Matt
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[quote quote=145957]
The capital investment in these plants is billions whereas the technology designs for hydrogen powers is £10’s of millions with a payback through the sale of every new car or conversion kit. All of which will run on water.[/quote]It’s all fascinating stuff, you can’t help but feel that all of these OPEC countries etc… definitely have a vested interest in putting the breaks on the development of such amazing clean technology for as long as possible to maximise usage of oil reserves and revenues.
The whole issue of electric cars and their relative greenness is an interesting one.
On the one hand, yes an increase in electric cars within the town centre would reduce pollutants and emissions here. But of course a surge in use of electric cars would also cause of surge of energy required from the National Grid, which still has a large number of polluting power plants operating on it. So you reduce emissions in one location to produce them elsewhere.
The current electric mix on the national grid is roughly 51% nationally produced fossil fuel polluting energy sources (10% coal and 41% gas) vs 49% taken from either non-polluting nuclear or renewable sources or imported in from foreign countries of unknown generated origin.
Source: http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
So in order for electric cars to be 100% genuine green – any increase in power demand as the number of electric vehicles plugged into the national grid increases needs to be met from non-polluting sources. So this will probably mean an increase in wind, solar and tidal projects plus huge nuclear power plants like Hinckley Point C.
In the most optimistic scenarios in 12 years time by 2030, a projected 9m electric cars could be on the road vs the 100,000+ on British roads today – so it will be interesting to see how the green energy mix increases in that time as well. There are also other issues of scale when everyone moves over to electric where you could get a huge peak domestic power surge around 5-6pm where everyone gets home and then plugs their cars into charge on top of the existing tea time surge. They would have to urge people to charge their cars smartly and stagger the demand about across the whole day. I suppose a broad range of electric charge power points across the county and rest of the country would allow people to charge their cars at different times and therefore minimise any surge activity.
In terms of the actual phased strategy planned for the roll-out of charge points around Wrexham I think it is a fairly sound idea putting them into the main council owned car parks and then to industrial estates and the bus station etc… I cannot actually find fault in it, unless of course implementation doesn’t go to plan. So we will have to wait and see.
[quote quote=145928]
However,could this lead to Councillors voting this application through for Gwersyllt, knowing full well a new application would not come back for this in their ward.[/quote]
You know what, I think it’s going to take another 20 or 30 years before those with mental health issues are going to be treated with the right level of respect and understanding from both those in power who make the decisions and also the general public who make ridiculous and unreasonable threats about people with mental health issues being located near to where they live.
In fact, it’s entirely self defeating and stupid to actually turn away such facilities that serve the general public of Wrexham. With mental health issues and depression massively on the rise when some of these people who thought “oh this will never happen to me” but objected to a treatment facility within their area end up needing treatment and there’s a shortage of help available for them locally and they’re forced to either just get on with things through inadequate treatment from GPs and the Maelor where there is not enough specialist care or be sent away hundreds of miles in some cases from their families. Well I’ll have no sympathy whatsoever.
If someone said do you want a new medical walk in centre or a minor injuries unit near your house for physical and general illnesses people would absolutely jump at that and are screaming about a shortage of such things. I’m also certain their councillors would be leaping over each other to get it sited in their wards thinking of all the prestige and kudos it would bring them.
But no, the mental health stigma looms over like an executioner’s axe when we try and talk about and put in place facilities to ensure there is acceptable coverage across Wrexham to deal with these growing issues. You even have to ask yourself, these people who do have the irrational fear of those in secure units – would they rather have these people kept safe in secure units or would they rather have these people still living next door to them suffering from the same issues but with nowhere suitable for them to go and expected to cope on their own just because NIMBYs (not a huge fan of the phrase but applies) don’t want the facility near them.
Mental health issues are things that people can file away in their mind as bad things that could happen to someone else such as drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness, long-term unemployment – until of course it happens to them. Things that they can easily file away as self inflicted and therefore dish out their prejudices without taking 5 seconds to stand in someone else’s shoes and have some empathy. Things that can be defined as abnormal and section these types of people not as ordinary people (so eloquently highlighted in a tweet to Wrexham.com yesterday) when in fact these are things that happen to ordinary people as they are all ordinary parts of life.
Of course pretty much everyone on here understands all this, but you try and take this to the average local person and you get met with the claim of being a “do-gooder” etc… Quite frankly I don’t care, the conversation needs to be gotten out there, people need to be challenged and made to feel uncomfortable about their views and their words and actions against different types of vulnerable people.
