Electricity at risk from fly-tippers

Fly-tipping at electricity substation
The Shoreham Herald reports:

The UK Power Networks site, off the A283 Steyning bypass, has been targeted, along with more than 150 substations which deliver essential power supplies in the south east, London and the east of England.

The incidents can put power supplies at risk by delaying access to vital equipment and endanger staff visiting the sites to carry out inspections, maintenance or repairs.

A piano, builders’ rubble, guttering and downpipes have all been found outside the Steyning substation.

Fly-tipping is a criminal offence under the Environmental Protection Act, carrying significant fines and even prison sentences in more serious cases.

The CPRE parse Boles


It seems that the Campaign to Protect Rural England does not share Nick Herbert’s benign interpretation of what the minister said. The West Sussex County Times reports:

A ‘huge solar farm’ could be built in the South Downs if national parks were made to promote economic growth, warned the Sussex-Horsham district chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The chair, Dr Roger Smith, said: “Even under the present regulations, the South Downs is subject to the threat of a huge solar farm development.

“This is the kind of development that could be pushed through if National Parks were given a duty to promote economic growth.”

Parsing the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and South Downs
Nick Herbert has told the West Sussex County Times :

We are not going to see house building all over the South Downs National Park, and the Minister [Nick Boles] did not say that there should be a relaxation of planning controls in parks, as press reports implied. He said that the parks should not become museums, and I agree with him about that.

I also agree with what the minister said about the need to express localism more fully in parks. I have always warned about the democratic deficit in national parks, which was reflected in the controversy over the South Downs National Park’s decision over to allow a travellers site at Crossbush.

It was the backbench MP who moved the debate [Simon Hart] who suggested that the duty to conserve parks should no longer be given primacy over the duty to secure economic well-being. The minister did not endorse this view, and it is not Government policy.