Hull Trains Allows Delay Compensation To Be Donated To Charity
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
These four paragraphs fill in the details.
Customers of Hull Trains who claim compensation for train delays can now choose to donate their Delay Repay funds to charity.
Hull Trains’ new official charity partner for 2025 is P.A.U.L For Brain Recovery, which supports people across the Humber region affected by acquired brain injury. P.A.U.L For Brain Recovery is based in Hull, and has recently expanded its support to cover communities in north and northeast Lincolnshire, and has ambitions to support people further afield.
The new scheme will allow customers to opt for the delay compensation to be sent directly to the charity. Hull Trains operates trains between Hull and London King’s Cross, stopping at Grantham in Lincolnshire, and serving other stations on the East Coast route, including Doncaster and Beverley.
The founder and CEO of P.A.U.L For Brain Recovery is Paul Spence. In 2012, Paul suffered a brain haemorrhage when he was the victim of an unprovoked attack. After he was discharged from a high dependency unit, he and his family faced a long and challenging road to recovery, and quickly realised that support available in the community was sadly lacking.
I think it’s rather a good idea.
SSE Launches £10m Hydro Community Benefit Fund
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Project Scotland.
This is the sub-heading.
SSE has launched a new £10 million hydro community benefit fund aimed at supporting projects within areas that host its existing hydro power infrastructure across Scotland.
These paragraphs fill in some detail.
The launch comes following the 80th anniversary of the hydro-electric development (Scotland) act of 1943, which enabled the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (NoSHEB) to transform the way people lived and worked through the build of 54 power stations, 78 dams, and over 300km of underground tunnels.
SSE Renewables recently commissioned a report by Biggar Economics which found that the capital investment in hydro over the 80-year period since 1943 is £7.5 billion, supporting over 10,000 jobs annually in Scotland including 5,519 in the Highlands and Islands.
The new hydro community fund will see investment in local communities continue, with SSE Renewables having consulted with community council areas to establish key priorities.
Priorities include improvements to sustainable community transport, affordable housing, growth of small businesses and social enterprises, improvement of community assets and infrastructure, and a focus on community physical and mental well-being through community arts, culture, sports, and recreation.
If the new fund is as successful as the first, I can’t see thee being many complaints.
Ørsted Evolves Long-Standing Partnership With RNLI
The title of this post, is the same as this news item from Ørsted.
This is the sub-heading.
Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind power and one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world, has announced the latest phase of its long-standing partnership with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
These three paragraphs give a few more details of the partnership.
Over the next two years, Ørsted will provide more than £140,000 to help the charity in its mission to save lives at sea.
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea and its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service across the British Isles.
Established in 2015, the partnership previously focused on supporting seven individual lifeboat stations in areas where Ørsted operates its offshore windfarms and is now evolving to support even more lifeboat stations.
Little is said about what benefits Ørsted get from the partnership.
Although, this is said.
Previously focused on supporting seven individual lifeboat stations in areas where Ørsted operates its offshore windfarms.
Does this mean, that for small incidents, the RNLI can do the rescue or perhaps tow a broken-down workboat to the shore?
In a busy area, the RNLI might even act as backup to Ørsted’s own safety boat, if a second incident occurred.
It might be a more affordable way to ensure safe operation, which is obviously paramount.
Conclusion
As the partnership is being extended, it must surely have been working well.
Bedford Depot’s Massive Solar Roof Helps Thameslink On Way To Net Zero
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on RailUK.
These four paragraphs give full details of the project.
Work has begun installing one of Bedford’s biggest solar arrays – on the roof of Govia Thameslink Railway’s (GTR’s) train depot, in Cauldwell Walk.
Almost 1,000 photovoltaic panels (932) will generate 322 MWh of electricity a year – enough to power 120 homes every year, saving more than 66 tonnes of CO2e. They form part of GTR’s commitment to become carbon ‘net zero’ for all its energy needs by 2050.
The solar roof – one of four at different depots across GTR’s vast 11 county network – is being installed by not-for-profit community climate action group Energy Garden.
When it comes online in the New Year, Energy Garden will sell half the solar electricity to GTR to power the depots and plough profits from selling what’s left over into community development projects – Energy Garden already works with more than 50 community groups.
This Google Map shows the location of Bedford Cauldwell Park TMD with respect to Bedford station.
Note.
Bedford station is at the top of the map.
