Runways running on...

Molehill Green pic: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/


PRESS RELEASE

ISSUED BY STOP STANSTED EXPANSION 31 March 2009
MOUNTAIN SAVES MOLEHILL?

BAA’s debt mountain seems likely to prevent it from obtaining the compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) it would need to allow a new runway to be built at Stansted. As a consequence, Molehill Green, the picturesque Essex village threatened with extinction by the proposed new runway now seems far less likely to be buried under concrete.

This latest blow for BAA was identified in an Appendix to last week’s Competition Commission report which ordered the airport operator to sell Stansted Airport but gave it up to two years to do so, raising the possibility that BAA might press ahead with its second runway application in the hope of obtaining approval and achieving a higher selling price.

Legally, however, CPOs can only be granted if a developer can demonstrate that he has sufficient financial resources to implement the project within a reasonable timescale. It seems very unlikely that BAA could demonstrate this because its latest financial accounts show debts of £18.1 billion and negative equity of £1.7 billion as at 31 December 2008.

In the light of the new information, Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has written to the Secretaries of State for Transport and Communities and to the Chief Executive of BAA calling for the proposed Public Inquiry to be abandoned.

SSE Campaign Director Carol Barbone commented: “Without CPO powers, plans for a second Stansted runway are dead in the water. The list of obstacles just gets longer and longer. It’s time for BAA to do a reality check.”

Ms Barbone added: “We recognise of course that a new owner could be in a stronger financial position but a change in ownership would give rise to all sorts of other issues. Either way, the current plans are going nowhere and both BAA and the Government must realise that by now.”

A copy of SSE’s letter of 26 March to the Secretaries of State is available online at: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/second_runway_public_inquiry.html.


The Competition Commission’s final Market Inquiry report into BAA (including Appendix 10.6 on the interaction of Stansted divestiture and the second runway planning inquiry) is available online at: http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2009/545baa.htm.

cbarbone@mxc.co.uk

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/

Pictures of listed buildings threatened:

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/listed_buildings.html

Other threatened buildings:

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/photos.html

Previous posts linked to this:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-mad-mad-mad-mad-world.html



Worrying news also from here:

http://hazel-abearoflittlebrain.blogspot.com/2009/03/newcastle-literary-and-philosophical.html


I have posted before about this magnificent institution:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/interlude-lit-and-phil-newcastle-upon.html


and the sad news about what has happened to the Stephenson Trust:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/derailed.html


Both the Lit and Phil and the Mining Institute are wonderful historic buildings and any threat to their continuing existence, no matter how glitzy the bauble offered in the short term, should be strongly resisted.

Yes we are in desperate need of funds but selling our souls to corporate external funding is not the way to do it...

Apologies for the pauses in blogging, but my mind and fingers have been busy on weighty matters connected with trying to save historic buildings, and no time for much else over the past few days. I think knackered is the technical term.





What I need is a few sessions of R and R and TLC at Nether Cottage:



http://nethercottage.net/

Holistic therapies in a historic building. Wonderful!

Special offer also:
Special offer for March & April:
Recommend a friend: if your friend books and pays for a treatment then you can claim a treatment for yourself to the equivalent value absolutely FREE!

Best of luck Jayne, lovely new website. Great pics!

http://www.colinrose.net/


Nem
HERITAGE FORUM:
http://www.joylandbooks.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
Signing up is easy, do post news and views!

In appreciation: the 'Lit and Phil', Newcastle upon Tyne

UPDATE: this has just been sent to me, and hey, there's a financial reward: http://esciencenews.com/sources/the.guardian.science/2009/01/31/royal.society.hunts.britains.oldest.working.lightbulb

I intend to be back later today with a longer blog of my own; meanwhile I commend Hazel's 'Bear' blog (see right column, for that and other linked blogs) and draw to the attention of readers that without people like Hazel giving freely of her time Newcastle's magnificent Lit and Phil would not be the place it is today.

http://www.litandphil.org.uk/html_pages/LP_history.html

Picture gallery:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/image_galleries/lit_and_phil_gallery.shtml?1

"The expansion of such... industrial developments on Tyneside were only made possible by the investment and foresight of some of the greatest industrial pioneers the world has ever seen like George Stephenson, William Armstrong, Charles Parsons and Joseph Swan who were all Tynesiders by birth or adoption.

Some of these great industrial figures were great friends and would often meet to discuss their industrial and technological developments at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. One of the greatest local institutions of Victorian Britain the `Lit and Phil' still exists today as a private library with a very famous lecture hall. It was here at the Lit and Phil that Joseph Swan first demonstrated his electric light bulb and where George Stephenson first showed off the Miner's safety lamp which made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines thus ensuring that the industrial revolution on Tyneside would continue uninterrupted."

More here about Joseph Swan:

http://www.northeastengland.talktalk.net/Pioneers.htm

"THE MAN WHO PERFECTED ELECTRIC LIGHTING

Another great industrial pioneer of Tyneside was Joseph Wilson Swan who was born in Sunderland on October 31st 1828 and began his career as an apprentice to a local chemist. In 1862 Swan moved to Gateshead and as a member of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society he had a strong desire to research and experiment in the field of chemistry.

Some of Swan's earliest developments were in the field of photography where he perfected the carbon process of photographic printing and developed the rapid photographic plate. He also patented the first Bromide paper in 1879. His photographic developments were of immense importance as they turned photography into a practical pastime and greatly spurred on its popularity.

Swan is however better known for his development of the incandescent filament electric lamp. This was the first practically usable electric light bulb and the first demonstration of this source of electric light was performed by Swan at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne on February 3rd 1879.

Swan's demonstration proved to be a success and at Benwell in the western suburbs of Newcastle he established the world's first electric light bulb factory. Later Swan went on to light up Mosley Street in Newcastle City Centre which became the first street in the world to be lit by electric light. By 1881Swan's light bulbs had arrived in London where 1,200 of them were used in the lighting the Savoy Theatre in front of an astonished audience. From the `Darkness' of the north, came light for London..."

Benwell - place of my birth.

A commemorative plaque exists in Gateshead at his former home:

I wonder what he would think about Swan House, named after him? The building where he invented his bulb is pictured here also:
http://www.timmonet.co.uk/html/body_swan_house.htm

and here it is:
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention/technology/1820-1880/IC.028/

http://www.nndb.com/people/336/000098042/


Quote/fact: Swan's house at 99 Kells Lane, Underhill, Gateshead, was the first private residence to be lit by electric light. Mosley Street in Newcastle is believed to have become the first public road in the world to be lit by electric light bulbs at night in 1880. By coincidence, Mosley Street was the first in the world to be lit by gas in 1818.

Which brings us back to Saturday's blog.

Back soon.

Nem

PS Welcome Mrs Miggins as an official 'Follower' - here's a pic (A Deranged Woman?) and following on from yesterday's Creative Commons stuff, I like the bit in the box under..
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Mrs_miggins.jpg

N
Also - many thanks to one of the Republic's citizens for sending this script with Mrs M in all her lunacy:
http://www.gazmac.freeserve.co.uk/blackadder_3-6_script.htm
Ah me. They rarely write 'em like that any longer.
Lovely. I'll do you a nice packed lunch.

N