Friday 29 October 2010

Any port in a (funding) storm. (Updated)

I wrote back in March this year about the Offshore Wind Site Development Competition organised by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to allocate £60m of funds to help port authorities and developers looking to develop new offshore wind manufacturing and assembly facilities. Ports which wished to apply had to prove that they:

  • have access to sufficient land that could be developed into wind turbine manufacturing facilities;
  • are suitable for the transport of large and heavy products;
  • and already have heavy duty surfacing capable of bearing heavy loads in place. 

There was much hope at the time that, in line with the Energy Island concept, Holyhead's now defunct Anglesey Aluminium plant, which has a deep water dock, would be a very suitable location.

Happily the £60m funds have survived the Comprehensive Spending Review and the competition is still open -- although it has now emerged that because this is classed as 'business support' (i.e. a devolved function) the lions share of the £60m will be reserved for England with only Barnett consequentials available to Wales, Scotland and Northern Island. The good news is this guarantees that the Welsh Assembly will receive £3.5m towards developing a Welsh port (and just by looking at the adjacent map, it can only really be Holyhead). The bad news however is that no matter how eligible or suitable Holyhead may appear, it cannot receive any more than that amount. This has cued outrage from Albert Owen, who has said this is "another example of the Tories and Liberals marginalising Wales", whereas Ieuan Wyn Jones, asserts the decision shows a "complete lack of respect" for the Welsh economy.

My personal view is that its highly unlikely that £3.5m alone will be anywhere near enough money to properly transform the Anglesey Aluminium plant and dock into one suitable for manufacturing and shipping offshore wind turbines. Accordingly it would have been far better for the government to take a more strategic view and divide the total budget between the two or three most suitable ports (no matter in which region they are located) so that the sums each location received would be sufficient enough to deliver a considerable impact.

However -- and here's a novel thought -- instead of forever whinging about supposed slights by the coalition government, why doesn't the Welsh Assembly Government step up and show us that it can take action when required? WAG has a £15bn budget; of that approximately £1.2bn is earmarked for Economic Development and Transport. As Ieuan Wyn Jones has announced that half the Economic Development budget will now be spent on as yet undefined infrastructure projects, why can't some £11.5m of this money (i.e. 9 percent) be added to the £3.5m from DECC to make a pot of £15m for developing Holyhead port? Presumably an investment of this kind could help make Holyhead the key staging area for 'Round 3' offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea -- whilst also supporting the development of a sustainable new industry in the UK's poorest area.

The Welsh Assembly has been only too happy to waste our money on expanding mostly unnecessary universal benefits (such as free prescriptions and free breakfasts for primary school children) which neither generate jobs nor possible future sustainable revenue streams for Wales. Its time for WAG to get its priorities in order, stop using the excuse that it is 'underfunded' (according to the Holtham Report, through the Barnett Formula Wales receives £112 for every £100 spend on devolved activities in England) and go out an earn the 'respect' it says it deserves.


UPDATE: I am grateful to commenters who point out that the Port of Mostyn near Holywell, with ready access to the A55, M62, M56, and M6, is already well ahead in establishing itself as the ideal servicing location for offshore wind farms in the East Irish Sea. This clearly shows that for Holyhead to compete, DECC/WAG support to modify the port will be meaningless unless it first manages to attract wind turbine manufacturers to set up production operations in the town. Just before the election there were a number of front page stories in the Daily Post about how the then Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain, was in talks with a unnamed company to set up just such a wind turbine factory on the Anglesey Aluminium site. Hain even described it as "the beginning of good times" for Anglesey -- though predictably, as sure as today's front pages become tomorrow fish'n'chips wrappers, we never heard anything about the whole thing ever again.

