The LaMiLo Project
Few have heard of the LaMiLo Project, which is an EU funded project to reduce truck traffic and the consequent air pollution in cities.
I hadn’t until half-an-hour ago, although I knew there were experiments going on at Euston.
This page on the London Councils web site, gives more details about the pilot project in London.
In this pilot a freight train was brought into Euston station in the middle of the night and pallets of goods were unloaded on to smaller trucks for onward delivery in Central London.
This is said on the London Councils web site about the pilot.
The pilot has provided outstanding results; it has seen 50,000 items delivered to over 250 councils building, leading to a 46% reduction in the number of vehicle trips and a 45% reduction in kilometres travelled.
It sounds like an idea worth pursuing. Although Nigel Farage would object to the EU involvement.
Up Yours, Putin!
I tend to think that the reports of doping by Russia’s athletes, like this report in the Guardian entitled How Russian athletics’ rotten system built a wall to conceal doping and deceit, could be more significant politically. than anybody thinks. After all it follows a very similar pattern to their dealings with Ukraine and other former Soviet possessions, where Russia thinks itself to be able to ignore the standards of the rest of the World.
They should be banned from the Olympics in Rio!
I also suspect that the bombing of the airliner in Egypt was not deliberately targeted at a Russian plane. If that is the case, as some experts have said, it was Putin’s bad luck and our good!
The sooner Putin is removed from power, the better it will be for everyone. Except perhaps for a few Russian oligarchs!
My father, who was a very strong anti-dictator and anti-fascist would rate Putin alongside Hitler and Stalin.
He would have laughed like a drain at Peter Brookes cartoon in The Times, where Putin is shown laying a wreath sfter the air crash, with a speech bubble of “What sort of a rat blows hundreds of innocent civilians out of the sky?” As he turns to walk away, you can see his rodent’s tail.
Is liking cartoons in my genes?
They’re Not So Silly In Suffolk
I once had a letter published in The Times after C died, in which I praised the joined up thinking, between the Registrars and the Council, which got me a virtually automatic Council Tax reduction.
Have you ever wondered what happened to all those businesses, that were displaced by the Olympics in Stratford?
Quite a few ended up in Haverhill, as St. Edmundsbury Council thought that would be a good place to relocate and they had the sites available. So the Council achieved the highest rate of inward investment of any Council in England in 2012, by some intelligent marketing of the businesses to be displaced. One unlikely story, I heard, was that someone from the Council walked around and knocked on doors!
BBC Breakfast was joking this morning that Bury St. Edmunds-based brewer, Greene King have an export boom to China after David Cameron took the Chinese leader to the local pub and gave him a pint of Greene King IPA.
It’s all reported in this article in the Guardian, entitled Greene King strikes gold as Chinese demand soars after Xi Jinping pint.
Swansea Tidal Lagoon In The Independent
I have a feeling that the Swansea Tidal Lagoon could be a very worthwhile way of generating electricity.
Today, there is this article in the Independent entitled Swansea’s tidal lagoon project delayed amid concerns over costs.
It is a comprehensive review of the technology and contains some interesting nuggets.
- The Swansea scheme has a capacity of 320MWh
- The company is saying up to five other places could have a lagoon power station and together they would develop eight per cent of our electricity.
But to me, its biggest advantage, is once it is built, with maintenance, it will continue to produce zero-carbon energy for a long time.
I shall be watching this project with a lot of interest.
Atlantic Superconnection Features In The Sunday Times
I am an electrical engineer by training and although possibly the only work I’ve done in the power field directly is to wire a plug, I know the technology of power generation fairly well.
Ever since I went to Iceland last year and first heard about IceLink, I’ve followed the project with interest.
Today there is an article in The Sunday Times entitled Cameron wants sea cable to bring lava power from Iceland.
It talks about the involvement of a company called Atlantic Superconnection
Read the article and follow the company!
Good News For Redcar
I have a Google Alert set for “York Potash”, as contrary to the media who are ignoring the story, I believe that the new potash mine at Whitby being developed by York Potash could be economically valuable to the area around Middlesbrough.
The Alert found this article on a web site called Engineering and Mining Journal entitled Sirius Minerals Receives Approval For York Potash.
The article gives a positive report on the mine. I liked this bit.
The project lies between Whitby and Scarborough, extending about 16 km inland from the coast and up to 14 km offshore. According to the company, York potash will be a deep-shaft mine of unprecedented design. Within this area lies the thickest and highest grade polyhalite ore reserve in the world. Development of the 20-million-metric-ton-per-year (mt/y) operation would take place in two phases. The first phase is designed provide 10 million mt/y before scaling up to full capacity over a number of years.
That is serious engineering and a hell of a lot of potash.
Hopefully, it’ll give an upturn to the workers and residents of Teeside.
A quick estimate gives that the full capacity of the mine, is equivalent to about the weight of nine hundred HMS Invincibles, give or take a Harrier or two.
Yorkshire Dales And Lake District National Parks To Be Extended
This article on the BBC gives full details on the extension of these National Parks, which now almost meet along the M6.
Lake District And Yorkshire Dales National Parks
This map was taken from the BBC article. The extensions are shown in lighter colours.
I haven’t seen an accurate map yet, but it does appear that more of the southern end of the iconic Settle and Carlisle Line is now included in a National Park.
York Potash Haven’t Wasted Much Time
This article in the Teeside Gazette is entitled York Potash jobs: How to apply at massive project expected to employ more than 1,000. The first paragraph is.
York Potash project boss pledge: ‘If we can employ every single one of our team from the local area – then we will’
In my book a thousand jobs is good news, so why is only the local paper reporting it?
Bat Bridges In Norfolk
The One Show on the BBC has just had a piece about how £300,000 was spent on special bat bridges over the A11 in Norfolk.
Now anybody with Suffolk connections will tell you that they are a bit funny up north, but surely not three hundred grand funny!
To bring the other East Anglian county into the piece, the BBC had also had an interview with a bat Professor from Cambridge University, who had found that the bats weren’t using their expensive highway.
For some years, I’ve always believed that bats are not stupid animals. After all, they can fly!
I was putting up offices on my stud, and in the middle of the cart shed we would be demolishing, the council planning officer thought he saw some bat droppings.
So I called in an expert, from Cambridge University! As one does!
The expert felt there might be the odd evidence of bats, but not to worry as bats often have as many as three roosts and swap between them for various reasons.
He told the council planning officer that the bats wouldn’t mind my new offices.
I do wonder if protesters use the possible existence of bats as a means to stop a development.
Will The Fight Continue Over Potash On The York Moors?
This article on Grough is entitled Campaigners fight on as North York Moors potash mine formally approved.
As the mine could employ upwards of a couple of thousand people, have the campaigners sent personal letters to all the redundant steelworkers explaining how it is more important that they are unemployed?
How can people be so selfish?
The Anonymous Widower 