IVC – Update on Academy Status followed by Full Governing Body Meeting

Public Meeting - Update on Academy Status followed by Full Governing Body Meeting. Tuesday 10 January 2012 at 7pm, (Gropius Hall, IVC)  read more ...

Update on IVC Academy Status – 10 January 2012 at 7pm

Public Meeting

Update on Academy Status followed by Full Governing Body Meeting

Tuesday 10 January 2012 at 7pm
(Gropius Hall, IVC)

Staff, students, parents and members of the wider community including future parents are most welcome to hear an update on the key priorities for the development of the College and its progress towards conversion to Academy Status. This will be followed by a meeting of the Full Governing Body at which final ratification of conversion will be taken.

Christmas Waste and Recycling Collections

South Cambs District Council will collect on Thursday 29th December and Thursday 5th January, 2 days later than usual due to the Christmas break

The collection due on Tuesday 10th January will be just one day late, being collected on Wednesday 11th January 2012

More than 750,000 tonnes of extra waste is produced ove Christmas in England alone.  We can all reduce our environmental impact over the festive period.  South Cambs have issued some suggestions for recycling:

Christmas cards can be placed in your blue bin, not in the caddy

Cans and foil should be rinsed and put into your blue bin

Real Christmas trees can be cut up and put into your green bin. You can also take your trees to your local household waste recycling centre for composting

Wrapping paper can be put into your blue bin as long as it is made from paper and not plastic or foil.  Wrapping paper is not good enough quality for the paper caddy.  Wrapping paper made from plastic or foil should be placed in the black bin

Christmas Waste and Recycling Collections

South Cambs District Council will collect on Thursday 29th December and Thursday 5th January, 2 days later than usual due to the Christmas break

The collection due on Tuesday 10th January will be just one day late, being collected on Wednesday 11th January 2012

More than 750,000 tonnes of extra waste is produced ove Christmas in England alone.  We can all reduce our environmental impact over the festive period.  South Cambs have issued some suggestions for recycling:

Christmas cards can be placed in your blue bin, not in the caddy

Cans and foil should be rinsed and put into your blue bin

Real Christmas trees can be cut up and put into your green bin. You can also take your trees to your local household waste recycling centre for composting

Wrapping paper can be put into your blue bin as long as it is made from paper and not plastic or foil.  Wrapping paper is not good enough quality for the paper caddy.  Wrapping paper made from plastic or foil should be placed in the black bin

High Court Rules FiT Cuts Illlegal

The High Court ruled late this afternoon that the cuts to the feed in tariff proposed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change were unlawful. Therefore anyone install solar PV after the proposed 12 December cut-off date is still eligible for the full 43p feed in tariff for a period of 25 years. Those in the village who feared they had missed the current feed-in tariff rates can breathe a sigh of relief.  However, they are encouraged to act quickly if they wish to purchase a PV system at the current high FiT rates.

DECC Minister Greg Barker said they would appeal the decision.  However, Mr Justice Mitting who made the decision said he did not expect it to be overturned.

The HI Courier sat through the 2 days of legal wrangling at the High Court.  The decision handed down made it clear that the government had caused an immediate and significant economic impact on the solar industry by specifying a cut off date within its proposal.  He said that DECC’s Secretary of State had no authority in law to modify the feed in tariff.  That power was explicitly reserved for OFGEM which administers the feed in tariff under law. It did say that the Secretary of State does have the power to veto OFGEM rate changes but that it cannot do so under his own authority.  Further, Justice Mitting said that decision about both the amount and date of eligibility for qualifying for the feed in tariff payments could not be made before the the consltation ended.  Such action undermines the legislation and attempts to retroactively change primary law – the Act of Parliament – with secondary law or regulations. 

The proper procedure is to: 1. conduct a consultation; 2. give full consideration to all of the responses made during the consultation; 3. draft a modification; 4. lay it before Parliament for 40 days to give it that chance to make changes or amendments.  Only then can an effective date be set.

At this point it means the new cut-off date for the current feed in tariff is likely to be somewhere between 15 February and 15 March.  However, we understand that the Court of Appeals could change that to 31st March by following Justice Mitting’s ruling that only OFGEM can impliment changes.  The law clearly says that can only happen after 1 April. 

A full written ruling will be available in a few days.  The date for filing for an appeal is 4pm on the 4th of January 2012 with the advice that the case be heard as a matter of urgency.  The likely date for that appeal is 9 January.

The solar industry may pursue additional legal remedies because of the losses it incurred.  For now it appear that the jobs of some 25,000 solar workers are guaranteed – a very nice Christmas present for their families indeed.

