rich_b

I needed some pub furniture for a games room. I called Phil (as above) and within 30 minutes I was personally browsing their large collection of second-hand stock with Phil guiding me to the best buys in my price range. Within another 60 minutes my games room is looking exactly like I'd pictured it 2 years ago. Excellent service from a hidden gem of a business. Highly recommended.

Blimey, really? It must have gone with a bang because, seriously, it lit up the entire sky. Does anyone have any news references I can refer to please?

Nice website Graham. Is the recording equipment based in the IOW or is it nationally distributed? Not having read the "About Us" section I don't know how they measure, nor indeed if they can measure, 'all the way up here' although, having seen the map on the front page, the website does suggest national coverage. Irrespective. What happened 30 mins ago was very strange.

thesloth - man, that flash was so enormous and it was DEFINITELY in the clouds. I am certain it was not a ground-based flash. That was in the clouds. Never seen that before. Edit: following sares' post after mine - when I say "in the clouds" I mean it was well above the horizon, and when the flash occurred it was like a white-out, as if the flash was behind or within clouds that then lit up. It wasn't a point source of light, but rather a very widespread diffusion of a point-like source of light. You know, just like lightning in clouds... but there's few clouds. Perhaps it was simply lightning in clouds... and when I went out to look 5 mins later the clouds had blown away?

And to add sares67 - it literally lit up the entire view of the night sky. I am looking south (give or take 1 or 2 degrees) out of a 10 foot wide patio door. The entire sky, through that window, illuminated. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Just to compound the weirdness, the TV then went off half a second later, only to come back on after a few seconds. So... Massive electrical discharge affects my freeview box, and therefore my antenna, momentarily. But it was HUGE. The whole bloody sky lit up. And when I went outside 6/7 minutes later there were very few clouds of note in the sky. All the clouds that were visible were chasing across my field of view, from right to left (i.e. from west to east).

Tell you what --- I just popped outside for a look into the sky (looking from Dronfield directly south towards Chesterfield and the spire) and the clouds are not your typical thunderstorm clouds. In other words, not the typical dark grey anvil-shaped clouds. In fact, there's hardly any cloud at all, and those that are there are moving (obviously due to the high winds) very fast and are quite thin. That was weird. I am a scientist. I need to seek a natural answer to this phenomenon.

Wow! Lightning in the clouds at 23:30 (in the south, over Chesterfield). Then the TV went off (freeview built in). Then after 5 seconds it came back on. The lightning in the clouds was rather massive though. Never seen that before. And it is still REALLY windy.

We're hopeful that the local publications in Dore, Totley and Bradway will soon carry 200-word articles on the subject. We are planning a public protest march in Dronfield in November, and the more that can attend the better. Dates to follow - watch this space. The final planning decision will be made in Matlock in November/December, as far as we know. Additionally, some of our fellow campaigners attended the NEDDC council meeting today and were frankly appalled at the lack of interest shown by some councillors. These people need reminding that we voted them in, that we pay their wages, and that we demand that they listen to our concerns. I shall be making my feelings known in the strongest possible terms at the soonest available opportunity. Important local issues like this are most certainly not the appropriate issues on which to be scoring political points.

If we can get any additional help from any concerned residents, irrespective of where they live, then that is a good thing. However, I am led to believe that the specific residents I already mentioned have prior and recent experience of effectively objecting to neighbourhood-changing plans. This does not surprise me, given the areas' demographics.

I went to the meeting on Friday. I think the campaign group and the general public made the planning committee take a step back to reassess this application. The presentation from the campaign team was outstanding - it covered all the issues very well, including the flawed process, the legal arguments, the economic impact, the health issues and more. Cyclamax couldn't get out of County Hall fast enough at the end. I do not think they were prepared for such a united community response. Well done to all that turned up to show their objections to this plan. Longcol - the reason for trying to get the "posh" bits of southern Sheffield involved is obvious, I think. They will be affected when the wind blows in the right direction, and they are a particularly vocal and effective community. They have successfully fought other campaigns before - which is no surprise considering how many clever people live around there. Apathy will get us nowhere. The only way to fight this fight is as a community - everyone who has concerns must get involved and not simply leave it up to others.

2pm today, Matlock County Hall Let's show the planners, the council, and the developer the depth and strength of feeling out there.

Excellent point. I need to find out if the plant intends to take all possible waste, or only the residual waste (residual waste = black bins plus all commercial waste). Bear in mind that household waste, though, only accounts for around 14% of North East Derbyshire's entire waste stream. The rest comes from commerce/industry. I'll stop posting diversion figures for now and simply talk qualitatively. If I get an update, I will let you know. The people to ask are Derbyshire County Council's environmental services team. We can still agree, though, that: Incineration is an expensive option Incineration is dangerous for many reasons Incineration needs waste to fuel it - Nottingham and Sheffield incinerators are currently running under-capacity and are therefore economically unviable - and so commercial pressures will lean towards burn rather than recycle Incineration produces 25% by weight highly toxic ash that has to be landfilled in a special safe way

Here are some referenceable quotes, taken directly from the Government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) website. It appears the allegations are being thoroughly researched by real scientists. If the Government is worried about health affects, then so am I. It appears, however, that Cyclamax and Derbyshire County Council are not worried. Note: in these quotes, 'nanoparticles/nanomaterials' refers to deliberately-designed tiny particles, whereas 'ultrafine particulate matter' refers to the tiny particles that are the by-products of, in general, combustion. However, the two can be used interchangeably when discussing effects on the body.

One thing I don't think I have mentioned. I spoke to the NEDDC man in charge of recycling recently. The whole of North East Derbyshire achieves a household diversion rate of 48.2% for the most recent quarter. Dronfield tends to achieve about 10% more than this. So, Dronfeldians, you should be proud that you are already at nearly 60% diversion. Not an awful lot further to go to reach the 72%-75% figure that Cyclamax can achieve on a good day. Two things that can improve the figures: 1. education - some areas achieve around 10% less than the average 2. commerce - their waste is taken by the big waste companies and so they do not have to recycle (but bear in mind the figures above are only for household waste, which itself only accounts for about 13% of all NEDDC's waste, so commerce can have a really big impact on waste management) Summary: there are better solutions, easily achievable, than incineration.

Yes, good point, it is absolutely true that there is a strong correlation between the siting of these plants and a 10% reduction in house prices. Who'd vote for that? Nobody, I guess, especially when you add to that all the other negative factors, NIMBYism - I'd prefer NIABYism having done the research. These things should not be built in anybody's back yard - there are far better, cheaper and cleaner alternatives that have a more beneficial effect on the economy and contribute far more to the sustainability of the ecology. Whilst I almost certainly would not go onto the NewLocationForum.co.uk website and post like I have here, I would definitely send my research to whomever requested it - just like the Invergordon group did for us. And your final sentence, whilst a personal attack, takes absolutely nothing away from the validity of anything I have previously said. These things are still dangerous and expensive wastes of money.