Dear all
your help is needed NOW. As some of you may know a planning
application
has gone into the Scottish Executive from npower for a small hydro
electric scheme on the river Braan, details below. Consultation closes
on 6 September. Please write a simple letter with your name and
address to support rejection of this application.
Please write to the Energy Consents unit in Glasgow:
Email
Energy Consents Unit
Scottish Executive
Enterprise, Transport & Lifelong Learning
Meridian Court
5 Cadogan Street
GLASGOW G2 6AT

To Perth & Kinross Council:
The Chief Executive
Perth & Kinross Council
2 High Street
PERTH
PH1 5PH
email:

Alma Bendall,Planning officer
Perth and Kinross Council, Planning Department,
Pullar House, 35 Kinnoull Street, Perth, PH1 5GD
email:

Copy to your MSP and the list MSPs if you can!

Copy to

Remember to include your address.
The scheme will remove water from the Braan above Rumbling Bridge and
put it back in below the coffin drop just above Hermitage Falls i.e. it
will take water out of the really good grade IV gorge section. If the
scheme goes ahead it will remove 9 cumecs reducing the number of days
the Braan can be paddled considerably (estimated drop from 183 days at
low or above to 51
after). npower are offering an additional 10 canoeing days when they
will turn the turbines off between 10 and 4pm. Realistically these
will not be on demand but will need to be pre-planned days. For this
to work though you would need to guess in reasonable advance when it
will rain and we all know how easy
that is!?!

If you agree that the Braan should be left alone (the electricity
generated will be negligible and heavily subsidised) please write and
object to the Scottish Executive. You can read the details of the
scheme at http://www.wheresthewater.com/ - click on the yellow sign
see

Even if you don't rate the Braan there are ALOT of these types of
scheme
in the pipeline, some have already been granted like the Fechlin and at
the very least we want to set a precedent where developers have to
consider canoeing interests.

For those of you're friends who are not canoeists - just something
about the
amenity of the Braan and the Rumbling Bridge Falls and recreational
value etc would be great.....if we save it we will take you boating
there if you like!!

Check out the website. You are welcome to copy sections.
However, a simple letter with your name and address, the importance of
the Braan to paddling and your objection to the scheme would be more
than enough. E-mails are fine.
usefull web sites:
www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/braan.htm
www.wheresthewater.com/

This is important!
John Picken
acting SCA Access Officer
--

That's an interesting one. Are you arguing that construction of renewable
energy sources should be banned wherever it may spoil peoples fun ? Do you
have an alternate proposal or is this a NIMBY type reaction.
Don't take my comments as an attack on your original post, I am just seeking
some clarification. I am quite sure the average Joe is all for renewable
energy and I would like to learn more about the impact of such development.
Don't mention nuclear :-)
Now onto those windmills...
--
Muzz
send mail to muzzmackay@'7thletterof thealphabet'mail.com

Muzz wrote:
That's an interesting one. Are you arguing that construction of renewable
energy sources should be banned wherever it may spoil peoples fun ? Do you
have an alternate proposal or is this a NIMBY type reaction.

An alternative proposal is that people could pay some attention to
energy efficiency which could very easily save far more energy than such
a scheme will generate. That will do the environment a lot more good
/and/ paddlers can keep having more fun.

Don't take my comments as an attack on your original post, I am just seeking
some clarification. I am quite sure the average Joe is all for renewable
energy and I would like to learn more about the impact of such development.
Don't mention nuclear :-)
Now onto those windmills...

Problem with "renewable energy" is it's image for Average Joe is that It
Must Be A Good Thing, and details like how much energy you'll actually
make tend to get rather overlooked. As in the first paragraph, #1 step
IMHO *should* be a national effort to waste less electricity, rather
than generate more in "renewable" ways so we can keep up with being
profligate wastrels.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Problem with "renewable energy" is it's image for Average Joe is that It
Must Be A Good Thing, and details like how much energy you'll actually
make tend to get rather overlooked. As in the first paragraph, #1 step
IMHO *should* be a national effort to waste less electricity, rather
than generate more in "renewable" ways so we can keep up with being
profligate wastrels.

Hydro power used to be big in Scotland in a small way. Many of the estates
used to have their own small turbines and generates their own power
supplies. Until the nationalised power companies stepped in and closed those
turbines down. Now, just as before Steam, mills were powered by small local
water mills, which not only drew from the environment but also often added
to it in terms of millponds and mill races, and weirs that controlled the
flow of water, and consequentially many years down the line provide us
kayakers, and anglers alike with a wonderful resource, could it not be that
smaller local hydro operations could not perform the same task without the
vast damage to the environment that has been caused by some of the previous
generation of hydro schemes. And oddly, last time I checked Scotland didn't
actually need much more power....