I think that the 'Energy Island' concept is a good one, and, in theory, Anglesey is ideally located to take advantage of a trend towards lower carbon energy sources, be they nuclear or renewable marine technologies. But as I have written previously:

"For the Energy Island concept to be a full success Anglesey must become an originator of energy technology -- not just a destination for off-island companies to place various schemes. Accordingly the council must work to incubate Anglesey-based energy start-ups. The only way to do this would be to work with local research centres, such as Bangor University, to develop some kind of Energy Science Park located somewhere on the Island. I would further suggest that using the "Shell Fund" to provide "seed money" for such start ups would be a far more productive use of the money then purely funnelling the majority of it into Oriel Môn each year."

56 comments:

another anon and me said...

Offshore windfarms are not a devolved issue, you really cannot have it both ways, the Coalition Government keeps mentioning fairness. There is no way you can say this decision is fair.

Spin it anyway you want Druid, but it still comes down to the fact the Coalition Government favours English Ports ahead of Welsh Ports.

And if offshore windfarms were a devolved issue can we have the money associated with it please. I suspect it be more than £3.5 million even in the short term.

You say you are fighting for Anglesey, only when it suits you I say!!

Paul Williams said...

"Offshore windfarms are not a devolved issue" & "And if offshore windfarms were a devolved issue can we have the money associated with it please. I suspect it be more than £3.5 million even in the short term."

This fund is not for "offshore wind farms" - its for helping to develop ports which wish to become manufacturing and staging areas for offshore wind farms.

"Spin it anyway you want Druid, but it still comes down to the fact the Coalition Government favours English Ports ahead of Welsh Ports."

(1) I clearly write above that I believe the government should take a more strategic view.
(2) Look at the map - its entirely clear that the majority of new 'round 3' windfarms will be developed off the East coast of the UK. How would you feel if the government therefore decided to allocate the entire £60m to Blyth in England and Dundee in Scotland -- with nothing for Wales?

"You say you are fighting for Anglesey, only when it suits you I say!!"

That is your opinion. In my opinion WAG is keener to score political points than use the funding it has to promote this kind of development in Wales itself.

Paul Williams said...

To illustrate my point, below is a list of the successful bids for the 'round 3' zone development agreements (http://goo.gl/mfm5):

Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75% owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables – 1.3 GW
Firth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor – 3.5 GW
Dogger Bank Zone, the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft – 9 GW
Hornsea Zone, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction – 4 GW
Norfolk Bank Zone, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft – 7.2 GW
Hastings Zone, Eon Climate and Renewables UK– 0.6 GW
West of Isle of Wight Zone, Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW
Bristol Channel Zone, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy – 1.5 GW
Irish Sea Zone, Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES Group – 4.2 GW

According to this 26.5GW of energy will be generated off the East Coast of the UK, whereas just 5.7GW will be generated off the coast of Wales (incl. the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel).

Its all very well claiming that "wales is being marginalised" but realistically the vast majority of wind farm development will be off the East coast anyway. Therefore it makes even more sense for WAG to act as I suggest - we cannot always leave everything to Westminster!

Anonymous said...

Hear hear for anyone who challenges the so called Druid(ess). I agree entirely that the Druid only fights for Anglesey when it suits 'it' and is going to find it so, so difficult to support, excuse and be the voice of the ConDem Government from now on. He/she has for so long condemned the decisions of WAG, the County Council and anyone else who is not a card carrying Tory true blue - now let's see how 'it' handles the damaging effects of Tory led decisions that will devastate Wales and Anglesey. Welcome to the real world of Politics Druid(ess). Now stand up and be counted, show yourself both politically and physically, rather than be a nameless and faceless apologist for right wing propaganda.

TGC said...

"such as free prescriptions and free breakfasts for primary school children)"

I don't think you'll get much sympathy from families on these, Druid!

I'm also surprised at the plea for public money to stimulate windfarm manufacturing at Holyhead. Previous posts hint strongly at a Tory approach to the economy. One would therefore expect a view that business should look after itself.

You also overlook important facts about the wind resource. The western fringe, although seemingly insignificant on the map (which only shows what someone, somewhere wants to show) has by far the largest share of wind resource. In fact, this is the fringe where you find the majority of Europe's strongest winds.

