Save the Conwy

RWE are planning to install a hydro scheme on the River Conwy near Penmachno. The scheme involves damming the river and installing a massive pipeline to the turbines. The area is a SSSI. The construction will cause massive damage and disruption especially during the construction phase. And permanently change the ecosystems. All this for seemingly minimal benefit.

Give this petition a sign. It is our last chance at objecting this.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-damming-of-the-river-conwy?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1446138158

Thanks!

Shakes fist at those safe, low-carbon energy schemes.

Signed.

Sorry, but not being a local I feel I’m rather too uninformed to have a strong opinion on this. Overall, I feel these schemes are actually rather sensible and, in many cases, have been instigated by the local community. I do think that folk taking responsibility for generating their own power, locally, is to be encouraged.

There’s a scheme proposed for eh River Pattack (which is a LOT nearer me) and while I have some reservations about more construction in a wilderness environment, again I think this needs to be weighed up against the undoubted positives.

Overall, I feel these schemes are actually rather sensible and, in many cases, have been instigated by the local community

1. See the reference from above.
2. While you may be correct in that the locals have voted in favour, a large proportion of those locals will not be indigenous and will move on when it takes their fancy.
3. don’t ask Wales for support when things are not going well in Scotland.

+ves – possibly make a tiny difference to improving the environment of the world, which would be dwarfed by a small change in policy in the US or China

-ves – definitely make a significant difference to the worsening the local environment

Struggling to balance my scales here – I do wonder about some things which are done in the name of the environment. I find it hard to believe people would support the destruction of Conwy Falls and the Fairy Glen because it’s good for the environment.

You’re right. We should, of course, do nothing to improve the overall environment because what we do doesn’t really matter.

* turns up the heating *
* opens the windows *

Well done. It’s a late entry but you just won this months award for the most bizarre response on STW.

😯

Here’s the proposal

http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/2256320/rwe-innogy/sites/hydroelectric-power-station/united-kingdom/sites-in-development/conwy-falls/

The scheme wouldn’t be running in the driest 35% of the year on average, and for over half the time during the summer months. The highest abstraction would be during winter months, when river flows are highest, and there is no upstream fish migration. At the Conwy Falls and Fairy Glen the flows would be reduced by no more than about 47%, and water levels at Conwy Falls and Fairy Glen are predicted to be reduced by no more than about 15%. Effects will be less than this for the rest of the year.

Well done. It’s a late entry but you just won this months award for the most bizarre response on STW.

Yet you consider it more bizarre than your opening gambit of:

Sorry, but not being a local I feel I’m rather too uninformed to have a strong opinion on this

Then go on to opine about something you’ve admitted to being uninformed about.
Bizarre. 😕

Scotland is littered with hydro schemes – from ‘old’ run of river such as those on middle Clyde and the massive ‘power from the glens’ schemes in the ’60s, to the last decade of new hydro, using highland burns and steep, smaller schemes.

The immediate construction effects are obvious. Within a couple of years they fade, within 5 you can barely tell. The ongoing impact is in lower flows, but again these are well balanced.

Personally, I think hydro has a massive part to play in our energy supply, and I would rather have it than nuclear.

Having said that, there is a challenge for companies to be held to account on making the schemes appropriate and sustainable – not just most profit.

Odd comment about Scotland….

Well if there is an environmental impact to keeping your windows shut and your heating turned down, then you should certainly take that into account when considering the scale of the environmental benefit of doing so.

I’m certainly not at all against hydro – lots of places very suitable for it, just that this really isn’t one of them.

STWLAN, DINORWIG,DOLGAROG,TRAWSFYNYDD, WYLFA,and then there are all the Elan valley dams, and all the flooded valleys in wales,people protested but they still got built because us the consumer wanted work, and energy along with water in the taps.

Sign the petition if you dont want progres ,work for locals, and want to feel as if youve done something pointless.

STWLAN, DINORWIG,DOLGAROG,TRAWSFYNYDD, WYLFA,and then there are all the Elan valley dams, and all the flooded valleys in wales,people protested but they still got built because us the (the English) consumer wanted work (and to destroy Welsh communities without giving it a second thought), and energy along with water in the taps.

EDIT: Bollix, bring it in. Let Wales supply water to the English, let Wales supply energy to the English and when independance comes we’ll let you work out how much you want to pay for it.

xenophobic thread of the week 🙂

do you think the hinkley point consultation will go with the “peter and jane” graphics ? 😯

lots of places very suitable for it, just that this really isn’t one of them

Please share your social, economic, hydroligical, geographical, geological electrical, logistical, ecological, environmental engineering expertise with the thousands of people who spend alot of time looking for checking and designing modelling building and operating and monitoring these things to the best of their ability so that they have as little effect as possible.

All these suitable places… they wouldn’t be in someone elses back yard would they by any chance?

xenophobic thread of the week

Let me guess, you’re not from North Wales (or indeed any part of Wales), are you?

Im welsh and from North Wales.

Im welsh and from North Wales.

I’m embarrassed for you. Bring on more Tryweryns.

Swallow Falls is a name coined by early tourists for the Rhaeadr Ewynnol (English: Foaming Waterfall), a multiple waterfall system in Wales, located on the Afon Llugwy near Betws-y-Coed, in Conwy county borough. It is visited by tens of thousands of tourists annually.

It is thought that the English name arose from a mis-hearing of the Welsh word ewynnol (foaming) as the similar-sounding y wennol (swallow).[1]
In 1913 the second Lord Ancaster, the landowner, gave the Swallow Falls to the local council, who decided to charge for visiting it in order to pay off some of the £15,000 debt incurred through the installation of water and electricity supplies to the village. Once the debt was cleared the parish retained the fee, resulting in Betws-y-coed having the lowest rates in the country. This ended after Local Government re-organisation in 1974

I couldn’t really care what planning consultants come up with to justify stuff. I care about the environment and wonderful places, something those people appear to have little interest in. This will undeniably have a significant effect, otherwise it would be totally pointless.

All these suitable places… they wouldn’t be in someone elses back yard would they by any chance?

This is in somebody else’s backyard – I’d welcome hydro being built here. We did have Britain’s first commercial hydro power station here, though I don’t think it has sufficient head to be the best place for a new installation.

I couldn’t really care what planning consultants come up with to justify stuff. I care about the environment and wonderful places, something those people appear to have little interest in.

So what if they are actually right? It might surprise you that people don’t spend their days just making shit up.

I’ve seen plenty of output from planning consultants, and actually that would be a good job description.

Here is a ruined river and ecosystem, that has a run of river hydro scheme across this section of river.

plus one for hydro and the locals voted yes

Is there a petition in favour of this development?

Signed.

I’m not normally anti-renewables, but in this case the amount of power generated vs damage caused seems to make little sense

Not sure how much influence the petition will have. If you are for or against it then go to the local authority website and comment on the plans. Should be far more effective.

http://planning.snowdonia-npa.gov.uk/swiftlg_snpa/apas/run/wphappcriteria.display and search for application reference: NP4/26/323

I don’t think the petition will have any affect on this one – at the end of the day the only real group against it are a few kayakers as the effect on local tourism will be negligible, which is pretty much the main industry up there. These small schemes are getting better now and the impact on the local environment is much lower than the old days. I’d say the owner of the scheme should be forced to buy out the Conwy falls cafe as part of the deal, and anyone else directly affected financially and see if the numbers still stack up then.

I think it has the majority of local support though, and that to me should be the end of it.