As several people have pointed out, Greenwich Council are offering half a million pounds to five projects, including the Transition Westcombe Project. Now they have to decide how to bid for the money. I’m still not exactly sure how the Westcombe Park area is defined, but a good chunk of it seems to be Blackheath, so if you live nearby, why not suggest a few ideas.
My suggestion would be wind. Blackheath has a spectacular wind resource up on the heath. The problem would be how to use it without upsetting everyone. The climate camp really opened my eyes to how much wind was up there, and as frequent readers will know, I spent quite a bit of time up there, finding out what was going on.
The group who set up the wind turbines during the climate camp were called V3 Power, and whilst chatting to them, I learnt that they often hold workshops, to teach others how to build wind turbines. I wrote a transcription of the talk they gave during the climate camp. So I emailed them, and weeks later I received a message saying that they would be holding a Wind Turbine Workshop over a weekend in Shropshire, asking if I’d be interested.
Now, I figured that my craft skills pretty much ended aged 14 in a CDT class breaking a jigsaw on some MDF – not exactly impressive stuff. We never seemed to do anything more exciting than trying to build a clock at school. So this was well beyond anything I had any natural adaptation for. Windows Icon Mouse Pointer, yes. Angle Grinder, Set Square, Welder, Draw Knife, no.
But, I figured it would be interesting, and it’s always good to try new things. Plus it had the backing of Mrs Bugle. So off I went. The course was great – I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in these things – it couldn’t have been more hands on, met some lovely people, and the constant patience and enthusiasm of all involved was totally uplifting.
There are loads of videos here, in no particular order.
Anyway, I think it’s a great idea – it’s a great skill to have. So if Transition Westcombe find themselves richer to the tune of half a million, I’d suggest some windmills on the heath. They were there in the past – they could come back again.
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9 Comments
November 13, 2009 at 12:31 am
Great idea. I’d support it but I bet it’ll upset a few of the middle classes in the village.
November 13, 2009 at 12:33 am
I think it would be a great idea. Would the well to do people on the village like it though?
November 13, 2009 at 9:16 am
[...] Map of Blackheath Half a million pounds to go green [...]
November 13, 2009 at 11:56 am
I’ve got the perfect name for that project:
B lackheath
U rban
R enewables
P roject
November 13, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Wow.
November 13, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Is there a direct correlation between income and receptiveness to renewable energy?
November 13, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I don’t know Neil, what do you think? I’m not rich. I live in a rented one-bedroom flat with my wife. The only reason we can afford it is because Blackheath doesn’t have a tube station. If it did, there’s no way we could live here. I get really tired of the Daily Mail-style class warfare cooked up over green issues. I know that the climate camp certainly looked like it was being run by a bunch of private school boys. No idea whether it really was, and in a way it doesn’t matter – we’re all stuck on this little island together, and sooner or later the oil is going to run out, or at least become unacceptably expensive, so we’d better come up with some alternatives. Now suggest some things for them to spend some money on, or move to Brixton (they’ve got a bid going too).
November 17, 2009 at 11:02 am
To be honest, I was commenting more on the immediate assumptions upthread that there would be objections from the middle-classes, which surprised me (maybe naively). I have no problem, with the idea and would support it.
November 21, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Wouldn’t bother me to have a few on the Heath. Of course there used to be windmills in ye olden days, did there not. So it’s traditional!