I think it inevitable that the sector between IoM and Anglesey is developed into a substantial wind farm. Quite simply, we can't do without exploiting it. As to which port gets the bucks, well, I guess you have to worry about Liverpool (there doesn't appear to be any reason why this sector has to be serviced by a Welsh port).

As to the inevitability of Holyhead getting the Welsh share of the dosh, I think you then have to consider whether the Assembly will again chase the majority of votes to be found in the south, and develop the Severn approaches in preference to the IoM/Anglesey sector.

Anonymous said...

How about abolishing the outdated, undemocratic Crown Estate (it's actually above the law in having Crown immunity)? That way, wind farms would become much more profitable because they wouldn't have to pay money to the Crown Estate for going to the trouble of providing the country with electricity.

Will Hopkin said...

This was an intiative announced by Alastair Darling in his budget. At the time I explained on the radio that it was designed to give a major boost to the production of off shore wind farms in areas such as the north east where not only the ports existed but there was also a traditional engineering skills base. Anyone who doubts this should read the articles in the FT in the weeks running up to Darling's budget announcement. Wales will get the Barnett consequential of this decision and it is really up to the Assembly to decide what it does with this money. To argue that this is yet another example of poor old Wales being ignored is just bonkers. This continual nonsense about Wales the victim is getting to sound like a broken record. You can't one minute praise the fact that economic development is devolved and portray Ieuan Wyn Jones as the new Hjalmar Schacht and then moan about an announcement which was always designed by the Labour government just for England.

Between the Lines said...

Where will the turbines be offloaded? As far as I can see, knowing the harbour well, there are no proper facilities at the moment. To upgrade the Loading jetty to accommodate marine turbines (which are considerably bigger than the land based cousins) would require a wider concourse as the current one is only just wide enough for a truck. Also a low loader would have much trouble turning around on the jetty head. The Aluminium used to be loaded onto ships in the inner harbour, but given the sizes of the turbine sections, this would seriously interfere with the ferries.

When you look at the facts Holyhead harbour is not going to work for this sort of cash sum.

As Maybe Bridges have set aside a swathe of factory space in South Wales, and currently the blades are made on the Isle of White I think South Wales may benefit again

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/8484685.stm

Between the Lines said...

Here's a thought..
There is nothing stopping the old Anglesey aluminium plant making the generators? A far as I am aware (correct me if I'm wrong) these are made in Europe - Germany or the Netherlands?

Between the Lines said...

It's a real shame that Albert Owen and IWJ don't get this pationate about the south centric bias of funding in Wales!

another anon and me said...

The issue at hand is one of fairness, whereas Liverpool or Barrow can apply for funding from a £60 million centrally funded pot, Holyhead has to rely on the Welsh Assembly Government finding the additional funds itself (above the £3.5 milllion) - Rather skewed in favour of the English ports then.

The conservatives like to point out how Albert Owen MP and Ieaun Wyn Jones AM have not delivered for Anglesey. So when the Coalition Government had a chance to show how they could make a difference, how they could help the poorest region in the UK, a chance to say, “This is how it’s done chaps”, they say “Sorry Anglesey go and see Ieuan”.

I have long asked why have the Conservatives have not put forward a credible candidate for Anglesey, maybe this shows the reason why, do they really care we ask, do they really want to help the poorest region in the UK. And you can ask the same question of the Liberal Democrats.

Lastly, it’s the National Grid, and offshore windfarms will benefit the nation as a whole in reducing carbon emissions, not much to ask therefore for a fair playing field and fair funding. And for Nation I mean the United Kingdom, pity then that some people think it’s not united anymore.

Anonymous said...

Never mind about 3.5million for wind farms etc. There is a more sinister turn to these savage cuts.

Ice Cream is to go up!!!!

The poor will suffer yet again.

Those despicable baby eating Tories and their lackeys the Libdumbs.

Well, according to the front page of todays Daily Post.

Front Page FFS! Ice cream going up FFS!

Meanwhile, away from cloud cuckoo land that Tom Boddewn clearly lives in....

Anonymous said...

