A full discussion paper is available on request by leaving a comment
Firstly, let me make it clear that I appreciate that this can be a sensitive and highly charged topic. Having been observing the trends and listening to people’s views on the subject for more than forty years I have no illusions as to how strongly some people can feel. Secondly, I think we must all appreciate that market forces sweep us all along whether it be in past or present generations. More often than not people finish up being swept up on their residential beach by virtue of economic forces expanding or reducing their choices. Fairness to the individuals or the communities concerned does not come into it. The modern mantra seems to be that you cannot fight market forces. It would seem that in recent times, whatever the rhetoric, we cannot even moderate or mitigate their effect either.
The consequence for rural housing is that young people who have grown up in the countryside cannot afford to stay, a fact recognised this week by the Federation of Master Builders in their press release of 1.9.09:
‘The Federation of Master Builders has demanded action to increase the supply of affordable rural housing following today’s announcement by the National Housing Federation, the National Association of Small Schools, and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, that Primary schools are closing at a rate of one a month in rural England’.
Granted you can accuse them of having a vested interest in taking up this cause, but all of us who live in the countryside, for whatever reason, have a vested interest in seeing that market forces do not rumble on towards their inevitable conclusion of an absence of young people beyond higher education age. The demographic imbalance is already seeing schools, shops, post offices and pubs closing with those left behind in a landscape with an ageing population. There is a need to assess whether we like the outcomes predicted and then discuss whether there is anything we can do about it. The aim should be a viable and sustainable community.
The question at the centre of that assessment is whether intervention by central or local government is possible, whether it should be done at all, and how can competing interests be resolved. The government will say that it has already intervened into the housing market by introducing measures to reduce the number of unoccupied houses and by encouraging the building of affordable homes for local young people through housing associations. This is undoubtedly true, but it is not enough. Last week it was reported that the desire of the Government to see that social housing rents fell in line with interest payments for mortgage borrowers, would lead to a fall in the already limited funds available for new builds.
The Master Builders also reminded us of the ever present threat to our schools. Having lived in a village where the school was closed there is nothing more effective in killing a community spirit, closely followed by closing the shop, the pub and the church. Twenty percent of us live in the countryside, so why not recognise it as a worthy contrast to the city sprawls of the rest of the nation and try and maintain a healthy inter relationship? If the question has even been considered there does not appear to have been much of an answer as the original life blood of the countryside, agriculture, is seen as a marginal industry. Who cares if 50% of our milk producers have left the industry in the past 12 years or that pig farmers are following suit, or that there are many other products are having to be sold for less than the cost of production? One milk producer whose withdrawal from the industry was reported on Farming Today on BBC Radio 4 this Tuesday (1.9.09) said that he was no longer prepared to do a 70 hour week for £2 per hour. To achieve a sustainable countryside we need affordable housing, and jobs, at least within reach, so that we keep the young families we have. Without children there will be no need for schools and so the possibility of attracting young families who can afford rural properties, will have also gone. Trying to balance these competing elements while preserving the quality of the landscape is by no means easy and it is not surprising that many would rather deal with more easily solved problems. A search under Rural Housing will reveal loads of papers and bodies reporting on the problem. Meanwhile the inexorable forces do their worst in the absence of positive action.
So where should we go from here. Firstly, we should stop ignoring the question and leaving it to the hierarchy. Inhibitions and prejudices about where we are from and how long we have been here must be set aside and, as country dwellers, if we really believe this aspect of civilisation is worth maintaining, we should have a good think and press for change. As a starting point, should you want to be e-mailed a rather long draft discussion paper, please leave a comment.
Dacier
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Citizen Cider and the Rescue by Ciderman
Having been trying to get rid of our accumulated junk for sometime I decided that it was time that our garage had some attention. The only thing we don’t keep in it is the car. There is so much junk and my visits so infrequent that it never fails to provide a surprise or two. This time it was a load of home made alcohol at the back which I had forgotten about. Although there are several full wine bottles their labels have all fallen off so it was only the cider which was clearly recognisable because it is in crown top beer bottles. I also remembered that the bottles with a white sticker were the sweet whilst those with no sticker were dry, or more correctly, sharp.
