komadori’s green corner

Another day, another government announcement, this time a white paper on the railways. Lets see how many times they can contradict themselves or write total rubbish in one page. Lets try page seven of the summary booklet.

The Government will encourage progress by funding research and will write environmental objectives into passenger franchises. But the Government will not subsidise train operators to undertake efficiency measures that pay for themselves via reduced fuel bills. Train operators must take responsibility themselves.

Err… if environmental objectives are written into franchises and potential operators put in higher bids as a result, we the government ends up subsidising them, no?

Over £10 billion will be invested in enhancing capacity between 2009 and 2014, with overall Government support for the railway totalling £15 billion. The total investment in rail improvements will be greater than in 2004–09…. Having paid the bills in the difficult years when costs rose and under-investment needed to be tackled, we can now ease back the burden on the taxpayer.

If the spending investment will be higher between 2009 and 2014 than between 2004 and 2009, then surely that’s increasing the burden on the taxpayer rather than easing back, yes? (It is made clear elsewhere in the white paper that the figures quoted here are government expenditure and don’t include expenditure funded commercially, i.e. from fares.)

Finally, if you’re feeling optimistic about the improvement in services to Swindon that the reported expansion of Reading station will bring, don’t be. The statement about this in the appendix to the white paper is quite guarded (paragraph A16).

The Secretary of State also wants to see works undertaken at Reading station to deliver the increased capacity required in CP4 and to meet other longer term passenger and freight movement requirements. Network Rail is to undertake further development work to confirm the full scope and timing for delivery of this scheme, which the Secretary of State expects to be delivered within a maximum CP4 expenditure of £425 million. The Secretary of State expects a regulatory protocol to be established with Network Rail that sets out governance arrangements for delivery of this programme. The Secretary of State believes that delivery of the works is achievable within the statement of funds available.

Which roughly translates as they haven’t worked out what they’re going to do yet nor when they’re going to do it, but the woman at the top has plucked a figure and a time out of the air and expects them to stick to it.

There’s been a lot of fuss about what the government’s green paper on housing doesn’t say about not building in areas prone to flooding (and it says very little of substance on this because there is no change in policy on this issue). Amongst all this fuss, the comment of the chief executive of the the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, stood out.

Ministers should be applauded for recognising that there’s simply no way we could tell the thousands of key workers and low income families, desperate for a decent home, that we can’t build any more new homes because of concerns about flood plains. After all, much of the country is a flood plain.

That’s gross exaggeration on both counts. If my taxes are going to be used subsidising other peoples’ homes, I’d rather those homes were built in areas where they are not going to be at risk, thank you.

I’m not sure whether the developers of Swindon’s front garden are intending to offer dinghies with their houses, but perhaps they should. In the plans, most of the area in the first photograph below is going to be a lake. The other photographs show what, in the plans, will be the main river access road to West Wichel.

The lake

The main access road

The wandering Councillor Glaholm (who chairs Swindon Borough Council’s Scrutiny Committee) has escaped with a formal police caution. He seems quite keen to play down what this outcome implies.

The only thing I am going to say is that I haven’t been charged and the matter is closed and my solicitor advised me to make no further comment and I won’t.

One does not get a police caution through being innocent. To quote the Criminal Records Bureau:

A caution is a formal warning about future conduct given by a senior police officer, usually in a police station, after a person has committed an offence. It is used as an alternative to a charge and possible prosecution.

and to quote from the Home Office:

A caution can be given when there is sufficient evidence for a conviction and it is not considered to be in the public interest to institute criminal proceedings. Additionally, the offender must admit guilt and consent to a caution in order for one to be given.

It would be interesting to know in what way it was not in the public interest to proceed with a prosecution in this case.

On the same day as a piece of paper arrived with my monthly internet & ’phone bill, telling me how wonderful Virgin Media’s broadband is, my connection has slowed to snail-like. Timing to match the quality of service!

Thamesdown Transport has published changes* to its timetables. Noticeable amongst the changes are the re-routing of service 15 away from St Andrews Ridge to serve the newer developments of Priory Vale (replacing the developer-supported service 18 which will be much reduced) and the first developments in the Front Garden, where again there is developer support*. The reason for withdrawing a frequent (every 15 minutes) service from St Andrews Ridge and replacing it with an hourly one? Low usage. I wonder where service 15 will go next, once the next set of developer subsidies have run out.

* Links are to pdf documents.

As I cannot find them elsewhere on the internet, here are the rules for who won’t get a Swindon Borough Council wheelie bin, taken from an article in Central Outlook by the Western Ward councillors.

A wheelie bin will provided for each household except if:

1. the wheelie bin would need to be manœuvred up or down a number of steps;
2. there is no storage space available for the bin without it being taken through a dwelling;
3. the property is a flat where there is no suitable storage area for a wheelie bin;
4. the front garden of the dwelling is too small to accommodate a wheelie bin and there is no alternative access;
5. the visual appearance of the bin would detract from the street scene (in conservation areas and designated town gateways only);
6. there is not a safe location where the bin can be left for collection because of steeply sloping street or other reason;
7. on-road parking or other reasons would result in wheelie bin collection being an unacceptable obstruction to the highway.

Exactly how many steps they mean by ‘a number’ is not stated. This and the ‘other reasons’ will be determined by the men from the council.

Not all at the same time, I hasten to add. I took a day-trip to Looe in South East Cornwall yesterday and very enjoyable it was too. Excellent food and beautiful weather.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of the journey home. When I boarded the 16:41 Virgin Trains service from Liskeard, I noticed that the seats in half the carriage I had entered were taped-off. A little later the customer service manager came and told us the reason was that on the way down to Newquay there had been some passengers who were ‘a bunch of animals’ and had been ‘sick all over the place’. He apologised for the smell (which was hardly noticeable) and said if we wanted to move to another carriage, we could (an offer not repeated later in the journey when the train was fuller). A little inspection showed that a fair amount of vomit (and other rubbish) remained. Once home, a quick look at the timetable* showed that the train had spent most of the day (five hours) sat at Newquay. Apparently not enough time to clean the carriage — what little smell there was coming from the taped-off area was definitely of vomit without a hint of disinfectant. I appreciate that facilities at Newquay station are limited, but were a mop, brush and disinfectant not available?

It has recently been announced that Virgin Trains have lost the cross-country rail franchise to Arriva. With service like this, I doubt that many of the travelling public will be disappointed.

* Links are to pdf documents.

Whilst it is clearly bad news for the 400 people that may be made redundant by Pork Farms in Trowbridge, as a long standing addict of Melton Mowbray Pork Pies I am sure that it is in the long term interest of the quality and sales of genuine Melton Pies that their production is restricted to the area around said town. Trowbridge pies just do not taste like proper Melton Mowbray pies.

The Great Western 2 for 1 pub at Shaw Ridge may have closed, its owners (who have since been taken over) fined and its senior managers sacked, but it’s of little interest to me. Unless you always go out with an even number of people in your party, the main selling point of ‘2 for 1’ seems decidedly weak… much like the flavour of the food this chain of pubs serves.