Joining the Green Energy Jet-set

I wrote  a while back about how I was looking to install some form of renewable technology on our house – however, for planning and safety issues, a Wind Turbine was not a particularly good option – in fact, worse than that, it wasn’t viable. This was a real downer, living in one of the windiest areas of the Country (if the BBC reports on nearby Scotland are anything to go by). These problems really left me disheartened for a while, and I parked it with no real expectations of moving forward again.

However, in late August/early September I began to pick up the idea again, in a bit more detail and seriously started looking at Solar PV as an option. Our house is South West facing, so almost ideal in good days for sun – only slightly in shade early in the mornings. Anyway, with the Government feed-in tarriffs (before DECC’s Phase 1 review)  as they were, it seemed crazy not to go for it, and I vowed to get on track to make it happen.

CLG’s Single Data list – well received?

Following the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG’s) abolition of the National Indicator Set, it seemed that Local Government was to be freed from the world of top-down targets, burdensome data collection. In it’s wake CLG outlined the publication of the ‘Single Data List’ which would list everything that Local Government would be required to provide to Central Government. It’s been published today, here.

However, one of the common criticims was that once you delved beneath the surface, a lot of the substance showed that it was still a massive wealth of information. Whilst the targets may be gone, the data provision burden most definately isn’t. Yet. Given the massive push going on in Government around open data, I was pleased to find that all of the comments were served up in CSV for some quick analyisis. Following a little data cleansing, this was the result:

So not too well received then? Well, to be fair to CLG, it’s now at the point of saying ‘Well what do you think’s too much?’, so hopefully we’ll see a reduction in the next year or two, leading to more satisfaction. However, it’s clear for now that there’s a good proportion of people who aren’t too happy…

I guess one final realisation I had was that as a result of OpenData, it’s going to mean that press statements are a lot more evidence based than before. If I can check if the evidence of a press statement is backed up, within 5 mins of it being released, surely that’s got to keep people honest? Thoughts anyone?

When you move it’s a movement; Developing Newcastle’s Movement and Access Plan

We spent Friday running an event at the Council aimed at developing a Movement and Access Plan for the City, and I wanted to blog on it as it was a really positive thing to have done. The mood around the place hasn’t been the best, mostly due to some quite difficult cuts to jobs as a result of the Government settlement. Anyway, the event brought together about 100 senior staff and members of the community to consider our understanding, needs and opinions of travel across the city, whether it was by foot, car, metro or other types of transport.

Unless we act, the new fuel poverty will be Petrol

This is actually a train of thought I began a while ago, but hadn’t got round to finishing, so apologies that the discussion’s probably moved on a bit. As I was driving back from a weekend away with my wife in the East Midlands, we stopped and pulled over for petrol. Resigned to the fact that it was likely to be more expensive than last time I topped up, I pulled in to the pumps. It seems that the time between jumps in petrol prices keeps getting shorter. Although I’ve just got a lease car which is much more economical than the last car I had, it’s a diesel, making that initial fill up all the more wallet-busting. Whilst I was standing filling the car, my mind thought ‘where will it end’? With the Government annoucing it will be keeping the VAT rise in petrol for the next couple of years, it looks as if petrol will only keep going up. So what can we do?

Social media in Local Government

I gave a quick presentation to the new members of the Council’s Innovation Forum, on the uses of social media in Local Government. It also covered the LGID’s Community of Practice platform, as well as a little glimpse into the future of the replacement, the Knowledge Hub. Apologies to Ingrid Koehler for stealing a few of her piccies!

Holidays are coming – winter in Cumbria

Well, whilst the snow’s been hard on everyone the past few weeks, I’ve been really under the blanket here. However, spirits have been kept up and it’s been a good few days. I finally got out with the camera and took some photos, of which I’ve edited one which I’m intending to use as a Christmas card. For now though, I’ll just share here. It makes you want it to be Christmas already…

Balancing innovation with progression with Open Data

So bear with me, this may be a little tenuous, but it’s a strand of my thinking and I just want to follow it to the end. I was flicking through sites of other bloggers (Dave Briggs, and also Kate Bennett if you’re interested) and then decided to change my theme – I’ve been tired with the green/black grunge thing that was going on for a while so selected a new theme. Then I flicked back to Dave’s page. Then back to mine. Then back to Dave’s. Unwittingly I’d selected the same theme. As an aside I decided to keep it, just because I could and I liked it, but that’s not the point.The point is it got me thinking – are we constraining the potential of the internet?

Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, and other things…

Well, I realised that I haven’t been blogging for a while now. I think it’s because partly in my head I see it as a bit of a frivolity.

Anyway, firstly, there have been some big developments in the Policy/Work sphere. First off, Newcastle City Council has approved it’s first Citywide Climate Change Strategy. It’s quite a big feat, as it sets out a large number of work streams that we’re kicking off, but it’s by no means comprehensive. It does include both mitigation and adaptation measures though, which is great.

I’ve also been pulling together some ideas for a public event on writing a Movement and Accessibility plan for the council. The more I do event prep, the more I realise I love it. Although it’s a lot of work, the end results will be great, and hopefully will make a big contribution to people being able to access the city more easily, bringing health and environmental benefits too. Photos will be up here following the day, which is currently looking to be in January…

I’ve also been pushing ahead on trying to sort out a Wind Turbine or Solar Panels for the house. I had a site survey done with Aegis Energy, but it looks like a Wind Turbine might not be possible. I’ve written a letter to Eden District Council to see if an application might be rejected out of hand. The other alternatives are to approach the school, or consider solar p.v. I’m still not decided on the best way forward. I don’t really fancy a massive project, which the community route would likely turn into. But I also don’t love the idea of P.V. as much. Although it would definitely pay back through Feed-in Tarrifs, they’re likely to be rebalanced by the Government, and they’re not as green. The process for making them is not as environmentally friendly and they don’t produce as much power. Anyway, I’ve decided not to close off any avenues for now.

I’ve also made a bit of progress with the AlstonOpenData project. The dataset’s massively improved now, and I’ve decided that the best way to do the mapping is through Tableau Public, as it will take all the effort out of coding a web-portal. The downside is that I now need proper Lat/Long. co-ordinates for all the locations. A bit more work but the easiest thing might be if I take my phone and go take all the GPS co-ordinates in Alston. If you’re interested in a sneak peek of what the end product might look like, you can see my work through Tableau Public so far here….

Finally, I’ve begun to compile a list of tools that I use as part of my work. I’ll try and keep it updated as I go, but it’s listed on the menus as ‘what I use’. Until later, ta-ta!

A few realisations

I think that over the past year or so, I’ve been clinging on to the impossible idea that despite moving up to Cumbria, life would continue pretty much as it did when I lived in Norwich, and when people were still around. Over the past few days though, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it isn’t, and that realisation has made me pretty happy.

Bubble charts for Local Authority expenditure

For a while, I’ve been looking for some free software which would do bubble charts to plot relative sizes. Not necessarily on an axis, but with the ability to categorise. Well, with IBM’s Many Eyes, I think it’s done the job. I took the expenditure data from Newcastle City Council’s 2010-11 budget report and added it in to a visualisation: here’s the net result:

Newcastle City Council 2010-11 Expenditure by Portfolio

As I’m on a free wordpress account (scabber I know!), I can’t embed live scripts otherwise I’d put it on here (full link here). But yeah, you just create the dataset, upload and visualise. Simple, and a great way to encourage accountability.