The Labour party’s policy document, Getting Britain Moving – Labour’s plan to fix Britain’s railways, says much about improving the experience of today’s passengers – ‘unified and simplified governance structure that places passengers at the heart of the goal, objectives and incentives for the railway’; and its easy route to renationalisation – ‘to bring train… Continue reading
Browsing Category Environment
How the air outside our homes will be the source of action on climate
I recently attended the launch of a new air source heat pump, by Swedish company Aira. Heat pumps, widely, adopted, would make a significant contribution to reducing carbon emissions from UK homes. Look around any residential area, and what are the images that come to mind to define progress in reducing carbon emissions? Expensive electric… Continue reading →
Four reasons not to tunnel under the Stonehenge world heritage site
I’ve followed the campaign to overturn the decision to drive a tunnel and dual carriageway through the World Heritage Site at Stonehenge for the past few years. This year and last I’ve taken a more active role, handing out leaflets outside the British Museum, and helping with Stonehenge Alliance’s online media campaign. Unlike more direct… Continue reading →
Global warming – a 1989 view. Do we get it yet?
In June 1989 I wrote an article published in the Radio Times, entitled “Warming to the Problem”. It was based on an interview with the producers of a BBC2 documentary, one of the earliest (it was possibly even the first) on what was then referred to as the greenhouse effect. The introduction read: Our planet faces… Continue reading →
Looking at Stonehenge road scheme with future generations in mind
In July (2023) the UK government gave its consent to a £1.7 bn scheme to dual the A303 across the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS), with twin-bore tunnels, their portals well within the boundaries of the UNESCO-designated site. * * * * In 2020 a committee in Wales published detailed proposals for addressing traffic congestion, as an… Continue reading →
Brits love buses, but you’ll wait forever for one on the A303
Whose £2.5 billion tunnel and dual carriageway past Stonehenge is the A303 anyway? A public road (no tolls), funded by the public. Will it have that other ‘public’ thing? Public transport? After all, the A303 ‘improvements’ are designed to make life easier for motorists, all motorists. Car drivers, lorry and van drivers, even military vehicles –… Continue reading →