Current Topics
Wind Turbines
Our previously unspoilt countryside is being threatened by a rash of wind farms. These generate relatively small amounts of power in favourable weather conditions but do not make any significant contribution to the nation's power demands. On a big scale (the only way to make them efficient) they could reduce our unspoilt countryside to an industrial mess. At the same time, they are profitable to big energy companies and useful as a box-ticking exercise towards green credentials. The main supporters are big companies who will make profit and self-appointed do-gooders who think that all wind power must be good, no matter how ineffectual or how much blight to the environment. The science is against them but they are happy to damage the environment.
Ineffectual?
The three power stations most visible from Hartcliff or Royd Moor are: Eggborough (about 2,000 MegaWatt), Selby (about the same) and Drax (about 4,000 MW), capable of about 8,000 MegaWatts (the same as 8 GigaWatts) in total. Each of the five super turbines which were planned for Cranberry was rated at 3 MW, totalling 15 MW in very favourable weather conditions. That's quite a lot but insignificant compared to the three power stations. The ratio is 15/8000 or 0.19% - on a good day. On a calm day there might not even be enough power generated to boil an egg. Off-shore wind farms make the best sense. They can be bigger, with more turbines and the off-shore daily wind patterns are more consistent than on land.
In 2009, plans were rejected by Barnsley council for huge and controversial 410ft high turbines near Cranberry Crossroads, the so-called Sheephouse Heights turbines. A pressure group sprang up against them in 2008 - 'Protect Sheephouse Heights'. Labour and Conservative MPs and Sheffield City Council objected to them but 'Friends of the Earth' were in favour.
BOLT Action Group
This is based at Birdsedge. Here is the (slightly abridged) message from them, March 2010:
"You may have been to the “Community Consultation Days" by the developers, Pure Renewable Energies, on the subject of their proposed application for 4 massive wind turbines just 400 metres from the nearest homes at the top of Birdsedge Lane. If you didn't get an invitation from them well - there you go! Many folk only heard about it from BOLT rather than the developers, but despite of their lack of advertising there was a substantial turnout. The content of this “consultation” attracted anger and derision from many locals including the BOLT Committee. The arrogant attitude of the developers and the bizarre displays which included irrelevant and misleading photo-montages were plain to see. One particularly important complaint about the photo-montages concerns the fact that the cumulative effect of other wind turbines in the area (Blackstone Edge and Spicer House) were not shown, thus diminishing this important impact of living in this area."
"As a consequence of this travesty BOLT has decided to mount its own public exhibition, in the Village Hall this coming Saturday 27th March between 12 noon and 4pm to explain to the general public what we know about the development and raise funds to fight the application when it comes. Lastly if you were equally angered by the developers public consultation you may like to let them and the council know, via these email addresses: alan.irvine@esh.uk.com, adrian.miller@esh.uk.com, brian.manning@esh.uk.com, nick.willock@kirklees.gov.uk "
"Hope to see you at our exhibition on the 27th March 12.00 till 4.00 in Birdsedge Village Hall"
Woodhead Tunnel
A Cheshire-based campaign group are trying to reinstate railway use of the tunnel (Pen Show 2008). TV's Ann Robinson was also on the case. With the announcement that the
national grid want to move their trans-pennine power lines to the newer Woodhead railway tunnel, what with all those wind turbines and an electrical network that is approaching its limit, any hopes that the Yorkshire-Lancashire rail line will re-open are somewhat dashed. See: www.savethewoodheadtunnel.blogspot.com
Mottram Bypass
I admit to not taking interest in this but many local people are concerned about increased traffic from the proposed Bypass. The large Thurlstone/Millhouse housing project adds to the traffic and the massive Tesco will bring in more.
Boundary Commission
The political boundary has been re-drawn for future General Elections and in 2010 we are lumped with Stocksbridge. We might appear to be near-neighbours on the map but there is a blooming great hill that separates us geographically and we do not have much in common. In fact we used to be 'at war' in the fifties when motorbike gangs went from one town to the other to cause trouble. Another thing is that Stocksbridge is administered from Sheffield while we are subservient to Barnsley. The new boundaries are supposed to be similar to very old ones. See Wikipedia.
Done Deals and Dead Topics
Tesco 'Food Supermarket'
People will continue to talk about it but there's little point whingeing any more about the proposed 'food supermarket' on the edge of the Showground. It had long been a 'done deal' behind closed doors, no matter what local people thought (unlike the Holmfirth Tesco which was rejected). Will it ruin local businesses? Will its location damage Penistone events? Two-hour parking only? PRALS Protest group formed 2006 against proposed location of supermarket. 'Market Town or cloned Supermarket Town?'