This meant that they had to be brought down to the house for sampling. The sweet was quite good and some ended up going to Glastonbury with Mary. It has lots of flavour and a good aroma but as usual too much alcohol. I always drink it by the wine glass. Being a complete slap dash merchant when in comes to cider making I just follow the old John Seymour recipe from his self-sufficiency bible and throw a good lot of sugar into the juice and let nature take its course. Having had many disasters down the years I don’t make too much so as to avoid a lot of wasted effort. I have not only made quite a lot of undrinkable cider but also I am constantly reminded at this time of year not to repeat the great pea pod wine fiasco again. We had such a good crop of peas that it seemed a shame to waste all the pods so five gallons of pea pod wine were set in motion, bottled and stored. The brew had quite a kick but had the one big snag: getting it past your nose! That done, it had quite a kick but not enough to obliterate the smell, so eventually many years later it went down the drain on the occasion of one of our many moves chasing the work.
When we lived on the edge of Worcester I imported large quantities of cider apples to the back yard and spent many hours pulping and pressing them to make a nearly forty gallons of cider. This was all stored in our brilliant cellar which had a near constant temperature throughout the year. My Hereford cider, brewed in Worcester, was soon being sampled by neighbours and I eventually learnt that I was known by some neighbours as Ciderman.
One set of neighbours fell victim to the persuasive powers of Ciderwoman in that she had encouraged them to consider the merits of camping as a cheap holiday for a large family. Soon, thanks to the local ad mag, they had acquired a full range of equipment, including an old style frame tent with steel work which seemed to be a scaled down version of a New York construction site back in the thirties. Such was its size that the family had tried several times to complete its construction and on its umpteenth attempt was nearly there but was a pair of experienced hands short. Up went the shout that Ciderman was needed and soon a knock was being applied to our front door. The small child sent to summon help was in an agitated state of mind but clearly someone was needed across the street. Ciderman was already engaged in a project to preserve his job i.e., meeting a deadline. Ciderwoman therefore dashed to the rescue and soon the huge tent was in place and soundly pitched. At this point Ciderwoman and Ciderman (who had eventually put in a belated appearance)were applauded for their help and deliverance from the violent ways of the steel framed tent. Needless to say we had not been sampling our harvest at the time. If we had been the result could have been somewhat different.
Dacier and Sian
This meant that they had to be brought down to the house for sampling. The sweet was quite good and some ended up going to Glastonbury with Mary. It has lots of flavour and a good aroma but as usual too much alcohol. I always drink it by the wine glass. Being a complete slap dash merchant when in comes to cider making I just follow the old John Seymour recipe from his self-sufficiency bible and throw a good lot of sugar into the juice and let nature take its course. Having had many disasters down the years I don’t make too much so as to avoid a lot of wasted effort. I have not only made quite a lot of undrinkable cider but also I am constantly reminded at this time of year not to repeat the great pea pod wine fiasco again. We had such a good crop of peas that it seemed a shame to waste all the pods so five gallons of pea pod wine were set in motion, bottled and stored. The brew had quite a kick but had the one big snag: getting it past your nose! That done, it had quite a kick but not enough to obliterate the smell, so eventually many years later it went down the drain on the occasion of one of our many moves chasing the work.
When we lived on the edge of Worcester I imported large quantities of cider apples to the back yard and spent many hours pulping and pressing them to make a nearly forty gallons of cider. This was all stored in our brilliant cellar which had a near constant temperature throughout the year. My Hereford cider, brewed in Worcester, was soon being sampled by neighbours and I eventually learnt that I was known by some neighbours as Ciderman.
One set of neighbours fell victim to the persuasive powers of Ciderwoman in that she had encouraged them to consider the merits of camping as a cheap holiday for a large family. Soon, thanks to the local ad mag, they had acquired a full range of equipment, including an old style frame tent with steel work which seemed to be a scaled down version of a New York construction site back in the thirties. Such was its size that the family had tried several times to complete its construction and on its umpteenth attempt was nearly there but was a pair of experienced hands short. Up went the shout that Ciderman was needed and soon a knock was being applied to our front door. The small child sent to summon help was in an agitated state of mind but clearly someone was needed across the street. Ciderman was already engaged in a project to preserve his job i.e., meeting a deadline. Ciderwoman therefore dashed to the rescue and soon the huge tent was in place and soundly pitched. At this point Ciderwoman and Ciderman (who had eventually put in a belated appearance)were applauded for their help and deliverance from the violent ways of the steel framed tent. Needless to say we had not been sampling our harvest at the time. If we had been the result could have been somewhat different.
