Hydro Power in Bradford on Avon  - something's not right.

n.b. I am not Millbuilder or Northmill 

Given the name of the town and being home to one of the UK's most lavishly publicly funded provincial eco-activism groups -  I think not unreasonably - that a considerable fuss would have been made over the utterly miserable botching of licences for the two prominent water power developments in the town  - not so for some reason it seems....

There's something odd going on with hydro power schemes in Bradford on Avon.  Two stories in the Wiltshire Times archive about the Kingston Mills turbine have been deliberately removed - as in deleted (Their ghost lurks in Google). 

http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/8335283.Turbine_plan_for_Bradford_on_Avon_gets_go_ahead/

and 

http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/5043412.Bradford_on_Avon_s_hydro_electric_plan_moves_a_step_closer/ 

are no longer there.

Could it be that this scheme received similarly expert attention to that endured at North Mill from our friends at The Environment Agency?  Then... there's that project in Warwickshire which will be subject of another post at Old North Mill.

Part of the Environment Agency's remit / duty in the statutory licence process is to ascertain if a scheme is do-able prior to issuing an abstraction or impoundment licence. This includes legally adequate access provision for construction equipment, maintenance and inspection. 

Anyway - in all - odd ... very odd.....

Maybe we'll ask Linden Homes and  Dr.Rupert Gabriel what the score is with Kingston Mills

After quite a long pause the blog is now open again and   the web site is "lit up".

This first post is about the Consent Order produced by the Administrative Division of The High Court on the 9th February 2012 (Issued 11th April) regarding the quashing of an abstraction licence unlawfully awarded to Weaver's Mill by the Environment Agency - where the Environment Agency  lost and were subjected to all costs.

We are not allowed to disclose the costs to the public purse in the Judicial Review - so please, don't ask us.

Our understanding (and our lawyers...) of the terms of the Consent Order which all parties signed - is that there is only a single scheme viable at Avoncliff and the awarding of this abstraction licence this time will be judged solely on the merits of the applying schemes.

We'd ask that you pop over to the web site and look at both the Judges comments at the permission hearing for Judicial Review and the Consent Order which resulted from the EA's admission that they acted unlawfully.

There's a bunch of stuff that will be going up on the web site as we go forwards. Please remember there are things we can't talk about for legal reasons.

We have turned moderation on - so sorry, there'll be a delay before your comment is approved. If everybody behaves themselves (and we don't mean you have to agree with us) we'll fully open stuff up.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

Going to see Duncan Hames MP tomorrow  (Duncan's "previous" with the EA)