{"id":247,"date":"2013-06-10T16:53:02","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T16:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=247"},"modified":"2013-06-10T16:53:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T16:53:02","slug":"a-petition-to-support-dredging-its-really-about-jobs-green-energy-and-young-peoples-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"A Petition to Support Dredging \u2026 !? It\u2019s Really About Jobs, Green Energy and Young People\u2019s Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of petitions against dredging as it can be environmentally damaging but this one<\/a> is for it \u2013 for pretty much the opposite reason \u2013 and it comes from from Wells Next The Sea in North Norfolk<\/a> (UK) where I live.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the issue:\u00a0 offshore there is a large, new windfarm, Sheringham Shoal<\/a> which has brought great community benefits and prospects, that are now at risk<\/a>, mainly because of objections from a small number of local recreational sailors.<\/p>\n

To allow boats servicing the wind farm to operate in and out of Wells, dredging is needed because access to the Harbour<\/a> depends on a shallow sandy channel.\u00a0 Dredging is currently on hold as the Marine Management Organisation<\/a>, a government licensing agency, considers objections to a dredging licence application [see MLA\/2012\/00257 here<\/a>] by Wells Harbour Commissioners. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So members of the community (led by a postman who is also a Town Councillor) have started a petition to the MMO to support the dredging.<\/p>\n

Dull Stuff ?<\/p>\n

Well it\u2019s hyper-local but it is a microcosm of the issues faced to be thousands of times over if societies are to embrace sustainable forms of energy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a case where \u2018causes\u2019 long associated with campaigns, for example for renewable energy, are now being implemented in the mainstream from the EU<\/a> to Australia<\/a>, and running up against anti-change protests.\u00a0\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested, here\u2019s a bit of background.<\/p>\n

Scira (partly Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil) got the licence to develop the 88 turbine 317MW<\/a> Sheringham Shoal in the mid 2000s and quickly worked out<\/a> that if there was better access (more time across more states of tide) at Wells, this was the most economic (closest \u2013 20 nm) location for its Operation and Maintenance Base.\u00a0 This meant dredging.<\/p>\n

But Wells, an ancient Port which has seen many twists and turns of fortune in its history of over 1000 years, is set in an environmentally sensitive coastline<\/a>, (rightly) festooned with conservation designations<\/a>.\u00a0 Our Harbour Master Robert Smith had seen the community benefits which flowed from a similar project at Brightingsea Port<\/a> in Essex and we decided to try and build an Outer Harbour to accommodate the wind farm development.\u00a0 In 2009 we signed a long term agreement with Scira to finance the project but this meant finding the most environmentally benign way possible of dredging to give a minimum metre depth of water.\u00a0 After a lot of studies, and emulating Dutch systems, we adopted a way of dredging which primarily uses natural channel water flows and minimal, GPS-controlled digging at low water.\u00a0 We were granted a licence to do this in 2009<\/a> and the Outer Harbour began operating in 2010 \u2013 some details are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Benefits<\/p>\n

Back in 2008-9 there were plenty in the small Wells community (permanent population 2000, with summer visitors 10,000+) who felt disquiet at the thought of \u2018industrial development\u2019.\u00a0 But not only has there been no evidence of environmental damage, for example to sensitive eel grass beds or mussel lays, the globally-rare Little Terns<\/a> have started using the new Outer harbour shingle bank to nest on, and \u00a0in the three years it took to build the windfarm, huge economic benefits<\/a> flowed to Wells.\u00a0 A dozen or more ships worked daily from the Port and 650 workers accommodated offshore were fed and supplied with goods sourced locally.\u00a0 It created jobs<\/a> from engineering to ship crewing to taxi driving, and boosted business for butchers, greengrocers, hotels and B + Bs and many more.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian windfarm developers Scira<\/a>, have \u00a0a deliberate policy of investing in local training, education and recruitment<\/a> and have built an Operations and Maintenance base creating 60 jobs which may be needed for more than \u00a040 years.\u00a0 Young people have prospects of training and careers in a green and high-tech industry, rather than just the mostly low-paid and seasonal work offered by a tourism-dominated economy.<\/p>\n

The RNLI (lifeboats) and fishermen have found the new outer Harbour offers them operational benefits too, with the result that fishermen have been writing to the MMO to demand return of the dredging.\u00a0 Scira supplies bursaries to local High School students going on the study engineering at colleges in the region, trains its own locally recruited staff, and gives \u00a3100,000 a year in support to community projects. \u00a0\u00a0These numbers may not sound much but in a small community the effect is significant.<\/p>\n

Benefits That Count<\/p>\n

By my calculation Sheringham Shoal supplies as much electricity as is used by all the homes in Norfolk \u2013 it\u2019s a lot anyway.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of decarbonizing Britain\u2019s energy system and as an environmentalist, that matters to me, and some others.<\/p>\n

