Friendly heat

An environmentally-friendly heating scheme at a Northumberland beauty spot is set to be extended.

The Kielder Biomass District Heating project was established four years ago at a cost of £640,000 and is fired by wood chips sourced from the nearby forest.

Now Tynedale Council is set to give the green light to a £42,000 investment that would extend and improve the scheme.

At the moment the system provides heat to six homes, five workshop units, Kielder First School, Kielder Youth Hostel and Kielder Visitor Centre.

Head of economic regeneration at the council Cameron Scott said extending the scheme would provide significant benefits.

He said: "One of the main purposes of the project was to act as a major demonstration project. To this end it has been extremely successful.

Mr Scott added that the extension to the system would enable the future implementation of a £137,000 improvement scheme, that would create a new flagship energy efficient housing scheme.

The system is owned by the council and operated by the Forestry Commission.

Tynedale Council cabinet is expected to agree to the investment at a meeting later today.

We could bear the brunt

RURAL campaigners have warned parts of the North East are likely to bear the brunt of the Government's wind ambitions if plans to build a wind turbine a day for the next 12 years get the go ahead.

The region is believed to be one of the most attractive for wind developers, especially the relatively sparsely populated parts of Northumberland.

Now concerns have been raised that the Government is heading for a new wind farm push without giving real consideration to the impact they will have on thousands of businesses and households.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has called for the Government to think again before "sacrificing a way of life" in pursuit of energy targets which some say will not be met.

And they have warned more companies will be tempted to offer the final rewards being pushed by Scottish Power Renewables.

Shadow business secretary and the Conservative's Tyneside spokesman Alan Duncan called on the Government to listen to the mounting opposition to onshore He said: "I don't think energy companies should be touting themselves around like this.

"It's clear that the biggest potential for UK wind is offshore. Putting up turbines in onshore communities must have local consent.

"I think people are keen to go green, but they must have a say in how they choose to do so".

Nic Best, CPRE's North East policy officer, has called for a move towards legal recognition of quality of life standards as the Government prepares to unveil its renewable energy plans.

He said: "It's obvious we are going to be a very attractive target for developers, and the offers of cash are going to keep on coming.

"What the region needs now more than ever is a proper coherent strategy setting out what is and is not acceptable.

"We tried in the Regional Spatial Strategy to have planners recognise the importance of preserving areas of outstanding beauty, but that didn't happen.

"As we head towards a new single strategy we hope we can get a quality of life condition built into that."

By Ben Guy

The Journal

26 June 2008