Another opportunity slipping out of the hands of Ynys Mon, the next step will be for the Welsh Assembly to hand the investment over to Liverpool, well why not, they know how to look after their own people there, while we ignore our starving neighbour.

Prometheuswrites said...

How much were WAG willing to give Anglesey Aluminimum to stay open?

Around £50M if I remember.

If this were still available it would almost match the total funding available for England.

I have to agree with TGC about free breakfasts and prescriptions - although I'm two minds about universal benefits - yes universal benefits are 'fair' - but surely only in a society where there is a degree of 'fairness' across the board.

In a time where 'privilage' has come to be equitable with 'wealth' (as with access to education, pension fund tax relief, health care, etc) then redistribution of wealth (and I'm not talking 90% taxes) seems to me to be the only way to create a society that holds strongly to the principle of equality of opportunity, as espoused by all the main political parties.

(And for anyone out there who still believes in 'trickle down economics' remember: "Shit runs downhill" - quote from 'The Wire' TV series).

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately shit spreads sideways in Anglesey.

Anonymous said...

Not many hills, that's why. But don't tell Tom Bodden or he'll have a front page expose on how the nastyeviltories are responsible for having reduced them. You couldn't get a more ridiculous front page headline. Oh wait...

Rhys Williams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
;) said...

And my Dog:

Really? Stats Man and Fillian one and the same ... hard to believe.

Confused you are indeed, as it's the Druid's blog.

You're not webmaster playing fast and loose I hope?

Rhys Williams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
;) said...

Anglesey Telegraph

Thank you for clearing that up.

Always good to see another local blogger.

Prometheuswrites said...

I see Photonic Anglesey has posted an interesting article on one Druid's old favorites - The Oriel Mon.

Worth a read.

Paul Williams said...

TGC - "I'm also surprised at the plea for public money to stimulate windfarm manufacturing at Holyhead. Previous posts hint strongly at a Tory approach to the economy. One would therefore expect a view that business should look after itself."

My original article back in March was about GE's plans to build a £99m wind turbine manufacturing plant somewhere in the UK. GE explicitly said that they would favour a port which had received some or all of the DECC's £60m -- which shows how the government offering 'subsidies' of this kind can distort the market insomuch that: (a) businesses will stop moving forward by themselves and wait to see where the government funding is going to go; (b) stop private funding of such ventures as all businesses start chasing 'free' govt funding....

"As to the inevitability of Holyhead getting the Welsh share of the dosh, I think you then have to consider whether the Assembly will again chase the majority of votes to be found in the south."

The Assembly always seems to favour diverting funding to the labour voting heartlands of S.Wales.

Anonymous said...

Exactly, Labour run the Welsh Assembly.

An Eye On... said...

That money won't come to Holyhead. There is already an established windfarm servicing operation running out of mostyn docks that does work on the farms along the coast. It makes no sense to build one in Holyhead and absolutely perfect sense to expand the Mostyn operation and where all the heavy lifting capabilty and berthing needs for vessels up to the size of ferries is already in place. Like wise there is no shortage of skilled workers in that area and it also has virtually instant access to the A55, M62, M56, M53 and M6.

Only heavy subsidies would get this to Holyhead and the EU don't allow them.

An Eye On... said...

http://www.portofmostyn.co.uk/

Royston Jones said...

A penny spent on any infrastructure project connected with wind power would be a penny wasted. For the evidence is piling up, and soon even keen-to-be-seen-to-be-green politicians will have to admit it: wind turbines - whether onshore or offshore - are a total waste of money.

Between the Lines said...

30 October 2010 22:15
I agree. Wind turbines have a life cycle of 20 years. 95% is recyclable, except the FRP blades of which there is no recyclate. These are burned and the resultant sludge sent to land fill.
http://www.vestas.com/en/about-vestas/sustainability/wind-turbines-and-the-environment/life-cycle-assessment-(lca).aspx

As WAG have a target of zero landfill by 2050 why are we building these things!

Between the Lines said...

There is a human generated process that emits 6.9 million tonnes of CO2 a day into the atmosphere and not a single person or politician mentions it. Not even the Green Party.

