Apparently out of the blue, a company called PhotoVolt Development Partners (PVDP) has proposed a 1,400 hectare “Botley West Solar Farm” in Oxfordshire, covering three separate sites. This ambitious proposal, which claims to be able to generate enough electricity to power 330,000 homes (roughly the number in Oxfordshire, existing and planned) raises some interesting issues. At a time of climate […]
A huge failure of the imagination
It’s been said many times before, but there is something bizarrely perverse about persisting in the construction of new major roads in a country like ours with limited space and fiercely competing demands on land use. Over 50 years ago, the American writer Wendell Berry summed up the impact of road-building, when he described the differences between a path and […]
HS2 needs to be paused for an independent review
As the Government’s Autmn Statement comes nearer, HS2 fans and opponents are watching closely to see what the Government does. Will it let the truncated but still eye-wateringly expensive remains continue as now? Will further surgery remove bits, or even the whole lot north of Birimingham? Will it scrap the lot, leaving a swathe of destruction and part-completed civil engineering […]