Stile Council: Where Are We Heading For?

I read an article today – someone sent me a link to it, knowing it would be of interest in my line of work. At first glance, you may be wondering where the walking connection is – but bear with me, and all will be revealed.

In it was described a council that have outsourced or intend to outsource so many of their services – not just the usual suspects such as parking, highways and so forth, but planning, regeneration, HR, IT, procurement, finance, legal services, trading standards, council housing, environmental health, rubbish collection, libraries, care of the vulnerable and the disabled, and even, would you believe it, cemeteries and crematoriums – that in the space of just a couple of years, the council will have shrunk from just over 3,000 staff to just over 300. 

To save their embarrassment, I won’t name them.

According to the article, there appears to be three main concerns about a state of affairs such as this. Firstly, all of these services are being farmed out to a very limited number of massive, privately-owned infrastructure and business services companies that have little knowledge of local issues and concerns, whose contracts are such that the details are often shrouded by “commercial sensitivity” and who can, in a worst-case scenario, go bust. Where would that leave us?

Secondly, these contracts are typically let over lengthy timespans, often as much as 10 years at a time, so the entire democratic process is lost to the local community – whoever you vote for, you get the contracted infrastructure company, like it or not.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, local expertise is lost. At the end of these lengthy contracts there will be so little experience, expertise and infrastructure remaining locally within councils that it would be almost impossible to return to the “old” way even if they wanted to.

These deals are usually touted as a route to saving money, although it seems that is not always the case. In one example, a deal was meant to deliver £70m savings and 100 new jobs: when neither benefit actually materialised, the contract was transferred back to the council.

So how does this affect walking, I hear you ask?

Well, the obvious answer is that local authorities are responsible, through Rights of Way departments, for the upkeep and maintenance of the all the footpaths, bridleways, by-ways and so forth. But with low priority, reduced budgets and outsourced responsibility, how will upkeep and maintenance of the network be enacted and policed?

The providers are only in it to make money, and I suspect there is little money to be had from contracts like this because we all know that RoW team budgets are miniscule in relative terms, and that a good footpath network runs on the goodwill of many people – landowners and managers, local volunteers, Ramblers’ groups, and the like. Will those volunteers still feel as altruistic if they are ultimately helping to line the pockets of big business and greedy shareholders?

The other aspect – the one that is perhaps most immediately concerning here on Ambles & Rambles – is that my own local authority, Northamptonshire, is set to adopt an “alternative delivery model” like this and follow in the footsteps of the council mentioned above, declaring just last month that it intended to outsource 95% of its work and go down to a skeleton staff.

Quite how this will manifest itself in the future, no one yet knows. It’s one thing to ask local residents to keep an eye out for any maintenance issues, to help fix a stile or put up a new waymarker, but another altogether to expect them to fight legal battles over illegal closures, maintain (or even improve by 2026, the cut-off date for re-inclusion of remembered but lost pre-1949 routes into the network and set out in the CroW Act 2000) the definitive map, or negotiate new access rights with landowners.

Because, in the end, it all comes down to money. It’s the reason that outsourcing is being proposed, and it’s why contractors will take it on. If they can’t make any money out of it, they won’t do it, and I’m sure they will be inclined to minimise outlay in order to maximise profit margins and keep shareholders happy. Unless the contracts are absolutely correctly specified then the contractors will work any loopholes they can find – they have whole departments given over to just that sort of fine-tooth-combery – and exploit them to the full if they can.

And by the time the contracts are re-let, there could be a lot of damage done.

Energy: Saving

We recently received our energy bill. Normally this is cause for a sharp intake of breath, the jumble of figures on the page aligning in such a way as to achieve a larger sum than might reasonably be expected. On this occasion, though, it proved to be slightly less eye-wateringly expensive than usual, this being some reward for our efforts to reduce energy consumption.

We both dislike waste, be it over-consumption of energy, reckless creation of landfill volume, irresponsible attitudes towards the use of water or other precious resources, or anything else (don't get me started on the estimated £12 billion of food we throw away in the UK each year). Use, re-use, repair, recycle, up cycle: to me it doesn't really matter, as long as waste is reduced and profligacy prevented.

However, it was another figure on our bill that really caught our eye: apparently, we are ranked as the 7th most energy efficient household in a comparison of 100 similar properties. This is good news for two reasons: a) our efforts to reduce energy consumption appear to have been effective, and b) we now know how many households we need to catch to become the number one most efficient. (Competitive? Who, me?)

