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Maggie

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Posts posted by Maggie

  1. Posted · Report reply

    There are a couple of Facebook pages which might be interesting if you put a question on them,  'Remembering the (surroundings of oswestry)'  and the one which has loads of members is 'REMEMBER OSWESTRY Remembering things  in the 60s 70s 80s'.  Both are 'closed' groups but I think you can just click if you want to join and post something.  They both cover Weston Rhyn and it would be worth posting something on there..  

    There are some archives in the Library in Oswestry, but the main place where information is held is over in Shrewsbury in the County Archives.  There is a Family History Section in Oswestry Library and someone is there to help on Fridays.  I'm not sure about the County Archives, but I read that they had reduced opneing times so best to find out first before you go.  You can find out about both of these on the Shropshire Council website.

     

    Good Luck.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Usually, now, once a development is completed, a developer will pay something towards Shropshire Council, who, once they have checked that the road is up to standard, will then 'adopt' that road.  There are quite a few older roads around here which have never been adopted for one reason or another.  The first point of call is your Councillor,  who can take this up with Shropshire Council officers on your behalf.  It must feel very unfair when you pay council tax to find out that you are responsible for the upkeep of a road.  

    Liam Hope reacted to this

  5. Posted · Report reply

    I am all for using solar power as this is the way forward for our planet.   http://inhabitat.com/report-solar-could-be-dominant-power-source-by-2050/

    However, I do not believe such an unplanned and poorly thought out system as here, being forced by grant schemes,and using good agricultural land far from urban and industrial centres has much 'sustainability' (read 'common sense') because of the infrastructure, power lines and substations that would be necessary for distribution.  Now, if the government were to insist on solar tiles or panels on all new build, and grant support solar 'farms' on city rooftops as part of new developments I would be cheering them on.  Germany can do it.  http://inhabitat.com/german-village-produces-321-more-energy-than-it-needs/  

    It makes no sense to use good fields for this when there are so many alternatives, especially as we are going to run out of agricultural land to development rather sooner than we want and should be putting a priority on the protection of green field sites.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28003435  What we need from central government is joined up thinking. Planning,Housing,  Defra, Energy etc. all need to get their collective act together, instead of gains for one department being paid for by another.

    Rosie reacted to this

  6. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks Bethan.  very interesting how very extensive this will be.  I should think that the fence, if not the solar panels behind, would be visible from the canal, but I wonder whether they will dominate the skyline?  That would have an adverse effect on the number of visitors to the area entering along the canal, Encouraging these visitors to stay longer and come into the villages makes very good economic sense and could achieve rewards for small amounts of outlay (new guided walks, signage and tourism development generally).  Someone needs to do the sums, but over 25 years the money offered by the solar farm might be small cheese compared to what could be achieved by, say, one tea room down by the canal.  

  10. Posted · Report reply

    I think Shropshire is very poorly served by cycle paths.  many other places have designated paths drawn either on the road or on the footpath.  Why cannot we have the same thing here?  The fact that it is illegal to ride a bike on a footpath puts many people off.  Weston Rhyn Parish Council have asked the police to stop cyclists on footpaths in the village, but when the alternative is a dangerous road then people won't use their bikes.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    There is a piece in the Shropshire Star about Dart's response to the hundrds of objections to the test drill at Duddleston.  

    http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-news/2014/09/20/no-fracking-vow-by-energy-bosses/

     

    They stress that this is just an exploratory drill, part of which function is to find out more about what lies beneath.  This was the reason why I did not personally object to the planning application,  despite attending a meeting and listening to the objectors comments I thought that what they were objecting to, ie extraction of CBM, would have been covered by a separate planning application if and when, and might well not take place anywhere nearby anyway depending on what was discovered by the test drill.  

     

    I hope they intend to make their results known.  When I started following this, ages ago, the underground information from BGS was different to now.  The Bowland Shales (the source of the shale gas) were mapped as rising to the surface just south of Wrexham. They now postulate that there might be a separate depositional basin beneath Ellesmere, well below the coal seams.  I suspect Dart are using an old planning application site (which had lapsed but they probably thought would be easy to renew) to test this hypothesis. Just my opinion!.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Terrible today here in Chirk Bank, little speed with frequent dropping out completely, but they were digging  up the ground again by the new cabinet!  I'd love to be able to watch a catch-up streamed video. I got cross reading the smug people on the connecting Shropshire website talking about how they could now watch streaming in HD which was much better than the previous version so agree with Lee.  

