Flaming slag heaps! I see the Tories at Medway Council have given permission for a new, coal-fired power station to be built near Rochester. I presume the irony of their website promising a £200 fine for anyone smoking in a public place has been lost on them, and that us poor so-and-sos down here in the tip of Kent will just have to put up with their secondhand emissions wafting over us on the prevailing westerlies.Quite why they have to build these dinosaur power plants when we live on a peninsula, surrounded by wind and waves, is beyond me. Still, at least it gives the lie to the Conservatives' cuddly new green sweaters!
Click here for BBC story
Click here for Medway Council
12 comments:
Wondered if your mate Noel had told you about this?
WAS IT WIN OR NO WIN FOR MARK IN TELLY QUIZ
The son of Thanet council leader Sandy Ezekiel will be appearing in top telly show Deal or No Deal.
Mark, owner of the Dalby Cafe in Cliftonville, has already recorded the shows but is keeping quiet about how he got on, to avoid spoiling it for family and friends, until it is broadcast.
Mark, 36, has never been in a quiz show before but watched Noel Edmonds' show with his grandparents Norman and Anne.
He said: "Being on the show was one of the best times of my life. The filming brought everyone together and we will all stay in touch. Contestants forget about work and focus on their aspirations.
"It was nerve-racking at first being in front of the cameras but after a while you relax. Noel asked if I watched the show all the time and I made the mistake of saying: 'Why would I watch a has-been?' I'm sure they will edit that out.
"I don't want to say how I got on until my final show goes out on January 17. My grandparents love the show and I don't want to spoil it. It would be like knowing the football score before a match.
"Contestants stayed in a hotel in Bristol for the 10 days of filming. We filmed three shows a day from early morning until evening. We would drink in the hotel together afterwards and the people who won would chip in money to help out people who didn't do so well."
I have no problems about this! There is cleaner coal fired technology around and whether were burning gas or coal the co2 margins are minimal! It was madness to build so many gas powered power stations (limited supplies) and more useful use of gas is in homes. As we have dismally failed in the past 10 years to resolve an energy plan for this country for the next 50 years, any steps that will enable coal to be used makes sense; I predict we will be mining an awful lot of coal in this country by 2050 unless we get off the fence and go for nuclear.
I wonder whether they will be getting in touch with the worker buy out of Tower Colliery Wales ?
And their pioneering work with University of Glamorgan in developing eco fuel ? A combination of household waste and coal to create a clean fuel ?
If only we had kept the mines open and developed the technology eh ?
If it was burning Kent coal it might have made sense but Thatcher shut all the mines so presumably the coal will be imported from Poland or somewhere, what will the carbon footprint of that be?
If they put catalytic converters as well at electro static precipitators between the flue and the vent to atmosphere (chimney)
The gas comming out would proborbly be cleaner that the air goin in
I agree with the last blogger - it only makes sense to have a new coal-powered power station if Kent Coal is used - let's re-open the pits at Betteshanger, Snowdown and Tilmanstone and create some local jobs - or is this too novel a concept for some ears? Strange how even just writing those names down brings back so many memories of Ramsgate during the miner's strike etc..
The miners strike was faught pretty hard here in Kent. Anyone remember the harbour blockade?
"Prevailin' Westerlies"?
From Rochester??? You're holding that gold plated GPS of yours upside down ER!!
We probably wouldn't need all this energy if so much of it wasn't wasted.
Still, just like people being encouraged to spend beyond their means by finance companies and people being encouraged to travel on their own in cars by rail companies, it comes as no big surprise.
And Nether(regions)court, have they moved Rochester to the East, then?
Nethercourt, winds are described in terms of where they are blowing from not to. So Dickie is quite right in describing prevailing westerlies (more accurately SW winds in this country) bring noxious fumes! However, we are down wind from much of the pollution in London and Thanet's clearest air tends to be NE but with cooler consequences in summer and bitterly cold in Winter.
Phew! I knew that Sea Scout training would eventually come in useful for something!
Interesting to see this coal plant is being built by eon, the folk who are advertising wind turbines as the future of electricity generation. Shurely some mistake?
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