On that basis, you’d be forgiven for thinking that "clean, green" energy production would be a real passion too. And, up to a point, it is. However, regular readers of this blog will know I have commented unfavourably on wind farms in the past. This is not simply through some blind belief that wind turbines are possessed of an inherent wrongness, or that they are in anyway aesthetically displeasing (which is entirely a matter of opinion).

No, my dislike of them is a considered position based upon facts that are widely available – if you look hard enough! Namely, that they are grossly inefficient, very expensive, ecologically unsound, subject to a planning process that favours the energy companies, and often inappropriately situated. 

And it is this last issue which for me is the cause for most concern.

Take a look at this example from Alan Sloman’s Blog. I won’t elaborate further, as Alan’s post (and many others like it on his blog) speaks more eloquently and knowledgably on the subject than I ever could.

The main reason behind the current rush towards wind-powered energy generation is less to do with suitability or sustainability and more with the fact that that successive Governments have failed to grasp the nettle and formulate a coherent future energy policy. Now, with many of our existing power stations in the process of being decommissioned at the end of their lifetime, there is simply nothing to replace them.

It doesn’t help that so-called environmental groups have actually been complicit in this kind of desecration. Unwittingly or otherwise, their refusal to support the kind of generation necessary to power the UK in the coming years (such as nuclear) has helped create this position, as though it is perfectly acceptable to sacrifice anything on the altar of ideology, without realizing the ultimate irony of forever degrading the very thing they say they want to protect: the environment! 

To be frank, I find the implicit assertion that their dare-I-say conceited version of environmentalism is somehow more worthy than my (and many others) more holistic interpretation - an interpretation that takes into account ecological as well as environmental aspects - more than a little arrogant.

And, as renewable solutions alone can only ever generate a fraction of the energy we need, the future looks set to be blighted by increasing energy poverty: this in a nation with the 6^th biggest economy in the world. A high cost is set to be paid – in more ways than one.

The truth is there are now increasingly large tracts of the Scotland, Wales and England covered by or in the shadow of wind farm developments. It just so happens that many of the areas in question are also some of the wildest, most beautiful and most remote places in the country, fabulous resources in their own right that are in the process of being lost to this and future generations. The opportunity to roam, to explore pristine wild places, to leave behind the incursions of modern life and to gain spiritual and psychological sustenance from such landscapes will be gone - changed forever. 

The Way We See Things

I’ve seen God.

At least, I think it was Him: with piercing gaze, trademark long hair and big, bushy beard, He looked just like He does in all those Renaissance paintings.  So it must be true, right?

Cleverly, though, in order to pass unnoticed through His people, he had swapped the traditional flowing robes for a faded sweatshirt and jeans, and instead of descending triumphantly to Earth by the traditional conveyance of a cloud, heralded by Cherubim and Seraphim and backlit by celestial light, He opted instead for a Y Reg red Fiesta.

Perception. The way we see and understand things can be affected by so many factors: quality of information, assumption, learning, stereotyping, or – sometimes – just a simple misunderstanding of the facts.

Before last weekend, if anyone had asked me how we were doing on the mileage front compared to late March any other year, I would have said we were well down. Lack of time and poor weather for the first few weeks must have impacted on our total. With evidence like that, it must be true - right?

Climbing out of Carding Mill Valley

But today's walk of 10.75 miles has nudged us over the hundred-mile-cumulative mark, and this puts us pretty much slap bang in the middle of the spread of totals from previous years.


Last Sunday we took on a circuit we have done several times before - from Church Stretton, on to the Long Mynd via Carding Mill Valley, over Pole Bank, down Minton Batch and back on a lower route of field paths and lanes through Little Stretton.

As we began our climb out of Carding Mill Valley, the schizophrenic nature of the day's weather showed itself: one moment we were bathed in spring sunshine, the next we were assaulted by winter sleet and hail.



Looking to Corndon Hill, with snow capped Cadair Idris just visible on the horizon



But by the time we had reached the top, conditions had settled and a gradual improvement to the day commenced. The walk along the top of the Mynd is easy enough, with good, clear paths all the way, and sections of metaled road in places. However, despite the ease of progress, the views remain excellent, and we could see not only the summits of the nearby Stretton Hills but further afield as well: enough to see that some of the other tops were getting a squally shower – and a light dusting of snow capping distant Cadair Idris.



