vivweb01

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...

  As a follow-up to the budget, and my recent pre-budget blog on the likelihood of Income Tax rises, I’ve tried to answer the simple question in the title i.e. Did Labour break their manifesto promises by raising the rate of one of the 3 main taxes – i.e. Income Tax, NI or VAT ? The short answer to this question is...Yes, they did, despite their protestations to the contrary.  Read on to find out why..... November' budget was a complex affair, and seemed almost to be designed to confuse. It was widely anticipated by industry and the general population as a "death by a thousand taxes", and certainly lived up to the prediction. Much was made of sticking to manifesto promises, almost to the point of obsession by the Party, in the weeks before the budget, to the extent that Reeves was eventually forced to 'chicken out' of her planned 2p across the board rises in direct tax on income in order to head off a widely anticipated rebellion by her 'unruly' back...

  A couple of years ago I attempted to answer the question ' Are we alone in the universe '.  At risk of appearing to be a 'glutton for punishment',  I thought it would be useful to follow this up by looking at an even weightier and perhaps even more topical question - 'How did the universe start and how will it end ?'. There is a lot of argument about this currently, with the principal 'Big Bang' theory (BBT), until recently taken as gospel by cosmologists, now being challenged in the light of new evidence from the JWST. More evidence suggesting the presence of 'bio-signature' gases in the atmosphere of a 'nearby' (relatively speaking!) exoplanet has also caught the media's attention and promoted discussion about our place in the universe recently, thus re-igniting the debate. Another recent development was the observations on supernovae from DESI suggesting the universe may already have started contracting again. Read on for a short...