We all exhale.

Between the Lines said...

P.S. the Dinosaurs managed very well in the Jurassic period c 145-200 million years ago. The ice caps melted then, hence the red sandstones of Cheshire. And before anyone says they "Died Out" they continued until 220 million years BC!

Between the Lines said...

Correction 63 million years BC, they started 220 million years ago.

An Eye On... said...

P.S. the Dinosaurs managed very well in the Jurassic period c 145-200 million years ago. The ice caps melted then...

Is a very true statement. However the general temperatures and weather patterns of that period were not conducive to human populations densities - we would not be able to feed ourselves as there would be no 'temperate zone' (which is where most of the earth's crop-growing takes place).

The real problem is that the human race can only thirve a a frighteningly narrow climate band. When you add into this that humans seem to think they are a more important life form than the others present on this earth then you have a problem. When you add in that the earth's climate is constantly changing and that for the vast bulk of the planet's existance has wither been to hot or to cold for human life in large numbers and as a result will change and will exterminate us, then you can see why the papers get hysterical.

We - like every other species - are doomed to extinction by nature at some stage.

Hyfryd Davies said...

Red Flag's contribution here is one of the most sensible I've read here.

He is, of course, right. If humans carry on breeding at the current rate (and it is mostly humans in - or from - the Middle-East and Africa who are doing the excess breeding) and natural factors like disease, war or starvation which would normally limit their survival are removed (as they mostly have been) the result is an unsustainable boom in population.

Setting aside sentimentality, it is surely wrong to contribute to charities like Oxfam. If we had any sense we would let them starve.

Charities are helping poor countries with unsustainably high birthrates to sustain those excessive birthrates. In the end this helps nobody. It is madness.

Terrorists and bombers are doing their best to kill - or should that be "cull" more people - but their efforts are being more than outweighed by the medical interventions of the world's doctors in keeping people alive who should, in the natural order of things, be dead.

We are in an unsustainable anthropological boom - which must inevitably be followed by a bust.

TGC said...

"humans in - or from - the Middle-East and Africa who are doing the excess breeding"

That's a popular belief, but like most popular opinions, is entirely false. The vast majority of Africa is very underpopulated, and the land is fully capable of supporting a much larger population IF the people are trained in good agriculture.

Like most things, we have much more cause to look to home before we criticise others. We are the ones who had an empire spanning the globe so that we could plunder the natural wealth of other nations. We are the ones who exported a large proportion of our people to Australia, America and other far-flung places in order to relieve population pressures at home.

The biggest crime is ignoring history.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Red Flag about the weather pattern etc 64 million tears ago. I've read the same books.

Amazing really that they have survived all that time.

And in English as well! Outstanding find.

An Eye On... said...

@ Hyfryd Davies - The comments you make about third world birth rates are bordering on racist. The problem is nothing to do with their birth rate - which is caused by poverty. The problem is the human race being arrogant enough to think it can control nature. A fairer distribution of wealth and resources along with a basic social welfare system would reduce their birthrate. Apart from which, most of the third world is under-populated in comparison to western Europe.

@Anonymous said... - Where have you got 68 million from? What was being talked about was the Jurassic period but that aside, you seem to be doubting what the entire scientific community is certain of - that it was an awful lot warmer back then and that across the entire history of the planet it has mostly been either far too hot for humans or far too cold.

An Eye On... said...

Druid - Good update and you are quite correct in your observations I think. The things will have to be built here to attract all the rest of the stuff and again your observations about the Tinto site I agree with.

The problem is the old 'chicken or the egg' syndrome - the factory to build them won't come without the port facilities and the port facilities won't be built unless a factory comes. In the meantime - while the dithering goes on - Stena will press ahead with their redevelopment plans and we could very well end up in a situation whereby the port no longer becomes viable for this sort of thing because it's been redeveloped in a non-complimentary way.

Get Real said...

Energy Island, What Energy, which brain dead individual from the Council dreamt that one up? All we have is a clapped out Power Station so where do they get the Island of Energy from, or are they referring to all the hot air that comes out of Llangefni?