Descending into Minton Batch

By the time we began our descent, spring had returned, and layers required to keep rain and wind at bay were hastily shed. Minton Batch is an attractive clough, and one of the quieter ways off the hill: still subject to the odd strafing by MTB riders, but comparatively peaceful for the most part. The only downside is the farm at the bottom: as we have commented before, the owner must have lost all sense of shame and self-respect, and – if anything – it was a worse mess than last time we passed: this being a matter of fact, not perception.

What a mess: since our last visit, a selection of three clapped out old
tractors has been added to the collection

More mess: black plastic wrapping hanging from skeletal tree
branches like huge dead bats

The final stretch passes along lanes and via fields through Minton and Little Stretton before meeting the road back into Church Stretton. Despite a relative lack of “match fitness” we were pleased to see our moving speed and walking time stats compared quite well to our norm, so perhaps we are not as far behind other years in that respect, either. 

Perception: it just depends on how you look at things. In this case, wrong about our achievements so far this year, but right about that farm!

 

Killington Wind Farm Proposal

Over the Easter weekend, we spent a few days bimbling round the fells and dales of this beautiful corner of the world. We had to drive home on the Monday, but before doing so we did a little circuit from Sedbergh, and I came across a leaflet about the proposed new wind farm at Killington Lakes.

Now there is a lot to this, and I don’t propose to go into the nitty gritty here in full. But links are provided for anyone that wants to find out more about the contractors:

http://www.banksgroup.co.uk/banks-group/banks-renewables/

and about the “against” campaign:

http://www.killingtonwindfarm.co.uk/

Local villagers have voted in support of the proposal (I’ll come back to that in a minute). Never mind the fact that it will be sited between two other wind farms – Armistead (3-5km away) and Lambrigg (1-2km away) in an area not long ago mooted for inclusion into a connecting corridor between the LDNP and the YDNP (and the subsequent “protection” that would imbue). And never mind that the “artists impression” in the advertising made these look smaller and further apart with the clever use of perspective, or that the turbines mooted for Killington will actually be 32m (100ft) higher than neighbouring Armistead, making them 132m high. There might only be three turbines proposed, but for those not familiar with metric measurements, and I daresay that will be quite a few (another ploy by the planners to play down the impact) that means in old money they will be 433ft high – the tallest, I am led to understand, ever built on land in the UK.

http://www.killingtonwindfarm.co.uk/index.php/site-images-maps/turbine-scale

Never mind, either, that they can be seen from Sedbergh, Kendal, and all the surrounding fells including, but not limited to, the Howgills, Middleton Fell, Barbon & Casterton Fells, Scout Scar, Grayrigg, and Whinfell Beacon.

Never mind the limited contribution these three turbines can make, or that the net CO2 reduction will be almost infinitesimal.

Also, never mind opposition to the scheme from the RSPB, Natural England, YDNP, the Yorkshire Dales Society, Friends of the Lake District, Cameron McNeish, all local parishes except one, two local MPs (Tim Farron and Rory Stewart) and even Cumbria County Council! Or that Killington parish, where the turbines will NOT be visible from, have opposed all other (visible) wind farm applications in the past! Or that the support from residents ran out at 55% - a majority, but hardly a convincing one.

No, ignore all that for a moment and I’ll tell you what REALLY stuck in my craw.

What with all the opposition (both currently and historically) to the scheme from the local community, the wider lack of support from surrounding parishes and towns, objections from local politicians and argument against from a variety of interested bodies directly linked with tourism, wildlife and protection of the area/National parks, you may be wondering why the local parishioners voted in favour of the scheme?

Well, I’ll tell you – it’s because they've had a FUCKING GREAT BRIBE!

OK, so this bribe has been camouflaged in such a way as to salve the conscience of both briber and bribee, but bribe it is, nevertheless. Here is a quote directly from Banks Renewables website about the scheme:

“Banks has also developed new initiatives around tackling fuel poverty and improving local broadband access as part of the wind farm project, in response to comments from local people about how the community benefits fund that would be associated with the wind farm might best be used.

The final decision on how to allocate the fund, which will amount to around £675,000 over the 25-year lifespan of the scheme, will be agreed with local people, and the broadband and fuel efficiency schemes have been put forward by Banks as examples of how the money might be used to secure a positive, long-term local legacy for the wind farm”.

For balance, and in the spirit of even-handedness, here is a link to the full press release:

http://www.banksgroup.co.uk/killington-parish-vote-reveals-local-support-for-proposed-wind-farm/

So that’s how it happened! Nothing, in the end, to do with needs of the people, the greater good of the nation, or benefits to the wider community, etc, etc, etc. No: just a whopping hand out to the voters to the tune of £27k a year. Community Benefits fund = bung!