Solar PV: High Court Update

Thursday 15 December 2011, 15:30 GMT

Mr Justice Mitting today granted permission for a judicial review in the case of “The Queen v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change” to go forward as a matter of urgency. Next Tuesday and Wednesday the Court will hear arguments which could negate the governments decision to cut the feed in tariff before the planned deadline of 31 March 2012.

Those who attended the packed courtroom were encouraged by Mr Justice Mitting’s insistence that this review be conducted as soon as possible to avoid further financial damage to PV installation companies that have considerable amounts of money invested in supplies and materials.

The Court will concentrate on the retrospective issue of the government’s ‘proposal’. As the feed in tariff was set up by primary law with the stipulation that the tariff would remain in effect until 31 March 2012 with a review prior to that date for the purposes of adjusting the tariff rate, it is argued that the Department for Energy and Climate Change cannot retrospectively change the tariff prior to that date and can certainly not arbitrarily set a cutoff date 12 December 2011. Mr Justice Mitting zeroed in on this aspect of the arguments citing the economic damages that have resulted already and that will continue to be suffered by many small businesses. He seemed to surprise everyone with his desire for swift action. A decision is due on Wednesday afternoon.

Should the decision uphold the government cuts, Mr Justice Mitting has left open the possibility of additional challenges with judicial reviews based on at least three other issues. So there are many additional opportunities to overturn the FiT cuts if this one fails.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO US?

There is a high probability that the feed in tariff will continue at 43p until 31 March as originally enshrined in law. If the government’s cuts are overturned next Wednesday a great surge of new solar PV orders is likely to follow in the following days. We strongly suggest that you contact one of the Village Energy Suppliers IMMEDIATELY to arrange for installation. Do this BEFORE Wednesday if you can. Your order will be processed but you will not be obligated to go ahead with the installation unless the old feed in tariff is reinstated. BE SURE to tell them that you are part of the VILLAGE ENERGY PROJECT and make sure they note that on your order. You can reach Beechdale Energy at 01223 264520 and Aran Services at 01284 812520.

Those wanting our FREE PV programme will have to wait until January. If you have not already contacted us please do so by email at solar@hicourier.co.uk

Please note that we have been heavily involved in actions to overturn the government’s decisions over the past 7 weeks. We are very behind on answering your emails so please be patient.

More detailed info will follow at www.hicourier.co.uk and, of course, we will be back at the High Court in London next week to report on the arguments and the decisions.

- Ken, Village Energy Project
07402 674585

Breaking: High Court to Decide Solar PV Tariff Cuts

MR JUSTICE MITTING ruled moments ago to allow the judicial review brought by Friends of the Earth (FOE) and two solar companies to proceed early next week. More to follow. Check the HI Courier website for details and an important announcement for those wishing to purchase solar PV for their homes.

Village Energy Project – Update THURSDAY 08 December 2011

A lot has been happening behind the scenes in the past two weeks.  While I cannot yet tell you the entire story, I can say that the question of feed in tariff cuts is still wide open and the battle is heating up.  As I have said in previous e-mails the likely scenario is a compromise which will vacate the 12th December cut-off and extend the current 43.3 p feed in tariff (FiT) until at least 31 March 2012. At the moment our installations and planning are on hold pending a decision.  Here are the latest developments:

1. High Court Agrees to Hear FiT Challenge:

After much legal manoeuvring, the High Court will hear a petition to permit a challenge to the government’s feed in tariff cuts.  The petition is brought by Friends of the Earth (FOE) and two solar companies. It will be heard next Thursday 15 December.  A Judicial Review is complicated and it will take time. However, the pressure is mounting on government to compromise. Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director Andy Atkins said: “It’s short sighted for Ministers to move the goalposts and prematurely pull the subsidy – this will cost tens of thousands of jobs, bankrupt businesses and reduce Treasury income by up to £230 million a year.” Lots more late next week on this.

2. Face-Saving Strategy for 2012?

The industry is also actively lobbying the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to increase the Export Tariff.  The export tariff is currently set at 3.1p per kWh.  DECC is being asked to raise that to at least 9p.  This may be a signal for what will happen AFTER April 2012 – a ‘compromise formula’ bringing the total payment to homeowners to at least 30p (21p FiT plus 9p DECC topup). This would provide excellent returns given the rapid drop in the cost of PV panels coming in January 2012.

NOTE: This is all getting very political. The coalition will be very uncomfortable if the continuing anger over the FiT cuts results in a substantial Labour comeback in the 2012 local elections. It’s something that neither David Cameron or Nick Clegg wants as it would weaken their leadership of their respective parties.

