Stormy weekend forecast

Yesterday was very pleasant weather wise but things have now turned for the worse with a fair bit of rain and increasing wind. We have been warned in the last few forecasts that the wind will be particularly strong on Sunday morning. It looks as if the airflow is coming from the west or southwest, good news for me as the rising ground behind this terrace tends to lessen the impact of the wind from that direction. When we have a gale from the due south though we really know about it because then it fairly whistles through this part of the valley there being little high ground twixt us and the sea.

With a gale from the west the MSC Napoli might be a little less battered than she was the other day when it blew from the due south. As I have previously remarked the salvage company have been lucky with the weather but that good fortune couldn't go on indefinitely.

I have blogged in the past about maverick meteorologist Piers Corbyn getting his forecasts wrong. He has produced some very dire warnings about storms for this past month and went public with them rather than expecting you to pay to visit his website. I'll see just how bad the winds are on Sunday and then pass judgement on these latest prophecies of his.

Gordon Brown and Des Browne

In a blog entry on the third of July I had expressed some thoughts on the make up of Gordon Brown's first cabinet. He took the opportunity to do some welcome reshuffling of the pack but there was one particular appointment, that of Defence Secretary, that caused me concern. At the time of the capture and subsequent release by Iran of some of our service personnel Des Browne rightly took a lot of flak. In the Commons the Opposition eventually managed to extract an apology from Browne who famously said that the buck stopped with him. Now this was towards the end of the Blair premiership and it was conjectured that there was little point in booting Browne out as he could be dropped when Gordon Brown took the reins.

So what happened? Not only did Browne retain his position but he was given the job of Scottish Secretary as well! When I first wrote about this I flagged up the point that with the possible closure of one of our shipyards hanging in the air there could well be a possible conflict of interest. What has now become an issue, with which I wholeheartedly agree, is the matter of Browne doing two jobs. It was just a few days ago that former Chiefs of Defence Staff savagely attacked Gordon Brown on his attitude toward spending on defence and one of them angrily queried why the present holder of the post of Defence Secretary was also doing another job. Now with devolution I'm sure that Browne's Scotland job isn't a major part of his workload but that's not the point. Defence Secretary should be a full time post regardless. Let's remember our forces are still engaged in two major combat zones apart from the more mundane stuff like maintaining a presence in The Falklands and doing drug busts in The Caribbean.

I understand that Tory peer Lord Tebbit has asked for a breakdown as to the time spent by Browne on his two jobs. That information has not been forthcoming. This is an absolutely outrageous situation; it's no wonder that we hold politicians in such contempt.

Competence, honesty, integrity, people management: these are qualities I look for from a Prime Minister as much as policies. At the moment Gordon Brown is desperately poor in these areas.

Heavy traffic blighting Cullompton

Cullompton By-Pass just to the east of this Devon market town was built some years prior to the completion of the southernmost part of the M5 and although not motorway on its opening it was evident that it would form part of the M5 in due course. Junction 28 is on the north eastern outskirts of the town and not only permits access to and egress from Cullompton but directly connects to the somewhat substandard A373 which wends its way to Honiton.

So far so reasonably good. But here's the problem: junction 28 is getting so heavily used that traffic will back right up the slip road to the motorway itself at times. Lorries heading for businesses to the south of the town at Bradninch and Silverton rattle their way through Cullompton's High Street, a thoroughfare designed for the horse and cart age. Understandably locals are getting fed up with the situation and would desperately like to see another two level junction to the south of the town.

In response the Highways Agency point out the downside of too many junctions on a motorway both in terms of disruption of traffic flow and increased accident risk. And of course there is the little matter of paying for a new junction. The Agency also point out that construction of a second junction for a relatively small town like Cullompton goes against National and Regional policies.

Gosh this is a tough one to sort out and I'm glad I don't have to come up with the answer! But this is a good example of the truly massive problems overtaking us in this country - more economic activity, more prosperity, more vehicle movements, more impact on our fragile town buildings and streets, lower quality of life for those in such towns, heavier carbon footprint, these things all follow each other. What is the way out of it? Answers on a very large postcard please!