Dacier and Sian
Population Increase: The Elephant in the Cabin
An Indian government minister has said that the question of population growth, 14 million a year in India’s case, should be left out of climate talks. See Guardian 28/8/09 http://bit.ly/4vaTjj
Why? Various reasons can be given, not least that the carbon emissions per capita are low compared with our American friends. But the trouble is that the question is being left out of much of the environmental discussion for some reason, although we all know, or should it be, because we know, with some dread, that the problem is getting worse.
A few weeks ago I threw out a book entitled ‘The Population Explosion’ which I had bought in about 1964. It was a very depressing read and showed how Malthus, who predicted the problems of population growth, had underestimated the rate at which it was taking place. I do not remember the authors name and of course I now regret getting rid of the book. I think it went to Oxfam, but whatever the dire warnings, we are all now living through the various consequences.
Great efforts are being made to produce food for the increasing world population but these efforts are at the same time threatening the sustainability of spaceship Earth. Any form of transport with too many people on board will usually come to grief, so while we are all trying to reduce our carbon emissions we are failing to slow the world’s population growth. Peoples aspirations also grow, and with them, the demands for the products of both factory and farm.
When populations in any form of life get too big nature usually finds a way of solving the problem. Starvation and disease are the most common and the human race is not going to be any different. Add to that the major shifts in population which will occur as food producing areas shrink, then Earth’s population could be crowded into the northern and southern hemispheres which we already know have finite food production potential. We are already seeing the results of rainfall and monsoon changes and how this effects populations in the Indian sub-continent and Africa. Limitation of population growth through birth control seems a more humane alternative to disease and starvation. To think that population growth can be matched by increased food production is a cruel allusion.
Given such depressing facts it is not surprising that environmental campaigners would rather not think about population growth. But, all the time we don’t talk about it the elephant in the room, or should I say, cabin, is getting bigger. There are some who will say that there is little enough encouragement to keep on campaigning and if it is that bad we might as well give up. My answer is that there is still a chance there is just enough time to get the passenger list stabilised, the catering department in order, and the cabin atmosphere of sufficient quality for the duration of the flight. Neither the crew nor the passengers know how long the journey will take. There is no bail out option, nor should there be. Why? Well, because it is surely better to spend the money on getting this spaceship in good order rather than tripping off to foul up a few more.
Dacier
Why? Various reasons can be given, not least that the carbon emissions per capita are low compared with our American friends. But the trouble is that the question is being left out of much of the environmental discussion for some reason, although we all know, or should it be, because we know, with some dread, that the problem is getting worse.
A few weeks ago I threw out a book entitled ‘The Population Explosion’ which I had bought in about 1964. It was a very depressing read and showed how Malthus, who predicted the problems of population growth, had underestimated the rate at which it was taking place. I do not remember the authors name and of course I now regret getting rid of the book. I think it went to Oxfam, but whatever the dire warnings, we are all now living through the various consequences.
Great efforts are being made to produce food for the increasing world population but these efforts are at the same time threatening the sustainability of spaceship Earth. Any form of transport with too many people on board will usually come to grief, so while we are all trying to reduce our carbon emissions we are failing to slow the world’s population growth. Peoples aspirations also grow, and with them, the demands for the products of both factory and farm.
When populations in any form of life get too big nature usually finds a way of solving the problem. Starvation and disease are the most common and the human race is not going to be any different. Add to that the major shifts in population which will occur as food producing areas shrink, then Earth’s population could be crowded into the northern and southern hemispheres which we already know have finite food production potential. We are already seeing the results of rainfall and monsoon changes and how this effects populations in the Indian sub-continent and Africa. Limitation of population growth through birth control seems a more humane alternative to disease and starvation. To think that population growth can be matched by increased food production is a cruel allusion.
Given such depressing facts it is not surprising that environmental campaigners would rather not think about population growth. But, all the time we don’t talk about it the elephant in the room, or should I say, cabin, is getting bigger. There are some who will say that there is little enough encouragement to keep on campaigning and if it is that bad we might as well give up. My answer is that there is still a chance there is just enough time to get the passenger list stabilised, the catering department in order, and the cabin atmosphere of sufficient quality for the duration of the flight. Neither the crew nor the passengers know how long the journey will take. There is no bail out option, nor should there be. Why? Well, because it is surely better to spend the money on getting this spaceship in good order rather than tripping off to foul up a few more.