     

    I was also very cross when Shropshire used the big EU grant specifically for improving poor rural broadband speeds on the towns which didn't really need much improvement.  We are lucky here in Chirk Bank because the Welsh Assembly administering the EU money have improved Chirk exchange with fibre optics, and Shropshire got shamed into agreeing that those of us on Chirk exchange across the border would be improved in their next round of funding.  I am surprised that BT have installed new cabinets because I thought that Shropshire Council weren't 'able' to provide the match needed for the second round of improvements but I might have missed something.  At Weston Rhyn Parish Council on Monday people from the Wern pointed out that there were no plans to improve their abysmal service soon and that they are not on the Chirk exchange.  

  17. Posted · Report reply

    I have received this email from Frack Free Duddleston, marking the end of the Planning Consultation period.  

     

    End of the Consultation Phase
     
    In this email:
    • Planning objections
    • Lobbying Shropshire Council
    • Owen Paterson MP
    • Protection camp 
    Dear Supporter

    First of all a huge thank you from all at FrackFreeDudleston for making your voice heard and for putting those objections on the planning portal. There are currently 468 objections on the site and an analysis of the names shows that there are relatively few people in the area that haven’t objected. This is the strongest message possible that the test drill is not wanted in this area and for completely valid reasons.

    Dart said to many people in their Open Meetings that they would not go where a community did not want them. We know that Dart monitor our website so Dart, we would like to officially request that you withdraw your application, if you are indeed people of your word. Can we have your comment please?

    Should Dart not be true to their word, the planners and councillors will be taking note of all of these objections, including the 32 page document from FrackFreeDudleston, which was submitted on behalf of all of us. See below for a link to the document.

    The UK Government has this week issued the latest round of Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDL), which means that half of Britain is now available for gas companies to put in their applications to drill. This includes most of Shropshire, including Shrewsbury. It is not a matter anymore just for Dudleston or the other sites earmarked already in North Shropshire.  

    As you may remember from the FrackFreeDudleston’s Public Meetings, the Dept of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) report on coal bed methane concludes that Shropshire is not geologically suitable for extraction. A test drill to extract a sample of coal will verify the amount of gas, but won’t provide any information about whether extraction is viable.  That either has to come from existing geological data, or by drilling an extraction well and giving it a try.

    Trying to extract in an area that is not suitable would come with a very high risk of underground contamination, therefore the sensible approach would be to require that the geological data be checked first.  Taking that one step further, and given that the data already exists, it would be sensible to look at that before conducting the test drill. Why inflict a three month 24/7 drilling operation on a quiet rural community if subsequent extraction is not going to work?!

    Unfortunately Government planning guidelines stipulate that test drilling applications be considered without reference to future extraction phases.  Shropshire Council used to have a planning policy that required all oil and gas proposals to explore the whole project at the earliest possible stage, however that has been partially overruled by the new national policy.

    FrackFreeDudleston attended the full council meeting at Shire Hall in Shrewsbury recently to speak against the Shropshire Council intention to trust that the planning process will come up with the right answer on CBM extraction applications.  Chris Hesketh asked that the council not allow any application to be approved without proof from a reliable source (preferably DECC) that actual extraction is geologically possible.  

    A very lively debate kicked off, which was then adjourned in favour of there being a cross-party working group to inform the council, taking input from Chris as well as industry experts.  Now two weeks later we are waiting for the first signs of that group to appear….

    Another avenue that has been explored is that of asking our local MP to help.  Thank you to everyone that has written letters to Owen Paterson MP.  We firmly believe that a renewable energy strategy would be better for Britain (broadly the same cost as CBM but would provide clean energy for many years instead of a short burst of dirty energy).  Owen is publicly strongly in favour of fossil fuel companies so rather than try to win that argument we simply asked that he look at the situation in his own constituency.

    In a much-overheard follow-up discussion at the Dudleston Fete, Owen indicated that after the initial meeting he’d checked with the Government experts and was told that extraction in this area would be “impossible”.  Chris put it to him that he needs to be helping stop the test drill application however his dismissive response was that he “doesn’t do planning”.   Now that he is no longer the Environment Minister we need to be pushing him to take more of a local perspective.  If you would care to visit http://www.owenpaterson.org/contact and let him know that his people need his support then that would be very helpful.  Despite his claim, he can make a big difference and has done so on other planning issues.

