Mo says:-
It was very heartwarming to be speaking for the minority and not being the lone voice. Mr Tims pointed out that Mr de Souza is after all a civil servant and requires political will to do anything. I also suspect that the unrealistic timescale whith which they set themselves for getting fits into operation has somthing to do with the forthcoming election. Therefore, we need political pressure
now in order to make it an election point. Therefore, we all need to follow Noah's lead in pestering MPs, contacting press (local and national) and anyone else to get the messgage out. On a personal note, through persistart and annoying phonecalls, I managed to get MY MP to turn up yesterday, and although he could not attend the whole meeting due to Commons votes, he left one of his minions to take notes. He has promised to approach Mr Milliband on our behalf and speak to his own party's environmental commitee.
I was going to suggest, in terms of micro hydro, that we campaign for the prime mover (water wheel, screw or turbine) and groundworks, that are often already controlled by the EA and planning permission, to be exempt from the unfair financial burdan of the FITs / MCS accreditaion. This would cover self builders, refurbished equipment (eg old mills) and those that have excessivly expensive groundworks that they may use volunteer labour to do - whilst keeping the generator, and grid tie equipment under the banner of FITs meaning the monkey is still being paid.... In relation to pioneers, who Mr De Souza thinks that were adequately supported by ROCs, whilst falling into the catragory of 'pioneer' - I would love to have all of the money, perhaps a compromise could be suggested, where you fall to the lower rate after the 20 (or so) years LESS the time that you have been on ROCs - so we (personally) would get 18 years at full FITs rate, 2 at lower rate, then we ALL start again in 2030....
As an aside - I wonder if it could be deemed illegal that they have written a system that is not open to all, and therefore discriminatory - I wonder what the monopolies commission etc would think?
Spelling mistakes all Guy's fault