Dacier
Friday, 28 August 2009
Gathering Winter Fuel
Our county is very green. If you don’t like green you had better not come. I am not referring to politics but to the many woods and green pastures we have. That said our communities try to be green and wood burners of various types are popular. Likewise growing your own vegetables and trying to confine shopping trips to either market days or the local shops are other green habits. Although 25% of the nation’s gas passes us by just a few miles away, we don’t have mains gas. Electricity arrived up here in 1963 so solid fuel, especially wood and coal for Rayburn Regents was very popular. There contemporaries are usually oil fired now with bottled gas and electricity being the other choices. We have several heating and cooking facilities. We have storage heaters for background heating, a Clearview wood burner which provides the bulk of our space heating and a fifty year old York Stove. We also have a solar panel. All these sources will soon feeding a five foot tall heat store which has two Economy 7 immersion heaters for times when one or more of the other inputs are not working. We are hoping that our plumbing system which was installed 50 years ago when we had a gravity fed system from a well across the fields will now make more sense. Ever since we went onto the mains in 1977/8 it has been rather eccentric.
The Yorkist was designed to burn house coal, not anthracite, and will heat water, run a main oven, a warming oven, and will convert to an open fire from a closed stove when it has a hotplate. We have a lot of soup and stews in winter as a result. This very efficient miracle was installed before the electric came and when Welsh coal was available. Unfortunately, coal is no longer cheap and has never been green and so we now burn well seasoned wood and dried shredded hedge cuttings. The only problem is keeping it in at night, especially when a strong westerly is blowing. The solution is to use about 250 kilos of coal per winter, but the guilt weighs much more. There are wood fuels manufactured from waste wood but these are still very expensive (barbecue premium really) and so until the price comes down we will still burn a mix of wood and coal in extreme weather.
For this winter we will be trying some Forest of Dean coal. It is a bit greener in that it won’t have come far, unlike some coal which could, it seems, have come from anywhere on the planet. For years I have been searching in vain for any statement of origin on house coal bags. I can hear the less compromising green folk tut tutting from here and I don’t like using even this small amount, much like I am sure many of you don’t like using gas from Quatar or Oil from Alaska, Nigeria and anywhere else. Not to mention the coal fired power stations and nuclear plants that account for much of your electricity bill. But until a good slow burning recycled product arrives at a reasonable price, we have little alternative for our much loved stove when there is a high wind coming at us from off the hill.
It is estimated that some 70% of our woodland is not being managed and that present supplies could be increased by 2 million tonnes. Although wood is not supposed to go to landfill, there is still a lot of wood being wasted. It is particularly distressing to see developers’ and foresters burning timber rather than putting it into the green energy market. We have a lot of such fuel going to waste and such is the stupidity of the system, if you want to make arrangements to collect such material from factories etc you will have to buy a licence to keep within the law.
Meanwhile, as all kinds of alternative fuels are sough, thousands of old houses are wasting fuel and the costs of doing something about it are a major discouragement to occupiers. The answer lies not in meeting demand per se but in reducing it along with reducing waste. This involves both avoiding wasted heat and wasted potential fuel. But all the promoters of environmental tokenism can do is promote wind and nuclear power, while cutting grants and increasing the complexities and costs for those of us who would like to be micro generators. Even simpler, would be a wide spread subsidy for all types of insulation, including double glazing. However, this is unlikely while environmental tokenism stalks the corridors of Whitehall and bankers’ bonuses need to be paid. Even worse, nothing much is said of the water power which powered so many industries before the shift to fossil fuels and the path to global warming was taken.
Dacier
The Yorkist was designed to burn house coal, not anthracite, and will heat water, run a main oven, a warming oven, and will convert to an open fire from a closed stove when it has a hotplate. We have a lot of soup and stews in winter as a result. This very efficient miracle was installed before the electric came and when Welsh coal was available. Unfortunately, coal is no longer cheap and has never been green and so we now burn well seasoned wood and dried shredded hedge cuttings. The only problem is keeping it in at night, especially when a strong westerly is blowing. The solution is to use about 250 kilos of coal per winter, but the guilt weighs much more. There are wood fuels manufactured from waste wood but these are still very expensive (barbecue premium really) and so until the price comes down we will still burn a mix of wood and coal in extreme weather.
For this winter we will be trying some Forest of Dean coal. It is a bit greener in that it won’t have come far, unlike some coal which could, it seems, have come from anywhere on the planet. For years I have been searching in vain for any statement of origin on house coal bags. I can hear the less compromising green folk tut tutting from here and I don’t like using even this small amount, much like I am sure many of you don’t like using gas from Quatar or Oil from Alaska, Nigeria and anywhere else. Not to mention the coal fired power stations and nuclear plants that account for much of your electricity bill. But until a good slow burning recycled product arrives at a reasonable price, we have little alternative for our much loved stove when there is a high wind coming at us from off the hill.