3. European Commission to Bring Legal Action Against UK over FiT Cuts:

The European Commission has now stated publicly that it will take legal action against the UK because its action to cut the tariff to 21p undermines the UK’s legal binding 2020 target for renewable energy production. The Commission’s position is that any changes to FiT support schemes must be done in a manner which does not undermine and destabilize the renewable energy industry. What the statement really says is: Germany, the most powerful player in the EU and the main hope of preventing a second recession or worse in the UK, is very unhappy that its solar industry will be hit heavily by the UK cuts to the feed in tariff. Hence, the very real threat of action by the Commission.

German solar PV, inverters, roof mountings, wind turbines and even some of their underemployed installation teams are coming into the UK in large numbers. Renewable energy is big business and Germany is the clear leader of renewable energy manufacturing in the EU.  Until the 31 October (Halloween) announcement of the feed-in-tariff cuts by Minister Greg Barker, the UK was catching up quickly and there was talk of large scale investments planned for new renewable energy manufacturing here. That would mean lots of new jobs and a growing economy.

The threat of European Commission action could be another face saving way out for the government which has been widely condemned for it’s FiT cuts. For many conservative back benchers this could be more ammunition for their anti-EU campaign. And for the Lib Dems, it would be a welcome relief as the FiT cuts issue is unlikely to be favourable to Lib Dem candidates in the May 2012 local elections. Both parties could hold up their hands and say “the EU made us do it.” The ‘it’ being the re-instatement of the original FiT rate. As mentioned above, the leaders of both parties in the coalition are on shakey ground over the UK economy and the Europe Union.  A bad election result could seal their fate.

We Are Not Alone:

The FiT cuts here are part of a worldwide campaign by big energy companies to maintain the status quo and keep us on a fossil fuelled road well into the future.  The big energy companies are pulling out all the stops as countries around the world are initiating their own feed in tariffs to encourage adoption of clean renewable energy.

There is a worldwide campaign to stop that development and to continue on a ‘business as usual’ footing. We know that such a plan is suicide for virtually all of us. Yet the short term profits are just too enticing for the large energy companies. Today at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban the United States, pushed by its own powerful energy lobby, is trying to get a resolution passed to delay all cuts of CO2 emissions until 2020.  Of course, by then it will be too late.

This is a time of great technological change.  We’ve seen it before. Those of us who remember technology in the late 1960′s will know the name IBM.  They were the undisputed leader in computing and a very powerful player on the world market.  In the early 70′s if you had a computer in your office it usually meant you had a ‘dumb terminal’ connected to some remote IBM computer in a major city.  The idea of ‘distributed computing’ with a real computer on every desk was something out of science fiction.  When the first microcomputers came out they were curiosities rather than the workhorses they are today.  IBM tried to sabotage the idea of distributed computing but failed.

Today we can’t imagine a world without our laptops and ipads (and smartphones, too!) That scenario is being played out again – this time with energy generation.  Our grand kids will find it amusing that we once had centralised power stations that required big ugly power distribution pylons spoiling our landscape instead of rooftop technology that converted solar energy into free power for our homes and vehicles.

Self-Evident:

Every new idea goes through three phases: 1. Ridicule; 2. Persecution; and finally 3. Acceptance as self-evident.  We are in the latter part of stage 2.  Energy companies (oil, gas, coal, electricity, and nuclear) are pouring money and political capital into preventing the inevitable: renewable energy generated in every home and village in the country. To most of us the idea is already self-evident.  Those companies who oppose the idea will either have to change or move out of the way – just like IBM did.

The key to a bright, clean and inexpensive energy future depends on us – not on government, not on big fossil energy companies.  DO contact our MP James Paice to remind him that you are watching. This whole fight is disgustingly political. It’s time to make your voice heard.

More as it happens …

Cheers
Ken Doyle
Village Energy Project
HI Courier

SCDC Approves Parish Joining

Parish Council Grouping Order Request Agreed by SCDC

South Cambridgeshire District Council met on Thursday 24th November to consider the request from the Histon and Impington Parish Meetings, held on 14th  October, to combine the Parish Councils into a Common Council in 2012.

They RESOLVED:

(a) the making of a Grouping Order to group the Parish Councils of Histon and Impington; and

(b) to delegate to the Chairman of the Electoral Arrangements Committee, in consutlation with officers and the two parish councils, to finalise the wording of the Grouping Order

There is a lot of work to be done yet, but it is hoped the actual grouping of the Councils will co-incide with the normal end of year for Council business in April/May 2012

The Parish Councils wish to thank everyone who took time to give valued input to the process

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