Forward thinking in farming and food production.

Let's stop behaving like Ostriches.

We could be taking care of our own future more.

Many of us have the arrogant belief that humans can survive through any conditions.

It's not true.

Our finances are a mess.

Global warming is accelerating.

And now another potential disaster is catching us up.

Every thinking person will realise that we are running out of oil.

In the 1960s, I worked for Shell in California, on the recovery of paraffins from oil and the removal of sulphur from refinery gases.

Even then we only had 10 years of oil in reserve.

We are now having to scrape the bottom of the world's barrel by recovering oil from tar sands - a process that they were then developing in the lab next door.

Nuclear energy will also soon dry up because of the limited sources of Uranium.

In the next few years we will come to the very end of the oil and food production, which heavily depends on it, will suffer.

Food will become scarce and very expensive.

We need to grow more ourselves in our allotments and gardens.

Our farms need to use very new farming techniques that require little oil.


A brilliant program that introduces some really creative thinkers in the farming world together some superb photography.

I enjoyed every minute of this 48 minute program that points out that we need to focus on growing our own food NOW - using our gardens and allotments to the full.

Zoe Williams also wrote an article - Can we dig our way out of the recession? - in which she says:

"The recession isn't as bad as a war, but we're heading for an environmental apocalypse anyway, in which the ability to grow your own carrots is going to be really pretty crucial. McLaughlin did not actually say that. I just inferred it."

Coming next - the way some of our Ulverston allotments are misused and some of our councillors are very much to blame.

Town Mess Clear Up

Congratulations to Andrew, as reported in the Evening Mail, for having the energy to campaign about dog mess. It's great to have people in our town who will get up and actually do something rather than just moan.

However Cllrs Brenda Marr and Colin Hodgson will know that their statements are just hot air and will achieve absolutely nothing.

It's no use relying on SLDC to catch the bad dog owners (and they are very much in the minority - a few dogs can create a lot of mess). The officers go around in bright yellow jackets and can be seen a mile off!

What will change things in my view are two things:

Speak out ourselves whenever we see someone leaving a mess - hand them a bag and ask them to pick it up if necessary. Second - not so pleasant - pick it up ourselves.

As someone who enjoys walking other people's dogs, I regularly do both! If I'm picking up my mess, then I pick someone else's at the same time.

If Brenda and Colin are really genuine then let them join me on a Town Mess Clear Up. I'll give £100 to charity of their choice if they do - and they can wear bright yellow coats so that everyone will notice them (as they did in Kendal) if they please!

Lets see our Councillors be seen to DO SOMETHING !

The only one who I imagine would take up such a challenge would be Cllr Colin Williams - he knows how to get his hands dirty when necessary.

How about it Cllr Col ?

That would impress me - not hot air coming out of ineffective poodles - but fire coming out of dragons that bite.

Blog information

Visitors to this blog continue to rise!

You are now well above a steady 250 different visitors with 80% returning again and again. You now average about 45 visitors per day.

Click on the image to get more detail

Thanks for your participation and it's good to meet some of you at Poppies in town on Saturday mornings at 11 am and on the streets and listen to your concerns ! The smiles I get are particularly encouraging!

This is a great way to communicate though face to face is far better!

Suggestions always welcome.

Something to cheer you up

Someone's tribute to their Mam:

Dickon Abbott - His life is celebrated

Pieta

When the thorn was green
my gold-haired son was born.
His birth star blazed between
the midnight and the morn.

When the thorn was white
with new wine he was wed.
The may's hedge-blossom bright
festooned his marriage bed.

When the thorn was red
they tore his life from me.
The swollen fruit he bled
hung dripping from the tree.

Now the thorn is black
and storm clouds cloak the sky.
Men pray to bring him back;
I only wait to die.

Dickon Abbott

Last weekend a new book was launched to celebrate the poetry of this highly sensitive man who did a lot for Ulverston.

This book will be available from the Tinner's Rabbit very soon.

Dickon Abbott, I understand, was a chairman of Ford Park Trust in the early days and had a vision of what could be done with this building and its grounds . . . . . .

Tourism disappointment

The news that the North East is getting a big influx of tourists is a Wake-up Call to Ulverston.

They are benefiting from overseas visitors thanks to the weak pound and a steady effort in promoting their area over the last five years.

By contrast our Town Council and Jayne Kendall have really let us down with a poor web site from a tourism point of view.

Thanks to Jayne we have great events here but we are sadly lacking in the skill to promote them over the Internet.

The Town Council's web site was a great disappointment from a tourism point of view, though good at informing us about the workings of the council itself.



GoUlverston, though an excellent service for local people, informing about businesses in the town, is not primarily aimed at promoting Ulverston abroad.

