People Complain about The Royal Mail

  they do...

I'm trying to find out how a letter from DEFRA took nearly a year to make it from Thérèse Coffey's office - a 10 minute walk from  Parliament and the office of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee  at Parliament.

Had it fallen down the back of a sofa? 

Considering that the missive went by email that seems unlikely.

Computer error?

Climate Change?

Brexit?

Putin?

- or did William Wragg MP hide it for 11 months? 

PACAC Select Committee and EA Non-Compliance with PHSO

There is something very, very wonky about the handling of the EA's non compliance with PHSO that has not been adequately explained. 

 

William Wragg MP has not volunteered the timing of his receipt of the James Bevan-EA response to his "on the record" letter dated 19th July 2022.

When the Bevan-EA response finally appeared on the PACAC SC correspondence web site/archive in June 2023 the only relevant correspondence date available was 31st August 2022. 

It is too easy to believe that Mr Wragg was in receipt of the Bevan-EA response the same day as the dating of that document in the absence of other supporting information.

Given the on the record nature of the 19/7/2022 Wragg letter it isn't unreasonable to expect that a response would be presented/published "to Parliament", on the record - on the PACAC correspondence web site immediately on receipt.

I feel it is important to discover if members of the PACAC Select Committee were aware of the content of the Bevan-EA reply before it was made public on the PACAC web site.

I am not claiming that Wiliam Wragg hid documents and egregiously delayed the business of Parliament - effectively misleading the House of Commons - but on the evidence - that must be a possibility - that, in my opinion should attract scrutiny by The Office of The Speaker.

There was a delay of almost 10 months where the Environment Agency's response to PACAC Chair's letter about non compliance with PHSO Earl Report was missing - this requires explanation.

 *******************

Yep... there is something very, very wonky about the handling of the EA's non compliance with PHSO that has not been adequately explained. 

We keep recovering the ball from the long grass....

The publishing of the reply from Sir James Bevan was (handily for EA officials) delayed past the annual PHSO scrutiny, and the EA has not protested it's innocence of causing the egregious delay - although it's clear that the EA's notional supervisory body DEFRA via Secretary of State Thérèse Coffey aren't satisfied at the way this matter has been handled... 

Parliament's off on recess - so the 4th September might just  see some action....

To save digging - here's a post from earlier this year that provides some context:

https://avoncliffmills.blogspot.com/2023/03/in-2009-we-applied-for-2-water-licenses.html

 

20 Million Miles in a Nissan Leaf?

20,000,000++ Miles in a Nissan Leaf?

If North Mill Avoncliff had not been defrauded out of their water impoundment and abstraction license by EA officials in 2010 - electricity generating turbines would have been operational at Avoncliff from December 2011 and the integrity of structures in the river guaranteed. Lots of Green power.... NOT.

That's over 10 years of generation - using the numbers made up for The Environment Agency's hydroelectric scheme comparison at Avoncliff  taking one of the lower estimates for power from Avoncliff  weir of 422 MWh per year I've put together a table of some of what's already been lost....

Comparisons like  - how many London buses is that?  - are a bit difficult since the supposedly electric buses are having battery problems....

but the best available numbers have been thrown in... :-)  (the answer is v.roughly 15 buses a year).

So in terms of road transport / houses / tons of CO2 - here are the numbers of what's been lost through EA fraud, lies, incompetence, egregious waste plus £3 million++ (+/- 10% imho) of public money on lawyers, consultants, courts and The Ombudsman over the last 12 years:

Road Vehicles over 5 years
	Battery	Recharges	Miles (Manf claimed)
Tesla Roadster	53 kWh	39811	9,713,962
Tesla Model S	90 kWh	23444	6,212,778
Nissan Leaf	24 kWh	87917	10,550,000
Boris Bus	75 kWh	28133	2,813,333
"Standard" Houses a year
	Annual kWh		Houses supplied
Small	1650 kWh		256
Medium	3300 kWh		128
DECC "Average"	4800 kWh		88
Mansion	5000 kWh		84
"Tons of CO2" over 5 years
DECC 2014 average	0.527	kg per kWh	1,112

I have to say these are only guideline numbers and much could be quibbled in the detail - but the magnitude of the loss of "Green Electricity" here is hardly a national catastrophe - it is though - decidedly non trivial.

 Swerving many "Tons of CO2" using the "Grid Carbon Intensity" figures from renewables industry information sources would be ca. 2000 tons of CO2   

The willful intransigence and waste continues apace - via the repeated, deliberate and malicious awarding of further abstraction licenses (after the first was quashed at JR)  - now we have EA officials seeking to set their own punishment for Ombudsman found maladministration of the 12 year rolling renewable energy debacle at Avoncliff

 

Those additional abstraction licenses could not be implemented at Avoncliff since the license holders do not (and are unlikely to) own the land to build on. The EA have been aware of the blocking land ownership and covenant issues at Weavers Mill from the awarding of the first bent license and shows that EA are abusing their powers to indulge in vindictive antics to damage those who seek to challenge their mistakes and wrongdoings.

 

To save digging - here's a summary from earlier this year giving some context.

******** - Bonus Feature - ********

Very little news on the other purported hydroelectric scheme in Bradford on Avon - at Greenland Mills.

 

 - what happened there? 

Is it working ?

How many homes is it powering ?

Have more of identical design been built ?

Why hasn't one been built at Avoncliff ?

 

Some Deletions and Additions

 Hmmmm....

Well, things change.... one file disappears and another appears! The Environment Agency non compliance with The Ombudsman's recommendations persists.

Going back to look at the PACAC correspondence archive (i.e. on the Parliamentary record) I found the pdf  embedded below which perhaps... notionally replaces the document bundle saved here in a previous post...  All a bit stealthy really - even our MP's office (Michelle Donelan) has been trying to get sight of the full text reply for literally months...

 Well... "what could have caused this?" indeed!

Another document has appeared though, - by digital magick

Wouldn't have anything to do with swerving controversy around Sir James's March 2023 leaving do? - would it? /sarc. 

It's useful I feel to compare the August 2022 apparent receipt of Bevan's reply to the PACAC timeline laid out in the previous post

It would seem (given the date on Bevan's letter) that PACAC chair was aware of the EA's decision to evade compliance and chose not to share that with PACAC committee members and our MP Michelle Donelan. So did Mr Wragg make an "on the record" inquiry to the EA and hide the reply - for 9 months - past the annual PHSO scrutiny meeting where the matter in question was raised?

Given that Sir James's / EA peer reviewers have explicitly stated that no proper assessment of damages can be performed without a forensic financial audit - it seems rather clear that the EA have little interest in proper procedure where they can try and force through a minimization of their financial exposure and try and place themselves beyond any reasonable expectation of accountability...

The EA did the dirty deeds PHSO found, agreed to PHSO's recommendations as to remedy - and now seek to set their own punishment well outside the scope of what was the lowest estimate of their liability to damages (from PHSO).

It's worth repeating that the EA's own peer reviewers declared that any proper settlement of damages was reliant on a forensic financial audit - not some arbitrarily low figure arrived at by officials keen to distance themselves from their wrongdoing and set a figure that they know does not cover their victims out of pocket direct costs over the 12 years this debacle has been running let alone the actual financial impact on the people they harmed.

 

It looks like Sir James has expunged / deleted his EA Twitter account @JamesBevanEA

Absurd Hardly Covers It

 We can't store the power so National Grid spend £9.4 million dump it...  

The financial arithmetic of utility scale electricity storage is unworkable any way you slice it. The trick with balancing the grid it to have just enough dispatchable power available - that National Grid can't do this means that they are NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Looks like they're deficient in the arithmetic department too!