Somewhere to write, discuss, reflect, ponder, muse and mull over life, stuff, things and anything that takes my fancy.
I see that crude oil prices have dropped over the past few days to a low of around USD $85.00 per barrel and whilst Brent Crude is still above USD $100.00 per barrel, I wonder if we might see a cut in petrol prices.
I suppose the next excuse that oil companies will be the Egyptian factor hitting prices!
After a month and half of using BT’s new Infinity broadband connection the download speed continues to increase to near the maximum.
The BT engineer had to come out on the 21st Jan. as the whole connection had shut down!
Turned out to be a defective ADSL Modem which is separate from the Router in an Infinity configuration.
Although this was a big issue for me at the time as I was in the middle of a project that required a lot of emailing and the modem breaking after only a month (bad QA I expect), I did learn something from the BT engineer about BT Infinity connections. They are quite sensitive to the the age of the driver that is being used by the network card in your PC.
My PC is about five years old with an original Dell onboard network connection socket (and driver), but it appears that the driver was holding back the ability for the connection to go above 16/18MB download.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I went out and bought a new PCI network card, installed the latest driver and hey presto!! We now have a connection up around the 32MB mark. excellent news and great for watching BBC iPlayer programmes.
I found out yesterday that the Outline Planning Application for the Houses to be erected on Reading Universities Sibly Hall site have been submitted.
“Outline application with some matters reserved for the erection of 99 dwellings and refurbishment of 100 & 102 Redhatch Drive plus access, parking and private and public open space (means of access to be considered). Demolition of Sibly Hall Building at Redhatch Drive, Earley (2/3/11) Hillside”
The main application and associated plans can be found at the Wokingham Borough Council planning application website. You will then need to enter the planning application number O/2010/2776 into the form.
When you then hit the search button, this will take you to another page and if you then scroll down, you can click on “See the Plans and Documents” and this will take you to another page where the associated documents, all 63 of them are listed.
There all in PDF format so you should be able to see them directly in your browser.
Next important dates appear to be Consultation Start Date: 02/02/2011 and Deadline for Comments: 02/03/2011.
There is a lot to read!
The recently held Earley Town Council planning meeting has opposed the planning application for the 30 metre telecoms mast (proposed to be built in Redhatch Copse) submitted as part of the Reading University redevelopment plans for Sibly Hall.
The meeting, covered both in the Reading Post and the Reading Chronicle (cannot find that online!) attracted over 90 people.
The next step is to lodge any formal objections with Wokingham Council by the 19th January to effect a public meeting and discussion.
This can be done via email (see here for info) or online using a form.
You will need the Planning Application Number which is F/2010/2777.
You can make comments on (see here for full list):
Design, appearance and layout
Conservation of buildings, trees, plants, animals and open land
Impact on the appearance of the area
Effect on the level of daylight and privacy of existing property
The need for the development
Planning history of the site
Lets hope that as many people as possible comment on this and can turn up for any public meeting that is held.
Saw this interesting article in the Guardian about UK Library closures.
I was discussing with some colleagues last week about what effect the impending local government cuts will have on our UK Public Libraries and came across this interesting Google Map (Mash up) of some of the potential effects of these cuts.
Legend
Red pointer = library closures announced by Council
Blue pointer = Individual library at risk
Red triangle = library closed
Gents sign = staff lost
Pins – other cuts
It will be interesting to see what happens during 2011 and how many Libraries the UK is left with.
The Sibley Hall Action Group has issued a new newsletter with further information about the Planning Application for the Radio Communication that could be placed in the Ancient Woodland adjacent to the current Sibly Hall if passed.
The two links in this letter are:
– Potential impact images of the proposed mast.
– Potential health risks of radio comms. masts.
More info on the the recent Planning Application information can be found here and on the whole Sibly Hall development plan in a previous post, here.
Let’s see what happens at the Planning Meeting, 7:30 pm Earley Town Council offices, Radstock Lane, Tuesday 4th Jan. 2011 – tomorrow!
I have been now been running on the newly installed BT Infinity Broadband connection since early December.
As can be seen from the graph I have seen a steady climb up towards 18MB download whilst the upload has been pretty constant since around the 5th December.
I have not noticed a great deal of fall off in the evening when more people are online.
Two things I have noticed (which is an obvious result of the upgrade) is a better ‘picture’ when watching anything on BBC iPlayer on our (network connected) HDTV and the ability to run more data over the ‘link’. It arrived at the right time as I have had to move some quite large image data files around and the faster upload speed certainly helped.
The router (which now has a separate external modem) has reset it self a few times, I assume for updates? However it is not affected the speed.
It will be interesting to see if the speed climbs any higher in January 2011 or as BT add more users to the fibre loop, if it stays the same.
Events are moving onto another stage in ongoing saga of the redevelopment of Sibly Hall.
Earley Town Council have issued a letter (dated 24th December 2010 – received 29th December 2010) for all residents around Sibly Hall about their next Planning Meeting (4th January 2011) where they will consider the planning application for the proposed 30 Metre Telecoms mast that will be erected to replace the current aerials that are on the roof of Sibly Hall is demolished.
The Earley Town Council letter refers readers to the Wokingham Borough Council Planning department where the original Planning Application Forms were lodged back in early November 2010.
I must admit I forgot to add links in one of my previous posts about the planning applications forms when they became available on the Wokingham.
I did have a look for them after receiving this letter and after three attempts I found them. Lots of them!
The Sibly Hall Action Group have issued a Letter To Residents South of Sibley Hall which they asked me to post here that offers guidance as to what residents can do next along with a link to the Wokingham Planning Offices web site which will allow residents to view the various planning forms. Please double-click on image on the left to see full size letter.
I have also added a list at the end of this blog that provides links to all of the the various forms that were submitted by the University, Developer and other parties to the Wokingham Planning Office.
There is a lot of reading here, (make a cup of tea before you sit down to read them) including comments submitted as being statements made by residents at the open-air meeting & the road-side protest about their feelings towards the development.
I suspect that the meeting at Earley Town Council offices will be a well-attended meeting.
2b-Planning Application Telecommunications Mast Application-14156
3-Head Of Terms For Relocation Of Mast
6-Visual Impact Assessment Proposed Telecom Mast
7-Mast Panoramic Photos-Included In_Item6
8-Mast Photos Reverse Location-Included In_Item6
9-ARBORICULTURAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
14a-2G_Signal Coverage Analysis Map
14b-3G_Signal Coverage Analysis Map
14c-Signal Coverage Analysis Maps-1
14d-GSM Association_Mobiles Comms & Health Info
With Royal Assent being given, repealing the Identity Cards Act 2006. We say a farewell to what was set to be the biggest intrusion into our lives for many years, as well as being a shocking waste of public money.
Check out the statement on the Identity & Passport Office for more details and what you have to do if you already have one of the New ID Cards.
However, we should still not feel that this one ‘gain’ offsets the rest of the states ‘Big-Brother’ apparatus that continues to monitor our daily movements.
The UK is still the biggest user of CCTV in public places that are used to track us for manner of things from dropping cigarettes/litter (a good thing perhaps) to checking that we have the right to park in a particular place.
However, there are other positive uses. For example, some of the ‘32’ CCTV cameras on the Clifton Suspension Bridge may help in the capture of the killer of Joanna Yeates. I hope it does
For me, it’s not so much about the number of CCTV cameras, it is about who uses them and how ‘we’ control the data collected on them and how the ‘watchers’ are made to answer in public about their use of our CCTV images.
Perhaps this could be one of the new Public Petitions recently discussed by the Coalition?
Beasley's Place 