Newquay's £1,000,000 apartment sales

It's amazing to see just how many property sales in Devon and Cornwall top the £million mark these days. I can understand it when the sale in question is for a really grand house with acres of land but get slightly bemused when apartments, admittedly with sea views, make this sort of price. In terms of price per square foot we may not be quite in the same league as Sandbanks on that narrow spit of land between Poole Harbour and Poole Bay in Dorset but certain spots in my two counties are trying to catch up.

I hear that Cornwall's Newquay has now joined the £million league with the sale of a couple of penthouse apartments in a development with views over Fistral Beach. In fact the prices were £1.2 and £1.3 million if the report is correct and they haven't been completed yet. No doubt they will be very nice but worth that sort of money? Anyway there we are: a home is worth what you are prepared to pay for it I guess. As for me I'm happy to stay with my little Cornish cottage.

McClaren out and Holloway moves on

Regular readers of this blog (are you out there?) will know that I seldom comment on sport but I'll make an exception with this entry. The failure of the now ex England soccer coach Steve McClaren has unsurprisingly been the subject of much media attention in the last few days. I made the wrong decision and decided to watch what turned out to be a complete humiliation at the hands of Croatia. Congratulations then to Croatia who won by the odd goal in five, but if the winning margin had been two or three then that would be a fair reflection in my opinion. Yes England were international class, for all of about 5 seconds I would say. Beckham's pass and Crouch's finish for our first goal were worthy of a World Cup Final but as to the rest of the match we were so pathetic.

Once again our overpaid players and grossly overpaid manager were found wanting and have let the country down. This failure to qualify will have a knock on effect because when we enjoy modest success e.g. getting to the quarter finals then the excitement,hope and expectation is generally beneficial to the nation. And let's not forget that we invented football and a host of other sports that have an international following.

Of course after the debacle of the Croatia match it was obvious that McClaren had to go. So why didn't he do the right thing and immediately resign? My guess is that it was only by waiting to be sacked that he got his incredible pay off. So it would be money in other words. Now this is what absolutely nauseates me, the fact that you can be an absolute failure and then get payed a massive fortune on the back of it. I have to say here that there are many people in professional sport who get paid obscene amounts of money but am I envious? No! I recognise that is the way things are. If these people produce the goods and the market place pays them well then good luck to them. But it's when the very well paid are rewarded vast amounts of money when they totally fail (and I'm not just talking about sportsmen here) that really gets me. Yes I do get very angry about that.

At about the same time as the England International trauma local team Plymouth Argyle found itself in shock. Popular Argyle manager Ian Holloway who had been expressing his undying love for the team who are as I type seventh in the Championship has moved on to Leicester City. Money and gates seem to have been the motivation here. Fans feel very let down - expect him to get a bad reception next time Leicester visit Home Park.

New way to go to Brixham from Torquay

A new way to go to Brixham from Torquay? Well not quite yet. But bus company 'Stagecoach' have come up with an intriguing idea to speed folk between Torquay and Brixham. The proposal is to instigate a regular passenger ferry service running 365 days a year between the two towns. The firm would use catamarans or trimarans with a capacity for 144 people. It would be a direct service so wouldn't stop at Paignton. Of course there could be the rare occasion when a bad easterly gale would prohibit it from running but these times should be very infrequent in the summer at least when traffic jams in Torbay are at their worst.

An interesting point has been raised regarding the free bus fares available to senior citizens and registered disabled. Would they be able to use this facility on the ferry? Logic says they should but things don't always work by logic it has to be said.

I've long thought that fast passenger ferries over relatively modest distances have not been used enough in this country. So this plan is something I will follow with a great deal of interest.

A very late firework display

I thought I had blogged enough about this years fireworks but unexpectedly find myself making another entry. Well into last Saturday evening I witnessed and heard another display of fireworks, twelve days after November the fifth. Now this wasn't in the village but beyond the treeline on the Devon side of the Tamar Valley. Checking with the map I'm fairly sure that they were set off at a fairly isolated property out of sight from here but barely a mile away as the crow flies.

Some of the bangs were at the loud end of the spectrum so to speak and I just got the feeling that it was all put together by a professional outfit. It's possible that the timing less than two weeks from Guy Fawkes night was coincidence and it might have been in celebration of some sort of family event.