    More news that you are probably already aware of is that The North Shropshire Community Protection Group have set up camp on a discreet corner of a field that is part of the planned drill site.  FrackFreeDudleston have no actual connection with the group and is continuing with its strategy of spreading awareness and opposing the planning application.  Although the case we have made against the planning application is very strong, there are no certainties when overall Government policy has been tilted so firmly in favour of drilling companies, especially at test drill stage. If the application was approved then this kind of site occupation is a useful next line of defence.

    We have visited the camp and are happy to say that they are pleasant, friendly people, very well informed on the environmental issues and are keeping a tidy and unobtrusive presence.  They have a rota system so that they can return to their jobs and families whilst ensuring that the camp is always occupied.  We are very pleased that the Protectors are there and hope that the community welcomes them. Several local residents have already been to visit them.

    Their group are also providing another unexpected service.  It would appear that there have been people attempting to interfere with the badger setts close to the site.  On two occasions the Protectors have disturbed groups of people in the middle of the night.  Bovine TB is a very serious subject for farmers and the experts say that risks of cross-infection from badgers are extremely low if the badger population is left undisturbed.  Thankfully the nocturnal visits appear to have now stopped.

    FrackFreeDudleston will continue to lobby against the application and will keep you informed of progress. West Sussex council refused permission at Wisborough Green and we have even stronger planning arguments than they did.  A decision is not expected on the Dudleston application until mid September.
    Please feel free to contact us via the website or email:  contact@frackfreedudleston.org.uk

    With best wishes
    FrackFreeDudleston
    Click here to view the 32 page group objection.
    Visit our website  

  19. Posted · Report reply

    Today there are over 200 objections to the Applicatioto test drill at Dudleston.  have a look here.  http://planningpa.shropshire.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N7CUTJTD06Z00  

     

    Some very good points have been made, such as the heavy traffic on small lanes or through St Martins, and the problems of noise from 24 hour drilling.  I would not like to live next door to this.  However there does seem to be confusion between this,and a big well extracting gas; which would be a whole separate planning application, and it appears that the intention is to cap this site, not continue to use it afterwards. Am I the only person who is interested in finding out what is down there and its chemical composition before getting het up about gas wells?  

  21. Posted · Report reply

    Sorry I've never been extreme (well only a bit),  I'm just trying to find out what the frack is going on.  I have been looking at old NCB plans of underground Ifton today.  Cannot get an image (downloaded 2 programmes to try to stitch photos of a plan together, it is very large, but neither managed it, too many straight lines and black and grey).  However I plotted out the area covered by underground workings as of 1962 onto a recent map, and they finish rather close to where the planned drill site will go.  I don't know how safe this is, given that the mines are now filled with water and a breach would see them flowing down along the dip towards the Duddleston site.  If they ever then wanted to use it for extraction they might be pumping water for a very long time.  Did someone mention a 1 km rule?.  I'll put the map, and what I took it from for authenticity in the Gallery Images.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    I attended the packed meeting in St Martins last night (see above) organised by Frack Free Duddleston.  There is a report in the Shropshire Star here  http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/06/24/concern-raised-on-drilling-in-shropshire/  which is worth a read. Council Leader Keith Barrow has stated that he doesn't think it is a good idea. He has agreed to get something written by council officers about CBM asap.  Someone in the audience reported having phoned Shropshire Council for some information and having been given a cock and bull story about how they were going to set light to the coal then pump out the methane, nonsense!

     I went with an open mind and have come away still unsure of the merits or demerits of the process, BUT am now damn sure that we need to find out more about what is likely to happen if Dart go ahead and develop CBM, so I would vote, if I could,  for a moratorium from Shropshire until more information is forthcoming.  It appears that it is not just me or Shropshire Council officers, who don't know what is going to happen, doubt was cast on whether Dart actually knew what they were doing either; in terms of not demonstrating any prior knowledge of underlying geology or where the old mines were etc (which should be their first concern before any of this).   However there was no representative from Dart at this meeting to question.  

    If you look at this site http://www.frackfreedudleston.org.uk there should be some help and proforma letters if you want to object to the planning application.  

    Did anyone else go?

    One particular local problem flagged up at the meeting was that there would be a huge increase in traffic movements during drilling, which will not help all those children walking to the new St Martins School.  Small lanes in north Shropshire are not suitable for lots of heavy traffic.

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