Some details have changed. The retail market is likely to be covered, pending planning permission, but the planners are in the pocket of the developers so it is not certain. Other planning variations have been applied for by the developers but they refer to documents which are not open to public scrutiny. (Page link removed)
BMBC Matters
- Like a festering rash. I used to work in the Barnsley area and I knew a lot of good down-to-earth Barnsley people. Their political masters at Barnsley council are not the same breed as them but sneaky, arrogant and conniving. Not the same as the ordinary council employees who do a very good job.
The Barnsley coat of arms motto reads 'Spectemur Agendo', which means 'Judge Us by Our Actions' and I take up their invitation. Not that it makes any difference as they won't listen. Their latest propaganda trumpeting 'public scrutiny' talks of scrutiny panels on clearly defined subject areas. One striking omission is a scrutiny panel on council decision-making and accountability. That tells you something, doesn't it?
Barnsley Council (BMBC) don't like Penistone much and don't do much for us, while they absolutely love council our tax money and splash it around with glee on dotty schemes. Think of the Tuscan Village, the halo light, £9m spent on consultants, £3m funding to a football club, etc. Rampant and relentless housing development generates heaps of money. It was said by a Barnsley councillor some years ago that their bad attitude to Penistone was because of Penistone's voting patterns. That message has been repeated over the years but it is self-defeating. First it admits that they don't support us and second it suggests that we might be bullied into submission.
BMBC has a veneer of democracy with some public participation but it's all puff and no substance. There is a lot of talk about openness on the BMBC website to tick the boxes. Serious decisions are made in private, using the Local Government Act to exclude public and media scrutiny (as in Penistone's supermarket plans), which has led Barnsley Chronicle to complain about excessive secrecy in decision-making.
Service Cuts - but Lots of Dosh
Looking back over the years, there have been a lot of changes in Penistone. We used to have a labour exchange ('jobcentre'), ambulance station, two fire engines, a fully-manned cop shop and an historic livestock market. That was when Penistone had half the population it has now and much less money went to Barnsley council. The old employment exchange is long gone, the ambulance station has been replaced by a rapid response unit and the cop shop is lightly manned and difficult to contact. A good old people's home was closed to save money.
Change
Our historic livestock market was closed to save a few grand and make room for a supermarket (a 'done deal' reported in the papers), then something like £120k of 'Heritage' money was found for a (needed) skateboard park. And why build it there instead of, say, Church View Road? What was more 'Heritage' - a skateboard park or an historic market? No, I didn't get it either. A local builder wondered why it cost any more than about thirty grand.
Planning permission was granted for 141 new houses in the small village of Millhouse Green against the wishes of local people and our local council (is it ever refused?). I heard that there were in fact two lots of planning permission and, after some creative confusion, more houses were built than was originally understood. That sleepy village is now bigger but the infrastructure is the same. Extra traffic will be added by Mottram bypass and Bridge End will become yet more of a bottleneck. Anyone entering Penistone from Huddersfield will experience yet more hassle trying to join the main road. It is time that the traffic lights were extended on to Huddersfield Road, with a box junction in the middle.
National Grid want to move power lines from the older to the newer Woodhead railway tunnel and this will prevent the possibility of re-opening the railway line. It might assist the swathe of wind farms that are being planned because there needs to be more capacity in the grid. Most electrical generation is in the north and most consumption is in the south. Quite a lot of power is lost in the transmission lines to the south.
A few more houses are to arrive at Bridge End and four new dwellings are planned for the very narrow ridge of land near the viaduct on a spot which was formerly a viewing point for the valley, with a very sheer drop behind into the Don. No point playing footie in their back gardens if they have any. A row of 'pointy' and very tall dwellings is planned for opposite the British Legion, but developers had to re-submitted plans because of their imposing height. After three rejections, they conceded something like the height of a brick. They were playing some sort of attrition game with the planners, who are usually in their pockets anyway. Very odd.
A block of affordable flats was advertised for Green Road but 'Saunderson Gardens' were built there instead, which don't quite fit their social housing surroundings. They look more like Kensington Gardens. They don't appear to have any gardens.
Old people's homes in Barnsley area (including Penistone's Green Park House) were closed to save money just when £3,000,000 of public money was given to Barnsley football club, with no mention in the 'where it all goes' Council Tax leaflet which they send out with tax demands. Now they have saved the £350,000 needed to bring Green Park House old folks' home up to standard - by closing it down. Sounds a lot but it works out at less than two Barnsley council executives (salary, pensions, etc.)
In 2005-2006, the chief Executive of Barnsley Council was paid £116,611.00 and his mate the Executive Director had £104,718.00, including extras (See Taxpayer's Alliance), with expenses on top. Mustn't forget the expenses, must we? They must have had more responsibility than the prime minister (£75k at the time). Barnsley Chronicle letters caused a furious backlash from top councillors when someone questioned expenses. That particular nerve was touched long before the MPs' expenses fiasco of 2009. The newspaper spotlight will fall on councillor expenses, salaries and pensions sooner or later. That will be great fun for we mortals but these people are very good at covering up their slimy trails.
