Don’t get caught up in the ENERGY spin
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I read with interest blogs on this site which seem to have swallowed the whole ‘new opportunities’ spin with regard to the proposed Energy Centre at the edge of Wrexham Industrial Estate. There may well be jobs going during construction but how many of these will go to the local labour force rather than ‘gangs’ who have worked on other Power Stations? Once the Energy Centre is built it will operate at less than 50% capacity and will require a small technical workforce who could, sensibly, be recruited from Power stations which are closing down, and who would not need training.
Wrexham Power Limited will not be running the Energy Centre as they are likely to sell on the site once Planning has been approved to recoup their investment and make a huge profit, I don’t believe they have any experience in running a Power Station. Their interest is property development and once they have ‘sealed the deal’ they will move on. We can have no idea as to who will be in control of the Power Station or its output but it takes only a little imagination to assume it won’t be a company who have any loyalty to either Wrexham or Wales.
There also seems to be a belief that a new Power Station will attract new businesses on to the Industrial Estate, how? What is needed is vision, investment and marketing at a council level. It is unlikely that the promise of cheap electricity, a promise which is not binding on whoever runs the Power Station, and hot water for 50% of the working week is going to be a draw over all the other Industrial Estates all over the country not least those in the South East of England which will be, no doubt, one of the beneficiaries of the electricity generated by this Power Station. I think that the notion that a prison, a Power Station with its carbon emissions polluting the atmosphere and even bigger pylons spoiling the landscape will make the area more attractive for people looking for places to live and work needs some more consideration. It is not a case of ‘not in my back yard’ as more a case of why ‘would I pay to have that in my back yard.’
There are opportunities in the Wrexham Area for the development of the Tourist Industry and associated businesses. There should be investment in the Industrial Estate but this means support for small businesses from a local and Assembly level. It is not enough for our political leaders to think their job is done by allowing a prison or a power station without considering for the long term consequences. The former is unlikely to be obsolete and will employ local people but the latter: a gas fired power station is not sustainable and will become a future monument to the lack of a future looking Energy Plan just like the abandoned pits which surround us now.
The future should be shaped by the people who are going to live in it and it is dispiriting that the reaction of some ill inform people is to stereotype older folk as reactionaries whilst seizing upon what seems to be an easy solution which will not deliver to them any more security than they have now. Supporting the Power Station because it is ‘a good thing’ shows a lack of understanding about the motives of the developers and the Energy Suppliers which, although overly simplistic, can be summed up by the word PROFIT. This motive does not always co-incide with the interest of either workers or consumers.
History in Wales will repeat itself if yet again it’s prosperity depends on generating energy for England, There is a future for us but it doesn’t rest on the building of what will eventually be an obsolete Power Stations.
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