As certain sections of the population become better off it seems that they become ever more eager to spend their cash in this sort of way. Mercifully in this instance they didn't go on for too long but for pet owners and the rest of us who wish for a less noisy environment the increasing number of these firework displays are not welcome. A further reduction in the maximum decibels these explosives produce would be a very good idea.

MSC Napoli - accommodation block removed

I'm very pleased to report that the huge accommodation block on the stern section of the MSC Napoli has now been completely removed. This has taken little more than a week which is progress indeed.

That's the good news. A low pressure area, presently centred over our region, brought a southerly gale in on its eastern flank so that the Napoli is now listing at about 30 degrees. Up until this moment the weather has been incredibly kind to those working on the wreck but sooner or later some poor weather had to make its presence felt. With the listing has come the movement of small pieces of debris ashore in the Branscombe area.

We are told that the final removal of the stern section should be completed by the end of April 2008. I think that the experts have taken the most extreme pessimistic view of the completion time; I appreciate that the winter weather could play a huge role in the progress made by the salvage company and that a substantial weather window might be necessary when the stern section is eventually lifted onto a barge. However I would be very surprised if it took that long to finish the job.

Expect a lot of media attention on the anniversary of the grounding of the Napoli next January.

Launceston gets proactive on litter

"Volunteers helping to keep our beautiful Cornish town of Launceston and its surrounding parishes a cleaner, greener place to live and work, dedicated to eradicating dropped rubbish, through direct action and educational intervention". This is what you will read as a mission statement on a simple little website here.

Apparently local councillor Jacki Ellis-Martin discovered that litter was the big recurring concern of voters when she was out campaigning so she thought it was time to tackle the problem head on. She instigated the 'Lanson Initiative to Tackle Environmental Refuse' or 'LITTER' and her organisation now has a constitution and bank account! The bottom line is that Launceston now has a band of volunteers who regularly go out litter picking. North Cornwall District Council provides the bags, high visibility jackets, etc deemed necessary for the job.

Regarding the dropping of litter I have a totally uncompromising viewpoint: there is no excuse in any way, shape or form for dropping litter. End of story. I have to say that compared with many places our village is quite good on the litter front but unusually there were several pieces of clean litter I spotted on the way to the newspaper shop this morning and I picked them up to place in one of the bins in the village centre. On weekdays there is a council worker who does a good job in keeping the streets clean.

For a very long time I've thought "why don't they get people on community service orders up at 8 o'clock in the morning and do a litter pick in the centre of a large town or city". This would be putting something back into the community.

Reverting to the Launceston project for a moment I note that once again it is a relatively small but concerned community that takes action on a problem; this is somewhat reminiscent of Modbury becoming plastic bag free about which I've blogged before. It looks as if Bude and Truro are other places in Cornwall that might follow in the footsteps of Launceston.

Simple ideas like this help to maintain the pride of residents in their communities and, if they get schools involved, might one day eliminate the litter bug from our green and pleasant land. More power to their elbow.

Straw and wood used in Totnes home

It's not unusual to see innovation happening in Devon and Cornwall; there seems to be an inclination down here for people to "think out of the box", to be more individualistic. These are characteristics I'm passionate about and one of the many reasons I sing the praises of my two counties.

So I was really pleased to hear last week that the builder judged to be this year's constructor of the most energy efficient building at the Master Builder of the Year Awards in London comes from my patch. He is Robert Gulley from Totnes in South Devon. He was approached by Mr and Mrs Carfrae who wanted a house built at Totnes that had to be as sustainable as possible but with the proviso that it was within the same budget as a similarly sized conventional home. Now it turns out that Mr Carfrae is studying for a PhD in straw bale construction and suggested that they be incorporated in the construction. This was something new in Mr Gulley's long career as a builder but he went along with the idea and also used lime plaster and incorporated loose sheep's wool for the insulation.

For the main structure of the house a traditionally jointed frame in locally sourced Douglas Fir was used. Floorboards came from an old chapel, good recycling stuff.

This is all absolutely fascinating and just shows what can be achieved by trying things that are not in the mainstream at the moment. Congratulations to all concerned.

Time to read Sat-Nav instructions perhaps

In order to make sense of things going on around me and further afield I like to get as much information as possible, the only snag being that I could do with a 30 hour day! We really are into the information age aren't we but the problem can be taking on board the things that really matter.

