Tuesday 29 October 2013

Storm damage: Thousands still without power

Storm damage: Thousands still without power

Crushed car in which Donal Drohan diedDonal Drohan died when the car he was driving was crushed by a tree in Watford

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Over 57,000 homes are still without power after a storm battered Britain.
Engineers restored supplies to 100,000 homes overnight after heavy rainfall and winds of more than 70mph (112 km/h) hit parts of the country.
Four people are known to have have died in the storm which brought major rail and road disruption to commuters in southern Britain on Monday.
Most rail companies say services should be back to normal on Tuesday, but there is still disruption on some routes.
Bethany Freeman, 17, suffered fatal injuries when a tree came down on the caravan she was sleeping in in Hever, near Edenbridge, Kent, at about 07:20 GMT.
Donal Drohan, 51, from Harrow, was pronounced dead at the scene after a tree crushed a red Peugeot 307 at Lower High Street in Watford, Hertfordshire, at 06:50 GMT.
Bethany FreemanBethany Freeman was staying in a caravan next to her family home
And a man and woman died in west London following a suspected gas explosion after a tree fell during high winds in Hounslow.
The Energy Networks Association said more than 660,000 homes in total had lost supply during the storm. Some 48,000 properties in the East and 9,600 in the South East still have no electricity.
BBC News correspondent Duncan Kennedy, reporting from Berkshire, said engineers had had trouble reaching some of the more remote areas in southern England because of fallen trees and it could be a few days before power supplies were restored to all locations.
Network Rail said the damage to infrastructure had been "worse than expected", with more than 100 trees on lines.
Train operators - who cancelled hundreds of services because of the bad weather - are expected to resume normal services on Tuesday but some travel disruption remains:
  • Greater Anglia says disruption and cancellations are expected on a number of routes until approximately 12:00 GMT on Tuesday and is advising passengers not to travel unless necessary
  • Stansted Express services are resuming with a half-hourly service
  • First Capital Connect says it expects to run a full service but with some disruption or delays on some journeys
  • C2C says a near-normal service will resume but buses will be replacing trains from Barking to Grays via Rainham
  • East Coast says it will operate a near-normal service but delays of up to 30 minutes are occurring through Peterborough and between Stevenage and King's Cross
  • Southeastern is expecting to operate a normal service on all routes but says there may be some cancellations so passengers should check before setting out
  • Chiltern Railways is running a normal service but says there may be some delays and short-notice cancellations
  • London Midland says it will run a normal service with one exception - buses will replace trains between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey until Wednesday

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Ferry crossings and flights were also affected as the storm moved across the UK.
The Environment Agency had dozens of flood warnings in place on Monday - in areas of south-west England, East Anglia and the Midlands where flooding was expected - but now only two remain in place.
Initial estimates of the level of financial damage caused by the storm are not expected until later this week, the Association of British Insurers said.
BBC weather forecasters said in more populous areas including Lyneham, near Swindon; Yeovilton in Somerset and Hurn, near Bournemouth, speeds of 74-75mph (119-121km/h) had been recorded.
The strongest gust of 99mph during the storm was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight, at 05:00 GMT.
Wind speeds of 115mph were recorded during the so-called Great Storm of October 1987.
Eight people died as the storm swept through France, Germany and the Netherlands after it moved out of the UK shortly after 12:00 GMT.
The search for the 14-year-old boy - who has been named as Dylan Alkins - who was swept away in Newhaven, East Sussex on Sunday is continuing.
Police at scene of suspected gas explosion in Hounslow, west LondonThree houses collapsed and two others were damaged in a suspected gas explosion in west London
Crushed static caravan in Hever near EdenbridgeBethany Freeman suffered fatal injuries when a tree crushed the caravan she was sleeping in
Passengers wait on concourse at King's Cross station after train services were cancelledPassengers waited on the concourse at King's Cross station after train services were cancelled
Workers have cleared the track at Alton in Hampshire, as this picture tweeted by South West Trains showsWorkers have cleared the track at Alton in Hampshire, as this picture tweeted by South West Trains shows
Debris of fallen trees in Hounslow, west LondonHundreds of trees fell across the country

