Alison Halford Blog update

Link Alison Halford County Capers

Government liabilities 6.5 Trillion?

The Conservatives do not enthuse me either.

Link 6.5 Trillion

Future energy requirements for myself, Penyffordd and the UK

Here's my 400ah forklift truck battery. It's in the back of the car. It weighs 300kg. We are going to try and get it out the car tomorrow. A forklift truck put it in

Solar cells that produce electricity bought on Ebay from USA

Sharps. The dark panels along the side and up the front are Solar PV panels that cost a fortune to us. Many years to payback original investment to install domestically at present.

Sharps' solar panels at their factory at Llay.

This is going to be a bit long. On the way back from the carboot I'd thought we would have a mooch around Llay Industrial Estate. Sharps have a large facility there producing solar panels. I know how to treat a girl.

Perhaps I should start from the beginning. UK Plc is in trouble over future cheap energy. The proof of this can be seen by the closing of the Angelsey Aluminium works with a large loss of jobs.
We have umm'd and ahh'd over the last 15 years whilst our reserves have been depleted and we are starting to have to rely on the like of dodgy Russia for gas supplies.

The current issue over returning the Lockerbie bomber to Libya for oil shames us in front of the world. Desparate measures for desparate times.

No proper strategy for future energy has been agreed and set into motion. The idea that wind mills will keep us all warm with loads of cheap energy is moonshine. The current push for thousands of windmills to litter our hills and oceans is misconceived. Every windmill has to be backed up by one of those "filthy" oil / coal powered electricity generators.

I used to be pro Nucleur with the proviso that we had a very strong independent body to oversee the industry but the clean up costs are ridiculous. Originally the proletariat were fed the line that nucleur power would produce free electricity............

So we are up the creek without a paddle having to rely on others. Is this how the EU wants the UK?

So bearing the above in mind I have started to reduce our energy requirements from the grid. I have been making investments on Ebay and at the car boot sales.
1. Solar cells to make solar panels. (Ebay USA) This will be an ongoing investment.
2. Kingspan for wall and roof super insulation bought on Ebay as seconds.
3. A fork lift battery 400 Ah from Ebay
4. Someone gave me a wood burner which needs a heat exchanger added to the flue.
5. A petrol chainsaw purchased at the Chirk Carboot sale. Currently I am wading through health and safety with regards chainsaws on the HSE site.


Lisa is a little perturbed at my dilution of savings. I think however the current quantiative easing (government printing money for free) will have a large dilution on our savings as a country.

Those that saved prudently are going to have to pay for the madness of our banks for many years ahead.

To be continued.................

Link
Renewable Energy UK
Walesonline

Rocking at The Milly

Just come past the Red Lion, three cars out front. Then past The Millstone the balcony is packed, there is a bouncy castle for children. In the carpark a girl dance troupe are practising.
The last three lease holders struggled with the pub all admitting defeat after trying to move the pub upmarket. The owners Punch Taverns must be well pleased as will be the current lease holders.

Another day another carboot sale

This time Farndon. This tremendous wood carving is on the road between Rossett and Holt.

To Chirk Carboot Sale

Possibly the largest carboot sale within a 100 miles. Most human life is here. There must be over 500 stalls here on occasion. Perhaps 1500 people visiting the carboots. By 8.00am it's getting busy on a sunny day.

There are the traders, meat, fruit and veg, coffee and hamburger stands. car parts, keys cut, plant and flower sellers, cycles, golf clubs, everything for mobile phones, house clearers, you can even get a new tyre put on your car. Today I saw someone having their fortune told with cards. Cars and caravans also for sale.

All cheaper than shops or supermarkets.

The people, Welsh, English, Poles, Romanians, German, French, Pakistani, Africans. As well as the traders there are people deciding to loose all that rubbish they have built up, people emigrating, downsizing. Everyone knows the phrase "how much?"

Up the top end the new carboot sellers arrive. If you have anthing of interest your stall will be mobbed before you get your stuff out. They descend like a plague of locusts. Since we don't do carboots ourselves this is not an issue. It's best if there are at least two of you.

Amongst the carboots and stalls the predators roam amongst the crowds methodically going up and down each row eyes scanning the ground sheets and tables subconciously dodging the people, prams, children, dogs on leads and the sheep muck underfoot. It's hard work and can take up to three hours to get around.
Specialists in jewellery, antiques, books, tools and plant equipment, clothes. Ready to pick up items for little money a pound, five or ten that will go for 25, 50 or a 100 elsewhere. Knowledge that has been picked up for years through trial and error the key to success.

Best times to go. May to September.
It's open most of the year but retires to the top field in the Winter.
Best weather to go. Sunny.
Best weather not to go. Rain, wind and cold.

If you are selling. £8 pound a stall at the time of writing, big stalls pay more.
You need a table or polythene sheet ( blue tarpaulin). If you want to be a pro have a spare sheet to throw over everything if it starts raining. Try get a spot where your car shields you from any wind or sun. Sellers turn up the night before in caravans and motorhomes or after 6 am on the day.