Had a flyer through the door for the opening day yesterday. Was of the understanding that every single household in the town or county area has received one. Wonder how much that cost?
[quote quote=145891]Regarding below do we have such a Dweling in Hightown?
I find this somewhat strange to be unwelcoming of those recovering from mental illnesseas into the community when there is a dwelling for sex offenders in Hightown.[/quote]
There is reportedly a home for sex offenders in Hightown, but the exact location is kept a secret and managed by the local MAPP (Multi Agency Public Protection Panel) for obvious reasons.
Marvin you are absolutely right to bring this up and it is one of those things about modern public life. Those who actually do the right thing and have the right belief systems in place – e.g. behave as they are supposed to do not get enough praise.
Unfortunately the light always gets shone on the scandals or the ones with the worse behaviour, people that need to alter their behaviours. Whilst condemnation is needed, we do also need to look more to members of the community who are actually able to lead from a moral viewpoint and hope that others can learn from them.
So yes, Cllr Hemmings was the only one who spoke out against the awful comments and the abysmal thing is he was heckled for doing so. It’s a shocking state of affairs when someone is able to go against the crowd and stand up for others who can’t speak for themselves and say what they think is right, only to be shot down by the sneering negative critics. What a thoroughly toxic political environment we have in Wrexham council – something that is sadly emulated from in Westminster and also the Welsh Government. It is no wonder that there are so many people disenfranchised with the entire political machine and that voter apathy and turnout remains low.
If we could actually get a decent set of people in to represent us locally and nationally then perhaps people wouldn’t feel so helpless as they’d feel like there was someone there serving their interests and not these self-serving career politicos who get system, financial and establishment backing to keep them in election after election with very little change.
So yes, we need more Cllr Frank Hemmings in the mix. Bravo sir.
Some of the comments I couldn’t quite believe came out of the mouths of elected councillors who represent thousands of constituents many of whom could well have mental health issues or know someone in their family who does.
It just shows a complete lack of regard for the wellbeing of those most in need in Wrexham but in many cases have to suffer in silence.There are some serious issues and questions that need to be raised to the council as to why these comments have been made. Let’s not forget that we are in a planning meeting where genuine objective planning concerns need to be brought up.
Here are the 3 highly questionable things said in this meeting.
Planning Objection 1) A high proportion of people with mental illnessness are always wanting to throw themselves at train tracks as soon as they see them – therefore we cannot build secure mental units anywhere near them.
Cllr Warburton pointed out it was ‘called mental health unit’ and that there was a ‘railway line by the side of it’, rather than explain his point he looked around the room and said “I don’t think I need to say anymore about that one.”
Yes, that’s right a major planning issue is that we cannot place any secure mental health units near any railway lines in case the view of these lines proves too tempting for some.
This is a very big concern to me as Heddfan Psychiatric Unit in town is only about a 4 minute walk down a single road to a railway track. They may want to reconsider moving that if this is such a huge issue.
Planning Objection 2) Schizophrenics are not to be positioned near schools
Cllr Pemberton bluntly said he felt ‘schizophrenics next to schools should be a planning issue’, acknowledging the need for such a facility but ‘it is in the wrong position’.
Despite the fact that people who suffer from schizophrenia are not required to register their whereabouts on an official register nor is it a crime to be schizophrenic and many of them walk about Wrexham just fine freely on a daily basis it is a planning issue to house them near to a school. There is an implication here that schizophrenics are a threat to children (or anyone for that matter) like paedophiles and sexual predators. There are children who have schizophrenic parents or members of their family who care for them just fine and would never harm or neglect a child.
Planning Objection 3) People treated for mental health issues well enough to return back to society might want to hang around the local area and create trouble
Cllr Graham Rogers said he had concerns that once a person had received treatment they would not ‘be returned back to their own surroundings’, and said if they remained local there could be ‘trouble
The implication here is quite a shocking one – if you get detained under the mental health act but then actually get well enough after treatment to be free to reintegrate back into society and medically declared not a threat to either yourself or anyone else YOU ARE NOT WELCOME TO LIVE IN GWERSYLLT. Or in fact the Hermitage or Hightown areas under Cllr Rogers watch. I find this somewhat strange to be unwelcoming of those recovering from mental illnesseas into the community when there is a dwelling for sex offenders in Hightown.