All Anglesey has got is it's stunning beauty and a bunch of stinking slaughter houses. Hand the lot back to nature and enjoy.

Paul Williams said...

Red Flag - thanks for your comment.

"The problem is the old 'chicken or the egg' syndrome - the factory to build them won't come without the port facilities and the port facilities won't be built unless a factory comes."

You're right - and, as I was alluding to above, to an extent this problem is exacerbated when government subsidies are on offer. Without them private business would be forced to make a decision based just on suitability and profitability. However, when a govt subsidy appears all private activities are put on pause.

GET REAL said...

Druid, your spot on as with Red Flag.

Further to that: Investment won't come unless there is an incentive and it certainly won't come where there is so much negativity to clearing up on going corruption

MH said...

Nice to see the creative ingenuity of the Druid in full flight. Take a story that is critical of a decision by the Tories, copy the picture and information from it ... then rewrite it so as to point the finger at everybody else except his beloved Tory party. Bless.

If anybody reading this isn't already aware, the original is here.

Paul Williams said...

I encourage everyone to read MH's "original", where you will discover that everything wrong in Wales is the fault of the Tories.

TGC said...

Now, now!

This is an excellent debate; very interesting.

I wonder if anyone remembers that we are meant to host a tidal energy array betwixt Energy Island and the Skerries? I can't say I like the choice of site, but if it leads to better, more efficient turbines in future, then perhaps I have to lay my concerns about the view to rest.

We can do a lot, but I have to say that most politicians supporting the 'Energy Island' concept are kidding themselves that we are ideally located for business. It's also abundantly clear from the several documents and presentations that 'Energy Island' amounts to little more than 'Wylfa Island' in practice. Just a few token renewables thrown in to placate the environmentalists.

Think I'm too cynical? Have a look at this lovely presentation by Sasha Wynn Davies, Economic Development at Llangefni. See how quickly it moves from 'Natural Resources' to 'Wylfa. We Love Wylfa'. I wonder what the part of the file name 'bs12' means? Bull***t, perhaps?:

www.walesregen.co.uk/presentations/bs12_sashawynndavies.ppt

Anonymous said...

"There is nothing stopping the old Anglesey aluminium plant making the generators? A far as I am aware (correct me if I'm wrong) these are made in Europe - Germany or the Netherlands?"

Aye, and why do you think that is? Proximity to markets. Good communications. Progressive and supportive (for the most part) governments. That's why.

The logic behind setting-up shop in Holyhead because there's one (or even if there were several) admittedly large offshore windfarm to be built is like trying to argue to a car making plant on the island because there are lots of people who want a car.

You makes yer turbines in a custom-built, pre-existing factory and then you sticks them on a cheap ship to market.

One day, we will all wake up to the nonsense that politicians feed us to keep us thinking they're of any use whatsoever.

Between the Lines said...

Honda make their cars near Southhampton because they is a huge port there. But not all the parts af the car are made there.

The point I was trying to make was why can't the old aluminium plant become a componant factory for the turbines.

Airbus don't make whole planes in deeside, they make the wings and ship those to france for assembly. So whats the problem with this suggestion?

An Eye On... said...

Between The Lines - The point I was trying to make was why can't the old aluminium plant become a componant factory for the turbines.

Because - as I mentioned further up it's chicken and egg syndrome.

No-one is going to build an assembly plant here unless they know for definate that the port is going to be upgraded to handle the shipping. And no-one is going to upgrade the port unless they know for definate and assembly plant is going to be built.

Which is why I said I reckon that if it happens in Wales it will be Mostyn where the gamble risk to developers isn't so great. In all probability it won't be Wales but will be Barrow as it is more geographically convenient to the proposed site for the actual windfarm.

Anonymous said...

All this talk of Energy Island is just talk, there's nothing left here to encourage investment, we are too far from everyone, no sane investment will ever come to Anglesey unless the Welsh Assembly give it's full support, and that is impossible while we have the following.

