As publicity stunts go, this one is particularly long running. Attached is an article from the Dartford Messenger on the 8th January 2003. You will recognise a (rather younger) Nigel Farage protesting against the building of a housing estate on the flood plains in Dartford which were formerly occupied by the (frequently flooded) Joyce Green Hospital. The hospital is of course long gone now, replaced by a new housing estate. While the houses have escaped flooding in the recent rains, the adjacent dual carriageway - Bob Dunn Way - sits at a lower lever, and was closed for much of January because of flooding. The cause of the flooding? Heavy rain which would formerly have soaked into the flood plain can no longer do so because of the new housing estate, and so instead it runs onto the road.
Bob Dunn Way is a major arterial road linking Junction 1A of the M25 with access to South East London. The result, predictably, was gridlock across many local roads.
If you read the article, Nigel says the building on flood plains is a 'recipe for disaster'. He also mentions that he has been studying flood problems in the South East.
Needless to say, the Environment Agency approved the development at Joyce Green, helpfully redrawing their flood maps to show there was little risk of flooding. With the current heavy rain and the proximity of the already swollen river Thames, we can look forward to more travel chaos in Dartford over the coming few days. Would it be publicity seeking to say 'He told you so'?
To all those greenies out there blaming industry for all the high winds and storms, perhaps there is another cause of the freak weather we are experiencing?
ReplyDeleteWind Turbines, for every wind turbine converting 1000MW of wind energy into 900 MW of electrical energy each one is creating an area of low pressure and the consequences as theorised in the butterfly effect could be creating high pressure systems elsewhere in the world.
Considering how many of these things are in use around the world 100,000 ? half a million? 2 million? I have not seen any research done on the effects to the jet streams,
which could be pushed further north, warming the arctic and cooling the antartic further intensifying the weather systems.
So before heaping all the blame on industry, let us have a close look at the renewable energies effect on our climate, perhaps the answer may be surprising.
Vote UKIP!!!
I will vote UKIP and anyone with at least half a brain cell will do the same.
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