It is estimated that some 70% of our woodland is not being managed and that present supplies could be increased by 2 million tonnes. Although wood is not supposed to go to landfill, there is still a lot of wood being wasted. It is particularly distressing to see developers’ and foresters burning timber rather than putting it into the green energy market. We have a lot of such fuel going to waste and such is the stupidity of the system, if you want to make arrangements to collect such material from factories etc you will have to buy a licence to keep within the law.
Meanwhile, as all kinds of alternative fuels are sough, thousands of old houses are wasting fuel and the costs of doing something about it are a major discouragement to occupiers. The answer lies not in meeting demand per se but in reducing it along with reducing waste. This involves both avoiding wasted heat and wasted potential fuel. But all the promoters of environmental tokenism can do is promote wind and nuclear power, while cutting grants and increasing the complexities and costs for those of us who would like to be micro generators. Even simpler, would be a wide spread subsidy for all types of insulation, including double glazing. However, this is unlikely while environmental tokenism stalks the corridors of Whitehall and bankers’ bonuses need to be paid. Even worse, nothing much is said of the water power which powered so many industries before the shift to fossil fuels and the path to global warming was taken.
Dacier
Monday, 24 August 2009
More on English Devolution: the Foreign Policy Snag from Scotland
Having made the claim that it is time to take English devolution seriously, the current debacle over the Lockerbie Bomber shows one of the dangers with changing the British Constitution. All kinds of changes are being proposed. Many have already been implemented. The difficulty lies in the fact that no one actually designed the system but it has evolved over the centuries with a series of settlements which have emerged from civil conflict and/or compromise. As a consequence many of the details have been left open to leave room for flexibility or because delving into the detail would re-open old arguments.
In the case of Scottish devolution the present arrangement can be seen as having been a major shift of Scottish affairs away from the Westminster Parliament and Whitehall ministers, with a consequent enhancement of the exercise of power through an elected Scottish Parliament. This devolved the exercise of the powers previously exercised by the Secretary of State for Scotland. The assumption has always been that Foreign Policy and Defence would l remain with Westminster and, more realistically, with the Secretaries of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs within the Cabinet, togther with their attendant ministries filled with experts to support them.
No one seems to have foreseen that Scottish policy on Criminal Justice could hold such dangers for UK foreign policy. It is hard to imagine a Home Secretary or a Minister for Constitutional Affairs being left to pursue a policy of this kind, even though it is quasi-judicial in nature, without attracting the attention of Foreign Secretary. They would be well within their range of influence, to which would added the influence of the [Prime Minister, except in this instance the PM, Gordon Brow, is still, for some reason, still on an extended holiday. Even before devolution Scotland had retained its own judicial system, but the Secretary of State for Scotland sitting in the Cabinet would have been directly within the sight line of the Foreign Secretary. Whilst the exercise of this influence might contravene the constitutional proprieties, is somewhat naive to think that ‘words would not be had’. As far as one can see, if there was any influence coming from Whitehall as to UK Foreign policy it did not get through.. Even if such influence might be seen as improper, an independent Minister would surely have to take into account the wider public interest, which in pre-devolution days would have been the UK’s interests. Were such interests within the considerations of the Scottish Minister for Justice? I think not, and in any case, it might well have served the Brown government to let things run their course. It was after all, nothing to do with them.
As a result British/American relations have taken a knock, with threats of trade boycotts and talk of holiday makers being advised to go to Ireland rather than the UK: just the sort of thing that our regions and struggling rural economies could do without in a recession. The other result is that it shows that any constitutional changes need to be carefully thought through as to their consequences. House of Lords reform seems to be stuck in the oven half baked; the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law no longer seems to convince the government that brought it about, while the undermining of Cabinet Government in favour of the presidential model continues by unabated stealth.
The case for English devolution, or the existing devolved arrangement, is not weakened by the present embarrassment. It reminds us of the subtleties of the British Constitution and warns us that tinkering with the system within the short term mentality of politicians is dangerous, and with the wrong combination of factors, it could be disastrous for the values of liberty which our system is supposed to embody.
In the case of Scottish devolution the present arrangement can be seen as having been a major shift of Scottish affairs away from the Westminster Parliament and Whitehall ministers, with a consequent enhancement of the exercise of power through an elected Scottish Parliament. This devolved the exercise of the powers previously exercised by the Secretary of State for Scotland. The assumption has always been that Foreign Policy and Defence would l remain with Westminster and, more realistically, with the Secretaries of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs within the Cabinet, togther with their attendant ministries filled with experts to support them.
