are importing waste at Euro 20 per tonne to keep the beast running.

Food for thought!

Barmford, Energy

Giant 400kV Pylon Line

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The National Grid wants to build a new 400kV line of pylons from Bramford to Essex to carry the power from Sizewell and massive North Sea wind farms to London. 

This link is essential in some form if we put windfarms in the North Sea  but, as an overhead line, is damaging to our countryside, our environment and tourist trade.  It is an eyesore least damaging alongside the present line.  However an overhead line is not the only option.  It is possible, at a cost, to put the cables underground.  We are told that will cost at least 17 times the cost of an overhead line.  Perhapse £26 million per kM instead of £1.5 million for 30 kM.  Countries in Europe claim the cost ratio can be as low as 7 times. 

A further possibility would be to run the cables under the sea but that again is expensive

We need to be sure the options have been analysed thouroughly and give full weight to the impact on our quality of life.

As councillors we are preparing our response.  You should make your views known through the consultation at the National Grid www site.

For those interested in the data looks like this:

The uk uses about 60 Giga Watts (GW) in the winter at peak

Sizewell B is 1.3 GW and Sizewell C will be 3.2 GW (if it happens)

Offshore Wind  0.5 GW under development  5.0 GW just agreed

Total 10 GW that needs to get to London and one 400kv line caries about 6.4 GW

This would power several million homes

Education

School Improvement

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I have been concerned that the focus on converting three tier schools to two tier would absorb management effort and allow overall standards to fall.  This year our schools have again not kept up with national improvement but at last the administration has responded to government pressure.  The new school improvement plan identifies the issues, necessary improvements and most importantly the support schools need to make the changes.  Our children deserve the best so this is a welcome but overdue step forward.

Care

Care for an Ageing Population

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The County is developing “Suffolk Flexicare” which it states, aims to “to focus planners and expert providers on the needs of an ageing population, to bring innovation and more flexibility helping people to remain independent”.  This will bring change across the spectrum of care and has both good elements and risk to existing services.  I hope that good proven conventional services will not be jeopardised by spend on politically correct innovation.

Gt_Blakenham, Highways

Speeding Reduction

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We are planning to trial vehicle activated electronic signs in the area and measure their effect.  I am working on this in a group involving the Police and County Highways.  We intend to settle the debate on the most effective way of reducing anti social speeding at an acceptable cost.  This will lead to less argument and more action. 

The plan is to run the trial in Bramford, Claydon, Gt Blakenham, Henley and Somersham using several approaches.  We should have two semi permanent, solar cell powered, 30 mph signs that illuminate when vehicles pass at more than the speed limit and one that displays a vehicle’s speed.  There will also be extra speed guns in each Safer Neighbourhood Team area.

One additional permanent sign in this area will be funded by my locality budget for road improvements

County

10:10 Commitment

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At the last meeting of the County Council the Liberal Democrats attempted to sign the council up to the 10:10 campaign, a pledge to show leadership and reduce our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Surprisingly the debate led to the discovery that a number of Conservative members are not convinced that climate change is actually happening!  You would think that the almost universal scientific acceptance would have convinced all but those with vested interests. 

Instead of a 10% reduction in one year then returning to the administrations target of 4% they stuck to the Greenest County target of  just 4% per year

Gt_Blakenham, Waste

The Waste Core Strategy December 09

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The “Waste Core Strategy” has been revised after consultation and on 10th December was approved by the County Council for submission to the Government.  This strategy gives the policies by which planning applications for waste processing facilities will be judged and the possible sites for large “strategic” facilities.

Waste quantities are dropping and have saved the County about £1.8million this year and Eastern Region waste estimates are being revised downwards.  This should cut the number of waste processing facilities Suffolk needs, particularly when the number of smaller sites that are likely to be built is taken into account.

The County now believes it needs four not five strategic sites and we are heading towards two being sufficient.  The chance that Gipping Valley will be faced with two large waste treatment sites in Gt Blakenham and a third at Sproughton is reducing.  

I will continue to emphasise this reduced need as we move through the final stages of the plan process.  My belief remains that Suffolk’s waste would be better handled nearer to source by smaller more environmentally friendly anerobic digestion plants.  However the administration is firmly fixed on an Incinerator (Energr from Waste Plant).  Smaller plants that would lend themselves to combined heating and power (CHP) would be less difficult to finance quicker to build and less dominating in our environment.

Highways

Signals at Bramford Road / B1113 Junction

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The County Highways road safety team has obtained funding to install traffic signals at the B1113 Bramford Road junction in Gt Blakenham.  They will control traffic from the Claydon Roundabout turning right towards Gt Blakenham and that from Bramford preventing further serious accidents and fatalities.  We should see the signals in place around the end of the financial year.

Gipping Valley News from John Field