Listening to the midday phone-in on Radio Devon yesterday the topic of sat-navs misdirecting lorry drivers down country lanes was raised. I don't have a sat-nav, have never knowingly seen one and was never really aware of all their capabilities. A listener phoned in to say that he has a sat-nav for his car, his sat-nav isn't a top of the range model but it can be set to suit different types of road users. Now this is fascinating stuff because it would appear that if only the instruction book was read a lorry driver's sat-nav could be set up so that his juggernaut is not sent along a car only type of route.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the manual that comes with a sat-nav is 60 pages long, today's technology is so sophisticated that we tend to just utilise a minute part of it. This laptop on which I'm presently typing is I know capable of doing much more than I am using it for and sometime I want to explore some of these possibilities.

My guess is that the sat-nav when purchased has a default setting for normal car usage. Surely if it can be reset for a heavy commercial then that should be done. I would very much like to see lorry drivers and/or haulage companies fined heavily if they are using the technology incorrectly. If property owners or the highway authorities are having to pick up the bill when a lorry causes avoidable damage in a road where it shouldn't be well that is totally unacceptable in my book.

Another listener had phoned to say that a sat-nav could be set so that it followed motorways, 'A' roads and 'B' roads only, perhaps that is the same option that I had previously referred to. I have to say that I'm very disappointed but not surprised that journalists haven't investigated this subject properly. The media take a very superficial view on these sort of things which is very poor indeed in my opinion.

More Sat-Nav woes - this time at Forder

It was only just over a week ago that I was blogging about lorries getting stuck in rural lanes as their drivers blindly followed their sat-navs, the particular instance I focused on being a Czech juggernaut that found itself wedged near Ivybridge.

Fast forward a few days and we find another example this time just across the Tamar in Cornwall. Within a stones throw of the hustle and bustle of Saltash, well just down the hill that leads west from St Stephens Church to be more precise, lies the tiny village of Forder. It is one of those little gems that doesn't make the headlines in the media ... until last week anyway. What happened was a very large lorry found itself descending a hill into Forder, lost its brakes and only came to stop by the driver throwing it into reverse gear. The haulage company blamed the sat-nav for the driver taking an unsuitable road. The vehicle was stuck there till the next day when a massive crane turned up. The extraction process included the temporary removal of overhead cables and the lifting of the lorry's trailer section over the roofs of the nearby houses! Not surprisingly the TV cameras turned up to record "the rescue".

I am totally bemused by the fact that the haulage industry don't seem to be able to get to grips with these sat-nav headaches. Mishaps like this must cost them dear - I believe someone from the recovery team said they are getting this sort of incident every week now.

Perhaps it needs a pedestrian to be seriously injured or worse by one of these lorries to get this sat-nav problem sorted.

BBC Countryfile comes to Devon

Having observed the two minutes silence and listened to part of the proceedings at The Cenotaph on Radio 4 I turned my attention to the TV because I had a particular interest in today's BBC Countryfile programme. It's not always convenient to watch it but, as at least part of it was centred on Devon, I made a point of seeing it this time.

The main story was centred on Slapton which looks out on Start Bay, a long sweep of coast in The South Hams. Slapton's part in the Second World War is becoming increasingly well known but I'll give a very brief summary here.

Slapton Sands is a long quite steeply shelving shingle beach. Immediately behind it is the A379, the main road from Kingsbridge to Dartmouth. On the opposite side of the road lies a freshwater lagoon - Slapton Ley. The importance of this geography lies in the fact of its close resemblance to Utah Beach, one of the beaches in Normandy that the Americans were due to storm on D-Day; it was therefore deemed to be an ideal location to practise and prepare for the invasion. In order to do this the residents of not only Slapton but a number of neighbouring villages were told to evacuate their homes in 1943, they were given just 6 weeks to do this and it was even worse news for farmers who had to remove their livestock as well.

So the military took over the beach and a large chunk of the immediate hinterland. Many manoeuvres were rehearsed culminating in a particularly large operation toward the end of April 1944 codenamed 'Exercise Tiger'. This was going to be a mammoth affair with a number of landing craft and American troops involved. With a combination of cock ups on the Allied side and the presence of German E Boats in the channel some of the landing ships were picked off by the Germans and tragically 749 American troops died - a larger number than were lost on the assault on Utah Beach.

