Hundreds sign petition against Cornwall solar farm plans
'Inappropriate developments'
The solar farm would provide sufficient clean electricity to power approximately 9,700 average households annually and promises a substantial reduction in carbon emissions – about 4,979 tonnes of CO2 each year – the application says.The proposal would be built near Bury Down, an Iron Age hill fort believed to originate between 800BC and 43AD, a 400-year-old heritage hedge which runs from Looe to Lostwithiel.Some residents have argued that, if approved, it would be in the wrong place, within an area of great landscape value. Richard Kramer, whose house is in the middle of the proposed development near Looe, said: "Our message to Elgin is to reconsider, note the level of opposition and anger from local communities and not go ahead with this solar farm."We are talking about a large 106-acre solar farm, disproportionate in size to the area that would significantly downgrade the quality of our villages and will have a significant adverse impact on its character and the landscape locally."This isn't just about our neighbours and communities who would be affected today. This solar farm if it goes ahead will be in place for 50 years. "This will affect our children and one day their families too. We don't want the main road to our villages from Lanreath to Looe to be blighted for generations to come by inappropriate industrial developments."
Mr Kramer claimed the energy company did not consult the local community before putting in pre-application advice.He said: "We understand and appreciate the aim for net zero, but not at this cost to our beautiful countryside and landscape here in South East Cornwall."Resident Bruce Milburn, whose property sits within the valley where the solar farm would be built, said he was "not anti-solar, but this isn't proportionate to the environment"."It's massive, it's too much for here," he added."When a wind turbine on the land went up, I thought: 'Oh, God!' but it's not a problem at all. "But this is an Alice in Wonderland situation. It's just out of proportion – it's that simple."
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The Independent
17 hours ago
- The Independent
Republicans look to make a U-turn on federal commitment to electric vehicles for the Postal Service
A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet, the U.S. Postal Service is facing congressional attempts to strip billions in federal EV funding. In June, the Senate parliamentarian blocked a Republican proposal in a major tax-and-spending bill to sell off the agency's new electric vehicles and infrastructure and revoke remaining federal money. But efforts to halt the fleet's shift to clean energy continue in the name of cost savings. Donald Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, said canceling the program now would have the opposite effect, squandering millions of dollars. 'I think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they're going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process because that's just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that's been wasted," he said. Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed. Electrified vehicles reduce emissions A 2022 University of Michigan study found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That's a fraction of the more than 6,000 million metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university's Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying impacts of climate change. 'We're already falling short of goals for reducing emissions,' Keoleian said. 'We've been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.' Many GOP lawmakers share President Donald Trump's criticism of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service should stick to delivering mail. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said 'it didn't make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force." She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10 billion cost of new postal vehicles. Ernst has called the EV initiative a 'boondoggle' and "a textbook example of waste,' citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance. 'You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that's providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract," Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense. 'For now,' she added, "gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.' Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa's farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project "has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.' The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, or NGDVs, was 'very modest" and not unexpected. 'The production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,' spokesperson Kim Frum said. EVs help in modernization effort The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Joe Biden, who pledged to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks. The 'Deliver for America' plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates back to 1987 and is fuel-inefficient at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires. 'Our mechanics are miracle workers,' said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. 'The parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.' The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet in the federal government. Building new postal trucks In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years. The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck's bill, began service in Georgia last year. Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes. There's also a new creature comfort: air conditioning. Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way. 'I was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,' he said. 'And now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house — they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly — it's really amazing in my opinion.' Where things stand now The agency has so far ordered 51,500 NGDVs, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances. Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned NGDV purchases were "carefully considered from a business perspective' and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money. The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said. Ernst said it's fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased. 'But you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,' she said. 'And that was not a smart move.' Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case. Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier. 'It's the perfect application for an electric vehicle," he said, 'and it's a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.' ____
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- The Guardian
Want more productivity, Rachel Reeves? It's time to embrace Mancunian swagger
