Seismic survey is tip of the iceberg

JUST had my copy of the Tivyside this week only to see that the seismic survey off the coast was called off at the 11th hour (‘Outrageous’ sea survey abandoned, June 4).

Perhaps I’m cynical, but I feel – and I doubt that anyone with a broad idea of how these companies work would agree – this is merely a “Trojan horse” for the dumping of the nuclear waste etc that was mentioned a few weeks ago.

It was not reported in many places and thus not many then saw or heard about it and strangely disappeared in the “fog” of all the other news.

This will come to pass again after this “Trojan horse” survey.

They won’t stop simply because Westminster want to dump the nuclear waste, so Wales and the West Coast is about as far as you can get from Westminster!

So hopefully someone will start asking questions in your paper to wake people up to the fact that this skulduggery, smoke and mirrors and such is merely to lull us into a false sense of security that “they have now stopped”.

Richard Sayce

via email

Thank you to all my readers

I WISH publicly to thank all the Tivyside readers who have contacted me to express disappointment that my column has ceased and to say how much they enjoyed it over the years.

I really am quite overwhelmed.

The decision was not taken lightly but was inevitable in the circumstances.

JB Evans

Cardigan

Energy remains key to success

I SEE there is a dispute over Germany’s energy production. Readers should go to energy-charts.de for the facts.

At the warmest time of the year, June, [far more electricity needed in winter] Germany produces up to 12,000 megawatts of electricity from soft, filthy brown coal, or lignite, and up to 5,800MW from hard black coal, often totalling almost 18,000MW from coal whilst the UK frequently produces no electricity from coal.

According to the German website, offshore wind only produces from 200MW, when the wind drops, to 3,000MW maximum.

Onshore wind produces from nil to 50MW, and is very erratic.

German industry cannot function without a guaranteed, constant, very large supply of electricity because they manufacture hundreds of thousands of cars, plus industrial machinery, plus farm machinery and tractors to supply the whole world, whilst we produce very little from British-owned companies.

Anyone who thinks that thousands of German factories can operate using solar and wind energy must be living in cloud-cuckoo land.

In the 75 years following D-Day and the defeat of Germany a year later, the nation that lost the war...has won the peace...hands down! And they have done it with mainly fossil fuel energy to power their factories...not trivial, unreliable renewables.

That is the world of reality.

L J Jenkins

Gwbert

Get active in the workplace

THE new guidance from The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) suggesting that every workplace promote physical activity couldn’t have come sooner.

We work with businesses around the UK, encouraging walking to, from and during the working day.

We see staff reap huge benefits from being more physically active – both to their physical and mental health. Employers in turn witness higher productivity levels and reduced absenteeism.

NICE’s recommendation that parents be encouraged to walk or cycle children to school is also vital if we want to reduce childhood obesity and cut pollution outside school gates.

We would urge all local authorities to act on this advice and make our streets safer and more attractive to encourage more parents to walk with their children to school.

Stephen Edwards

Director of Policy and Communications

Living Streets