Plaid Cymru stronghold, everything has to be in Welsh.
Albert Owen a powerless labour MP who doesn't know the difference between living in the present and the past. We are all knackered unless we have a sense of community that can draw in investment, unfortunately, our community is torn appart by political parties who don't care about the people, only their fat ugly egos!

Anonymous said...

As a footnote, the Energy Island scheme is just a dream, dreamt up by dreamers who for years have drawn the wool over our eyes, we will never survive unless we fight back and ignore these fools who control us and make our own decisions that affect us, do you really think that the Welsh Assembly care if we fail, they would listen if we won. What will we win? Our rights to enjoy our lives without having ham fisted fuckwits dictating to us that we will be an Energy Island, when the energy we are losing every year are our children, who flood away, never to return, they leave in droves, to search for work and a better future, a future denied by our political puppets!

Richard Sletzer said...

WIND ENERGY IS JUST PISS AND...ER...WIND:-
There are fashions in public policy just as there are in the fashion houses of the world .

Windpower is one of them.

Windpower is just another passing fashion- and it's already looking decidedly "last year".

Windturbine factories everywhere are on their uppers. This is no way a long term business simply because it depends on massive subsidies. The novelty is quickly wearing off.

The last thing we want in Anglesey is another here-today-gone-tomorrow industry. Lets get genuine lasting industries onot the island.

Let me make a suggestion the sort of REAL industry that could save Anglesey - farming.

Ha Ha I hear you say - there is already farming in Anglesey. Yes there is - but what I'm talking about is industrial farming on a massive scale. Thousands of cattle being milked on massive roundabouts. Pigs being raised by the thousands in cages in enormous buidlings - the size of the Anglesey Aluminium plant and bigger.

The world needs cheap meat. Anglesey - Mon Mam Cymru - can deliver it.

Anglesey people already know about farming - it's just a matter of scaling it up.

Let's cut the pie-in-the-sky crap. Let's import some cheap intensive rearing American technology and methodology and let's get on with it.

a pedant speaks said...

Between the Lines:

'Honda make their cars near Southampton'.

No they don't. They are made in Swindon, 67 miles away. Which is round the corner.

Groundhog Day said...

To add insult to injury I read that a Scottish company in Fife has been awarded the £12m contract to supply the Gwynt y Mor offshore windfarm with turbines creating 350 jobs in the process. Where are you Albert and Ieuan to fight Anglesey's corner when it needs you? Alex Salmand is jumping up and down with joy and rightly so, more is being done by the Scottish Nationalists than our Plaid in bringing work north of the b order.

Anonymous said...

"The Assembly always seems to favour diverting funding to the labour voting heartlands of S.Wales."

Druid constantly refers to the Welsh Assembly. The National Assembly for Wales is the legislature, not the government. It cannot favour anywhere.

The Welsh Government spends the money, not the Assembly.

Paul Williams said...

Anon 11:53 - I apologise and recognise that I do too often use the 'Welsh Assembly' as shorthand for the 'Welsh Assembly Government'.

Anonymous said...

The Druid of Anglesey said..."Can I echo Red Flag's comments: if you have a specific allegation of wrongdoing by a public person, this is not the place to post it. Please take it directly to the police or the council ombudsman with all necessary evidence." I agree with you. There is far to much stuff being said on here lots of which is being dragged up from up to 20 years ago , it was all looked into back then and like it or not it was sorted out at that time too many people on here are dwelling in the past.....time to move on......As Oasis once sang "Don't Look Back In Anger" . Druid I hope you have learnt a lesson from this thread and in future you remove all name calling of ANY person councilors or not , it's not good for the soul no matter what team you bat for !

Anonymous said...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-11669104

Anonymous said...

druid can you delet the post at 14:28 , just noticed I posted it in the wrong topic , sorry & thanks.

An Eye On... said...

And even if the companies decide to build (which is by no means certain), the cost is going to be lumped fully on to the consumer:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8131700/Britains-Power-chiefs-reveal-nuclear-blueprint.html