Understandably this whole disaster was hushed up at the time and it may have stayed like that but for the dogged determination many years later of one man. Ken Small ran a guest house with his wife at Torcross which is at the southern end of Slapton Sands. Now Ken, who died a year or two ago, was very into beachcombing and was for ever discovering odd small bits of military hardware during his searches. But what really intrigued him was the discovery by a fisherman of a very large object submerged out in the bay, an American Sherman tank no less. To cut a long story short Ken was very involved in recovering this tank (it can now be seen just across from the beach at Torcross) and this led him, with a great deal of dogged determination, to unravel the story of 'Exercise Tiger'. Ken Small wrote a book 'The Forgotten Dead' and I remember buying my copy personally from Ken when he sold them at the site of the tank in Torcross.

The Countryfile team did a pretty good job at relating the story and searched out the relevant people. In the programme they also had an item about the cost of homes at Salcombe and East Portlemouth ( the latter recently covered in this blog) and they interviewed Rebecca Hosking whose home is at Modbury because she has inspired that town to become the first community in Europe to be free of plastic bags. Again I've covered that story with a couple of entries.

A good useful programme I thought.

Remembrance Day thoughts

I consider myself very lucky in a number of ways. One of these is the fact that I didn't lose any close relatives in the two World Wars, many others weren't so fortunate. It is I find quite difficult to relate to the war dead when it comes to 11 o'clock on the eleventh of November when the horrendous events of the wars haven't really impinged on your own life. However quietly walking alongside the Tamar about an hour earlier I couldn't but reflect on the peace and tranquillity of the scene before me and contrasted that in my mind with the carnage man has wrought on fellow man, and all for what? But running parallel with this was the realisation that the pleasure of the freedom to enjoy that walk was partly down to those who lost their lives in the conflicts and to those who suffered permanent injury.

A few, a very few, communities never erected memorials to the fallen dead. These were the 'thankful villages', places to which their sevicemen all returned. I know that Herodsfoot, a sweet little village deep in the valley of the West Looe River in the quiet countryside between Looe and Liskeard was one such example. But were there any others in Devon and Cornwall? None that I know of.

The location of Herodsfoot can come as a surprise when you stumble on it. However with some mining in the valley and once a gunpowder works nearby its present feel of nothing has ever happened here can be misleading!

I certainly don't glorify war but as a person who is fascinated by history I take plenty of interest in wars from a purely historical perspective. That's as close as I want to get.

Noisy fireworks yesterday evening

On Tuesday evening I wrote a piece about the way fireworks are set off on days other than November the fifth. That evening, the sixth, witnessed one or two fireworks but quiet ones probably not enough to cause much distress. Sadly in the middle of yesterday evening a family about 100 yards away decided it was their turn. Many of the fireworks they let off were exceptionally loud, worse than others I had heard on previous days and they seem to have spread them out over quite a period of time so that you were repeatedly under the illusion that the mayhem was over only for another huge rocket to deafen you.

So far as I was concerned the family were totally irresponsible in doing what they did. One hears of dog owners going to the vet to get their pooches sedated for Guy Fawkes night but who would have been prepared for very noisy fireworks midweek and two days after the fifth.

Perhaps I'm naive but I believe the majority of people for all their imperfections (and I am far from perfect myself) try to behave in a responsible fashion with concern and respect for others. However certain individuals don't such as those last night. It's the same with picking up dog poo, the great majority of dog walkers in the village do the correct thing but there is always the odd one who doesn't.

Respect for others is surely something that we should all aim for.

Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo have their say

Last Wednesday many people will have participated in Halloween activities or, in my case, avoided them. But in the twin villages of Newton and Noss which face each other across the River Yealm in the far south west of Devon parishioners had the chance to indulge in another activity ...

It was their turn to make their thoughts known on the matter of a national referendum on the European Constitution if they so wished. This follows the recent parish referendum at Shaldon on which I had previously blogged on 26th October. As in the Shaldon case Newton and Noss overwhelmingly demonstrated their desire for an EU referendum.

The figures for Newton and Noss: Yes 302 No 26.