No one seems to have foreseen that Scottish policy on Criminal Justice could hold such dangers for UK foreign policy. It is hard to imagine a Home Secretary or a Minister for Constitutional Affairs being left to pursue a policy of this kind, even though it is quasi-judicial in nature, without attracting the attention of Foreign Secretary. They would be well within their range of influence, to which would added the influence of the [Prime Minister, except in this instance the PM, Gordon Brow, is still, for some reason, still on an extended holiday. Even before devolution Scotland had retained its own judicial system, but the Secretary of State for Scotland sitting in the Cabinet would have been directly within the sight line of the Foreign Secretary. Whilst the exercise of this influence might contravene the constitutional proprieties, is somewhat naive to think that ‘words would not be had’. As far as one can see, if there was any influence coming from Whitehall as to UK Foreign policy it did not get through.. Even if such influence might be seen as improper, an independent Minister would surely have to take into account the wider public interest, which in pre-devolution days would have been the UK’s interests. Were such interests within the considerations of the Scottish Minister for Justice? I think not, and in any case, it might well have served the Brown government to let things run their course. It was after all, nothing to do with them.
As a result British/American relations have taken a knock, with threats of trade boycotts and talk of holiday makers being advised to go to Ireland rather than the UK: just the sort of thing that our regions and struggling rural economies could do without in a recession. The other result is that it shows that any constitutional changes need to be carefully thought through as to their consequences. House of Lords reform seems to be stuck in the oven half baked; the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law no longer seems to convince the government that brought it about, while the undermining of Cabinet Government in favour of the presidential model continues by unabated stealth.
The case for English devolution, or the existing devolved arrangement, is not weakened by the present embarrassment. It reminds us of the subtleties of the British Constitution and warns us that tinkering with the system within the short term mentality of politicians is dangerous, and with the wrong combination of factors, it could be disastrous for the values of liberty which our system is supposed to embody.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Black Hill and the Black Mountains from 60 Miles away: Visual Amenity as Inspiration
Following on from my blog of 11th August ( Windmills etc: Visual Amenity, What’s it for?) I must tell you of one of the highlights of our latest trip when our caravan came to rest in the Clent hills, in the Black Country: the place where the great wealth of our nation started to be generated from the 18th century onwards. From Coalbrookdale to climate change is such a small step but there is much still to be done to reverse this deadly drift, as G.K. Chesterton puts it, ‘before we go to paradise by way of Kensal Green’.
Having made the climb to Clent summit the views are magnificent, from city sprawl through to Housman’s ‘blue remembered hills’ of Shropshire, and of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. For us it was the view to the west which meant the most. Sixty miles away among the haze was our part of the world. At the top of this list was Hay Bluff, Black Hill and the line of the Cats Back with the Sugar Loaf insisting on being seen in the far distance. For such a comparatively easy walk this must be the most rewarding climb in the region.
Whilst taking in the contrasts of rural and industrial landscape I got talking to an elderly, sprightly gentleman who was a life member of the CTC. He had lived all his life in Sutton Coalfield and said he valued the contrasts of his region. Looking towards Hay Bluff, this veteran t recounted his cycle ride as a young man to Brecon with his fellow CTC members. The traditional meeting place was the Temple of Remembrance in the city centre, with an 8 am start on a Saturday morning. Instead of the route the crow might take from Clent, the cyclists route would be winding and lengthy. The first section was to Hereford and then out along the Brecon Road, crossing the river at Bridge Sollars and on to Hay-on-Wye from Madley via Hardwicke.
We both recalled the methods of cycling in large groups in the fifties and how the occasional vehicle was assisted in passing several dozen cyclists by making sure that there were ample gaps in the column for the overtaking car or lorry. A Tail Ender cyclist would warn of an over taker with the call, ‘Oil Up’, while a leading rider would call ‘Oil Down’ for one coming in the other direction.
Main road cycling in the fifties at weekends was rarely a problem, and my veteran friend told me that he was still riding on main roads up until the early seventies. By then the speed and volume of the traffic had reduced the pleasures of the open road while increasing the risk. I think cycling in some towns has now reached that point with added risk of being knocked down as a pedestrian by cyclists in pedestrian precincts!