But as a lady said in a focus group we ran in Cambridge a few years ago \u201cI know we\u2019ve got to save the planet, but there\u2019s more important things as well\u201d, and not everyone has the global environment as a high personal priority (see What Makes People Tick<\/i><\/a>).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s swung the community behind the wind-farm, and left people hoping that another wind project will soon make its home in Wells, is that until very recently, there were few job opportunities for young people.\u00a0\u00a0 More than \u00a37m has flowed into the community over the past few years as a result not just of the windfarm\u2019s existence but because of Scira\u2019s policy, encouraged by the Harbour Commissioners, of investing locally.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been able to expand the Harbour staff from four jobs to fourteen, and in a community naturally wary of change, seeing people you know get a job, makes benefits feel real.<\/p>\n

Once 6,000 people lived in Wells and it had a thriving shipbuilding industry but the railways changed that, then came and went, and coasters grew too large to visit, leaving Wells in the early 21st<\/sup> Century with a small but much valued fishing fleet, lots of yachts, a lot of second homes and retirees whose influence has pushed house prices to three times what the average working family can afford, and an economy based on seasonal, mainly very low paid related jobs related to tourism, and care work.<\/p>\n

Now that has changed, and the underlying reason Is renewable energy. Wells is enjoying something of an economic boom, and just as important, a boom in optimism and prospects for younger people and their families, the sort of young people who until recently, would have had often to move away if they wanted to \u2018better themselves\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a success story built on harnessing wind energy.<\/p>\n

The lesson for advocates of renewable energy is that it\u2019s not what global or national benefits flow from green energy schemes that count \u2013 it\u2019s where they fall, and who gets to benefit.<\/p>\n

So Why Oppose It ?<\/p>\n

If you read through the documentation<\/a> about the dredging issue you\u2019ll find that the Royal Yachting Association and a few recreational boat users are the principal source of objections to the dredging application, on grounds that it may restrict where they can sail.\u00a0 (Wells Sailing Club<\/a>, which represents far more sailors, does not agree).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While this is the sand in the works of the licence granting machinery, it\u2019s probably not the only reason, or the real reason.<\/p>\n

I read once, or someone told me (I wish I knew where), that when in the Eighteenth Century, Dutch-style windmills started to be built in Norfolk for grinding corn, there were riots of opposition, encouraged by local water-mill owners, and incited with the thought that these were an alien technology, a foreign threat.\u00a0 Much the same Settler<\/a>-pivoted dynamic applies in England today, with opposition to onshore windfarms<\/a> whipped up on grounds of alien intrusion, and leading the governing right-wing Conservatives to try and outflank<\/a> the even more right-wing UKIP by \u2018getting tough\u2019 on wind power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a while the water-mill owners realised they too could build the more powerful windmills, resistance disappeared and they are now largely used<\/a> as homes, and conserved<\/a> as a \u2018treasured piece of England\u2019s heritage<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 Even offshore, for some (including some Pioneers), modern wind turbines offend the eye.\u00a0 As one person put it locally, looking out to sea he can now see the twinkling safety lights of Sheringham Shoal at night and \u201cI miss the sense of infinity\u201d.<\/p>\n

I can understand that but it comes down to a trade-off.\u00a0 Do you want to sustain what is in essence an illusion of unspoilt infinite natural landscape, or help conversion to a sustainable economy and a sfer climate for us and our children ?\u00a0 More locally yet, in Wells it comes down to competing visions: a working port with jobs, or one which becomes ever more just a playground for those with the time and money to go sailing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something which people with a range of world views can unite around, although some, once they are committed<\/a> to opposition, some may never change.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Sample of comments by those signing online:<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Wells is a community, not a museum, and communities only work if there is work\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause its good for Wells and good for the environment\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in the windfarm industry and am a local to Wells and realise how vital the dredging of the channel is to the commercial viability of Wells\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised in Wells and know that the port is the heart of the town\u201d (from Hong Kong)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to keep the fishing going, Wells without fisherman would never be the same, providing employment and interest for both holidaymakers and local people\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives the town \/ region another means of income, not just tourism\u201d<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0 I\u2019m a Harbour Commissioner for Wells Harbour<\/a> (a voluntary role, although recently I have done some paid work for the Harbour), a \u2018Trust Port\u2019 operating a bit like a social enterprise but under ancient rules that go back 350 years.<\/p>\n

You can join the petition here<\/a> (many more have also signed in hard copy offline)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of petitions against dredging as it can be environmentally damaging but this one is for it \u2013 for pretty much the opposite reason \u2013 and it comes from from Wells Next The Sea in North Norfolk (UK) … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}