Ewan Scott

Peter Clinch wrote:
An alternative proposal is that people could pay some
attention to energy efficiency which could very easily
save far more energy than such a scheme will generate.

I'm sure most people have seen the energy saving adverts, maybe they don't
work. I heard about a scheme where we would all be issued with 'energy
credits' so that we could only use a certain amount a year, is this the only
way forward ?

--
Muzz
send mail to muzzmackay@'7thletterof thealphabet'mail.com

Muzz wrote:

I'm sure most people have seen the energy saving adverts, maybe they don't
work. I heard about a scheme where we would all be issued with 'energy
credits' so that we could only use a certain amount a year, is this the only
way forward ?

Don't know, but whatever it is it needs a degree of culture change, in
much the same way that to cut down car use people need to get past
"default behaviour" and actually *think* about the best way to do a
journey, which might be a car, but may well not be. It takes more than
an advert to really change behaviour.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Don't know, but whatever it is it needs a degree of culture change, in
much the same way that to cut down car use people need to get past
"default behaviour" and actually *think* about the best way to do a
journey, which might be a car, but may well not be. It takes more than
an advert to really change behaviour.

Hmm - I sometimes wonder what it does take.

I've just written a piece on Cold Weather Tyres - or winter tyres to most
folks. Technically Cold Weather Tyres are required an amazing seven months
of the year in the UK, yet sales are derisory. Why does that matter? Well
because there is proof that the technology used to make CWT is such that in
monitored markets it reduced the number of accidents considerably and the
fatalities by at least 8 per cent.

The Netherlands were in the same situation as the UK a few years ago. They
had pressed and pressed for a move to winter tyres in cold weather but had
got nowhere until they launched a two year press/ media and linked sales
campaign. Now sales are skyrocketing and accidents in cold weather
conditions are down.

In the UK the tyre industry has two campaigns, both linked, one for cold
weather tyres, the other for a minimum tread depth of 3mm on cars. Yet at
Tyre Industry Council roadside checks as many as 21 per cent of motorists
have faulty or illegal tyres.

That may not seem related to energy saving and the fight against hydro power
destroying kayaking locations, but the mentality of the general public is
exactly the same - unless of course the problem is in their own back yard.

Ewan Scott

Simple solutions are always the best. So lobby your MP to get a tax put
on traditional light bulbs to make them at least as expensive as energy
efficient bulbs.


In message , Muzz
writes
Peter Clinch wrote:
An alternative proposal is that people could pay some
attention to energy efficiency which could very easily
save far more energy than such a scheme will generate.

I'm sure most people have seen the energy saving adverts, maybe they don't
work. I heard about a scheme where we would all be issued with 'energy
credits' so that we could only use a certain amount a year, is this the only
way forward ?

--
Muzz
send mail to muzzmackay@'7thletterof thealphabet'mail.com



--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk

We need renewable energy production. Global warming and its
consequences are almost certainly the biggest threat facing mankind at
this moment. Hurrican Katrina is an indication of the sort of problems
we will face.
However should we accept all schemes put to us. Should we accept the
Braan just because a developer says they can make profit under the
current ROCs payments. I think there should be other criteria for what
we do. It may slow the process - or perhaps we should do it better.
In Scotland the Minister states we have enough renewable schemes
approved or in operation to meet our 2010 renewable targets. So we can
pause a little, think and plan. Just one example is wave power. The
economically recoverable resource for the UK alone has been estimated
to be 87TWh per year, or ~25% of current UK electricity demand. A
currently practical Pelamis wave farm could easily give 30mw - just 40
machines, but grants are the same for proven hydro as for new tech
higher risk wave power. The Glendoe Hydro scheme - probably the last
big scheme - will give over 50mw. At least we get something for the
loss. The Braan would give 3.4mw. And we would loose something
special. We do need culture change. Most houses could carry a 1-10kw
windturbine - probably as bad as a satellite dish but worthwhile. We
have many options we have not explored as a society. Rivers like the
Braan are an easy target. I just believe we should think harder and do
better. We certainly need to. I want a viable world for my
grandchildren and their grandchildren. That includes a sustainable
world with its natural treasures - the Braan is one - as intact as we
can preserve them. Currently we are not doing too well.
John Picken. SCA National Access coordinator.

SCA Access wrote:
Snipped.

Well said.
--
Muzz
send mail to