Holiday roundup No 1 - week ending 26 July

I’m on holiday at the moment, in Brittany, so viewing Haslemere events (if such they can be called) from afar.

As might be expected in late July, there isn’t really much to report.  Nikki Barton has not updated her blog since last week a sudden rush of blood to the head led her to report on the last three weeks and so let us know “where was Nikki?”

The “Yellow Peril” haslemereparkingdotcom is reduced to reporting on a “victory” against increases in on-street parking charges – in the neighbouring (?) borough of Barnet (that’s to the north of London, in case you didn’t know).  They have picked up a foaming-at-the-mouth article from the Mail Online (I am not going to supply the link – I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of getting page views to boost their advertising revenues).

The leader of Barnet Council admits that the increases were introduced abruptly and “charmlessly” – I think that is code for “by Brian Coleman”.  Mr Coleman is a controversial, and now largely discredited figure, one time Member of the Greater London Assembly for Barnet, and local councillor, and chairman of the London Fire Authority.  His high-and-mighty arrogance has come to earth with a bump, with losing his GLA election, and now being convicted of an assault on a female resident.

But, for all his faults, Mr Coleman had a point, and it was not the usual “revenue raising” crap so beloved of the Mail and of parking libertarians like the yellow website.  Inconsiderate and uncontrolled car parking was making lives a misery for many Barnet residents.  The council plans to appeal.

Two interesting articles on the front page of this week’s Haslemere Herald.  Firstly, they report on the planning application for a bandstand on Lion Green.  It seems to have the town council divided.  Opposition mostly seems to come from councillors from the east side of town, such as Melanie Odell (Grayswood) and Michael Foster (Lythe Hill) although of these two it was only Mrs Odell who appears to have voted against.   She apparently suggested that it would be better to build a grandstand, if one is built at all, on the Town Green (corner of Tanner’s Lane with the B2131) rather than on the west side of town “where [according to another of our illustrious town councillors, also an east-sider]  the servants live”.

Secondly, Waverley Borough Council leader and Haslemere councillor Robert Knowles speaks out against fracking in Fernhurst.  It seems you don’t have to be a bearded, sandal wearing leftie to have grave concerns about the practice.  Councillor Knowles is concerned about various aspects, including the impact on ground water from the chemicals injected into the wells, and not least the significant burden on the A286 of all the construction lorries visiting the site.  Were it not for the fact that she presumably is on the same side on this particular issue, no doubt Mrs Barton would be making a fuss about the fact that he lives in Beech Road (ie near the A286), although is she were to say that, my response would be so what?  There’s loads of Haslemere people who live near the A286.

Fracking is also picked up on the letters page, by a Fernhurst Resident who ripostes to last week’s letter by Michael Edwards of Tennyson’s ridge – who seems to feature with letters of the “disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” variety from time to time.  The correspondent observes, correctly, that residents of Tennyson’s Ridge are unlikely to experience either the noise, smell, pollution etc attendant on living near the wellhead, nor the HGV traffic on the A286 serving it.

Of course, opposing fracking in Fernhurst is only honourable if you oppose it everywhere – passing the buck to people who live in, say, Lancashire, is not on.  A lot of tosh is spoken and written about fracking, implying that it solves the future for energy demand in the UK due to the vast reserves of shale gas apparently down there.  Trouble is, getting it out is going to be difficult, dangerous for local communities, and there are doubts about what proportion is actually accessible – possibly a tiny percentage of the claimed reserves.  Rather than taking advantage of this “fix” of pure heroin to put off a little having to deal with the crooked pushers from Russia and Kazakhstan and similar unappealing regimes, should we not be starting the methadone treatment of investing in low-carbon technologies for home heating, local transport etc and renewable electricity generating capacity other than wind, which we all now know is not free of issues such as cost and security of supply?  For example, a mere five miles from where I am sitting now, is the world’s first tidal power station, “L’Usine Maremotrice de la Rance”.  Tidal power is entirely predictable, as tides can be calculated both in times and sizes for millennia to come, from the movements of sun and moon.  It can also be stored, as it is at the Rance Barrage – the sea level can be allowed to build up on either side of the barrage by keeping it closed, and water permitted to pass through the turbines just when electricity is needed.

Finally, as evidence that we are almost in the silly season, the Herald has three letters on the subject of cycling.  The featured letter appeals to motorists to observe the Highway Code, and pass cyclists with as much space as they would leave for a car.  I am not sure that necessarily, in all motorists’ eyes, means more than two wing-mirror widths, but the Code illustrates what it means with a photograph – a car should overtake a cyclists with its own width, ie about 6 feet.

 

 

Two more letters pick up on a “name & address supplied” letter from last week moaning on endlessly about cyclists on the A31 slowing down motorists who wanted to pass them on the short stretch where the dual carriageway has only one lane width.  One protests last week’s writer’s views, and makes certain observations about why the writer preferred not to identify him/herself.  Certainly it does not appear to be because it would expose him/herself to anything more than ridicule for their antediluvian attitudes.

The other, unsurprisingly in view of its content, also prefers to remain anonymous.

None point out the oft-repeated canard in last week’s letter about “cyclists don’t pay road tax”.  Well actually, “name & address supplied”, they probably do – firstly, they probably carried their bikes down to the area on the back of their cars.  Secondly, there has been no such thing as road tax since 1936, when Winston Churchill himself abolished it because he feared that it would encourage motorists to assume a priority over roads which they were never intended to have.  Thirdly roads, like everything else, are paid from from general taxation as all the money goes into, and comes out of, one big pot called the “General Exchequer”.  No taxes, except the BBC licence fee, if you regard that as a tax, are “hypothecated” to a specific expenditure, despite what politicians may sometimes say.  If we assume that these cyclists are out at work when they are not cycling, then they probably pay income tax, as well as VAT, council tax, yada yada yada.

Finally, a highly thought-provoking letter from David Beaman, independent councillor on Farnham Town Council, writing about the petition for Farnham's "independence" from Waverley:

I have reported before on Mr Beaman’s letters to the Herald, where he similarly made some thought-provoking remarks about the need for any new house-building obligation to be commensurately served by the necessary improvements in infrastructure.  This new letter might, cynically, be read to suggest that Farnham’s independence would mean they had to provide for their own housing needs rather than dumping them on an outlying area such as Dunsfold Park (which would in any case hardly be a sustainable proposition for people who want to work in Farnham, even if it is apparently the view of LibDems on Waverley Borough Council if other letters to the Herald are to be believed).

I am not aware of any similar bid to gain independence for Haslemere – yet – although I wouldn’t be surprised if our directly elected mayor county councillor has that in mind for her next campaign after parking.  Anyone who hankers after such a dream (or should I say Vision?) however should sit up and take note of this letter.