chrisp65 Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 1 minute ago, Genie said: HS3, London to Cardiff. Yeah, would that be 10 years of people trying to argue it will help London companies get to meetings in Splott far quicker? Followed by spending the money on London roads. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 19/01/2024 at 21:58, chrisp65 said: For at least 10 years Westminster, the local Labour MP, and the Welsh government have known that the privately owned steel works in Port Talbot was in trouble. Thousands of jobs, UK steel making. Livelihoods and industry under threat. Proposals for a dedicated green energy power station to serve the steelworks, plans the local authority planners wouldn’t support, governments wouldn’t invest in. 10 years for every layer of government to see what was coming down the road and have a plan B. Nothing. Nothing from anybody. What went wrong out of interest? Only a few months since Super Rishi saved the industry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted January 21 Moderator Share Posted January 21 I'm guessing the cheque cleared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 2 hours ago, Genie said: What went wrong out of interest? Only a few months since Super Rishi saved the industry Well, it’s a generation of stuff going wrong so it would be a bit shallow to simply blame the current bunch of imposters out of their depth pretending they are politicians. I mean, if you were structuring a deal in the hundreds of millions, would your dream team be Rishi Sunak, Badenoch with the toilet obsession, and Davies who just plain doesn’t like anything Welsh. But as I say, it was being driven in this direction prior to these clowns. The local Labour MP is Kinnock, some might spend their time looking to save thousands of jobs, others might spend their time putting a milk frother on their Parliamentary expenses. An absolute charlatan. We did hand over the money by the way, we the tax payer have given Tata the £500 million. We just didn’t tie it to the preservation of jobs or the creation of new jobs. It could have been more than £500million, but Westminster had to deduct £2billion as the contribution to the england and wales joint project known as HS2. Now HS2 is all but scrapped, that money will now repair London pot holes. So it isn’t being returned. Mustn’t grumble. You’ll recall Tata also wanted money and a location for the new battery gigafactory. At the same time they are wondering what they could do with the 9,000 working in Port Talbot, the existing redundant dock facility visible from the motorway, and the vast swathes of redundant industrial land... The Tory government gave them money to set up the other side of the Severn, over in Tory Somerset. No point wasting money in the Talbot, just write them off, stick them on prescriptions, then declare them lazy. Rinse and repeat economic strategy playbook. On the brighter side, house prices should crash and a wave of slum landlords should be able to clear a little bit of profit off it at least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted January 21 VT Supporter Share Posted January 21 2 hours ago, chrisp65 said: Well, it’s a generation of stuff going wrong so it would be a bit shallow to simply blame the current bunch of imposters out of their depth pretending they are politicians. I mean, if you were structuring a deal in the hundreds of millions, would your dream team be Rishi Sunak, Badenoch with the toilet obsession, and Davies who just plain doesn’t like anything Welsh. But as I say, it was being driven in this direction prior to these clowns. The local Labour MP is Kinnock, some might spend their time looking to save thousands of jobs, others might spend their time putting a milk frother on their Parliamentary expenses. An absolute charlatan. We did hand over the money by the way, we the tax payer have given Tata the £500 million. We just didn’t tie it to the preservation of jobs or the creation of new jobs. It could have been more than £500million, but Westminster had to deduct £2billion as the contribution to the england and wales joint project known as HS2. Now HS2 is all but scrapped, that money will now repair London pot holes. So it isn’t being returned. Mustn’t grumble. You’ll recall Tata also wanted money and a location for the new battery gigafactory. At the same time they are wondering what they could do with the 9,000 working in Port Talbot, the existing redundant dock facility visible from the motorway, and the vast swathes of redundant industrial land... The Tory government gave them money to set up the other side of the Severn, over in Tory Somerset. No point wasting money in the Talbot, just write them off, stick them on prescriptions, then declare them lazy. Rinse and repeat economic strategy playbook. On the brighter side, house prices should crash and a wave of slum landlords should be able to clear a little bit of profit off it at least. The same Somerset that has an average age of about 70, where's the labour coming from for this mega factory? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 More levelling up news. It looks like London might be getting another tunnel under the Thames, close to London City Airport. About time London had a share of the cake. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 (edited) Edited March 24 by chrisp65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted March 24 VT Supporter Share Posted March 24 48 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: A good water company executive these days is hard to find. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted March 24 Moderator Share Posted March 24 3 hours ago, chrisp65 said: Genuine question. Is it down to water companies to determine future growth in water needs, assess sites for reservoir suitability and apply for permission to build them? I’ve no quibble with them being profiteering, polluting scumbags, but didn’t know it was their job to plan for this stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 46 minutes ago, blandy said: Genuine question. Is it down to water companies to determine future growth in water needs, assess sites for reservoir suitability and apply for permission to build them? I’ve no quibble with them being profiteering, polluting scumbags, but didn’t know it was their job to plan for this stuff. Thames Water, Southern, and others have sold off reservoirs. I guess the question, should the water monopoly in your area be responsible for planning to supply sufficient water, is essentially a political one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted March 24 VT Supporter Share Posted March 24 (edited) 1 hour ago, blandy said: Genuine question. Is it down to water companies to determine future growth in water needs, assess sites for reservoir suitability and apply for permission to build them? I’ve no quibble with them being profiteering, polluting scumbags, but didn’t know it was their job to plan for this stuff. I would think it is. They're supposed to fulfill the water needs of their customers. I'm sure they'd need to project that need and do what's needed to meet it. Edited March 24 by sidcow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted March 24 Moderator Share Posted March 24 17 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: Thames Water, Southern, and others have sold off reservoirs. I guess the question, should the water monopoly in your area be responsible for planning to supply sufficient water, is essentially a political one. Ta. Presumably to housing developers. Presumably housing shortages are something of a long standing problem? I’m not defending it, by the way. Just wondering if the interlinked complexity of different issues isn’t more complex than a headline or a tweet. It seems like by being laisse faire government has allowed long term planning and so on to just be neglected and not even understood or considered. The network, and it is a network isn’t just a “local” thing. Dryer places get water from wetter ones and stuff. So as you’ve posted before, Wales sells water to Merseyside or wherever. The South east gets water from the midlands or East Anglia or wherever. So while the network is joined up, at least to a degree, it looks like the national uk thinking isn’t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted March 24 Moderator Share Posted March 24 5 minutes ago, sidcow said: I would think it is. They're supposed to fulfill the water needs of their customers In the future, water will be the cause of wars. Scaling that conflict back, Wales, say, might decide it needs to stop sending water to neighbouring places, because needs the water there for locals. Or take any region and similar circs. So leaving planning and responsibility to local companies or authorities isn’t an answer, though they surely need to be involved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 It’s almost as if leaving water supply to an overseas entity legally obliged to extract profit might not be the best idea. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted March 24 Administrator Share Posted March 24 3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: It’s almost as if leaving water supply to an overseas entity legally obliged to extract profit might not be the best idea. They will need to manage demand, so meters all around. One last run of increased profits before handing the franchise back as untenable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted March 24 Moderator Share Posted March 24 1 hour ago, chrisp65 said: It’s almost as if leaving water supply to an overseas entity legally obliged to extract profit might not be the best idea. It is, yes. I agree. I guess the problem is that if the state runs it all, then the department for water might well get its budget cut, because austerity, or because the NHS or education or whatever is deemed more politically necessary. I mean there were nationwide hose pipe bans and stuff in the 1970s and a big kerfuffle about water pipes leaking and so on. Whichever model of ownership there is, the problem is ineffective control and regulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 There are 1,700 second homes, or long term vacant homes in neath Port Talbot. The local authority have just voted to increase rates for these properties to 200% above ‘normal’ rates. That is, you’ll now be paying 300% rates on an empty property or second home. It’ll be interesting to see at what price point this actually impacts the number of empty and second homes. In the meantime, the LA are estimating this will raise £2.4million in additional revenue, or release homes back on to the market. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one_ian_taylor Posted March 25 VT Supporter Share Posted March 25 On 24/03/2024 at 09:56, sidcow said: A good water company executive these days is hard to find. Very good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 It sounds like Wales is getting special treatment, as they are also repairing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The engineer claimed that the joints are sealed with "welsh flannel", which I can quite believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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