Having passed through Hay-on-Wye, the Brecon YHA was reached just after 5pm. Returning by a different route on the Sunday ensured a varied, affordable and refreshing weekend for the cyclists of his generation. For the present generation of cyclists it is probably wiser to avoid busy roads as much as possible and support segregated cycle routes whenever possible.
This meeting so inspired Sian that she has decided that I should upgrade from my 1957 Dawes Clansman to something a bit lighter. I collect it, still a Dawes, from Master Craft Cycles of Hereford on Tuesday and we plan to make use of cycle routes beyond the reach of the car and lorry whenever possible. The car cycle rack has been retrieved from the shed ready for our next. Possibly the National Cycle Route along the Kennet and Avon Canal. See where a good view can end up.
Having made the climb to Clent summit the views are magnificent, from city sprawl through to Housman’s ‘blue remembered hills’ of Shropshire, and of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. For us it was the view to the west which meant the most. Sixty miles away among the haze was our part of the world. At the top of this list was Hay Bluff, Black Hill and the line of the Cats Back with the Sugar Loaf insisting on being seen in the far distance. For such a comparatively easy walk this must be the most rewarding climb in the region.
Whilst taking in the contrasts of rural and industrial landscape I got talking to an elderly, sprightly gentleman who was a life member of the CTC. He had lived all his life in Sutton Coalfield and said he valued the contrasts of his region. Looking towards Hay Bluff, this veteran t recounted his cycle ride as a young man to Brecon with his fellow CTC members. The traditional meeting place was the Temple of Remembrance in the city centre, with an 8 am start on a Saturday morning. Instead of the route the crow might take from Clent, the cyclists route would be winding and lengthy. The first section was to Hereford and then out along the Brecon Road, crossing the river at Bridge Sollars and on to Hay-on-Wye from Madley via Hardwicke.
We both recalled the methods of cycling in large groups in the fifties and how the occasional vehicle was assisted in passing several dozen cyclists by making sure that there were ample gaps in the column for the overtaking car or lorry. A Tail Ender cyclist would warn of an over taker with the call, ‘Oil Up’, while a leading rider would call ‘Oil Down’ for one coming in the other direction.
Main road cycling in the fifties at weekends was rarely a problem, and my veteran friend told me that he was still riding on main roads up until the early seventies. By then the speed and volume of the traffic had reduced the pleasures of the open road while increasing the risk. I think cycling in some towns has now reached that point with added risk of being knocked down as a pedestrian by cyclists in pedestrian precincts!
Having passed through Hay-on-Wye, the Brecon YHA was reached just after 5pm. Returning by a different route on the Sunday ensured a varied, affordable and refreshing weekend for the cyclists of his generation. For the present generation of cyclists it is probably wiser to avoid busy roads as much as possible and support segregated cycle routes whenever possible.
This meeting so inspired Sian that she has decided that I should upgrade from my 1957 Dawes Clansman to something a bit lighter. I collect it, still a Dawes, from Master Craft Cycles of Hereford on Tuesday and we plan to make use of cycle routes beyond the reach of the car and lorry whenever possible. The car cycle rack has been retrieved from the shed ready for our next. Possibly the National Cycle Route along the Kennet and Avon Canal. See where a good view can end up.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Tokenism and the Bus Pass
In an earlier blog, Popular Policies are Doomed, I was making the claim that whenever something becomes popular in the UK it has to be curtailed. The Bus Pass is one of the recent victims of its own success. In the12 months I have held a senior persons bus pass I have yet to use it in Herefordshire. The reason for this is that it is a 3 mile walk to the nearest bus stop with a useful service, although I cant expect to get a bus back after 6pm.
Our other services don’t operate out of school terms and only run one in the morning and one back in the evening. The two market day buses give little time before they return from Hereford and Abergavenny respectively. I have used the pass in Birmingham a few times and once on a park and ride in Kent. I could go to Cardiff and back for nothing, but without a toilet break I don’t think the two hour trip would be much of an outing. It does of course involve a five mile drive to pick the bus up in the first place. Consequently, for me, it doesn’t add up to a hill of discarded tickets, but for others it is a liberating opportunity.
It’s these ‘others’ who are therefore causing the Association of Local Authorities to winge. Local authorities have to fork out the cost of reimbursing the bus operators. This would not be a problem but the promised reimbursement from central government has been falling short of the actual cost. The local authorities are now saying that people who have a car should not be entitled to a free bus pass especially when they could afford to pay proper fares anyway. The Government, having made the gesture are now quite happy, or so it seems, to see the idea of free bus travel for the older citizen to gradually fade away while the local authorities can be blamed. The scheme has already been withdrawn from limited stop services, park and ride and city sightseeing tours. This latter category, it could be argued, is hardly travel anyway, but these are just the start..
