Monday 7 January 2008

DECISION FIRST CONSULTATION SECOND

I arrived home from work today to find one of Somerset County Council's delightful self congratulatory news letters waiting for me. Now in my capacity as the official household small print reader I thought I'd better cast a beady eye over it. Under the heading "Are you throwing hard cash away" I read such gems as "When cooking for a family, get the right portion per person" and "Check what's in your cupboard or freezer before you shop for more".

Now as you can imagine this sort of inane rubbish was hardly what I needed when tired and hungry , the last thing on my mind was wasting food, I just wanted to be tasting food. So I read on big mistake!

It seems my local council want my views on "THE POWER OF NATURE" a fun survey about "The Somerset wind Energy Initiative". Hmmm....... me thinks, Somerset doesn't seem the most obvious place for wind farms. Anyway I read on and here are the first few questions (answers - yes/no/don't know).

Do you believe the UK should develop its renewable energy potential?
Do you believe that Somerset should be developing its renewable energy potential?

Do you believe the UK should be developing its wind power potential?
Do you believe Somerset should be developing its wind power potential?

And so on.

Anyway this made me curious as to why they were really asking, so I did a quick search and lo and behold they are planning to stick some big beasties up on the County owned farms and of course get a share of the action. More details below in the Western Mercury.

This really is the worst form of pretend consultation, I will however send it back and it won't have the answers on they are hoping for.

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/news/story.aspx?brand=Westonmercury&category=news&tBrand=westonmercury&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeED18%20Apr%202007%2011%3A54%3A09%3A890

Quote

"One large turbine would be able to provide power for the whole of Wedmore. It's a small price to pay to help the planet and we all need take responsibility at a local level."

According to the 2001 census the population of Wedmore is 3145. Mind you it's not very windy below sea level either.

10 comments:

Newmania said...

Mrs. SP I just love your title, that sums up the new problem of an assymetry of information and how the governing classes use it .

Consultation is used to sell things and the worst example I knew was on a Parking scheme in Islington.
The best post of yours I have read so far

Nice work.

Anonymous said...

Would ye leek a wee shag Mrs Smallprint? It wuid hulp prove I'm no' gay an' I'd let ye have one of ma' bawgies afterwairrd.

Mrs Smallprint said...

Hi Mr N.

Thanks for the kind words.

GB snot gobbler

I'll pass on that as I've never been inclined to smoke, plus I've always thought the Gay Gordons an undignified affair!

Trubes said...

Good article Mrs Smallprint,
Loved your response to Gordon brown S.G.said, Hillarious ! Put him back in his box, dirty little tick !
My first visit to your Blog and I like it.

Di.

Vintage to Victorian said...

Well hello Mrs Smallprint! Lovely to hear from you. Can't believe I haven't seen you at all for most of 2007. It was of course Charlie who gave the game away - didn't immediately recognise your back view!!!

Turn up for the books, my news, isn't it! Should perhaps come and see you or Mr SP.

By the way, do you still want plain square p/cases? I found some recently!

Happy New Year etc etc and hope to see you soon!
Sue

CFD Ed said...

They put that in there so they can later claim there is a public demand for a windfarm.

Re: “One large turbine would be able to provide power for the whole of Wedmore”.

They left out the small print entirely here - The caveats about “..in a galeforce wind. Otherwise it will *average round about a third of that if you are lucky.”

*On a still day it will be around zero.

Mrs Smallprint said...

Hi Phil

Somerset County Council are well known for hiding the small print, and their newsletter is designed for key stage 1.

lilith said...

Surely we should be setting up hydro/restoring all the water generators? Got some fierce rivers in Somerset, not to mention the odd waterfall...At least the Government didn't get to amalgamate all the regional councils....yet...

lilith said...

I have a friend in Ireland who owns a trickle of water running down a hill. You can't see the hydro. He earns £80,000 a year from the power companies and skips when it rains...

Mrs Smallprint said...

Hi Lilith

When do we form the Somerset Water Power Company?

Mrs S.