Now ShelterBox to help Mexicans

In the aftermath of the huge Asian tsunami a charity based in Helston, Cornwall got a lot of media attention. ShelterBox, the brainchild of Tom Henderson, developed a very simple way of sending practical aid to people anywhere affected by natural and other disasters - floods, tidal waves, earthquakes, war whatever.

Their mission statement is "To provide humanitarian aid worldwide in the form of shelter, warmth and comfort to people displaced by natural and other disasters." The brilliantly simple way they do this is to provide tough green plastic boxes each of which contains a 10 person tent and ancillary equipment to enable 10 people to survive for at least 6 months. These ancillaries will depend on the location to which the boxes are destined. Examples of included items that have been sent are insulated groundsheets, thermal blankets, cooking equipment and water purification tablets. Having seen one of their boxes and what they can get into it well it's truly amazing.

The whole box and its contents would cost about £500 but the wonderful thing is that ShelterBox tell you on their website here what the individual constituents cost. So maybe one would like to send them a donation for one sleeping bag say - you will know exactly what that is and you can be sure that is how your money will be spent. For those folk understandably wary of how much 'slippage' there is any donation to a charity for admin, wages, etc this is like a breath of fresh air.

As a passionate environmentalist I do get concerned at times about the ever increasing amount of air traffic but always try to look at issues from a balanced perspective. Thus I say thank goodness for successful airline companies who have the capacity to get the ShelterBoxes quickly and cheaply to foreign airports. Yes there are pluses when it comes to air travel!

Not surprisingly ShelterBox are organising deliveries to southern Mexico in response to the severe flooding in the Tabasco region. What I found interesting though was the deployment of some 200 boxes to North Korea last month following floods in that impoverished country. That state is usually pretty well out of bounds to westerners and I once saw some disturbing TV footage which demonstrated the complete indoctrination of children in North Korea to hate the west. So the efforts of ShelterBox in helping that country has an incalculable benefit in showing them that we are not all ogres, apart from the direct humanitarian aid that they are receiving.

I just cannot speak too highly of this wonderful charity.

MSC Napoli - work resuming this week

For those not living in the Branscombe/Sidmouth area the saga of the MSC Napoli is probably something you haven't thought about of late. But, as ever, if there is fresh activity relating to the Napoli this blog will let you know!

This week will see the commencement of the cutting up of the stern section of the wreck which will be followed by removal of the parts for recycling. It may be recalled that an earlier plan had been to lift the whole of the remainder of the ship with its massive accommodation block onto a barge and take it away. After some thought it seems that the salvage company would be taking on a bit too much with this idea but whether it was the men from the ministry or the salvers who got cold feet I don't know I'm afraid. Whatever the history it is evident that the stern section of Napoli is likely to be visible off Branscombe for a few months yet.

As I have blogged before it is a shame that the disposal decision couldn't have been made earlier bearing in mind the very quiet weather we have enjoyed over the past couple of months. Now everyone will keep their fingers crossed that the kind conditions continue.

Modbury plastic bag ban now permanent

I wrote on the First of May about a pioneering scheme in Modbury, South Devon where for six months traders would not be issuing plastic bags. That trial period is complete and not only will the plastic bag ban now go on indefinitely but many other places are into similar initiatives following intense media interest from far and wide.

Not only have the plastic bags gone but their replacements made of cornstarch for instance are far fewer in number demonstrating just how much these new alternatives are being repeatedly used rather than being discarded. We are in a win-win situation here.

It was local person and wildlife filmmaker Rebecca Hosking, having witnessed the appalling affects on marine life of discarded plastic, who decided to do something about it. I think she was taken aback by just how much both she and the town came into the spotlight. Having achieved what she hoped for, and more, she has decided to bow out and enjoy a slightly quieter life again and I don't blame her!

There is a specific website regarding plastic bag free Modbury which you can link to here.

Air Southwest on the up

One of our local low fare airlines, Air Southwest has announced that starting from next year it will be increasing the number of its services from Newquay and Plymouth. In particular both airports will now connect with Newcastle and with Glasgow. Additionally the Irish connection will develop with the Company's flights to Cork and Dublin and , for skiing enthusiasts, Chambery described as the "Gateway to the French Alps" will be in the itinerary.

On more than one occasion I've expressed concern about either more airports being built or of additional runways developed at existing facilities. But the great thing about our local airports in the two counties is that they can absorb more air traffic without devouring more countryside and Air Southwest's plans will make these two airports a little more viable , something they very much need.