Over the summer Rachel Reeves has been on a road trip around Britain. From Cornwall and Kent, to Aberdeen, south Wales and Belfast, in search of the solutions for a national economy that is stuck in a rut. Inspired by this tour, the chancellor used a Guardian article last week to set her autumn budget priority: boosting productivity. Tax and spending may dominate news headlines, but this is the real problem facing the country, and no politician of the past two decades has managed to fix it. Productivity is a dull word of vital importance. Growing the measure of output for each hour of work is an economic secret sauce, enabling growth in wages and living standards over the long-run without stoking inflation. On the hunt for solutions, Reeves could have extended her trip. Leaving Westminster on a (most probably delayed) Avanti train from Euston, or an overcrowded TransPennine Express from her Leeds constituency; for the wetter side of northern England, where Manchester is having a moment in the sun. Unlike the rest of Britain, there are signs of life in Greater Manchester's productivity. Between 2004 and 2023, the city region recorded the highest rise in gross value added for each hour worked of any combined authority in the country. London – once the driver of UK growth – has effectively stalled. The capital is still streets ahead in terms of productivity and the UK is still one of the most regionally unequal countries in Europe, with no regions outside London and the south-east of England above the national average. But Manchester is beginning to close the gap – with growth of 31% since 2004. To anyone familiar with the north-west, this will probably come as no surprise. Manchester has changed beyond all recognition in recent years, never mind the past two decades. The Haçienda has been a posh block of flats for longer than it was at the epicentre of the 'Madchester' music scene. The class of '92 swapped Old Trafford for building luxury hotels long ago, petrodollar cash has flooded the east of the city, and Oasis have just added, by some counts, £1bn to the British economy at large. 'Manchester has got this buzz about it,' says Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist, and a proud Mancunian, who now chairs the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. 'It's always been there for years in the [city] centre. But most importantly it's now spreading. Some would say it's that Manchester swagger. It all relates to an attitude that 'we can do this; we want to see it happen'. I don't know another part of the country where it has that vibe.' For years Britain's productivity growth has been a dismal disappointment. Before the 2008 financial crisis growth averaged 2% a year, but has trickled to well below 1% since. Figures last week showed growth contracted in the year to June. With the autumn budget not far off, this is fuelling a sense of alarm in the Treasury. Whitehall is abuzz with speculation that the Office for Budget Responsibility is poised to hand Reeves downgraded productivity forecasts – with the potential to blow a £20bn hole in her tax and spending plans. To turn things around, Reeves could take the ingredients behind Manchester's renaissance and apply them elsewhere. She could also double down on the 'Northern Powerhouse' strategy for good measure. Sources close to Labour say that is exactly the plan: Keir Starmer and Reeves are expected to launch an intensified regional growth strategy next month, with the revival of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project as its centrepiece. Those who know Manchester best say there are a few golden threads to the renaissance of Cottonopolis: devolution; political stability and coordination between its policymakers, businesses and institutions; the involvement of its top universities; and sustained investment. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, says London hasn't entirely cottoned on. The city symbolised by the worker bee has done well, but could have done even more with extra money and power from the Treasury. 'The learning for Whitehall is, if you want productivity growth, and growth more broadly, you have to let go and trust places. And you have to invest. Because you can't get it without investment. '[But] there is a bias against cities outside London and the south, and as long as this remains, the country will not achieve its full potential.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'I compare Manchester [today] with the city I came back to after uni, and the one I had to leave to get on in life. It's been a major shift. The momentum is there now, and it's what you do with that next.' In truth the Manchester revival has deep roots. The timeline before Burnham's arrival as mayor in 2017 is well known: the 1996 IRA bomb as catalyst for city centre regeneration; the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the opening of Salford Media City, the Lowry, Bridgewater Hall and the expansion of the Metrolink. Led by the city council's former chief executive, Howard Bernstein, and leader, Richard Leese, their 'Manchester family' approach to coordinating investment proves Reeves's theory that public money can 'crowd in' the private sector : Manchester has ranked top outside London for foreign direct investment projects for three of the past five years. However, the transformation isn't all plain sailing. House prices and rents are rocketing, crowding out families from Manchester's poorer suburbs. For those who, like me, grew up around these parts, the skyscraper-sprouting skyline is a source of both pride, but also nagging worry. Could the pace of change sweep away something special, in a city used to doing things differently? And are the proceeds of growth lining Mancunian pockets, or flowing out of the Irwell to an offshore bank account? Burnham is alive to the danger. 'I use the phrase that, the kids can see the skyscrapers from their bedroom window but they currently don't see a path to the modern Greater Manchester economy. The next phase is about making that path.' Still, the addition of glass-fronted flats and office blocks among the converted Victorian mills has helped Manchester to create more jobs at a faster pace than the UK average. They reflect Labour's hopes for Britain more broadly: that a fairer distribution of growth, in theory, will become easier if there is some growth in the first place. Reeves could do with a few more Mancunian economic miracles. The national economy will not come unstuck without Britain's biggest regional cities reaching their full productive potential. In her first conference speech as chancellor last year, along the M62 in Liverpool, Reeves promised a Labour government would mean 'shovels in the ground. Cranes in the sky. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving.' To the next critic who asks when exactly that will come about, a Manchester reference may help.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Police seize £180k of Andrew Tate's Aston Martin supercar deposit
A total of £180,000 has been seized by Devon and Cornwall Police from Andrew Tate over a deposit he placed on an Aston Martin Magistrates' Court heard on Thursday the controversial British-American influencer paid the deposit for a special-edition Valhalla vehicle in 2021. The cash came from tax evasion and money laundering, the force said, which obtained account freezing and forfeiture orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Tate and his brother Tristan did not oppose the sum can be added to the £2.7m of funds seized from the brothers by the force in December 2024 after the same court ruled they failed to pay tax on £21m of revenue from online businesses. Some of the revenue in that case was directly linked by detectives to allegations of human trafficking that the brothers face in Romania. Sarah Clarke KC, on behalf of Devon and Cornwall Police, told the judge on Thursday that the funds used to pay the supercar deposit were the proceeds of tax and VAT evasion and money said funds deposited with Aston Martin originally came from a Coinbase cryptocurrency account, which had held multiple cryptocurrencies purchased with funds derived from the Tate brothers' business tax or VAT had been paid on the funds, she added. Det Supt Jon Bancroft, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "This latest judgement follows on from our applications made against the Tate brothers which resulted in a successful ruling in December 2024 and the forfeiture of nearly £2.7m of criminal funds."From the outset we aimed to demonstrate that Andrew and Tristan Tate evaded their tax obligations and laundered money. We succeeded in doing exactly that and we have succeeded again this week."People in Devon and Cornwall will benefit from the money seized and it will be reinvested to help prevent crime, aid victims and vulnerable people, and to boost good causes."He added the outcome showed how the police would continue to "relentlessly pursue all criminal funds without fear or favour".