Saturday 12 October 2013

Wind farm 'gravy train' criticised by Conservatives

Wind farm 'gravy train' criticised by Conservatives

Wind farmThe Conservatives say council planning departments are under "immense strain" from wind farm proposals

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The Conservative Party has said councils in Scotland have received more than 2,500 wind farm applications in the past 18 months.
The party's figures indicate the local authorities facing the greatest workload in dealing with the proposals are Aberdeenshire, Highland and Orkney.
The Conservatives said wind farms have become a "gravy train".
The Scottish government said it has given councils additional funding to deal with the applications.
The 2,508 applications represented, according to the Conservatives, seven every working day.
Conservative energy spokesman Murdo Fraser said: "Alex Salmond has played to the gallery on this one, but the figures show the rush of wind farm applications remains intense.
"These applications put council planning departments under immense strain, and cause great concern to communities worried about the impact a massive wind farm on their doorstep will have.
"And even if a council does reject an application, there is a good chance the turbine-hungry Scottish government will overturn the ruling in pursuit of its own overly green policies."
'Out of control'
Mr Fraser added: "This surge has to stop, and the way to do that is ending ludicrous subsidies for an unreliable and intermittent energy source, and stop inviting companies to develop in areas which are clearly unsuitable.
"We appreciate that wind farms have a place, but the fact there are seven wind farm applications a day in Scotland proves this is a gravy train threatening to career out of control."
The Scottish government has said its policy represents a "balance" between different interests.
A spokeswoman said: "We recognise that some planning authorities face pressure from the volume of wind turbine applications they receive, and have identified additional funds to assist them.
"Seventeen bids were received for additional funds and earlier this year £725,000 was made available to support all of those bids.
"Our policy on wind farm applications aims to strike an appropriate balance between Scotland's massive green energy potential and the need to satisfactorily address the impacts on communities and the environment."

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Friday 4 October 2013

Owl recorded in Oman could be a new species

Owl recorded in Oman could be a new species

OwlThe team says the owl belongs to a genus that also includes the Tawny owl, familiar in Britain and Europe

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Ornithologists working in Oman say an owl discovered in a remote, mountainous region could be a new species.
Wildlife sound-recordist Magnus Robb told BBC News that he heard the bird's call whilst trying to record the call of another type of owl.
After repeated trips to the remote site, he and a colleague - naturalist and photographer Arnoud van den Berg - captured photographs of the bird.
They have published their observations in the journal Dutch Birding.
Mr Robb's first recordings of the bird's unfamiliar hoot were a serendipitous discovery in March of this year.
"I was listening through my headphones, when I suddenly heard something completely different [to the owl species I was there to record]," he told BBC News.
"I know the other Arabian owl sounds quite well, and this was clearly something that didn't fit."
The bird call expert said he had a "good inkling straight away that this could be something new".
"I even phoned a colleague a few minutes later and said, 'I think I've just discovered a new species of owl."
owlThe team have spotted only seven of the owls in a single wadi in northern Oman
Mr Robb, who is involved in an international project called the Sound Approach, which aims to catalogue and understand bird sound, analysed the owls' call in detail.
This revealed that the bird was most likely to belong to a genus, or group of species, known as Strix.
Dr Wesley Hochachka from Cornell University's lab of ornithology commented that, in the last few decades, it had become "more accepted by ornithologists, particularly in tropical areas, that new species are being discovered based on distinctively different vocalisations".
The team plans to gather DNA evidence from the owl's feathers in order to confirm their find genetically.
But Prof Ian Newton, a bird expert from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said he found the evidence that the team had already provided convincing.
"Based on the recordings of songs and calls and on the good-quality photographs, I was also convinced that it should be placed within the genus Strix, which also contains the Tawny Owl of Britain and Europe," he told BBC News.
Mr Robb said he hoped eventually to name the new species the Omani owl, in honour of the Omani people.
"One of the reasons we've gone through this process of describing and confirming this as a new species so quickly is to get conservation for this owl as soon as possible," he explained to BBC News.
"Conservation can only start when this species is accepted and given some official status."
He hopes to return to Oman later this year in to learn more about the owl, its habitat and its behaviour.
So far, he and and his colleagues have found only seven of the birds in a single wadi in the remote, mountainous area of Oman.
"This suggests that it's a very rare creature indeed," he told BBC News.

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