If you are buying or just out for the day.
Look at the weather forecast the night before. We check Met Office Rain Radar before deciding to go on the morning. Appropriate footwear should be worn, women often turn up in white pumps and trainers, flipflops and mules.

The ladies also wear the most inappropriate of clothes, cleavage and builder's bums abound. Some women have triangular tattoo's near their coccyx, also some have put on thongs as well.

Do they do this to make you look when they bend over?

Lots of male crumpet for the ladies.
A voyeur's paradise.

Don't wash your hair the night before if we have not had rain for days it gets dusty. Rain means mud. Take pound coins, fivers and tenners. Twenty pound notes can be an issue.

The car boot sale is perfect for children's clothes and toys. Adult clothes, tools, plumbing bits, electrical bits, paint, household goods and cheap fresh food.

Good Points. Best carboot, loads of stalls and well run.

Bad points. Toilets dire, sometimes a 20 minute queue to leave site due to them not allowing you to take the nearest exit to the A483. I know a good way out but I'm not telling.
Good toilets to be had in the middle of Chirk.
Crime is just about non existent.

If you like watching people a fascinating place to go.

keywords: Chirk, car boot, carboot.

Self sufficiency

Click image to enlarge

This is my first go at peppers. They are about 4 inches long. Are they hot or just the same as standard peppers? Lisa says she will find out. It's a good idea to keep the label on........
Research on the pepper picture gallery suggest pepper type Anaheim (life sized) (HS: 25)
Which are not that hot. Habanero Mustard is hot with a HS rating of 23,000.

Links
Growing Peppers
Pepper Picture Gallery

Women want to get on their bikes

as well as Flintshire County Councillors.
Link The Daily Post

Penyffordd Guides in The Chronicle

Penyffordd Guides in today's Flintshire Chronicle with a photo of 2 guides who have done their cooking badge at Hawarden farm shop. They will be presented with their badges at the Hawarden Good Food Fete on 12/13 September 2009.

What not to do if you are a county councillor with ambitions

Link Walesonline. Long live the power of the Internet.
This is not a dig at Labour. All parties must have a few of these lurking around. Comments are at the bottom of the article. The article contains profanity with asterisks.
The Youtube video has been pulled.

Robbery at knife point in Penymynydd

Link The Leader

Flintshire County Councillors get on their bikes

in an effort to encourage Flintshire to use bicycles more. There's a row over whether to give the councillor cyclists 20p per mile. An Independent body is looking at remuneration for county councillors in Wales and this is one of the measures being looked at.

Since I daily traverse the dangerous A5104 I would like to issue a challenge to Flintshire County Councillors.
To show how dangerous cycling is in Flintshire on busy A and B roads I would like to propose the following.

Each Flintshire County Councillor will be taken to the top of Treuddyn at the beginning of rush hour and given the task of cycling from the top of Treuddyn on the A5104 down to Penyffordd railway station. On their way which is mostly down hill they are to mentally take note of how many times they have near misses with vehicles and how many times their presence on the road causes other vehicles to have potential head on's.

Also notice how hard motorists have in staying on their side of the white line due to the excess speeds they do. Some do it because they are on a racing line, others do it as they can't stay on their side of the road due to their speed. At times you will be doing less than 5 mph with vehicles flying past you at 50mph+. This will include 20 ton lorries coming from the quarries.

Whilst the push to make Wales fitter is admirable mixing cyclists with modern fast traffic in my opinion will lead to higher death rates. It will not be me however as I will not cycle on A roads.
Cycling needs to be kept away from fast road traffic and the public should be advised accordingly.

Postscript. In The Leader Friday 62 year old knocked off his bike at Rhydtalog. Slight injuries taken to hospital.
Quad erat demonstrandom.

Link The Leader

Ditch the car from the school run

As children across Wales prepare to return to school next week, Lee Waters, director of sustainable transport charity Sustrans Cymru, says it’s time to ditch the car from the school run.

Link Walesonline

Parents taking chidren to school are part of the speeding problem.

CBM Howie Williams making the difference

The Neighbourhood Forum went well with about 10 people present. Penyffordd Community Councillors are full of praise for CBM Howie Williams and so are community members.
Anti social behavior was discussed with ways of reducing it.
Including excellent work already carried out by Howie.

The hole in door gang

One of the guard dogs makes his own window.

A wet windy walk

Penyffordd Neighbourhood Forum

Wednesday 18.00 hrs at the Penyffordd British Legion.

Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom's Last Post

The Last Post

So, I have almost finished my career.

Thirty long years in the police, the last nine and a half here in North Wales, and at midnight tonight it will all be over.

I am completely institutionalised - I don't own my own mobile phone or Blackberry, I don't possess my own car, or even insurance (I'm named on my wife's).

I haven't been into a garage to buy a tyre or get a car serviced for a decade.

You may be wondering how I'm going to cope out there in the real world. I certainly am.

But before I hang up my boots for good I look at North Wales Police in mid-2009 with real pride in what we have achieved together over the last several years.

NWP is now one of the very best performing forces in England and Wales and we continue to improve.