The Showground was donated to the people of Penistone by a local farmer but BMBC acquired 'ownership' of it (stole it) after local government reorganisation in 1974, as they did our Town Hall (and bumped up the fees). The late George Punt was looking into the ownership of the Town Hall but Barnsley archives conveniently lost or misplaced most if not all of the old records, deeds and other documents which were sent there in the 1970s. Much of Penistone's written history has been lost by those charged to keep them safe.
In the 1990s, BMBC drew up detailed street plans to build a housing estate on the Showground. Now they have granted permission for a massive Tesco to be built right on the edge. A lot of Penistone people want a new and better supermarket but object to the proposed Tesco location. Mind you they were also opposed Davmar's (same people as Dransfield's) earlier plans to flatten the vicarage and put a 'plastic' supermarket there. That was sold as 'focus on revitalising retail trade in Penistone'. As though planting a new supermarket in Penistone would boost competing businesses. Yup. They even claimed 'highway improvements to increase ROAD SAFETY' (their capital letters). So, put a new supermarket near a busy junction and you will have fewer accidents. Yea, right. Anyway, the plans weren't passed.
The 'Busy Bees' nursery was originally planned to go on another chunk of the Showground area in a location remote from where most young families live in Penistone. Local opposition was fierce but for once had some effect. The extremely well-funded (into £millions nationally) BBs charity changed direction and have now moved into the old National School on Church Street. It has been radically extended and renovated at great cost. It is not clear who paid for the work or who now owns and maintains the enlarged building but it had been adopted by a local 'gentlemen's club' for a time.
Local Council Matters
Unlike Barnsley council politicos, our local council do a good job and I think that most councillors serve the public interest rather than their own. Much of their good work goes unnoticed and unappreciated and I know that there are good people on our council who carefully listen to local concerns. But we should still keep a watchful eye on council activities in general and not shy away from comment when we are right and they are wrong. I have been on committees and know how 'groupthink' can drift people away from core values.
The Great Organ Blunder
Organ concerts are hugely popular and a great 'selling point' for our town. They bring in a lot of visitors (also called 'trade') and we need plenty of them. Unfortunately, a major fall-out developed in 2003 between the council and the Organ Trust. It started small and turned nasty and nobody would give ground. Even the routine maintenance access was obstructed out of spitefulness.
An apology was demanded from an Organ Trust supporter about allegedly insulting behaviour from the driver of a vehicle organised by them, which had been legally and properly parked outside the town hall. The story goes that he had been ordered (in an allegedly domineering style) to move his vehicle. His reply might have been unfit to print. The council demanded a personal apology from the individual concerned but the Organ Trust was not able to apologise on his behalf and the situation escalated. Labour MP Michael Clapham offered to ask the Bishop of York as arbiter. That was rejected by the council but their reluctance to allow outside scrutiny implied that they had a weak hand. It could have been just 'damage limitation'. The story reached newspapers and regional TV news with much derision about what looked like stupid obstinacy.
The bad feeling dragged on for months and the Organ Trust talked of relocating the organ out of Penistone at the end of their 2008 lease. Compensation was quietly granted for the organist's loss of earnings during an 'in camera' council meeting 'in the public interest'. You know how that goes. After tempers had cooled down and the national media had lost interest, the council made an effort to calm the matter down and the threat to remove the organ reduced somewhat. It was a barmy demonstration of small-town politics that did no-one any good. It all appears to be sorted out now.
They Aint Bad Really
All things considered, I don't grumble much about our council as they usually get things right and I know that a lot of dedication and personal sacrifice goes into being on the accountable side of the council. Of those, I have admiration and it is a shame that they seldom receive praise. Anyway, we can always dump any elected councillors who stray away from the straight and narrow. Then they'll be quietly co-opted back. This photo is of the Town Council assembly of 2010.
Good Intentions? - Carry A Bag
I am big on the environment. I always recycle my spent beer into the local sewage plant and none of my light bulbs are of the incandescent variety. The bag campaign ticks a tiny green box but it might sometimes 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'. In my case, the move against plastic bags has led to more pollution.
Let me explain. I used to put household waste in Co-op carrier bags because I knew that they were bio-degradable. I discovered this for myself when I stored some old things in a back bedroom and the bags disintegrated. Now they are being phased out and I have to use bin-liners, which are not biodegradable, in my kichen waste bin. The 'Carry-a-Bag' website warns that non-biodegradable carrier bags go into landfill to last for centuries and carrier bags get into the sea to kill sea creatures. We are about eighty miles from either coast. I am not wholly convinced about some of the arguments but it makes for a good debate with the self-appointed do-gooders.
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