The Town is really missing out and the empty shops reflect this.

The sad state of our streets does little to help, with the local Councillors not standing up to the County to get better service.

Ralph Spours, chairman of the Ulverston Traders Association, is out of touch, making a statement just a week ago that:

“Ulverston has become a thriving little town with the small shops and businesses."

He leads a divided group of shopkeepers.

The town is sadly showing signs of dying on its feet.
.

How much more will Ulverstonians accept ?

'Repairs' in Lower Brook Street.

"Never mind eh. It's only tatty old Ulverston !"

"Sling a bit of asphalt there. No one will notice"

Ulverston Town Council meeting

A proposal made by Cllr Colin Hodgson that alternative sources of refrigeration and air conditioning be considered to those proposed by Tesco was approved unanimously by the council. The application as worded by Tesco was approved with the above addition as were the other three applications.

This was a direct result of it being pointed out that there are viable alternatives to the conventional method of providing refrigeration, which could disturb householders.

Brendon Ace, director of Cumbelec stated that the refrigeration unit was a heat pump that removed heat from the units in the store. In this case heat was transferred into the air outside with fan driven units on the roof of the building. Alternatively and much more efficiently, the heat could be transferred into the ground under the building in such a way that it could then be recovered in the winter for heating the store.

This technology is very energy efficient, so much so that as little as a quarter of the energy is required for a whole store.

Tesco planning applications tonight

There are serious concerns over two of these applications which will be commented on by the Town Council tonight at their meeting.

The main one is of inconsistency with Tesco's stated 'green' policy

"Through these initiatives and more, we intend to halve the total carbon footprint of our existing buildings worldwide by 2020. We are also growing responsibly by ensuring all new stores we build between now and 2020 emit, on average, at least 50 per cent less carbon than an equivalent store built in 2006."

If this is genuine then Tesco would not be requesting the installation of ventilation and a condenser unit on the flat roof of the Woolworths building.

An expert heating engineer, Brendon Ace, director of Cumbelec who is bringing cutting edge technology to Cumbria will explain alternatives that are far greener to the councillors tonight.

This involves the use of boreholes which pump the heat that is to be removed deep down into the ground below the building - referred to as heat pumps.

This heat which is 100 metres below can then be recovered when required to heat the store in winter.

The cost of such an installation is well below £50,000 which is low compared with the £300,000 spent by Tesco in installing two wind turbines in its Barrow store.

Use of Boreholes would reduce Tesco's energy requirements by between 65 and 80% of what they propose.

Heat pumps are already being installed as a means of reducing energy requirements by forward looking companies in Ulverston such as Heron Glass, Marl International and Coniston House in New Market Street.

We would expect Tesco with its stated green policy to be leading the field and not following way behind.

Lightburn Park and Croftlands

If you live in either of these areas , you will want to influence what is happening in the play areas in both places. At the moment there is confusion and anything could happen.

There is a real need for local groups, one for Croftlands and one for Lightburn, to express their opinions and feed them into the decision making process.

This issue is extremely important to the well-being of both areas. Well-designed and thought out facilities could have enormous benefits to each area. They would provide a social centre for communication and social support.

Without good facilities and interaction social unrest will grow. Young people and parents have become very frustrated with inaction and communities becoming polarised.

At the moment the expression of views is being left to just one or two people who are having undue influence.

Not until we have involvement by the locals will we get a coherent strategy in place.

The Croftlands situation comes within the remit of two District Councillors - Norman Bishop-Rowe and Brian Wilkinson and six town councillors (check "Your councillors in 10 seconds" on the right).

Lightburn Park area however is on the edge of three wards and covered by Norman Bishop-Rowe, Jamie Samson and Mark Wilson and nine town councillors.

Out of this array of 'talent' I would only rate James Airey for Croftlands and Jamie Samson, Mark Wilson, Brenda Marr, Judith Pickthall, Phil Lister and Colin Williams for Lightburn.

On this particular issue only Phil Lister is in my opinion talking any sense.

If you really want something good done in either of these areas you really need to get involved as decisions are being arrived at by chance and not by reasoned discussion. There are a muddle of officers - Richard Foster, Margaret Belk and Simon Hughes who cause confusion by not being in touch with what is needed, but the ultimate problem is the attitude of inactive councillors that are good at sitting on their bum, seeming to only pop up for a photo opportunity!

A lot of satisfaction can be gained by getting involved and a lot of frustration achieved by winging on the sidelines!

The opportunities for cooperation are there - people like the readers of this blog need to go one step further and start by saying something followed by meeting with each other and then stating clearly and forcibly what they want.