Crime is way down, detections are way up, our roads are much safer and so indeed is our whole society - in fact the evidence shows North Wales now to be just about the very safest place to live in the whole of England and Wales.

And we are dramatically improving public satisfaction with our standard of service, aiming for real excellence there too in the near future.

But that's not all. Due to good planning aided by our outstanding Finance Dept we are OK financially, and despite a very uncertain economic future for the UK I am confident that we will be able to maintain police numbers for some time to come.

We have the best kit available anywhere, the envy of our colleagues in other forces (many of whom are now copying our lead - the very best form of flattery).

We are leading the service with mobile coputing and use of the internet, and our whole community policing programme is cutting edge. I could go on and on - many of you will recall just how true that threat is!

However, although I will resist the temptation to witter on endlessly, I simply must mention two more things which have made us so special.

Firstly is our successful attack on our local organised serious criminals - Gizzi and his ilk.

I can remember years ago when the force was almost afraid of tackling him and his sort; now he's been to prison and we've got his assets. And he is not alone.

We don't just catch speeders, we attack hardened criminals and we win. They don't like it, at all. Serves them right.

The second point is totally different but of crucial importance. We have wholly changed the perception of North Wales Police amongst the Welsh speaking community.

We are seen now not as an English-speaking army of occupation but rather as the bilingual local police force, a true part of the community that is North Wales - and I have been inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards of the Island of Britain as a result, an accolade for us all, which almost no-one outside Wales can or wants to comprehend

The fact is that we have made a big difference, and we have done so because we, all of us, are very good at our jobs. We know what we're doing, and we're 'up for it'. This is not luck - it is us, doing our job and doing it well. True professionals; the best.

I have been very pleasantly surprised over he last few weeks since my retirement became public knowledge by the overwhelming warmth towards us felt by large numbers of the public.

I am constantly getting stopped in the street or in the shops, often by complete strangers, and thanked for what we have achieved.

The public have noticed the improvement we have made to their quality of life; a fabulous antidote to the sanctimonious sour note of the malign Daily Mail and the rest of the tabloid press.

A real feelgood factor which makes it all worthwhile - and we earned it together, as a team. I'm proud as hell of us and I hope every one of you feels the same, because you deserve to.

The future for policing in North Wales looks very good. But I won't be part of it, because I've done my bit, and now I'm off. I've sold my house at at a painful knockdown price and am going sailing round the world with my wife just as soon as we can buy the right boat.

Or perhaps I will enter politics, after all. You never know.

Good luck and fondest regards

Good bye.

Richard Brunstrom

Y Prif Copyn

Chief Constable of North Wales 2001 - 2009

Link The Leader

Everyone and his/her aunty will be trying to get a letter in The Leader over the above.

Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom has left the building

In the Daily Post "Yesterday Eric Evans, who served for nine years as deputy chief constable, made an outspoken attack.

He said: “Mr Brunstrom’s remarks regarding the policing of North Wales and the manner of dealing with serious crime and criminals is deeply insulting and an affront to North Wales police officers of all ranks who were serving before he was appointed as chief constable.

“At least now with his retirement the force will have the opportunity to come out of what has been a dark period of policing in North Wales, and the force can start once again to provide proper policing for the community rather than concentrate on target figures which have little relevance to the public.”

Link The Daily Post

Chief Constable Richard Brunstron carried out an audit of Penyffordd with councillors in tow. What he pointed out and solutions to be made was very good but he "forgot" the near 2000 vehicles speeding (circa 2007) through the village each day.

What is required in is North Wales Police accountability in communities not just the facade.

The proof of this continuing unaccountability is the refusal of NWP to have a proper forum for debate. NWP currently refuse to acknowledge that speeding is even an issue in Penyffordd on their website.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An email to North Wales Police Authority Chairman Cllr Ian Roberts (Chirk) - New Chief Constable

Dear Cllr Roberts,

Good morning.

One hopes that the new Chief Constable will not be able to dodge speeding issues in communities.

Also to be faced the eradication of North Wales as a race track by motorcycles and vehicles.

They are a deadly pestilence to our environment.

One should be able to hear buzzards in the skies of North Wales not 100's of motorcycles racing with illegal exhausts

(uninsured) three miles away.

One hopes that the WAG will back the new Chief Constable to the hilt on the above issues.

Colin Hughes

Penyffordd District

Link Policing Pledge

Public Finances diminish..........................

Just in case you believe the green shoots of recovery stuff.

1. Corporation Tax down 34% for the same month last year.
2. VAT plunged 34% from the same month one year ago.

Income Tax and National Insurance revenue will also be taking a good hiding. Looks like 20% down on last year.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling has borrowed 44 times more this year than he said he was going to borrow.

The banks are still trying to shore their balance sheets up by refusing to lend to business

The above figures are horrendous. Any political party that pretends that huge cuts in public spending are not going to happen is dealing with untruths.

Private Enterprise funds nearly ALL public health (NHS), education, law enforcement, councils, etc through their taxation. All the employees and their pensions.

UK Plc is in a very deep hole.