Government edgy about 'Pay as You Throw'

I can't believe that it was as long ago as 2nd June that I blogged on the subject that has become known as 'Pay as You Throw'. At that time I highlighted a number of reasons why it was unfair, impractical and very bureaucratic and thus should not be adopted in this country. Similar schemes appear to have been successful in some countries on the continent so why not here? The answer is in the question - we are not these other countries, the way things work here I suggest is vastly different to those other places.

It seems that the government are in a predicament on this one. Having pulled back from the brink of setting up a system where we all pay for how much we throw out they are now keen on the idea of a few councils going through with pilot schemes. There's no doubt that as a nation we are incredibly wasteful but it's interesting to see that the subject of excessive packaging is getting aired more and more so this might be something on which inroads can be made to reduce landfill.

One thing that I never see discussed is the degree of waste to landfill the homeowner produces relative to that from other sources, shops, hotels, industry etc. Why don't we ever get the fuller picture?

Too many days for fireworks

Before I get started I just want to be clear that I'm not a killjoy. I'm not personally interested in firework displays but if others are well my dislike doesn't colour my attitude I hope. However one of my complaints about fireworks is that they are not confined to November 5th. In the village there have been quite a number let off on the two weekend evenings (third and fourth) but with the noisier ones seemingly reserved for the "correct" day. So far this evening practically nothing, just the odd quiet one. Now if only setting off fireworks was confined to the one evening what an improvement that would be.

There are a lot of dog owners and cat owners in the village - I'm not one of them - and it's horrendous for owners and pets as one just doesn't know when the next bang is coming. But it's not only the effect on domesticated animals that bothers me. We are in a deep V shaped valley with the village clinging to the western slope whilst the Devon side is densely wooded. A pleasure for me, and for many others I guess, is the sound of the gentle hoots of the tawny owls from the trees opposite that one hears on many a night. Owls have very sensitive hearing I believe so just what effect the sound of fireworks reverberating in the valley has on them I don't know. As I type this sentence at 8 pm I can hear some reassuring hoots so that's good news.

Maybe now there will be a lull until New Year's Eve when more explosions will be on the menu if the past few years are anything to go by.

Sat-Nav cause more problems

I seem to be stuck on the subject of traffic and driving at the moment but this entry is regarding a problem I've wanted to comment on for some time, and the front page story in today's Western Morning News has brought it to the fore.

According to the WMN story a Czech driver working for a Czech haulage company was on his way to Lee Moor to collect some TVs. His satellite navigation system (or sat-nav as they seem to be known as) directed him down a country lane between the A379 Plymouth to Kingsbridge road and the A38 Devon Expressway. This wasn't any old lorry but an articulated 40 tonne monster. Obviously the next part of the story is that the lorry got firmly wedged between the hedge banks. Fortunately for the non English speaking driver the mishap occurred close to a house where the housewife, a Croatian, was able to sufficiently understand his native tongue to communicate with him. Inexplicably it took three days before someone could pull the lorry out. Meantime the driver spent his nights in his vehicle (it had a bed) and the Croatian lady and her husband kept him fed and watered by inviting him in for meals.

These stories of HGVs getting stuck come up now and again ... and again and again and again. They just illustrate a situation that is ludicrous in that the drivers do not understand the fallibility of their sat-navs. By and large they seem to work for the ordinary car but obviously often not for bigger stuff. Isn't this the problem with this clever technology, before it came in one was reliant on a degree of common sense, an ability to read a map and a general feel of where you were. But now it's a case of "who needs common sense - we have the technology, stupid".

Some months ago a sign, the first in this country, was erected at Exton in Hampshire, telling drivers not to rely on their sat-navs after problems there. And only the other day there was the unveiling of a sign in the Vale of Glamorgan again advising that the technology should not be used. This latter one was of a pictorial design to avoid the linguistic problem that foreign drivers could encounter. OK such signage could be used in instances where there are regular problems but could hardly be erected in the hundreds of locations where lorries could come to grief.

