Hydro scheme and Regulatory Reform

On Wednesday, a report on the 'Wind Farm Debate' on Audlem Online included the comment that the Government had not acknowledged receipt of the technical appraisal describing the proposed hydro-electric scheme in the village powered by water running along the lock system on the Shropshire Union canal.

We have now heard that Hazel Blears' office at the Department for Communities has said that the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has agreed to accept responsibility for this correspondence. Local MP Stephen O'Brien's office is now chasing up with that Department to see if the Government is interested in this green power project.

It's something of a mystery why the correspondence should now be with a department dealing with Regulatory Reform when yet another great office of state deals with Climate Change. It was this department, after all, that announced in March that British Waterways is to invest £120m over the next three years in a project aimed at generating enough renewable energy to power thousands of homes. The situation is further complicated by the fact that British Waterways, operators of the canal system are part of yet another department, Defra.

The Audlem hydro-scheme should produce 175,000 kWh per year, as much electricity as schemes elsewhere in the country that are being lauded as fine examples of how small-scale local schemes could generate power.

We shouldn't knock regulatory reform, however, as an Audlem business woman has, remarkably, just achieved a change in the law that will benefit many small businesses. More on this amazing story shortly.

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