June Parish Council Meeting

The next Davidstow Parish Council meeting will take place “virtually” at 19:00 on Monday June 1st via a Zoom Conference call. More details on the Parish Council web site:

https://www.davidstowparishcouncil.org.uk/council-meetings.html?month=06&year=2020&submit=Go#item-1306186

There doesn’t seem to be an agenda available just yet however.

P.S. A trip to the village noticeboard revealed the agenda for Monday’s meeting:

It’s to discuss the planning application to construct “a solar farm and… a battery storage facility and underground electricity connection to Saputo Dairy UK”

Davidstow.info on BBC Radio Cornwall

I saw this “Tweet” from BBC Radio Cornwall’s Laurence Reed yesterday:

Since I’d already been writing to my MP about the probable problems of policing the new Covid-19 lockdown exercise guidance revealed by Boris Johnson over the weekend, the thought of asking Shaun Sawyer a question or two was irresistible! I duly dialled the listed number and was told to expect a call back once Shaun Sawyer was on air later in the afternoon.

Sure enough a couple of hours later I was listening to what Shaun had to say when my mobile phone rang. Now listening via my phone I heard Laurence frighten Shaun off by asking him about his worst ever date! Not long after that Laurence said my name. You can hear what happened after that by fast forwarding the following recording on BBC Sounds to 1:53:45

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08brmvq

The recording will be available for another 29 days, and during that time I’ll endeavour to post a more complete transcript below. For the moment here’s an extract to give you a flavour:

Jim – I was hoping to speak to our Chief Constable, but he’s gone… Can I make my point?

Laurence – Please do.

Jim – Lots of other people have made all sorts of other points that I was endeavouring to get across to our Chief Constable, but I’ll just quote one from Twitter, not written by me. He was “tweeting” to Shaun, saying “What do you make of the ill thought out, poor legislation made in haste by our Government?”. So my question would have been “Has the Government consulted either the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall or indeed the Chief Constable’s organisation before implementing these hasty, ill thought out measures that all of us in Devon and Cornwall are having to put up with?”

He’s gone, so I can’t ask him!

Here is the output of James Annan’s Covid-19 epidemic model, comparing what actually happened with what would have happened if the UK lockdown had been imposed one week earlier:

To summarise, that’s 11,000 simulated deaths if lockdown had taken place on March 16th, instead of around 43,000 actual deaths following lockdown on March 23rd.

Watch this space!

Covid-19 Lockdown “Lifted” in Cornwall

As the editor of Davidstow.info on Monday May 11th I wrote to Scott Mann, the Member of Parliament for North Cornwall, to express this view:

How on Earth does HM Government expect Devon and Cornwall Police to enforce the rules that from Wednesday “Driving from London to surf” in North Cornwall is OK but then “staying in a tent, B&B, hotel or second home” is punishable by an increased fine?

What if somebody drives down from up country in a traditional VW “surf bus” for example, and kips in the back for a few nights?

Scott Mann’s Parliamentary Assistant replied on his behalf as follows:

It would not be permissible for someone to travel down in a camper and stay the night.

In any case, the Government is largely relying on the public’s common sense – the regulations are there to provide some clarity. It is not, to my mind or yours I imagine, a good idea for people to travel across the UK and risk spreading this disease! Hopefully the public can deploy sufficient common sense for it not to be too great an issue.

The police are doing a brilliant job of enforcing these restrictions, and from following their social media I can see they have taken numerous actions to prevent people from breaking the regulations. Whilst they cannot stop everybody, they can certainly act as a disincentive.

I hope this helps.

Subsequently the Davidstow.info Twitter feed expressed this sentiment yesterday morning:

Yesterday we also reported the following:

Q.E.D. Scott and Selaine?

What’s up with Crowdy Reservoir water level?

On my habitual Covid-19 lockdown permitted cycle ride across Davidstow Moor earlier today I glanced in the direction of Roughtor and noticed something strange. I cycled across the moor, parked my bike by the fence, hopped over the stile and walked to the edge of Crowdy reservoir.

Here is what I discovered:

The part of Crowdy Marsh I crossed wasn’t marshy. What’s more the water level in the reservoir seemed very low for the time of year, particularly given the winter we’ve just experienced!

After I returned home the South West Lakes Trust web site seemed to confirm my suspicions:

What’s up with Crowdy Reservoir’s anomalously low water level?

Saputo Solar Farm and Battery Storage Planning Application

A lot has happened since Dairy Crest requested a screening opinion regarding a potential solar farm next to their Davidstow “cheese factory” back in September 2018. Not least of which is that Dairy Crest have been taken over by the Canadian company Saputo.

At long last Saputo have formally applied for planning permission to install a “a solar farm and associated infrastructure, including a battery storage facility and underground electricity connection to Saputo Dairy UK” on land South West of Saputo Dairy UK (SDUK), Davidstow, Camelford, Cornwall:

The map reveals that only one of the two areas shown in the original EIA request is part of this application. Consequently the stated peak power from the proposed solar PV installation is 4.2MW. According to the project’s planning statement:

Lightsource BP and Saputo Dairy UK (SDUK) have entered into a Power Purchase Agreement, which forms a contract of the sale of electricity from an energy generating asset (Solar Farm/solar PV installation) owned by the asset manager (Lightsource BP) to the consumer (SDUK) at a fixed price. This provides SDUK with both immediate savings on their electricity bill and price certainty over the operational life of the solar PV installation.

Should you wish to comment on the planning application the “Neighbour Consultation Expiry Date” is Thursday 21st May 2020.