Bedford Cauldwell Park TMD is marked by the red arrow.
This second map shows the depot to an enlarged scale.
Note.
- The map appears to show several roofs, that could be candidates for solar panels.
- At least one shed sells cars. Do they sell electric ones?
As the rail depot appears to be the largest building of its type in the centre of Bedford, in the future will it be serving as a advert for Energy Garden?
This project sounds like a good idea.
And I like the way it’s financed.
UK’s Rude Place Names To Be Toured By Man On Moped
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This paragraph gives a flavour of the route.
His journey will begin in Shitterton, Dorset, on Wednesday and will take in locations such as Twatt in Orkney and Booze in the Yorkshire Dales.
Mary Whitehouse would not have been amused, but I suspect many will find some of the names raise more than a titter.
This is the JustGiving page of the guy doing what he calls the Moronic Moped Marathon. The money raised will go towards Cancer Research.
Support Railway Children Charity Through London Overground Ticket Machines
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
This is the first paragraph.
Transport for London has announced that passengers using ticket machines at London Overground stations can now make an optional donation to the Railway Children charity.
I think it is a good idea. It will be interesting to see how much it raises.
On another related point, I rarely use cash any more and use contactless cards when I can.
Will add-on contactless giving make up for the shortage of cash donations?
Remembering A Relative Or Friend
In seven days it would have been my late wife’s sixty-eighth birthday.
C gave her body for medical research and we had a private cremation a year or so later.
In her memory and also in that of my son, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010, I helped to fund in a very small way some research into the disease at my mine and my late wife’s university of Liverpool.
I wrote about the research in There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles!
In some ways, the successful outcome of the research, gave me an enormous lift and now when I think of my son, I sometimes think, that others will hopefully not have to go through, what he and his family did!
Serious research can do that!
So I got to thinking, that perhaps when a friend or relative dies, we should start a fund and give the money to an appropriate charity, that funds research into whatever was the cause of their death.
My funding of Liverpool University’s Pancreatic Cancer research that came about because I asked Alumni Relations at the University to suggest a suitable research project for my donation.
The Devil must have blessed the donation and the research produced a positive result.
But not everyone can be so lucky.
So why not, when someone close to you dies, collect an appropriate amount of money and ask the major charity or perhaps as I did, your old University to find a project to help fund?
I would think that it could be best to go to a central charity like Cancer Research UK or the British Heart Foundation, as they might now something that was very suitable, based in a University of research institution convenient to where you live!
I feel that selecting a well-run and well-respected central charity is that they know the ropes and that the world is littered with charitable failures, set up by individuals with the best of intentions.
Do We Have Too Many Breast Cancer Charities?
That may be a controversial thing to say, but these posters for a new breast cancer charity have been appearing everywhere in London.
Do We Have Too Many Breast Cancer Charities?
Now C successfully survived breast cancer, so it is not a subject I know nothing about.
But I think now, that some of the most promising cancer research, like looking at the genetics, is very expensive and covers the whole spectrum of cancers.
So surely, this is where we should give our money. I incidentally subscribe to three different cancer charities, none of which are directly linked to breast cancer.
Although, Cancer Research UK, which I support, does support research into breast cancer.
Getting Rid Of Useless Foreign Currency
I travel a lot and the small change from my Icelandic holiday is annoying me, as is the monetary detritus from trips to Poland and Scandinavia.
So I have now collected it together, with all the Eurotrash with a value of less than a euro. The total weight is just under half a kilo.
But what to do with it? I searched and found this page, which has a lot of good ways to give it to charity.
I have the money, now I’ll make my choice!
Do As I Say Not As I Do!
I don’t support Greenpeace directly, although I follow some of their ideas and I’m happy to use their research to back up a principle I believe in.
My reasons for not supporting them financially, is that they have chugged me and I don’t support charities who do that.
But also, I feel some of their stunts are more about raising money than anything else.
I also feel in some cases their views are wrong and that these views have set back the lot of some people, who don’t live in the same decent circumstances, as most who work for and support the charity.
But today, I read the report on how one of their senior executives commutes from Luxembourg to Amsterdam by air, rather than uses the train. It’s reported in several newspapers and the report in the Daily Mail is here.
On reading this report, I suspect a lot of Greenpeace’s supporters have decided not to do so any more!
It’s not as though there aren’t other charities working in the same area.
The Anonymous Widower 