What the local authorities don’t seem to realise is that they should be encouraging people to get onto public transport and they probably wouldn’t disagree with this, until they have to pay for it. The same can be said of central government if they are reneging on the undertaking to reimburse local authorities. The withdrawal of park and ride from the scheme really shows how seriously this claimed encouragement to get us out of our cars and onto public transport is taken. Not much.
Having been scarred by commuting for 13 years by the poisonous combination of Great Western and Thames Trains I am reluctant to risk my valuable leisure time by travelling by train, usually at great expense. By buying a train ticket you have decided to forgo the expense already incurred by keeping and running a car. Your tax and depreciation costs are still being incurred while your car stands idle. No recognition of this is given. Instead you have to take on the double whammy of paying a high train fare as well, and in my experience, a huge gamble as to whether you will have a pleasant journey due to poor management of the system and a total failure to understand the phrase, ‘customer care’. In any case, subsidised travel should be extended to everyone if there is a genuine determination to reduce car journeys. The other poisonous combination of John Major’s Thomas the Tank Engine privatisation and Tony Blair’s failure to think a joined up thought on the topic has meant that the public transport system outside the big cities is very patchy and practically non-existent for evening travel. If I stop using my car I give up the only reliable transport I know at the moment. This of course suits all the token environmentalists in government well, because I not only pay the full costs, the taxes I pay for the privilege leaves some cash free to spend on all kinds of other daft token schemes which are supposed to make us think that New Labour is environmentally sound. The current thinking is about as joined up as a transatlantic bus service.
Dacier
Our other services don’t operate out of school terms and only run one in the morning and one back in the evening. The two market day buses give little time before they return from Hereford and Abergavenny respectively. I have used the pass in Birmingham a few times and once on a park and ride in Kent. I could go to Cardiff and back for nothing, but without a toilet break I don’t think the two hour trip would be much of an outing. It does of course involve a five mile drive to pick the bus up in the first place. Consequently, for me, it doesn’t add up to a hill of discarded tickets, but for others it is a liberating opportunity.
It’s these ‘others’ who are therefore causing the Association of Local Authorities to winge. Local authorities have to fork out the cost of reimbursing the bus operators. This would not be a problem but the promised reimbursement from central government has been falling short of the actual cost. The local authorities are now saying that people who have a car should not be entitled to a free bus pass especially when they could afford to pay proper fares anyway. The Government, having made the gesture are now quite happy, or so it seems, to see the idea of free bus travel for the older citizen to gradually fade away while the local authorities can be blamed. The scheme has already been withdrawn from limited stop services, park and ride and city sightseeing tours. This latter category, it could be argued, is hardly travel anyway, but these are just the start..
What the local authorities don’t seem to realise is that they should be encouraging people to get onto public transport and they probably wouldn’t disagree with this, until they have to pay for it. The same can be said of central government if they are reneging on the undertaking to reimburse local authorities. The withdrawal of park and ride from the scheme really shows how seriously this claimed encouragement to get us out of our cars and onto public transport is taken. Not much.
Having been scarred by commuting for 13 years by the poisonous combination of Great Western and Thames Trains I am reluctant to risk my valuable leisure time by travelling by train, usually at great expense. By buying a train ticket you have decided to forgo the expense already incurred by keeping and running a car. Your tax and depreciation costs are still being incurred while your car stands idle. No recognition of this is given. Instead you have to take on the double whammy of paying a high train fare as well, and in my experience, a huge gamble as to whether you will have a pleasant journey due to poor management of the system and a total failure to understand the phrase, ‘customer care’. In any case, subsidised travel should be extended to everyone if there is a genuine determination to reduce car journeys. The other poisonous combination of John Major’s Thomas the Tank Engine privatisation and Tony Blair’s failure to think a joined up thought on the topic has meant that the public transport system outside the big cities is very patchy and practically non-existent for evening travel. If I stop using my car I give up the only reliable transport I know at the moment. This of course suits all the token environmentalists in government well, because I not only pay the full costs, the taxes I pay for the privilege leaves some cash free to spend on all kinds of other daft token schemes which are supposed to make us think that New Labour is environmentally sound. The current thinking is about as joined up as a transatlantic bus service.
Dacier
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