Arnish Lighthouse

<![CDATA[ Tuesday, February 27th, is the day that visions for the future will be presented in Stornoway. It starts off at midday in the Town Hall, when traffic measures will be put on display until 8.30pm. Proposals for a one-way system, involving Lewis Street amongst others, can be inspected. The number of carparking spaces will also be increased under same proposals. Probably not like it was foreseen during the 2005 Stornoway Carnival.

At 7 o'clock In the evening of the same day, Western Isles Health Board is organising a public meeting in the Education Unit at Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway to present its vision of the future for health services in these islands. Meeting starts at 7pm. The aim for this revamp is to bring health care as locally as possible.

I remember similar proposals from a meeting on 1 December 2005, and it'll be interesting to see how much has been carried over. At the time, the breakdown of trust between management and staff overshadowed the otherwise necessary review. ]]>

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Browsing the blogosphere this evening, I encountered a staggering number of references to a proposed tunnel, linking Stornoway and Ullapool. I think someone misread a story and it spread internationally like wildfire. After checking the Stornoway Gazette for February 8th, I think the story should read something like this.

Following disruption to ferry services in winter gales, the Transport Committee of the Western Isles Council has launched an investigation into the possibility of establishing a fixed link with the mainland. The closest points to the Isle of Skye, which is linked itself to the Scottish mainland by the bridge at Kyleakin, are located at Rodel, Harris as well as North Uist.

The confusion obviously arose when reference was made to the current link to mainland Scotland, constituted by the Stornoway to Ullapool ferry. As I said at the start of this piece, stories about a 41 mile / 66 km tunnel are flying around the Internet.

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<![CDATA[ Readers in the island and northern Scotland will have seen the headline exclusive in the Press and Journal today, Saturday 17 February. The RSPB has now asserted that approving the planning application, as submitted by Lewis Wind Power in December 2006 was not legal.

Oops.

Apparently, a large area of land on which the windfarm is proposed to be constructed is subject to European directives. These were not taken into account by LWP, and neither did the Comhairle make any effort to force LWP to upgrade its environmental impact study to take that into account.

The Scottish Executive is next in line to cast its eye over the application and they say they will take ALL aspects into account. Let's hope this includes the environmental side rather more than the Comhairle did. Methinks our councillors were more interested in the money and the perceived benefits. What benefits?

A public inquiry now looks on the cards, and European involvement also appears to be more and more certain. The EU doesn't take too kindly to officials who conveniently forget about their directives.

I don't know if this is acceptable on Island Blogging, but I liked this image
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<![CDATA[ Today would have been a smashing day for generating electricity out of the wind. This morning saw winds of 45 mph, gusting to 62 mph. In other words, the turbines could not have operated today. On average, we have one gale a week here, which means that 52 days out of 365 the windfarm would not be able to operate. Which is 14%. I think the cut-off point is a force 6 - correct me if I am wrong. I remember an incident in Holland, where a large windturbine spun out of control in a force 8, which led to the loss of a wing and potentially disastrous consequences for anyone in the vicinity.

Want to know what the wind is like up here? Visit the Eoropie Tearoom website and select Weather. After a second or two, the current weather is displayed in real time. Eoropie is a mile or two from the northern end of the proposed windfarm, and a mile south of the Butt of Lewis. . ]]>

<![CDATA[ There has been quite a lot of media coverage surrounding the petition to the Prime Minister not to commence road charging. With 1.1 million signatories, this plea tops the bill, but not in terms of likelihood of success. Whether the one below will remains to be seen. Thanks to the miracle that is the Internet, I have acquired the link to this petition to Tony Blair - whether it is successful remains to be seen. So far, 1,134 people have signed it.
Please note: only UK residents can sign (see petition itself for details)
Deadline: 23rd February 2007

Windturbines

The petition reads:
We agree with the need to find methods to prevent climate change affecting our environment but this must be done with the full support of the public. No attempt can be successful if it destroys the very environment that we hope to save. We call for support for renewable energy projects that are NOT divisive in nature. We call for greater subsidies to small/personal micro-generation schemes such as solar heating. The major mechanism for reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gasses must be responsible cooperation with the public, NOT imposition of unwanted areas of policy that threaten many households. On-shore wind farms may (when subsidised with public funds) provide large profits to multi-national corporations but their contribution to CO2 reduction is small when weighed against the savings that are possible IF the public feel that they are part of the solution and not having to fight against it! ]]>