I haven't seen the men from the ministry or the sat-nav manufacturers being very active in dealing with this issue, they need to be a darn sight more proactive. As usual you can expect the local authorities whose highway budgets are always being squeezed to do any repairs after such incidents occur. A lot of these minor roads are a few inches of blacktop on not very much and are certainly not designed for trans-continental juggernauts.

These large lorries should confine themselves to 'A' roads and 'B' roads except the very last part of the journey if the depot or whatever is off such roads. Looking at the 1:50,000 OS maps for my two counties it can be seen that you are never any great distance from 'A' and 'B' roads so there is no reason at all why big lorries can't stick to them. Drivers getting stuck in narrow lanes should be prosecuted for careless driving. Obviously I am excluding smaller lorries, the ones collecting farm milk for instance and the tankers that deliver calor gas for properties not on the mains.

Please note that I'm not decrying the use of technology, it's just a case of recognising that on occasion its usefulness is limited. Instead of us becoming techno-junkies 24/7 we should realise that commonsense still has a part to play.

Devon and Cornwall Police target bad drivers

The Devon and Cornwall Police are going on the offensive throughout this month to bring to book speeding, inconsiderate, bullying and downright bad drivers. I'm glad to say that they are using unmarked police cars and a motorbike and employing video recording equipment. With the limited resources available these patrols will concentrate on the M5, the A38, the A30 and the A361 North Devon Link Road.

I fully approve of them publicising this crackdown on bad driving and it's vital that the police are proactive in mounting these concerted campaigns. My hope now is that any really bad instances of dangerous and selfish driving lead to heavy penalties. One of the bonuses of videoing evidence is that this can be later shown on TV which could spur all of us towards better behaviour on the road.

One thing the police will be particularly looking out for is the use of mobile phones while driving. So the news today that immigration minister Liam Byrne has been fined for just this offence has made interesting reading. He has had to pay £100 (would have been £150 if he hadn't pleaded guilty and shown remorse we are told). And of course he has another 3 points on his license, he had three points already but for what reason I don't know. What is particularly ironic about Midlands MP Byrne's case is that he has had a special interest in road safety apparently. In mitigation Byrne said that he had been taking an important call on a deportation matter. This makes it worse I believe because the nature of the call would have required giving far more attention than say someone from home asking him to pick up a packet of corn flakes. But at least Mr Byrne did apologise which is to his credit.

The number and severity of accidents on the roads of Devon and Cornwall has been bad of late. I hope that this initiative from the police bears fruit.

Report suggests third of food wasted

It has recently been suggested that this country wastes a third of its food. Now these bald statements in the media seem designed to make me angry. Maybe some of the heavyweight papers go into some background detail on this but typically the media come out with these stories with little or no indication as to how they were arrived at.

Let me as a blogger pose some questions then. When looking at food waste are we just considering what is thrown out by householders? Did they include the stuff in food shops discarded because it's over the 'best before date'? And what about the food left over in restaurants? It's difficult for outside caterers too to get the quantities right. And with swill not going to feed pigs these days that's another reason for food going to landfill. It all adds up.

Putting aside these things for a minute there is no doubt that the British are wasteful with regard to food and that is something that shames us. I absolutely hate to see good food thrown away. It's true that I'm cooking just for myself as a rule and am not having to cope with changing fads of young children for instance. But I'd like to see more parents getting their offspring eating sensible food from a very early age and not always going for the easy option. Another thing that irks me is to see eateries dishing out excessively large helpings; I recall an example of this in Plymouth. Some years ago when I worked in an office in that city a group of us went out for a Christmas lunch. I had garlic mushrooms as a starter (I love these). What I was served was sufficient for a main course and I remember that I could barely get through the next course. I shouldn't be at all surprised if a third of the food was wasted that day.

It amazes me that with all the cookery programmes on TV these days together with a plethora of books on the subject there seems to be so little attention given over to recipes using left overs. Not just 'bubble and squeak' which is delicious in my opinion. I can give an example of economical use of food - in the summer I eat a lot of salads and as such I steam enough potatoes for a couple of days say. Then for the next day it only takes a minute to slice and fry the ones I've not used. I get the sense that many people discard anything not eaten on the day and that's absolutely crazy!

Going back to the original headline about a third of food being wasted, well that might not be completely accurate when applied just to folk eating in the home. But even if it was 20% I would consider that unacceptable. Truly Britain has become a throwaway society.