vivweb01blog

Important Update 1.1.26: The closure of NCR6 (Alias FP K68) started in mid October with a small diversion near the proposed crossing point for the new distributor road. This was followed in early November by the closure of the section of NCR6 beyond its junction with Hathern Lane. C3C, Persimmon's sub-contractor for the cabling work involved, are performing the work in 2 phases - the first being the section between Hathern Lane and Stonebow Walk, and the second between there and the Coe Avenue entrance (see attached plan). LCC Highways originally indicated that the project was due to complete by 26.1.26, but have now revised this to 15.2.26. More revisions to come, no doubt - read on to find out why... What progress has been made ? An inspection on 31st December revealed that Phase 1 was well underway, but the section between the Red Arch and the Hathern Lane junction was still being worked on. I estimated at the time that a further month's work at least would be necessary b...

Update 21.1.26: The recent announcement of Miliband's long-awaited Warm Homes Plan sadly does little to inspire confidence that government is anywhere near getting oneo the right track.... Although the fine detail of elegibility and scope of the measure isn't yet clear, it's obvious from what has been published that this will be yet another scheme to 'Rob Peter to pay Paul'...as you might expect from a socialist government obsessed with redistributing our wealth and making stringent economies to try to cover its frequent policy errors.  It's obvious that heat pumps are an expensive item which commit the owner to much higher electricity bills, and are not affordable for the majority even with a sizeable grant. Feedback from those unfortunate enough to have suffered the disruption of an installation, and the consequences for their power consumption, amply confirm this. Any grants for solar panels, which are a much better bet cost of living-wise, and can ease the p...

  The large increase in mental health referrals in the UK's younger age groups since the end of the pandemic has finally got the UK government worried…so it should, and not before time. Why ? Apart from the more obvious consequneces of excessive screen use, which we'll conider shortly, we have at least 1 million young people in UK classified as ‘NEETs’ (i.e. Not in Education, Employment or Training); this is a shocking indictment for any 1st world society, particularly one that prides itself on its sense of 'fair play', and is still the 6th richest in the world, despite recent economic mismanagement by successive governments.  A significant proportion of these NEETs are likely to be in this category because of mental health issues. More and more of our youngsters, including even some under 5s, are also being diagnosed with some form of mental health issue, and not all of this is likely to be due to the 'over-diagnosis' and 'spectrum building' phen...