Sir – ‘Race against the clock for hydro scheme’ (Herald, October 28) misses the point that an approval of Abingdon Hydro’s revised planning application would most likely leave the White Horse DC with a white elephant in its Green Corridor!
It’s time for a rethink in view of the cuts in high feed-in tariffs, the need for a larger building to house the generating equipment, tree felling and a five-metre wide access road across Barton Fields.
If the application is approved, what seemed like a laudable green project at its start will probably leave a legacy of a half-finished project and a 100-tonne concrete ‘empty shell’ on the edge of Abingdon weir for the council to ‘make safe’ when the money runs out.
Let’s be clear, the economic viability of the project decreases as the likelihood increases that the hydro will not be generating electricity by September next year.
Generating small quantities of green energy at high capital cost without adequate funding is a project the green industry could do without. Time to withdraw the planning application and the threat to the wildlife (and the trees) at Abingdon weir and Barton Fields.
Dr Roger Cox
Thesiger Road
Abingdon
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