How low are these people perceived?If schizophrenics and previously sectioned people are not welcome in the Gwersyllt area (or other areas) for arguments sake does that mean if they make an application to social or council housing they will be turned down if they make an open medical declaration. Are people with ongoing or former mental health issues being turned down for housing across various communities in the county because they are deemed too high risk and susceptible to cause trouble? It sounds like a ludicrous statement and one that would have very serious grounds for disability discrimination if uncovered. But I’m asking the question because an elected councillor has inferred that this would be the case.
All in all it is disappointing that the application was turned down and it is my understanding that there are some other genuine concerns that need dealing with if they were to be successful at an appeal. However, there is no excusing these outward displays of negative stereotyping that we have all read in black and white. Now it’s back over to the council to unravel this latest mess on their hands.
[quote quote=145761]
Hopefully they will be more like ones you see across the country on building sites, that are equipped with kitchens, toilets and heating.
There are photographs on the planning application of them kitted out. I do not know how to show them on here, but have a look for yourself.[/quote]
BBC Was quoting these ones that have been already used in Newport. It is the equivalent of a small flat.
Shipping containers seem to be the latest neat, compact and functional thing to turn into usable space.
You only need to look at the Hawarden Estate Farm Shop on Broughton to see just how much you can upscale it.
https://www.olddailypostlink.co.uk/business/business-news/hawarden-estate-farm-shop-opens-10624281
I do agree that if we had hundreds of containers for temporary or more permanent accommodation for the homeless you’d end up with a “shanty town” effect. That’s more of a net aggregate effect of clustering a number of “problem” individuals together – like you get with high rise flats etc…
However, the actual concept is a really neat one. The actual way they are kitted out is (if one was to be well maintained) is better than the quality of accommodation that some young people end up living in as a starter home either through social housing or through private renting where standards have been poorly maintained and forced to live at an inflated cost.
Ty Nos is obviously the logical location for them, but you have to ask, does it create a homeless lottery where 4 lucky homeless get to stay there whilst the rest look on enviously. Also, I am guessing sufficient security will be in place to stop lots of people congregating and using one of the containers as a shooting up den and ransacking it as that would be a definite misuse of their purpose. I think there needs to be other provisions in place to deal with the drug addiction issues.
Whilst providing accommodation solutions for the homeless is desperately needed in town, there are also wider issues that need dealing with that were brought to light on social media over the cold weather spell. It was the case that whilst lots of the homeless made it into shelter during the freezing and snowy conditions, there were many homeless who completely shunned seeking shelter and further support as it meant that they’d not be able to get their fix and do their drugs. So local people had observed that places like the arcade had a number of homeless in it during the weekend who had left it in a poor state, including with discarded needles that actually left one member of the public with a needlestick injury just trying to tidy up the mess outside their shop.
This whole drug blight leaves a massive disconnect between homeless people who are somewhat vulnerable (many of them unable to get away from substance abuse) and then the local authorities who will help the homeless that choose food and shelter over drugs. There are a number of local groups who fill in these gaps and go out and try and help those still left on the streets regardless of what state they may find them in, but much of the time this is a thankless job as they face heavy criticism from both local authorities for not doing things by the book and accusations of drug-enabling and criticism from some wings of the general public who label them “do gooders” and obviously have an even lower opinion of “druggies”.
If you take the average Wrexham person, you’d find they are sympathetic towards those who are homeless (you only need to see the legendary status of homeless veterans on Facebook), but cannot come to terms with a person who is abusing drugs and all the stigmas and public health risks associated with it.
[quote quote=145653]
The Council were Labour controlled when this was passed for a follow up at the Executive Board on 5th August 2014[/quote]The 10 Labour defectors occurred just a month later on 3rd September & they were not acting in the best interests of Labour & their voters for months before. Anyone who was part of the Save Plas Madoc Group considered them dead ducks from the beginning of that year, seeing as genuine Welsh Labour got behind trying to save the leisure centre back in Feb 14 and were trying to plan takeover bids and alternatives to closure alongside the local community. All met with continuous resistance from the Faux Labour 10.
If they weren’t steering the town in the right direction re: Leisure Centres I have absolutely no confidence in any of their other decision making whilst posing as Labour.
Whatever way you look at it, shame on the Labour Party for allowing such individuals to go under their banner & hoodwink the general public the full lay to blame will be with the current establishment if it all goes wrong.
Except of course all the delusionals who still think the council is Labour ran, they’ll just blame them anyway.