Not only that, Ladies and Gentlemen, but you and me are footing the bill for it. Whether the money comes from “profits” (overcharging us in energy prices) or subsidies (our taxes), each and every one of us is being forced to tacitly support such schemes and such behaviour.

It is rotten to the core!

If you feel as strongly as I do, either about the scheme or the blatant cynicism surrounding it, please follow the link below and click on the “Count Me In” tab on the left hand side to register your objection.

http://www.killingtonwindfarm.co.uk/

Thank you.

Soapbox – Struggling To Find …..

Every year, manufacturers of outdoor gear spend a lot of time, energy and resources developing new lines and new technologies, creating lots of shiny new better-than-last-year models to tempt us to part with our hard-earned cash. Partly this is because they want to be seen as cutting edge (and the launch of a new batch of goodies each season helps reinforce this message) but mostly because without the life-blood of new sales, either through added desirability, increased functionality or improved performance, it is assumed that no business has a sustainable future (obviously this is a debatable point, but I’ll leave that for another day).

On the whole, this sort of progress normally brings benefits to the user: lighter materials, more technologically advanced fabrics, increased comfort, enhanced breathability, greater packability, and so forth. Perhaps not every change is always an improvement, and product reviews (whether favourable or unfavourable) can skew the rate at which change occurs, but over time sales and feedback will shape which developments work (and which don’t) and which are popular (and which aren’t) and gradually a range of benefits will accrue.

But sometimes, in the drive for “new improved”, good products can get lost along the way. Not necessarily anything fancy, you understand; nothing wacky or way out or unsustainably specialist. Just ordinary, solid, run-of-the-mill stuff – the type of thing you would never imagine being hard to buy but which turns out to be just that when the time comes to replace it.

Such has been the case lately with a couple of items that to me are pretty standard bits of kit: the wicking T-shirt and the Microgrid top.

The wicking T-shirt is a curious creature. Rather like the bass player in a band, it’s never the star attraction or the focus of attention, and only missed when it’s not there. Its advantages are numerous: you can wear it on it’s own in hot weather or under a fleece/softshell/waterproof if it gets cooler, and the cut means it can be suited a range of body shapes. With either a round neck or a low-profile ¼ zip it means there is no bunching of layers round the neck when worn under something else, and the (predominantly man-made) fibres help shift sweat away to keep you cool when working hard and prevent overcooling when you stop.

A simple ask to find one, then: or so you’d think. But trawl through the hundreds of options served up as contenders and you’ll see it’s anything but. First deduct the ones designed primarily as baselayers (too close fitting, not designed or styled as outerwear). Then anything made of wool (can be itchy, stays wet when sweaty, difficult to wash and dry overnight), anything with a collar or high neck (Polo top, baselayer), anything with long sleeves (too warm in summer) and anything with an “athletic” fit (definitely not a pretty sight!). Next omit those that are simply not robust enough or better suited to lighter use, eg: running. Finally, sift out the budget brands or the ones made of cheaper fabrics or mesh-like materials that will snag badly under your rucksack or on a passing thorn bush on your first outing.

You’ll be surprised at just how few there are left!

The case of the Microgrid top is slightly different: there just don’t seem to be any. I’m not talking about Microfleece here – there are plenty of those to choose from – but good, old-fashioned, genuine Microgrid. The advantages over fleece are simple: they wick sweat away and allow it to evaporate better thanks to the structure of the material, and for an equivalent amount of warmth they are thinner, less bulky, more robust, and far less prone to pilling. I have a couple from Mountain Hardwear that are fantastic – I’ve used them in all sorts of circumstances, often directly under a rucksack, with virtually no sign of pilling or wear at all. After all that they still look good enough for the pub in the evening, and I would happily choose the same or similar again if I could find one.

I am hoping, in both these cases, that the shortage is just a temporary blip: that it’s something of an oversight by manufacturers that will be rectified in future offerings. But I’ve been searching on and off for almost a year now, and my hopes are now fading fast as time passes. In the meantime, I’m coming to terms with the possibility of having to nurse my increasingly shabby collection of each through another spring, summer and autumn.

So, if you’re out on a hill somewhere and see a slightly dishevelled, late 40-ish bloke of a distinctly non-athletic build coercing his kit on to one final effort and cursing the short sightedness of outdoor manufacturers, it could well be me.